“From?”
He sighs. “You know where from. The Commission.”
“No fucking way.No, Luca, I won’t let you. I don’t want you crawling back to them and—”
“It will be different this time.”
“Why? What could possibly make you say that? You said it yourself, it’s open season on the Morelli Family, and you’d be top trophy.”
He comes over to sit on the bed. “Because I’ll be making a business offer to them.”
“An offer they can’t refuse?” I ask bitterly.
“An offer they won’twantto refuse. Remove the Donovans; open up Boston for the taking. They’ll consider it if I put it to them in the right way. They all crave the same thing. Power.”
“Don’twewant that?” I ask.
Luca looks past me, as though considering. “For a long time, yes. It’s all I thought I wanted—absolute power. But there are things in life worth far more to me now.” He meets my eyes again. I don’t have to ask what he means. “And to protect those things that are worth more, I will do whatever I have to do. So here’s my proposal: I’ll go to the Commission and ask their blessing to remove Maggie Donovan. And I’ll ask for their help in doing it.”
“But the Clemenzas—”
“Yes, the Clemenzas might object, maybe even warn her. But the rest of them will only see business opportunities in Boston once the Donovans are out. And in our line of work, money trumps everything. The West Coasters will back me because it will help them too, and I’ll ask the Families who agree with me to lend us their resources—their men. We’ll pay them, of course. And then we clean up the Donovans for once and for all. Your sister Tara can have the leftovers if that’s what she wants.” He looks at me. “Unlessyouwant to take over, angel. We could arrange that as well.”
“The Donovans have nothing to do with me,” I tell him. “I’m yours, through and through. Andthat’swhy I’m coming with you to the Commission.” I glare at him, daring him to say no.
Luca’s smile is hard and feral. “I never expected anything less, baby bird.”
Chapter Thirty-Five
Luca
Angelo, predictably, hates the idea. He hates it so much that he breaks with his own tradition and actuallysayshe hates it, although not in so many words.
“You sure about this, Boss?” he asks, when I put it to him, which is as close as he’ll ever get to telling me straight out it’s a bad idea.
We’re sitting in my study, maybe the room I love best in our Fifth Avenue townhouse, aside from the kitchen. It’s classically masculine, filled with leather: books, chairs, desktop. On a coffee table to the side of the room sits Tino’s old chess set, the pieces carved out of the off-cuts of Michelangelo’s David (or so Tino told me once), with the bases dipped in gold or silver to differentiate their allegiances.
Every time I look at it, I think about Tino telling me I’d be good at chess. I asked Finch to teach me once, but I found the moves so ludicrous from the start that we ended upalmosthaving an argument.
“The king should be the strongest piece,” I’d insisted.
“Itis,” Finch snapped back. “Once the king’s down, the game is over.”
“Then it should be able to move like the queen. It’s barely more use than a pawn.” I was only half-serious, but Finch was so invested in teaching me I couldn’t resist teasing.
Finch is out of the hospital. He’s bounced back physically, but mentally he’s still brooding. Frank is alive and even conscious some days, but he’ll need several more operations. Hudson is still in an induced coma.
“I’m not atallsure about this,” I say to Angelo now. “But Sonny Vegas and the West Coasters still assure me they will have our backs if we approach the Commission.”
“Sonny Vegas who allowed an assassination attempt on his own turf,” he points out. “And then “accidentally” killed the guy off before you had a chance to really break him down.”
“Look, no one’s saying Sonny’s infallible.”
“Or trustworthy?”
“I’m not looking to go into business long-term with them. I just want their vote on taking down the Donovan family. The rest of the old guard will be inclined to vote against me just because it’sme.”
Angelo rubs his closed eyes with a finger and thumb as he thinks it over again. It’s one of the few times I’ve seen him display this level of exhaustion.
