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Dario laughed so hard that tears rolled down his cheeks.
When he finally settled down a bit, I continued. “But what I learned is, all those years of training? They were so I could get through the first few minutes of combat. You don’t really know what battle is like until you’re thrown in the middle of it… but all that training was to help you survive.
“And from that moment forward, you learn faster than you ever did before. You learn more in five minutes in a firefight than you did in five weeks of basic training… because one is just preparing for the thing, and the other IS the thing.
“But the training is crucial, because it gets you through the first five minutes… and that first five minutes gets you through the next five hours… which gets you through the next five days, and weeks, and months.
“I won’t bullshit you: it’s going to be hard. But you’ve trained. You’re prepared. You’re going to get through the first five minutes… and once you get through that, you’ll get through the next five hours… and then the next five days. You’ll be learning on your feet – on-the-job training, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. It’ll be hard, but to start with… all you have to do is get through those first five minutes.
“And I know you can do it because I was in here with you. I fought side by side with you. I saw you every day. You not only survived – you thrived. You faced down the killers and the thugs and you always came out on top. So when you walk out of San Vittore a free man, I know you won’t just survive – you’ll thrive. And you’re going to make a hell of a great leader.”
Dario looked at me with misty eyes and a real smile. Not the weary one from before, but one of relief and gratitude – like he was finally seeing the sun after the darkest night imaginable.
He put his palm against the plastic barrier.
I put my palm up on the other side.
“You’re going to be there beside me?” he asked quietly. “Just like you had my back in here?”
“Every fucking step of the way. Count on it.”
He gave me the biggest smile imaginable. “Che Dio ti benedica, amico mio.”
God bless you, my friend.
When I left Dario a few minutes later, I didn’t leave the broken, grieving man I’d seen when I walked in…
But a warrior.
And a mafia don.
124
In the days after we returned from Milan, I tripled down on my efforts.
We had to replace the foot soldiers we’d lost when Fausto left, so I asked all my guys if they had family or friends who might want to join us.
Our foot soldiers’ lives had been utterly transformed by their training, and other people had noticed. We had dozens of applicants – but that was only the starting point.
Niccolo worked overtime to vet everyone, making sure that none of them had any ties to our enemies – or weaknesses like gambling or drug addiction that could open them up to blackmail.
Once I had a batch of new recruits, I trained them mercilessly ten hours a day. Massimo, Adriano, and Valentino helped. It really was like putting the new guys through basic training in the military.
Half of them dropped out… but the half who remained were fighters to the core. And they learned to follow orders not only from me but from Massimo and Adriano. Valentino was a bit young to command the same respect his older brothers did, but Adriano and Massimo transformed into officers who could lead men into combat when the time eventually came.
While the new guys were getting whipped into shape, the men I’d trained before Leonardo’s death had to work overtime to protect the grounds – but I never heard a single complaint from any of them. If anything, they asked if there was more they could do to help.
Niccolo and Roberto no longer trained with us, but that’s because they were working 12 hours a day on other projects. Roberto hired crews to replace every window in the house with Level 8 bulletproof glass. And those guys had to be vetted, too, which was a monumental task.
Once the windows were done, we installed a hundred cameras around the property. I worked with Adriano and Massimo to determine the biggest vulnerabilities. We put up cameras to cover them all and patched everything into a control room on the third floor so someone would always be watching 24/7.
The work was difficult and exhausting, but we got through it.
And it forged us into a team. Both me and the brothers – and the men who served beneath us.
Not only were we a force to be reckoned with, unlike anything Leonardo had seen before his death…
We were a family, willing to fight and die by each other’s side.
