“So what happened?” asked Big Daddy.
“What always happens with Dory Toscano. A woman got involved. She was one of Danny’s mistresses whenever he was in Rome. But she also happened to be fooling around with Dory too. And yes, Danny was a married man and I told him to cut that shit out. But he never did. This girl was apparently his number one side piece. Sort of like Bella Caine is to Mick.”
Amelia took exception. “Bella Caine is not Mick’s side piece,” she said, although Big Daddy didn’t echo her sentiments.
“I wasn’t trying to imply she was,” said Monk. “But I mean she was to Danny what Bella Caine is to Mick: always around. Always in his business. That’s what I meant.”
“Go on,” said Big Daddy.
“So Danny and Dory got into it one night at a pub in Rome. They fought it out then went their separate ways. Dory even won the fight from what I was told. So it was no big deal, right? Wrong. That same night Dory and his men pulled up and ambushed Danny and his men. Which were allmymen and Dory knew that. But they didn’t stop there. While he was attacking Danny and his men, he had his stateside men attacking Danny’s wife and kids, killing his wife and all six of his children. So I ordered the hit on Dory. What else was I supposed to do?”
How convenient for Mick to leave that part out, Big Daddy thought as he and Amelia glanced at each other.
“But then Mick showed up and went on his revenge tour that took out sixty-five of my men between Rome and here in the States.”
“Sixty-five?” asked Big Daddy.
“Damn,” said Amelia. They thought it was around fifty, which was bad enough.
“Maybe Mick didn’t know that his son took out Danny’s family too,” said Amelia.
“He knew. I called Mick personally and told him what that motherfucker had done.”
“And?” asked Amelia.
“And his ass didn’t care. I called him after I ordered that hit on Dory and he couldn’t be reasoned with. He said any man that laid a finger on any child of his was a dead man. And he went about proving just what he said. He nearly destroyed the Bonaducci crime family. And I’m not exaggerating. And now he wants a truce? Are you fucking kidding me?”
“Not him,” Big Daddy admitted. “Me. I want a truce.”
“He doesn’t even know you’re here, does he?” asked Monk.
When Big Daddy didn’t respond, Monk shook his head. “Figures,” he said. Then he stood up. “There will be blood, Big Daddy,” Monk said, “but there won’t be any truce.”
Big Daddy and Amelia stood up too, and Ashley followed suit.
Big Daddy had a look of anxiousness on his face. It was as if shit finally got real for him after what Monk had told him. He loved Frankie Paletti even before he married Ashley. He didn’t want anything to happen to her husband. “You don’t want a war with my brother,” he said to him. “You won’t win.”
Monk stared at Big Daddy as if he knew it too. “What else am I supposed to do? Let him destroy this organization completely? An organization that has been entrusted into mycare? What will that say about me as a man? As the boss of this outfit? My enemies will get wind of it and destroy me and mine just as surely as Mick will. I wouldn’t stand a chance either way.”
Big Daddy’s heart dropped. He knew Monk had no choice just as Mick kept saying. But Big Daddy knew his first priority couldn’t be Monk, but his daughter.
He looked at her. “Get some clothes, Ashley,” he said. “You’re going to stay with me until all of this is over.”
Amelia could see a look of fear cross Monk’s face. He was a powerful man with a lot of responsibility on his plate. But unlike most mobsters, Monk didn’t run around with women or go out drinking and partying. He was a home body when he wasn’t running the Bonaducci crime family. Ashley, in truth, was all he had. If she left him at a time like this, it could destroy him in a different way.
But Ashley didn’t equivocate. “I’m staying with Frankie,” she said firmly.
Big Daddy stared at her. He wasn’t surprised by her decision, and a part of him was pleased that she was standing by her husband the way a wife should do. But he was scared for her safety.
He also knew her safety was in Monk’s hands, not his hands anymore. He looked at Monk. “Anything happens to my daughter, and you’ll see another side of me. I’m the kind of man who will tear you apart, inch by ever-loving inch, if you fail to protect her.”
Then he looked at Ashley. “You do what Monk tells you to do, you hear me, child? You’re on lockdown until this war ends. No matter what.”
Even Ashley understood that. “Yes sir,” she said.
Then Big Daddy walked out.
Amelia looked at Monk. “When a man like Charles tells you what he’ll do to you? Believe him,” she said with nothing butsincerity in her eyes. Then she hugged them both, and walked out too.
