Page 240 of Marcello

My goggles flared bright white, and I lifted them so I could see.

I looked back and saw Giulietta’s face back to its normal color –

But her cheeks were wet with tears.

My heart ached for her. I knew this was terrifying, but I had no time to comfort her.

“Where can you hide?” I whispered.

“Romeo, what’s going on?!” she whisper-screamed. In the light of my cell phone, she saw the night vision goggles on my helmet. “Why are you wearing those things?!”

“I’ll explain everything, but we have to hide you NOW.”

She looked back. “My parents – Luciano – ”

“I can save them later,” I lied, “but not if I show up with you. If that happens, everybody dies. Now where do we go?”

She looked at me, her face filled with terror –

Then took my cell phone from me and led me off into the darkness.

74

The Amatos’ mansion wasn’t just a castle; it was a labyrinth full of unseen corridors.

Giulietta popped open a hidden door, then led me down a passageway for servants. The walls were made of rough stone blocks held together by crumbling mortar.

We walked for a couple of hundred feet past other doorways, then stopped when the corridor took a hard right turn.

“I can hide here,” she whispered.

I assumed she meant inside the passageway itself. “This is pretty good, but somebody will find it sooner or later – ”

“No,” she whispered, and angled my cell phone flashlight towards the ceiling. “Up there.”

A few feet above our heads, there was a large gap in the stone wall near the ceiling. I assumed it was the equivalent of a medieval air-conditioning duct, or some sort of storage space, or an oversight on the part of the original builders.

“You’re going to hide up there?” I asked in shock.

“There’s another tunnel on the other side. I used to explore it when I was a kid.”

“And you can squeeze through?”

“Yes – now tell me what the hell is going on,” she demanded.

This was the moment I’d been dreading ever since we’d spent our first night together –

But I couldn’t put it off any longer.

However, I had to give her some context or she’d hate me forever.

“My father owed money to a gangster in Florence. The only payment the guy would take was if I came to Naples…”

I paused, sick at having to say the words.

“…and joined the Camorra as a mole.”

Giulietta stared at me, not comprehending at first –