“Should I stay?” Sofia asked her husband.
“I think some things are more easily said if it’s just me and my brother,” Niccolo said diplomatically.
She smiled knowingly, then filed out with the rest of us.
“What’s going to happen now?” Rachel asked once we were out in the foyer.
“Something you don’t wanna be around,” Massimo told her.
“If you hear any shouting,” I advised Rachel, “just ignore it.”
13
Niccolo
Once the parlor door closed, it was just me and Dario.
Now it was time for the truth to come out –
To say the things I couldn’t in front of the others.
“What’s thisreallyabout?” I asked in exasperation.
He glared at me. “About not becoming pimps and drug dealers.”
“We already bribe politicians and judges to subvert democracy and justice for our own personal profit,” I said with fake cheerfulness. “I fail to see how keeping teenagers alive and protecting women from getting beaten up makes us any worse.”
“I love how you can always put a positive spin on the most despicable things,” he said sarcastically.
“And I love how you want to wash your hands like Pilate and just walk away.”
Dario looked like he wanted to strangle me.
I realized I might’ve gone too far with that one, so I tried a different tack. “Look, I get it. You’re an idealist. You always havebeen. But when idealism meets reality, you have to admit, reality generally wins. And in this situation, reality decidedly has the upper hand.
“You asked for our opinions, and eight people agreed: for various reasons, it’s best if we make sure a bunch of lowlife assholes don’t fuck up Florence and its citizens. It’s not like any of us were arguing to get back into drugs and prostitution because wewantto.”
“Roberto seemed to,” Dario snapped.
“You know that’s not true,” I said calmly. “He’s simply saying that if we’re going to expend a lot of time and effort, we should at least turn a profit, because that time and effort could have been spent making money elsewhere. That’s all.
“You know he thinks in terms of profit and loss. That’s his job – just like mine is to give you the news you don’t want to hear, andyourjob is to make the best decision for the family, no matter how painful it might be.”
Dario did his best thousand-yard stare into the distance.
“I know you find these things personally distasteful,” I continued, “and so do I – but there are other aspects of our business that are equally as bad, or worse. So what in particular bothers you so much?”
After a moment of silence, he finally spoke. “The night I proposed to Alessandra, I promised her that we would be legitimate in two years. And this is a step in the wrong direction.”
Ah.
There it was.
“If Fausto hadn’t gone to war with us,” I said, “and Lau hadn’t betrayed Roberto in Hong Kong, we probablywouldhave been legitimate in two years. But life happened. Things changed. Alessandra will understand.”
Dario scowled. “She’ll understand about us becoming pimps and drug dealers? I doubt it.”
“She’ll understand if you tell her people aredying,”I said in irritation, “and that we would prefer to keep themalive.”
