Six Months Contract With The Mafia God

”How do you know?”

”Because I’ve seen his name on a transfer I was told to ignore.”

Another silence. Then, very quietly, ”Good.”

Dante opened his eyes. The sea was dark below the terrace, the horizon a thin line of lighter dark. ”That’s the test?”

”That’s the test.” There was no warmth in Dimitri’s voice, but it wasn’t hostile either. ”You answered both truthfully.”

”You already knew them.”

”Yes.”

”Then why ask?”

”So I could see whether you’d lie.” A pause. ”You didn’t. Now give me something I don’t know.”

Dante let out a slow breath. He had planned this part. He had gone over it for two days, sitting in the dark beside Isabella’s bed, deciding how much to give and how little to keep.

”Brooklyn,” he said.

”What about it?”

”When I took your territory there, I thought I was winning. The Covenant told me to hold it. They said they had a purpose for those corners, and I didn’t ask what it was.” Dante’s voice was steady. ”I never saw any of the money.”

”Explain.”

”Every dealer I turned, every warehouse I took in Sunset Park and Red Hook, all of it fed into three accounts. I told myself it was how they paid me. But it wasn’t. The money never came back to me. It went out the other way, to accounts I never touched, through freight brokers I never met. I was a collection point. I was never the owner.”

”You were laundering their money,” Dimitri said.

”For months. Without knowing it.” The words tasted like iron. ”They didn’t want Brooklyn. They wanted a place to put what they had. And they put me on it.”

”Do you have the records?”

”Luca does. Every account I was told to keep. Every transfer I was told not to look at. He’s been copying them since the night we left the city.” Dante paused. ”I’ll give you all of it.”

”And the freight brokers?”

”Names. Routes. The warehouses where they sign for the cargo.” He swallowed. ”You’ll have it by morning.”

”Send it through Marco. He’ll give Luca a channel.”

”Understood.”

For a long moment, neither of them spoke. Dante could hear the faint sound of breathing on the other end, steady and even. He knew he had handed Dimitri something large. He didn’t yet know what Dimitri would do with it.

”That’s worth more than I expected,” Dimitri said at last.

”I thought it might be.”

”It also means you’re finished with them.”

”I know.”

”You understand that you can’t undo it.”

”I understood that two days ago.” Dante’s hand tightened on the railing. ”I’m not asking you to forgive anything. I’m telling you what I owe.”

”And Isabella?” Dimitri asked. The question came without warning, quiet and level. ”Does she know?”

Dante hesitated. ”She knows what I could tell her. She woke up in the morning and asked me what I’d been hiding.”

”And what did you say?”

”The truth about the pills. That they were made to keep her dependent.” He rubbed the back of his neck. ”I didn’t tell her who found the supply. I didn’t tell her about you.”

”Good.”

”She doesn’t know who made them, either. Neither do I.” Dante’s eyes narrowed. ”But I’ll find out. When I do, she’ll hear it from me.”

There was no answer. For two seconds the line stayed silent, and Dante thought, without quite knowing why, of a date that was one day wrong.

Then Dimitri said, ”The doctor will call in the morning with her next schedule. Marco will contact Luca. Don’t call me.”

”I won’t.”

The line went dead.

...

Luca was waiting in the kitchen when Dante came in.

”Well?” he asked.

”He passed me the test.” Dante sat down at the table. ”I passed his.”

”And the ledgers?”

”I told him he’d have them by morning.”

Luca nodded slowly. He didn’t say anything about what it meant. They’d both known what it meant for two days.

Dante reached into his jacket and took out a second phone. It was black and small, with no markings. It was the handset The Covenant had given him a year ago, the only line they ever used.

He turned it over in his hand. Then he pried the back off with his thumbnail, took out the SIM card, and set it on the table between them.

”That’s their line,” Luca said quietly.

”Yes.”

”If you shut it off, they’ll know.”

”They’ve known I was gone since the night I walked out of that tunnel.” Dante picked up the small card and looked at it. ”They told me I was on my own. I’m taking them at their word.”

”And when they come?”

”Then they come.” He snapped the card in half. ”I’d rather be hunted for what I did than owned for what I didn’t.”

Luca looked at him for a long moment. Then he got up, took the pieces, and dropped them in the bin beneath the sink.

”I’ll start on the ledgers,” he said.

”Good.”

Luca went out. Dante stayed at the table with the dead handset in front of him. After a while, he picked it up, carried it to the terrace, and threw it as far as he could into the dark.

He didn’t hear it land.

...

DIMITRI’S POV

Marco was waiting in the study when Dimitri ended the call.

”Well?” Marco asked.

”He gave me the Rome facility.” Dimitri set the phone on the desk. ”BioAdvance. The EUR district. A second floor underground.”

”That matches what Enzo found.”

”To the word. He also named James as their treasurer, which I already knew.” Dimitri leaned back in his chair. ”He didn’t lie. He gave me exactly what I asked for, and then he gave me more.”

”The ledgers.”

”Brooklyn. Every account he was ordered to keep. He says he was a collection point and never knew it.”

Marco was quiet for a moment. ”That’s real, if it’s true.”

”It’s true. I could hear it.” Dimitri rubbed his eyes. ”He’s cut himself off from them. He won’t get that back.”

”They’ll come for him.”

”Yes.”

”And for you, once they learn he talked.”