Page 321 of Niccolo

“Where are you going?” I asked.

“It’s a school night,” she said as she stepped into her panties.

“Not if you play hooky,” I joked.

She gave me a reproving look. “I thought you were going to be like Camillo Borghese and follow my wishes.”

“He never stopped asking Pauline to come back to him. Neither will I.”

“I’m going to the Council tomorrow. That’s final,” she said sternly.

I felt a sharp pang in my heart.

“So… is this the last time I’ll ever make love to you?”

She looked back at me with a sly smile as she put on her bra. “I didn’t saythat.”

“Good… because if I’d known that was the last time, I would have savored it more.”

She exhaled sharply and looked down… then turned back. “How do you always know what to say that’ll make me miss you more?”

“It’s easy when you’re in love,” I replied.

She gazed at me for several seconds, longer than I expected…

Then turned away to put on her slacks and blouse.

She hadn’t told me she loved me, it was true…

But she’d given me more than enough signs that there was an internal struggle raging within her.

I had one last chance…

So I decided to throw a Hail Mary.

“I’m going to trust you with something,” I said. “I’ve figured out a way to end the war with Fausto once and for all, but I need your help. If you tell him, then you’ll be in his good graces for a while. But if you work with me, my brothers and I can kill him. Then you’re free to come with me, and we can be together.”

She looked back at me. “Are you going to make me swear again?”

“Not this time.”

She frowned. “Why not?”

“If you’re going to tell Fausto, then I don’t want you to lie to me. Tell him or don’t. But I don’t want you to lie to me.”

“I thought yourCosa Nostraoaths protected against that sort of thing.”

“You’re working for a man who has made many of those oaths, and yet he killed his brother – my father. If you don’t agree to help me, then you’ve effectively declared you’re going to help him kill me. And if you’re prepared to kill me, I don’t think an oath is going to keep you from doing it.”

She sat on the bed, fully dressed, and looked at me. “Maybe this is all manipulation again. Maybe it’s a trap you’re setting to see if I betray you.”

“No. But if you tell Fausto, I’ll know, and I’ll have to adapt. Which I always do anyway.”

“So itisa loyalty test.”

“No, it’s – ”

“Just tell me the fucking plan,” she said impatiently.

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