Page 298 of Marcello

I smirked involuntarily, a gallows-humor smile.

If you only knew, Lucrezia.

If you only knew.

“I asked to take a nap at the house, and you said ‘no,’” I reminded her.

“And the answer is STILL ‘no.’ Take some speed when you get here.”

“Can I at least go to the other stash houses before I come back to the mansion?”

“NO.”

“Driving back to the mansion every time takes twice as long to do the deliveries, which is keeping me on the street longer – which is giving the Rosolinis even more time to grab me.”

“I don’t care. I don’t want them catching you with all our money.”

“Then let me do three stash houses,” I pleaded. “That’s not enough money to get worried about.”

Lucrezia paused – then relented.

“Alright, three – but JUST three. Hit the other two, then get over here.”

“Alright.”

“AND NO MORE NAPS.”

“Okay, okay.”

She hung up on me.

“They call you Romeo?” Niccolo asked incredulously.

“Everybody has a nickname.”

He chuckled. “And you call Laura Amato ‘Giulietta’?”

“I told you it was a long story.” I looked at Dario. “We don’t have much time – we need to figure out what to do before I go.”

Niccolo scoffed. “You’re not leaving.”

“If I don’t, they’ll realize you’re already here in Naples,” I shot back.

Niccolo gave me a sour look, but he didn’t say anything.

“Whatever we end up deciding,” Dario said, “the first step is to get out of the open. Now let’s go.”

96

We made our way back to the parking lot. They still didn’t trust me entirely, because Adriano kept his gun on me the entire way.

Dario headed to a Mercedes Maybach with an extended backseat like a limo. When he opened up the rear door, there was a petite, very pretty woman in the back. I recognized her from the Instagram photos Lucrezia had shown us.

“Finally,” she said, annoyed, then looked at me. “This the mole?”

“It is,” Dario said. “Lars, Niccolo, Massimo, Adriano – get in.”

“What about me and Roberto?” Valentino asked indignantly.