Dario shrugged. “I wanted her safe from Miceli, but she wasn’t mine. I’m not nice. She needed nice. I’ll never be that. But Miceli wasn’t getting her.”
Val nodded. He moved his arms to make certain he had a range of motion and he could do so without pain. It was the wound in his leg that worried him the most. “When I stand, you’re going to have to cover for me. That’s the one time I’m awkward and someone might notice. It just takes a few seconds for my body to adjust and then I’m fine.”
“I know we needed to get on this immediately, Val, but I don’t like it. We’re really having to rely on Stefano and his family for your protection. I did see the security room. Emilio and Enzo showed me everything. Very high-tech, better than anything we have. Bernado was drooling over their equipment, and they had no problem letting him in the room with them. He’s in seventh heaven. I will say Stefano’s cousins are very forthcoming anytime I ask for information. I was given full access to the underground levels as well as blueprints. Emilio sent those to my phone after giving me a personal tour.”
“Cameras?”
“Everywhere, but out of sight. He will have them off in the conference room unless I signal I want them on and Bernado will tell him. Normally, I wouldn’t allow phones anywhere you’re speaking, but in this case, Bernado, with the equipment Emilio has, can tell if anyone is recording and it will give us one more tool to find traitors,” Dario said.
Valentino nodded. “I will bring my father in myself with you escorting us.”
“When he leaves, who do we trust enough to bring him back? Because I’m not leaving you alone with known traitors,” Dario stated.
Val shook his head. “Have you considered, even once, that I give the orders?”
“Not really.”
Val refrained from smiling, but was grateful he had Dario. He might have been appointing Severu Catalano as his official advisor, but it was always going to be Dario he listened to first. “Stefano’s bodyguards will take him back up. You have to admit, they’re every bit as good as anything we’ve got and we can trust them.”
Dario nodded. “Bernado will have eyes on them all the way back to this suite. No one will be able to get to him here. I presume they’ll stay to guard him.”
“That’s the plan.”
Valentino glanced at his watch. “Let’s get this done. We’ll need to talk to Giuseppi about Custanzu Parisi. If he hasn’t figured it out yet, it’s only because he doesn’t want to know the truth. He can’t go into the meeting without knowing. That will make him look weak. I don’t want that for him. Not ever.”
His chest felt heavy as he walked with Dario through the large suite to his father’s room. They’d given him the bedroom with the best view of the city. Val gave a perfunctory knock and opened the door. His father sat in the leather armchair facing the gas fireplace that wasn’t on. He looked tired and sad.
“Should you be up, Val?” Giuseppi didn’t look as Valentino crossed the room and greeted him with a kiss to the top of his head. “We should put this off for a few days.”
That told Val his father knew his best friend had betrayed him and he was more than ready to hand over the reins of his empire to his son.
“You know we can’t do that without losing everything. The meeting has been called, and capos are waiting. You have only to make a short appearance and announce you are stepping down and I am taking over. I will handle everything from there. Demetrio and Drago will escort you back to this room. It is safer here until I know who to trust and who Miceli has corrupted with his flesh trafficking.”
Giuseppi heaved a sigh and then pushed up with both hands off the arms of the chair. “He always said there was so much money to be made in those markets. Young children. When I say young, I mean he talked of selling little boys and girls. And then there was his idea of taking teens and selling them. Using them in moving brothels. Women to be sold or used the same way. He kept coming to me over and over, and I kept turning him down. He showed me the numbers to be made, more than weapons, more than drugs, but I wouldn’t hear of it. I kept my word to the Ferraro family, but more, the idea sickened me. Everyone has a line they won’t cross. That was mine.”
“I feel the same way,” Valentino assured him. “Why do you feel guilty?”
“I tried to talk to him. To convince him, but I didn’t try hard enough. Women came easy to him, and he never respected them. He treated them cruelly and discarded them as fast as he acquired them. He raised Angelo and Tommaso to be like him. The way he treated Dario’s mother. The things that happened to his own son. He wanted to raise Dario the same way, but it was too late.” He looked across the room at Dario, his faded eyes filled with sorrow. “Your mother was beautiful and so sweet. She was cursed the day she caught his eye.”
As always when his mother was mentioned, Dario shut down, his features completely expressionless, his dark eyes looking like the pits of hell.
“You know who betrayed us,” Val said. “You have to know.”
Giuseppi sighed again. “There was only one other. He tore out my heart.”
“I will take care of it,” Val said. “You have only to pass on the reins to me. I will identify the traitors in our family. I may miss one or two at this meeting, but in the end, I will find them all. The message will go out today that we are strong, that we will not tolerate betrayal and it is business as usual even if it is war with Miceli. And it is war.”
Giuseppi took Val’s arm and leaned heavily on him for a moment before straightening. “You’re certain your injuries will allow you to do this? You can’t show any weakness, Val.”
Valentino raised an eyebrow. “I am your son. I never forgot one single lesson. Not one single word. You know that about me.” It was the truth. Valentino retained everything, even when he wished he couldn’t. “There is no need to remind me.” Even to his father, he couldn’t show weakness. He was taking over whether Giuseppi liked it or not. There had been too many mistakes, and there couldn’t be any more. Already, the war had spilled onto the streets. He didn’t want innocent blood spilled.
The reporters were all over the story at the lake house, with helicopter crashes and bodies found on rooftops and in boats and vehicles. It looked like a war zone, all men known to the police as soldiers for the mafia, yet the explanations Stefano and Vittorio as well as the doctor had given about the attack left the Ferraro family, Giuseppi and Valentino in the clear. Lawyers for both families had stepped in and fielded questions after they had briefly spoken with law enforcement, but that didn’t stop the frenzy of reporters from trying to find answers.
Fortunately, the Ferraro Hotel was a luxury hotel, and it was business as usual. Famous clientele came and went. No one thought anything of the expensive cars driving into the exclusive parking garage. Once there, those cars were directed to a private elevator and taken to a garage on an underground floor to be first vetted by guards before the occupants were allowed out to be escorted to the conference room.
Demetrio and Drago pushed open the double doors to the conference room and entered first. Instantly, all talk stopped. No one knew them, and this was a private meeting. The two stepped to either side of the door, and Dario strode in. He scanned the room with dark, piercing eyes. Nothing escaped him. Nothing. He noted each man, whether they looked nervous, excited, passive or like they were just waiting to see what was going to happen. His gaze touched on Custanzu Parisi. He was seated at the right hand of the table. The advisor to the Don. The shark. He was smiling. Looking relaxed. Serene.