Chapter Three #2
Teresa raises her eyebrow. "I know he's not just a suit, but you can't tell me that he's been in the trenches. As your attorney, he has to keep his hands..." She purses her lips, trying to find the right word, and finally settles on: "Clean."
Vito squeezes her hand. "Of course. He does." He shrugs. "Most of the time."
Teresa's eyes narrow. "What does that mean?"
"What you said before about the knives." Vito picks up his glass and gestures vaguely with it. "Let's just say that Roberto... Well, he's more of a scalpel kind of man." He takes a sip from the glass.
A look of dawning realization crosses Teresa's face.
A scalpel—precise, clean, effective.
So, the family lawyer is much more than a lawyer. Good to know. It gives me a better picture of the resources I have to work with and the kind of people I'm dealing with.
And it also confirms my theory.
"You see?" I say, gesturing with one hand to Vito. "Even your family attorney has... practical skills. But Caterina lives alone. And her house is likely the place where she would be most vulnerable." I look at Vito. "Her security detail is what?"
He sets down his glass. "We have a team at the house. But they're not inside."
I nod. That was what I expected. "And she carries a weapon?"
"Yes," he says. "But she's never had to use it. Not in a real-world situation. She knows how to shoot and how to defend herself, but that's not the same as actually having to do it. And Caterina... she's more likely to try to talk her way out of a problem than she is to reach for her gun."
I see it immediately. The picture is getting clearer. She's smart. She's capable. But she's spent her life in the world of business, not the world of blood. She fights with words and numbers, not with her fists or a weapon.
And in a world like this, that makes her a target.
"She's proud," Teresa adds quietly. "She fought for years to be taken seriously at the casino, to prove she wasn't just Luca's daughter. She's not going to be happy about having a bodyguard."
"She'll be less happy about being dead," I say.
It's blunt. Cruel, even.
But it's the truth.
And it’s the only argument that matters.
Vito's expression doesn't change, but I see the way his jaw tightens. He doesn't like it. But he knows it's true.
Teresa, on the other hand, just looks at me, and there is a warning in her eyes.
"Don't be crude, Adrian.”
"I'm being practical," I say. "And it's the truth."
"It's an ugly truth," she retorts.
"Ugly or not, it's the reason I'm here."
"Actually," Vito says, leaning forward and resting his arms on the table. "That's not the only reason Caterina is my primary concern right now."
He has my attention.
"Her life is... different. More public than the rest of ours.
Even Roberto's. She doesn't just work at the casino.
She is the face of it. She runs the financial department.
She meets with investors. She negotiates with vendors.
She gives presentations to regulatory boards.
Her schedule is packed. Her movements are. .. predictable."
He's right. A woman like Caterina, with a job like hers, would have a routine. Meetings at certain times. A regular lunch spot. A set of people she sees every day. That's a security nightmare.
"A predictable schedule is a vulnerability," I say.
"Exactly," Vito says. "And if someone inside is feeding information to an outside threat, her schedule would be one of the easiest things to obtain."
"What about her personal life?" I ask. "Is she seeing anyone?"
Teresa answers this one. "No. Not for a while."
"Any close friends outside the family?"
"A few," she says. "But they're not involved in... this. They're people she knew from school, from before."
"Good," I say. The fewer variables, the better. "Does she have a personal routine? A regular place she goes for coffee? A gym? A favorite restaurant?"
"Yes and no," Vito clarifies. "She does have a routine, but she’s also smart enough to vary it. She has a few different places she'll go for coffee, a few different gyms she'll use. She's not completely predictable, but to someone watching closely, her patterns are... recognizable."
"Recognizable is enough," I say, my mind already mapping out the potential risks. "That ends now. I'll create a new, unpredictable schedule once I know her current one."
"I'm sure she'll be thrilled with that," Teresa mutters.
"I'm sure she'll be alive," I counter. "I'll take alive over thrilled."
Teresa sighs, but she doesn't argue.
"She's going to hate you, you know," she says, a hint of sympathy in her voice. "She's going to fight you on everything."
"I've dealt with worse than a stubborn woman with a chip on her shoulder," I say, thinking of a situation in Fallujah that involved a very determined journalist who refused to stay put. "She can hate me all she wants. As long as she's breathing, I don't care."
Vito's gaze on me is unreadable. I can see him weighing me, measuring me. He's trying to decide if I'm the right man for the job. If I can handle his sister. If I can handle this family.
I meet his stare without flinching. I've been vetted by the best. I've been shot at, blown up, and left for dead. I'm not easily intimidated.
After a moment, he gives a slight, almost imperceptible nod. He's made his decision.
Teresa isn't quite ready to give up, though.
"She's going to resist," she says. "And I mean, really resist. She’s going to fight you on this." Her gaze is steady on mine. "Don't underestimate her, Adrian. She's not a delicate flower. She's going to push back. Hard."
"I don't expect her to roll over," I say. "But that doesn't change the facts. And it doesn't change my job."
"You'll have to be more than a bodyguard," she says. "You'll have to be a strategist. A psychologist. A negotiator. And you'll have to do it all while she's trying to find every possible way to get rid of you."
I look at her, then back at Vito. "Is she aware of the seriousness of the threat? The whole story about the car and the garage?"
"Yes," Vito says. "She knows. She's not an idiot. She knows what it means to carry the Conti name. But she also has a very strong sense of her own competence. She's proud. And she's used to being in control, to being the one who makes the decisions. This... this is a loss of control for her."
"Shouldn't she be used to security?" I ask. "She's Luca Conti's daughter."
"Yes," Vito says. "But not like this. Not on a personal level.
The security at the casino, the guards at the gate, that's background noise to her.
That's part of the business. It's always been there.
This is different. This is someone in her space.
In her house. That's not business. That's personal. "
"Understood," I say. "I'll treat her with respect. But I won't compromise on her safety. Not for her pride, not for her comfort, not for anything."
"It's more than that," Teresa says. Vito looks like he's going to object, but a look from Teresa has him staying quiet.
I've seen that look before. The one that says whatever Teresa is about to say is a point of contention between them, a conversation they've had before, one that didn't go well. For him, anyway. "Vito, it's important. He needs to know what he's walking into."
Vito leans back in his chair, a clear sign of surrender. "Fine. Have it your way." He's not happy about it, but he's letting her have her say.
Teresa takes a deep breath, her hands on the table in front of her. "It’s not just her pride. It's... complicated. It's about trust. And it's about her place in this family."
I raise an eyebrow. "What about her place?"
"Earlier, you said she's the only one who doesn't have a man in her house to protect her.
That's true. It's because she's the only woman in the family.
Every other woman has married into the family, or in Lucia's case, married out," Teresa corrects.
"And even then, she's still protected by her husband's resources.
But Caterina... Caterina is different. She was born into it.
She is Luca's daughter. She doesn't just have the name, she is the name. "
"So is Vito," I point out.
"Yes, but he's a man. He's the heir. He's being groomed to take over.
His path has always been clear. Nico has his place.
Roberto, Antonio, Giovanni. Even if they didn't always know exactly what they were going to do, they always knew that they were part of the core of this. They had roles to play."
"And Caterina doesn't?"
"No," Teresa says firmly. "She had to carve out her own place.
She went to school for finance so she would have a place within the family business.
It's not like Roberto. Whether he became an attorney or not, he had a place.
She had to fight for her place at the table, to prove that she was more than just a pretty face.
Come on, you know the stereotype. What everyone expected of her. "
I do. I know exactly what people looking at them would expect. I've seen it a hundred times.
“You mean the beautiful daughter of a powerful man, meant to be decorative? Flighty, foolish, spending her daddy's money, marrying someone her father approved of? To be quiet and look pretty?”
"None of us expected that of her," Vito says, fired up in a way that tells me this is a rehash of an old argument. Or at least an old wound.
"Maybe not to that extent," Teresa says, not backing down. "But even you have to admit, there was a different expectation for her. There still is."
He doesn't argue with that.
"So, you're saying she feels like she has something to prove," I say, putting it together.
"She shouldn't," Vito fires back. "Not to us. Not to me."