Page 36 of Caught in the Crossfire

Leona stepped forward, raising her gun again. “Why, Max?”

He pushed the words through gritted teeth like it pained him. “I’ve made an alliance with them.”

Shit.

Leona frowned up at me. This was news indeed. The Camorra and the Italian mafia in the US had operated separately from one another for close to forty years. While the US mafia relied on the Camorra for guns, and the Camorra used the Italians for business, they’d been individual operations.

“Why? To what end?” I asked. The Camorra were, and had always been, vastly more powerful than the US mafia. There was no way he could have given them an alliance that was mutually beneficial unless he offered them something extreme. “What did you give them in exchange?”

“That has nothing to do with the Albanians and therefore is out of the boundaries of this conversation.”

Leona rolled her eyes. “The Camorra have always minded their business in Italy, and let our Five Families manage the US. We make money for them, but they let us act as we want. Have they changed their minds?”

“We’re not discussing this, Leona.”

“You said you’re fighting a war on all sides,” she shot back. “What did that mean?”

A war on all sides?

“Just stay out of it, and it won’t concern you. Mind your little business with your little army of men and with the Russians, and let me do my job.”

Ryu pressed the barrel of his gun into Volpe’s back, eliciting ahiss of pain. My brother’s voice was dark and low. “You’ll tell us the truth or I’ll blow apart your kidney.”

“No. This is where I draw the line.” He glared at Leona, Caspian, and me. “We are not in business with one another. We are enemies. We cannot exchange information.”

“I don’t understand,” Leona said.

“I don’t care,” he replied.

“Fuck you,” Caspian threw back at him, darkness shadowing his brow. “We should have left you on that boat.”

Inside my brain, pieces slotted into place. “It’s your job to keep the Albanians from growing a foothold outside Albania, aren’t you? While the Camorra deal with them in Europe?”

After a few tense moments, he nodded tersely.

“Why did you tell me before that you wanted to own all of New York?” Leona asked. “Back at my house, in my father’s study. When you tried to kill me.”

Volpe’s face fell for a moment before he caught his expression and schooled it back to passive. “Luciano’s failures have infected every corner of the city. With me, with the Camorra, we can rebuild our strength.”

“The other Heads were involved somehow, weren’t they? My father had involved them?”

His face went hard. “Do I need more of a reason to end them other than that I want the power they hold?”

Power. It’s what I’d been searching for to protect those I loved. Could it be that simple for Volpe as well? Or were there more layers here than I could currently see?

Caspian scoffed. “You’ve never been that man.”

“You have no idea who I am, Cas.”

Caspian gripped his pistol, pulling it out of the holster on his hip. His voice turned sad and hard. “No. Shit.”

The five of us stared at him as uncomfortable silence blanketed the salon. If Volpe was going to stand in our way, we had to end him, regardless of whatever promise Leona had made. Ourfamily was more important. Leona’s safety was paramount. And if he was allied with the Camorra, it was even more reason he couldn’t leave this ship alive. He’d only present a problem we’d have to solve. Ryuji and I exchanged a glance that said he thought the same thing.

He tightened his grip on his rifle, looking to me for a sign.

“I don’t know what, but I can tell you’re still hiding so many things.” Leona stepped closer, but I reached out to grab hold of her shoulder. She stepped back against my chest. “What happened between you and my father, Max?”

He shook his head. “More than I can explain in this conversation.”