Page 243 of Niccolo

I grimaced. “Taormina was a ruse to flush him out. They knew.”

“Did he give you a name?”

“Lazaro.”

“Shit,” Fausto muttered under his breath… then shrugged. “Well, at least I don’t have to pay him now.”

I stared at him in horror.

A man died helping you –

And THAT’S what you say?!

You fucking piece of SHIT.

But unlike all the accusations I’d hurled at Niccolo…

I wasn’taboutto say that to my boss.

I guess I could only be brave in certain situations…

When it wasn’t dangerous.

And that filled me with shame.

“Was there anything else?” Fausto asked.

The moment had come to ask the thing I dreaded.

I hesitated… then said, “Niccolo said something else.”

“What?”

“Did you really kill the bankers who embezzled the brothers’ funds?” I asked.

I tried to keep my voice neutral, but I felt sick inside.

Fausto made a face like he couldn’t believe how naïve I was. “What did youthinkI was going to do?”

“I thought you bribed them.”

“You can’t bribe people to do what they did,” he said contemptuously. “Not unless the amount is large enough that they can walk away and start another life.”

“So you threatened to kill them, then killed them anyway?!” I said, unable to keep the outrage from my voice.

“Well… I didn’t threatenthem,”Fausto said with a smug smile.

Jesus.

He’d threatened their families.

That was the only thing that made sense. The only reason why they would knowingly embezzle money from a mafia family.

The bankers knew they were going to die anyway…

But they did it to save their wives.

Their husbands.

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