Page 219 of Mafia Kings: Valentino

“So… not a big church.”

“Yes,” he said contemptuously, “chapels tend not to be very big.”

I ignored his snark. “Who’s coming?”

“Your family.”

“No one else?” I asked in surprise.

“Nonna,” he said, gesturing to his grandmother. “Plus Rocco, my other two daughters, and their families. Why, were you expecting someone?”

“Well, it’s just… normally, a ton of other families show up.”

By ‘families,’ I meant theCosa Nostra.

The people who controlled cities like Rome, Milan, and Venice.

Don Vicari smirked. “Did they show up at your brother’s wedding? Not Don Rosolini’s – the other one.”

He meant Adriano’s.

Virtually nobody had gone to Adriano’s wedding, and Don Vicari knew it. Other than Alessandra’s long-lost grandmother from Genoa, every singleCosa Nostrafamily had believed we’d slaughtered the Agrellas, our longtime business partners in Florence.

In reality, it was a gangster named Mezzasalma, with my Uncle Fausto backing him from the shadows. But the entireCosa Nostrathoughtwe’dbetrayed them, and they stayed away because of it.

“No,” I answered. “They didn’t go to Adriano’s wedding.”

“So why would they show up at yours?”

“I thought they might show up at yourdaughter’s,”I said coldly.

“Well, she’s marryingyou…and in case you haven’t noticed, your family’s still in bad odor with the rest of the families.” Then he shrugged. “Fuck ‘em. They never came to the weddings Papa invited them to, so I never invited them whenItook over.”

“Language,” the old lady snapped.

“Sorry, Nonna,” he said.

“So… just our two families at a chapel outside Resuttano,” I clarified.

“That’s it,” Don Vicari said, and gave me that cold, chilling smile.

I knew where the disaster would be: outside Resuttano.

And I knew when it would happen: in less than ten days.

So the only thing left was to enjoy what little time I had left with Cat.

I threw myself into it with a sense of desperation – and so did she.

We savored every minute… often staring at each other wordlessly, smiling sadly, as we lay in each other’s arms after sex.

Despite the disaster on the horizon, we were happy for a few hours each day.

In Messina…

And Augusta…

And Santa Maria del Focallo.

---