19. Chapter 19
19
Plans continued to unfold in real-time.
Valentina and Carmen remained cooperative under Elyse's watchful eye. Gaspare stayed one clueless motherfucker. He kept meeting up with Taddeo, partying with strippers and drinking himself into a stupor from midnight to sunrise. Her grandfather continued to fulfill his role as their go-between with the authorities. Alessandro worked discreetly with Benedetto to release names and evidence to Boris and his men.
Relationships blossomed during this time as well. Monte and Mariposa became almost inseparable, and, since Monte was on duty with Elyse each day, Mariposa made herself indispensable as Elyse's righthand woman. The girl seemed determined to prove her worth and loyalty. Trust strengthened between them. Elyse eventually dropped a hint to Mariposa about their plans for her brother, and the girl accepted the news far better than anticipated.
"You aren't concerned about your brother's welfare?" Elyse asked quietly.
Mariposa mumbled, "I am likely going to hell for saying this, but..."
"What?"
The younger woman explained, "Gaspare's stupidity and recklessness know no bounds. The drinking. The gambling. The underage girls. If not for Papà constantly cleaning up his messes, left to his own devices, Darwin's theory would have taken out my brother ages ago."
"You’re savage, Mari," Elyse gasped.
Dark eyes glimmered as she glanced at Elyse. "No, I am grateful . Thank you for trusting me with this information. I may be a De León, however, I do not owe the men in my family shit for what they put me through."
"You're better off without them," Elyse replied with complete sincerity.
Mariposa whispered, "I never got to say this to you, Elyse, but I owe you my life for taking me in. You took a risk on me, and, for that, I will never forget your kindness. I no longer view you as an ally.”
She frowned. “You don’t?”
"Because we are friends now."
An emotion that felt suspiciously like happiness stung Elyse's eyes. “Absolutely.”
Change was in the air. It was unseen but deeply felt. The shift slithered through the coscas like a viper, sinking venom into anyone blocking its path.
The first arrest was made in early fall.
Nitto Messina was taken into custody. His arrest was followed by many more. One by one, Antonino Buscetta, Carlo Moretti, Gilberto Garcia, and César Castillo were brought in by the police.
Paranoia surged through the clans. Court dates and trials consumed their underground meetings. During this crisis, allies turned to Alessandro for guidance. He’d come into his own as capo . While Vincenzo ruled through fear and violence to keep everyone in line, Alessandro was nothing like his father. He was more of a politician than a butcher. Still merciless in his own way but far more business savvy.
Alessandro advised everyone to lay low and find ways to wash their dirty money clean in case the police started poking around accounts. They listened and started funneling money into legal enterprises. Such as tech companies focusing on solar energy and smart cars. Hotels and apartment complexes and commercial centers. And private hospitals and clinics.
This way, they could hide their wealth in plain sight and continue making money through these new channels until the worst of the investigations died down.
A week later, Valentina released the photographs of Gaspare with Taddeo.
Anonymously, of course.
Luca planted the burner phone on Gaspare.
Stealthily, of course.
One of Samuele Trevisano's men discovered it on his person. When the "truth" about Gaspare came to light, outing him as a snitch, a narc, a sniveling bitch who broke Omertà , a small civil war erupted. A handful of De Leóns sided with Gaspare. They’d been dying to avenge the deaths of their family, and, as far as they were concerned, Alessandro and Valentina needed to pay with their lives. They proclaimed Gaspare's innocence, protesting that he had been set up by the motherfucking capo himself. Before they could strike, though, Valentina swooped in and eliminated them all at once in a series of tragic car accidents.
One De León drove off a cliff.
Two were hit by a semi-truck.
Three more collided with a drunk driver.
Afterward, Gaspare fled the country without even saying goodbye to his wife or his sister. The man knew he’d likely be shot on sight if he stayed in Palermo.
As a team, Alessandro, Elyse, Benedetto, and Valentina became invincible. Alessandro kept finding new ways to make money, churning out millions with the skill of a seasoned CEO. Benedetto gave them access to allies on both sides of the law. Elyse played defense, scouting out and subverting threats before they could take root. Valentina played offense, destroying their opposition in four-inch stilettos without breaking a sweat.
In time, the judge sentenced Nitto Messina to twelve years in prison and six years for Carlo Moretti. Fate seemed to be on their side until, five days before Christmas, Benedetto showed up at the palazzo unannounced. Malina escorted him to Alessandro and Elyse.
“Is everything alright?” Elyse asked her grandfather.
Alessandro translated for her.
“ No ,” came Benedetto’s clipped reply.
The three of them went to the study. Even though tensions were high, Malina wore her usual calm, unbothered expression as she closed the door behind them with a soft click .
To Elyse's surprise, Benedetto dropped his act right off the bat and chose to converse in English, "I was wrong about him."
Without missing a beat, Alessandro feigned surprise. "The fuck! You can speak English? Have I been wasting my breath translating for—"
Benedetto cast him a look of annoyance. " Not now . We do not have time."
Alessandro's mouth snapped shut.
Elyse tried to stay calm.
Did her grandfather know that she’d spilled everything to Alessandro? With a perfect poker face, she stayed on topic and prompted, "Wrong about who? "
"Boris."
"What's going on?"
Her grandfather sighed, "The bastard grows bold. These recent indictments of Messina and Moretti have gone to his head. My sources tell me that he intends to break our agreement and come after me soon."
Alessandro growled, "I thought you had him under your thumb?"
Benedetto murmured, "Not anymore. He has turned the tables on me."
Her husband demanded, "What does Boris have on you?"
"He found out about Isabella."
"You mean—" My mother? Elyse's face grew pale. But she caught herself in time. "Who's Isabella?"
Alessandro had discovered her mother's existence through underhanded methods. As far as Benedetto knew, neither of them were supposed to know that she was alive.
Benedetto's mouth flattened into an unimpressed line. "You may drop the act, Elyse. Isabella told me that she was at your father's funeral."
Had her mother contacted Benedetto after the funeral? Elyse froze slightly. Alessandro tensed up in a similar way. Both Alessandro and Elyse's eyes grew round and wide like two students who’d been caught cheating on a test. This was the first time Benedetto had openly acknowledged Isabella's existence in front of Elyse. Her mind continued to buffer as it struggled to comprehend all the moving parts in play. What did her grandfather know about Isabella? What else was he keeping from her?
She mumbled in a faint voice, "If you knew that Isabella attended my father's funeral, why didn't you bring it up sooner?"
"I was honoring her wishes.”
“Her wishes?”
“I did not lie when I told you that Isabella— no, Gianna —tried to end her life all those years ago," Benedetto explained with somber eyes. "What I failed to mention is that she survived the attempt. Barely ."
With a thudding pulse, Elyse dared to ask, "Was is worth it?"
"What?"
Driving her to kill herself . But Elyse held back and, instead, tossed out, "Forcing my mother to abandon the life she wanted."
His eyes filled with remorse. "I should have let her stay in New York. I thought she was being rebellious for no reason. "
Instantly, her heart filled with resentment. He became almost unforgivable. "You had the power to give my father and my mother a chance at happiness. But you chose to make them miserable instead."
Benedetto insisted quietly, "My friend's son was a good man. He could have made Gianna happy. If she was not so hung up on your father."
Her stomach knotted. "I don't know how to respond to what you just said."
"In my defense, when I brought Gianna back to Sicily, I did not know that she had just given birth. To you . She should have mentioned you sooner."
"I don't blame my mother for keeping her mouth shut. You weren't exactly the world's most understanding parent."
With a weary sigh, Benedetto shook his head. "I do not blame her, either. The fault is mine. More than anything, Gianna wanted to keep you away from this life. In her mind, if I did not know about you, I would never come for you. Hell, your mother stayed away from you this whole time because she knew I was tracking her movements."
Her heart felt battered and bruised. Elyse didn’t know whether to laugh or cry at Gianna's efforts to keep her hidden. So valiant yet unnecessary. The mafia still found her in the end. "Did my mother end up marrying your friend’s son?"
"No," her grandfather confessed, "Gianna's suicide attempt changed everything."
"Really?"
"It was eye-opening for me. So much so that I set aside my duty as head of clan and dissolved Gianna's engagement. We faked her death, and I helped her escape. Once she was settled in London, Gianna made me promise to never contact her again. She wanted to be free from me, and I gave in to her request because the alternative was... unthinkable."
Elyse could see that her grandfather had been deeply affected by this tragedy. It altered him to a point where he had chosen Gianna over cosca . Yet, she refused to let him off the hook. In many ways, he was still the villain in her mother's story. "I don’t know whether to hate you for hurting her so much. Or pity you.”
"No need to rub salt. My wounds are deep enough. Even though Gianna did not die, I lost her all the same. When she called me after Robert's funeral—" Benedetto's voice cracked with distress. "It was the first time we spoke to each other in decades."
There was so much sorrow in her grandfather's dark eyes when he spoke of Gianna. It almost made Elyse believe that her cold, calculating mafia boss of a grandfather was capable of love.
Would she be able to forgive her grandfather for what he'd done?
Elyse felt wretched and torn. Alessandro reached for her hand as though sensing her inner turmoil. His touch filled her with strength in this moment of heaviness. A barrage of conflicting feelings rammed into her. She didn't know how to carry on, pretending not to know her mother lived in London. Should she reach out to Gianna— no, Isabella —and try to build a relationship? In a way, it already felt like a lost cause.
Elyse cleared the lump in her throat. As much as she wanted to weep like a lost, motherless child, there were more pressing matters at play. This wasn't the time to fall apart. Later, the tears could fall. For now, she needed to keep her shit together. Her mind snapped back to the police chief and his agenda. "What… does Boris intend to do with Isabella?"
Benedetto gave a pause. "Boris threatened to reveal her to my enemies if I do not comply with his demands."
"What are his demands?"
"Boris wants me to plead guilty to twenty-six charges of corruption and bribery. He has been collecting evidence against me over the past six years. His case is ready to go. The only thing holding him back was the secrets I had on him."
She gasped. "Oh, Dios ."
It appeared Benedetto wasn't willing to risk Gianna's safety even if it meant putting himself at risk. It also appeared karma was finally catching up to her grandfather's many crimes. Maximum sentence for corruption and bribery in Italy was twelve years. Her grandfather would be turning eighty-two by his next birthday. If Benedetto was charged the maximum sentences on all counts, then he was going to die in a cell. No question about it.
Benedetto cast a sharp look in Alessandro's direction. "Gianna's life must not be put in danger, and I do not want to spend my final years in prison. I see no other option. We must kill Boris."
Alessandro's features grew tense. "There has to be another way. Our plans have been going well so far. I refuse to fuck up our hard work. Boris is too visible to the public eye at the moment, the media hails him as an anti-mafia crusader, and we are being placed under heavy scrutiny with all the ongoing trials. Killing him would only cause more problems."
Benedetto drawled, "What do you propose, then? "
"Offer him someone he wants more than you."
"Like who?"
"Me," said Alessandro.
Green eyes locked on to him. Did her husband intend to turn himself in like a fucking martyr? ?El loco! The madman! There was no fucking way she'd let him go to prison on her watch.
Elyse snapped at him, "Like hell you will!”
He cast a beseeching look in her direction. "Hear me out."
Fear sharpened her anxiety, but she willed herself to say, "I'm listening."
"Boris has hated my father for years. But Boris was not able to touch my father while he was alive. Now I am capo . He finally has the chance to take down the entire Vitale clan through me.”
Suspicion darkened Benedetto's wizened features. "You would sacrifice your cosca for me?"
"I would not call it a sacrifice."
Benedetto watched them with a stoic, unamused grimace. "Then what would you call it?"
"An opportunity," Alessandro drawled pensively, "to resolve both of our problems."
Her grandfather side-eyed him. "Go on."
Brown and blue-gray eyes darted in her direction. “Why don’t you update him on Gaspare’s cousins?”
Last week, Valentina had mentioned some passing rumors to Elyse. Bartolo and Carmine Rossi were the distant De León cousins in question, and they arrived in Palermo with an agenda. Since Bartolo and Carmine didn't possess the manpower or resources to go head to head with Alessandro, they attacked him through word of mouth, inflicting damage by casting doubt on his reputation.
Old rumors were nudged a step further. They claimed that not only had their poor cousin been set up by the capo , but Alessandro had been the source of the leak all along. Little did Bartolo and Carmine know that the "lies" they spread were actually true.
Elyse cleared her throat. "Gaspare has been in hiding for months, but some of his distant cousins from Gela have shown up on our turf, and they’re telling anyone who will listen that Alessandro was the one who reached out to Boris. Not Gaspare. Some people are starting to suspect him.”
“But,” Alessandro suggested without missing a beat, “if Boris arrests me, the target they put on my back will no longer feel valid.”
Eyes flashing with disapproval, Elyse turned to Alessandro. "I don’t see why you need to volunteer as tribute. Gaspare’s cousins are more of an annoyance rather than a threat, and Valentina says she'll take care of them."
Alessandro shot back, "I do not trust my stepsister with the fate of our cosca . For all we know, she may be the one helping them fan the fires against me. Without Gaspare around, Valentina has become head of the De Leóns. If she plans to turn on us, there is no better time than now."
"True," Elyse agreed, "but she hasn't done anything to break our trust so far."
"You're letting her lull you into a false sense of security."
His warning ate away some of her confidence in Valentina. Elyse wanted to believe that the blonde was still on their side. She wanted to believe in the partnership they had forged over the past few months. Yet, her husband was raising a valid concern here.
Elyse sighed. "Just tell me what you're planning to do."
"I will renegotiate our agreement with Boris," Alessandro explained, "by offering him access to a few misdemeanors from my youth."
Elyse exclaimed, "Misdemeanors may not put you away for life, but you could still be put behind bars for years!"
"You underestimate me, wife. I have no intention of going to prison.”
“What?”
“I will give Boris false evidence against me," Alessandro murmured. "He will lose all credibility when the court tries to prosecute me."