Page 309 of Niccolo

“Thanks for your support,” I said drily. “But I need to warn everyone here: despite two incredibly good witnesses, the outcome is far from guaranteed. The Council is notoriously political and corrupt. There are alliances between various families, and Fausto is a consummate politician. I’m sure he’s already sewn up the votes of several dons – either by promising them support in the future or through outright bribery. Unfortunately for us, since we need every euro to fight Fausto if we lose, we can’t afford to bribe anyone. The same can’t be said for him.”

“I might be of some help in that regard,” the Widow offered.

“I appreciate that,” Dario interjected, “but I want to try to win this on merit alone. And we may need your financial support if we lose tomorrow.”

The Widow had already made her offer to us privately. I had urged Dario to take it, but he didn’t want to set the precedent of always having to bribe other families for their cooperation, which I more or less agreed with.

He also didn’t want to slip into the gutter with Fausto, which I vehementlydisagreedwith.

When you’re in a knife fight, you do whatever it takes to win, whether the fight takes place in the gutter or not.

Dario, ever the idealist, overruled me.

I thought it was stupid, but I wasn’t the boss.

The Widow gracefully accepted Dario’s refusal, and I continued the briefing.

“When the Council hears a case, every family gets a single vote. However, the five most powerful –Rome, Venice, Sicily, Naples, and Milan – have two votes apiece. So we need as much support as possible from the Five Families.

“Signora Fioretti is already on our side, so that’s two votes.

“Unfortunately, Don Vicari is less than pleased with us,” I said, and stifled the urge to look at Valentino. “So he’ll probably vote for Fausto out of spite.

“Our father had an alliance with the Amato family of Naples. He supplied Don Amato with money to fight theCamorra –an organized crime group in Naples,” I explained to Mei-ling. “However, when we lost half our territory to Fausto after Papa’s death, we stopped supporting the Amatos financially… which may or may not come back to bite us in the ass tomorrow.

“Don Severino of Rome is a toss-up. I expect him to consider the evidence fairly.

“The same can’t be said for Don Camerota of Milan. His vote is always notoriously up for the highest bid.

“As for the smaller families, we have the support of the Oldanis from Genoa, seeing as Alessandra is Signora Oldani’s granddaughter… but for the rest of them, it all depends on whether they’re open to bribery, and how much Fausto has promised them.

“So, with Signora Fioretti and the Oldanis, that’s definitely three votes forour side. Hopefully five, if the Amatos don’t bear a grudge.

“Don Vicari makes two votes against, with four against if Fausto’s bought off Don Camerota. Everyone else is up for grabs. So there’s really no telling how this is going to turn out.”

“You’re telling me that no matter how much evidence we have, and no matter how well you argue tomorrow,” Adriano said angrily, “they might still let Fausto walk?”

I smiled grimly. “That’sexactlywhat I’m telling you.”

After my rather pessimistic appraisal of our chances, dinner was a fairly somber affair… but the food was delicious, as was the wine. Everyone’s spirits eventually lifted.

As dinner drew to a close, I excused myself early. I told everyone I must prepare for tomorrow.

But that wasn’t what I had planned at all.

130

Sofia

Fausto decided we should drive to Rome to be safe. Not only that, but the five-hour trip from Modena gave us ample time to discuss our line of defense at the Council.

Our caravan of bulletproof cars got into Rome about 6:30 PM – but we still hadn’t reached our final destination.

We had to stop in Labaro, a suburb to the north with none of Rome’s beauty. It was basically just a bunch of modern residential buildings and industrial areas.

We drove to a warehouse, where several limousines were waiting for us in the parking lot.

When we exited our cars, Dante and our other foot soldiers went first to protect us.

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