Page 266 of Marcello

For Giulietta.

Nobody was in the front passenger seat, so I slipped inside.

Ciro was at the wheel, and Cesare and Lucrezia were in the back. She had a conspicuous red mark across the side of her face, and she was staring angrily out the window.

“You’re staying here with Lucrezia,” Cesare ordered.

If she and I were staying, that meant Ciro and Cesare were going somewhere else.

Turned out I was only half right.

“Stay here with them, Ciro,” Cesare ordered.

“What?!” Ciro yelped. “What’d I do, boss?!”

“Nothing. I need you in the car in case Rosolini makes a break for it.”

“But – ”

“Just fucking do what I say!” Cesare yelled.

Ciro looked like a toddler who’d dropped his ice cream cone down a gutter.

I couldn’t help but feel a swell of schadenfreude.

“Tell everybody we’re moving out,” Cesare ordered.

Ciro grudgingly picked up a walkie-talkie from the center console. “Moving out.”

Then he drove towards the hospital.

In the backseat, Cesare slipped on his leather bomber jacket and stuffed the pockets full of pistol magazines.

He’s going to attack the hospital, I realized in horror.

I tried to think of some way to stop him –

But every option ended with my death.

Cesare told Ciro to radio everybody to come with him, including all the getaway drivers.

Before he got out, he told Lucrezia, “The next time I see you, I’ll have Dario Rosolini’s head on a platter.”

“Good for you,” she said coldly.

He just laughed and slammed the door. Then he and the rest of his minions strutted with their guns towards the hospital, bold as brass and twice as stupid.

Civilians in the parking lot immediately turned tail and ran.

Their reactions delighted Cesare to no end. The asshole even shoved an elderly man to the ground as he entered the front doors.

As soon as he was inside, the shooting started.

Everything inside me screamed to go stop them –

But I remembered the woman I loved and why I couldn’t do anything.

I still despised myself, though.