Page 260 of Marcello

“We texted?” he asked in confusion.

“Of course we did,” I said, and showed him our one and only exchange:

GREAT! I’ll talk to you tomorrow!

Are you okay?

Totally okay now that you’re coming with me. Just can’t talk at the moment.

I love you.

I love you, too.

He smiled as he read it.

“We’re still leaving Naples and running away forever, right?” I asked quietly.

“Count on it,” he whispered, then kissed me.

When he left a few minutes later, I waited until I was sure he couldn’t hear me anymore…

And I burst into tears.

I’d already lost everything else; I couldn’t bear to lose him, too.

Please, God, I prayed. Help him come back from Florence safely.

And if he dies…

Then take me, too.

83

Romeo

If I’d spent the last seven years in hell…

Then the next 24 hours was a head-first dive into Dante’s Ninth Circle.

We left Naples at two in the morning in a caravan of SUVs.

I rode shotgun while Cesare and Lucrezia slept in the backseat. Ciro, who was driving, took speed to keep him awake.

I was bone-tired, but I was so worried about Giulietta that the best I could do was close my eyes and try to stay calm.

We arrived in Tuscany while it was still pitch black. At that point, Cicciobello and half our guys veered off towards Florence. The rest of us kept going.

I didn’t know where the hell we were. When I’d lived in Florence, I’d stuck to the city. Everything in the countryside was foreign to me, especially in the early morning darkness. All I knew was that Lucrezia had given Ciro an address, and Google Maps was taking us there.

It turned out our destination was a farm in the middle of nowhere. When we arrived at dawn, the owner came out to ask what the hell we wanted. Cesare shot him in the head with a silenced pistol, then walked into the main house and killed everybody inside.

Meanwhile, Tiratore and a couple of other guys walked into the barn and murdered several farmhands preparing for work.

I watched it all go down in helpless horror. If I wanted to save Giulietta, there was nothing I could do. The victims were another half-dozen souls on my tally when God damned me for eternity.

But by that point, I had accepted my fate –

And I would’ve gladly burned forever if only she could be safe.