“I like to pay my women for a good time and watch them work for a fat tip.” I shook the ice in my glass before I brought it to my lips to take a drink. “But call me old-fashioned, I guess.” I took a drink then returned the glass to the side of my knee.
“I should have listened to you, Wolfe.”
“Well, you didn’t, so…”
“I apologize.”
I took a drink then set it on the table—sans coaster.
“I’d really like to have you back with us.”
“Yeah, I bet you would. Especially after you heard how I handled the Lombardi brothers.” My hands came together, my fingers interlocking. “You knew better than anyone how I felt about forced prostitution, but you did it anyway. You knew I watched my mother get her brains blown out right in front of me,but you fucking did it anyway.” I’d told myself before I came here that I wouldn’t get angry, but all that went out the window when I had to look at Don Russo’s face. “You can sit there and say it’s just business, but you’ve always said this is a family, and you turned your back on family—on a man you called a son. And then threatened to slice him into chunks of meat on his way out the door.” I shook my head. “Disloyalty can’t be fixed with a fucking apology.”
He slowly rubbed his palms together as he stared at his knuckles, a harrowing silence that lasted nearly a minute. “If I can’t change your mind, then why did you come here today, Wolfe?” His hands went still, and he raised his chin to look at me again.
I always came at everything head on, and this instance was no different. “Because you need me for something. And I want to know what it is.”
He had a great poker face, one of the best I’d ever seen, and he held my stare without an ounce of recognition or emotion.
“You wouldn’t reach out just because your newest side hustle failed. You wouldn’t reach out to me because of a guiltyconscience, not after the way you threatened me. There’s only one reason you would issue an apology to anyone—and that’s for self-preservation. You forget how well I know you, not as a friend or a mentor, but as someone who’s watched and observed you my entire life. You need me for something, and you’re going to tell me what it is.”
The poker face continued, and he stared at me with a cold stillness, like a lake frozen over in the midst of winter. He rubbed his palms together once again before he released a sigh. “You know the Skull King is expanding his drug empire.”
“Old news.” I’d suggested that Don Mancini focus his business exclusively on arms and monopolizing that market since the Skull King only seemed interested in powder. Anyone stupid enough to continue a drug empire would get a violent visit from the Skull King. And anyone who wanted to encroach on our territory would get a visit from me.
“He’s deployed one of his minions to Sicily.”
Now, this was brand-new information.
“Icarus.”
I didn’t know the name, but I had a feeling I would never forget it.
“From what I hear, he’s worse than the Skull King.A lotworse.”
“What’s he want?”
“To make sure everyone complies with the Skull King’s demands. The drug empire belongs to him exclusively, and anyone who tries to do business without his authorization and partnership is buried alive in his private cemetery.”
I had a damn good poker face too, but I felt it slip.
“He hit Victor in Naples really hard. Buried his entire family and made him watch. His son…his daughter. They were only five and eight.”
I wasn’t afraid to cross any line necessary to get shit done, but that was too far. “Why didn’t Victor step away when they warned him?”
“Because they didn’t warn him,” Don Russo said. “Just came in and took over. Perhaps he had an issue with Victor I didn’t know about. I’m not sure. A few days ago, Icarus hit Catanzaro. Did the same thing to them. We’ve been protected by the island’s natural separation from the mainland…but looks like our luck has run out.”
Now I would make sure that Don Mancini left the drug business for good. He’d absorbed the Lombardis canned tomato business because of the ease of using it to move drugs across borders, but that would have to be shut down immediately.
“We’ve got a lot of players in Sicily. We don’t always get along, but other than natural conflicts and transgressions, we operate in relative peace. But if Icarus and his men come here and take us down one by one…we’re all fucked.”
“I don’t see how he stands a chance against Cosa Nostra.”
“You’re probably right. We have the numbers and the allies. But something tells me not to underestimate this guy. If we want to maintain our independence from the mainland, we all need to stand together. Otherwise, Icarus might pick us off one by one—and put us in the ground.”
I knew he’d needed me for something, but I hadn’t expected this.
“From everything that I’ve heard, he reminds me of you.”
