Page 5 of Brutal Legacy

Like a bullet flying through the air from a hidden sniper, Zio Sal’s next words zipped straight through my hollow chest.

He sighed heavily. “It’s Prosecutor Bellisario.”

I could practically feel the impact of the name I hadn’t heard in over a decade thud through my body. My cool, indifferent mask shuddered under the sound.

Ren glanced my way and then looked at his uncle. “Does he have anything on us?”

“On me, everything. That oldvolpeturned the other way for every big thing I needed done for twenty years. He could sink us with the information.”

“So, we take him out before he gets to say a word to anyone.”

“Just hold on a second… it’s complicated. Alfredo, thefurboold fox that he is, figured that would be your solution. He says he’s passed on the information… it’ll be released in the event of his untimely death.”

Renato snorted. “He’s bluffing.”

“Maybe, but you don’t know him like I do. He’s smarter than he appears. Just to complicate things, we weren’t the only people he was doing favors for. Word is that the Ravelli family also has a lot at stake if he sings. They want him eliminated… and so, he wants our protection.”

Ravelli?The name was familiar, but I couldn’t quite remember why.

Renato raised an incredulous eyebrow. “You’re shitting me. He’s threatening us into protecting him?”

“I told you, he’s smarter than he appears. Moreover, he wants protection for his daughter.”

The words washed against the bastion around my heart.

“His daughter?” Renato snorted. “Let them kill them both and we’ll deal with whatever evidence comes out. Actually, I’ll bet he sent the information to her. Two birds with one stone.”

“Basta, Renato. I don’t want that. It’s undignified. I’m old, and soon, I’ll no longer be of this earth. I don’t want to be dragged into interview rooms, or worse, a cell, before I die. Allow me to die with dignity… at my country estate.”

Renato hid a smile of affection for his cantankerous old uncle. He’d been a hell-raiser in the past, but you’d never know it from his stooped posture and fragility now.

“Certo,zio. So, what do you want to do?”

Sal waved his hand. “That’s for you to work out. I don’t know. I’m old and I want to get back to bed. Make this go away.”

“Ho capito. Rest up, and I’ll let you know when it’s done.”

Leaving the hotel,we stood on the steps and watched Zio Sal disappear into his town car.

“What do you think I should do with Alfredo Bellisario and his daughter?” Ren asked, staring up at the slice of early morning sky visible between the old buildings surrounding us.

I shrugged. Mask in place. “Whatever you want. It’s not my business.”

“Oh really? I’d have thought there was no one more your business than her,” Ren mused.

I held my tongue and avoided his probing gaze.

“If killing her is off the table, then the most obvious course of action is to marry the daughter off, of course, to a De Sanctis man. She’s our collateral against him spilling his guts and Salvatore’s history to the law in order to reduce his sentence. Heclearly cares about her welfare… so she becomes a De Sanctis, and as long as he plays nice, she lives.”

“You’ve forgotten that she’s already married,” I reminded Renato before he could get too carried away with his ridiculous idea. Zio Sal gave me a strange look, as if a husband should be no impediment to making her one of the De Sanctis family.

“And what about the threat from the Ravelli family?” I pressed on, trying to force him to see reason.

“Protecting the father in prison is no big deal, half the guards are ours, and half the inmates. Protecting the daughter can fall to her new husband… the tax on getting a wife like Georgia Bellisario. Once Alfredo dies, he can do what he wants with her.”

Georgia Bellisario.

The name stuck like a claw in a furrow scored across my heart.

---