Chapter 43
DANTE
T he drive over to Bosco’s club takes two long hours. Leon calls me no less than four times. On the final occasion, he asks me if I’ve taken my gun.
I’m sitting in the front with Mateo, and the call is on speaker.
Mateo smirks.
“As if I’d walk into Ettore’s office with a gun.” I mean, I did think about it…
“He thought about it,” Mateo says. “He doesn’t have it.”
I cut him a glare and end the call on Leon’s dark chuckle.
“Are you expecting trouble, or think he’ll be a lot of hot air?” Mateo asks, all business, as we pull into the underground garage.
“Dangerous hot air,” I say. “He just misplaced his wife. I’m not expecting to meet his rational side today.”
“Misplaced,” Mateo muses with another grin as he puts the AMG into park, and we exit the vehicle. “He probably won’t let me in his office with you, but I’ll stay as close as I can. Anywhere else, I’ll have you covered.”
Mateo is one of the select few we have entrusted with details of our guest. And I don’t doubt him when he says he has me covered, having seen him in training when he puts the rest of our top soldiers through their paces.
He could probably kill you with a toothpick, if he were of a mind.
We pay him a generous salary not only for his skills but for his ability in training others.
Our acquisition of the boxing center turned mixed martial arts gym has proven advantageous in more ways than one.
Between Mateo and Adam, we’ve been putting considerable time and effort into upskilling any soldier who shows promise.
Ettore has always treated his soldiers like disposable assets. I prefer to think of them as investments—you put something in and get something more out. I couldn’t care less where they come from or their story. What we’ve been looking for is the right attitude and willingness to learn.
Word has gotten around that we pay well and look after our men.
None of them suffer delusions: the work can be dirty and dangerous—we’re still an essentially criminal organization. But they appreciate that we’re different to average, and that has made them loyal.
Over the coming days and weeks, that loyalty will be tested.
We walk across the parking garage toward the elevator bank. Two of Ettore’s soldiers are there. The one on the right is on his radio, probably calling in our arrival. It reminds me of the last time I came here, over a year ago. The day Ettore told me I would become a capo.
And the day he told me to stay away from his wife.
“Christian going to be here?” Mateo asks.
“I don’t know.”
“Fair enough. The plan for if this goes south is solid. Take any worry about her safety off the table while you’re here.”
The two soldiers step aside as we draw near.
It’s late afternoon, and the club is empty so we take the shortcut straight through.
Christian is sitting on a barstool, thumbing through his cell phone.
A sense of relief washes over me. I hadn’t given real credence to the possibility he might have been compromised—maybe that was foolhardy of me.
It’s still good to see him and note that he appears relaxed.
He gives me a nod but says nothing and goes back to his cell phone.
“Your brother is something else,” Mateo mutters beside me.
I keep my smile to myself, aware that I’m likely being watched.
Another soldier is stationed at the door that leads into the backrooms and the stairs to Ettore’s office.
“He’s waiting for you,” the soldier says to me before his eyes slide over to Mateo then back again. “Only you.”
“Mind if I get a coke?” Mateo thumbs in the direction of the bar where Christian is still sitting.
“Sure,” the soldier says.
I head up to where yet another soldier on the door shows me into Ettore’s office.
The room looks exactly the same, but the man sitting behind the desk is rumpled and in need of a shave. Deep lines are entrenched in his face.
“Have a seat, Dante.”
I sit down. He lights a cigar. He doesn’t offer me one, nor a drink. I can’t get a read on whether that means something or merely indicates his state of mind.
The seat creaks a little under me. The air conditioning is on and makes a faint hum.
I give serious consideration to shoving my chair under the door handle and strangling the fuck.
“Did you have any hand in my wife’s sudden disappearance?”
So, he’s just going straight there… “No.”
A tic thumps in his jaw. He draws heavily on the cigar and blows out fragrant smoke.
“But you know she’s gone.”
The last time I was here, I experienced a healthy level of fear. It was the first time I’d been given a genuine threat. Today, there is so much more at stake and maybe that should make me nervous.
It doesn’t.
I’m rock steady.
Has he changed? Or is it me?
Maybe it’s a little of both.
I only know that the longer I make him wait for my answer, the more the power balance shifts toward me.
“Not exactly.” I shrug. “The rumor mill is never slow. Helena told me that Cosmo was dead by your order. She mentioned you asking her if she’d heard anything from Carmela, any messages or calls.
” She didn’t tell me this, but we have her home bugged and cell covered with a handy little spyware app that can listen to everything said, and whether she is using it or not.
All her messages and the sites she looks at.
It’s pretty comprehensive. “Your question also didn’t leave any room for ambiguity…
I got married five days ago. You don’t need me to tell you that your sister is a handful and your niece is spoiled.
Where do you think I might have had time to help your wife disappear? ”
He takes another draw on the cigar before viciously stabbing it out.
“Rocco thinks it was the Russians.”
I laugh. He looks pissed, but really, fuck him. “I don’t believe it was the Russians, and neither do you.”
“Don’t think because you took my sister and my goddaughter off my hands, it will stop me from killing you, Dante.”
I let my face empty and meet his steady gaze.
“Take this as you will. Rocco is no consigliere. If he seriously thinks this is the Russians, he’s floundering.
I’m guessing you’re at a dead end, and you brought me here to see if I had any advice.
Here it is. I think the time for playing coy is over, don’t you?
Cosmo has long had a fixation on Carmela.
He’s dead. She is gone. I’m hedging that something happened between them.
Something serious enough for you to kill him.
If that’s true, then far more likely she has left of her own accord.
Only you can know whether she has had reasons to have been planning this for a while or whether it was a spur-of-the-moment decision. ”
Tic thumps in his jaw.
Christian choked Carmela’s bodyguard out when he took her.
Ettore will know Carmela’s disappearance is due to a third party.
But nothing he disclosed to his sister suggests this, and nor has such information traveled through the grapevine in any other way so I need to tread carefully and not offer up more than I should know.
It’s possible he thinks Carmela orchestrated her own abduction, but even if it were by her design, someone clearly helped her.
“Cosmo made an error of judgment. I killed him for her. What more could she want from me? I killed my brother. For her.” His eyes glitter with a mania.
“Maybe she went to you. Got a message to you through her sister or Cedro. I’m aware that you’ve been expanding the business and gaining power.
Even my own brother Bosco is singing your praises. Maybe you helped her to fuck with me.”
“Hell no,” I shake my head, a deadly level of calm.
“You don’t get to pin this on me. I was fucking happy as the consigliere, but you took that away from me over a woman, like I wanted a child bride anyway.
Why do you think I insisted on delaying the marriage until after she was twenty-one?
No, you displaced me because you could. I’ve turned the business around.
Now you bring this to my door. Are you looking for an excuse to take Jimmy’s concerns back from me? Is that what this is about?”
“I want her back.”
“I don’t fucking have her.”
His anger drains. “You’ve gotten bold, Dante.”
My smile lacks any warmth. “Becoming a capo has been a character-building exercise.” You sent a bunch of thugs to me with a hammer . “Whatever I am is what you’ve made me.”
“I need help.”
He looks broken.
I can’t lie; I’m enjoying this exchange a lot more than the last one in this room.
“And I’m at your disposal if you tell me what you need.” Time to act magnanimous. “So far, all I’ve gotten for doing a good job is a reaming and accusations.”
“I’ll give you everything I have. Just help me get her back.”
If he knew, I’d be in a room downstairs where he’d be liberating me of body parts.
I leave his office with the promise to quietly mobilize as many men as possible, which gives me the perfect cover to do so for my own reasons.
Christian is still with Mateo at the bar. As I approach, I can hear them talking about football.
Mateo rises from the stool, his eyes searching mine. I allow my lips to curve the tiniest amount.
“Dante,” Christian says, lifting his chin and slipping his cell phone into his pocket.
He leans in toward me. “She’s got a prescription for birth control in her purse.
She’ll hide it. See if you can find where she stashed them.
I know someone who makes placebos. I’ll get you duds to replace them with, yeah? ” Then louder. “Laters.”
The way my brother’s mind works is truly alarming.
I think about what he said during the long drive home, then manage to push it to the back of my mind as Mateo and I meet with Leon in the club office to adapt our plans.
But much later, as the club is ramping up and I can finally leave to check on Carmela, I’m thinking about it again.