Page 59 of Vita Mia

“You aren’t consigliere any longer,” Giovanni said and then his gaze lowered to his daughter. “Renaldo and Nico will handle it.”

“No. Gio. They won’t. It’s turning back into chaos.” Dominic walked over and sat before him. “They need to hear from you. No one has heard from you since the fire. We have the Camorristi questioning your intentions. Don Santoro is telling anyone who listens that you are stealing from them, that you are not loyal to the Camorra. And then we have Carlo. I love him Gio, but after that woman Shae left he’s gotten worse. He sleeps on the beaches. He’s making a mess of things.”

“I know, I do listen to my messages,” Giovanni said.

Within minutes Leeza was asleep. He’d never been able to put her to sleep by himself. It made him quite proud that he could now.

“Nico has walked away. He’s back in Sicily. Gio, he’s broken, he was last seen in Aspra. I need to come back in Gio. I need to help clean up this mess.”

“Fine,” Giovanni sighed. “We deal with Carlo first. It’s over for him and the Camorra. All of it. He’s lost too much to be reined in; I understand that now.” Giovanni set the bottle down and used Leeza’s bib to wipe the milk from her bottom lip. He then kissed her brow. “She looks just like my Bella. That’s why I named her MiaBella. Doesn’t she Domi?”

Dominic looked at the baby and said nothing.

“Being a father should matter. Should change you. It didn’t for our fathers, but we are different men,” Giovanni said.

“I’m sorry it has to be done. I don’t think Renaldo should do it. I’ll get another lieutenant. Maybe Vitto.”

“We won’t kill him.” Giovanni frowned at the suggestion.

“But you said—”

“I know what I said. Why kill a dead man? You think I’m a monster?”

“You’re the boss, if that makes you a monster so be it.”

“I’m a father! A husband! A son! Not a fucking monster,” Giovanni said.

Dominic threw his hands up in defeat.

“How could I put a bullet in him when I sat back and watched him lose brother after brother and did nothing? When I sent him after Lorenzo, and gave him Adara... I did that too him.”

“This is not your fault,” Dominic groaned. “You’re sounding like Mirabella.”

“My wife is wise on this so I’ll take it as a compliment, say another word against her and we’re going to have a problem.”

“I disagree.” Dominic stood his ground.

“I don’t give a fuck!” Giovanni snapped.

“Carlo knows the oath. He knows the rules. He put poison in his body and acts insane because he is. He’s a wild dog now,” Dominic reasoned. “What do you do to a wild dog?”

“He’s our brother.”

“Lorenzo was your brother and look what happened to him.” Dominic tossed back.

Giovanni didn’t react with anger. He didn’t demand respect. He just stared down at Leeza. He traced her cheek with his finger. Dominic wasn’t sure if it was nostalgia, or the trauma of Eve’s fire that had done it to him, but he felt a change in Giovanni and he didn’t like it. He needed his ruthless mentor to surface. Not the man clinging to his family and a dream of being a family man again.

“Gio?”

“Call the attorneys. You want to bury the butcher then we do it my way.”

“And which way is that? I’m confused. Are you the Don or the Pope?”

Giovanni looked up. “We send him to America. We cut him loose.”

“There is no way out. The only way to send him to America is in a coffin.”

“That’s the Camorra way. There’s a new way of doing things, the way my Bella taught me. The way we protect our family.”

---