Chapter 85

Mafia Kings: Valentino: Chapter 85 Vicari marched me through the darkness, an old-school kerosene lamp hanging from his hand. It was just the two of us, and he didn’t say a word the entire time.

I staggered along beside him, keeping the blanket wrapped around me tightly.

We finally reached the barn. A lone foot soldier was keeping watch.

“Open it,” Vicari barked.

The foot soldier hurriedly opened the sliding door.

I breathed through my mouth this time, but the stench was so bad I could taste the putrid air on my tongue.

Eliseo Marconi was still chained up. He still had the IVs, too, but it didn’t look like he had much more life in him.

His breathing was ragged. He was slumped over, and his head hung just inches from the dirt floor.

His infected wounds were even worse than the last time I’d seen him. His entire body looked like one giant, weeping sore.

In the light of the lantern, with all the shadows around him, he truly looked like something out of Dante’s Inferno.

“WAKE UP!” Don Vicari shouted.

I winced as he kicked the consigliere in the head.

The guy jerked, then slowly raised his ruined face.

“...Don... Vicari...”

“Were you working with anyone else?” Vicari seethed.

The consigliere frowned. “...what...?”

Vicari squatted down with the lantern in front of the consigliere. “Tell me the truth, Eliseo. Were you working with anyone else?”

The guy looked slowly from Vicari to me like he didn’t understand.

Vicari was squatting down beneath me. The foot soldier was still outside the barn.

Nobody else but the consigliere could see my face...

So I silently mouthed, Paolo.

The consigliere frowned.

I mouthed it again, more exaggerated.

PAOLO.

For a second, I was afraid that maybe the consigliere would sell me out –

But no.

He saw that I’d given him a chance to end his misery, and he played his part to the hilt.

“...Paolo...” the consigliere whispered.

Vicari was silent for a second –

Then he exploded in rage.

“WHAT DID YOU TELL HIM?! WHAT DID YOU DO WITH THE MONEY?!”

The consigliere chuckled. “...it’s... gone. Paolo... has it all...”

“WHERE IS IT?! WHERE IS IT?!”

The consigliere’s chuckle became a taunting laugh. “...fuck you... you stupid fucking moron...”

And then he spat in Vicari’s face.

I froze.

I was expecting the Don to pull out a gun and empty it into the guy’s head.

Instead, Vicari slowly stood up, the very picture of calmness.

He pulled out a handkerchief...

Wiped the bloody spittle from his face...

And then said coldly, “One more question. Were you working with Fausto Rosolini, too?”

I looked at Don Vicari in shock.

What the fuck?!

Where did THAT come from?!

The consigliere looked up at me. Seeing my confused reaction, he didn’t know what to do.

“...I... what...?” he wheezed.

“I guess not,” Vicari said.

Then he stepped back –

Swung the kerosene lantern overhead –

And smashed it down on the consigliere’s head.

The glass broke –

And flaming liquid engulfed the man’s body.

“AAAAAAAAGHHH!” he screamed.

I staggered backwards in terror.

Don Vicari stood there and watched the man writhe in his chains as the fire consumed him.

As a last little touch, Vicari threw the handkerchief – the one he’d wiped off the spit with – onto the man’s back and watched it burn.

The smell of charred meat filled my nose –

And it was all I could do to keep from vomiting.

I really had been transported to Hell.

Don Vicari waited until the consigliere slumped over for the last time.

He was still on fire – but all that was left was a charred husk of a corpse.

Vicari looked over his shoulder at the foot soldier and said, “Get that cleaned up.”

Like he had spilled a bit of milk in the kitchen.

Then he turned back to me. “Well, I guess you were telling the truth.”

I hadn’t been – not at all.

I’d just lied and gotten away with it.

“My men are already scouring all of Ortigia and Siracusa for that little shit,” he said darkly. “And once they find him... I’m going to have a new occupant for my barn.”

Paolo was lucky he was dead.

There really were fates worse than death. Eliseo Marconi could attest to that.

But all of that was a fleeting thought –

Because I was really only interested in one thing.

“Why did you ask if he was working with my uncle?” I demanded.

Don Vicari put his arm around my shoulder and led me out of the barn.

“We should go back to the house. You need to call your family.”