Chapter 3-1
325 Words
Chapter 3
Bruno Marrone, the man married to Callisto Malossini’s sister, had a cousin who lived in the hill country outside of Rome. Mario Marrone was the blackest black sheep of the family, always causing trouble. He fancied himself a ladies’ man, and if it turned out the lady didn’t fancy him in turn, he saw nothing wrong with using force to change her mind.
Which was how Gino Marrone came to be born. The poor little scrap didn’t survive the hour of his birth, and neither did his mother, a young girl who had suffered Mario Marrone’s attentions.
MI6 worked with us on this, enabling us to keep the former intelligence hidden, since wartime bombing destroyed records of births and deaths.
I did my homework well. I went to Italy J Tanner, and when I returned to London, I was Gino Marrone, not quite the sharpest tool in the shed, but family. I was presented to Malossini by his sister and her husband, and he took me on. I hung around doing odd jobs, and because I wasn’t too bright, and he was afraid I would embarrass him, he kept me close.
Malossini wasn’t stupid, but he had a sadistic streak and liked to torment those around him, including me on occasion.
What he didn’t realize was that not long after I joined his family, I had been contacted by Noel Burdon, head of the London underworld, and recruited to keep an unobtrusive eye on him.
Burdon wasn’t stupid, either.
“I know you’re not the dumb dago you appear to be.” He thought I acted that way because I was trying to protect myself.
“Huh?” I made my expression confused. “Everyone’ll tell you—”
“No one can be that stupid. In any case, listen to me, you mook. You keep an eye on Callisto, you got it? And anything he wants to do to you…you f*****g let him do it.”
“You mean even—” I swallowed hard.
“Yeah. Even that.”
I gave him a wide-eyed stare and nodded jerkily, which satisfied Burdon.
And I walked a very fine line.
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