Chapter 5
Augusto denied the Bellandi meeting immediately.
That was his second mistake.
Luciano had not asked yet.
“You’re getting sloppy,” Luciano said.
His father’s eyes hardened.
Anthony enlarged the frame on the phone. The crest was blurred, but the shape was unmistakable: a crowned wolf, the old Bellandi mark.
Luciano knew only four men in that family still wore it publicly.
One was dead.
Two were too old to move without assistance.
The fourth was Matteo Bellandi, forty-one, head of the family’s eastern crews and a man Luciano had refused business with twice.
“What was Matteo doing here?”
Augusto smiled thinly. “You think a ring proves a man was in this house?”
“No.”
Luciano handed the phone to Anthony.
“I think your fear does.”
Dario looked toward his father.
Another mistake.
Celeste noticed.
“So this wasn’t only about making Luciano look unstable.”
Augusto said nothing.
She continued.
“You promised someone what would happen after.”
Luciano turned toward her.
Celeste was pale, but her mind was clear.
Dario had wanted footage.
Augusto had wanted witnesses.
A Bellandi man had wanted an outcome.
Anthony said what everyone was beginning to understand.
“They needed the organization divided before they approached anyone openly.”
Luciano looked at Dario.
“If the footage showed me beating you after Celeste fell, what story were you planning to tell?”
Dario’s mouth tightened.
Nora answered instead.
“That Luciano attacked his own brother in rage.”
Anthony added, “That he couldn’t be trusted around family.”
Celeste’s voice hardened.
“That he had become dangerous.”
Augusto gave a quiet laugh.
“You’re all building fantasies.”
Then Nora found another detail.
At minute two, before Celeste entered, Augusto looked toward the hidden Bellandi figure and said something the phone barely captured.
Anthony replayed it twice.
Finally the words became clear.
“After tonight, Dario gets the north crews.”
Luciano did not move.
North crews controlled two of the Ferraro family’s most profitable routes.
Routes Matteo Bellandi had wanted for years.
Luciano looked at his father.
“You weren’t replacing me for Dario.”
Augusto’s face finally changed.
May you like
Luciano understood.
“You were selling pieces of the family to buy his support.”
