Page 242 of Niccolo

Adriano stared down at the lifeless body for a long moment…

Then nodded once at Giorgio before turning away.

As we walked back through the olive trees, I heard Giorgio begin to shovel dirt back into the hole.

Adriano and I were halfway to the house before I asked, “You okay?”

“No, I’m fuckin’ awful,” Adriano said as he stared into the distance. “I was so angry at him… Iwantedto kill him for what he did… but then… afterwards…”

He trailed off into silence.

“But it had to be done,” he finally said, his voice raw.

“Yes,” I said grimly. “It had to be done.”

98

Sofia

Ididn’t understand why, but I was more upset about Niccolo than I had been when I got banned from the International Chess Federation.

I should have been able to brush it off.

I should have been able to say,Just another arrogant asshole.

But I couldn’t.

Oh, he was an arrogant asshole, alright –

But on the flight back to Modena aboard the private jet, I wished over and over that I’d said something different on the balcony in Taormina.

Briefing Fausto afterwards didn’t make me feel any better.

I couldn’t exactly tell him that it had been an unmitigated disaster –

And Icouldn’ttell him how crushed I felt that it was over.

So I had to spin it.

“You threw himout?!”Fausto said, stunned.

“It was a lover’s quarrel,” I replied. “And it went exactly as I planned it.”

“Oh,really,”Fausto asked sardonically.

“Yes. I told him he can’t have me. Now that’s all he’ll think about. It’s human nature. You tell someone they can’t have something, and they want it all the more.”

Little did Fausto know I was talking about howIfelt at the moment.

“Niccolo will contact me again,” I said with a confidence I didn’t feel. “And when he does, I’ll have the upper hand.”

“I hope, for your sake, that you’re right,” he sneered.

Fausto wasn’t happy, but he seemed to buy my performance.

Niccolo would have been proud.

“What about the mole?” Fausto asked.

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