Page 60 of Mafia Kings: Dario

But if I’d thought Dario was angry at me, it wasnothingcompared with Niccolo.

“What’s WRONG with you?!” he roared as soon as he walked in.

“I didn’t mean for anything to happen!” I cried out. “I only wanted to see a priest – ”

“And you nearly got yourself killed! Do you understand now that we have enemieseverywhere?!That these rules we give you are intended to keep yousafe?!”

“I’m sorry!” I said as I held back my tears.

Niccolo spent the next several minutes asking questions about what had happened from the time I arrived in the church to when Dario had saved me.

I answered him truthfully every single time – until he asked, “What did you tell the priest?”

“Nothing!”

“Don’t give me that!” he yelled. “The safety of everyone in this house depends on what you told him! What was it?!”

I tried to remember what I’d said to the blind man. “I told him I’d come from your house – that I was being held prisoner – that was it, I swear!”

“Did he askhowyou escaped?”

“He did, but I didn’t tell him any details.”

“Speaking of which, how DID you get out?”

My mind raced through my options.

If I admitted to knowing about the secret exit, I would get Filomena in terrible trouble.

I remembered what she’d said:

They’d KILL me if they knew I brought you here.

I couldn’t put her in that kind of danger… not when she’d only tried to help me.

Niccolo could see I was stalling.

“I want the TRUTH, not the best LIE you can come up with!” he bellowed.

I revealed as little as I could while I attempted to come up with a plausible explanation.

“…there’s a crack in the wall surrounding your property,” I said.

“We know that – it’s been there forever. My grandfather escaped through it 50 years ago with my grandmother, father, and uncle when a rival family attacked the estate. My grandfather believed it was good luck and refused to patch it up, and my father followed his example. But how didyoufind it?”

He didn’t mention anything about the secret exit from the mansion…

So I kept quiet, hoping he didn’t knowthatwas how I’d escaped.

“I… I just did,” I said lamely.

“That’s not good enough!”

“I’ve been trying to escape since the moment I got here! You didn’t think I wouldeventuallyfind it?” I snapped. I sounded much braver than I felt.

Niccolo looked at me suspiciously. “But how did you know about the church? How did you know where the town was?”

I was afraid that I might have to tell him the truth –

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