Page 115 of The Beast Who Broke Me
He holds on.
CHAPTER 39
DAMIANO
The next morning,I call Strike Ferraro, who’s as excited as always, which makes me uneasy. And then things get worse, because I get an unexpected visitor.
Sebastiano Conti is knocking at my front door, looking impatiently into the camera. He’s alone. That’s the first thing I check; I can’t see anyone else with him or waiting on the street. That means he’s probably not here to bring me in, because as big as Seb is, there’s no telling which of us would win in a fight.
So I let the security door up and invite him in.
“Orsini,” he greets me. He looks tired. Actually, he looks exhausted. There are smudges under his eyes, and he looks like he’s been sleeping in snatches. I know how he feels.
“Let’s go to the study,” I say carefully, because I’m not sure where Caligula is and I’m not sure I want them meeting just yet.
Because I’m not sure why, exactly, Seb is here.
“I won’t be long,” he says, which doesn’t give me any more information.
“You want some coffee?” I ask. “You look like you could use it.”
For the first time, he gives a small smile. “I could use a fucking gallon of it, brother,” he admits.
I pause to use the intercom, telling Rosa to bring some coffee up to the study, and lead him up the stairs. The study is on the second floor, and I don’t use it much—only with men I completely trust. In practice, that means Sebastiano Conti is the only man who’s ever been in here with me.
Rosa delivers the coffee, which he takes with a smile of thanks that dies as the door closes behind her. “Big Gee won’t budge. He wants the Clemenza kid turned over to the Bratva. He says the Clemenzas are finished, and he’s not gonna burn an alliance with the Russians over some dead Family.”
I haven’t touched my coffee yet, because I had a feeling this was what he came here to say, and what I tell him next is probably going to end in a fight between us.
“There’s no version of this that ends with me handing Caligula over,” I tell him. “I’ll speak to Big Gee myself if I?—”
“Don’t go fucking near him,” Seb snaps. He holds up a hand at the expression on my face. “For your own safety, Orsini. He’s not happy, and he’s not going to accept a no.”
“It ain’t happening,” I tell him. “If he wants Caligula—ifyouwant Caligula—you’ll have to come through me.”
“You want to kill him yourself?”
This is it. This is where I really pick my side. “No,” I say. “I don’t plan to kill him. I plan to protect him. And I plan tohelphim.”
Because I know what this Clemenza Loyalist meeting is really about. And I’m okay with it.
Seb takes a sip of the coffee while I sit there on a knife-edge, and then he puts the cup down and sighs, “Gotta say, I’m relieved to hear you say that.”
“You are?” I ask, confused. Any other time in my life when I’ve said no to something the Boss wants—hell, even tried to negotiate a little—Sebastiano Conti has been there to remind me that my job is to say yes every time. “Look, what’s going on?” I follow up, leaning forward in the chair. “Since when the fuck do the Giulianos team up with Russians?”
“Since Big Gee decided he wants D’Amato gone,” Seb says grimly. “I mean, you heard that part, right? That’s what’s driving him.”
“Maybe, but he’s fucking crazy if he thinks the Bratva won’t turn on him as soon as they’ve used him up.”
“I told him that,” Seb says heavily. “He won’t hear it. I push any harder, there’s gonna be a problem.” He looks at me with those tired eyes. “Andyou’regonna have a problem, Orsini. If you don’t back down, Big Gee will come for you. You understand what I’m saying?”
“I do. And it don’t make any difference.”
Seb gives a pained smile. “You’ve changed your tune,” he observes. “Not gonna lie, I prefer this song. I actually came here to make you give the Clemenza to me.” He holds up his hand as I half rise from my seat in outrage. “I was going to put him somewhere safe—maybe out in Vegas, maybe in LA. And hell, those would be safer places for him right now. If we work together, we can get him out of the city?—”
“He won’t go,” I say. “He won’t go, Seb. He’s got some plan to get his Family back together—he’s got stars in his eyes, and nothing I did put them out. Nothing you do will either. So maybe you focus on what youcando, which is persuade your brother to simmer down.”
He shakes his head slowly. “I told you. He won’t listen. And I don’t know what’s going to happen next, but I can’t let Big Gee make an alliance with the Bratva. It would be the end of the Family.”
