13. ~Julian~
13
~Julian~
“How’s it going?”
I looked up from the wealth of documents, financial reports, shareholder agreements, tenders, and project management reports concerning ongoing developments, all spread out over the kitchen island.
Nico was striding into the kitchen, eyeing me.
“It’s coming along. There’s a lot to reconcile regarding the mess that is Leone Realty.”
“With those other deals that Santino had in the works, he’s let this slide?”
“It’s taken a hit, yeah. There are also a lot of people involved here, from architects, project managers, to construction workers, skilled laborers, who are slated to lose their jobs if I dismantle Leone Realty the way we intend and merely leave it at that.”
“So what are you thinking?” he asked, rounding the island and heading for his go-to espresso. Milo had just made him one a few moments ago, but Nico had been on the phone with Carlo Benzino discussing what Marco had revealed to him a couple of nights back. He’d taken that time before telling Carlo to have Levi analyze its viability and to also have me confirm that the paperwork involving handing over Marchetti Holdings to him had been legit. And it all had been. Marco hadn’t been playing him. He’d actually been trying to help. Nico considered that help too little, too late.
And he hadn’t said much else about it.
He’d been grunting around the Manor ever since.
That was kind of the beginnings of him processing that sort of thing.
I was proud of him for handling the processing of the miscarriage a lot better. He’d been talking about it with us and especially me, something I’d needed. I figured it was him trying to make sure he was ready to do the same to help Cat with it when she returned.
“J?” he pressed.
I blinked out of my thoughts. “Right. Sorry. So, I could bring in the innocents involved who are just a part of it for a paycheck and an honest day’s work, rather than being caught up in the mafia of it all. They don’t deserve to lose their jobs and suffer for all of this.”
“Bring them into what? Carver Group?”
“Specifically, the expansion that Cat and I were in the process of planning. When the Brimbank Waterfront development is finally announced, we’ll also need to expand our workforce, and these people already fit the bill. They’re highly skilled, many with years of experience in these fields.”
“That’s an inspired plan. Very honorable, too. It would clearly be much easier just to sell off the pieces of Leone Realty, rather than work to save all those jobs in the process and to reassign everyone.”
“Yeah?”
He frowned. “You’re very good with this sort of thing. Why are you hesitant?”
I shifted on the stool. “Time is of the essence. I’d have to put some moves in place now.”
“Ah, you’re worried about Caterina.”
“I don’t want to make decisions without her. Camlann Corporation would be directly impacted by this, just as much as Carver Group.”
“She’d love it, Julian.”
“How can you be so sure?”
“Because I know her. And so do you. You’re just playing devil’s advocate. Also, don’t forget that I was obsessively watching her every move for years. I’m very well aware of how she operates from a business perspective.”
“But to make this choice for her? Not having her input?”
“When she left, Camlann Corporation was put in your hands. She trusted you with it. If she hadn’t, believe me, as difficult as it may have been to do so, she would have put things in place to the contrary and kept you out of it if she didn’t trust you with it.”
“Yeah,” I said, as I took his words in. “You’re right. Of course you’re right. I’ll take care of it.”
“Good,” he said, taking some big gulps from his espresso.
I frowned. “All right, N?”
“Just keeping on top of everything.”
“It’s a lot of pressure, huh?” I winced as he gave me a look. “I mean, obviously it is. But you’ve got it in the bag. Let’s face it, you were born for this shit. And these last few years of us covertly going it alone with our brotherhood has also prepared you for all this subterfuge and doing things in this roundabout, complicated way in order to come out on top.”
“Yeah,” he murmured, nodding to himself. “Exactly.”
This was about more than the pressure bearing down on him, then. “You miss her. You’re feeling the weight of it, especially when there’s any downtime.”
“I am,” he admitted. “But it’s more than that.” He finished his espresso with two more big gulps, then put it down, and leaned against the counter. “When she’s not here, when there’s something separating her from me, it risks me becoming dangerous.”
“That obsessive and possessive edge of yours when it comes to her. The latter must be hardest to hold at bay because she left when she was still hurt. And straining emotionally.”
“Brutally put, but yes.”
“This is why she sent that message. She knows how we are, and how we’d each struggle with the loss of her.”
“It’s not enough.”
“Then, until we can have her back with us, I’d suggest you unleashing your feral side to take the edge off and to keep your head clear, which is vital right now.”
“As demented as it is, I like that about you. I like it even more that we share that. The thirst for violence, for domination of our enemies, of tasting that power.” That was what Cat had told Nico a few months ago the night she’d assured him that she accepted that messed-up side of him, the same thing that raged within her. Unlike Cat, though, Nico hadn’t been able to let it out at all lately. He’d tried to tame it because of taking on the role of leader, knowing so many were counting on him. Unfortunately, it was a part of him, one that couldn’t be denied for long, no matter how much he might wish for that to be the case. Milo and I had seen him try numerous times over the years and he’d never succeeded in killing that darkness that lurked within him. It was here to stay, and it needed to be let out every now and then. Even with things changing, we could still find ways for him to do that without it impacting his role as leader or the people under his charge.
Just like what I was about to suggest right now.
“I agree with the reasoning. But how?”
“Unleash during the Elia mission. I know you wanted Milo to take your place with leading that because you were concerned about that happening, so you relegated yourself to dealing with the Victoria Munsen aspect of the safehouses takedown operation. Take point on the Elia mission instead. Have Milo overseeing the safehouses op alongside the units of your soldiers and Carlo’s, and I’ll take Victoria Munsen and her bodyguards. I know you’re worried about doing it this way because it’s gonna be a split of Benzino soldiers and yours, like the safehouses takedowns, but I think you’re seeing it the wrong way. It could be framed as a positive thing. You bring a lot of power when you’re in your feral state. The fact that you’ve taken on the leadership role now and it’s hitting so deep with you could also help to streamline it and enable you to pull back from that state when it’s needed—to maintain control, basically.”
“I hear what you’re saying, but—”
“Nico, it’s a part of you, one you haven’t been able to shake. So you need to find a place for it with this new state of things, with your role as Boss. This is the perfect opportunity to do that.”
He thought for several moments, analyzing and taking everything in.
And then he smiled out at me. “I’ll make the necessary alterations to our plans.”
“Even the part about me being in the field?”
“Yes.”
I cocked an eyebrow.
“You’ve been training with Levi and it’s been going exceptionally well. He’s told me as much. Besides, I want you to get back to doing everything you used to do, to be yourself all the way. And this is a part of that. I need to run it by Milo first. He needs to be on board, as he’ll be running point on the safehouse takedowns connected to Munsen. First, I need to see how he’s doing with what I revealed to him from Marco about his parents.”
Yeah, since then, Milo had just been retreating to his room alone whenever there was a break with planning these upcoming assaults, beseeching us to leave him be and allow him time to process it all.
Levi burst into the kitchen all of a sudden, his attention snapping to Nico. “I need to talk to you,” he said, urgency and a whole load of stress coming off him.
His curly hair was wild as fuck and the dark circles under his eyes spoke of his obsessive determination to get the job done, where tracking Angelo and discovering more about Erebus was concerned.
Before Nico could get a word out, Levi reported, “I can’t pinpoint that fucker. No matter what I do. I mean, I’ve placed him at two locations, but he’s been moved so quickly. My program can’t even anticipate his projected movements, either because these Erebus fuckers aren’t moving in any sort of pattern. They’ll backtrack, then move forward, then backtrack again, but by several steps and—”
“Like leapfrogging?” I asked.
“Sort of. But not in a systematic or logical fucking pattern. They’re moving completely nonsensically.”
“They must know about your program, then,” Nico suggested.
“It’s a possibility, I guess,” Levi agreed. “I mean, I did use it to find Lynch, and he was connected to Erebus at the time.”
“Come,” Nico said, wrapping his arm around him in an actual sweet, supportive way. “Show me what you’ve got so far. We’ll talk it out, analyze everything. It can help to have somebody to bounce things off. Especially when, despite our insistence, you haven’t taken a proper break in hours upon hours.” Nico looked out at me, torn with all the responsibilities upon his shoulders.
“I’ll talk to Milo,” I told him, so he didn’t have to actually ask me.
It was probably better that it was me anyway, given that Nico was the one who’d had to give Milo the bad news before. Well, twice now. And I was also separated from it, unlike Nico, with his involvement through his father. Basically, his father had killed Milo’s. It was fucking brutal.
Nico gave me a chin lift, then headed out to the living room—or the new temporary command center—with Levi.
At an affirmative call from Milo, I opened the door to his bedroom and stepped inside.
I found him over on the far side, sitting at his worktable and painting his fantasy figurines.
“How’s it going?” I asked, going for an upbeat and casual air, trying to set the tone.
He eyed me over his shoulder briefly before returning his focus to the task at hand. “Almost done with this one entirely.”
“Wow,” I breathed, coming up to his side and taking in the figurine. From his robes, that were so intricately detailed to the purple hair that wasn’t just a single dollop of color, but layered with different shades and detailing that actually made it look like real strands, it was a work of art. “This is amazing.”
“Patience and precision, Sunshine.”
“Patience and precision, huh? Are you planning to practice that beyond this pastime?”
He craned his neck to look at me again, his mouth curving slightly. “You’re not exactly being subtle.”
“I figured I’d try a rip-off-the-Band-Aid approach and see how that landed. Considering you’re a fan of people calling things as they are, it stands to reason that you’d respect that, even where this difficult subject matter is concerned.”
“You’d be right.”
“And?”
He carefully stood the figurine up and put down his brush, then turned to me on his swivel chair. “ And I’m fine with waiting for the right time to end Leo. That hasn’t changed just because Nico recovered more information about what happened back then.”
“Really? Even though—”
“Even though we now know that my parents were murdered because of Leo’s fabricated lies about my father being a traitor? And because Marco was fool enough and so out of touch as to believe said claims, ignoring years of loyalty for supposed proof shoved in his face?”
“Yeah… that,” I answered, grimacing as the brutality of it was put out there once again.
“You don’t need to worry. And you can definitely tell Nico that, too.” He took my hand and looked up at me, earnestness rolling off him as he told me, “I’m controlled and patient, Sunshine. I approach things carefully but with a strategic lethality. I’m not going to let what happened or those motherfuckers responsible change who I am, or change the way I plan to do things. That would be a form of victory for them. They thought they’d achieved that by killing my parents. But they haven’t. In fact, that despicable action was one of the first steps on the road to their ruin. They’ll fall. They’ll have their day of punishment. Marco has already lost everything. And Leo and Angelo will suffer a far worse fate than that soon enough. That’s what I’m focused on.” His eyes brightened as he said, “But not the only thing. Knowing this has provided a sort of clarity for me. I was on the fence about becoming Underboss. For obvious reasons. But now I see that doing that will be a way to honor my parents, my dad especially. And as worried as I actually was about Nico taking power, fearing that it would be akin to him being trapped in this life forever, it’s now clear to me that this is the chance for him to rewrite his legacy and a chance for all of us to once he’s officially in position and our enemies have fallen. It’s our chance to rewrite our twisted and brutal pasts with our futures determined by no one else other than ourselves.” He gave my hand a squeeze. “I think my dad would be proud of me for stepping into his role in this way, with Nico at the helm.”
I smiled out at him. “I have no doubt that he would be. And this is a fantastic way of framing things.”
“Well, we can’t allow any of them to change who we are. Right?”
“Now, who’s not being subtle?”
He rose to his feet. “I’ve seen you getting back to yourself, seen it also coming through a great deal in your sparring sessions with Levi. When I heard about it, I thought it was gonna be just a one-shot deal for you, but I’m glad it wasn’t. You can’t do it with me because of our agreement about all that, our size difference and my fighting style being too dangerous when slammed up against yours, and Nico has needed to refrain from any physical activity so he can ensure his arm heals in time for our strikes, so I’m glad you’ve had Levi to do it with.”
“Funny you should bring this up, because Nico’s noticed my progress too, and he’s offered to put me in the field during the operation to takedown the safehouses. I’d be relegated to the Victoria Munsen aspect of it, but it would still put me back in the fight, in actual combat again. He’s gonna discuss it with you, but seeing as though we got to talking about the rest, I figured I’d lay it down now.”
“I think it’s a good idea.”
“You do?”
“It’s part of who you are—or who you were before all this shit happened that served to weigh you down so much.”
“The adrenaline-junkie aspect?”
“The guy who lived life with a whole lot of thrills and excitement.”
“Ah. I see.”
He smiled and wrapped his arm around me. “Come on. Let’s work out the reconfiguration of the op with Nico.”
We made our way out of his bedroom and down the hall.
As we reached the living room, Nico’s voice rang out.
“Are you fucking kidding? You were so torn up about the Angelo task, yet you were doing this as well? This is an impressive feat, Levi.”
We walked in to see Nico had pulled up a chair beside Levi at the command center, and he was studying diagrams of what appeared to be an electrical grid.
“What’s going on?” Milo asked.
Nico looked out at us, while Levi was scribbling down what looked like formulas and a whole lot of high-level math on a notepad. “Levi has found a way to give us an edge concerning our assaults on the safehouses putting up Erebus members in the city. He’s going to launch a synchronized set of localized disruptions to the power grid that will impact the safehouses themselves and the immediate areas surrounding them.”
“You can actually do that?” Milo questioned, looking mighty impressed. “On your own? Without help?”
“I can, yes,” Levi answered distractedly. “Just working out the specifics now.”
Nico told us, “He was also able to identify the vehicles belonging to our targets, and he’s going to employ an additional distraction technique wherein he’ll activate their alarms in a bid to draw some of the tenants out into the open, to split them up so our teams can take them in pieces.”
“Jesus,” I breathed. “And, Lev, there you were earlier getting down about the Angelo of it all? While you were putting together this phenomenal shit? Seriously?”
“I don’t… fail,” he uttered, finally looking up from his notepad at the three of us.
I started.
Milo and Nico had told me that Caterina had expressed something virtually identical when she’d been running up against roadblocks searching for me before.
The three of us exchanged an amused look.
“What?” Levi asked.
“You sound just like Caterina,” Nico informed him.
“That makes sense. We’re the people called in to achieve the impossible, something we have the skills to do. But even with my workarounds, I can’t get a lock on one fucking man.”
“You’ve pinpointed him twice. Given what we’re up against, that’s a hell of a thing,” Nico reminded him. “Also, it’s no longer one man that we’re tracking. It’s not his movements that you’re trying to track. It’s those of Erebus,” Nico told him.
I cut in, “Who you, yourself, have stated is an organization made up of black ops ghosts.”
As he started to give a nod of acceptance where that was concerned, one of his alerts went off.
He accessed it via one of his laptops, then told Nico, “Your doctor is here to give you the checkup you wanted to ensure your shoulder is healed to the degree needed to carry out the Elia op in a couple of days.”
“All right,” Nico said. “Finalize the technical details of the safehouse takedowns, Levi.” He eyed Milo. “You and I will conference with Carlo and the teams to reconfigure things to include Julian.”
“Sounds good,” Milo said.
With that, Nico headed on out of the room to meet his doctor.
I sucked in a breath, a mixture of excitement and adrenaline rolling through me.
The unfathomable had happened.
They’d agreed to allow me back into the field.
And I wouldn’t fuck it up this time.