Once in Tuscany, I split our forces into two groups.
Half our men continued on to Florence, where they were to lie low and await my orders.
The other half drove to an isolated farm in the countryside. That group included me, Cesare, and Romeo.
When we arrived, the farmer who owned the place came out to ask why a dozen Cadillac Escalades were parked in front of his house.
Cesare shot him in the head with a silenced pistol, then walked inside and killed the rest of the family at their breakfast table. Tiratore and some others took care of the farmhands out in the barn.
Now Cesare, Romeo, Ciro, and I stood on top of a hill while the rest of our men waited by the cars.
I’d chosen this particular farm for one reason only: because of the direct line of sight down the cypress-lined road that led to the wall around the Rosolinis’ estate.
Google Maps wassucha useful tool.
We were five miles away, but with the high-powered telescope we’d brought from Naples, we could spy on everything the Rosolinis did.
It was one of those telescopes that stargazers used to look at the planets – Jupiter and Saturn – and it cost over a thousand euros. There was a long, bulky tube with an eyepiece jutting up from it so you didn’t have to squat down to look up at the sky.
Romeo was currently watching the property.I’d taken a peek earlier and had been very impressed. The main gate looked so close, it was like you could reach out and touch it.
Tip the lens just slightly, and you could see the entire mansion on a distant hill.
I didn’t look too long, though, because it required me to take off my sunglasses –
And I fuckinghatedtaking off my sunglasses.
So I had Romeo keep watch. I didn’t trust Ciro, and Cesare was too ADHD to pay attention for longer than ten seconds.
Earlier that morning, he’d spotted several cars leaving the mansion and had wanted to go after them like a dog running after a squirrel.
“No,” I’d said. “They’re headed the wrong way. We want them goingintothe compound, notoutof it.”
We waited.
The entire time, Cesare became evenmoreimpatient.
He was wearing his customary jeans, wifebeater, and black leather jacket – except with a bulletproof vest. He seemed to be itching to test it out.
Nothing happened for hours…
Until a single car drove up the cypress-lined drive and through the gates.
“Now?!” Cesare demanded.
“No.”
A single car meant nothing. It could’ve just been someone returning from an errand.
I wanted to see a wholefleetof cars racing back in a hurry. Only then would I know the time was right.
Romeo was still manning the telescope.
“Do you see anything?” Cesare asked angrily as he paced back and forth.
My brother always paced when he was impatient. He’d whetted his appetite by mowing down the family inside the farmhouse, and now he was antsy to get more blood on his hands.
Specifically, Dario Rosolini’s blood.
