Chapter 17 Dimitri
Dimitri
SONG: ONE STEP CLOSER BY LINKIN PARK
The club was full when I arrived. Every captain. Every senior soldier. Faces ranging from worried to angry to carefully neutral.
Yuri spoke first. "Three million. In one night. How does that happen?"
"It happens when someone with inside knowledge sells us out." I moved to the head of the table. My father's old seat. The one I'd been avoiding for weeks. "It happens when we get complacent."
"We?" Yuri leaned forward. "You mean you. You've been spending every night in Silverleaf playing house while our operations fall apart."
The room went silent waiting to see how I'd respond to that particular challenge.
"You're right." The admission surprised everyone including myself. "I got distracted. Stopped paying attention. That's on me. But we're going to fix it. Today."
I pulled out the file Maxim had compiled. Weeks of investigation, phone records, financial transactions, and movement patterns. Everything pointed to one conclusion even if I'd been avoiding it.
"The leak coincides with Italian presence at our meetings. Every time Giuseppe or his people are here information gets out within twenty-four hours." I spread the evidence across the table. "Which means either someone in Giuseppe's family is betraying the alliance or someone very close to them is."
Viktor spoke up. "Geraldo Rossie. Has to be. He made his feelings clear at the wedding."
"We don't know that for certain."
"Who else would it be? He hates us publicly. He has motivation and access through his family." Viktor shrugged. "Math is simple."
The math was simple. Too simple. But Giulia's words from weeks ago echoed in my head. What if someone is using his anger?
"We verify before we act." I closed the file. "Maxim, I want full surveillance on Geraldo. Phone, movements, and everyone he talks to. If he's the leak, I want proof Giuseppe can't deny."
"And if it's not him?"
"Then we keep looking until we find who it is."
The meeting dissolved into logistics. Teams assigned. Timelines established. The machinery of investigation grinding into motion.
I stayed behind after everyone left. I sat in my father's chair and stared at evidence that pointed toward destroying the only good thing in my life.
If Geraldo was guilty Giuseppe would be devastated.
The family would fracture and the alliance would collapse.
And Giulia would be caught in the middle watching everything she'd sacrificed for turn to ash.
My phone buzzed. A text from Maxim.
Geraldo just left his apartment. Following now.
Then nothing for twenty minutes.
Another text: He's in Brooklyn. Meeting someone at a warehouse on the waterfront.
My phone rang. Maxim's voice was tight when I answered.
"You need to see this."
The warehouse was exactly the kind of place deals went bad and bodies got dumped. Industrial. Abandoned. Perfect for conversations you didn't want witnessed.
I parked two blocks over and moved through shadows with Maxim flanking me. We found a position with clear sightline through a broken window.
Geraldo stood in the center of the warehouse talking to two men I didn't recognize. But their tattoos told me everything I needed to know. Albanian. Mid-level probably. Connected enough to matter.
I couldn't hear the conversation, but I could read body language. Geraldo was nervous. Gesturing, arguing maybe. The Albanians were calm and in control. One of them handed Geraldo an envelope. Cash probably. Payment for services rendered.
My chest went tight. This was it. Proof. Geraldo Rossie was selling us out to the Albanians. Had been for weeks. Maybe longer.
Everything we'd suspected confirmed in one meeting I'd watched with my own eyes.
The conversation ended. Geraldo took the envelope and left through a side door. The Albanians waited five minutes and then followed separately.
Standard tradecraft. Decent operational security. Not good enough to avoid getting caught but better than I'd expected from someone motivated by anger instead of professionalism.
Maxim lowered the camera he'd been using to document everything. "What now?"
Good question. I had proof. I had motive. I had everything I needed to go to Giuseppe and demand justice. But I also had Giulia's face in my mind. Her voice asking me to tell her before I acted. Her trust that I'd handle this the right way.
"Now I have a very uncomfortable conversation with my father-in-law."
"And then?"
"And then Giuseppe decides whether his nephew lives or dies."
Because that's what this evidence demanded. That's what tradition required. Geraldo had betrayed the alliance. Had cost us money and men and security. The penalty was death. No negotiation. No mercy.
Giuseppe would understand that. Would probably hand Geraldo over himself rather than let this destroy what we'd built. But it would destroy him. Destroy his family and any illusion that the alliance could work long term.
And it would break Giulia's heart.
I pulled out my phone and called Giuseppe. "We need to meet. Now. Just you and me."
"What's happened?"
"Something that requires privacy and probably several drinks. Your restaurant, thirty minutes."
I hung up before he could ask questions I wasn't ready to answer over the phone.
The drive to Little Italy took twenty-three minutes. Giuseppe was already waiting in his private dining room. He took one look at my face and poured two generous glasses of grappa.
"Show me."
I pulled out the photos, the phone records, and the financial transactions. Everything except the video of tonight's meeting. I saved that for last.
Giuseppe studied each piece of evidence without speaking. His expression didn't change but his hands tightened on the papers. Years of control keeping him composed while I dismantled his family.
"My nephew." His voice was flat. Empty. "You're telling me Geraldo has been betraying us."
"I'm telling you someone close to your family has been leaking information. The evidence points to Geraldo. Tonight, I watched him meet with Albanian operatives and accept payment." I pulled out my phone and showed him the video. "I'm sorry."
Giuseppe watched it twice, then he set down his glass very carefully, like he was afraid if he moved too quickly he'd break something. Or someone.
"How long?"
"Weeks. Maybe since the wedding. Possibly before."
"And the cost?"
"Conservative estimate? Five million in product. Three operations compromised. Two men dead." I paused. "Could have been worse."
"Could have been better." Giuseppe stood and walked to the window, staring out at his neighborhood, his territory. "He's young. Stupid. Angry about Marco. But this..." He turned back to face me. "This is unforgivable."
"Yes."
"You want him dead."
It wasn't a question.
"I want the leak stopped. I want my operations secure. I want whoever is responsible to face consequences." I met his eyes. "What I want doesn't matter. What matters is the alliance. And whether we can survive this."
Giuseppe was quiet for a long moment, then he nodded once. Sharp. Final.
"I'll bring him to you. Tomorrow night. He'll confess. He'll face justice." His voice cracked slightly. "And then you'll do what needs to be done."
"Giuseppe—"
"He killed the alliance my daughter is part of. He put Giulia at risk." Giuseppe's face hardened into something I recognized. The don making impossible choices. "Family or honor. I choose honor. I choose my daughter's future over my nephew's life."
This was what I'd needed. What tradition demanded. Permission to handle Geraldo the way betrayal required.
So why did I feel sick about it?
"I'll tell Giulia," I said. "Before. She deserves to know."
"Tell her I'm sorry. That I tried to protect him. That some people can't be saved from themselves."
I left Giuseppe sitting in his restaurant drinking grappa and mourning a nephew who was already dead but didn't know it yet.
The drive back to Silverleaf felt like driving toward an execution.
Mine. Not Geraldo's. Because I had to tell Giulia that her cousin was a traitor.
That tomorrow night I'd kill him. That the alliance she'd sacrificed everything for had been rotten from the start.
And then I'd have to watch whatever we'd built these last weeks crumble under the weight of blood and family and choices nobody wanted to make.
The gates opened. The house looked warm and inviting in the darkness. Light spilled from windows. Home, that's what it had become.
I sat in the car for five minutes gathering the calm I would need to keep this from Giulia. I was breaking a promise, but telling her the truth right now, was far more dangerous.