Page 66 of Niccolo

If Fausto and the Oldanis were this bad…

I could only imagine how horrific Dario and the others were.

Then came the failure in Florence.

Fausto set up a meeting between the Turk and Dario. The whole thing was a ruse – an excuse for the Turk to scope out the property under the pretense of striking a business deal.

But then the Sicilian woman called us an hour before the meeting and informed us that Massimo and Valentino were taking Alessandra shopping in Florence.

With disgust in her voice, Filomena also let us know that Dario and Alessandra had become sexually involved.

Fausto hung up on her as she continued to rant about it.

“Do you think Dario raped her?” I asked Fausto, my own disgust fully evident.

“Hm…no,” he said thoughtfully. “My nephew is many things, but he’s not one to force a woman against her will.”

“If that’s the case, it means Dario will be evenmoreprotective towards her,” I warned. “We might never get another chance to grab her.”

“Then we’ll have to make this opportunity count, won’t we?”

Fausto informed the Turk about the shopping trip.

He was delighted.“I’ll have some of my men grab her in Florence! Who knows – if it happens DURING the meeting, I might even kill Dario myself, just as he’s finding out I have the girl!”

“Massimo and Valentino will fight back,” Fausto warned. “Your men are going to have to kill them.”

“They’ll handle it,”the Turk said dismissively.

“You can’t have a shootout in the streets of Florence without getting the Agrellas’ permission first.”

“You can take care of that, can’t you?”the Turk purred.“Partner?”

“I’ll talk to them,” Fausto grumbled.

“Excellent! I’ll have the girl by this afternoon, two of the brothers will be dead, and the rest won’t last the night!”

I thought the Turk’s confidence was misplaced.

I was right.

Fausto had some trouble convincing the Agrellas to go along with the plan.

“Bautiste,” he said into his cell phone as he paced back and forth in the study, “do you want control of all of Florence or not? Well, this is your opportunity!”

Bautiste Agrella must have expressed some sort of reservation because Fausto said, “I want the rest of Dario’s territory. YOU can have Florence.”

Fausto listened to the phone at his ear, then spoke in a solemn tone. “Of course – I swear on the soul of my brother that you’ll have control of all of Florence. I completely relinquish any and all claim on the city. There – are you satisfied? Good. Don’t interfere if the Turk’s men start shooting.”

After he hung up, I asked, “What was that all about?”

“Bautiste Agrella is theconsiglierefor his brother Dominic,” Fausto explained.

“Why are you dealing withhimand not the top guy?”

“Theconsigliereis a go-between. He gives all the orders and provides a shield of plausible deniability for the Don in case the cops start arresting people.”

I raised one eyebrow.

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