Dario nodded again. “So, what are you saying about Stefano’s comment?”
“Well, first off, he directed that comment not at me, but at his wife. He wanted to get a rise out of her and the other women on the plane. And he did. He might have been telling me it was okay to have fun in the family. Outside of it, we can look like cruel bastards, but when we’re alone with them, we can be family men.”
“I can see he might have been doing that.”
“Stefano expects me—us—to be just as vigilant watching over Emmanuelle as the Ferraros are over their women. More so because she will be out in the open. He expects us to put bodyguards on her and even ask for Ferraro bodyguards if the need arises.”
“The hell with that,” Dario said. “We can protect her.”
Valentino found himself laughing. “You can’t have it both ways, Dario. Either Emme’s in danger and she has to be guarded every second by whatever means are at our disposal or she’s not. I say we have our most trusted guards on her, but when we feel the danger is especially high, as it is now, we use the Ferraros as well, and that includes her brothers if necessary.”
Dario doubled his fist and pressed it to his heart. “At least they know better than to look smug. I still might not survive having to work with them.”
“We’re the ones who should be feeling smug. We pulled off what no other outfit in Chicago ever managed to do. I married the Ferraro princess and officially have an alliance with her family. That not only makes us stronger than anyone else, but it has put even more fear into our enemies than I ever could have with what we’re doing. When word leaks out—and we’ll make certain it does—that Stefano himself may have been along on one of the raids, that will solidify our place as the strongest family in Chicago.”
Dario relaxed against the seat. “There is that. If they help us find out who’s behind bringing these kids into this hell …”
Valentino eyed him warily. They were on touchy ground now. He glanced at his watch. They were still several minutes out from their next target. “Do you believe Marco Messina could be behind all of this? We found out about it only a few years ago. He would have had to have started into it when he was pretty young. He’s what? Five years older than us?”
“He’s a Messina. He was raised in the life. He runs the legitimate side of their businesses, but he’s still running their businesses,” Dario pointed out. “I don’t trust anyone, Val, other than you. The men we have in place in our inner circle are the most I’ll ever trust anyone else, and I’ll be watching them all the time.” He hesitated.
“What is it?”
“Bernado. We’re putting a lot of faith in him. A tremendous amount of faith in him.”
“We saved his life, Dario. We took care of his mother when she needed it.” Val was patient. He understood his cousin. He understood Dario’s fear. Bernado had a particular skill that was unmatched by either of them. If he betrayed them, neither of them would be aware of it until it was far too late. They had no real way to watch over the man.
Valentino trusted his instincts. They’d never steered him wrong. Even as a child, he’d been aware Miceli was two-faced. He had been certain, even then, that his uncle had something to do with murdering his birth parents, but there was no proving it. Nothing but his gut reaction. Bernado was devoted to Valentino and Dario. He wasn’t the kind of man to wield a gun, but he could go after any business with his keyboard.
“Have you ever asked Bernado to look into Stefano Ferraro?” Dario asked.
Something in Dario’s voice had Val looking up sharply. Suspiciously. He looked at his cousin through narrowed, hooded eyes. “No, I made it clear the Ferraros were off-limits.”
“I did.” Dario showed no remorse. He might have played second to Valentino when they were in public, and there was no doubt that he would have taken a bullet for him, but when they were alone, they were equals. “With all the skills he has, Bernado couldn’t get anything on Stefano or any of the other brothers aside from regular shit that meant nothing at all. Worse, he said, he was immediately flagged and had to shut everything down before he was identified. Whoever is in Stefano’s corner was coming after him fast, and Bernado says he’s buried deep.”
Valentino rubbed the bridge of his nose. “I don’t pretend to understand the first thing about what he does, but if he needs help, maybe we should try to find someone to help him.”
“I thought of that. Asking him to find someone means we have to trust him entirely, and we can’t have that person report directly to us anything Bernado might be doing wrong,” Dario said. “And we don’t have the expertise to find someone with his kind of genius. Nor can we indebt someone to us unless I maneuver that situation.”
Val sighed. He knew what that meant. The Saldi family, under his father’s regime, had resorted to that kind of manipulation on more than one occasion. Giuseppi had always claimed to be fair with his men. Yet, when he needed a certain person with a skill set completely loyal to him and felt there was no other option open to him, he’d taught Val and Dario that “saving” that person’s life and family after first sacrificing a few family members in a bloodbath would give him the required devotion. That had never sat well with Valentino. Fortunately, he hadn’t had to resort to that type of false rescue. He truly had helped Bernado, as well as a few others.
He met Dario’s gaze steadily. “You would do that?”
Dario sighed. “No. I can do a lot of things, Val, but that’s not one of them. I don’t kill innocents, not even for you, at least I never have. Who the hell knows what I’m capable of? I don’t, these days. Now that Emme is on board, I could go a lot further than I thought I could to protect her.”
Valentino couldn’t help the smirk. “She got to you.”
“She gets to everyone. Yeah. She got to me a long time ago. I wanted to beat you to a bloody pulp for laying a finger on that girl. On the other hand, I knew what it would do for you. For us. She’s different. She’s no coward, Val. She’ll be fierce when it comes to protecting your children.”
Valentino nodded.
“And you,” Dario added.
Val studied his cousin’s dark features for a long time before he decided to give him the truth. “And you as well. You’re family to her, Dario. She regards you as a sibling. She’ll protect you just as fiercely.”
“Don’t you think I know that? I wanted to slice Marge into a million little pieces for trying to make Emme doubt you and herself. She did it deliberately. She wanted to hurt you and hurt Emmanuelle. Everything Marge does is calculated, even when she’s scared out of her mind. She thought Emme might turn on you and fight for her.”
Valentino nodded. “I was aware of that. Marge figured if Emmanuelle switched sides, her family would follow suit, that she could manipulate the situation in her favor. I just hoped Emme would be aware of it as well. That damn mother of hers undermined her confidence in herself as a woman so much, and I didn’t help with what I said to Marge that night Emme overheard. I was terrified she might just walk out on me right there. I knew she wouldn’t help Marge. Emme had already seen the women in cages below the dungeon club, and she knew Marge was part of that. She wants us to stop the trafficking. But …”