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“There were highly-placed people who didn’t want the prosecutor to cut me a deal, and they fought hard against it – but most of the politicians and judges just wanted to go back to how things used to be. After all, they made a lot of money from the prior arrangement. If they pursued the court case, it would be a long, protracted legal battle costing both my family and the taxpayers tens of millions in legal fees… not to mention millions more that otherwise would have gone directly into their pockets. It was in everyone’s best interest that the matter be handled as quickly as possible. So… I pled guilty, and here I am.”
“Even though you had nothing to do with it,” I said in amazement.
“Not directly, no. But it would be inaccurate to say I had nothing to do with it since my family controls the judges.”
“Why didn’t you just let your father and uncle take the fall? They were the ones responsible.”
Dario looked at me like I was insane. “My father and uncle are in their 50s. The chances they would survive a prison sentence in here are much, much lower than mine.”
“So?”
He looked at me with even more disbelief. “Would you let your father die in a place like this, knowing you could have saved him?”
“I haven’t seen my father since I was four years old, and he was beating up my mother,” I said.
Dario nodded like he understood. “Then what about her? Wouldn’t you take the fall for your mother so she wouldn’t have to endure this place?”
“…yes,” I admitted. “If she were still alive.”
“Now you understand why I did it.”
“…yes,” I said grudgingly. “But why are you telling me all of this? You didn’t need to. You could’ve just said you were a member of the Cosa Nostra and that the Camorra want you dead. So why did you tell me all that?”
Dario looked at me for a long time before answering.
I felt like he was not only weighing whether he should tell me…
But that he was weighing me, as well.
“You saved my life,” Dario said. “You were a complete stranger when you yelled at me that day out in the yard, yet you inserted yourself into a fight you knew nothing about. From that moment forward, I owed you – as a matter of honor.
“Since then, I’ve come to regard you as a good friend. A close friend – someone I trust. I don’t have many people like that in my life. Besides my brothers and my father, there’s no one I trust with my life… except you. I don’t even trust my uncle and cousin the way I trust you, and they’re family.
“You stood by me today, shoulder to shoulder, when Aristide’s men attacked us. Not only that, you turned down a large amount of money to betray me.”
I scoffed. “What, that bullshit about millions of euros?”
Dario looked at me as though he was waiting for me to figure something out.
I stared at him in shock. “…he was serious?! He would have really paid that much if I killed you?!”
“Beginning to rethink your answer?” Dario asked coolly.
I looked him straight in the eye. “No. I don’t sell out my friends.”
“Is that what we are?” Dario asked softly. “Friends?”
“You just spent the last 60 seconds telling me that’s what we are,” I snapped.
“That’s what I believe. What I want to know is what you believe.”
I sighed. “You’re my friend. You are. I just… I’m a little afraid of who I’ve befriended, that’s all.”
“A monster,” Dario suggested.
“A murderer, at the very least.”
“You were in the Special Forces. Haven’t you killed men in times of war?”
