22. ~Caterina~
22
~Caterina~
“Do you have a ton of data on Benzino operations, too?”
I looked up from where I’d been focusing on my laptop screen that was settled on my lap as I sat on an old wooden table in the living room of the rundown apartment building to see Remo eyeing me curiously. And my screen more so.
“Yes,” I responded flatly.
After agreeing to the overall plan to use our own strikes to hold off Marco’s intended attacks against the Benzinos, we’d convened into the abandoned apartment building as an extra privacy precaution.
It was more paranoia from Carlo and Nico than actually anything necessary, because the whole time we were here I had alerts set up to warn of any approach within several hundred yards of us, and I was tapped into every form of surveillance in and around this area. I was also flagging the license plates of any vehicles passing on by on roads close to us and feeding them into my software, which would then warn me if any of them were owned by Marchetti or Leone members, or even their associates.
Yeah, I had it covered.
But I also understood that paranoia was bound to be running rampant with the weight of things and the extreme measures that we were about to take.
This wouldn’t just be pushing back against the Marchettis and Leones, it would be outright war. And for Nico, especially, it would be seen as treason and a massive betrayal. Those demons had brought it on themselves, no doubt, and they were driving the families into deeper and deeper depths of depravity and dishonor, ruining them essentially. On Nico’s end, his soldiers might be loyal to him, and we had Dante and Matteo too, but Marco and Santino still held a great deal of power and influence.
So, yeah, he was right to be a little paranoid.
And if it made him and Carlo feel better and more secure by venturing inside here out of sight, so be it.
“That’s a lot of power you hold in your hands—or at your fingertips,” Remo went on.
I drew my concentration away from what I was doing—sifting through all the intel that Nico and I had combined a little ways back on both families—and looked out at him.
It wasn’t worry that I saw from him, just intrigue and him looking mighty impressed.
“Sure is,” I said, offering him a wink.
He chuckled. “We’d heard rumors, but we couldn’t substantiate them. This is good. Really fucking good.”
“I’d say so,” Carlo spoke, him and Nico coming back to us after they’d been discussing Nico’s confirmation that he would take power over the Marchetti Syndicate like Carlo had put to him at their last meeting. “I’m concerned, however, about what Nico’s just told me concerning you not wishing to take your rightful place as Boss of the Leone Family.”
“Do you really think they’d accept a woman, anyway?”
Expecting him to be like the others I’d been surrounded by all my life, I was more than a little surprised when he answered, “Yes. You’re qualified. You have a well-established reputation throughout the City of Tolhurst. And you exude strength. All those qualities make for a competent leader.”
“Santino has only discounted you out of fear,” Remo added. “That you’d one day supplant him.”
“That is true,” Nico said.
Yes, he’d told me that was what my mom had revealed to him.
“I walked away from it years ago. I’m only neck deep in it now because I was forced back in. I’ll help end this nightmare, but when it’s done, I want no direct part of it. I won’t take the reins.”
“You are the most optimal candidate to take on the mantle,” Carlo told me. “As I understand it, even Dante Rivera, the technical Underboss of the Leone Family, believes that to be the case.”
“There doesn’t need to be any candidate.”
He arched an eyebrow.
“We destroy all the illegitimate aspects of the Leone Family business, then divvy up the remaining aspects, namely Leone Realty, between you and Nico.”
“You want to wipe out the entire Leone Family altogether,” Carlo realized.
“It’s rotten to the core. With the exception of Dante, Matteo and the four soldiers they have on their side, the poison that Santino and Angelo have infected it with has spread everywhere. There’s nothing to save. It’s different for the Marchettis. So many are loyal to Nico. There are also good men in Cassio, too. I’ve been determining the true loyalties of those under Cassio’s leadership, and most of them will follow Nico as well. The issue lies with the other Capo, Gio, whose soldiers are loyal to Leo. And Marco by extension. But when we draw this line very soon, there’s a lot more to be saved. That’s not so for the Leones. It needs to go. It needs to be fucking eradicated.”
“Well, it would be easier to manage an alliance just between two families,” Remo said.
“There’s also a significant difference between launching a coup and realigning the power structure of an organization like the Leone Family, to completely eradicating it,” Carlo warned.
“If anyone took power from my father, aside from Angelo, who he’s all but tapped as a backup for the role over Dante, there would forever be dissent in the ranks. It’s the way he’s set things up to reinforce his position. There would be an internal war raging, the organization would be impossible to lead with constant pushback and concerns of disloyalty and mutiny at every turn,” I pushed. “Sure, I could take Dante and Matteo up on their offer to help me take power, but keeping it would be near impossible. Not to mention, the damage that Santino has already done to its reputation through the human trafficking deals he’s been striking all over the place. And if you think that hasn’t made it onto the Feds’ radar, you’re dreaming. I have confirmation that they’re launching an investigation as we speak. It will take time, yes, but they’ll succeed in the end. If we don’t cut the poison that the Leone Family is out of our lives now while we still can.”
I saw Nico flipping his Zippo on and off as he took my words in.
He was trying to sublimate his frustrations.
He didn’t like it.
I knew that some part of him had bought into the romanticized notion of us, as the two heirs to powerful mafia families, taking our supposed rightful places and leading alongside one another.
It just didn’t work for me.
It never would.
Maybe I’d entertained the possibility before, but with the recent revelation about my pregnancy, it had made it clearer than ever that it could never be, that it could never fucking work.
Not for our family.
If I told Nico that right now, though, the real reason behind my intensity where this was concerned, he’d be sidetracked from doing what else needed to be done. He would likely stand in the way of what I needed to do as well.
No, I couldn’t risk it until things were already in place.
Not to mention, everything I’d just outlined about the issues involved in it were cold, hard facts.
“You make a fair point,” Carlo spoke. “However, in order to wipe the Leone Family off the map, we’re talking about some high-level destruction, a massacre in essence too. Then it risks being us who are put in the crosshairs of the Feds.”
“Mass murder isn’t the only option. There’s also exile for the members wherein we monitor them in an ongoing manner to ensure they settle and don’t pose a threat. If they do, we take them out then, when they’re scattered far beyond the city in remote areas. As for the influence that the Leone Family holds over politicians, city officials, and those in the high echelons of the financial world, we break that influence. Pay off some and push them into retirement, and threaten others with amassed evidence of their illicit activities, forcing them to step down from their positions of power that assist the Leones.”
“I assume that amassed evidence already exists in the wealth of data you’ve collected on their operations?” Carlo asked.
“It does. I can deploy it at a moment’s notice. The same with the payoffs.”
“Leone Realty is infected by corruption too, isn’t that so?” Remo spoke.
“A large portion of it, yes.”
“Then we don’t attempt to save it either,” Carlo said. “It falls along with the rest.”
“You’re on board with this approach, then?” I asked.
“It certainly presents additional complications, but I do agree with the issues you’ve raised. While the effort it will take to actually eradicate the Leone organization entirely doesn’t fill me with joy, the outcome will be worth it. A world without the Leone Family will make things a great deal easier and much more manageable.” He eyed Nico. “Where do you stand?”
Nico’s gaze went to me. “Deploy what you have now. Break the hold that Santino has over those who give him undue influence. We’ll start there.”
“And then?” I pushed.
“Then we’ll bring it all crashing down, principessa.”
I smiled out at him. “Thank you.”
He came to me and slid his hand into my hair. “You’ve gone long enough being the victim of other people’s twisted decisions. Let this mark the end of that.”
I stroked his arm, his beautiful vow to me rolling through me.
“Ah, young love, it is the sweetest,” Carlo commented, grinning at us.
Surprising the both of us, Remo went to him and wrapped his arm around him. “Excuse me, not just young love.”
Nico started and eyed Carlo in confusion. “I thought you were—”
“A man whore?” Remo finished for him. “Went through women in the droves? No, that was just the image projected to outsiders.” He gazed at Carlo. “To protect me.”
“To protect what we share,” Carlo corrected him. He looked between Nico and me. “Those snakes of the Marchettis and Leones would never hesitate to use what we love against us. Best not to give them ammunition.”
“It’s too late for that,” Nico muttered, referencing our situation.
“Yes, what Angelo did has already outed a great deal where that’s concerned. It’s virtually made it public fodder who you love, Nico. The four of you.”
“That’s why extreme measures are called for now,” I said. “To counter that, to counter all of it. No more living in fear, or having so much of ourselves closeted in so many ways.”
We all took a heady moment to absorb that.
And then Carlo eased from Remo, likely so he could focus, as he told us, “With this alteration, shifting to eradicating the Leones entirely, in mind, this is how I believe we should proceed. Nico, ensure your assault on Shawn Price and his joint disgusting business venture that Marco and Santino have a stake in happens the night before their planned attacks against me. It will undercut them and shake them. The night of their proposed attacks, I will have my men intercept two of the scheduled incoming deliveries to the Flower Market to draw Gio’s attention there, wherein my men will ambush him and his soldiers. They won’t get near the businesses under my protection. They turn or they die.”
“Agreed,” Nico said. “What of your meth lab?”
“Let Cassio stay in the good graces of Marco by allowing him to carry out his mission and burn the place to cinders. We could use that, make him our inside man as a backup should we need it down the road of this campaign.” He lifted a shoulder. “I’m done with that racket, anyway. It’s become a fucking headache, and the payoff is no longer worth it. Besides, while a whole unit of Marchetti soldiers is focused on that futile mission, we can use the distraction to move Marchetti drugs and weapons out from under their noses, off Marchetti Syndicate territory. We’ll secure it for us and thereby weaken them, resulting in Marco being unable to serve his partners and live up to his contractual obligations.”
“Ruining his reputation.”
“And calling his ability as Boss into question,” Remo spoke.
“What of the Leones?” I asked.
“First we break Marco,” Nico told me.
Carlo nodded. “It’s easier to do with Nico having the inside track as Capo and via his trusted allies in the likes of Cassio.”
“I have evidence of illicit activities taking place at Leone and Marchetti strip clubs. The same goes for their gambling dens, where they do a great deal of their money laundering. I can tip off the law and have them raided,” I told them.
“I have contacts and assets in the Tolhurst Police Department who can assist with that,” Remo spoke. “We’ll work together on it.”
“Perfect.”
Nico and Carlo exchanged a nod, and then Nico told me, “Go for it. I’ll have Julian shut down the backroom gambling he’s been forced to allow at Nocturne, too.”
“I won’t let him be connected to it when we leak this intel,” I assured him.
“Best to be safe.”
“And you also want his business connections to the Marchettis severed before all of this goes down.”
“Exactly. All of it, actually, as well as them skimming profits from his club.”
“While you’re focused on physical assaults, concentrating on the Marchettis, it doesn’t mean we can’t also strike at the Leones—just in a different way,” I pointed out. “I can weaken Santino financially and the Leone Family organization as a whole,” I told them.
“You’re already going to break the hold he has over certain powerful individuals.”
“I can do this as well.”
“What’s your strategy?”
“Move some money around. Redirect it. That sort of thing.”
“Drain his accounts?”
“Strategically. I know where his power lies in that respect.”
The corner of his mouth turned up, both at my words and the sly look in my eye that he knew all too well. “Good.”
“I’d also publicize the two of you filing for divorce,” Carlo advised.
Remo nodded. “The more destabilization to the two families, the better.”
This strategy was certainly geared toward that.
It would pile on the pressure, have them reeling, and turn them desperate too.
Desperate people were prone to make severe mistakes.
And we’d be right there to ensure those ruled in our favor and we used that to our advantage in the most optimal ways.
Well, in the most devastating ways.
It was nothing short of what they all deserved.
“I’ll set Julian on that. No one can get the word out like he can,” Nico said.
I smiled to myself, despite the stakes and the complications that abounded, strategies within strategies, and all the rest, hope sprung.
For the first time ever, I could really see the end to it all.
That light that had been so long denied us.
A world where we weren’t ruled by others.
A world where the wicked would no longer reign.
Where we’d be free.