Chapter 34
Giorgio
After I left Emilia in the restaurant, I headed back down the street.
Maurizio had been at least a hundred feet behind us. As soon as I saw him, he’d ducked out of sight – but I got a glimpse of his face under the nearest streetlamp.
As I walked down the dark street, I forced myself to keep calm.
I wanted to fuck the asshole up for making Emilia so afraid –
But I remembered what Adriano had said:
Give him a chance to leave town and never come back.
If he doesn’t take it, that’s on him.
Don’t kill him… but other than that, have at it.
I couldn’t go in hot.
I had to control my emotions, or I might get carried away.
I also remembered something Lars had said during my first weeks of training:
When you go up against somebody who KNOWS you’re coming…
Don’t come straight for them.
Don’t walk in spoiling for a fight.
Let them think you’re harmless –
That they have the upper hand –
And wait for an opportunity to strike.
But be prepared if they strike first.
Before he’d darted out of sight, Maurizio had seen me.
More specifically, he’d seen a guy in a black suit and tie.
I didn’t want him clocking me right away, so I stepped into a dark alleyway and removed my jacket.
The shoulder harness for my gun was a problem – it would immediately let Maurizio know I had a gun on me – so I pulled out the Glock, took off the harness, and left it on the ground to retrieve later.
I took off my tie and stuffed it in my back pocket…
Draped my jacket over my right forearm to hide my gun…
Then stepped out into the street again.
Anyone who noticed me would see a working stiff who’d just left the office.
I strolled casually towards the spot where I’d seen Maurizio disappear.
Would he recognize me from that far away?
I didn’t think so. When I’d seen Maurizio, Emilia and I hadn’t been near a streetlight.
Plus, with my jacket and tie off, I looked slightly different. Instead of a black suit jacket, my white shirt was the most noticeable thing about me.
Even if Maurizio had gotten a good look at me, even the stupidest Cosa Nostra foot soldier wouldn’t open fire immediately. Not in a city his boss didn’t control, where a cop could be around any corner.
Of course, if he was crazy, all bets were off.
But from everything Emilia had said, he didn’t sound crazy.
He sounded arrogant.
So I continued with my plan.
As I strolled along, I acted like I didn’t have a care in the world.
I wasn’t particularly worried, though.
If anything, I had to keep myself calm so I wouldn’t fly off the handle. Every time I thought about him terrorizing Emilia, I wanted to shoot him in the head.
Halfway to my destination, I paused, pulled out my phone with my left hand, and looked at the screen like I was checking my text messages.
The whole point of the phone was to stall so I could glance around.
I wanted to make sure no one would see what was about to happen.
When the street was deserted, I pocketed my phone and kept walking.
As I passed an alleyway, I saw a figure in black out of the corner of my eye, about six feet away.
I tensed –
But then I saw the glow of a cigarette cherry in the shadows.
The overconfident motherfucker had stopped to have a smoke.
Nobody was on the street up ahead of me –
So I stopped, sniffed the air ostentatiously, then turned around.
It was him.
Black hair, pudgy face, and a gut under his expensive black suit.
“I thought I smelled a cigarette,” I said cheerfully. “Hey, man, could I bum one of those off you?”
“Get lost, asshole,” he growled.
“Aw, come on, don’t be like that. I quit yesterday, but God DAMN, I could use a smoke.”
Maurizio pulled back his jacket so I could see the gun in his shoulder harness, obviously meant to intimidate me. “I said get LOST, you piece of shit.”
“Okay, okay, sorry,” I said, acting frightened –
Right before I dropped my jacket and lunged at him.
His eyes widened comically.
About the time he realized he should probably pull his gun, I swung the bottom of my Glock’s handle down into his face, breaking his nose.
He howled in pain, and his cigarette fell out of his open mouth.
I knew he was seeing stars right about now, if he was seeing anything at all.
He’d drawn his gun, but it was barely out of its holster.
I reached down, grabbed the gun with my left hand, and twisted hard.
I made sure the barrel was pointed away from me so that if it went off, it wouldn’t hit me.
The gun didn’t fire –
But Maurizio’s finger was caught in the trigger guard.
Snap!
He screamed in agony.
I ripped the gun out of his hand, stripping the skin off his finger, and tossed it out of reach.
Then I shoved him backwards onto the ground –
And kicked him in the ribs as hard as I could.
Crack!
He shrieked and tried to scramble away.
Tried, that is.
I followed him, kicking his side again and again, driving him deeper into the alleyway –
Until I was sure the shadows hid us.
Then I stood over him and pointed my gun at his face.
His mouth and chin were covered with blood from his gushing nose.
“Are you listening, asshole?” I snarled.
He didn’t answer, so I kicked him again. “Are you – ”
“YES, YES!” he howled as he tried to protect his fractured ribs.
“Maurizio, right? You work for Don Camerota?”
He looked bewildered. “How the fuck did you know that?”
“Emilia told me,” I growled.
His eyes nearly bugged out, and his mouth opened in shock.
I dropped to one knee on his right bicep, pinning him to the ground, and shoved the barrel of my gun in his mouth.
I could feel the metal clack against his teeth.
“Mmf – ”
“Shut the fuck up and listen, you piece of shit.”
He stopped moving and stayed silent, but his eyes watched me in terror.
“If you try anything, I’ll pull the trigger and blast your brains out the top of your head. Understood?”
He nodded up and down the tiniest bit. As much as he could with a gun jammed in his mouth, anyway.
“Does Don Camerota know you’re here?”
Maurizio shook his head the tiniest bit side to side. No.
“You came here for Emilia, didn’t you?”
He froze –
Until I shoved the gun deeper in his mouth.
He gagged.
“DIDN’T YOU!” I roared.
“Mmf,” he whimpered, tears welling up in his eyes.
“You like stalking women?” I hissed.
He stared up at me, unsure of what he should say.
My knee was on his right arm, pinning it to the ground.
With my free hand, I reached for his fucked-up pointer finger –
And cranked it as hard as I could, breaking it in another direction.
Snap!
“MMMF!” he screamed, the gun in his mouth muffling the sound.
“You like making them afraid?” I snarled –
And grabbed his middle finger.
Snap!
“MMMF!” he half-screamed, half-sobbed.
“You’re going to forget you ever saw Emilia,” I said –
And broke his ring finger.
Snap!
By this point, he was just sobbing.
“And if you ever come back to Florence – ”
I took the pinky and jerked sideways.
Snap!
“I will put a fucking bullet in your head,” I snarled. “Understand?”
“Mmf,” he wept as he nodded.
“Now get the fuck out of town tonight.”
I withdrew the gun from his mouth, the barrel slick with blood and saliva.
Maurizio seemed to be relieved, thinking it was over –
Except it wasn’t.
I reared back my arm –
And clocked him in the temple with the bottom of the gun handle.
Lights out.
He lay there on the ground, mouth open, face a bloody mess, the fingers of his right hand bent in five different directions.
I wiped my gun off on his jacket until it was mostly clean.
Then I stood up, walked over and picked up his pistol, and shoved it in the back of my waistband. I wasn’t taking any chances that he might wake up and come after me.
I retrieved my jacket and slipped it on, then put my Glock in the inside pocket.
When I came out of the alleyway, a passerby gave me a strange look.
I just stared at him coldly until he picked up the pace and hustled down the street.
Then I went back and picked up my shoulder harness where I’d left it.
I took off my jacket, put on the harness, holstered my gun, slipped the jacket back on, and buttoned it.
When all of that was done, I went back to the restaurant.