But be prepared if they strike first.
Before he’d darted out of sight, Maurizio had seen me.
More specifically, he’d seen a guy in a black suit and tie.
I didn’t want him clocking me right away, so I stepped into a dark alleyway and removed my jacket.
The shoulder harness for my gun was a problem – it would immediately let Maurizio know I had a gun on me – so I pulled out the Glock, took off the harness, and left it on the ground to retrieve later.
I took off my tie and stuffed it in my back pocket…
Draped my jacket over my right forearm to hide my gun…
Then stepped out into the street again.
Anyone who noticed me would see a working stiff who’d just left the office.
I strolled casually towards the spot where I’d seen Maurizio disappear.
Would he recognize me from that far away?
I didn’t think so. When I’d seen Maurizio, Emilia and I hadn’t been near a streetlight.
Plus, with my jacket and tie off, I looked slightly different. Instead of a black suit jacket, my white shirt was the most noticeable thing about me.
Even if Mauriziohadgotten a good look at me, even the stupidestCosa Nostrafoot soldier wouldn’t open fire immediately. Not in a city his boss didn’t control, where a cop could be around any corner.
Of course, if he was crazy, all bets were off.
But from everything Emilia had said, he didn’t sound crazy.
He sounded arrogant.
So I continued with my plan.
As I strolled along, I acted like I didn’t have a care in the world.
I wasn’t particularly worried, though.
If anything, I had to keep myself calm so I wouldn’t fly off the handle. Every time I thought about him terrorizing Emilia, I wanted to shoot him in the head.
Halfway to my destination, I paused, pulled out my phone with my left hand, and looked at the screen like I was checking my text messages.
The whole point of the phone was to stall so I could glance around.
I wanted to make sure no one would see what was about to happen.
When the street was deserted, I pocketed my phone and kept walking.
As I passed an alleyway, I saw a figure in black out of the corner of my eye, about six feet away.
I tensed –
But then I saw the glow of a cigarette cherry in the shadows.
The overconfident motherfucker had stopped to have a smoke.
Nobody was on the street up ahead of me –
