Chapter 152: What Happened In Italy?

POV: DIMITRI

Dimitri woke at 2:17 AM to the sound of silence and Eve’s breathing beside him.

He lay still for a moment, watching her sleep, curled on her side, her hair spread across the pillow, one hand tucked under her cheek.

The sex had wrecked them both. She’d fallen asleep within minutes of him cleaning her up, exhausted and satisfied and completely boneless.

He should sleep too. God knew he needed it after four days in Italy.

But his mind wouldn’t stop.

Giovanni’s face when Dimitri had shown him the satellite imagery. The calculation in his eyes. The careful way he’d worded his responses.

"I need time to think."

Which could mean anything.

Could mean he was genuinely considering switching sides.

Or it could mean he was already planning how to tell Antonio that his son was recruiting against him.

Dimitri slipped out of bed carefully, pulled on sleep pants and a t-shirt.

Moved quietly through the dark bedroom, closed the door behind him with a soft click.

The penthouse was dark except for the ambient city light coming through the floor-to-ceiling windows.

And one lamp on in the kitchen.

Where Mike sat at the island, a bottle of Dimitri’s expensive scotch open in front of him, two glasses already poured.

He looked up as Dimitri approached, a slight smile on his face.

"Figured you’d show up eventually." Mike pushed one of the glasses toward him. "Eve asleep?"

"Completely." Dimitri sat, picked up the glass. "How’d you know I’d come out?"

"Because I know you. You just spent four days in enemy territory, made a play that could get you killed if it goes wrong, and came home to your girlfriend who you had to reassure everything was fine." Mike took a sip of scotch. "But you and I both know everything’s not fine. So. Talk. What really happened in Italy?"

Dimitri took a long drink, let the burn settle in his chest.

Where to start.

"Giovanni’s smart," he said finally. "Smarter than I gave him credit for. He knew I was coming before I even arrived."

Mike’s eyebrows rose. "How?"

"Because Antonio’s people spotted us the second we landed in Rome. Marco picked it up on surveillance....two cars following us from the airport, staying just far enough back to not be obvious." Dimitri’s jaw clenched. "We lost them before we got to the villa, but Giovanni mentioned it. Said word travels fast when the Devil visits his father’s territory."

"Shit." Mike refilled both their glasses. "Did your father know you were meeting with Giovanni specifically?"

"I don’t think so. If he did, Giovanni would be dead and I’d have walked into an ambush." Dimitri stared into his glass. "But he knows I was there. Which means he’s going to be watching more closely now. Making moves. Testing my people to see who might be vulnerable to recruitment."

"So the timeline just accelerated."

"Yeah." Dimitri rubbed his face with both hands. "I was hoping for another six months of quiet positioning. Now I’ve got maybe three. Four if I’m lucky."

They sat in silence for a moment, the weight of that settling between them.

"Tell me about Giovanni," Mike said. "Not the sanitized version you’ll tell Eve. The real version. Did he agree or not?"

"He’s considering it. But there were... complications."

"What kind of complications?"

Dimitri pulled out his phone, brought up a photo he’d taken when Giovanni wasn’t looking.

In the study of the villa, partially hidden behind a bookshelf, was a framed photograph.

Giovanni. Younger, maybe twenty years ago. Standing with a woman and a teenage boy.

"Giovanni has a son," Dimitri said quietly. "Luca. Twenty-two years old. Lives in Milan. Works as an architect....completely legitimate, completely clean. Giovanni’s kept him out of the business his entire life."

"And?"

"And Antonio knows about him. Has known for years." Dimitri zoomed in on the photo. "Giovanni didn’t say it directly, but I could read between the lines. Antonio’s been holding Luca over Giovanni’s head for two decades. Insurance policy. If Giovanni ever tries to leave, to betray him, to make a move.....Luca dies."

"Fuck."

"Exactly." Dimitri set down his phone. "So when I made my offer, when I showed him the leverage I have on the weapons cache, Giovanni wasn’t thinking about profits or better terms. He was thinking about whether I could protect his son better than my father threatens him."

"Can you?"

"I don’t know." The admission tasted like failure. "my father’s network in Italy is deep. Decades of relationships, of loyalty, of fear. If he decides to move against Luca, I’m not sure I could stop it in time. Not from New York. Not without infrastructure in place."

Mike was quiet, processing.

"So Giovanni needs proof that you’re not just making promises. He needs to see that you can actually protect what matters to him."

"Which means I need to move faster than I planned. Need to establish presence in Italy. Need to build protection networks." Dimitri’s frustration bled through. "Which takes time I don’t fucking have."

"What about the others? Marcello Bellini? The territory manager with the sick wife?"

"I’m moving on him next. Two weeks. Marcello’s already gathering intelligence on the treatment facility, confirming what Eve found about Sofia being a test subject." Dimitri took another drink. "That one should be easier. Show him proof his wife’s being experimented on, offer her real treatment with no strings attached. He’ll turn."

"And if he doesn’t?"

"Then I make sure Antonio finds out Marco’s been skimming territory profits. Let them destroy each other."

Mike smiled slightly. "You really are your father’s son sometimes."

"Don’t." Dimitri’s voice was sharp.

"I didn’t mean it as an insult." Mike held up his hands. "Just observing that you think like him. Strategically. Three moves ahead. Using leverage and fear and carefully calibrated offers."

"The difference is I’m not building an empire on human experimentation and biological weapons."

"I know that. I’m just saying, the strategic mind? That’s Antonio’s genetics. You can be ruthless like him without being a monster like him." Mike paused. "Does that make sense?"