Matteo #2
Salvatore is quiet for a moment. Not the silence of indifference, the silence of a man choosing what to do with something that costs him. I watch him work through it.
“Good,” he says finally.
That surprises me. “Good?”
“I made that proclamation in the heat of it. The night of my wedding, with Marco bleeding on the floor and my brothers screaming in my ear about honor and precedent.” He sets down his glass.
“I’m not going to kill Dante. He’s my brother.
But I needed him out of this city, out of reach, somewhere he can’t make another move until I’ve had time to think. ”
“And now that he’s gone?”
“Now I can think.” He meets my eyes. “Find out where he is. Don’t approach him. Don’t move on him. Just know. When the time comes to have that conversation, I want to be the one who walks through his door. Not a team of men with orders I gave in a moment of anger.”
I nod slowly. That’s the Salvatore I know. The proclamation was due to a wound to his ego.
“The Shadow later, then,” I agree. “The Bratva first.”
“Talk to me about the Bratva. Elio says you have a plan.”
“It’s a work in progress,” I tell him.
“Come on, Matty,” Raffaele taunts with a grin, shifting forward as his interest sharpens. “Let’s see what that big beautiful brain of yours has been able to map out.”
I roll my eyes. My brothers are irritating, but they’re right. I do have a plan.
Ensuring I have their rapt attention, I lean forward before speaking. “There are four steps to dismantling the Bratva in this city-”
“Only four?” Elio questions, amused.
I glare at him for the interjection and he hurriedly apologizes.
“Go on, fratello,” Salvatore urges.
“As I was saying, they don’t have as much of a strong hold as they’d like everyone else to believe. And while they may have power, they’ll fall just as easily if everything goes according to my plan.”
“What’s the first step?”
I fold my hands loosely on my knees, “We don’t hit them directly. Right now, they’re currently stable, structured. If we go in hard now, we unify them even more. We give them something to fight against.”
“So we do what? Sit back? That doesn’t sound like fun,” Raffaele says, ever impatient.
“We’re going to dismantle them,” I correct. “Quietly. First thing we target is their money. We interrupt shipments, intercept a couple of deliveries, and we could even take some of their product. All of this has to be done stealthily. They can’t trace it back to us.”
“Why?”
“To make it look like internal failure,” Elio murmurs, catching on quickly.
I glance at him briefly, “Exactly.”
“How do you plan on getting the insider information needed to pull off everything you’ve just mentioned?” Salvatore asks.
“I already have informants within the Bratva. Some of them paid, others coerced. I’ve been getting surveillance and intercepting communications since the day Valentina walked into that warehouse. Rest assured, we have everything we need.”
Tension ripples across Salvatore’s face at the mention of the incident involving his wife. When it clears, he offers me a small nod.
“That’s a good place to start, but it doesn’t exactly stop them.” Raffaele frowns.
“That’s why there are four steps,” I say, trying not to sound exasperated. “That’s step one. Once they start losing money, they start asking each other questions.”
“And when they start tearing each other apart?” Elio asks.
“We isolate them,” I reply. “Cut off external alliances. Suppliers, buyers. Anyone they can rely on. Since they’re largely reclusive, no other organization will be the least bit interested in coming to their aid.
Leak some false information, frame one of their lieutenants for betrayal, small actions that will tip the scales.
They’ll be dominoes tumbling down and we’ll barely have to lift a finger. ”
Raffaele leans forward excitedly, “And when do we start the bloodbath?”
“We don’t,” I say, and his face falls.
Thankfully, Elio takes the opportunity to jump in.
“There’s a RICO case being put together against the Russians. And it’s been done by our friendly neighborhood prosecutor.”
“Beaumont?” Salvatore asks, surprised. “She just can’t keep her hands out of the cookie jar, can she?”
“More like she’s attracted to danger and her father’s pushing her into it as well,” Elio turns to me. “Matt, you can’t seriously expect us to rely on her finishing the Russians. I don’t have much faith in her ability to take the case to court.”
My jaw tightens. “If she fails, we’ll take care of it ourselves. But doing that would draw unwanted attention. Which is why I’d prefer someone else do the final dirty work for us.”
Although I’d very much prefer it if Lindsay didn’t touch the case at all. It all ties in perfectly with my plan. As long as nothing goes wrong, we’ll walk out of this unscathed. An all-out war is the last thing we need.
Salvatore sets his glass down, the sound soft but final.
“The plan’s pretty good. You’ve outdone yourself, Matteo, as always. I’m not comfortable with that last part, though.”
“Me either,” Raffaele adds.
“But I’ll trust in your judgment. For now. Let’s get the wheels in motion, there’s no time to waste.”
I nod in agreement and we get to work fine-tuning the details. I share all the information I have and the four of us work like a well-oiled machine.
My family is very important to me. And I’ll do anything to keep them safe. While my primary goal with this plan may be to avoid bloodshed, If anyone I care about gets hurt, I’ll raze whoever’s responsible to the ground.
If the Russians step one toe out of line toward my family, the streets will be littered with their blood and the blood of everyone they love.
And if Lindsay so much as loses a strand of hair, there will be hell to pay. She may be my newest acquisition, but no one touches what’s mine.