Someone must’ve been coming here all these years to take care of the garden, because there’s no way it would look so well kept after seven years of neglect.I have no idea who that was, but I have my suspicions.
But it’s time to stop thinking about all those inconsequential things and get down to business.And this is the place to do it—the study used by my ancestors to create and run the Rovina empire.
“I appreciate all your help, Caputo,” I tell him once we’re there.
“Ferro asked me to offer you all the help you need,” he says looking at me pointedly.“I answer to him.”
I’m at once very annoyed at Ferro for not telling me this, and grateful that he went ahead and took care of it for me.I’ve not led men in so long that I sometimes lie awake in a cold sweat worrying I won’t know how to.
My brother was the one groomed to take over the family empire.I was the spare.I had a crash course in what it takes to lead in the last months of the war, but by then all was already lost.Or did I pound in the final nail with my incompetence?I worry about that too.
But I’ve had a decade to think about all the ways the war should’ve been fought differently.And come up with about a million ways of how I will destroy Dante Moretti.
The real trouble is deciding which of those ways to employ now.The slow and torturous kind?Or the fast, blitz-like strike?
“First thing’s first,” I say as I sit down at the desk made of Portoro marble that was brought here straight from the mines of Portovenere in Italy along with the guy who then spent three months carving it.The gold veins in the black remind me of Goldie, especially the parts where the stone is more gold than black.Hopefully we’re heading back to where that will be true of her too.
“We need to get everyone housed and armed,” I say.“Then we’ll talk strategy.Moretti already knows I’m back.He sent me a ferret in the night.”
Caputo gives me a confused look.
“It was nailed to the front gate.I threw it away.It’s what Moretti sends his enemies as a warning… the enemies he considers beneath his bother.The big ones he sends bigger gifts.”
“None of the men I had watching the house saw anything,” Caputo says, sounding both mad and disappointed at the same time.
“Because you did like I wanted and kept them just watching the house,” I say, since I don’t need him disciplining all these man that had volunteered to help me yet.
“So if he sent you a ferret, he thinks you’re not a threat to him?”Caputo says.“He probably doesn’t know about the army.Or the backing you have now.That’s good.It will work in our favor.”
Marco “The Axe” Caputo certainly has a gift for stating the obvious.
“Moretti enjoys crushing those beneath him the most, that’s the kind of scum he is.And there’s no one he considers lower on the food chain than me.”
“But we’re gonna change all that,” Caputo says, a tiny smile appearing on his lips.“I like being on the side of the underdog.”
“Good,” I say.“Enjoy it while it lasts because I won’t be the underdog for much longer.”
He grins even wider this time.
“Now please make sure everyone is settled and has all they need,” I say.“I want you to put the Codellis in an apartment downtown.”
I reach into one of the desk drawers and toss a set of keys across the table.“The address is on the key chain.”
Caputo stuffs them in his pocket.“The women and the old man together?Wouldn’t it be better to separate them?”
I shake my head.“I don’t see a need to be more cruel to them than I need to be.Make sure they have what they need.”
“You sure you’re not being too soft with the Codellis?”he asks.“I mean, I get that you like the oldest daughter.But she is your prisoner.”
“There’s funds in there.”I point at a chest of drawers, dark wood but the faces of the drawers are made from the same black marble as the desk.I filled those drawers with the cash I found around the house last night.
I don’t appreciate him second guessing my orders.Or implying I’m a fool where Goldie is concerned.I have my own ways of getting things done.They’ll either work, or I’ll fail.But I’ll fail eventually anyway, thanks to the curse.
My look must tell him as much, because he doesn’t say anything more, just stands up and goes to the drawers, whistling softly as he discovers the money.“You sure you want all this cash just lying around like this?”
I shrug and lean back in my leather seat, another thing my great-grandfather had commissioned from Italy.The leather is still as soft and supple as I remember from my childhood.
“I like to know who I can trust sooner rather than later,” I say, looking at Caputo pointedly.“I’ll be generous to every man who helps me get my own back.But I won’t suffer thieves.”
