“You’ll never get in there. It’s at the top of a cliff on stilts. Guards everywhere. Unclimbable cliff straight down to the beach and the sea is watched. Walls around the whole place, towers at each corner. You’ll never get in there, not in a million years.”
“Then you’ve no reason not to give me the address.”
“Coral Point, by Curzon Lake. The old fisherman’s road out there. There’s about four checkpoints on the way in, you’ll be dead before you get within a mile of the place.”
“We’ll see about that. He’s got Anna, Paolo. Don’t you care?”
“Better with him than you.”
“Sure about that, are you?”
“I don’t see Amato torturing me right now.”
“No one’s torturing you, Paolo. We’re just talking, you and me. You want to get out of this alive, don’t you?”
“I’ll outlive you, Leo. Amato will come for me, you know that, right?”
“Michael, keep an eye on him. If you don’t hear from me by tomorrow morning, dump him in a deep grave. Don’t bother killing him first.”
I hang up. Sergio sent me a message while I was on the phone. “Amato has the Gorgosaurus skeleton.”
I don’t bother replying.
“What’s the plan?” Monty asks.
“Get me to Curzon Lake. West side of it. You still got that contact in the military history club?”
“Sure, you need something?”
“What’s his number?”
He gives it to me and I type it into my phone as we make our way toward the lake. From what I can see when I load my maps, Coral Point is set in private land, surrounded by mountains with only one way in or out. A single winding road leading toward it.
Unclimbable cliff, jutting out on stilts. A fortress house with the lake watched at all times. Impossible to get in there without getting caught.
I could give up. Kill Paolo and call it quits. I still get the empire. I’m married, even if my wife isn’t with me. I’ve got the paperwork to show the executor. I inherit everything. I don’t need to do this. I don’t need to save Anna.
“Want me to come with?” Monty asks after I tell him about my phone call with Paolo.
“Solo mission,” I reply. “Got to be in and out.”
“Like the old days.”
“I guess so.”
“Hope your arms are up to it.”
“We’ll see, won’t we?”
I call his contact, make the arrangements. What I need more than anything will be waiting for me at the lakeside when I arrive.
I sit back and close my eyes. This is going to be my last chance to get some rest for a while. I run through the plan in my mind. A lot of ways it can go wrong. Only one way for it to go right. The odds are stacked against me.
Again, I think about going home, calling it quits.
I wanted Paolo to suffer. He has. Wanted to marry Anna. I have. Wanted rid of her. That’s done too. I have no need to save her. I don’t need her for anything anymore.
Except one thing. The one thing I want most in the entire world. A family.