Page 266 of Niccolo

Twenty seconds later, I got the reply:

Speriamo non caghi.

‘I hope it doesn’t shit.’

I smiled.

“What?” Rachel asked.

“My twin brother. Nothing about Lars,” I assured her.

Roberto texted,Anything from Venice?

Not yet. I’ll let you know.

He replied,Text me even if you don’t hear from me. I’ll probably be in the meeting for a while.

I gave him a thumbs-up and waited for some kind of news.

News eventually came…

And although it was mostly good…

It came with a side serving of completely-fucking-awful.

111

Sofia

Iwas totally and completely against the plot involving Roberto. It was an unnecessary distraction, and he had failed to get the 50 million, which was the most important thing.

But Fausto wouldn’t listen to me. Instead, he returned to the video feed on the tablet as we waited for Lau to call back.

The attack on San Michele started a few minutes later.

In the far distance, we could see three tiny lines speeding across the water towards the island:

The Rosolinis’ speedboats.

Other lines originating from the island sped across the water to meet them.

Wagner’s speedboats.

Not a lot could be seen –

Until one of the Wagner lines suddenly erupted in a fireball.

“Whoa,” I said without meaning to. “What was that?”

“It looks like my nephews scored first blood,” Fausto growled.

After that, the Rosolinis’ boats veered off in three separate directions and headed for different parts of the island.

The invasion had begun.

Five minutes later, Zollner fired his sniper rifle for the first time.

He apparently missed –

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