Page 76 of Marcello

You earned it. But now you gotta KEEP on earning it.

I was thinking about both men and everything they’d said –

Which is how I got blindsided.

When I walked into the dimly lit apartment, there was the normal scent of stale marijuana smoke –

But nothing fresh. Not like most evenings.

Which meant Federica hadn’t smoked out yet.

That was unusual.

Why hasn’t she?

I pretty much guessed ‘why’ the instant I saw her sitting at the table, staring angrily at her phone.

Great.

“What’s up, babe?” I asked as nonchalantly as I could.

She looked up at me with fiery eyes. “Pasquale called. He said you didn’t come in to work today and that you quit over a text message.”

Shit.

“Look, I – ”

“He also said that somebody at Sotto Napoli saw you just before work started. They said you were following a guy who was obviously in the Camorra – like you knew him.”

SHIT.

I was still drunk from my afternoon with Cesare’s crew, so I wasn’t exactly at my sharpest.

I stood there trying to work out if I should deny it or not. I probably took longer than I should have.

“WELL?!” she shouted.

“It’s not what you think,” I said lamely.

“And what do I think it is, Marcello?”

“…I don’t know… that I bought drugs from him or something – ”

“NO! That’s not what I think at ALL!”

I sighed. “Okay, so what do you think?”

“I think you have some idiotic fascination with the Camorra, and you’re trying to be one of them. That’s what I think.”

I had to admit, she was pretty damn close.

I wouldn’t call it an ‘idiotic fascination.’

More like a ‘life-or-death situation.’

But other than that, she was right on the money.

I couldn’t tell her the truth, though, because I was afraid of what she might do.