Page 250 of Marcello

I watched in quiet desperation, hoping that Giulietta and I wouldn’t join her family before the night was over.

78

It was nearly four in the morning when I decided I could risk seeing Giulietta.

The corpses were all disposed of by that point, so I let the cleanup crew go. They immediately started getting drunk.

Lucrezia had gone home an hour before. Cesare was trashed, as were Ciro, Cicciobello, and pretty much everybody else in the crew. Rap and death metal were still blaring loud enough to wake the dead.

I fantasized about walking calmly through the house, shooting them one by one while they were blind drunk –

But I knew I wouldn’t be able to kill all of them before somebody raised the alarm.

Then it would be me against hordes of drunk Camorra –

And the dozen sober guys I’d stationed outside the house.

Terrible odds.

All I cared about was getting Giulietta out of there safely, so I bided my time.

I went upstairs to the third floor. There were still some sexual moans and grunts from behind closed doors, but now there was just as much snoring.

I reached the hidden door. It was far enough from the main hallway that nobody was around: nothing interesting to do, and nowhere comfortable to fuck.

I turned off the hall lights to make it harder for someone stumbling by to see me…

Put on the night vision goggles…

And triple-checked that absolutely nobody was around.

Then I pressed the wood paneling exactly where Giulietta had.

The door sprang open noiselessly. I stepped through and closed it behind me.

Inside the stone passageway, the thunderous music from downstairs was dulled to a slight hum.

I walked through the corridor, my bag of supplies dangling from one hand, until I reached the 90-degree turn.

“Giulietta,” I called out softly. “It’s me.”

“Romeo?!” she whispered plaintively, her voice drifting out of the hole near the ceiling.

“Are you okay?” As soon as I said it, I knew it was a stupid question. “I mean, are you hurt?”

“No, I’m alright.” There was a long pause before she asked, “…my family?”

There was no use pretending, and there was no way to soften the blow.

“…no. I’m sorry.”

She immediately began to sob.

Fuck.

“What about my sister-in-law?” she asked. “My n-nieces and nephew?”

I shut my eyes in pain. “I wasn’t there, and I tried to stop it… but no.”