Chapter 51

As we spoke, the crowd near the garden entrance parted a little. Lorenzo and Luca came walking in, escorting a guest I didn't recognize. The man was tall and broad through the shoulders, dressed in a well-cut suit of dark forest green, his hair cropped short, exposing an old scar that ran clear across half of his forehead. He looked to be somewhere around fifty. His stride was steady, and when his gaze swept over the garden it carried a wary composure, as if in the first second of entering he had already filed away where everyone stood.