We moved to a safe house in Minneapolis because Dante decided it was too risky to have us all under the same roof at night. But we spent all day at Peter and Ines’ mansion. We settled into a strange routine and the days began to blur together.
Pietro had doubled his guards in and around the house.
The atmosphere was tense and depressed. I tried to give Sofia, Anna and Leonas a sense of normalcy despite the horrendous situation, but they knew what was going on. Not in every terrible detail, but enough to be aware of the severity. Anna and Sofia definitely suffered. Anna woke up every night to nightmares while Leonas coped better. Maybe it was his age. Maybe he could not fully understand what it meant to be in the hands of the Camorra. Anna had a better understanding and had experienced Sofia’s strong concern for Serafina.
We were sitting at the breakfast table one morning, almost finished eating and ready to go to Pietro and Ines when Dante’s phone rang. By now it always had the tone on and every time it rang everyone around froze, gripped with dread, fearing bad news.
Dante looked at his phone resting on the table, and the way his mouth tightened into a tight line let me know that he was one of the Falcone family.
I stood up. “Why don’t you take what you want to take with you today? We’re leaving in fifteen minutes.”
Neither Leonas nor Anna reacted to my words; their gazes were fixed on their father. He slowly looked up. My belly contracted.
“Upstairs, now,” he ordered.
Anna opened her eyes wide. She pushed back the chair and stood up, then grabbed Leonas’s hand, which was staring open-mouthed at her father. “Come, Leonas.”
He stood up and Anna dragged him out of the kitchen.
I went around the table. The look in Dante’s eyes startled me.
“What is it?”
“Remo made his first request,” he said in a deadly voice that let me know he was struggling for control. He stood up and looked down at me. “He wants Minneapolis.”
I huffed. “That’s ridiculous. You would never give him any part of your territory, much less one of the most important cities!”
Dante smiled darkly. “Oh, he knows. He fucking knows.”
He looked at his phone. “He’s playing me. He doesn’t want this game to end now, so he’s demanding the ‘impossible.”
I touched his shoulders. “Are you going to tell Peter and Samuel?”
Dante looked into my eyes as if he hoped to find the answer to all his questions there. I wished I had them, wished I could help him. Everyone was looking at him for answers, actions, salvation. It was a good thing that his father was already paralyzed by dementia, no matter how cruel that made me seem. But the man would only make things worse.
“I have to. Serafina is their responsibility before mine . They deserve to know, even if it would complicate things for me.”
“Do you think Peter and Samuel would accept Remo’s request?” I asked surprised.
Dante ran his fingers through my hair. “They would do anything to save Serafina.” He smiled as if he understood them all too well. Of course I would have given Remo every last inch of territory in the Outfit if Anna or Leonas’ lives were at stake . I would have given them anything, absolutely anything to protect my children. But men were raised to always consider the Outfit first. Duty and honor came before everything else. Losing your territory and with it your honor was the worst fate imaginable in our world. Yet, looking into Dante’s eyes, I wondered if he would hand everything over to Remus if Anna was in his hands, and I was pretty sure he would in the end.
Anna and Sofia went to the garden to sit on the swing while Leonas sneaked around the house. For him, it was hard because he didn’t even have his friends to play with. Anna had Sofia and they managed to distract each other from time to time.
Leonas had to play alone most of the time.
Dante took Peter and Samuel aside shortly after we arrived at the villa and told them about Remo’s request while I was sitting on the patio with Ines, drinking coffee. She still did not know about Remo’s message, and I wondered if I should tell her . Dante and Peter had hidden many details from her to protect her , but imagining being in her place, I would have wanted to know every detail about my daughter’s situation.
Ines cast me a glance. I must have been watching her for a while. “There’s news that Dante doesn’t want to share with me, isn’t there?”
Anna and Sofia huddled next to each other on the wide swing, talking. Girls were meant to be protected from all evil in our world, but often our world dropped real evil on them . Bibiana had suffered in her first marriage and only now had found happiness with Dario and her children.
Serafina now suffered for the sins of men. “Remo made a ridiculous request in exchange for Serafina’s freedom. It is a stroke of luck.”
Ines placed the coffee cup on the table. “What did he want ?”
“Peter’s territory.”
Ines turned her head, lost in thought for a moment. “He can have it.”
I leaned in. “Ines, he knows Dante will never give him part of his territory. To hand over an important city to the enemy would endanger everyone.”
“You mean it would endanger your children,” she said fiercely.
I sat down, surprised by the venom in her voice and her eyes.
Ines bit her lip. “I’m sorry. It wasn’t fair. I…” She swallowed and pressed a hand over her eyes. “I feel so helpless. I always told my children that I would keep the monsters away. And now my daughter is in the hands of a monster and I’m sitting here drinking coffee, unable to help her, unable to protect her.”
Tears stung my eyes. “No one could have predicted such a thing.”
Ines smiled bitterly. “I don’t know. Things are degenerating more and more. There is so much hatred between the familias. How is this going to end?”
Peace was even less of an option after what Remus had done. Dante would rather have made another peace treaty with Luca than accept a truce with the Camorra.
“Do we have any options? The Camorra and the Family are working together. They are against us.”
I said nothing. Things were looking bad for us. Luca would not work with Dante, not after the photo incident and not when that meant having the Camorra as an enemy. Who else was there? The Union Corsica in Canada, but they kept to themselves. We did not share the same cultural or linguistic background. They did not trust us and had little to gain from cooperation. They would not have risked a conflict with the Camorra and the Family. What about the Bratva? The Chicago Pakhan who ruled most of the Bratva in the Midwest had a kind of non-aggression pact with Remo Falcone.
Ines let out a choked sound. “It’s even worse than I think , isn’t it?”
“No,” I said firmly. “The Outfit has gone through crises before and we always came out of them because we stuck together. Remo is trying to create a rift between us, that’s why he asked for the city of Peter. He wants to sow dissension in our family, but we will not let him. We will not allow him to destroy our bond because Serafina will need a strong family when she returns.”
Ines smiled weakly. “Dante is right. You would make a good counselor.”
It was easy to give advice when you didn’t have to suffer the backlash. I could give my opinion to Dante because in the end he would be the one judged for it. He had to carry the burden of responsibility.
Sensing that Ines wanted to be alone, I went to find Leonas to tell him that we would all have dinner together.
Danilo would be there, too. He had decided to commute between Indianapolis and Minneapolis as often as possible. For someone so young, he had to carry a lot of responsibility. A sick father, a disabled sister, ruling Indianapolis, and now he was saving his girlfriend.
“Leonas!” I called.
“She’s with me,” Dante said from a room down the hall that I had never paid much attention to. The moment I entered, I froze. It was a weapon. That explained the barred windows and heavy door. Knives, machine guns, and pistols were lined up on the shelves.
Dante sat in a chair and Leonas stood next to him. In front of them on the table was a gun. It was in its separate pieces and Dante showed Leonas how to put it back together. Then he explained how to unlock the safety, aim and fire. Leonas listened with a look of utmost concentration. Dante handed the gun to our son and my heart stopped. He was only seven years old. He was too young for this.
“Dante…” My voice trembled.
Dante looked up. “It’s not loaded.”
I swallowed. “Can I talk to you?”
Dante held out his hand and Leonas returned the gun to him with a proud smile. Dante ruffled his head and then stood up. “Now go to the dining room.”
Leonas ran out, smiling as if it had been the funniest game. I closed the door for privacy.
“It’s too small,” I whispered abruptly.
Dante calmly loaded the gun, then slipped it into one of his holsters. He shook his head. “If the attack proved anything, then no one is safe. Not even the children. We cannot coddle Leonas. He has to learn what is necessary to survive in this world.”
“Why? You and your soldiers are here to protect him.
Anna and I are not wielding weapons.” Of which I was glad. I hated them, even though they were a necessary evil in our world. Still, I didn’t want Anna to have to carry one, even now. Even with a gun, she wouldn’t stand a chance against someone like Remus because she didn’t have what those men had: no scruples and cruelty.
“Because I need to prepare Leonas in case I never get back to all of you.”
I took a step back. “Don’t plan your death, Dante. We are trying to have a third child and you are planning to die?
What am I supposed to do without you? What about the ‘Outfit? They will be thrown into chaos. Who would lead them but you?”
Dante came toward me and pulled me to him, but I did not soften. I was angry and scared. “Val, I don’t plan to die soon, but death is lurking around every corner. I must prepare Leonas so that he can take over at a young age.”
Seeing my horrified look, he kissed me gently. “Not now, not in five years, but I want him to be strong and ready to lead the Outfit when he comes of age.”
“Could you have led the Outfit when you were only eighteen?”
“Maybe. Not in the same way I do now. I would have made mistakes but I would have learned from them. Heck, I’m still making mistakes, even age doesn’t protect you from mistakes.”
I shook my head. “He’s just a kid.”
“He’s the future Chief of the Outfit. He can’t afford to be a kid.”
I closed my eyes, pressing my forehead against Dante’s suit. “When-when are you going to introduce him?”
Dante touched my head and placed a kiss on my hair.
“At twelve.”
I shuddered. “How will you prepare him? How will you make him strong?” I opened my eyes, scanning Dante’s face. His blond eyebrows came together. “He will learn how to fight.
We have our fighting centers for a reason. He will fight with older boys who will show no mercy on him. He will learn how to shoot.
Eventually he will have to be present at the interrogations — at the killings.”
“You will not torture him to make him strong,” I said firmly.
“I will not torture him.”
I pulled Dante’s head down toward me and kissed him desperately.