La Zecchino (The Gold Coin) by Roy Radian

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"You're famiglia, so I'll bring Luca with me as the witness. Find out more information regarding this coin if you can while I'm gone."
He draped his coat tight as the autumn night chilled his skin, and urged Luca to walk beside him, holding the lantern. He stopped at the narrow passage before Piazza della Signoria, noticing the unusual silence and darkness of the houses along the way.
The lantern lit like a fortress against darkness of the night. He heard something clanking against the hard pavement and the warning, before Luca grabbed him back. From the corner of his eyes he saw a coins falling from the sky, glinting deep yellow in the amber of lantern's light. Then a shadow draped before him.

Perched on the rooftop, he saw his target walking briskly with a younger man holding the lantern beside him. He knew their destination, so he waited a good while before trailing them. It was always good to be cautious. After all, Giovanni di Giovanni de' Medici was a keen man, it wouldn't do to underestimate him.
The crescent moon's light gave him a perception of his surrounding as he skidded over to the roof's tip and jumped to the other roof. The help was good because he needed every luck in his disposition for tonight.
Tonight he would enter the hell's gate beneath Florence and purified the city's sins and impurities. There would be much bloodshed, but only after the purgatory that Florence would prosper under the blessing of heaven.
He stopped and sought out his target, they were moving towards the narrow passage led to Piazza della Signoria. It would be too late if he took the route provided by the rooftops on his right.
Several feet in front of him was another row of houses with a lower rooftops. The wide space in between gaped at him, diminishing his courage. He couldn't let tonight's opportunity slipped by or everything would be in vain. It was all or nothing.
The decision came to him easily after contemplating the facts. He gauged the distance and crept back several feet, then he crouched down, silently said his prayers.
He felt the tugging, when the winds stopped blowing and his mouth tired from praying, and he ran on the concrete brick of the rooftops. He kicked the rooftop's tip fiercely to add more speed and leaped. His body rocketing forward in the air, briefly he saw the darkness below gaping, then the air rushed at him as the pull of gravity sucked him down.
The first one to land was his right leg, and it quickly gave away, toppled him to the roof-tiles. His body skidded to the edge and he felt a coin slipped away from his pocket. The coin rolled on the roof-tiles before the darkness of the narrow passage below swallowed it.
He looked down with trepidation and confirmed his fear; Giovanni had arrived at the passage. He took a quick split decision, emptied his purse, and rolled the coins on the roof-tiles.
The distraction was all he needed, and he jumped to the balcony's house. His robe waved with the wind as he sprang down in front of the still dazed Giovanni who was being held back by the younger man. His hand reached upon the hilt of his dagger and he stabbed Giovanni's stomach
"Who are...?" Giovanni's voice croaked with surprise.
"From thereupon do I this body bring. To tell you who I am were speech in vain. Because my name as yet makes no great noise." He quoted Dante's poem, and Giovanni's eyes lit with dread and recognition.
He smiled and shoved the dagger upward against Giovanni's heart. The body went still and slowly limped down. He took one of the coins, flipped it up, and snatched it away while it was rolling in the air.
He opened his palm and the coin in his hand showing the Medici's insignia. "There are always two sides of a coin, brother."