Dario and I strolled towards the gardens to find Bianca and Alessandra.
“You did well in Florence,” he said. “Extremely well. Not only in finding Lettieri, but as capo. I spoke to your men when they returned. They all praised you – the way you gave orders, your concern for their safety, your willingness to take any risk you ordered them to take. I was very impressed.”
“Thank you,” I replied, and felt the warmth of pride in my chest. I had done well. Hell, the family would be in far worse danger if I hadn’t discovered the existence of this Mezzasalma character.
And it felt good to know that the men under me respected me.
However, Dario’s words felt like a prelude before the other shoe dropped.
“…but?” I asked.
Dario smiled slightly. “I read once that as soon as you say ‘but,’ it negates everything that came before it. So, no buts. However, there is an ‘and.’”
“Okay – AND?” I asked sourly.
“You did extremely well in Florence… and in the future, I need you to respect the chain of command.”
I groaned. “This is about Niccolo, isn’t it?”
“Of course.”
“What, did he complain about me behind my back?” I asked angrily.
“No. He hasn’t said a word about it. And he didn’t have to – because I witnessed it firsthand.”
“He thinks he can boss me around, that I have to do everything he says – ”
“Because he can, and you do. He’s my consigliere – my right hand. You know that.”
“Yes, but – ”
“There is no ‘but.’ This isn’t the old days. We can’t just do what we want, safe in the knowledge that somebody else is running the show. We’re running it now. It’s resting on our shoulders, all of it. We can’t squabble like we did when we were kids, because every decision is potentially life and death. And nobody’s backing us up anymore… except each other.”
I didn’t say anything because there was nothing to say.
Dario was right.
Didn’t mean I liked it, though.
When I didn’t answer, Dario continued. “I made you capo because your strengths fit the role. Your bravery, your ability to fight, your willingness to put it all on the line, your clear head in the heat of battle. But Niccolo is consigliere because he has different strengths. He plays the long game. He comes up with the options the rest of us don’t see. He’s a strategist.”
“So, what – I’m just supposed to bow and scrape and do whatever he says?”
Dario sighed in annoyance. “It’s not that you can’t push back. I always want you to speak your mind. But I need you to do it with respect. If you were a capo working for another family – one you weren’t related to by blood – would you address their consigliere the way you talk to Niccolo?”
He had me there.
If I pulled the shit in another family that I had in ours, it would have meant a swift demotion.
Maybe even a bullet in the back of the head, just to make a point to everyone else.
“…no,” I conceded.
“The problem is, you’re treating Niccolo like he’s your little brother ordering you around, and not your don’s consigliere.”
Dario was right. He had always been the oldest, and I’d always respected him. For most of my life, I’d wanted to be him.
But I wasn’t. And I’d made peace with that.
But Niccolo…
I still saw him as an annoying little seven-year-old telling me “ACTUALLY…” whenever I said something.
“That’s what I had to tell you,” Dario finished.
“…okay,” I said sullenly.
I knew that everything he said was true…
But I still couldn’t help but feel like it was one of those times when my father chewed me out for some boneheaded mistake and said, Why can’t you be more like your older brother?
Dario looked over at me. “What is it?”
“Nothing,” I said.
“Oh, there’s definitely something,” he said with a dash of humor. “I know you.”
“It’s just – I’m not like you,” I said angrily. “I’m not perfect out of the gate.”
Dario burst out laughing –
Which was the most shocking thing he could have done.
My older brother almost never laughed.
I stared at him in surprise.
“You think I’m perfect?” he asked. “Since I became don, I’ve fucked up in every way possible. I took a woman prisoner to try to get information out of her father – and then I fell in love with her. And I gambled the safety of the entire family in doing so. I was blind to the threat of an outside rival, I let him invade our family compound, and I nearly got shot in the back by an old woman. Father would have been appalled. I can assure you, Fausto certainly was.”
Fausto was our uncle and our father’s consigliere for over 25 years. After Papa’s death, he had become the head of his own family.
“But… we killed the Turk,” I protested. “Everything’s fine – you married the love of your life – it all turned out okay.”
“Yes – by the grace of God. And because of your bravery, and your brothers’ bravery. And because Niccolo anticipated what the Turk was going to do, and came up with a plan for when he attacked.”
Dario was right.
Niccolo had come up with our response when the Turk broke into the mansion. He hadn’t gotten all of the details right, but he’d made sure we were ready when the Turk showed up.
And as soon as he’d found out that the Turk had Alessandra as a hostage, Niccolo had changed the plan on the fly so that Alessandra was rescued and none of us died.
I tended to forget things like that.
Dario clapped me on the shoulder. “We’re all learning on the job, brother. And we’re all going to fuck up. So never think you have to be perfect, or that I’m asking you to be – because it’s not possible. I just need you to respect the chain of command, and realize that you’re a very valuable cog in a much larger machine. We all are. I’m no different. If I die, one of you will have to step up and become don – ”
“Don’t talk like that.”
“But it’s the truth, and we have to face it. Any of us could die at any moment. We have to be ready for that possibility. If I die, you’re the obvious choice to be the next don. But Niccolo’s the only real candidate for consigliere we’ve got. Roberto’s good, but he’s all about business – he doesn’t have Niccolo’s understanding of human nature. Lars or Massimo? No. They’re fighters, not the man behind the chessboard. Valentino? Absolutely not. So if you have to become don… how are you going to deal with a consigliere you’ve been disrespecting all along?”
Jesus…
When he put it like that…
“Okay,” I agreed glumly.
“I also need you to speak to Massimo and Lars.”
My stomach plummeted.
I remembered what I’d said to Massimo in the car – how I’d hit him for calling me on my shit –
And I remembered with real shame what I’d said to Lars after we’d rescued Bianca’s mother.
But it pissed me off that they’d gone whining to Dario.
“What did they say?” I asked angrily.
“Nothing. I have no idea what transpired between you. All I know is that something happened and they’re not happy about it.”
I felt even greater shame at hearing that.
Of course they hadn’t said anything to Dario.
They were made of sterner stuff than that.
No… apparently, I was the only one who went complaining to my brother when I didn’t get my way.
Like when the consigliere gave me an order and I went over his head.
I breathed out heavily and nodded. “I’ll take care of it. I promise.”
“Good,” Dario said approvingly. “Now… about Bianca.”
I looked at him in alarm. “What?”
He smiled. “You’re really taken with her, aren’t you?”
I didn’t like this.
It made me even more uncomfortable than the talk about Niccolo, Lars, and Massimo.
“She’s just some girl,” I said grumpily.
“Uh-huh. And you risked your life to find her father… for ‘some girl.’”
I remembered how Bianca had basically asked me the same thing back in the restaurant. I tried the same answer I’d given her.
“Her father was the key to this whole thing, so I wanted to find him.”
“But you didn’t know that when you sent your men back here and struck out on your own… did you?”
It felt like Dario could see past all my bluster and defenses –
Which I didn’t like.
It made me feel naked. Exposed.
Before I could say anything, Dario asked, “Do you remember the night I sent Alessandra away?”
“Of course.”
How could I forget?
It had been a terrible moment.
She was a good person, a really good person…
And her heart was breaking right there in front of us.
All of us could see it…
And all of us could see Dario was in love with her.
He just hadn’t wanted to –
…admit it.
Shit.
If that was Dario’s game plan – to get me to see what was really going on with me and Bianca – he didn’t press it.
Instead he said, “Niccolo told me something after I sent her away. He said I thought it would make me weak if I loved her… but that I was wrong. That it would actually make me stronger, because it would give me something greater than myself to fight for. I told him I had you and him and the family to fight for – and he yelled at me, ‘There is no family if it ends with us! If we die alone, then what the hell were all the sacrifices for? What’s it all worth if there isn’t anyone to share it with – if there aren’t any children to pass it on down to?’”
I stared at my brother.
He’d never told me this.
In fact, I wasn’t sure he’d ever told me anything this private.
“I know you’ve only known her for a short while,” Dario said. “But when you know… you know. I knew about Alessandra almost from the moment I laid eyes on her… but I was afraid. I didn’t want to admit to myself it was fear – but it was. I thought loving her would make me weak. I was wrong. And Niccolo was right.”
He looked at me and put his hand on my shoulder. “Don’t make the same mistake I almost did.”
I just stared at him… and then nodded in silence.
Even if I’d wanted to speak, I couldn’t find the words.
Suddenly I heard Alessandra’s voice. “Oh, it’s our two favorite men! Hello, men!”
I looked over to see her walking towards us –
And Bianca next to her.
Her face captivated me – her beauty –
But it was more than that.
It was everything I knew about her.
The way she’d been so brave in Florence, over and over…
The love she had for her father and mother…
Her willingness to put her own life on the line to save them…
The kindness and goodness inside her…
As soon as I looked into her eyes, all those memories came flooding back –
And my heart felt like it expanded to fill my entire chest.
Bianca smiled at me…
And in that moment, she was all that existed.
It was only Dario’s voice that brought me out of the spell.
“And it’s our two favorite women,” he said as he strolled over to Alessandra and kissed her lightly on the lips. “We’ve come to tell you it’s fine to come back and eat breakfast.”
“All the business is wrapped up?”
“For the time being.”
“Good – Bianca’s been a wonderful sport, but I can still hear her stomach growling,” Alessandra teased.
“I’m fine!” Bianca protested.
“Well, now we can finally eat,” Alessandra said as she took Dario’s hand and they started back towards the house.
Bianca fell in beside me. “Everything okay?”
I slipped my arm around her waist and drew her to me, about to kiss her.
She resisted the tiniest bit. She glanced over at my brother and sister-in-law as though to say, Wait – are you sure you want to do this?!
I did.
I put my hand to her face and kissed her.
When I pulled away, she was beaming.
“Everything is wonderful,” I told her, and I kept my arm around her waist as we walked back to the house.
