Chapter 31
MATTEO
I’d barely fallen asleep when Angelo’s call woke me. Now I’m sitting in his smokey study, watching him add yet more smoke by puffing on his cigar, the noonday sun streaming in through the large windows that I wish he’d open more often if he insists on going through a cigar an hour.
Angelo’s taking his time to get to the purpose of this meeting.
Even Nico, who came with me, is getting impatient.
Not that he’s showing it. I just know because we’re so alike.
It’s in the way he moves his mouth when he talks, namely barely moving his lips, and how straight he’s sitting in his armchair.
The conversation so far has basically been about nothing.
I wonder how much Nico’s father, the consigliere, is involved in this plan.
I doubt Nico would be OK with his father losing his life in Ferro’s takeover, but I don’t know much at all. And I’d rather not ask.
“How are things going with the daughter?” Angelo asks me, finally getting to the point.
I sit up even straighter in my chair. “I have her eating out of the palm of my hand. She’s pretty much ready to do whatever I tell her to. So what should I tell her to do?”
Maybe that’s too forward a question, as the sharp look Nico gives me is plainly telling me.
He did warn me not to press Angelo too hard on anything.
Apparently, Angelo’s the kind of guy who likes to be in charge down to the smallest detail in any situation.
But I’m the kind of guy who always likes to know where I stand.
And I’ve done my share of being subservient to power-obsessed men. I’m finished with all that.
Angelo takes a slow drag on his cigar as he looks at me.
It’s one of those looks that’s supposed to make me rethink everything about myself, but I’m done with all that too.
I want to get Angelo’s thing wrapped up and over with as soon as possible, so I can get on with fulfilling my own plan of revenge.
I won’t leave him disappointed. Things just need to get moving.
“The Codelli’s are unpredictable at the moment,” Angelo says. “Having no male heir apparent, as it were.”
“I noticed that the old man likes that Rafaelle guy a lot.”
Angelo nods as though he’s heard this before.
“Yes, Rafaelle Santi. He was the son’s second and is the most logical choice to take over after Codelli.
He’s even offered the guy his oldest daughter in marriage.
But from what I hear, Rafaelle feels like he let the family down by failing to save the old man’s son.
So he’s in no hurry to step up. And there’s no one else that’s been groomed for the position. ”
I drink some of my club soda to stop myself from saying too much, too fast. Or show the rage the idea of Goldie marrying Rafaelle brought up.
“But from all that, I’m thinking the Codelli’s should be easy to overturn,” I say.
Angelo nods. “We snatch up the daughters and they’re pretty much done.”
“So when do we snatch them?” I ask, getting another sharp look from Nico.
I wish he’d tell me why this Angelo guy scares him so much. Because he strikes me as a pretty easy-going guy if you ignore his cigar-smoking intensity and slow way of speaking.
“We’re moving in exactly one week,” Angelo says. “That’s why I called you here today. To ask if you will be ready.”
“I can be ready tonight,” I say and Nico cringes. But Angelo chuckles.
“You have a lot of confidence in yourself.”
“I know what I’m doing.”
That’s a bit of a stretch. But I know Goldie will do whatever I ask her to right now and go wherever I tell her to. Might not last. But for the moment, she’s all mine.
“What are we doing with them?” I ask. “Sending them abroad?”
“Might be best to just kill them all,” Angelo says, and I wasn’t ready for the gut punch the words brought. I’m having trouble taking a full breath.
Angelo is looking at me very closely, and I’m sure he knows all about my reaction and the reasons for it even better than I do.
“All of them?” I ask. “I understand the old man has to go. Maybe Rafaelle. But the women?”
Angelo continues to just look at me, while Nico looks like he’s pretending not to be here.
“You have a problem with that,” Angelo says. It’s not a question. It’s a statement of fact. And I don’t think my brain has ever worked so hard or so fast.
I’m never letting him kill Gianna.
I’m not letting him kill her sisters or her mother either.
It’s not the kind of blood you can ever wash from your hands.
But if I speak up now, I’m not getting out of this house alive.
“I wouldn’t say it’s a problem as such… I’m just not used to women paying that kind of price in wars,” I say. “But if that’s part of your new way of doing things, I won’t get in your way.”
I raise my hands as I lean back in my seat, trying to show surrender or whatever the fuck I’m doing. Truth is, I don’t know how much of what I just said I believe. Maybe all of it. Maybe none. I just know I’ll do whatever it takes to save Goldie’s life.
Angelo keeps his steady gaze on me. His cold, murderous gaze.
In a few moments, it probably won’t matter what I know or believe.
I just hope he won’t want to mess up his fancy leather armchairs with my blood.
That he’ll take me out back before he kills me.
That I might still get a tiny chance to run.
Like I should’ve run the first night Nico brought me here.
Angelo stubs out his cigar, a thick plume of smoke rising from the crystal ashtray because he didn’t do a good job.
“It would be cleaner to just cut off all the heads,” he says. “But you’re right. Women shouldn’t have to pay for what the men have done.”
I hope my sigh of relief isn’t plainly obvious, but it probably is.
He stands up and goes behind his desk. “Leave now. I have to think. But be ready for my call.”
Nico practically runs from the room, but I follow more slowly. Angelo doesn’t look at either of us as we exit.
“Are you fucking insane?” Nico hisses at me once we’re in his Lambo, waiting for the heavy metal gate at the end of Angelo’s long driveway to open for us.
“What are you talking about?” I ask, the adrenaline leaving my body making me want to laugh. “I thought that went well.”
“Angelo Ferro is a certifiable psychopath,” Nico says. “I thought I mentioned that to you a few times.”
“You did. But like he said, he’s rethinking stuff now.”
Nico scoffs and floors it as soon as we clear the gate.
“Yeah, about how best to get rid of us quickly and quietly.”
I shake my head even though he’s not looking at me, but at the road ahead, his eyes very wide. “It’s fine. He’s not gonna kill us.”
Nico just scoffs again and doesn’t say anything. Just as well, because I couldn’t tell him how I know I’m right. I just know I am. If anything, we just made our way even closer into Angelo’s inner circle. Probably because his path is the fastest path to ruin. That’s why I’m so certain I’m right.
Because my ruin won’t come before what I want the most is within grabbing distance. And revenge for my family is still what I want the most.