Page 239 of Marcello

“Romeo – what are you doing here?!” she whispered in mortal terror. “What’s going on?!”

That’s when Cesare started yelling in the hallway.

“Amato, I’ve got a gun at your son’s head. Open this fuckin’ door in the next ten seconds, or I blow his brains out.”

Giulietta’s face looked towards the hallway, though I knew she couldn’t see anything.

“Who’s that?!” she whispered frantically.

Out in the hallway, I heard the sound of a shotgun clacking a shell into the chamber.

SHIT.

The hallway erupted.

BLAM! BLAM! BLAM!

Giulietta screamed just as I covered her mouth again. I doubted anyone heard it over the shotgun blasts.

At least, I prayed they didn’t.

“You can’t make another noise or we’re dead,” I hissed in her ear. “Do you understand?!”

She nodded again.

I heard a door being kicked open –

Followed by the sound of gunshots, this time from a pistol.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

My mind raced through my options.

There was no way I could get Giulietta past Tiratore, not without killing him – and that was a 50/50 proposition at best. He was an excellent shot – and paranoid. If he heard so much as a mouse fart, he would whirl around to see what was going on.

I could go downstairs by myself, tell Tiratore I had a message from Cesare, then shoot him when he wasn’t looking –

But even if I could get Giulietta outside, the surviving Cosa Nostra foot soldiers would be so trigger-happy that they would shoot us on sight.

I needed to buy some time to think.

“We have to get out of here, but we can’t go outside yet,” I whispered. “Is there a place you can hide? Someplace good, where no one can find you?”

She paused to think – then nodded. “Yes.”

“Then let’s go.”

I grabbed her hand, guided her through the darkness to the bedroom door, and poked my head out into the hallway.

Cesare and Ciro were already in Don Amato’s bedroom. I couldn’t see them, but I could hear Cesare yelling, “Hey Amato – I can see you because I’ve got night vision goggles on. Now put down the revolver, or I’m gonna spray your son’s brains all over the fuckin’ room.”

“Luciano!” Giulietta whispered fearfully –

“Shh!” I whispered, and pulled her with me out of the bedroom.

Then I realized I had no idea where to take her.

I darted down a side hallway where no one would see us, pulled out my cell phone, and turned on the flashlight.