MEET ME AT THE GALLIANO CLUB
This is an excerpt from my current work-in-progress.
MEET ME AT THE GALLIANO CLUB is the prequel to the Galliano Club thriller series and tells the backstories of bartender Luca Lombardo and dancer Ruth Cross.
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“My father was Primo Capitano Matteo Lombardo,” Luca said. “An officer, like you. Executed as a deserter by your firing squad.”
“When?” Orsini put down his pen.
“Twelve years ago,” Luca answered. Had Orsini killed so many that he no longer remembered their names? “In Serra San Bruno.”
“You’re mistaken.” Orsini spoke calmly. He capped his inkwell but kept his eye on the unwavering gun in Luca’s hand.
“You found Matteo Lombardo in my grandfather’s olive grove.” Luca stepped closer to the desk. “Your horses trampled everything. Scared everyone into submission. Then you took my father, tied him to a tree and shot him.”
Orsini made a show of rifling through the papers on the desk. “If your father was an officer, he knew the punishment for desertion is execution.”
“I think you remember him.” Luca’s grip on the revolver was still remarkably steady. “After all, you must have hunted him for long time. Primo Capitano Matteo Lombardo deserted seven years before you found him. Long enough to marry and have a son. I was five years old when you killed him.”
“Matteo Lombardo.” Orsini slowly drew out the name, his hands now motionless on the desk. “No, the name means nothing to me.”
“What about Viola Lombardo. Why did you kill her, too?”
“These names mean nothing to me,” Orsini snapped. “Who are you to come into my house like this? A deserter’s brat? A common laborer from the olive groves with dirt under your fingernails?”
“You remember them,” Luca said. Everything in the softly lit home took on a sharper, colder edge. “I can see it in your eyes. You remember killing him. Killing her, too, when she cursed you.”
“You understand nothing of a soldier’s duties,” Orsini said contemptuously. “Get out of my house. When you’re a priest, you can pray for their souls in Purgatory.”
“Get on your knees,” Luca said.
Orsini gave a bitterly incredulous laugh. “I’m not going to kneel to you.”
“Get on your knees,” Luca repeated. “Another man would kill you. I’m giving you the chance to get on your knees and ask for my forgiveness.”
