جميع فصول : الفصل -الفصل 10

When Dante saw what was in the box, his eyes narrowed."What are you doing with the Donna's crest?"I picked up the crest and held it out to Anna."Isn't the Don worried people will look down on Anna?"There'll be plenty of guests tonight. If she wears the Donna's lion-head crest, no one will dare gossip behind her back."Anna stared at it, greed flashing in her eyes.But she didn't dare reach for it right away. She bit her lip and looked at Dante."That's Claire's token. How could I take it?"Dante pressed his lips together. A long moment passed before he spoke."You're just borrowing it."Claire isn't that petty."I took Anna's hand and pressed the cold crest into her palm."No need to borrow it."I never take back what I've given away."Anna's fingers closed around it. Tears spilled down her cheeks again."Thank you, Claire."She sounded grateful, but her thumb was already stroking the lion's ruby eyes.It was as if she'd reclaimed a prize that had always been hers.Dante's expressi

Just before dawn, someone kicked open the door of my house.The old butler stumbled into the living room, his face white."Boss, something terrible has happened!"I threw on a black trench coat and hurried to the family chapel. Ash covered the marble floor.The Five Families' parchment marriage alliance, signed by a Vatican cardinal and kept on the altar, was reduced to charred scraps. Its five wax seals had melted into a black smear.Anna sat slumped on the floor beside an iron chair, shaking like a leaf."I heard the Five Families' wax seals were made with pure gold dust, and I just wanted a closer look. The candlestick fell over on its own. I really didn't mean to."The gunman guarding the cellar said in a trembling voice, "Anna had the Don's personal pocket watch. She said she'd been sent to pray in the chapel, so I left my post."I looked down at Anna."Do you know what the punishment is under family rules for burning the Five Families' alliance?"The color drained from her cheeks

Before noon, crews of every kind had gathered outside the estate's wrought-iron gates.Bootleggers wanted payment for their freight. The South American contacts wanted larger deposits. Even the manager of the bank that laundered our money sent a lawyer with a demand letter.Anna walked out of the main house holding Dante's personal seal."What are you all shouting about?"The Chicago family isn't going to stiff you over a little pocket change."The Canadian captain at the front took off his cap and waved it."Anna, it's not that we don't respect Don Rinaldi."There are way too many patrols on the Great Lakes. We already risk our necks smuggling. Claire used to escort the boats, inspect the cargo, and cover every loss. That's why we unloaded first and let Chicago pay at the end of the month."Anna's face stiffened."So now I'm taking over. What's the difference?"The old captain eyed the lion-head crest on her chest."Can that piece of scrap metal protect us from Coast Guard machine-gun

After news of the dissolved alliance spread through the American mafia, plenty of gangs waited to see me die in the street.Some mocked me for shooting myself in the foot.Others even took bets in underground casinos that I wouldn't last a week before crawling back to Chicago in tears, begging Dante to take me in.But on the morning of the fourth day, Atlantic City received an urgent coded message from the port of Miami.The underground hospitals run jointly by the Five Families had only enough emergency plasma and specialized antibiotics for two more days.Federal agents had locked down the coastline. Adrian slapped an emergency supply order onto my desk."Dante's routes have been suspended by the Commission. Chicago's smuggling network is a total mess right now."You willing to wade into this mess?""Why wouldn't I?"I pulled out the deeds to the three Chicago casinos, put up the Gambino family's Swiss trust too, and borrowed eight million dollars in cash from a private banker on the

In the end, the Five Families' Commission sentenced Anna to life in a pitch-black prison on a remote island.For the sake of the late Richie, they spared her life after all.All the dirty money she'd moved out of the Cayman Islands was recovered and repaid with interest to the suppliers who'd lost out.The enforcers returned the lion-head crest to Chicago untouched.For covering for a traitor and causing the Five Families' supply cutoff, Dante lost control of four South Side docks and was fined twenty million dollars by the Commission.The afternoon the penalty was handed down, he stood for three hours in the pouring rain outside the Empire State Building, where I had my Manhattan office.My head of security asked whether I wanted him to call the police and have Dante removed.Holding a glass of red wine, I shook my head."Let him stand in the rain."For the past three years, I'd been the one waiting in the rain.Waiting for his meetings to end, waiting for him to come back to the esta