Page 48 of Urgent Vows
I punch him so hard it knocks him out. I wait until he comes around before I start in on his fingernails. "Who did you leak information aboutla famigliato?"
We know we've got a rat, but even my best men haven't been able to figure out who it is. Because it is my consigliere? A man who before now had been considered above reproach.
"No one." He's not screaming yet, but he looks like I gutted him asking that question. "I'm loyal to our cause."
"Bullshit," Miceli spits. "You betrayed your don. Who did you betray the rest ofla famigliato?"
By the time my first capo arrives, I've removed all ten of Francesco's fingernails and both of his big toenails. Slowly.
I let Angelo and Miceli have some fun too. Angelo punches the hell out of Francesco's groin and Miceli slices several shallow cuts into our victim's skin. Then Angelo pours a salt based solution that stings like hell over the cuts.
Francesco maintains he's not the rat the whole time.
His voice is hoarse from screaming and he can barely get sound out when the capos and their underbosses are gathered. We kept the wall between the outer room and the box recessed so everyone can see the spectacle that is my former consigliere.
"Does anyone need an explanation of why Francesco Jilani is here?" I ask the men.
I see several heads shaking and not a single face shows confusion. They know what he tried to do.
"I want you all here for this little reminder of what happens to traitors. Francesco didn't just try to trick me this morning, he's been secretly abusing his daughter for fifteen years and did the same to her mother before he murdered her and blamed the fall down the stairs on Catalina."
I nod to Domenico. He holds up a bigger stack of printed papers than I want to see. It represents all the times Sara Jilani and Catalina ended up in the hospital because of Francesco's abuse.
"If anyone needs proof of the abuse, or the cover up, it's right here." Domenico pounds the papers with his fist. "Francesco Jilani checked his wife and daughter into hospitals all over the New York metropolitan area under different versions of their own names which meant they didn't get flagged in the system."
Some of the capos and underbosses mutter together.
"He never used our hospital or clinic so Don Enzo and Don Severu would not find out about it." There is nothing but disgust in Domenico's tone.
"That's not an offense punishable by death," Lorenzo Ricci says.
I grind my teeth, but I answer him because even though no one else voiced the thought that doesn't mean no one else had it.
"How he treated his wife and daughter is despicable, but you're right Lorenzo, if that was all he'd done, he wouldn't be dying a very slow and painful death tonight. He didn't just do that, though, did he? He hid it because he wanted to keep his position as consigliere. You all know the rules my father set for his capos, the same rules I reiterated with each of you after taking over as don."
There are nods and murmurs of agreement.
"Francesco lied to my father and to me." I'm so furious, I stop talking to let those words sink in. "If anyone questions how untrustworthy that made him, you only have to look at this morning's actions to know that a man who will lie to his don about one thing, will lie about another."
I meet the eyes of every man there, letting them see my rage, my disdain for the cowardice and dishonor of this man.
"We have a leak and every bit of information that has caused us loss of shipments, product and business in the past year came across this man's desk." I don't know if he's the rat.
After the last hour, I'm inclined to believe he's not, but only time will tell.
If the leaks of information stop, we'll know it was him. If they don't, then it wasn't. Either way, he's going to die tonight. And I'm not so complacent I won't keep looking for who is behind the attacks.
But I can tell that even suggesting it has a lot of the capos and their underbosses uncomfortable. That a consigliere could be a rat is unbelievable, but then who would have believed he would be arrogant enough to try what he did this morning? This is what I want them thinking.
I start his punishment in earnest. First, I punch him in the face. "I am not a patsy you can dupe."
Then I grab a mallet from the tool wall and bring it back so he can see what I hold.
Francesco shakes his head. "Please."
Did he ever listen to his wife's pleas? To Catalina's? She's too stubborn to plead with him now, but this shit started when she was a little girl.
Just thinking of my wife small and helpless in the face of her father's temper has my own arm swinging high. I bring the mallet down on his right forearm. I give him a few seconds to feel that pain before I do the same to his left.
