Rizzo:
What do you want that I can give you?
I exhale in relief. Okay, stay strong. Don’t back down.
Elena:
Your silence. This ends. Now. And as far as anyone knows, our arrangement never happened. You won’t tell a soul. This secret will die with you.
Rizzo:
Done. Erase these messages and destroy the phone.
I heave a sigh. Oh thank god that’s over. I pocket the burner and consider how much I trust Mrs. Rizzo. About as far as I can throw her. Even so, a deal’s a deal.
However, if I delete everything on here, there goes any evidence to back up my side of the story. At the same time, these messages incriminate me too. If they fall into the wrong hands… that would be disastrous.
What I really should have found out is why Mrs. Rizzo is spying on Maximo. I mentally kick myself for the missed opportunity. Though I doubt she would have told me the truth. Even so, she’s on my radar. That woman is not to be trusted.
CHAPTER 36
Maximo
Summer sunlight beats down on us. It would be unbearable if not for the cooling ocean breeze. Seagulls circle overhead. The scent of salt air mingles with steak and Chianti Classico Gran Selezione.
“Don Casella’s detained shipment means the FBI are looking more closely into him. We need to distance ourselves until this blows over.” Julius, my consigliere, cuts off a piece of steak and shoves it in his mouth.
“I’m telling you, it’s those damn Irish. Why won’t anyone listen to me? The Monahans are trying to take us down one piece at a time,” Lazaro insists.
I swallow down my wine as I consider their words. We’re having lunch on my yacht that’s docked in the marina today—though I’d much rather be out here with Elena than these two. But I’ve been avoiding business for far too long because of the wedding and then our honeymoon. Time to get back to work. After all, I do have an empire to run.
“I don’t think it’s the Irish,” Julius voices my own opinion. “But I can tell you one thing, this stinks and I don’t like it. They shoot Enzo, then attack you and your wife in that limo, and last week the Valente boys had a situation go south. Barelymade it out of that one alive.” Julius leans forward, taking a sip of his Chianti and swishing it in his mouth. “I’m starting to see a pattern. These aren’t random, someone’s leaking information about times and locations. The only one of the families that hasn’t been hit yet is the Rizzos. I’m telling you, it stinks.”
I’ve had the same suspicions for a while now. We all have. Yet no one’s willing to start pointing fingers.
We glance at each other, digesting this insight. Julius has a keen mind, though you wouldn’t know it to look at him. Fifty, balding, with an ever expanding waistline as he spends half his days dining on rich food and expensive wine. But no one person knows more about what goes on in our world than Julius Fabini.
Lazaro grunts, shaking his head. “You better have more than theories if you go pointing your finger at the Rizzos. Besides, how do you know this enemy hasn’t left the Rizzos alone on purpose? So we start suspecting them and fighting among ourselves, huh?”
Julius shrugs, swallowing another bite of beef. “I don’t. I’m just saying we should be careful who we trust, that’s all.”
“Well, I think the Monahans?—”
“For fuck sake, it’s not the Monahans and it’s not the Rizzos.” I rake my fingers through my hair. We’ve been going around in circles with the same old shit for months. All talk, no action. “Give me something better to work with—like an actual lead. Why don’t we have any faces or names yet? Somebody must have seen something to help us identify these fuckers.”
Julius stares at me. “Told you already. They have inside information. Times and locations, but also they know how to avoid the security cameras. Plus they clean up their messes so well, it’s like they never happened. This isn’t just one man—it’s a team. A team of masked men. If we want to discover their identity, we have to catch one of them.”
“A cowardly, faceless enemy,” Lazaro grumbles, shaking his head like they’re a disgrace. I agree with him, they are cowards.
“Not for long.” Julius pats his lips with the cloth napkin. “I say we use their tactics against them.”
“You mean to leak false information?” I like the idea, I’ve been milling it over for a while. “We could set a trap.”
“Exactly.”
“What kind of trap are we talking about?” Lazaro glances at the both of us.
“That’s what we need to decide on.” Julius finishes off his steak. “We should also decide if we want to let the other families in on it or not.”
