Chapter 28 – Nico
Knowing what waited for me in the private lounge of the La Rosa Via, I popped a handful of Dramamine.
The stench of cigarettes belched from the room.
Breathing through my mouth didn’t help. I cursed my father silently.
He caught me smoking once, made me smoke an entire pack, then made me eat the last cigarette, swallowing every toxic bite.
I never touched the shit again. Even cigars made me queasy.
Yet the capos sat around the table, each one holding a toxic stick in their fingers. The don was on his third. The fact that his wife asked him not to, and his doctor forbade it, didn’t escape me.
I might not have put a ring on my woman’s finger, but if she asked for something like quitting the death sticks, I would have moved heaven and earth to make her happy.
“Dominico, good of you to join us,” Alfonso said with a condescending smile.
I dropped my gaze so as not to glare at him. “Glad I got your text.”
The manipulative bastard sent it right before the meeting started, knowing full well that I wouldn’t be on time. Such a petty game. One that took me away from the actual work of operating the criminal empire.
“Now that we’re all here,” my grandfather drawled. “We have a matter of the utmost importance.”
My fingers drummed against my thigh.
“We seem to be at war with Carlos,” Grey Tony explained to me. “He’s under the impression that we didn’t take his attack seriously enough.”
“We can’t lose his business,” Alfonso insisted.
The urge to strangle the capo made every muscle lock tight in place.
How could these old men be so blind? That was exactly what we should be doing.
Cut the fat from our business, deal directly with better product.
The Zorzallo Famiglia was cleaning up their streets.
Why the hell weren’t we taking the opportunity to do the same?
“I have a solution for that.” My grandfather sounded irritable. “My granddaughter Caterina is as wild as her mother. It’s time she settled down, and I know Carlos will jump at the chance to tie himself to our organization in such an…intimate way.”
The old men chuckled.
“Do you want me to arrange a meeting with him?” Grey Tony offered.
A low buzz plagued my inner ear drum. They were really discussing this!
It should be no surprise that the don was so easily considering handing over a prized alliance.
After all, what was the point of having children and grandchildren if not to use them to strengthen his empire?
But for a grandfather to consider handing over one of his precious family members without a thought to her safety and well-being… .
He needs to retire.
I wished with every fiber of my being that my father was here. He would never sit idly by and listen to this talk. He always knew how to deal with his father’s stupidity.
But it was my problem now. And there didn’t seem to be another option other than killing the old man sitting across the table from me.
Show me the way! Please, Papa.
No ghostly response came to me.
“Yes, set it up,” the don grumbled. “That’s hardly a problem.”
“Signore?” Alfonso pressed. “What’s troubling you?”
My grandfather dropped the smoldering stump in the ash tray and reached for yet another. “There’s been no sign of Enzo. Where is my underboss?”
The old men shifted. They flicked cautious glances around.
Good. They were nervous. They felt death’s icy fingers clawing at their spines.
While I had a moral dilemma when it came to dealing with my grandfather, I had no such restraint plotting to take out every man sitting at this table. Tonight’s meeting only sped up the process. Things weren’t in place quite yet. But it was painfully obvious that I needed to act.
“Protect them. Always.”
Out of the void, my father’s words rang in my mind.
I sighed and folded my hands in my lap. There was the answer. Truth be told, I’d known it all along.
Instead of fighting to remove a threat from our territory to take control of the drug business ourselves, my grandfather was going to sell my cousin to a devi and allow him to have free reign to poison our streets with his overpriced, tainted merchandise.
Carlos wouldn’t stop once he was tied to the family. His organization would only grow stronger until it threatened to crush our famiglia.
Don Grimaldi put everything at risk. If he was a capo, if he weren’t my blood, I wouldn’t hesitate. So why let the fact that he was the father of my father stop me?
I’ll protect them, I promised my father’s ghost.
A shiver reverberated down my spine in response.
***
The trattoria was busy. Neighborhood families sat around the quaint, white- and red-checkered tables. An upbeat rhythm accompanied by a crooning tenor filled Luna Luce, the music a steady pulse that made the restaurant feel alive.
I nodded to Giuseppe as I made my way upstairs.
It was good of him to let us use his private apartment for what we were about to do.
I hated bringing the act of treason to his doorstep.
But Giuseppe wasn’t blind. He knew what was at stake.
We weren’t rebels. A just cause was on our side, and each Made Man had a voice in what was about to happen.
A group of handpicked individuals waited for me. The number of souls packed tightly into the shabby living room made the apartment feel like a stuffed sardine can. Or maybe it was the grim undercurrent that ran through each of us.
I closed the door. “Thank you for coming.”
Luigi smirked from where he played host near the galley kitchen. “We’re ready…boss.”
That word. It both thrilled and terrified me.
“I’ll make this quick.” I planted myself in the middle of the room, letting the combined weight of their gazes fall on me. “We are going to fight. It’s going to be ugly, but if we don’t, we could lose everything we spent generations building.”
A low rumble ran through the space. The twenty-five men shifted and muttered to one another. I let my words sink in as I looked in each and every face. These men were here because they were trustworthy soldiers. They’d been blooded members for years.
“Things are bad, Nico,” Vinny piped up.
Gio nodded. “We’re with you.”
“I need you all to understand,” I insisted. “If we’re caught, we’re dead. The capos won’t be forgiving.”
“And if we don’t do something, we’re going to die anyhow,” Anthony grumped. “A group of thugs jumped us last week, and Alfonso told us to stand down.”
A knot itched between my shoulder blades. The Grimaldi name wasn’t feared, wasn’t respected. Our legacy might not last the year at this rate.
“Still, this is a coup. A rebellion. Leave now, if that isn’t something you can stomach.” My voice was granite. It silenced every murmur. I braced myself for them to walk out. Giuseppe had strict instructions to take care of any deserters. We couldn’t afford a leak.
But not one man left. They were following me straight to hell.