Page 50 of Fall Before Her Throne

I considered him, and the way he stared back at me with almost lifeless eyes. Resigned. Like he’d already given up. What was the extent of his feelings for her? Was he rejecting her because he had planned to sacrifice himself for her?

A sliver of me respected him for the thought.

Either way, I could use him. If it came down to it, if it was our future against his—Leona’s life or his—I would sacrifice him in a heartbeat.

“Greco must have contacts he can rely on if he was both aware of the RICO case and thinks he can use it against us,” I said. “Powerful connections.”

“Yeah. I’m surprised, but not. In Naples, they control the local government. They basically are the government. People from every department are on their payroll. So I’d guess that their connects are likely more political than law enforcement-related. Omertà still stands. He doesn’t work with the police. He owns them through other means.”

I nodded. “My thought was that it could be in the mayor’s office⁠—”

“And the mayor’s deputies. Probably the commissioners.” His elbows rested on his thighs while he leaned forward. “Maybe even the police commissioner. At the Bureau, he might have even higher contacts.”

I had been thinking the same thing.

I leaned back in my chair. Volpe and I thought more similarly than I had originally expected. “Did you ever work with the commissioner?”

Volpe rubbed his chin. “No, but Luciano bribed the previous commissioner. We got away with a lot under that administration.”

“He bribed him?”

“Yes, but that was over a decade ago, at least according to the records from his office.” Volpe hissed in pain as he readjusted in his seat. “The newer one hasn’t bothered us too much, as long as we keep a low profile.”

War was coming. There were bound to be casualties. “I doubt we’ll be able to keep a low profile.”

“No,” he said with a shake of his head. “But if we need leverage against Greco, I’d start with the mayor and the police commissioner. We need to get to them before the Camorra does.”

I flipped open my laptop while my mind mentally went through my lists of contacts and favors. Volpe stood from his seat and walked over to the window.

The police commissioner was, thankfully, one of my contacts. We’d done a job for him a few years ago and he owed me. It would be easy to get control of him.

“What happens if you kill him?” Volpe asked, looking over his shoulder at me. “What then?”

“What do you mean?”

He scoffed. “An organization the size of the Camorra doesn’t just wither away and disappear. Someone else steps in to take their place.”

I stayed silent.

“How will you dismantle it?” he pressed, walking back to stand in front of me. “It’s global. How can you ensure that no one else, especially not one of Greco’s heirs, won’t take it over and come back after you again? After her?”

I drummed my fingers on the desk. “That will not happen.”

“If you kill him, you’re creating a generational vendetta,” he said. “They would never stop hunting you. They’d go after you, your children, your family.”

Leona.

My jaw clenched. “I’m aware of how vendettas work.”

Volpe’s eyes flicked over mine, back and forth. Watching. Thinking. He laughed bitterly. “Bullshit. I can’t believe this.”

I finished the liquor in my glass. “What’s the problem, Volpe?”

“Here I thought that maybe, just maybe, you had the balls to get rid of them. Take them all out and be done with them,” he said. “But no. You want the Camorra and all its power for yourself. Well, if there’s one thing I learned from watching Luciano run our Family into the fucking ground, it’s that greed will always stab you in the back.”

“I am not greedy,” I spat. My fingers twitched, itching for a weapon. “The only way to protect those I love is to be in the greatest position of power. Otherwise, it will never be true safety.”

That day in Italy, when the entire world moved around Greco, I saw that truth. When my parents died because I wasn’t strong enough to save them, I saw that truth. When that boy I’d asked to wait in my place died because of me, I saw that truth.