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“No.” Vitari smiled. “He’s not like anyone expects.”
“You love him?”
And here it came, the sneer, the disgusted snarl. As soon as anyone learned Vitari was gay, they changed. He was so damn tired of defending himself. “You got a problem with that?”
“No. Like I said, the Church is changing… The Vatican will get there, but it’s like trying to turn a container ship of several thousand years of doctrine in an ocean of expectation. Takes time. I have no problem with love. Love is love.”
Maybe. Vitari doubted he’d see Catholic reform in his lifetime. But the fact Davis was here, investigating his mother’s death and all that went with it, was unexpected and welcome. “What do you know of Stanmore and Sasha Zhokov?”
“I know it’s a defunct children’s home where Father Scott met Charles Montague.”
“The word you’re looking for is groomed.”
Davis closed his eyes and winced. “I wasn’t… I wasn’t aware it went that deep.”
“Montague is gone, but there will be other priests on that drive. If that drive comes to light, it’s going to get biblical. You know that, right?”
He opened his eyes and nodded. “And they will be prosecuted in a court of law. This won’t be covered up, you have my word. As for the Russian, I’m only aware of him through the Battaglia and Giancarlo’s visceral hate of the DeSica.”
“You don’t know of any connection between my mother and Sasha?”
“There’s nothing in her past to suggest she had any kind of relationship with the Russian boss, no.”
But the more Vitari considered it, the more he knew she must have been connected to Sasha in some way. That one line from Sasha proved it… Like your mother wanted. What if Vitari asked Sasha outright? He’d never expect Vitari to face him alone. Neither would the Battaglia.
But he couldn’t meet Sasha with Francis at his side, the risk to Francis was too great, and Francis wouldn’t let him go through with it, anyway.
No, he had to do this alone.
All he needed was proof of a link between Sasha and Stanmore. Proof that wasn’t in the files, proof Sasha thought Vitari had known, then let him go after realizing Giancarlo had kept him in the dark.
That was why Giancarlo hadn’t said anything. He hadn’t yet connected the last piece of the puzzle. He didn’t have the proof Sasha was behind it all. Without that, his father wouldn’t have acted. He didn’t want to bring down the Battaglia, or Toni. It had always been about ruining Sasha Zhokov.
And when the Stanmore scandal broke, if Vitari had the proof, then Sasha Zhokov would fall too.
But how to make the Russian talk?
That was the final piece, the one thing his father had been waiting for, and the last act Vitari had to perform before all this was over and they could chase that crazy dream of a vineyard in the hills. Vitari watched Francis’s chest rise and fall. If something happened to him, Vitari would lose his damn mind.
But there was a way to save him.
Vitari stood. “Watch him for me?”
Father Davis straightened. “It’s best we stay here, wait until your contact from the police arrives. The Battaglia will be looking for you.”
Vitari picked up Sal’s gun, stolen by Francis. “I need your sweater.”
“My sweater?” Davis glanced down at himself, then the gun.
“Just hand it over, and when Francis wakes up, tell him… I’ll be back soon.”
Davis pulled his sweater over his head and handed it over. “What are you going to do?”
“Something my father should have done a long time ago.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Vitari
