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And I’d chosen to let Anni in and work with her. I’d trusted her enough to believe in her innocence and to entrust her with the secret of my illegitimacy.
I’d told her something I’d never admitted to anyone else. And I’d kept it secret until now not just for the sake of the Fratellanza, but also for my sake, because it revealed a deep flaw in me—my illegitimacy.
It shouldn’t matter in this day and age that I was illegitimate, but I knew it did matter within the organization, and it mattered a lot. Because it meant that I was not my father’s lawful offspring, and I was not the rightful Underboss.
I was admitting that my whole life was a lie, and I was tearing apart my whole identity as an Underboss. I’d been raised ever since I could remember to be Underboss one day and to protect the Fratellanza at all costs, but now something else mattered: Anni.
After my conversation with Anni, I went straight over to talk to Marco. We had to figure out what to do about Aloysius and how to protect the Fratellanza.
I set out the facts to my Capo, including the situation regarding my illegitimate birth and Aloysius being the rightful successor. Marco looked hard at me. We were in his study together with his brother, Alessio. I’d brought Alessio, as Consigliere, into the conversation too.
“Have you got Anni’s cell phone with you?” Alessio asked.
I nodded and got it out of my pocket, setting it on the desk in front of me.
Alessio picked it up, and taking a small tool out of a drawer, he removed the sim card and the back of the phone. After inspecting it, he looked up at us. “There looks to be a device implanted in the phone. My guess is that it’s a tracking device.” He walked to the door. “I’ll get on it now and let you know what I find.”
Alessio shut the door behind him.
“So, now you know everything,” I said into the tense silence.
“You never thought that you had a duty to tell me, your Capo, all this?” Marco roared.
There was nothing I could say. In hindsight, maybe I should have told Marco. We were as close as brothers, but it hadn’t felt right telling him and not telling Aloysius, especially as the person most affected by it was Aloysius.
“The only reason I’m not shooting you in the head right now,” snarled Marco, “is that your reasons for keeping this all secret was so as not to destabilize the Fratellanza.”
“I’m not going to try and defend what I’ve done,” I said quietly. “The whole thing’s fucked up. It’s fucked with my head so much over the years, and it fucked up my marriage with Rita. The only thing I can do to try and make it up to you is to work even harder for you and show you my loyalty.”
Marco paced up and down his study. “You can show me your fucking loyalty by helping me deal with Aloysius,” he snapped. “There won’t be any second chances for you.” I knew this wasn’t an empty threat from him. Marco was volatile and had a short fuse—I would have already been dead if they’d been any other whiff of past disloyalty, but my record working for the Fratellanza was exemplary and I knew I was Marco’s best Underboss.
“Yes, Capo,” I nodded. I knew it would take me some time to earn back Marco’s trust, but I was willing to put the work in and do whatever it took.
“Our organization is built on trust, honesty, and loyalty.” He gave a harsh exhale. “In the end, you did what you did in loyalty to the Fratellanza. Your father was right—the traditionalists in the organization would have had a field day with the news that he kept on a disloyal wife and that he allowed his heir to be a man who was not his son. Some of the men would have genuinely felt that your father’s actions demonstrated he was too weak to be Underboss; other men, however, would have stirred things up to force your father to lose his position, in the hope that they could take it over for themselves. We can’t have any of this shit surfacing now. I’ve got too many problems with the Bratva to be dealing with infighting and discontent within the organization.”
“Tell me what you need me to do,” I said to him.
“First, we need unequivocal proof that Aloysius was the leak. Fucking hell, what was he thinking? What he’s done affects the whole organization.”
“What’s happening with the FBI and their investigation?” I asked.
“The judge hearing the initial motions is someone on our payroll. We’ve managed to get the arrests kicked out due to a technicality on the search warrants—really, that hearing shouldn’t have gone our way, but having the judge on our team meant we got what we needed. Bad news is that there’s obviously no way we can get the drugs operation up and running again in the same location, and we’re having to start from scratch. It’s costing us millions each month we’re not fully operational.”
Alessio had come back into the room. “I’ve given the phone and tracking device to Danio. He’s the tech genius, so he’ll be able to best deal with it.” He looked at me. “Have you heard the latest about the Società alliance?”
I looked at Marco. “You’ve come to an agreement with the Società in L.A.?” Marco had been in discussions for some time with this Italian Mafia organization based on the West Coast.
Marco nodded. “Finally.”
I could tell he was still furious with me, and I knew that would last for some time, but this was business we were now talking about.
“The Bratva are all over our asses,” Marco said tersely. “They’ve been taking away power from not just us but from all the Italian Mafia organizations, and the Russians’ growth is not slowing down. We’re stronger now that we have the alliance with the Imperiosi in New York, but that’s not enough. By also making an alliance with the Società, we’ll be increasing our power dramatically. As much as I hate those fuckers in L.A., we need each other at the moment.”
I nodded. “I don’t trust anyone, but if it’s a choice between trusting the Russians or the Italians, I’d go with the Italians every time.”
“The Russians are savages,” added Alessio. “The Società, at least, share the same values as us. Did Marco tell you his happy news?”
“You agreed to marry someone from the Società?” I asked. In forming this alliance, there’d been discussions about Marco marrying a girl from a Società family.
