Page 3 of Mafia Kings: Dario

I was struck by the fact that he said it before he’d even had a bite of the food.

Then I realized I hadn’t told him my father was the cook.

There was no way the ugly man could haveknownmy father had cooked his meal unless he had been here before… or somehow knew about the café.

I thought of asking him how he knew, but I disliked him so much that I just nodded and went back to my perch at the far end of the café.

After ogling me some more, the ugly man began wolfing down his food.

Then the door to the café opened up and another man walked in.

He was tall, well over six feet. He was dressed in a black trench coat and wore a black hat, so it was hard to see his features – but his short blond beard and icy blue eyes suggested he wasn’t Italian. He was, however,veryhandsome.

Just as I was about to welcome him, the stranger turned to the ugly man and pulled out a pistol.

The ugly man froze with a forkful of food in his mouth. Then he scrambled for something in his pocket – probably a gun, too – but he wasn’t fast enough.

BANG BANG BANG!

Fire exploded from the blond stranger’s gun.

The ugly man’s body jerked three times. Then he slumped to the side and fell out of his chair.

I screamed in horror as blood pooled on the stone floor.

The blond man turned to me, and I felt an electric spark as his icy blue eyes met mine.

I was sure I was dead – that his gun would point atmenext –

But instead the handsome stranger put his weapon away and hurried out of the café.

My father ran into the room just as the front door banged shut.

My father cried out, “Alessandra, what happened?!”

I just stared at the corpse in shock.

The only dead body I had ever seen was at my mother’s funeral…

And I had certainly never seen a man murdered before my eyes.

Before too long, I would see many, many more.

My father took one look at the dead man and suddenly became even more frightened.

Later, I would wonder if he recognized the ugly man – though in my shock, I didn’t consider the possibility at the time.

“Did you see who did this?” he whispered.

I nodded mutely.

He grabbed my shoulders and forced me to look at him.

“You mustnevertell anyone what he looked like,” he said hoarsely. “Especially not the police.”

“But – ”

“PROMISE me.”

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