Page 302 of Niccolo

“Youknowhow he got his head bashed in, don’t you?”

Dante clenched his jaw as he stared at the grave. “…yeah.”

“And what do you think about that?”

Dante looked at me sideways.

“On my mother’s life,” I said, repeating the oath I’d given him the first time.

Dante looked back down at the patch of dirt. “Some people might say he got what was coming to him.”

“Because he went after Massimo?”

“Because he went afterallof them,” Dante growled. “Adriano, Lars – the guys who worked for them – all of them.”

“What would you do if Fausto orderedyouto go after them?” I asked.

Dante stared at the grave for a long, long time.

“I guess I’d do what I had to,” he finally said.

“Why?”

“Why do you think?” he replied angrily. “Because it’s my job. Because I need the money.” He paused, then added, “And because I’d get whacked if I didn’t.”

“By Fausto?”

Dante gave a dark chuckle. “Notbyhim, no. He doesn’t like to get his hands dirty.”

“That’s why you killed the morgue attendant back at the funeral home? It was your job… you need the money… and because you’d get whacked if you didn’t?”

“Of course.”

“He was an innocent civilian.”

Dante smirked. “Innocent civilians don’t take money from mobsters.”

Ouch.

“So what’s the difference between killing Fausto’s nephews and the morgue attendant?”

Dante glared at me. “Because thatassholewas just some fuckhead, and not six guys I watched grow up from the time they were kids.”

“What about Lars? You didn’t watchhimgrow up.”

Dante stared back at the grave. “I respect Lars. I wouldn’t want to pull the trigger on him, either.”

“But you would if you had to,” I suggested.

He angrily threw his cigarette down and ground it out in the fresh dirt. “What is this, an interrogation?”

“Like I said last time, if we’re going to take this all the way, I need to know where your head’s at.”

“You said the ‘rank and file’ last time.”

“And you’re not part of the ‘rank and file’?”

Before he could say anything, I heard Fausto’s voice bark from far behind me. “Sofia!”

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