“The territory is a mess,” Mantegna confirms, placing his palms on the table in front of him.
“Some things never change,” Ben says, smoothing a hand down his tie.
“There are legacy issues, no doubt.” Agessi sits upright in his chair. “Loyalty hasn’t always been forthcoming. Saverio was a lazy asshole who never recovered from his underboss’s betrayal. Catarina kept his house in order,” he adds, eyeballing Massimo. Massimo’s wife and Dario Agessi’s wife are best friends, and Dario was herconsigliereuntil he took over running the operation in Philly.
“Maybe she should step in now,” Joshua says.
“No.” Massimo instantly dismisses the suggestion. “My wife is not getting dragged into Vegas’s shit again. We keep Cat out of this.”
“How loyal are the men to Cruz and Anais?” I ask, drumming my fingers on my knee.
“There is little love lost or loyalty for those two,” Mantegna replies, and it’s not really a surprise. “Some of the older men are loyal to Anais because of her father, but most intensely dislike her. Cruz hasn’t won many fans either. Those who were loyal to him were with him in A.C., and none of them have returned to the fold.”
“We wiped a lot of them out,” Cristian reminds everyone.
“He still got away with fifteen or twenty men,” Volpe says.
“And he has allies,” Joshua adds.
“Vegas needs to be on high alert. We can’t let it fall back into Cruz’s hands,” Massimo says. He eyeballs Mantegna and Agessi. “How do you suggest we best protect it?”
The two men exchange a knowing look. “Neither of us can afford to be away from our territories for an extended period of time. We propose to alternate shifts. One week at a time so one of us is always there to oversee a restructure,” Mantegna says.
“That seems like a workable solution,” Fiero says, tossing his tie on the table. “The rest of us can take it in turns coming down for a day or two to help out.”
“That would be good,” Agessi says. “Morale is low, and seeing we have the support and full backing of The Commission will go a long way toward repairing the damage.”
“We need to strengthen forces in the city and watch the airports and ports for any sign of Cruz. We need to devise a plan of attack that we can implement immediately should Cruz resurface in Nevada.” Massimo looks directly at me. “I’d like you to go to Vegas this week to work out a strategy with Dario and Dom.”
“I can’t go this week. We are still rebuilding things at the grassroots level, and I’m making inroads with our men.” Being on the ground every day, talking with the men and getting toknow them, is already paying dividends. I’m confident in time we will have completely rebuilt loyalty, but we’re still on shaky ground. I can’t fuck off now without ruining all my progress. “If I take off for Vegas, it’ll send the wrong message.”
“I’ll go,” Fiero says, and Massimo nods.
“What about Florida?” Massimo eyeballs the older man with the salt-and-pepper hair and sharp gaze.
“There has been no sign of Cruz,” Volpe confirms. “He hasn’t shown up there.”
“And he hasn’t been in touch with Don D’Onofrio either,” Pagano adds. “We have bugged his home, his cars, his cell phone, and his computers. We have drones and cameras watching his every move. They aren’t in contact with one another.”
“What were they involved in?” Cristian asks. “We know from Anais that Cruz was making weekly trips to Florida.”
“He has a woman there,” Volpe supplies.
“Cruz has women everywhere. That isn’t the draw,” I interject. “There is another reason those two became friends, and we need to discover what it is.”
“Take shifts down there,” Massimo says, eyeballing Pagano and Volpe. “Use the excuse we expect Cruz to make an appearance and we’re concerned about the territory. It will explain the additional men I’m assigning to travel with you. I want our people all over this. Get them to befriend the Floridasoldati. Someone knows something. If we can’t get it from D’Onofrio, we’ll get it from his men.”
Volpe and Pagano nod their agreement.
“We learned some valuable intel from one of the men in the bunker,” Massimo says, staring at Joshua and me. “He was one of the Barone we picked up in A.C. He says they were tasked with breaking into Joshua’s office to get to the files in the locked room.”
“Why?” J asks, his brow puckering. “What were they looking for?”
“He didn’t know exactly what it was just that Maximo wanted something in those files. Something that was clearly important.”
“What’s in the files?” Agessi swivels in his chair to look at us.
“They were our father’s files,” Joshua explains. “When we were clearing out the old apartment to sell it three years ago, we came across them buried under a mountain of crap up in the attic.”
