33. ~Emilio~
33
~Emilio~
“All right, yes. Thanks, Carlo,” Nico spoke into his cell as he smoked out on the patio just beyond the shattered fucking doors.
We had people coming within the next hour to fix them up and clear the debris from the kitchen. That was the good thing about how we operated. We could call in people in the dead of night. The bad part was obviously the fact that things like this actually happened.
Aside from Caterina’s infiltration a while back during her war with Nico, the Manor had only been breached once before. And that had been by fucking Leo Marchetti when he’d blindsided us, pulled rank on our soldiers and had them stand down while he’d then sent in several of his own to beat us down for an infraction Nico had committed wherein he’d challenged the bastard at a high-level meeting between the three families and embarrassed him, which he’d taken as a major demonstration of disrespect. The manipulative fucker had even managed to get Marco’s blessing for the harsh lesson he’d delivered to Nico that night. It had put him in the hospital for three fucking days and it was also how he’d gotten those scars on his lower back and his right thigh—goddamn stab wounds from that night.
Things were different now.
For one, Nico’s soldiers were now loyal only to him personally. They couldn’t be swayed or ordered by Leo or Marco anymore. They were his force.
And the Manor had also been reinforced since those days too. Not just with surveillance and alerts, but wherein a breach would trigger a lockdown involving armored fucking ballistic shutters. We even had weapons hidden externally and able to fire automatically on a single command at those attempting an incoming assault, or when lockdown protocol had been triggered.
The fact that these assholes tonight who’d come for Caterina hadn’t triggered the system at all was something else entirely. To say they were skilled to be able to evade it and our soldiers that we’d had stationed around the property didn’t even cover it.
I walked out onto the patio as Nico finished his call with Carlo and he turned at my approach.
“What happened with Gio’s soldiers?”
“They all pledged their loyalty to me.”
“What? How? You had to take off.”
“Apparently, me rushing off like that and dropping everything in a bid to protect our pregnant woman was received very positively. With me going against my father, Leo and Marco themselves had started to frame it as me having no respect for family and being a power hungry fuck, basically. My response to somebody I loved being in danger disproved the bullshit they’d been spouting, and with some further proof of said bullshit presented to them by Carlo, the truth came out. Why I’m really doing this, that I want to bring back the honor and loyalty of it all that has been lost along the way under Marco’s reign.”
“Wow, that’s a hell of a thing.”
“Not just that, but after the success of tonight’s assaults, including the raids, and now news that Santino Leone is dead, Cassio’s soldiers have also pledged their loyalty to me.”
“You’re saying that—”
“I’m saying that I now unofficially control the Marchetti Syndicate by numbers alone.”
“Damn, that’s incredible,” I breathed. “We’re almost there.”
“So now we have Marco sign everything over to you under the threat of death?” Julian spoke, strolling out onto the patio. “Give you Marchetti Holdings?”
Before Nico could get a word out, Caterina emerged from around the side of the house carrying a laptop in hand as she walked toward us in just her bathrobe. “It’s more complicated than that, unfortunately.”
What was happening?
“I thought you were asleep?” Julian asked her. “The doctor gave you something to help you doze off after… you know?”
She lifted a shoulder, her focus on her laptop. “Yeah, I didn’t take it.”
“She told you that it was fine for the baby.”
“I’m aware. I didn’t want it. I can’t sleep right now. There’s too much to do.”
“Or because of the massacre?” I asked carefully. Well, as carefully as something like that could actually be put to her, considering.
She looked out at each of us in turn. “I don’t regret that. I don’t feel guilty. I’m fine.”
Nico frowned. “You felt a whole lot of guilt before after the garage takedown.”
“Well, that was my mistake, wasn’t it?”
Goddammit, this wasn’t good. The three of us exchanged a look.
Unfortunately, she caught sight of it. “Calm yourselves. It’s not a big deal.”
“Not a big deal?” Nico bit back, unable to contain the edge in his tone.
“Do you deny that my father needed to die?”
“Well, I—”
“Eventually, but not yet, because of the power vacuum,” Julian said. He grimaced as soon as he’d put the words out there. “I’m sorry, darlin’. I just—”
“I get it. You’re worried that Angelo might return to fill the position,” Caterina said. “Especially as Dante told me that he doesn’t want it, that he won’t take it, that he and Matteo just want this done and then they want out.”
“They told you that when?” I asked. They weren’t supposed to tell her anything triggering whatsoever, not until more time had passed between this night wherein she’d murdered her own father and his security team.
“Just after the doctor had checked me and the baby out and the two of them came to make sure I was okay.” She held up her left hand. “And to give me my ring back. It was taken off me when they registered a signal coming off it, something that shouldn’t have been possible. That’s how good these ghosts are.”
“So they used that opportunity to do more than that and try to coerce you into taking power?” Julian bit out, as disgusted as we were. Talk about giving them an inch and them taking a mile in return.
“Regardless, I’m going to make damn sure that Angelo doesn’t have the opportunity to take control of anything. I will take power. Temporarily. Until we dismantle things. Turning Marco’s soldiers to follow you is very different from trying to bring Leone soldiers under the Marchetti empire. It just doesn’t compute. They won’t trade one family for another. It’s just… it’s not done. Our plan was to dismantle the Leone Family anyway, and that’s what we’ll do. With me murdering Santino, though, the timeframe has obviously altered. And because it’s my fault, I need to be the one to fix it. So this is me doing that. I’ll take power with Matteo and Dante assisting me. They’re actually meeting with Leone soldiers now to prepare them, so it’s all in progress.”
“This was the last thing you wanted, Caterina,” Nico said.
“Nico, murdering eight or nine people is a whole lot different from massacring every single Leone soldier and—what—blowing up every business under its stead, including Leone Realty, which would be the only quick way to do things because of what I did tonight. It would be like firing off hundreds of flare guns to the Feds and basically begging them to arrest us all and strip everything away from us.”
“You’re being hyperbolic.”
“Am I? This is the only way to handle this situation. Safely and without incriminating all of us.”
As we stared out at her, she put her laptop down on one of the patio tables and took a seat, while typing away rapidly. “We also have another problem. Those mercenaries weren’t actually mercenaries. They weren’t just working for the highest bidder in Santino and doing his dirty work because of money.”
“What?” Nico said, striding over to her, with us following suit.
“I know because I was in a position to offer them a lot more than what the bastard could at the time. It wasn’t just for the thrill of it either. No, he was shielding them from something. And I think it was Joe. This was the missing connection I couldn’t make before as to why Joe intervened in the Shawn Price takedown, why he was truly there.” She pulled her phone from her robe pocket and accessed a text, then slid it to the center of the tabletop so we could all see. “There’s also this that I received from this sicko tonight.”
I frowned as I read it over Nico’s shoulder.
It was just parts of a text, a lot of it blacked out. All that was available to read was:
Wondering how I was able to contact you? Let’s just say I have some new friends. Better than the ones your boyfriends murdered. They were just a stepping stone to these guys.
“Why is it all blacked out?” Julian asked.
Not looking directly at him, Caterina said, “Oh, just personal insults against me that I knew would rile you guys up.”
“He wrote something about me, didn’t he?” Julian said.
“It doesn’t matter. He won’t be a problem much longer.” She gestured to her laptop and told us, “I’ve put a poison pill in the system. When they hacked in, they would’ve realized just how valuable the information I have on here is, so they’ll very likely try again. And when they do, it’ll destroy whatever little they were able to take and enable me to get a foothold into their system by extension. At that point, we’ll be able to put all the pieces together.”
“Pieces you believe will lead to Angelo?” Nico uttered.
“Yes. He called them his new friends. Given how good these guys are, they’re why he’s been able to stay hidden so well and evade even the likes of me. They’re on another level. But if I can track them and break his link to them in the process, all that goes away.” She looked out at Nico. “Given that Santino and Marco were allied at the time, it stands to reason that Marco may be working with them, too. They were somehow connected to the Shawn Price operation, but they are ghosts so I couldn’t pick up on it. There was no trail.”
“What of Stover?” I asked her.
“Still crickets. He must be deep in this right now.”
“Or he’s been compromised,” Nico put to her.
“No,” she said, shaking her head. “These guys are good, but he’s beyond them.”
“Okay, what if they don’t hack back in and that plan doesn’t work?” Julian asked.
“I’m still trying to do it, regardless.” She gritted her teeth, clearly hating to admit, “Although I might need help.”
“It’s hard to come by somebody else of your skill set,” Nico reminded her. “The level you’re at—huh, I see. You mean him.”
“I do, yes.”
“Caterina, bringing a reckless element into an already volatile situation isn’t exactly ideal.”
“Reckless element? Who are you talking about?” Julian asked.
Nico folded his arms across his chest. “Levi Knight.”
Off his tone, Caterina frowned out at him. “I thought you were on better terms with him now, after our call?”
“This isn’t about that. It’s about the rogue shit he’s known for.”
“Something you’re aware has been tampered down in him lately.”
“Something I also thought had been tampered down in you until tonight happened.”
Oh shit.
She stilled.
And then she shot to her feet and blasted him, “I’m sorry, should I have sat there and let those bastards torture me, then bury me in one of Santino’s construction sites, as was his stated plan before I turned the tables?”
“You could have responded with a little less fucking force than a massacre!” he bit back, finally blowing up about it after containing it for the last few hours since we’d arrived home, wherein she’d showered, changed, been checked by the doctor, and calmed completely.
“He didn’t just threaten me this time! He was going to break all of you! He would have killed our child too!”
Nico started at her revelation.
That was what the extra trigger had been, which had made her take it as far as she had.
“We would have found a way through. Together! Fucking together!” Nico smashed his boot into one of the patio chairs, sending it crashing through the broken patio doors and into the kitchen. “First Julian risked compromising our overarching mission and now you with this! I mean, fuck! You want this? You all want to be free, I need you to fucking work with me, not against me!”
“Nico, I already apologized for what happened,” Julian said. “And I fell in line tonight too, even when I was freaking about Caterina being missing.”
Nico was too worked up now he’d finally let it out to pay that much mind and he went on, “Do you think Milo doesn’t want to rage at Leo for what he did? Years and he hasn’t had proper justice! But here he is working with me instead of tearing down to the Marchetti mansion and executing a fucking massacre all to get to one fucking person! I promised him his justice, and he knows he’ll get it! When the time is right! And do you think I don’t want to burn the whole world down for what happened to you tonight, Caterina? What Julian suffered through? And what was taken from Milo? Of course I fucking do, but I’ve had to leash myself lately all so we can do this!”
There it was.
Where some of this was rooted.
He hadn’t been able to unleash for a long fucking time.
He’d had to keep his feral side checked.
First, because of the rational and systematic approach needed to carry out our overarching mission, then because he’d now be taking power, and also because of the baby.
And now, it had all clearly come to a head, with Caterina being taken tonight and then the mission being fucked up because of Santino’s untimely murder pushing it over the edge for him.
He’d taken a lot on the chin and Nico Marchetti could handle a lot.
But everyone had their limits in the end, even him.
His phone rang in his hand, cutting into the fiery intensity he’d been letting loose a little. He grunted, then sucked in a calming breath and turned from us as he took the call.
“Rocco, yeah, what’s the word on them? They’re what? You’re certain? When? No. Leave it until you hear from me. I’ll pick up the trail on my end, then we’ll send out scouts.” He hung up, then told us, “My father is MIA.”
“What? You mean running scared with news of Santino’s murder?” Julian asked.
“We don’t know at this juncture. But those Rocco and I have doing recon have reported that Leo is at the Marchetti home gathering forces.”
“Leo is Boss?” I ground out.
“It hasn’t been officially stated,” Nico responded.
“Come on,” I said. “Like it was never officially stated that you weren’t considered Capo by them anymore? That’s how they are. Ambiguous with their intentions. They do that to unnerve everyone. They wait and then they pounce on those who’ve fallen out of their favor.”
“You think that’s what Leo is doing now with gathering forces and all that?” Julian asked worriedly.
“Yes,” I stated simply, eyeing Nico.
“What forces?” Caterina asked. “You’ve taken control of the majority of the soldiers across the board. All that’s left is Marco and Leo’s personal forces, which amounts to maybe a hundred, yes?”
“The same fuckers who broke into our home tonight and took you away,” Nico revealed. “You were right, they are connected to the Marchettis too. It was a joint venture.”
“They’ll come for us,” Caterina said.
“They’ll try,” Nico ground out.
“What does that mean?” I asked.
“It means,” he said, pulling out another smoke from his leather jacket and firing it up. “I need to take power now .”
“To do that so quickly, we’ll have to take Marco’s stronghold. The mansion, Nico,” I pointed out. “The plan was to weaken them first. While tonight achieved a lot in that respect, it’s not enough. Not without a fucking bloodbath.”
He dragged hard on his smoke. “I’m aware.”
“N, I can manipulate the narrative a hell of a lot better than anyone, but as good as I am, I can’t rework a full-on massacre involving hundreds,” Julian warned him. “Even if you win out, you’ll put yourself on the Feds’ radar. Or worse.”
“Then we keep Milo’s hands clean and he takes power in my stead while I’m—”
“While you’re rotting away in jail?” I burst out with. “No way in hell is that happening.”
“If it will accomplish the mission and end this shitshow, I’ll pay that price.”
“The fuck you will,” Caterina told him, absolutely not having it.
“Agreed,” Julian said, right there with us.
“We end this and we’ll all be safe. It will be over. No more looking over our shoulders. No more putting your empires that you’ve worked so hard to build on the back burner, Caterina and Julian. And Milo, no more waiting on justice or feeling trapped. You’ll be free.”
“That doesn’t work without you,” I told him.
“It doesn’t need to. You don’t need to pay any price,” Caterina announced, closing her laptop and rising to her feet as she pulled out her phone. “I’ll make arrangements to meet Levi off territory tonight. We’ll find these fuckers’ stronghold and cut them off at the knees. After all this effort and fight that it’s taken to turn the tables and have so many pledging their loyalty to you, we’re certainly not going to allow this turn of events to fuck all over that accomplishment. We’ll stop it before it starts.”
“Leaving now and—” Nico started.
“You mean in the dead of night before shit really hits the fan as word fully spreads that Santino is dead?” Caterina challenged.
“Fine,” Nico agreed easily. Too easily.
I reasoned that he was all too eager to have her out of harm’s way.
He wouldn’t bench her, but this was her decision, so he’d found a loophole. After what she’d done tonight, I didn’t doubt that he was likely second-guessing his firm stance on the whole thing. For her to go off like that, to that extreme extent, it meant there were cracks there for her, something obviously extremely worrying.
“I’m coming with you,” Nico announced.
“You’re needed here,” I countered.
“I’ll get her down there, then when I’m sure she’s settled and safe, I’ll head back.” He eyed Caterina. “The drive there will give us some time to talk and analyze what happened tonight.”
He was definitely the best person to have that out with her. He could help her better than anyone where that monstrous side of hers was concerned.
When Julian moved to protest, Nico told him, “I need you here monitoring Caterina’s businesses and ensuring all is well with Carver Group. Resume work on the expansion from your end. It will be great to have that in place when all this is over.” Something to look forward to essentially and something to focus him and help to ground both him and Caterina. Damn, Nico was good.
“Yeah, all right,” Julian agreed.
Nico looked to me. “After the team is done here tonight with the repairs, bring Rocco here and work on ramping up security. He’s one of the best where that’s concerned. I want motion sensors that aren’t connected to the main system, that can operate independently, so what occurred tonight with those fuckers evading detection can’t happen again.”
“You’ve got it. I’ll see to it,” I assured him.
“An early-warning system too,” he added.
Yeah, tonight had freaked all of us out.
And the fact that we were about to be away from each other really didn’t sit well, especially in light of that.
We stared out at each other as the weight of it descended upon us.