Page 62 of Niccolo

“The boss wants you down in the library right away,” a man’s voice said through the door.

Probably one of the foot soldiers.

As he walked away, I checked the time on my phone –

2:47 AM.

Jesus.

I hastily dressed and went down to the study to find Fausto sitting behind his desk in silk pajamas and a smoking robe. Aurelio sat on a nearby chair dressed in slacks and a t-shirt.

“You took long enough,” Aurelio snapped.

“Stop,” Fausto shushed him. It was obvious he didn’t have time for his son’s usual bullshit. Then he turned to me. “There’s been an interesting development.”

“What?”

“My nephew Niccolo just called me to inform me –afterit was all over – ” Fausto said grumpily, “that Lars performed a hit in my territory.”

I froze. “…what?”

“Lars killed somebody,” Aurelio sneered, as though I was too stupid to understand the obvious.

I ignored him and instead asked Fausto, “Who?”

“A man named Umberto Fumagalli. He is –was– the Enforcer for the Oldanis, theCosa Nostrafamily who run Genoa.”

I stared at Fausto. “That’s bad, isn’t it?”

“For Dario? Ordinarily, yes. Such an actioncouldhave sparked a war. But technically, Fumagalli wasn’t supposed to be there, so it’s a grey area. But that’s not the interesting part.”

I waited for the big reveal, knowing he wanted to gloat.

Fausto smiled. “Guess who called me three hoursbeforethe hit to ask my permission for Fumagalli to enter my territory.”

“The Oldanis?”

“No. The Turk.”

“…what?!”

“Not only that, he called me 15 minutes ago in a panic and told me everything.” Fausto laughed. “Remember how you thought he was hiding something? Now we know what it was. Apparently, there was a girl at the café where Fumagalli died who might just be the Oldanis’ long-lost granddaughter.”

I stared at Fausto in shock. “How the fuck doesthathappen?”

“It seems that 20 years ago, the Oldanis’ only daughter eloped with a male servant. The Turk found out they had a baby and that the woman died a few years ago. Fumagalli was at the café to see if the owner was the male servant who ran away with the daughter. Then Lars unexpectedly intervened.”

“Was all of this common knowledge?”

“No. The Turk pieced it together during his business conversations with variousCosa Nostrafamilies.”

I struggled to connect the dots. “So the Turk was working with the Oldanis?”

“Not exactly. They loaned him Fumagalli, but they didn’t know why, exactly. The Turk told them it was to identify an old business associate of theirs.”

“Do they know about the girl?”

“No. She was supposed to be a surprise – a gift to cement a long and prosperous working relationship. Of course, nowthat’sall shot to hell.”

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