Page 119 of Bene

Right.

He’d remember it, too.

Not for the reasons Mario thought, however.

“Corrado, is Ginevra—”

“She took the baby over to see Ma.”

“Good,” Marcus murmured, his voice drifting over the mostly quiet office space in his mid-city penthouse, “she loves Caroline. At least, the baby will make her smile.”

“She’s not doing any better, then?”

The question from Beni had Bene flinching, although the rest of his brothers couldn’t see it what with his back turned to the window. Here, he could let his mind run wild, and not have to worry about one of his siblings seeing the emotion on his face. It was hard enough listening to them try to make plans to take care of their ma while also attempting to figure out something for their father.

A mafia boss in jail was a dangerous thing.

For la famiglia.

For their father.

For them.

A Don behind bars, even if it was on trumped up charges while the police tried to gather the information they needed to make a better case on the wire fraud and money laundering, put him in a vulnerable place. Open to attack, which meant they needed to make sure their father was protected in jail.

As for their organization, with a boss away … men tended to become emboldened in the worst goddamn way. Like they thought this was their way to the top, as long as they could make it there before someone else did. They needed to keep an eye out for any of that shit happening while they handled everything else, too.

And for them?

Well, they just had to survive.

“And we’re sure Papa’s protection is going to hold while he’s in that jail, or …?”

Chris’s question hung in the air.

Corrado passed his twin a look. “Les is making some calls—it all looks good, though.”

“Yeah, okay.”

“Bene,” Marcus said.

He glanced over his shoulder. Behind the desk, his oldest brother looked far more like their father than he should have, except right then it also seemed like he had the weight of the world resting on his shoulders. Bene didn’t want to add to the pile of crap Marcus was dealing with, so for now, he just did whatever his brother told him.

“Yeah?”

“Make a trip to see Ma, yeah?”

“Of course.”

“Take Beni with you—how long are you going to stay, anyway?”

Next to him, his twin shrugged. “As long as I need to. Tommas gave me the okay to be away from Chicago for however long this might take.”

“Good to know. Back to these fucking Dettis.”

Right.

Bene went back to staring out the window. He had other shit on his mind. Going over every moment he ever shared with Vanna, their encounter at the restaurant, the shit she told him, and then after … with the Detti bastard.