Page 323 of Niccolo

Two of Don Severino’s foot soldiers stood guard at the front door.

“Where were you?” one asked gruffly.

“Out,” I said.

I attempted to brush past him –

But he put a hand on my arm.

“Get that off me now, or draw back a bloody stump,” I snarled.

He looked at me…

Then shook his head contemptuously and let me pass.

“I’m telling Don Severino,” he said.

“So tell him,” I sneered as I closed the door behind me.

Asshole.

Dante was waiting in the foyer. I guess he was on duty, standing guard against the guards outside.

“The boss wants to see you,” he said, motioning with me to come with him.

“Good or bad?” I asked.

“I think he wants a report on where you went.”

Of course he does.

I followed Dante up the grand stairwell to the second floor, where he took me to a bedroom and knocked.

“Come in,” Fausto’s voice said.

Dante opened the door for me to walk inside and then closed it behind me as he remained out in the hallway.

The bed was empty. Fausto was sitting in a plush chair by the window with his feet up on an ottoman, reading a newspaper in the dim light of a lamp. He was dressed in silk pajamas, slippers, and a satin dressing robe.

He didn’t look like a mafia don at all. More like a fat, pampered businessman.

“Well?” he asked as he looked up from his paper.

“Niccolo’s planning to kill you,” I said evenly.

“He’s been planningthatall along,” Fausto said drily. “Anything more specific?”

“He wouldn’t tell me everything, but he laid out the broad strokes. He thinks that the odds of them winning against you in the Council are 50/50 at best, so he’s planning to have you assassinated. He asked me where we were staying. I told him I didn’t know the address, but it was south of the Colosseum.”

“We’renorthof the Colosseum,” Fausto said.

“Exactly.”

He chuckled. “Go on.”

“He’s going to have Lars kill you with a sniper shot.”

“And risk Severino’s wrath?!” Fausto exclaimed in shock.