“And those men? They’d support Caspian?” Wynn asked. His voice was tight and hard. “Support Leona?”
The Russian woman finally returned and placed three cups of coffee in front of each of us. Giulio thanked her before she left.
The man took a deep drink and thenahhhed. “I’m not making any promises, but yeah. We’ve heard some shit about the old Don, but we’ve also heard Leona’s trying to be different.”
“Leona is different,” I insisted. Those men would barely recognize her for how much she’d grown. She wasn’t the spoiledprincess anymore. She was a queen, and she deserved to be treated as such. “She’s seen the problems of the underworld, and she’s determined to fix them. We’re going to own New York, Giulio. Bet on it.”
Giulio grinned. “I heard she’s a badass now. Stabbed Max in the thigh.”
I snorted. “Fucker deserved it, and more. It’s only a matter of time before she finishes him.”
“But she wants the men of the Family,” he said, snuffing out the cigarette in an ashtray on the table. “An army.”
Wynn nodded. “She wants to know if there are men who would support her over Volpe. The Family belongs to her.”
Giulio didn’t argue with Wynn, but he did look back at me, tilting his head back. “If you marry her, it’s an easy sell.”
“She doesn’t need to marry me to deserve claim over the Family. She fucking deserves it.”
Giulio raised his hands. “Hey, I’m not arguing that. I’m just saying that a marriage would send a very strong message. If you want to split the Family’s forces, that’s how you do it.”
“What else?” Wynn pressed, crossing his arms over his chest. The movement highlighted the guns beneath his jacket. “If not a marriage, how else can we convince them to join us instead?”
“I don’t know.” Giulio shook his head. “I guess I could get more men together and you could try to convince them, but you’d get more on your side if they knew you would become the Head. The men trust you. You’re proven, just like Max is.”
Fuck.
I did not want to put Leona in a position where she felt forced to marry me. That would be the last fucking thing I’d want.
“We can offer protection and a pay increase if anyone switches sides,” I said, mind racing. How could we get them to work with uswithoutmarriage on the table?
He raised one shoulder in a half-shrug. “Pay isn’t bad right now.”
“But with the extra Tommaso men, you know the jobs will start to thin.” The Italian Families worked together, when necessary, but absorbing one army into another would come with its own struggles.Caposwould need to be figured out. Hierarchies established. Everything would have to be restructured under Max’s leadership, and thatalwaysaffected the grunt soldiers. “Pay will decrease. Plus, the Russians are going to cut off your drug supply. Big shipments might come to highercapos,but the lower guys will probably get little to no product to sell.”
Giulio’s eyebrows furrowed as he thumbed his nose. “If you can promise better pay and promise that Max won’t slit their fucking throats, maybe you’ll get some men to listen.”
I nodded. We could work with that. It was a start, and it was what we had hoped for from the beginning. “Get us in front of them and we’ll lay it all out.”
“So, what then? You’re not going to marry her?” he asked, looking between me and Wynn. “It’s the easy solution.”
“It’s not that simple.”
I wasn’t sure what rumors Max had spread about Leona’s relationship with all of us, but I wasn’t going to feed anything. Some people might be judgmental fucks about it, some people might not care. But it was a card that held power, and Leona should be the one to play it.
He rubbed his eyes and cracked his neck from side to side. “Well, if you want the men, that’s the best way to get their loyalty. The longer Max is in power, the harder it’s going to be.”
I crossed my arms over my chest. Giulio had a strong point. If we wanted to fracture Max’s forces, that would be the fastest way to do it, and we were working on such a short timeline.
But I couldn’t make a promise for Leona, and especially not with Wynn sitting right beside me. The whole idea of marriage was still soaring through my brain. She’d be devastated if it changed things between her and the other guys.
And me? I couldn’t bear it if she only chose me because of this politics bullshit. Arranged marriages were common in our world, but they were loveless and lonely. I’d seen plenty across the Five Families, and it wasnotwhat I wanted. Leona herself rebelled against the idea of an arranged marriage, wanting Max instead. I couldn’t push her into that position.
My jaw clenched. “Just get us the meeting.”
“All right, I’ll ask around. When I have a group ready to hear you out, I’ll let you know.”
I shook my head, pulling a giant chunk of cash from my jacket pocket. I placed it on the table and slid it his way. “As fast as possible, Giulio.”
