It’s as efficient a kill as I’ve ever seen.
He lets the guard’s body drop to the floor, and puts his hands up at once when I turn the gun on him. Carlucci and Tramonto have also appeared now, weapons out, waiting for instruction.
“Don’t shoot, Boss,” Vitali calls out to me, rubbing his jaw. “This is the guy, the one Vollero sent. He’s with us.”
It’s not just the Rossis and the Morellis who had a problem with Lou Clemenza. Many factions within his Family wanted to get out from under his thumb. Now, I suppose, they can.
When I decided to break up the Clemenza Family, it seemed the best option was to find all those pre-existing fissures and put pressure on them. Al Vollero, who had previously made his grievances with me and the other Morelli senior members well known in the wider community, was the perfect plant. A disaffected, disgruntled, aging Morelli Capo who demonstrably preferred the Old Don’s way of doing things? Clemenza ate up everything Vollero fed to him, never stopped to think about whether it was true.
Never stopped to question why everything that came out of Vollero’s mouth fit so well with what hewantedto hear.
And along the way, Vollero managed to turn more than one Clemenza member into a friend of the Morellis.
“You’re the one Al Vollero turned?” I ask the lone surviving Clemenza bodyguard, who nods vigorously, hands still high in the air.
“Prefer to say I came to my senses,” he says, then adds, “and there are a lot more of us…Boss.” He dips his head.
I keep Finch firmly behind me. “Good to hear. But I’m sure you won’t object to staying under watch for the time being.” Carlucci and Tramonto are already hustling him away from me.
“Happy to help,” I hear him call back down the hallway.
“What happened here, Boss?” Vitali asks, indicating Clemenza‘s body with his gun. His eyes go over my shoulder to Finch, then back to the body.
“Clemenza wouldn’t take the deal,” I say at once. “Went for Finch. I had to put him down.”
Vitali is no fool. He knows my shooting style better than almost anyone else in the Family, and a cursory glance at Clemenza would tell him this wasn’t my work. But he pulls his eyes away from the corpse and shrugs. “Well, that’s a real shame. You’ll have to get new carpet in here. And after all those renovations I just did.”
Finch steps out from behind me, pulling my arm around his shoulders, looking wide-eyed and innocent. “Thank goodness Luca was here to protect me,” he says, and looks up at me, so guileless that for a moment, Ialmostbelieve my own lie.
“Thank goodness,” I echo him, looking down into his face.
Finch gives me a very small, knowing smile.
Chapter Seventy
LUCA
Once Vitali and the others have left the room, I take Finch with me to the other corner, push him up against the wall, and lean over him.
“He was going tokillyou,” he says, before I can speak. “He was going to bash your fucking brains out, and hewantedme to see it. So don’t you tell me I did anything wrong, Luca.”
“You didn’t.” That surprises him. I tip his chin up and kiss him, a soft press of my lips. “Don’t get me wrong,” I say afterward. “I wanted you to have that gun with you tonight to protectyourself, first and foremost. But it also gave me options with Clemenza, if it came down to it. And, well…” I glance over at Clemenza’s body. “It gave you options, too. Thank you, angel, for defending me. But I couldn’t have anyone knowing—”
“Yeah, yeah,” he says. “I know the score. If Clemenza refused to step down, you and you alone were supposed to kill him. All thattradizioneshit that I don’t understand, right? Guess Clemenza was right about that.”
He gives me a wicked grin, but I’m not ready to smile about tonight just yet. I pull him away with me, heading for the door. “Let’s get out of here. It’s over, baby bird.”
Finch gives Louis Clemenza’s corpse a dispassionate look as we pass by. But when we get outside to the hallway, his face goes from stony cold to exhausted. “Isit really over?”
“I believe it is. Clemenza’s dead. The money is gone. His Capos will fall into in-fighting, and we’ll see if we can scoop up the most useful leftovers, the ones Vollero recommends, and make them Morellis.” We both turn as the doorbell sounds, and Carlucci jogs past us to get the door. I pull Finch to me and kiss him softly. “Go on,” I murmur. “Go wait in the kitchen for me.”
I don’t want Finch to see the next part, watch me showing off the corpse of Don Louis Clemenza to my men, so they can see for themselves that the work we’ve put in has paid off. It’s important to me, to them, but I don’t want Finch to see us gloating over his handiwork.
I’m a monster, and I know what I am. But Finch will always be my anchor to a brighter world. I want to make sure, despite everything, that he does not lose the light that I see in him.
* * *
Once Finch is safely stowedin the kitchen, I bring my Capos into the dining room and show them the proof. Carlucci has already looked his fill, so he stays standing guard over our new Clemenza friend in an upstairs room instead. Vitali saw it, played a part in it, but says he wants another look. “Need to make sure I have the details down, Boss,” he murmurs to me, “so I can back you up if anyone asks, you know what I mean?”
