Page 311 of Marcello

After ten terrifying minutes of someone bashing in the wooden wall, I heard footsteps out in the passageway.

In the pitch black of the tunnel, I could see a tiny flicker of light through the hole in the ceiling.

I heard footsteps scuffling towards me, and the light became slightly brighter.

I was terrified, but I did my best to control my breathing.

Then the footsteps stopped.

There was a sweet, rank odor that I’d smelled on my nights out in the streets of Naples with Romeo.

Then I heard the pff-pff-pff of someone scratching mortar out between the stones.

My eyes widened.

Oh shit –

They KNOW!

Then the footsteps shuffled off in the opposite direction… and the flickering light died out… until both were completely gone.

I turned on the flashlight, aimed it at the floor, and started to walk as fast as I could down the tunnel, away from the wall.

There was only one thought in my brain:

They’re coming for me!

102

Romeo

By 11 AM, I was back at the mansion.

As I handed over the money from the last three stash houses, Lucrezia stared at me coldly from behind her sunglasses. “What’s going on with you?”

Shit.

“Nothing.”

I started to leave –

But she grabbed my arm.

I turned back to look at her. “What?”

“What the hell are you hiding?”

This is the part where the hero bluffs his way out.

“What am I hiding?” I snapped. “I’m hiding that I’m not only exhausted, but now I’m strung out on drugs. Not only that, but that I’m fucking pissed off you’re making me risk my life by going to just three stash houses at a time. Not that I could fuckin’ sleep now, since you made me take a bunch of speed – but are you going to let me lie down and take a nap?”

Lucrezia was taken aback. I had never spoken to her in such a disrespectful tone of voice.

But she still said, “No.”

“Then let me go do my fucking job before the Rosolinis get to Naples and kill me.”

Lucrezia let go of my arm –