“No,” Romeo replied calmly as he remained crouched over the telescope. “So,whyam I watching this place again?”
“Just shut your fucking mouth and do what you’re told,” Cesare barked.
He was still pissed at Romeo for not capturing the Amato girl.
She apparentlyhadsnuck off in the middle of the night, because we never found her. Whether it was dumb luck or because she’d sensed something amiss, she’d never returned home.
I hated having a loose thread out there. I was worried she would call somebody.
However, no cops – orCosa Nostra –ever showed up at the Amatos’ castle.
Which told me the daughter hadn’t contacted anyone.
I wasn’t angry at Romeo for what wasn’t his fault, so I used a far nicer tone of voice than my brother.
“Just keep watching,” I said. “You’re on a need-to-know basis, and you don’t need to know quite yet.”
“Okay,” he replied calmly.
I turned to Ciro. “Any word from Mazzacane, Puorco, or Zoppo yet?”
“No.”
Mazzacanemeant ‘dog killer.’
Puorcomeant ‘pig.’
AndZoppomeant ‘the limping one.’
Those were the nicknames of the three men I’d sent to burn down the Rosolinis’ dress shop in Florence.
They’d arrived in Florence two days earlier to scope everything out – a full 24 hours earlier than the rest of us.
I hadn’t told them anything other than they were supposed to firebomb the dress shop – ideally with a Rosolini brother inside. But they didn’t even knowwhy.
I didn’t want them to know too much in case one of them got captured.
In fact, I’d partitioned offallinformation on a need-to-know basis.
Only Cesare knew the whole plan – and I was constantly having to tell him to shut up to stop him from blabbing.
Romeo was our highest-ranking lieutenant, and evenhedidn’t know about the Russians. All he knew was that we were going to storm the family’s compound when the time was right.
“You want me to call Mazzacane?” Ciro asked.
“No,” I replied.
“What about Puorco or Zoppo? They could swing by the shop and see if – ”
“They’ve either done it by now, or they’re dead,” I interrupted. “Those are the only two options.”
Ciro nodded and went back to standing there in silence.
“We should just go ahead and call them,” Cesare snarled as he paced frantically.
He meant the Russians, not Mazzacane.
“Not yet,” I said patiently. “We’ll know when the time is right.”
