“You misunderstand me. It’s never my intention to insult you but rather provoke critical thought. One way or another, you need to understand the danger you’re in, including your team. Boneiro is going to be on the back foot, especially if his son’s fuckup becomes known to the other Commission leaders. As a full-blooded Sicilian, he’ll want vengeance for losing face.”
“Yes, by the actions of his own sons. It certainly wasn’t my doing.”
“He won’t see it that way. Believe me, he’ll be out for blood to redeem himself with The Commission. We live in the shadows, Paxton. They won’t find us or know we were involved but you and your team are a different story and so too, are his sons. He’ll make sure those idiots pay for their stupidity.”
“You’re kidding, right?” Paxton was visibly rattled. “He might be a cruel mobster but I can’t believe for one moment he’s that barbaric to kill his own flesh and blood to save his skin.”
“You’d be wrong.”
Paxton was startled. She studied the brooding expression on Jared’s face. It wasn’t the first time since they’d met that she had the feeling he was hiding something behind a suave exterior.
She suspected the complexity that made up the man was a consequence of pain, hardship, and betrayal. She deduced that he was tangled up with the Boneiro Mafia in more ways than he was willing to admit.
And I’m going to find out how.
“Meaning?” she pressed him when he didn’t elaborate on the abrupt response.
“Meaning that Marco Boneiro is a sociopath, Paxton. The only person who matters is himself. He wouldn’t hesitate to eliminate anyone who endangered his place in the crime world.”
“You seem to know him well. I still find it hard to believe he would murder his own children.”
“Believe it when I tell you.”
“You’re serious!” Paxton had seen enough in the tours she did in Afghanistan where honor killings were a cultural phenomenon. She’d always understood it for what it was— familicide. Generally in communities both men and women committed it. As a result, both genders were victims of honor killings. Not surprisingly there were different standards for the two. The U.S., however, didn’t recognize honor killings as a form of domestic violence, which predominantly occurred in Muslim culture. The idea of a parent killing his own child was biblical and abhorrent and went beyond any of Paxton’s beliefs.
“I googled Boneiro when I got home. It mentions his three sons and a daughter, who, I believe, is married and lives in Greece.”
“It happened at a time when he was conspiring to become amade manin the ranks of the Mafia, thirty-five years ago. Long before he became one of the most feared mobsters on U.S. soil.”
“A made man?”
Jared’s expression turned dark. There appeared a faraway look in his eyes giving her the impression that he had drifted off somewhere. From the dark expression on his face, it wasn’t pleasant thoughts milling through his mind.
“It’s what they call someone who is a fully initiated member of the American Mafia. For that to happen he has to be Italian or of Italian descent and sponsored by another ‘made man’ or by one of the five leaders. Then, the person to be inducted has to take the oath ofomertà, the mafia’s code of silence.” He blinked as he glanced at her. “It’s the only way to hold the rank of soldier in the Mafia hierarchy. For Boneiro it was a no-brainer. He wanted the exalted title as one of The Commission heads from early on.”
“Good lord, it sounds like politics-as-usual. I’ve heard of The Commission before.”
“The governing body of the American Mafia. The only way to ever rise through the ranks of the Mob from soldier to caporegime, consigliere, underboss, and boss, is to become a ‘made man’.”
“And to achieve that, Boneiro had to do what? Pay a price for entry?”
“Boneiro had a love child with his high school sweetheart when he was eighteen. At the time, he was a petty criminal on the streets of Los Angeles. This is how he was noticed and eventually recruited by the mobster, Paul Castellano. He blossomed under his tutelage. But his ambition didn’t end there. Greed to have the same power as the leader of the Castellano family turned him into a traitor. He sided with John Gotti in an assassination attempt on Castellano three years later in the hope he’d be made a caporegime. That didn’t happen until years later and only after he became a ‘made man’.”
“Years after, meaning?”
“Ten years.”
“This love child... I assume it’s not his eldest son, Luca?”
“No.” Jared picked up the spoon and stirred the bubbling chocolate mixture on the stove. “Luca was born five years after the first.”
“To a different mother?”
The spoon thrummed against the copper pot as he whipped the hot chocolate faster. What she’d thought to be a touch of OCD was in fact growing agitation.
“No. Marco married his high school sweetheart while she was pregnant. They’re still married, for that matter.”
“I assume it’s the love child who is dead?”