Page 124 of Forced Vows

"In a way. If we go to war, as my brother's right arm, I also have the authority to conscript soldiers from the capos if I need them."

"It really is like a medieval kingdom."

"The capos and soldiers pay tithe to the organization from the businesses financed and built by it."

"You can't tell me that the De Lucas need tithes from their mafia."

"We don't," he agrees. "We put the money into an account used to support widows and children of our soldiers."

"You mean for the men who die for the mafia?" That's kind of cool.

Do we have something like that in the mob? I could ask Uncle Brogan, but would he tell me. I bet mamo knows though.

Miceli shrugs. "Or who die from a heart attack, or getting hit by a car."

"What? Really?" That's…more than I expect from a criminal organization.

"We take care of our own."

"Are all mafias like yours?"

Miceli shrugs again. Like it doesn't matter. Like the only thing that matters is how the Genovese do things.

For him it probably is.

Chapter 40: MICELI

Róise is calmer than when I first arrived.

That's going to change when I give her my news. There won't be any sex in the boathouse today. I'll be lucky if I leave without her trying to tase me.

She's so pissed about what happened at college today. When she finds out this is her last year, it won't be the dean in her crosshairs.

It will be me.

"I've been looking into your father's death." This is not what I came here to tell her, but maybe knowing I'm keeping my word about identifying her dad's killer will help sooth the blow to come.

"What about my mom's murderer? You vowed to kill him." She frowns at me accusingly.

Okay, we'll deal with that first. "The Bonanno soldier whose stray bullet robbed your mom of her life died of a heart attack while visiting her grave in remorse on the one-year anniversary of her death. He was twenty-nine."

"My dad?"

I nod. "In the week that followed your mother's shooting, while your grandfather was trying to negotiate peace, your father waged a one-man war, killing over two dozen Bonanno soldiers."

"Against my grandfather's orders?"

"The order to stop didn't come until after the Bonanno don sued for peace, offering concessions your grandfather wanted." The old man had been ruthless, willing to capitalize on his son's grief-stricken rage.

"But mom's killer wasn't dead yet."

"No. Your dad is a legend among the Bonanno Family. They still tell the story of how he kidnapped and tortured the soldier for three days."

"But he let him go?"

"With a promise of more pain to come and eventually a death the soldier would not see coming. The last year of his life, that soldier lived in constant fear of your father taking him again." Derry Shaughnessy's torture techniques came out of a playbook as effective as ours.

"Good." The satisfaction in the single word shows how much of her father's blood runs through my fiancée's veins. "And the Bonanno don didn't investigate a twenty-nine-year-old man having a heart attack on the grave of a woman he killed?"

---