Dario shrugged. “I wanted her safe from Miceli, but she wasn’t mine. I’m not nice. She needed nice. I’ll never be that. But Miceli wasn’t getting her.”
Val nodded. He moved his arms to make certain he had a range of motion and he could do so without pain. It was the wound in his leg that worried him the most. “When I stand, you’re going to have to cover for me. That’s the one time I’m awkward and someone might notice. It just takes a few seconds for my body to adjust and then I’m fine.”
“I know we needed to get on this immediately, Val, but I don’t like it. We’re really having to rely on Stefano and his family for your protection. I did see the security room. Emilio and Enzo showed me everything. Very high-tech, better than anything we have. Bernado was drooling over their equipment, and they had no problem letting him in the room with them. He’s in seventh heaven. I will say Stefano’s cousins are very forthcoming anytime I ask for information. I was given full access to the underground levels as well as blueprints. Emilio sent those to my phone after giving me a personal tour.”
“Cameras?”
“Everywhere, but out of sight. He will have them off in the conference room unless I signal I want them on and Bernado will tell him. Normally, I wouldn’t allow phones anywhere you’re speaking, but in this case, Bernado, with the equipment Emilio has, can tell if anyone is recording and it will give us one more tool to find traitors,” Dario said.
Valentino nodded. “I will bring my father in myself with you escorting us.”
“When he leaves, who do we trust enough to bring him back? Because I’m not leaving you alone with known traitors,” Dario stated.
Val shook his head. “Have you considered, even once, that I give the orders?”
“Not really.”
Val refrained from smiling, but was grateful he had Dario. He might have been appointing Severu Catalano as his official advisor, but it was always going to be Dario he listened to first. “Stefano’s bodyguards will take him back up. You have to admit, they’re every bit as good as anything we’ve got and we can trust them.”
Dario nodded. “Bernado will have eyes on them all the way back to this suite. No one will be able to get to him here. I presume they’ll stay to guard him.”
“That’s the plan.”
Valentino glanced at his watch. “Let’s get this done. We’ll need to talk to Giuseppi about Custanzu Parisi. If he hasn’t figured it out yet, it’s only because he doesn’t want to know the truth. He can’t go into the meeting without knowing. That will make him look weak. I don’t want that for him. Not ever.”
His chest felt heavy as he walked with Dario through the large suite to his father’s room. They’d given him the bedroom with the best view of the city. Val gave a perfunctory knock and opened the door. His father sat in the leather armchair facing the gas fireplace that wasn’t on. He looked tired and sad.
“Should you be up, Val?” Giuseppi didn’t look as Valentino crossed the room and greeted him with a kiss to the top of his head. “We should put this off for a few days.”
That told Val his father knew his best friend had betrayed him and he was more than ready to hand over the reins of his empire to his son.
“You know we can’t do that without losing everything. The meeting has been called, and capos are waiting. You have only to make a short appearance and announce you are stepping down and I am taking over. I will handle everything from there. Demetrio and Drago will escort you back to this room. It is safer here until I know who to trust and who Miceli has corrupted with his flesh trafficking.”
Giuseppi heaved a sigh and then pushed up with both hands off the arms of the chair. “He always said there was so much money to be made in those markets. Young children. When I say young, I mean he talked of selling little boys and girls. And then there was his idea of taking teens and selling them. Using them in moving brothels. Women to be sold or used the same way. He kept coming to me over and over, and I kept turning him down. He showed me the numbers to be made, more than weapons, more than drugs, but I wouldn’t hear of it. I kept my word to the Ferraro family, but more, the idea sickened me. Everyone has a line they won’t cross. That was mine.”
“I feel the same way,” Valentino assured him. “Why do you feel guilty?”
“I tried to talk to him. To convince him, but I didn’t try hard enough. Women came easy to him, and he never respected them. He treated them cruelly and discarded them as fast as he acquired them. He raised Angelo and Tommaso to be like him. The way he treated Dario’s mother. The things that happened to his own son. He wanted to raise Dario the same way, but it was too late.” He looked across the room at Dario, his faded eyes filled with sorrow. “Your mother was beautiful and so sweet. She was cursed the day she caught his eye.”