Page 192 of Mafia Kings: Valentino

I stepped back in overwhelming horror –

But Don Vicari’s hand clamped the back of my neck and forced me to look.

“When you first arrived with your brother in Catania, I told you that I killed myconsigliere,”he said without emotion. “Not precisely true. I’m in theprocessof killing him, you see.”

I stared at the thing on the floor of the barn, barely recognizable as human –

Until Don Vicari spun me around to look at him.

He smiled – the terrible smile of a wolf.

“He betrayed me,” Don Vicari said.

The smile turned into a snarl.

“DON’T BETRAY ME…OR ELSE.”

68

That evening at dinner, I couldn’t eat.

All I could think about was the man chained in the barn… the horrors of his wounds…

The way he had whispered,Please… KILL me…

Don Vicari seemed to take pleasure in my distress. He smiled throughout dinner like he’d heard an amusing joke.

The great-grandmother kept her eyes on her plate, not ever looking up from it as she ate.

Isabella kept glancing back and forth between me and her father.

Finally, she timidly broke the silence.

“Is… is something wrong, Valentino?”

“He just had a hard day at work,” Don Vicari said.

“Oh – I’m so sorry.” The look of concern she gave me was real.

I smiled weakly but couldn’t bring myself to say anything.

“But there’s good news,” Don Vicari announced. “I’ve decided to let Valentino escort you around Sicily to various towns. So you can see the sights. An early wedding present, you might say.”

The great-grandmother looked up in surprise.

Isabella stared at her father, her lower lip quivering. “Are you… are you serious?”

“Of course I am,” he said, almost in annoyance. “I wouldn’t have said it if I weren’t serious.”

Isabella suddenly burst into tears, jumped up from her seat, and ran around the table. She hugged her father from the side as she continued to cry. “Thank you, Papa – thank you, thank you, thank you!”

Don Vicari smiled even wider as he patted her arm.

It was one of the few times I’d ever seen him look genuinely happy… like he was a normal human being.

The great-grandmother beamed at Isabella and Don Vicari.

“I can’t take all the credit,” Don Vicari said, his smile shifting to something sly and wolfish. “Your fiancé was the one who suggested it.”

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