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Cezar was looking at Rossi with raised eyebrows, looking like he was waiting for some kind of an answer from Rossi.

Rossi stood slowly and stared at his hat on the counter, contemplating. He began looking around, down the length of the bar, then at the patrons who watched the television.

Wolf’s heart skipped. Something wasn’t right.

He looked down at the waitress who was pulling her hand back and moving on with her life. She began shuffling past, and he twisted away from the bar following her, then he gently pulled on her arm. Turning back, she had a puppy dog look of curiosity. He bent and kissed her. She returned the gesture eagerly, a clicking tongue piercing bouncing off his teeth. Wolf opened his eyes and searched the reflection in the front window while they kissed. Rossi was walking straight towards him.

He stopped kissing her and breathed in her ear. “Sorry, no. I won’t be eating tonight after all.”

“That’s too bad.” Her breath was hot, her lips flicking his earlobe. “Well, we could always eat together later.”

“What’s that?” He said pointing at his ear, keeping his head down. She repeated herself as Rossi pushed past Wolf’s right shoulder, brushing up against him, and out the front door.

Wolf stood and watched him leave out the door and down the road to his left.

Looking in the window reflection again, he saw Cezar turning the corner back into the rear of the pub.

Wolf walked out the front.

“Fucking American piece of sh-” the waitress’ voice was snuffed out by the shutting door.

“Later asshole,” the soccer fan guy raised his beer as Wolf walked past.

He walked to the scooter, but not before glancing back to Rossi, who was hanging a left — towards the alley Wolf had just come from.

Chapter 42

The officer on Wolf’s brother’s balcony looked to the northwest corner of the piazza, then, raising a radio to his mouth, turned to look directly at him.

Static erupted, followed by a tinny voice, no more than five feet to Wolf’s right. Wolf flinched, ducking fast to his left, suddenly very conscious of his conspicuous height compared to the people around him.

He slalomed through the piazza crowd and made his way to the side shops, then ducked into a narrow side street. He bummed a light from a teenager and puffed hard on a cigarette, surveying the piazza from behind the thin smokescreen.

Wolf was on the west side of the piazza, looking up at the northeast corner. The figure left the balcony and ducked inside to the fully lit apartment. It was an officer he’d never seen. Obviously the rest of the piazza was crawling with Caribinieri, though he had yet to see any.

Meanwhile, pieces of a jigsaw puzzle in his mind were being shuffled and fitted together, his brain beginning to see the clear picture.

Rossi was everything. And if Wolf didn’t act fast, he’d be spending the rest of his life in an Italian prison. Either that, or going home in a box right behind his brother.

Wolf dropped the cigarette and walked down the side street, working his way right, then right again, into a pulsing artery of people that flowed into the piazza.

Wolf centered himself within the throngs of people and shuffled forward, surveying ahead. He narrowed his eyes. Tito just inside the entrance to the piazza along the left side, talking conspiratorially on his cellphone. A quick plan materialized in Wolf’s head.

“Can I get one of those, Officer?” Wolf watched Tito slip his phone into his pocket and put a cigarette in his mouth.

Tito’s sagging eyelids shot open in surprise at seeing Wolf.

Wolf nodded up to the apartment. “How’s it going? You keeping an eye on my brother’s apartment?”

Tito’s mouth sagged open, dropping the unlit cigarette from his mouth. “What are you…” Tito stopped at the sharp pressure at the small of his back. Wolf waited patiently as he fumbled in his empty holster, then realized it was his own Baretta held on him.

“Don’t you dare make a move or a sound,” Wolf said menacingly. “I’ve got nothing to lose here. If I have to kill you to get away, that’s no problem with me.”

People streamed by, pushed forward by the current of humans behind them, none seeing the situation for what it was.

Wolf jabbed the barrel up harder. “Give me your phone.”

Tito pulled it out, and Wolf took and opened it up. Capitano Rossi with his phone number listed underneath was displayed on the screen.

“Was that Rossi on the phone just now?”

Tito arched his back at the gun’s pressure and winced.

“Relax, Tito.” Wolf stepped in front of him and removed the radio from his belt. “Just relax. I’m going to let you go on about your business. You stay right here as if all is fine.” Wolf put the radio and phone in his left sweatshirt pocket, pointing the gun at Tito’s belly through the fabric of the right. “Otherwise, I’m going to shoot you.”

Tito’s mouth dropped open a sliver and his arms went limp by his sides.

“Good. Now first, tell me who just called you. It was Rossi, right?”

Tito nodded his head.

“What did he say?”

“He wanted to know if I had seen you yet.”

“Yeah? What did you tell him?”

“I said I had not.”

“Okay, and what did he say?”

“He was very angry sounding, and said to call heem when I saw you.”

“Why?”

“What do you mean why? He did not say why, just to call heem.”

Wolf eyed him. “Remember what I said. See you later, Tito. We’ll have a laugh about this someday, I promise.”

Chapter 43

Wolf walked briskly away from the piazza, taking one random turn after another. The long tone rang up against Wolf’s ear.

“Pronto?” Paulo’s voice was distant sounding.

“You in front of a computer?”

“Tito? What? Who ees thees?”

Wolf stopped walking. “It’s David Wolf. I’m here with Lia and Tito. But, listen, we have a few favors to ask, well, Lia has a couple favors.”

He proceeded with the acting job of his life, and hung up with a spark of hope.

Wolf scrolled through the phone and found Officer Parente.

The phone rang and rang, then cut out with a beep, beep, beep.

Wolf’s blood pressure rose as he looked at the phone. The reception bars were gone, a dashed line in their place. He reluctantly back tracked his route, the bars jumping up to three as he turned left around the corner he’d just come from.

He dialed again, and listened to the ring repeat for a full thirty seconds.

His stomach sank. He hadn’t thought of the simple fact that she’d probably screen Tito’s calls at all costs.

Wolf closed the phone and exhaled loudly, staring straight up. Swarms of huge insects clouded around the lights along the tall walls of the surrounding buildings. Dark blurry fluttering bats dove in and out of the swarms.

The phone vibrated in his hand. Wolf looked at the phone, the illuminated screen displayed Officer Parente. “Hello?”

There was silence on the other end.

“Lia? Is that you?”

“Yes, who is this?”

“It’s David. I’m on Tito’s phone.”

There was silence on the other end, then a group of fifty CC motorcycles revving loud into the phone. A split second later Wolf heard the same sound in his free ear, though much fainter, coming from the direction of the piazza.

“Couldn’t hear the phone the first time because of the noise in the piazza, huh?”

There was silence for a second. Wolf looked back at the phone reception. “Where are you David?”

“I’m near.”

She stayed silent.

“I didn’t do it.”

“Didn’t do what?”

“You know what I’m talking about. Vlad. What am I, an idiot?”