But Monk was already shaking his head. “That’s not going to happen.”
“And why not, Frankie?” asked Amelia.
“Anything else?” Monk asked as if it was a moot point already.
But it wasn’t to the Sinatras. Including Ashley. “A truce?” Then Ashley looked at Monk. “You’re at war withmyfamily?”
Monk hated to go there, but Big Daddy’s presence again left him no choice. “Yes.”
Ashley was floored. “What about?”
“Your uncle Mick.”
When he said Mick’s name, Ashley knew not to ask too many questions. Mick’s life was too complicated for her to even wrap her brain around. She stopped trying long ago.
“There has to be a truce,” Big Daddy said to Monk, “and it has to start with you.”
Monk frowned. “Why it got to start with me?”
Now it was Big Daddy’s time to frown. “Why do you think, Frankie? Your guys hit his guys first. That’s why!”
“That’s what he told you?”
Big Daddy and Amelia both stared at Monk. “What do you mean is that what he told me?” asked Big Daddy. “Are you saying he’s not telling me the truth?”
“Did he tell you about Dorian Toscano?”
Big Daddy stared at Monk. “Is that the kid they call Dory?”
“That’s him.”
“Mick’s son?”
Monk didn’t want to be the one to reveal any of Mick’s substantial dirty laundry, but apparently that cat was already out the bag. “Yes.”
“He told me how Dory and Danny Cerva got into it and Dory took Danny out.”
Pain mixed with rage appeared in Monk’s already large, faraway-looking eyes, and his jaw tightened. “Is that all he told you? Did he tell you about Dory’s outfit?”
“What do you mean his outfit? Dory has an outfit?”
“Hell yeah he’s got a crew. Mick has footprints over there and I do too, but Dory runs those Italian street gangs,” said Monk. “They aren’t Mafia, but in my opinion they’re worse. They’re undisciplined. They do whatever the hell Dory tells them to do, no matter how reckless his orders are. Or did Mick fail to mention that part?”
Amelia glanced at Big Daddy. “He told us he had a son,” Amelia said. “That’s about it.”
But even that was news to Ashley. Uncle Mick had a son named Dory? She was shocked. But she knew not to verbalize anything or her father or her husband, both domineering men in her life, would banish her to another room immediately. She remained silent, but took it all in like a sponge.
“So Dory’s a mob boss,” said Big Daddy. “What else is new?”
“A gang boss to be more precise,” said Monk. “And his men not only took out my underboss, but they took out Danny’s entire family right along with him.”
All three Sinatras were surprised. Big Daddy knew Mick was vicious, and it would stand to reason that his kid would be too. But Mick was a fair man in the end. If what Monk said was true, his kid didn’t appear to be. “Why would Dory take out Danny’s family too? Was it that bad? Were your men in Rome and Dory at war?”
“You know me better than that. My guys can’t declare war. Only I can do that. And I wasn’t at war with anybody until now. I break my neck trying to keep the Bonaducci family free from all that shit, you know that, Big Daddy. Dory started this war.”
Still shocking to Big Daddy and Amelia. “What was Danny doing in Rome anyway?” asked Amelia.
“We got interest there. Nothing super-major, but a good deal of real estate. He was checking on our guys.”
