Chapter 7
The atmosphere in the Colleoni villa's conference room two days later would have been tense if it weren't for the chatter of the loud mercenaries around the table.
Sunlight filtered through the windows, revealing the beautiful day outside in the gardens. The pretty view did nothing to ease Rodrigo's tension in his position at the head of the long wooden table they sat around.
The large TV at the other end was filled with satellite images of various properties in Sicily and Naples, dossiers on the Falcones and other families ready and compiled, and schematics of fortified compounds that looked more like medieval castles than modern residences.
Leo was on his laptop, ready to bring up anything Rodrigo might ask for. Dante was beside him, their elbows touching. He had refused to let Leo go back to Italy without him, because he knew better than anyone that the Colleoni Villa was full of bad memories for Leo.
For all of us, Rodrigo thought grimly.
Now that he had taken over the family, he had begun redecorating. The first thing he did was take down all the photos and portraits of Gabriella after their father had died. She had changed then, and not for the better.
The only pictures of her that remained were the ones that held good memories for all three brothers. The walls now had a lot of empty spaces.
Further down the table, Kon leaned back in his chair, the picture of relaxed lethality. His sharp eyes missed nothing, a faint smile playing on his lips as he idly stroked the tips of Athena's blond ponytail beside him.
Athena twirled a knife in one hand, her gaze fixed on the TV, as if she were mentally planning every way she would attack the compounds.
It was a look Leo had once described as "episode adjacent.
" Rodrigo had never seen her go into an episode, but not much unnerved Leo, and he said it was one of the most chilling things he had ever witnessed.
According to Athena, she had come to Italy to pick out her new sword from Gabriella's collection, but his brother insisted it was really because Kon and Athena didn't want to miss out on any of the excitement. Whatever their motivation, Rodrigo was grateful for the extra help.
"I was worried about being bored, but this looks like it might liven my life up again," she declared.
"Am I boring you already, balim?" Kon asked, a wry grin on his face.
Athena grinned back. "Don't start. You know as well as I do that reading books and stroking your artefacts wouldn't have kept you amused forever."
"All depends if you were going to stroke my artefacts too—"
"Keep it in your pants, Zalam," Dario snorted. He sat to Rodrigo's right, lounging in the chair with a carefully cultivated arrogance and an easygoing attitude. The tension in his jaw was a familiar tell, like it was for all the Colleoni men, and Rodrigo knew the source of it sat opposite him.
Frederica Alesci, a.k.a. Fred, sat next to Kon, one booted foot propped on the table, ignoring the expensive wood.
She was half Greek, half Italian, and was built like a Spartan warrior, with sculpted biceps and olive skin.
She wore old black jeans and a plain red T-shirt, her dark hair pulled back in a braid that emphasized her high cheekbones and pale hazel eyes.
She glanced dismissively over the maps before grinning at Dario.
The knot in his brother's jaw flexed again.
"Are you two going to behave, or is there going to be a problem?" Rodrigo asked, looking between them.
Kon had called Frederica simply as 'an extra pair of guns you won't regret having.' Rodrigo trusted Kon's judgment, but what Kon hadn't known was that Dario and Frederica had crossed paths before, and it had ended poorly…for Dario.
"Yeah, I want to know what's going on here too," Athena said, looking between them. "You guys have a bad date or something?"
Dario snorted. "She wishes."
"Don't mind him. He's just a sore loser," Frederica replied, her smile growing wider. "He was hired as a bodyguard for someone two years ago. I was hired to kill them. Guess who got paid, and who didn't?"
Athena's eyes widened, and then she and Dante both burst out laughing at the same time.
"Bad luck there," Dante said, shooting Dario an empathetic smile. "Freddy has never failed a contract before."
Dario's neck turned red, a sure sign he was about to blow. Rodrigo rapped his knuckles on the table.
"Enough. What is past is past. We have something bigger than your petty rivalry to deal with. Firstly, our main suspect, Vincenzo Falcone," Rodrigo began, his voice a low rumble.
Leo tapped a finger on his trackpad and brought up a surveillance photo showing a man in his late twenties, handsome in a slick, arrogant way, exiting a Palermo nightclub surrounded by heavies.
"Nephew of Enzo Falcone," Leo continued. "From what I have found out, he thinks his uncle's olive oil empire and quiet retirement are a waste of the family legacy. He might have seen Giana and her family fortune as a way to buy his own power and take the family from Enzo."
He moved the photo on the screen aside, revealing the sprawling, fortified Falcone villa perched on a cliff overlooking the Tyrrhenian Sea north of Palermo.
"Does he have other connections we need to know about?" Rodrigo asked, unable to say 'magic' without feeling like an idiot.
"I've cross-referenced Vincenzo's known associates with those other databases." Leo glanced at Kon and back to Rodrigo. "Nothing Aurora-adjacent either so far, but whoever's backing him has resources that don't show up in normal channels. It's annoying the hell out of me."
"I don't care who it is. If Vincenzo ordered Giana's kidnapping, he won't stop. Men like him don't understand failure, and his ego won't let him," Rodrigo muttered. "Whoever did this to her, I want them annihilated."
Kon hummed thoughtfully. "Annihilation is expensive, Rodrigo. And messy. Especially with old families. They have long memories and hold grudges for generations. We need to be sure without a doubt who is responsible before we make a move."
"Agreed, but violence is the only language they speak," Rodrigo countered, his voice flat.
"And I intend to make Vincenzo Falcone, or whoever the fuck hurt her, pay in every way I can.
Every brick of their compound, every euro in their accounts, every soldier in their employ.
I want it all reduced to ash and memory. "
Dario shifted slightly. "Rodrigo, the retaliation from other families..."
"Is precisely why we do it," Rodrigo cut him off. His gaze didn't waver from the mercenaries. "We make an example of them and make it so utterly devastating that the very thought of touching Giana Sorrentino becomes synonymous with suicide. We send a message written in blood."
"Be careful. You are starting to sound like Mama," Leo warned him, his eyes filling with worry. "We did that to Giana's family, and look how it's backfired. This is our fault."
Only his little brother could land such a direct hit on Rodrigo.
"I don't like it, Leone, but Mama was right about some things.
They won't stop coming unless they are scared.
If you can think of a better way, I'm all ears, but the one responsible for the order dies.
That's final," he replied. He hated the compromise.
He wanted the carnage, but he had promised his brothers he wouldn't become Gabriella. Leo was right to check him.
"The first thing we need to draw a rat out of their hole is good bait," Dario commented.
Frederica snorted softly, a dry, humorless sound. "The broken bird? You think she's in any shape for that?"
Before Rodrigo could lunge across the table and show her precisely what happened to people who called Giana broken, Dario spoke, his voice tight with warning.
"Careful, Frederica. I didn't say we use Giana. I just said bait. That 'broken bird' is under Colleoni protection."
"Kon said you had been watching her despite Rodrigo's wishes." Frederica raised a dark eyebrow, unimpressed by his brother's warnings. "Your protection didn't work so well in Bodrum then, did it, Dario? Excuse me for pointing out the most obvious asset we have to get our target's attention."
Dario's jaw clenched again, a muscle ticking furiously in his cheek. The competitive hatred between them crackled like a live wire.
Rodrigo ignored their pissing contest. The insult to Giana still burned in his ears, but the plan required focus. An idea came to him as he stared at them.
"The bait," he continued thoughtfully, "is not going to be the idea that Giana is vulnerable, but that she has been claimed." He took a steadying breath. "We announce our engagement."
Dante let out a low whistle. Dario stared at Rodrigo, a complex mix of understanding and apprehension in his eyes.
"Engagement?" Kon echoed, leaning forward. "To you? Rodrigo Colleoni taking a wife? That'll set the underworld gossip mill on fire. It will be guaranteed to piss off every old bastard who ever looked at her sideways, and every mafia mama hoping to land you as a son-in-law."
"Precisely," Rodrigo said. His stomach churned at the idea of using Giana like this again, but he couldn't see a way around it. "It consolidates her position and makes her untouchable. Or it makes anyone who touches her declare war on the Colleoni family directly."
"You are just substituting Leo for yourself right now," Dante pointed out. "This will be the same fucking mess all over again."
Rodrigo shook his head. "No, it will be different this time. It will be more believable that while the arrangement with Leo was a farce, we can sell that she and I became something more during that time and have decided to make it official now that Gabriella is out of our way," he replied.
Hiding a truth in a lie always made it more believable. If Gabriella had chosen him instead of Leo to marry Giana, he would have done it as soon as he could convince her to walk down the aisle.
"Vincenzo is ambitious, not stupid," he continued. "He won't move against her openly if she's publicly mine. He'll try subterfuge or try to snatch her again, quietly, before the wedding. He'll get sloppy and come to us."
"And we'll be waiting," Athena stated, her voice cool.
"With everything we have," Rodrigo confirmed.
Leo's eyes went assassin cold. "Having them attack us here on our home ground is smart. It will give us an advantage, and we won't get on the other families' bad side by starting any shit in Sicily or Naples. It will be seen as us defending ourselves."
"Exactly. Kon, Athena, I want you to help prepare the grounds and handle the first invasion. Yes, Athena, you can use as many explosives as you like as long as they aren't close enough to damage the villa or the church."
"Excellent," she said with a wide grin.
"Dario, I want you to bring in everyone who knew you were watching Giana.
I want them on-site and monitored. Leo can track any incoming or outgoing messages here, so if they let anyone know what we are planning, we can stop it from going out and find who is behind it.
Fred," he turned to her, "you're on Giana if any action kicks off.
I need someone who can handle the situation and get her out of the compound to safety.
Turn her into a ghost and help her disappear. "
He held her gaze for a long moment. "You are in or out. If I hire you for this, and if anything happens to Giana, your life won't be worth the bullet it takes to end it."
Frederica met his stare, unfazed, and gave a curt salute. "Understood, sir. Though babysitting a traumatized heiress if there is a fight wasn't exactly the wet-work I signed up for." Her eyes flicked dismissively toward Dario. "Try not to get in my way, Colleoni. Or trip over your own ego."
Dario's smile was a razor slash. "Just do your job, baby, and I'll do mine."
Frederica flipped him off, but before their arguing could escalate, the heavy double doors at the far end of the room swung open.
Giana stood framed in the doorway. "I see my future is being planned without me again. How fucking typical."