Page 68 of Niccolo

But then everything shifted in our favor.

In the end, it wasn’t a stroke of genius that delivered Alessandra into our grasp, but pure dumb luck.

The two lovebirds had a fight. Alessandra wanted to go back home.

Stupidly, Dario let her.

As soon as the Sicilian woman let us know, Fausto called the Turk.

Fausto was very careful to only contact the Turk using cheap cell phones that he would then immediately throw away. If the Turk failed and the brothers got hold of his cell, Fausto couldn’t risk the calls being traced back to him.

“The girl will be back at her father’s café within half an hour,” Fausto said.

“I’ll be waiting,”the Turk cackled.

The Turk called us after midnight to let us know he had Alessandra and was on the way to Dario’s mansion.

Once Alessandra showed him the secret tunnel she had escaped through, the rest would be easy.

“YES!” Fausto roared, then clamped down on his ebullience. “Be careful, though. My nephews are nothing if not wily.”

“I don’t care how wily they are – they’re as good as dead.”

Once more, I thought I might be on the verge of collecting my ten million euros –

And once more, catastrophe struck.

This time, it was even worse than the debacle in Florence.

We sat in the library till dawn, waiting for a call that never came.

Fausto sat hunched over in his chair, an agonized look on his face. “Even if the Turk failed, we should have heard from Filomena.”

“The Turk didn’t fail,” Aurelio said confidently.

“Then why haven’t we heard from him?” I challenged him.

Aurelio scowled at me, then turned to his father. “Let’s fucking call him.”

“What, and risk his phone ringing as he’s trying to sneak up on Dario? No,” Fausto said darkly. “He’ll contact us when he’s ready.”

The Turk never called.

But Niccolo did, shortly after 8 AM.

Fausto sat there with a sick look on his face but managed to sound relieved. “My God – I’m so sorry, Machiavelli… I never would have suggested you meet him if I’d known – ”

Niccolo cut him off with a vicious tirade. Even though Fausto didn’t have him on speakerphone, I could make out most of what he said.

“Apologies aren’t going to cut it, Fausto! Your fucking arrogance and stupidity nearly cost us our lives!”he raged.

I might have been trying to kill Niccolo…

But I liked him immensely at that moment.

There was more. Because Niccolo calmed down, I couldn’t hear what he said next –

But Fausto replied, “You’re joking,” in a sickly voice.

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