Valentino barely gave him a glance and continued speaking as if nothing had happened. “Miceli could not have carried out his attack without help. There are those within our family, men like Regio, who betrayed us.” He turned to look at Parisi. “A trusted brother.”
Custanzu Parisi widened his eyes in shock. “Valentino. What are you saying? Surely, you aren’t accusing me of betraying your famiglia? I have known you since you were a boy. I’ve known your father since he was a boy. I have been at his side for longer than you’ve been alive.”
“And you betrayed him. You led Miceli’s assassins right to him.” Val kept his voice low and even. He was surprised at the sudden surge of rage erupting in his belly and shooting through his body, the need to hurt this man like he’d hurt Giuseppi. “We found the evidence. The videos. The money. You betrayed him. You betrayed your family.”
For a long moment, Parisi stared at him, as if making up his mind whether to continue to deny the truth or just admit it. Finally, he sighed. “I told your father countless times it was a mistake to love a woman. He wouldn’t listen to me. One marries for many reasons, Valentino. You marry to gain territory. You marry to form alliances.”
“It is Don Saldi. Do not forget who you are speaking to.”
Parisi inclined his head and then looked around him at the lush conference room. “You chose wisely when you pursued the young Ferraro girl. She is impressionable. I told Giuseppi this. To make an alliance with her family is the ultimate coup. That is an acceptable goal with a woman. One marries to have children. But you don’t love, Val. Don’t make that mistake. If you take this oath to lead, you give your life in service and you can’t be divided the way Giuseppi was. I was his advisor, his underboss, but he refused to listen. He put Greta before our famiglia.”
Val hit him hard. First one cheek, then the other, snapping his head left then right, nearly breaking his neck. He did it casually, when he didn’t feel casual at all.
“My father always put the business first. Always. You wanted to sell children. He didn’t. That had nothing to do with him loving his wife. Some men can love their women; others merely are cheaters and have no integrity. Had my father been paying attention, he would have realized that if you could break your vows to the woman giving you children, you would break your vow to him, to our brotherhood.”
There was utter contempt in his voice because he felt utter contempt. He jerked his head toward Parisi, and the same two young capos, Luca Amato and Quintu Noto, who had taken control of Alceu Regio, pulled Custanzu Parisi none too gently from his chair and bound him as well.
“Pius Banetti, you have been frequenting my uncle’s strip clubs and accepting money from him in large amounts. Perhaps you would care to explain to all of us why Miceli has been paying you so much cash,” Val continued, leveling his gaze at the capo, who also had been a longtime friend of Giuseppi’s. To Valentino, these three men were the worst of the betrayers.
Banetti tried to bluster, beads of sweat visible on his forehead. “Val, you must have it wrong.” He looked behind him to see if either of the two capos who had put Parisi in restraints were close to him. When they weren’t, out of sheer desperation, he went for his gun.
The two capos on either side of him instantly were on him, one driving his wrist to the table, pinning it there, the other hitting him hard across his cheek with the barrel of a gun. Blood spurted, and Banetti slumped sideways. The two dragged him backward away from the table.
Romeo and Tore Vitale were also newer recruits Dario and Valentino had been instrumental in bringing in as made men and then up through the ranks to captain their own crews. Like Quintu Noto, Caj Lastra and Luca Amato, Valentino and Dario had kept the closer ties secret even from Giuseppi, other than to drop a word now and then to advance the five capos in the eyes of the Don.
“Gentlemen, if you would escort the prisoners to the interrogation room, the rest of us have a small amount of business to conduct,” Valentino said. He knew that would put the others at ease. There were two more capos suspected. He hoped they were just lax in their business, and not traitors. He would give them the chance to prove themselves one way or another.
Dario moved for the first time, walking ahead of the four capos with their prisoners to the double doors. When the doors opened there were two men waiting to lead the capos with their prisoners, Tomas and Cosimo Abatangelo, bodyguards for the Ferraro family and unknown to the majority of the Saldi capos. The doors swung closed again, and once more there was silence. Dario turned back to the room, his dark eyes sweeping over the rest of the men there, no expression on his face.