Page 28 of Mafia Kings: Dario

This wasnotwhat I had expected from a mafiaconsigliere…

…although maybe it was all part of the game.

The spider singing lullabies as it lured the fly into its web.

“…of course,” I said hesitantly.

“I can tell you’re less than convinced, so let me explain a bit more what actually happened. Our father died three months ago – ”

“I’m sorry.”

“Thank you, thank you. He was the patriarch of our family, and as you can imagine, losing him threw our entire world into chaos. We did not just lose our father – we lost our leader. Dario wasn’t evenherewhen Papa died. I might as well tell you since you’re going to find out sooner or later – Dario was in prison at the time. Papa died unexpectedly and my brother didn’t even get to say goodbye.”

I already knew a good bit of that information from talking to Cat and Filomena, but two other questions formed in my mind almost immediately.

Niccolo anticipated them both.

“Dario went to prison on a racketeering charge involved with a bribery case,” Niccolo said. “They nabbed a judge who was presiding over some of our family’s business interests. As the oldest son, Dario took the fall for all of us. I know you were wondering – might as well come out with it and tell you straight.

“And no, our father didnotdie from a – how would you put it – a ‘mob hit.’ He had a heart attack. He was relatively young – 59 – and there was no warning, so it was quite a shock. He lingered for a couple of hours in the hospital, completely unconscious… and then he was gone.”

“I’m so sorry,” I whispered.

Part of me wondered whether anything Niccolo was telling me was the truth – but he genuinely seemed sad. There was real pain in his eyes as he talked about his father.

“Thank you, that’s very kind. At least we got to say goodbye, even if he couldn’t hear us or answer back. But the prison wouldn’t even let Dario speak to him over the phone. Animals,” Niccolo said angrily.

It was pretty ironic to hear a mafiaconsiglierecall someone else an animal over a denied phone call… even if itwasa very sad situation.

I kept that thought to myself, though.

“As a result of my father’s death, the family business was thrown into disarray. That’s when the wolves came out. There are numerous families like ours that run things all over Italy. When my father died, they saw an opportunity. We began to have troubles that hadn’t occurred for decades: disputes with former partners, politicians on our payroll turning against us, sabotage in our operations… the truth is, the other families were probing us for weakness to see if they could wipe us out.

“Our uncle Fausto – my father’s younger brother, and hisconsiglierefor the last 25 years–took over half of the family’s territory and business. My brothers and I kept the rest. We agreed unanimously that Dario would be the new head of the family, and he chose me asconsigliereto handle things in his stead until he returned.

“But we’ve had our eyes on the wolves, tracking their plots to take us down. The man who was killed in your café last night was one such wolf. We know he worked for a rival family in Genoa, and we established his involvement in the firebombing of one of our warehouses.

“Needless to say, we found itverysuspicious that he was in our territory just a week after Dario’s return. Lars tracked him to your café and took care of him for us – but your father’s café is in the middle of nowhere. We can’t figure outwhyhe would have gone there, other than to meet someone.”

I stared at him in shock.

Niccolo had been extraordinarily open with me.

It might not have been the complete truth, but he had been under no obligation to tell meanything.I was their prisoner; prisoners don’t get the luxury of asking their captors questions.

Niccolo seemed to read my thoughts.

“Quite a bit of information to digest,” he said with a smile.

“…yes,” I admitted.

“Well, Dario was quite cross with me after you left last night. He thought you deserved at least a partial explanation for my – ashecalled it – assholish behavior.”

Dario?!

Dario was the one who had ordered Niccolo to apologize?!

That shocked me more than anything else I had heard so far.

---