My father would have chosen this option, and many of my men would have been in favor of it. Maybe it was the best thing for the Outfit, but hurting Aria, an innocent woman, in any way was out of the question.
“Hurting me.”
“Hurting you. I don’t really like inflicting pain on women. Yet, the Outfit is where my concern lies.” Aria could not read me, could not know that I had already made my choice. I would never hurt her in the way Luca’s blackmail required. Not only because I had known her as a young girl and felt an obligation to her, but because Val would never forgive me if I hurt Aria. She and I had often talked about how women in our world often suffered because of their husbands or their own faults, and she hated that fiercely. If I became a man who tortured a woman, even if it was at Arthur’s hands, she would resent me.
Val’s feelings toward my actions should not have worried me . She was just a woman, not troubling in the eyes of many of my men, but I valued her opinion and, even more, I needed her support, her love.
“There is still Matthew and the rest of the Family. Luca has to consider their wishes.”
“Luca knows how to make people see things the way he wants them to see them. Luca is the strongest Chief New York has seen in a long time. His people admire him, but they don’t know his weakness.”
Luca had almost everyone fooled about his invulnerability, about not caring about anyone.
Aria was the exception.
“Luca would do anything to remain Chief. It’s in his blood.
In the end, if he has to choose between me and power, he will choose power, believe me.”
I had no doubt about Luca’s absolute determination to remain in power. He was born to be Chief, just like me. It was in our blood. “Maybe. But maybe you’re just trying to save yourself and Luca. Maybe you realize that your presence here could mean the end of the Family.”
“No matter what you do to me, Luca will not give up his territory. Luca will bow to no one.”
“But he will not back down and have you tortured.”
Aria gasped. I smiled coldly. “He won’t. He will attack Chicago and kill every man. He will show strength, not weakness. Luke is the most ruthless man I know, Dante, and I grew up knowing you. Do not confuse his possessiveness with anything else. I am his property and he will destroy your city and your home to get it back.”
“And I will do the same with New York. You grew up seeing my civilized mask, Aria. Don’t confuse it with my true nature. Luke takes his monster outside; I keep mine buried until I need it.”
Aria stretched her hand toward the door, trying to escape.
“Aria,” I warned her. Did she really think she could escape?
We were in an area where Aria would be in more danger outside the car than with me.
“I’m going to throw up,” she said, and a look at her face made me realize she had been telling the truth.
I lifted the locks and Aria stormed out. I followed her and found her bent over behind the car, vomiting.
I handed her a handkerchief. “Here.”
Aria shivered as she straightened up. “Thank you.” Tears stained her face and she seemed close to losing consciousness. I hardly ever had anything to do with women, except for the few times we had to deal with the whores of the Bratva.
Aria met my gaze. “Is it fear or something else?” I asked . I wanted to scare her, but this open terror was more than I had anticipated.
“Both. I’ve never been so afraid of you as I was today.” If she hoped I would become weak, she would be disappointed. “But that’s not it. I’m pregnant.”
A pregnancy test confirmed Aria’s statement. Her pregnancy gave me another advantage over Luca. I should have consulted with Rocco immediately, but given the new circumstances, I was pretty sure he would advise me to keep Aria, to blackmail Luca with the unborn child.
Thinking about Val and how worried I was about her because she was so vulnerable being pregnant, I knew without a shadow of a doubt that Luca would go completely crazy. He would have lost his mind and attacked.
Keeping Aria captive would only endanger Val and Anna, because if I targeted his wife and child in that way, Luca would do the same to my family. And if Val had found out that I was keeping a pregnant woman as bait, he surely would not have forgiven me. I had few moral principles, but not harming a pregnant woman was definitely one of them. Aria would not suffer in my territory.
Of course, as I watched Aria head toward the airport to return to New York, I knew I was leading her and Luca into a trap. The photos taken by the photographer would have confirmed Luca’s wary nature. He would have greedily devoured the lie because this false truth made more sense in his twisted brain than the reality of Aria’s love and fidelity.
It was a devious plan, but one that could have destroyed Luke and with him the Family, or at least shaken them so much that they were vulnerable.
It would also have made me look bad, but it would have made Val look like another victim and thus give Luca no reason to target her or Anna.
Many of my men would have been unhappy with this tactic; they would have said I should have kept Aria to control Luca. Some might even have said that I had not made the necessary choice for the ‘Outfit. We were at war. Pity toward a woman, especially Aria Vitiello, would have been seen as unnecessary, perhaps even as weakness. Yet, my conscience had compelled me to choose an innocent woman over the Outfit.
I drove away from the airport and called Rocco, updating him on the situation, excluding Aria’s pregnancy. The photographer would forward the photos to us that evening, and then we would choose the most compromising ones and send them to several New York magazines and newspapers, hoping they would make headlines on their online sites the next day and in their prints the day after. It would have caused a major scandal, which would have given the conservatives in Luke’s Family ammunition against him. Rocco tried to convince me to cooperate with a couple of Luca’s uncles who had contacted us earlier, but I distrusted those old Vitiellos even more than Luca.
I didn’t need their help.
Now I needed to talk to Val. About trust. About betrayal.
Val was still awake when I returned home. My anger had grown on the drive to the mansion, but when I walked into the bedroom and saw my pregnant wife perched on the edge of the bed, anxiously massaging her hands, it was hard to hold back my fury. She slowly rose to her feet, her eyes full of concern. Her red silk nightgown stretched across her belly. “What have you done to Aria?”
For some reason, her concern for Aria rekindled my anger . I unbuttoned the cuffs and headed toward the walk-in closet and not toward Val.
“You went to a meeting with the Family Head’s wife without telling me, without protection, Val,” I said. I took off my jacket and threw it on a chair as Val appeared in the doorway.
“Aria is no danger to me. I’ve known her all my life. We are cousins.”
I shook my head, fingers still as I took off my tie and unbuttoned my shirt, although emotions shook me .
I squinted my eyes toward her. “We are at war.” It wasn’t just anger at her betrayal that I felt. I was also worried. She was risking too much. This could have been a trap.
Cradling her belly, Val leaned against the doorframe.
“You are at war, Dante. Outfit is. But Aria and I, we’re not.”
I gritted my teeth at her refusal to accept the sad truth.
This war was all-consuming. “It could have been a trick.
Luca could have set you up. You risked too much.”
Val raised his eyebrows. “Do you really think Aria would have dragged me into a trap so that Luca could catch me? And then what ?”
“It’s a good thing we’ll never find out.” Left in my underwear , I moved to get out but Val stood in the way.
“Where is Aria?” asked Val again, touching my bare chest. “What did you do to her?”
Grabbing her by the shoulders, I gently pushed her away and headed for the bathroom. Of course, Val followed me. “Dante, don’t ignore me now. Tell me what you did to Aria. I deserve to know.”
I slammed my palm down on the sink. “Didn’t I deserve to know that Aria Vitiello was in my territory? That she intended to meet my wife? What did she want here? Why did she want to meet you?”
Val paled at my open anger. “She wanted to talk about Fabiano. She is worried about him because of this war, because of Rocco.”
I shook my head. “Fabiano is part of the Outfit. It’s not her problem.”
“If Leonas were part of another family, wouldn’t that no longer be your problem?”
“Leonas was born in the Outfit and will rule the Outfit. There will never be anything else for him.”
Val lowered her gaze to his belly with a small frown. “But what if he doesn’t want to.”
“Valentina, this discussion is irrelevant. Leonas will have grown up to be Chief. He won’t know anything else. He won’t want anything else.
This discussion is over.”
Val turned away but her light breathing told me she was about to cry. I clung to the edge of the sink, counting to three and trying to calm myself. I straightened up and followed Val. She looked out the window, her shoulders shaking. She was close to her due date and emotionally vulnerable.
I sighed. I didn’t want to argue with her, not in the state she was in. I reached out and touched Val’s bare shoulders, then placed a gentle kiss on her neck. “Dante,” she whispered . Our eyes met in the reflection of the window and, as usual, I struggled to stay angry with her when she looked at me.
“I sent her back to New York.”
Val’s lips parted in surprise. “Really?” She turned in my grip, making her belly bump against my abs.
I wiped tears from her pale cheeks. “Really.”
Her eyebrows furrowed. “Why? Having her in your hands would have given you an advantage over Luca.”
Luca would have lost his mind. He would have orchestrated an attack in Chicago. It was an idea I had often entertained, but my mind was made up and I was still certain it was the right one.
“Aria is pregnant.”
Val looked thoughtful for a moment, then wrapped her arms around me. “I thought I saw her touch her belly twice, but I didn’t think much of it. I’m so happy for them.” She fell silent, seeing my expression. I didn’t give a damn if Luca became a father. It just meant that Leonas would have to deal with the future Vitiellos. They would not remain innocent children forever.
Val smiled and kissed me. “It was the right thing to do.”
Val thought I had acted out of the goodness of my heart.
She did not know what I had put Aria off to. I wouldn’t have been able to hide it from her forever.
“You should get some rest. I still have work to do,” I said , and led her to the bed.
Val lay down but held my hand. “What will Rocco say? What about your Underbosses? Won’t you cause discord if you let Aria go? Or will you try to keep it from them?”
I kissed her knuckles. “Don’t worry. I’ll take care of it.”
I could see that Val wanted to argue, but I took a step back and left the room.
When I turned on my iPad in the office, the photographer had already sent me an e-mail. I followed the link to Dropbox and took a look at his shots. He had done a wonderful job taking photos from an angle that made my interactions with Aria seem intimate and secretive. To someone like Luca, they would have had the effect of a nuclear bomb. He was programmed to draw the worst conclusions. He and I always expected the worst from others, so it was easy to assume any act of betrayal.
I chose a selection of photos and forwarded them to Rocco. He would send them to his press contacts and, hopefully, all hell would break loose in the Family the next day.
My eyes burned with fatigue, but I doubted that sleep would catch me that night. Too much had happened today, more would happen tomorrow.
Finally, I got up and went upstairs. I entered Anna’s room, being careful not to make any noise as I made my way to her bed. She was curled up on her side, with her thumb in her mouth. She used to do this a lot when she was a child, but eventually we convinced her to stop. Sometimes I still caught her sucking her thumb at night. I shook a few strands of hair from her face and then gently pulled her finger out. She made a little sound but did not wake up. I always tried to say good night to her or even read her a bedtime story, but on days like this, I sometimes came home when she was already asleep. I bent down and gave her a kiss on the forehead, then went to the bedroom.
Val was asleep and did not wake up when I slipped into bed next to her. The next morning after breakfast I was to tell her about the pictures. I didn’t want her to find out through others. Chicago newspapers would not publish any articles about Aria and me, Rocco and I would make sure that happened, but these things usually spread like wildfire in the Outfit and soon people would start talking.
Closing my eyes, I rubbed my temple. This had the potential to get out of control. It was a very risky move.
Some people in the Outfit would have been furious that I had been in contact with Aria, not so much because of an affair; others might have applauded me for having a spy so close to Luca. I should have told John the next day, too. He would not have been happy about it either . He would have worried about how this would reflect on Val.
I cast an oblique glance at my sleeping wife. I did not want Val to get hurt emotionally. This move would at least ensure her physical safety. She might not have seen it that way, of course.
I sat up and got out of bed. Sleep was out of the question.
I took the phone from the nightstand, went into the hallway, and texted Rocco.
Wait with the pictures for now. We need to discuss the consequences.
His reply came quickly.
Already sent. Sorry, Dante. It’s a good move in this war.
I sighed. He was right. This deception was good for the ‘Outfit. Maybe it wasn’t for my marriage, however, and even though it shouldn’t have been, my family was more important to me than my grade.
By now it was too late. Things had been set in motion.