Page 76 of Princess's Revenge

Anthony parks our Escalade nose to nose and I see Josh helping old man Cassaduchi onto his wheelchair as we get out. We’re illuminated only from the headlights of both cars.

There are shadows everywhere and a million places to hide. The sound of the rain on the metal roof is enough camouflage for the clumsiest of assassins.Icould be walking into to a trap just as easily asheis—Time to see how well laid my plans really are.

Josh starts, “Now we’re all here—”

Don Cassaduchi cuts him off, “Let’s skip the preamble, huh? I’m old. I shouldn’t be out of the house in this fucking weather. The fucking cold gets into my,”cough, cough, cough, oxygen…two breaths,“fucking bones. You have a number in mind? Let’s hear it.”

I take a few steps toward the old man, “There’s no number, you old bastard. Joshua de Soto is here to hand you over to me.”

“What the fuck?” He looks at Josh, who’s suddenly speechless and looking panicked.

“It’s a lie, Michael,” Josh puts his hand on the Don, “I should have known they’d pull something like this.”

“The time for bullshit is over,” I tell Josh, then look at the Don. “Your favorite captain is screwing you over to save his own skin. He says he’s next in line.”

Josh points at Anthony and barks, “You gave me your word, you cocksucker!”

Anthony shrugs, “I don’t remember any such thing.”

I look at Anthony and smile, “That’s loyalty for you.” I can’t help shaking my head at how easy this was.

I turn to Don Cassaduchi, “When you fuckers open the books, do you even take a blood oath with the card of a saint in flames…or do you have guysmadelike burgers at McDonald’s?”

De Soto draws his gun—before he can point it at me, Anthony is pointing a 9mm at him instead.

“What the fuck is this bullshit?!” de Soto takes a step back. “Don’t you have any honor? I came here in good faith, Anthony. If you’re not going to do it, I’ll whack this old prick myself and tell the whole world it washer!”

As Josh takes aim at Don Cassaduchi, Leo steps out of the shadows and calmly puts a gun to his head, saying, “I think I’ve heard all I need to hear.”

Josh turns to stone as Leo takes the weapon from his hand…then two more of their captains emerge from the darkness— Dickie and Paulie—they both take Josh’s arms and hold him in place.

Josh struggles, “You cocksuckers! You set me up!”

Two older captains walk towards us from the rear of the factory—Mitch and Sonny.Mitch says, “You set yourself up, you murdering fuck.”

Sonny adds, “Now you’re going to get what’s been coming to you…sixteen years too late.”

Don Cassaduchi sits there in stunned silence, watching everything unfold.

My phone has been on a conference call to Francis and Chrissy the whole time, I take it from my top pocket and say, “Come,” then hang up.

I walk over to de Soto, “Like the man said,” I point to Mitch, “you set yourself up. I only told Leo where we’d be.Youdid the rest.”

Right then, we all turn to see another escalade pull into the factory from the left—It’s Francis…in a hurry!

Next, Christopher runs in out of the rain holding a shotgun.

Things went a lot better than I could’ve hoped for—but you have to plan for the worst.

Joshua is still silent. He’s been exposed in front of everybody.

Don Cassaduchi is quiet as well. All he does is stare at me.

Christopher nods at the other capos in greeting as he makes his way to Joshua and—without breaking his stride—winds up and delivers a face crushing right hand that puts de Soto to sleep.

Dickie and Paulie drop the dead weight on the ground and step back.

Leo looks at me and speaks solemnly, “I expect that certain things are going to happen now.”

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