Page 19 of Niccolo

Dario finally came home, alive and in good health.

I’m not a religious man, but I thanked God incessantly for his safe return.

Everyone else was there to meet him when he walked out of San Vittore. I wanted desperately to be there with them, but it would have been foolish.

To have both don andconsiglierein the same place – out in the open, in foreign territory – with multiple enemies looking to collect our scalps? Unwise. So I stayed home and waited.

When he arrived with the others, I met him at the door.

“Welcome home, Don Rosolini,” I said.

“Good to see you, Machiavelli,” he replied.

We paused – laughed – and then hugged each other fiercely.

The others (Adriano and Valentino in particular) wanted to start partying. Champagne, scotch, cigars –

And escorts brought in from Florence.

Dario refused, thank God. “Too dangerous. That would be the easiest way for our enemies to get at us. There will be time for women in the future. For now, we work. We have a lot to accomplish in a very short time. When we’ve righted the ship,thenwe can celebrate. And now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m due for a long-overdue talk with myconsigliere.”

The two of us retired to the parlor.

“How bad is our situation?” Dario asked me somberly.

“Considering we lost half our territory and roughly the same percentage of our revenue-generating businesses, not great. But it could be worse.”

“I’m not talking about the business. I’ll speak with Roberto about that later. I’m talking about our standing with the other families.”

He meant within theCosa Nostra.

“They’re going to test you. Maybe not right away, but eventually. That much is certain.”

“Yes,” he said dourly, like he knew my answer but hated to hear it anyway.

“Fausto’s a known quantity, so they’ll most likely leave him alone. It’syouthey don’t know, other than as Papa’s son. And while that will buy you a certain amount of deference for a while, it won’t last.”

I went through our list of ‘frenemies’ first.

The Agrellas would most likely seek to renegotiate our holdings in Florence, if not outright challenge us for control.

The otherCosa Nostrafamilies were likely to make incursions into our territory – maybe attempt to take over the drug trade on the fringes, or try to cut a deal with local pimps – in order to see if we would defend our territory.

But Dario surprised me.

“We’re getting out of drugs and prostitution,” he announced.

I raised my eyebrows. “Excuse me?”

“It’s a new day,consigliere.Set up a talk with Roberto about ending those parts of the business.”

“Just because you want to wash your hands of them doesn’t mean human nature will change,” I said. “Men are still goingto want to get laid. People are still going to chase away their problems by snorting shit up their nose.”

“I don’t care.”

“Youwillwhen the other families try to take over those aspects of the business!” I retorted. “You’ll care when pissant street gangs start peddling drugs cut with rat poison, and the bodies start piling up in the morgues!”

“We’ll deal with those problems as they arise,” Dario said gruffly.

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