Chapter Three
“The calm before the storm is more terrifying than the storm itself.” –King Campisi
King
“They’re getting bolder, that’s for sure,” Junior muttered as he tossed a blood-soaked shirt onto the table.
I tilted my head and examined it. His dark hair was longer now, messy, also covered in blood, I wasn’t sure if it was his or someone else’s, as the Capo, the new leader of the Five Families I was almost afraid to ask.
Maksim was dealing with the Sinacore side of things, which left me here with the remaining few.
Santino helped out with the Petrov Family under Valerian, while Junior kept the shit that was the De Lange Family and all of their missing pieces together.
The Alfero’s were the easiest since Dante had them pretty much sedated with so much money coming in that it was borderline embarrassing… as long as people got paid, they forgot past grievances, wonders never ceased. Dom basically floated around but mainly stayed on to help Junior with the chaos that was the De Langes.
I was probably missing a dozen people at this point… it didn’t matter too much since everyone worked so cohesively, including my Family. And mine? The Campisi throne was running like a fine-tuned machine.
Often it felt like we were too young to lead, but we proved to our parents we were ready, just like they had proved (in bloodshed) to their own that they were ready. Ours was more of a it’s our turn, back off mentality.
And they let us, slipping into cheerful retirement yet still looking like they were in their thirties ready to pop out more kids.
I shuddered. “What’s with the blood?” I finally asked Junior.
He shrugged. “Men keep killing each other, so I keep killing them to keep them from killing each other. It’s math.”
Ash burst out laughing. “Math was literally your worst subject.”
“Eat shit.” Junior groaned into his hands. “Ninety percent of the De Langes are loyal, they want to re-establish more than their own name, we’ve built up the ranks to what they were before, but something seems off, some of the men seem… too arrogant, too unafraid of me, and I’ve given them plenty of reasons to be petrified.”
“Please list them and in graphic detail,” Maksim said in a bored tone. Ah, good, he was back into his other personality, where he wanted to hear all about the darkness so he could feed his soul.
It was still weird to me at times that he had two personalities, also known as dissociative identity disorder, then again, at times I think it helped him compartmentalize all of his past memories along with things he’d had to do in order to survive.
Valerian ran his hands through his light brown hair, a new black tattoo was etched near his thumb, the guy only got ink if something bad or good went down, I made a mental note to ask later. “Listen, I need to get home, if there are no more updates…” He started to stand.
“We’re at peace.”
Santino, Maksim, Ash, Junior, and Valerian all glanced in my direction. My voice wasn’t confident like it normally was.
Santino groaned into his hands. “You Americans and your fears. We’re at peace, you should drink wine and be happy.”
“Says the assassin that had to flee his own Family,” Maksim muttered under his breath.
“For good reason.” Santino pointed out. “Plus, someone had to save your sorry asses.”
“Boo.” Junior gave us a giant thumbs down. “Don’t act so pretentious, little Italy, it makes us think you’re working with a small dick.”
“How old are you again?” Santino asked.
Junior grinned. “Old enough to kick your ass, young enough to survive if you try to kick mine.”
Ash nodded. “Yeah, that’s fair. See, he can math!”
“God.” Maksim hung his head in his hands. “Can’t we just go home? We don’t have any more threats, things have gone silent, most of us have very attractive women to go home to, some even have tiny little villains they claim as their children.”
All of us turned to Junior.
He flipped us off. “Bam-Bam just has strong feelings!”
“I still think he’s going to try to murder you in your sleep, but whatever,” Ash said cheerfully.
“Okay, person who named their son Walt,” Junior said under his breath.
“Take it back!” Ash jolted to his feet. “It’s a family name!”
“From the fifties?” I asked. “Sorry, it’s a great strong name. One of killers and thieves.”
“Thank you.” Ash sat back down.
I turned to Junior again. “What’s your feeling on your men, on your stability?”
Junior swallowed. “My head tells me I’m being paranoid, but something isn’t sitting right with the Family, it’s like fear isn’t present anymore despite this shit,” He shoved the bloody shirt off the table. “It’s like they think someone’s going to protect them and that someone isn’t me, they know I’d take them out before they could take themselves or any of the other Families out.”
I tapped my fingers against the table in thought. “When does the treaty for welcoming them back into the Family end?”
“A week.” Junior sighed. “Basically, if I was a narcissistic, power-hungry idiot, in a week I could be like thanks for the money and support but no thanks, I think I’m going to war against the rest of the Cosa Nostra and see how that checks out. Seriously though, most of them are young and stupid, none of them have the balls to do it.”
We fell quiet until Junior whispered again, “I mean, unless… Ivan, but he doesn’t even want to be a part of this life. He has more money than he needs, so what would be the purpose?”
Ash exhaled. “Revenge? Or maybe just to piss us off.”
“No.” I disagreed. “He’s not that stupid, I mean, stupidity does run thick in all our blood, but I highly doubt he’d go that far, plus it would be a complete death sentence.”
Maksim was quiet before he tapped his fingertips slowly against his thigh and reached for his glass of whiskey, taking loud but small sips before saying, “Maybe death is what he seeks.”