Mafia Princess Returns novel · Chapter 4 of 24

Chapter 4: The Man With the Ring

We put the big man in the cellar, tied to a flour-sack pallet, and Enrico sat on an upturned crate in front of him.

The big man had flour in his eyebrows and blood in one ear.

He looked at the ceiling.

"Who sent you?" Enrico asked.

Nothing.

"Whose idea was it to come at five in the morning, with a driver who wears Papa's ring?"

Nothing.

My brother's hands opened and closed on his knees.

I could see he wanted to break something, and I could see he didn't want to look like his father doing it.

Nonna carried a tray of coffee and bread down the stairs, set it on the crate, and went back up.

Enrico didn't touch it.

"He's not going to talk to me," he said. "He's been scared of me my whole life. Now he's scared of someone else more."

The big man's eyes slid toward the cellar door, and I felt the back of my neck prickle.

A quiet voice from the top of the stairs said, "Mind if I come down? The door was open."

A man came down into the lamplight with two paper coffee cups in one hand and a phone in the other.

He wore a black work jacket over a white tee and boots with salt stains.

His light-brown hair was buzzed so short I could see the shape of his skull, and his eyes were a bright, ridiculous blue.

I knew him at once.

It was the stranger from table nine, who had laughed.

"Basile," Enrico said, and his gun was up again. "Get out."

"Good morning to you too."

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