Chapter 5
Chapter Five
Dante
‘ H ow much longer?’ I’d watched from the position I’d sat in at the head of the table, as Marco had stood up and walked around a few times stretching his legs, before clasping a hand to my shoulder and whispering in my ear.
I shook my head in reply.
‘Boss.’ Marco showed no other response to my answer and immediately complied with my wishes and sat back down on his chair.
We had been seated out on the veranda that surrounded Ricco’s expansive property, underneath a vine covered pergola, which was sheltering us from the early afternoon sun. A lot of wine, as well as food, had been consumed, making the others around me begin to relax. I had deliberately sat myself with my back to the fields of grapes in a show of defiance, after being offered a seat with its back to the wall of the house, and it was then I understood.
Ricco thought I was stupid. And maybe I had been. But no longer.
And it was understanding these facts that showed me the truth and made me stronger.
Holding a finger to my lips, I smiled behind it as I took in the scene in front of me. The day was getting on my last nerve, but it had proved to be enlightening. Twelve people were sat at the table altogether, in what he thought was a show of his strength. He was a man who had always obeyed orders and had done so extremely well, but this move upwards to place himself in charge of others, and to lead them, was going to be his downfall.
After spending the late afternoon out on the water a few weeks before, Marco had met me at the harbour in the early hours of the morning with his findings. It hadn’t been conclusive proof then, but the three managers that were seated here with us today had all been present in the casinos he’d visited under my instructions. From the surface, they were all operating above board. The places were clean, looked well run and presentable and each of them appeared to comply with the Maltese laws. Marco had been recognised and looked after accordingly. In each casino he had been met by the manager and shown the books Marco was convinced Ricco was also falsifying, as though they had nothing to hide. So, on the surface, everything looked as it should. But after a couple of my most trusted men had deliberately entered the third casino on their own and pulled out cash to buy Charlie, they’d been taken out the back. They swore blind that the way it was being cut and weighed was where Ricco was making his money, by cutting the mainly drunk customers short and skimming off the top. Without orders to take anything further, Marco’s men had all left the casinos separately over a long period of time. Even when Marco had given me the full extent of his report, we hadn’t made a move, but had carried on with our weekend like normal. A few days later, Marco’s men had gone in again and found the same. Each casino repeated the same process. As the cocaine was being sold, they undercut the weight and sold on the rest at a cheaper price to some Maltese crooks, which not only went against how I wanted the cocaine sold, but also made the demand for it less inside the casinos. If he was ripping off the Charlie, then I had absolutely no doubt he was doing something similar with the alcohol. Then, the day before, I’d had the roulette tables subtly checked. When a set of magnets were found in one, I knew the table was rigged.
I was convinced that Ricco had nothing to do with the table, it was small compared to what I was convinced he was up to. But him operating outside of my instructions and going against the boss, would give out an open invite and corruption would spread like wildfire.
I was all for corruption, it’s how my family made their wealth, but not when it wasn’t in my favour.
With just this proof alone, had I been in London or Calabria, I could have stood up right then and shot him dead in front of his trophy wife. The woman I was convinced he cared absolutely nothing about, and the so-called pawns who were operating outside of our families’ unspoken law. What made no sense to me yet, was why he was doing it. Until I’d gained that knowledge, I refused to make a move. Instead, I was going to make him sweat.
Once again, our host Ricco showed us his hospitality by summoning up yet another dish his personal chief had created, and here we were sharing a meal with the three casino managers and their wives. Gerit, Ricco’s wife, was sat next to me, with her hand running annoyingly up and down my thigh as though she owned me, but for now I didn’t push her away. For now, I sat, I ate, drank a little and played along with whatever the hell game Ricco was playing.
Marco, me and two of my bodyguards, Valentine and Zeren, had flown by helicopter and landed on the edge of one of Ricco’s vineyards, completely taking our host by surprise. That was the way I wanted the whole of the lunch to go. Landing there had not only made him ill at ease, because we’d been expected by road, but it had also confirmed to me what I already knew. He was renovating the house he lived in and throwing money around to cover his newly found lifestyle, and there was no way his dried-up vineyard and substantial wages were enough to cover it all.
‘That was amazing,’ I exclaimed, before patting the corners of my mouth with a napkin. ‘Gerit, perhaps you could show me around your home?’ I stood, making the rest of the table stand.
It wasn’t made obvious, but I caught the slight nod of Ricco’s head as he gave her permission, and the start of a smile pull at the corners of his mouth, which was his first mistake.
‘Yes… I would love to.’
I made a show of being a gentleman and helped pull her chair away, so she could leave the table with me. It was then they made their second mistake. Gerit made her way in front of me to Ricco and there, she draped herself over him. I took her in for the first time, light brown hair with possibly green eyes. The sort of woman I kept well away from because of their resemblance to Giovanna. Why the fuck I’d never noticed it before, I had no idea. With his eyes focussed on mine, he took her hand and kissed it, before turning it over and sucking her fingers into his mouth.
‘You taste fine,’ he purred like a fucking fool and showed me his truth.
They’d only been married about six months, but she wasn’t a wife taken in love, no. I could see it now. Instead, she was bait for me.
But for now, I would play his game.
As I reached the two of them, I grabbed her hand and pulled her off him until she was stood in front of me, before twirling her around for everyone to look at and then releasing her to move in front of me.
Cheers met my actions from the men he called his own. My own looked on expressionless, just how they’d been trained.
‘Two hours, Marco. Be ready to fly in two hours.’ I shouted my instructions back over my shoulder.
‘Boss.’ He let me know he’d heard.
‘Move,’ I ordered Gerit.
Reaching sideways, I picked up a bottle of the disgusting wine Ricco’s vineyard produced and with her now in front of me I smacked her arse hard, causing her to yelp.
‘Let’s start with the main bedroom, shall we?’
As she began to walk inside, I turned sideways to look at Ricco, and raised my eyebrows at him. At first, in his semi-inebriated state, he held up his glass in salute. After he’d looked at me for a little longer, I saw as the smile on his face began to dissolve, when he tried to read me and failed.
‘Inizio partitia.’ (game on) I smacked my free hand down on his shoulder, before disappearing into his home, behind his wife.