Page 62 of Sapphires and Snakes
David scoffs again, a sound I’m sure will be repeated multiple times this evening. “There’s no way to stop this, short of murder. And I’m not about to go to war.”
I nod, take my time considering his words. On my right, Jimmy’s fully smiling. He has no idea what I’ve done, what I’m about to propose, but he’s reading me, the room, the circumstance of our meeting. I let him.
“If there was a way?” I muse. “Without murder.”
David shakes his head, already out of patience. “There isn’t.”
Jimmy, though, is baring his teeth in what’s meant to be a grin but reads more threatening. “You found one.”
I let a half-smile flicker over my face. “No murder. No war. No weapons at all—unless you count a pen.”
“It is mightier than the sword,” Jimmy quips.
David’s frown pulls his mustache down further. “Fuck the riddles, Andrea. What are you saying?”
I offer him an apologetic nod. “Riccardo and Alessandra Gallo have been selling properties to cover their debts for years. Unfortunately for them, they didn’t do much research on exactlywhothey were selling to.”
I pull out my phone and send a file to each of them. “I’ve just sent every property I’ve acquired to your email. I think you’ll find it reduces their land ownership more than enough to… dissolve their status as a Cardinal Family.”
Jimmy sits up in his chair, planting both feet on the floor and pinning me with an almost maniacal look. “And raiseyourstatus.”
I shrug, like this means almost nothing. Like this isn’t the result of a decade’s worth of blood, tears, and betrayal. “Four Cardinal Families,” I say. “One for each region. It’d be… off-balance with only three, don’t you think?”
David scrolls through the document, brows arching higher and higher with each pass of his thumb. I wait, hands in mypockets and shoulders at ease, giving off the appearance of nonchalance. But inside, my organs shift and knot and attempt to crawl out of my skin. Without David and Jimmy’s support, this whole plan goes to shit and I can’t do the one thing I promised Zarina when she came to me that night so many weeks ago—protect her.
David sniffs as he replaces his phone in his pocket. “I don’t like it.”
“I fuckin’ love it.” Jimmy never took out his phone, never stopped staring at me with that maniacal grin stretching his face too wide, showing too many teeth.
“Riccardo is our peer,” David grumbles.
“And he’s about to be wiped off the map whether you agree to replace him or not.” Jimmy settles back in his seat again, legs spread wide, and finally tames his face into something less unsettlingly deranged. “Besides, we need some young blood. Someone with a good head on her shoulders.”
David wrinkles his nose like he can’t bring himself to agree to such compliments of a gay woman, even if they’re true. “I still don’t like it.”
“Stop being such a stodgy old man.” Jimmy waves away David’s flimsy objection. “This is the answer we’ve been looking for.”
David pushes off the mantel and strides for the sideboard. “Alonso will never agree.”
“Alonso doesn’t have to.” I watch David pour a heavy helping of whisky and immediately slug it back. “It takes a majority vote to instate a new Cardinal Family. With Riccardo removed…”
“We’re the majority.” Jimmy’s eyes are sparkling, like he’s just discovered an escape of the noose tightening around his neck.
I simply nod in answer.
“We’re criminals, you think either of them gives a fuck about democratic process?” David snaps.
Jimmy sighs, squeezing one hand into a fist and releasing it slowly. I wonder if he’s also fighting back the urge to punch David Capone in the throat. “Then why did we spend months negotiating it after the last war?”
“There’s not a simple answer out there, gentlemen.” I need them to stop bickering and decide. David doesn’t have a real argument, he just doesn’t want the fallout. I guess if I had survived more than thirty years as a don, I might feel the same. But we don’t get the luxury of retirement, not really. And without an heir, David really has no choice.
I spread my hands, supplicating. “This option, it’s the least violent of them. I understand I’m not your first choice, but right now”—I level a hard stare at David, who’s glaring at me from across the room—“I’m the only choice.”
“Or”—David raises his chin in an attempt at intimidation, but it just reads as petulant—“we sit back and let this play out.”
Jimmy shoves out of his seat, finally pushed into anger. “And allow the Accardis enough power to bury us? Fuck that.”
“If Andrea’s bought up half the Gallos’ property, then what will they have to give the Accardis, hm?” David says.