Secret Surrogate to the Mafia King novel · Chapter 14 of 24

Chapter 14: No Invitation

Ettore stopped one pace from the gate, with his hands open and his gold watch shining in the headlights.

He did not touch the bars.

"Orazio," he called, pleasantly, across the lawn. "My wife is a delicate woman, and she wandered. I've come to take her home."

Orazio had come out onto the porch with his vest buttoned and no coat.

He walked down the steps and stopped halfway across the grass.

"This is my gate, Ettore."

"Open it."

"A man who crosses a boss's gate without his invitation loses his seat at the table. You voted for that rule yourself."

"I'm not crossing it. I'm asking."

"Then I'm declining."

Forty engines idled behind Ettore, and not one door opened.

Every man in those cars knew the rule, and every one of them was counting what he would lose.

"Father has come to bless her return," Ettore said, and the priest shifted his black bag from one hand to the other. "A wife belongs beside her husband. Let her say so before God."

"Let her say it, and I'll go quietly."

I felt a hand close on my wrist.

Fabrizia stood beside me on the porch, with Gwen's peas dripping down her raincoat and her chin up.

"I'll answer him myself," she said.

"You don't have to," I said.

"I know. That's why I can."

I went down the steps with her, because I would have gone anywhere she was going, and Orazio fell back one pace to let us pass.

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