Luca had been Capo for more than ten years, but things had never been more fucked up than they were now. He was perched on the edge of the wide mahogany desk as he scanned the crinkled map that showed the borders of their territory. His Famiglia still controlled the entire length of the East Coast, from Maine to Georgia. Nothing had changed in decades. The Camorra, however, had extended their territory far beyond Las Vegas into the east, having won over Kansas City from the Russians only recently. Remo Falcone was starting to get too confident. Luca had a fucking inkling that his next move would be an attack on either Outfit or Famiglia territory. Now he had to make sure Falcone set his sights on Dante Cavallaro’s cities and not his own. War between the Famiglia and the Outfit had killed enough of his men already. Another war with the Camorra would tear them apart. “I know you don’t like the idea,” he muttered to his soldier.
Growl nodded. “I don’t, but I’m in no position to tell you what to do. You are Capo. I can only tell you what I know about the Camorra, and it’s no good.”
“So what?” Matteo, Luca’s brother and right hand man, asked with a shrug, spinning his knife between his fingers. “We can handle them.”
A knock sounded and Aria entered the office that was in the basement of Luca’s club, the Sphere. She raised her blond eyebrows curiously, wondering why her husband had called her. He usually handled business on his own. Matteo and Growl were already inside, and Luca unfolded his tall frame from where he leaned against the desk when she stepped in. She went over to him and kissed his lips, then asked. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” Luca said matter-of-factly. Something in his face was off, though. “But we’ve contacted the Camorra for negotiations.”
Aria glanced at Growl. He had fled Las Vegas six years ago after he’d killed the Camorra’s Capo Benedetto Falcone. From what he’d told them, the Camorra was far worse than the Outfit or the Famiglia. They still dealt in sex slavery and kidnapping, besides the usual business of drugs, casinos and prostitution. Even in the mafia world, they were considered bad news. “You did?”
“The fight with the Outfit is weakening us. With the Bratva already breaching our territory, we have to be careful. We can’t risk the Outfit forging a deal with the Camorra before we get the chance. If they fight us together, we’ll be in trouble.”
Guilt filled Aria. She and her sisters were the reason why the truce between the Chicago Outfit and the New York Famiglia had broken. Her marriage to Luca was supposed to create a bond between the two families, but when her youngest sister Liliana fled Chicago to marry Luca’s soldier Romero, the Outfit’s Boss Dante Cavallaro declared war on them. He couldn’t have reacted any other way.
“Do you think they will even consider talking to us?” Aria asked. She still wasn’t sure why she was here in the first place. She didn’t have any useful information about the Camorra.
Luca nodded. “They sent one of their own to talk to us. He’ll be here soon.” Something in his voice, an undercurrent of tension and worry, raised the little hairs on her neck.
“They’re taking a huge risk by sending someone. They can’t know if he’s going to return alive,” Aria said in surprise.
“One life is nothing to them,” Growl murmured. “And the Capo didn’t send one of his brothers. He sent his new Enforcer.”
Aria didn’t like the way Luca, Matteo and Growl were looking at her.
“They think he’ll be save,” Luca said. “Because it’s your brother.”
The ground dropped away from Aria’s feet and she gripped the edge of the desk. “Fabi?” she whispered. She hadn’t seen him or talked to him in many years. Since war had been declared, she wasn’t allowed to contact her brother. Her Father, the Consigliere of the Outfit, had made sure of it.
She paused in her thoughts. “What’s Fabi doing with the Camorra? He is a member of the Outfit. He was supposed to follow my Father as Consigliere one day.”
“He was supposed to, yes,” Luca said, exchanging a look with the other men. “But your father’s got two younger sons with his new wife and apparently one of them will become Consigliere. We don’t know what went down, but for some reason Fabiano defected to the Camorra, and for some reason they took him in. It’s difficult to get valid information on the matter.”
“I can’t believe it. I’m going to see my brother again. When?” she asked eagerly. He was almost nine years younger, and she’d raised him until she had to marry Luca and leave Chicago.
Growl shook his head with a frown.
Luca touched Aria’s shoulder. “Aria, your brother is the new Enforcer of the Camorra.”
It took a few seconds for the information to sink in. Aria’s eyes darted to Growl. He still scared her with his tattoos and scars, with the darkness lingering in his eyes. And she wasn’t easily scared anymore, not being married to Luca.
Growl had been the Enforcer of the Camorra when Benettone Falcone had been Capo. And now that Falcone’s son had seized power, Fabi had taken over the role. She swallowed. Enforcer. They did the dirty work. The bloody work. They made sure people obeyed, and if they didn’t obey, Enforcers made sure their fate was a warning to anyone considering the same.
“No,” she said softly. “Not Fabi. He’s not capable of that kind of thing.” He had been a caring and gentle boy, had always tried to protect his sisters.
Matteo gave her a look that told her she was being naïve. She didn’t care. She wanted to be naïve if it meant keeping the memory of her kind, funny little brother. She didn’t want to imagine him as anything else.
“The brother you knew, won’t be the brother you’ll see today. He’ll be someone else. That boy you knew, he’s dead. He has to be. Enforcement isn’t a job for the kind hearted. It’s cruel and dirty work. And the Camorra doesn’t show mercy toward women like it’s habit in New York or Chicago. I doubt that’s changed. Remo Falcone is a twisted fucker like his father,” Growl said in his raspy voice.
Aria looked at Luca, hoping he’d contradict what his soldier had said. He didn’t. Something in Aria cracked. “I can’t believe it. I don’t want to,” she said. “How can he have changed so much?”
“He’s here,” one of Luca’s men informed them. “But he refuses to hand over his weapons.”
Luca nodded. “It doesn’t matter. We outnumber him. Let him through.” Then he turned to Aria. “Perhaps we’ll find out today.”
Aria tensed when steps approached. The door was opened and a tall man stepped in. He was almost as tall as Luca. Not quite as broad, but muscled. A Tattoo peeked out under his rolled up shirtsleeves. His dark blonde hair was cut short on the sides and slightly longer on top, and his ice-blue eyes…
Cold, calculating, cautious.
Aria wasn’t sure she would have recognized him in the street. He was no longer a boy; he was a man. Not just by age. His eyes settled on her. The smile of the past didn’t come, even though recognition flashed in his eyes. God, there was nothing left of the light-hearted boy she remembered. But he was her brother. He would always be. It was foolish but she rushed toward him, ignoring Luca’s growled warning.
Her brother grew tense as she threw her arms around him. She could feel the knives strapped to his back, the guns in the holster around his chest. She knew there would be more weapons on his body. He didn’t hug her back, but one of his hands cupped her neck. Aria looked up at him then. She hadn’t expected to see anger in his eyes before he returned his focus to Luca and the other men in the room. “No need for drawn weapons,” he said with a hint of cold amusement. “I haven’t traveled all the way to hurt my sister.”
His touch on her neck seemed less like a gesture of familiarity than a threat.
Luca’s fingers closed around her upper arm and he pulled her back. Fabiano followed the scene with dark humor in his eyes. He didn’t move an inch.
“My God,” Aria whispered in a tear-thick voice. “What happened to you?”
A predator grin curled his lips.
Not Fabi anymore. That man in front of her, he was someone to be afraid of.
Fabiano Scuderi.
Enforcer of the Camorra.
