Page 275 of Marcello

I glanced in the rearview mirror at Lucrezia.

Though she remained silent, she wore a smug I told you so smile.

“Where are you now?!” Cesare raged.

“On our way back home, boss.”

“Good,” he snarled. “Meet us at Amato’s castle.”

“Did you get Rosolini?”

Cesare smirked. “No, but I did the next best thing. See, there was this pregnant bitch – ”

Lucrezia snatched the phone away from him. “We’ll talk to you at the house, Cicciobello.”

As soon as she hung up, Cesare looked like he was about to backhand her. “What the fuck did you do that for?!”

“Because I have a splitting headache,” she said coldly, “and I need some peace and quiet.”

For whatever reason, that seemed to mollify him.

As he settled back into his seat, Cesare shook his head. “Man, that fucking sucks about Ciccio’s guys. Just shitty luck, I guess.”

Lucrezia didn’t say anything…

But I was pretty sure she was biting her tongue so hard that it bled.

We reached Amato’s castle shortly after dark.

The guard at the gate recognized me and immediately let us through. I parked in front of the massive marble steps leading up to the main entrance of the castle.

When we walked inside, the foyer was still trashed from the party. It smelled like vomit, alcohol, and marijuana smoke.

No matter what Cesare touched, he turned it to shit.

Cicciobello walked into the foyer with a somber look on his face, which quickly turned to confusion. “Where’s everybody else?”

“Dead,” Lucrezia snarled.

Ciccio’s eyes widened. “ALL of them?!”

“ALL of them.”

“Oh my god…” Ciccio whispered.

“Yeah,” Cesare beamed, “but you gotta hear what I did. There was this pregnant bitch – ”

I walked past them and headed for the stairs.

“Where are you going?” Lucrezia demanded.

“I’m exhausted, so I’m going to go upstairs and grab a nap.”

Of course, the real plan was to slip inside the secret passageway and find Giulietta.

“No you’re not,” Lucrezia snapped. “You can sleep after you go to the stash houses.”

I stared at her. “What?”