Santo raised a hand to silence Charlie Nails. “He should know that his actions have led to this marriage. Don Cordano has eyes on his daughter. When he found out she had been seen with you, Nico, he called me with concerns about her safety. He accused us of disregarding the rules regarding the sanctity of women and children in the faida.”
“That’s bullshit and you know it. She was there for business. Her safety was never in question.”
Santo waved a dismissive hand. “Both sides have lost many soldiers in this senseless war. Don Cordano fears for the life of his son, Dante, as I fear for the life of my Tony. We shared our concerns and discussed a truce. As a show of good faith, he offered one of his daughters in marriage to the Toscani family. It was not an opportunity I was prepared to pass up. The Cordanos have a solid foothold in the drug trade. Marriage will bring us together. Don Cordano thinks to gain strength through the union, but Dante is weak, not worthy to lead. Once Dante and the don are out of the way, Tony will have a claim to lead by marriage and he will take over as boss. Together, he and I will push aside the other Cosa Nostra families and take control of the city.”
Nico pulled his pen from his pocket and spun it around his thumb as he struggled to hide his anger. His father had intended to pass the pen down to Nico when he became a made man, just as his father had done for him. But he hadn’t lived to see the day. Nico had only started carrying the pen after he was made, and he intended to pass it on to his son.
“My father has not yet been avenged,” he spat out. “And what of all the soldiers and capos who will lose their lives? You dragged this family into the drug trade against Cosa Nostra rules. Everything my father tried to do for the family, you have undone. But this … betrayal of the other Cosa Nostra families, a full-out war for control of the city … How many will be left standing at the end?”
Charlie Nails, quiet until that moment, ran a hand through his silvery hair. “I have to agree, Santo. Not just because of Nico’s father, Maximo, but because our involvement with the drug trade has already brought us to the attention of the FBI. When Maximo was boss, we were able to fly under the radar. If we expand our drug operation, and the bodies start to pile up, they are going to come down hard on us. Even if our men don’t get whacked in the civil war you propose, they’ll wind up in jail.”
“Cazzo!” Even more volatile than usual, Tony reached for the weapon holstered at his side, and Santo held up a hand.
“Stand down. Charlie Nails is old and slow, and Nico is maybe upset that you have stolen his woman. But he understands that this is a sacrifice that must be made for la famiglia.”
Nico’s stomach tightened at the thought of his crazy cousin married to Mia, the girl he’d once held, trembling in his arms, who had become a beautiful woman who stirred a longing in him he had long thought dead. Did her father, Don Cordano, understand the risk? The danger she was in? “Did she agree to this?”
Santo laughed. “Don Cordano assures me she will do her duty to her family. That’s all we care about. Just as Tony will do his duty to ours to ensure the Toscanis are never without a boss of the pure Toscani bloodline. We are meeting them at Vincenzo’s Trattoria on Thursday night to finalize everything, and they will be wed as soon as we can get it arranged.”
“She’s a fucking hot piece of tail.” Tony made a lewd pumping gesture with his fist. “Not gonna be hard to knock her up and keep the Toscani line going.”
The implication was clear. Santo was never going to step down. He had just declared Tony his successor to head the family, and if Tony had a son, Nico would lose control of the family forever. Not only that, once Santo allied with the Cordanos, he would no longer need the kickbacks from Nico’s vast commercial operations. He would no longer need Nico—the illegitimate son of the man killed by the very family he now sought as any ally.
Which meant in the next few days, Don Toscani’s associates would be taking Nico for a ride from which he would never come back, and Mia would be left to the mercy of a cruel, vicious man and a family who saw her as nothing but a means to an end. He wouldn’t wish that fate on any woman, but especially not the woman he had connected with so long ago—a woman who made him feel felt worthy in the way a bastard son had never hoped to be.
“The pure Toscani line.” Tony repeated his father’s cruel words, as if reading Nico’s thoughts.
“If we’re done here…” Nico didn’t wait for a response. He stood, and gave the barest nod of respect to Charlie Nails and his uncle. He had learned as a child not to rise to Tony’s bait, but he could not tolerate any disrespect of his dead mother. A quick exit was the only alternative to a fight that would likely end with one of them dead. His mother had been the love of his father’s life, but they had never been able to marry. To honor his family, Nico’s father had gone through with a political marriage, just as Nico would do in the coming months. Nico could only hope his new wife would bear him sons so that no son of his goomah—mistress—would bear the stigma he did.
“We’ll announce the wedding after church at Nonna Maria’s house this Sunday,” Santo called after him. “You can be the best man.”