Nico let out an abrupt laugh. “Apparently you don’t know my sister very well. She belongs to no one.”
Well, I have some thoughts about that. “As long as she’s with me, she stays safe,” I said instead. “But that depends on what you can do, Nico.”
Nico was quiet for a few moments. “You swear you won’t hurt her. Swear it on your title, Don, or this conversation is over, and I will move heaven and earth to put you in the ground.”
My mouth worked as I tried to form the words. I didn’t want to let on to her brother how much Leda meant to me. I didn’t want him to know I had this weakness. He wouldn’t be gunning to kill her, but he could use her against me.
But in the same breath, he needed to know that his sister had nothing to fear from me other than my inability to protect her.
“I swear it,” I found myself saying. “Your sister is safe.”
“What do you need?” Nico responded a moment later.
What did I need? I needed a fucking army, but I doubted that Nico had that in his back pocket. “I need allies.”
Nico let out a short laugh. “Allies? You know who you are talking with, right? I’m a traitor. Unless you want more people breathing down your back, I don’t have anything to offer.”
“You are a D’Agostino,” I stated firmly. My name didn’t mean shit, but he was the son of Carmine D’Agostino. “You still have a name that commands men. You were raised to rule in this life. Surely, if nothing else, you can help me strategize.”
I would never admit it to Leda, but Cosimo hadn’t really taught me a hell of a lot when it came to the strategy of ruling. Hell, he hadn’t needed to. When he was alive, the Mafia was doing well, in his opinion anyway. He had enemies, as did all Mafia Dons, but nothing that would threaten his very existence.
He had a ton of books on military strategy, but he never asked me to read them.
And now that I was up against my existential threat, I really wished he offered. Or that I gave a shit to crack one of them open in the last five years.
“How the fuck did you become Don?”
Nico’s question brought me out of my thoughts. “Why do you ask?”
“Because last time I was involved,” Nico continued. “Cosimo’s nephew Adrian was in the running to take over for the old man. In fact, I was pretty sure he gotten his fucking underwear embroidered with the title.”
That was something Leda might say. “I see your sister shares your sense of humor.”
“Don’t bullshit me,” Nico warned. “How did you get the title?”
My grin died. It wasn’t a story I wanted to share with him, a man I barely knew and one who, quite frankly, would shoot me without asking questions if he knew what I had done with his sister.
Hell, I might deserve the bullet at this point.
“Cosimo gave it to me on his deathbed.”
“No shit. Why?”
“Agree to help me and I will tell you.” I could take his contempt, his scorn, but I wanted something in return.
“Well played, Don,” Nico said, chuckling. “All right. Give me the time and place, and we will meet face to face then.”
I scratched my chin. “Three days. I will send you the location.” I hated giving him my location, but if he was willing to help, then I had no choice. “I only ask—”
“I’m not bringing the cavalry if that’s what you’re about to ask,” Nico bit out before I could even say it. “You can trust me, Valentino. For some fucking reason, my sister does, and that’s enough for me. That’s enough for now.” He cleared his throat. “But if I find out that you hurt her in any way, I will beat seven shades of shit out of you. Do we understand each other?”
“Yeah,” I answered. “We do.”
“I’ll see you in three days.”
I clicked off the call at the same time I heard footsteps, swiveling around in my chair with my hand on the gun in my lap.
Who it was didn’t surprise me in the least.