Chapter 23 - Dante
“How is Alisa doing, by the way?” Luca turned to me with a concerned look when he finished pouring himself some coffee and settled down in a chair across my desk.
“Yes, how is she?” Caspian asked what was on everyone’s mind.
“She’s doing much better,” I said with honesty. Every one of my brothers looked relieved.
“Poor thing,” Federico whispered. “We’ve been worried sick. Do let her know Autumn’s been asking about her every single day.”
“Yeah,” Gio smiled. “Bea and Elena have been trying to convince me we need to have a get-together for Alisa’s sake, but I said I’d check with you first.”
“She’s been swimming a little nowadays, and loves her time in the gardens.” I pondered over this proposition. “But let me pass it by her. I have a feeling Alisa might enjoy a party!”
“Perfect!” Achille grinned. “I can host.”
“Oh, fuck no,” Luca groaned and chucked a pencil at our youngest brother. “The last time you hosted, you fed us chips for dinner.”
“I’ll borrow Caspian’s chef,” Achille protested.
“Hell, no. Kate will kill me if I send him over to yours to be traumatized, and let me tell you, brother, I don’t dare interrupt the way my wife runs our home.”
I laughed, feeling lighter in days. It felt good to be back with my brothers, to laugh and joke like the old times. But that wasn’t why I’d invited them over today.
Once everyone was settled and caffeinated, I walked over to my desk and placed a hand on the folder on top of it.
“We need to discuss something important,” I explained.
They all listened, rapt with attention.
“With Marc Montes now dead, I was curious as to who the next Federal Prosecutor might be. Over these past couple of years, we’ve lost good, innocent men to the justice system for crimes they never committed, and now we know why.”
“The Pavlovs had him put up to it, just to weaken us,” Caspian nodded, the anger still fresh on his face. “Bastards. The whole lot of them.”
“Right here.” I tapped the folder. “This is a file on our new prosecutor, Mario Ruben. I’ve had a background study done on him, just to see if he leans toward justice or getting his palms greasy.”
“Pass me the file,” said Caspian, and I chucked it over.
“What did you find?” Gio asked impatiently.
Caspian’s face turned red. “Dear God.”
“Exactly.” I leaned against my desk. “He’s worse than Marc. Way worse. He’s been waiting in the wings for years, and he’s the kind of hungry that makes a man dangerous.”
Federico raised an eyebrow. “How dangerous are we talking?”
“He’s got dirt on half the judges in the state,” I explained. “Connections to three different crime families. And a particular soft spot for the Pavlovs.”
“Fuck,” Achille muttered.
“Exactly.” I nodded. “I think they’ve been grooming him as a backup in case Marc ever became a problem. And now that Marc’s gone… “
“They’ll have their new puppet in place,” Caspian finished, setting down the file with a heavy sigh.
The room fell silent as my brothers processed what this meant. The Pavlovs would only get stronger, and thought he news reported Marc Montes’s death as a burglary gone wrong, Alisa and I had been there.
And now, people were whispering in our world, even though we hadn’t said a word. The Pavlovs had sent a message—cross them and die.
“So what’s the play?” Giovanni asked. “We take him out before he’s sworn in?”
I shook my head. “That’s too messy. Creates more problems than it solves.”
Federico leaned forward. “What about turning him? Getting him on our side first?”
“Too risky,” Caspian said. “If the Pavlovs already have their hooks in him, he’d just feed them information about us.”
“So we’re fucked either way,” Achille threw his hands up. “Great meeting, Dante.”
I shot him a look. “I didn’t call you here to complain. I called you here because I have an idea, but I need all of you on board.”
“Let’s hear it,” Caspian nodded.
“I think we need to push for a different prosecutor altogether,” I said.
Giovanni snorted. “And how exactly do we ‘push’ for a different prosecutor? We don’t exactly have a vote.”
“We have leverage,” I insisted. “We have information on Ruben that could have him fired if it got to the right people.”
“And piss off the Pavlovs even more,” Federico pointed out. “They’d come after us full force.”
“Not if they don’t know it was us,” I argued.
The debate was heating up, voices rising as each brother threw in their take. Caspian thought we should stick to our own business. Luca wanted to send a message to the Pavlovs directly. We were getting nowhere, and then the door opened.
We all looked up to see who it might be, and I broke into a smile when I saw it was Alisa.
My brothers immediately stood as she stepped in, each one of them greeting her warmly, some with condolences, others with a joke or two.
At last, she came and stood beside me. I curved an arm around her waist and pulled her closer. “You have perfect timing. What’s up?”
“I remembered you were all coming in today,” she said with a smile at my brothers. “I wanted to come say hello, but I overheard everything outside. You all are a loud bunch, you know that?”
I chuckled while Luca grinned. The others looked around sheepishly.
“So, since I heard it all,” she explained. “I want to help.”
I pulled away immediately and turned to face her. “Alisa, I don’t think this concerns you.”
“Of course it does.” She raised an eyebrow. “My father was murdered over this exact kind of corruption, remember? I’m not saying he was innocent. Hell, I know he ruined lives. But are we going to keep letting men like my father remain in power?”
I felt the air leave my lungs. Even after weeks of mourning, she rarely mentioned her father’s death so directly.
“It’s just… I don’t want you involved in this,” I said, softer now. “It’s too dangerous.”
She met my gaze with defiance. “I’ve been following the news, Dante. I know about Mario Ruben. I’ve actually met him at several of my father’s fundraisers.”