Tiratore took his rifle off his shoulder, opened the door, and then ran out into the stone courtyard.
The courtyard was huge – probably 50 feet long and 20 feet wide and decorated with half a dozen stone statues.
The bars of the gate were more than wide enough to aim through.
Tiratore lowered into a crouch with one knee on the ground–
Then he aimed at the guardhouse through his rifle’s night vision scope.
He’d practiced three hours a day for the last four years.
It all came down to this.
I held my breath –
POP!
The rifle’s silencer flashed in the darkness.
Tiratore came trotting back through the stone courtyard.
“Dead,” he announced when he reached the front doors.
“Good – now go up to the top floor and start picking off anybody else outside,” I ordered.
“You got it, boss,” Tiratore said, then ran up the stairs.
I pulled out my phone and texted Lucrezia.
Come on in.
Twenty of my family’s cars were waiting three miles away, filled with foot soldiers. My sister was with them.
Now that nobody was manning the guard booth, they could waltz right in –
And Lucrezia could be here when I questioned Don Amato.
“Let’s go,” I said to Luciano. “Time to see Daddy.”
45
Ipushed Luciano up the stairs through the darkness.
“You’resureyour parents don’t have a panic room in their bedroom?” I whispered.
“Because if you lied to me – ”
“The safe room’s on the first floor,” he whispered back. “If they tried to get down there, we would have seen them on the way up.”
“Where’s your sister?” Romeo whispered.
“You swore you wouldn’t do anything to her,” Luciano hissed.
“Which is whyI’mgoing after her and not Ciro,” Romeo answered.
Ciro just chuckled.
It was true; if Ciro went to collect her, the bitch might ‘accidentally’ wind up on his dick.
