Page 49 of The Arianna Arrangement

I couldn’t saddle my family with a troubled teenage girl. Especially since we didn’t know what she’d do when she was released.

“She’s got to get out of the city. If she stays here, there’s too good of a chance that she’ll be either captured and sold, or rat you out.” The car pulled to a stop right outside of our destination. “But that’s a problem for later. Getting through this then getting her out is priority number one.”

As soon as we entered The Crimson Room, we were escorted to the back immediately. There were two guys the size of houses standing outside of the door and we had to check our weapons before going in.

Sandro had said this was standard procedure and made me carry a gun so I’d have something to turn in. Me not turning one in would result in a complete pat down and then I’d look weak to the others when they realized I really wasn’t packing.

Eight of the ten chairs were already filled and there were four guys standing against the wall. Though Marco was technically Sandro’s second, he wanted me at the table. Marco hadn’t seemed nearly as offended about that as Elio had about me coming instead of him.

Marco seemed smart so he probably saw the wisdom in his cousin's choice.

“Alessandro.” A man I recognized as Nico Ricci, was the first to speak. “Let me be the first to give you my condolences. I know we were all surprised by your father's untimely death, but I’m glad the autopsy didn’t show any foul play. The death of a leader is horrible any way you slice it, but it’s even worse for family morale if it isn’t a natural death.”

Alessandro gave him a nod. “Thank you. It definitely was shocking for everyone in the Vitale family.” He turned and gave his attention to the others. “I have my brother-in-law, Tucker Givenchy, sitting with me tonight. While he’s not officially leadership of our organization, my father had him inducted and wanted him to share the same kind of respect my right-hand man would. I feel confident my father would have wanted him by my side for this meeting.”

Don Pasero gave a nod. “Of course. We know he was excited about uniting your families.”

“I’m going to cut to the chase.” The man I recognized as the Don of the Bronx, Carbone, leaned forward on the table. “With your father’s untimely death and you now taking the lead, there is no clear line of succession should something happen to you. That means that if you die unexpectedly, there could be a power vacuum. That would potentially affect us all. A successor needs to be named.”

Sandro nodded. “Yes. Our line of succession will be finalized after the funeral, but I was hoping to discuss a potential marriage with Don Accardi to his daughter Valentina tonight.”

The man scoffed. “You didn’t seem to want anything to do with her when your father brought the idea to the table.”

Sandro lowered his eyes in respect. I wasn’t sure that was the right move since he was now the man’s equal, but what did I know? “I was young and stupid and couldn’t imagine getting married to anyone. I was also still pissed about Arianna’s arrangement and absolutely hated Tucker for the simple fact that he’d be marrying her one day. I didn’t want an arrangement like that with Valentina to ruin the relationship I’d formed with your sons. Now, as an adult that is in charge of his family, I can understand the value in an arrangement like this.”

Don Pasero leaned back and crossed his arms over his chest. “It’s not a bad idea, Adriano. You know your daughter is a wild card. And Alessandro has always proven to be a natural born leader. We all agreed he’d do his family proud when the time came. Hell, if I had a daughter that was of age to get married, I’d be trying to steal this deal from you. Since he can’t wait until my Bianca is of age due to the circumstances, I think this is the best solution.”

I leaned forward, resting my clasped hands on the table. I’d done my research as soon as dinner was over and on the way here. “It’s been a long time since there was a marriage between the families. Hell, it’s been a long time since a Don took control of their family before he was married and had kids. Valentina marrying Alessandro, the daughter of a don marrying another don, could prove the accords are working. While there’s been peace for a long time, we all know the police are watching and just waiting for something to pop off. This alliance could make them finally believe that there’s actual peace between the families. If they believe that, they back off some, and I don’t have to tell you just how much that helps you all out.”

Don Ricci smiled like the Cheshire cat. “I, for one, wouldn’t mind the cops backing off. This arrangement would have my vote.”

Agreements rang out from the other two dons and all eyes turned towards Accardi. His jaw ticked as he considered his options before he finally caved. “I’d be willing to have a discussion between just our two families after this meeting.”

Sandro smiled and gave another head bow. “Thank you. I appreciate that.”

Don Carbone cleared his throat. “We also wanted to discuss the funeral. I know it’ll be held at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, which is in your territory. We would like to ask permission to come and pay our respects. We will limit it to ourselves and our heirs so as to not appear threatening.”

Sandro chuckled. “Are you trying to say you’re not a threat in your old age now?”

All the men laughed, which was good because I would have worried that they’d all have too big of egos to take a joke. “In all seriousness, I appreciate the gesture and will grant you permission to attend.”

“Thank you. We know it’s been a long few days so I don’t want to keep you too long. I’m sure you’d like to have that discussion with Adriano and get home to rest.” Don Pasero gave us both a nod, then he and his heir got up and left, the other men, aside from the Accardi’s following behind.

As soon as the door was closed, Marco came and took the seat on the other side of Sandro, Tomasso doing the same and sitting in the open seat beside his father.

“Thank you for being willing to meet with me.” Sandro sat back in his chair and clasped his hands on his stomach the same way his father used to when he was making a deal. “Please know that this proposal doesn’t come out of nowhere or even out of desperation. My father and I had actually been discussing it for the last week since my sister’s wedding. He told me it was time to settle down and do my duty of getting married and providing heirs. Valentina’s name came up in that discussion and we had talked about reaching out to try to make a deal.”

Luka chuckled as he crossed one leg over the other. “You know my sister will be pissed if we go through with this, right? She won’t make things easy on you.”

Don Accardi raised a hand, silencing his son. “Valentina will do as she’s told. Hearing another don call her a wild card has made me realize just how out of hand she’s gotten lately. I thought we’d had her contained, but apparently not. That’s the reason I’m willing to hear you out. I know your father raised you right and you will line her out. But an agreement would need to be beneficial for my family as well. I can’t just marry her off because she’s getting out of hand. That makes it look like I can’t even keep my daughter in check.”

“The accords are working and the families are seeing unprecedented success.” I crossed a leg over the other, propping my ankle on my knee as I copied Sandro’s pose. “But I think we all know that will only last for so long. There will come a time when someone takes the throne of their family, someone that has only lived during a time of peace, possibly a current heir, and they will get greedy. They won’t understand the value of the accords anymore and they’ll want to take more for themselves. When that happens, it’s every family for themselves. There won’t be a question of who you can trust because the answer is very obviously no one. But… if the Accardi and Vitale families share blood, then those two families never have to question the loyalty of the other. It means that if one of the other families wants a war, they get a war with two families for the price of one. This is why marriages between the families weren't uncommon before the accords. They understood the benefit of having an undeniable ally.”

Marco reached in his jacket’s inside pocket and handed Sandro a folded piece of paper. Sandro opened it up, flattened it, then handed it across the table to Adriano. “My father was prepared to work out a deal with transportation. It would be more cost efficient for your family if you could transport your drugs from New Jersey through our territory. We would be willing to give you passage. You would transport from the Holland Tunnel, use Canal Street through our territory, then over the bridge to Brooklyn. But as you can see, I’m willing to sweeten the deal and make things very lucrative for both of us.”

Don Accardi looked over the paper. Neither of the twins moved closer, knowing they couldn’t be that openly curious, but both of their eyes were glued to the paper, reading it from where they sat. Finally, Adriano looked back up at Sandro. “You’d give me the brothel?”

Sandro shrugged. “My father and I didn’t see eye to eye on the sex trade. While I understand that the older generation enjoyed things of this nature, the future is elsewhere. So you would get the brothel and I would get access to the college campuses in your territory to recruit for my new business venture.”