AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Makes sense,” Damian said. “But what does it have to do with me?"
“Vitale’s in Rome now. It’s an important location in terms of tradition. Makes everyone feel like the Syndicate is in good hands and still represented by old school leadership. I’m in London. We have representation in Miami and Paris and in a few other territories. But after Rome, New York is the most important. Always has been.”
“And?”
“And we think you’re the man for the job,” Farrell said.
Damian laughed. “I’m not.”
“Why don’t you let us be the judge of that.”
Damian leveled his gaze at the other man. “I don’t think so.”
Farrell studied him for a long moment before speaking. “I understand working alone,” he finally said. “I worked alone for a long time.”
“What happened?”
“I learned that some things are easier with help.”
“Some things are harder,” Damian countered.
“You may be right, but this isn’t one of them,” Farrell said.
“By this you mean…?”
“Our business,” Farrell said. “Fiore is already pushing you, testing your boundaries. That’s only going to get worse. Eventually you won’t be able to ignore it. You’ll be in an all-out war with the Fiore organization. Innocent people will die, as innocent people always do in a war.”
“Joining forces with you isn’t going to change that,” Damian said. “If you’re right, Fiore will come anyway.”
Farrell’s nod was slow. “But he’ll have to get through us, and our resources are not insignificant.”
Damian had no interest whatsoever in the Syndicate’s resources. Not as they applied to his business. But getting rid of Primo Fiore and Malcolm Gatti was another story entirely.
He’d known he would have to deal with them eventually. Had known that day was swiftly approaching. He believed he had the edge — more men, smarter and more rational men, a business plan and financial analysis that made it possible to allocate funds to streams of income with maximum ROI.
He still believed it, but Farrell was right; Malcolm Gatti was the wild card.
The guy had a record a mile long, and while Fiore was reported to be unstable, Gatti was notoriously cruel. Dispensing with him would bring the entire Fiore organization down on Damian and his men. They might win, but Farrell was right.
It wouldn’t be a cake walk.
“What kind of resources?” Damian asked.
Farrell gave a small shrug. “Men, weapons, a cyber operation that rivals the NSA.”
“I’m not willing to commit to a group of men I don’t know,” Damian said. “But I’d be willing to consider the Fiore takedown as a trial run.”
Farrell raised an eyebrow. “I didn’t offer a trial run.”
“I know.”
They stared each other down across the darkness of the room.
“What’s in a trial run for us?” Farrell asked.
“You get to test me out too,” Damian said. “If we succeed and I decline your offer, there’s one less rival for you to defeat to take back the territory. But either way, I retain the option to walk away. No harm, no foul.”
He had no intention of walking away from his business. Unlike the money he’d inherited from his father and the Foundation that had existed since before he was born, Damian had built the Cavallo criminal organization with his own two hands. He’d learned the business the hard way — by getting the shit kicked out of him when getting the shit kicked out of him was what he’d needed. By losing money before he made it back times a hundred.
By dealing with scum like Malcolm Gatti.
But they were playing chess, and the name of the game was removing pawns from the board, exploiting the strengths and weaknesses of his opponents until he could pick them off. This was the best play he had right now. He would make it and see what the game revealed along the way.
“No one walks away from our business,” Farrell said. “You know that.”
“Vitale did.”
A flicker of interest passed over Farrell’s face in the moment before he crossed the room, passed Damian without comment. He was halfway through the door when his voice drifted back to Damian.
“I’ll take your offer to the others. In the meantime, I’d suggest watching your back.”
