Chapter 155: Someone Is Here To See You

When the last underboss left, only Marco remained.

Dimitri’s head of security stood by the door, silent and watchful as always.

"Total?" Dimitri asked.

"Forty-two million for the month. Up from thirty-eight last month. Vinnie’s expansion into Staten Island is paying off. So is the new weapons route through Norfolk."

Forty-two million dollars.

In one month.

From operations that existed entirely in the shadows.

Dimitri looked at the duffel bags lined up on the table, physical cash that would be counted, cleaned, and distributed through Sandra’s laundering networks before the week was out.

"We need to talk about Italy," Dimitri said.

Marco’s expression shifted. "The expansion?"

"Yes. I need the same infrastructure there that I have here. Drug networks. Weapons suppliers. Money laundering. Protection rackets. All of it." Dimitri moved to the table, unzipped one of the bags, looked at the stacks of hundreds inside. "Right now I have maybe twenty percent of the power in Italy that I have in New York. That’s not enough. Not if I’m going to challenge Antonio. Not if I’m going to keep Eve safe."

"That kind of expansion takes time. And money."

"We have the money." Dimitri gestured at the bags. "And we don’t have time. I need it done in weeks, not months. Which means we’re going to have to buy our way in. Pay premium prices for loyalty. Bribe more officials. Establish operations faster than we normally would."

Marco pulled out his tablet, started making notes. "What do you want to prioritize?"

"Weapons first. I need caches in Rome, Naples, Milan. Enough hardware that if we have to go to war, my people are armed better than Antonio’s."

"I’ll reach out to Marcus’s Serbian contact. See if they can route shipments through Mediterranean ports."

"Good. Second priority: safe houses. I need locations where my people can operate, where we can store product, where we can disappear if things go hot. At least ten properties across major cities."

"Owned or rented?"

"Owned." Dimitri started pacing. "Third: local crews. We need boots on the ground. People who know the territory, who have connections, who can move product and collect debts and handle problems. Start recruiting. Offer double what they’re making with their current bosses."

"That’s going to piss off the local families."

"I don’t care. They can be pissed or they can be smart and work with me. Either way, I’m establishing presence." Dimitri’s voice was hard. "Antonio has forty years of infrastructure in Italy. I need to build comparable power in forty days."

Marco was quiet for a moment, calculating.

"That’s going to cost... conservatively? Fifty million. Maybe more."

"Then we spend fifty million. We have it. And we’ll make it back." Dimitri looked at his head of security. "This is the foundation, Marco. Everything depends on being strong enough in Italy that when I move against my father, he can’t just leverage his home territory advantage. I need to be able to match him gun for gun, soldier for soldier, operation for operation."

"Understood. I’ll start making calls today."

"Good. And Marco?" Dimitri’s eyes were steel. "This stays between us. Mike knows the broad strokes, but not the details. And Eve knows nothing. As far as she’s concerned, I’m just doing normal business in Italy. Meetings. Negotiations. Nothing illegal. Nothing dangerous."

"She doesn’t know about any of this, does she?" Marco gestured at the warehouse, the money, the empire they’d just inventoried. "The drug networks, the weapons, the..."

"She knows I’m in the mafia. She knows I do illegal things. But she doesn’t know specifics. Doesn’t know numbers. Doesn’t know operations." Dimitri’s jaw tightened. "And she doesn’t need to. The less she knows, the safer she is. If my father ever tries to use her as leverage, ignorance protects her."

"You don’t think she deserves to know what world she’s really in?"

"I think she deserves to sleep at night without nightmares about the things I do to maintain power." Dimitri pulled out his phone, checked the time. "Anything else?"

"Yeah. We have a problem."

Something in Marco’s tone made Dimitri look up sharply.

"What kind of problem?"

"Tommy. One of Vinnie’s street-level dealers. He’s been skimming."

Dimitri went very still. "How much?"

"We’re not sure yet. But we’ve been tracking his deposits versus his reported sales for the past three months. There’s a gap. At least two hundred thousand, possibly more."

Two hundred thousand dollars.

Stolen from him.

By someone who worked for him, who he paid, who he protected.

"Where is he?" Dimitri’s voice was absolutely zero.

"Warehouse in Sunset Park. Vinnie’s holding him there. Waiting for your instructions."

"Let’s go."

***

POV: EVE

Eve sat in her office at Phoenix Talent, reviewing the Meridian contract for the third time, and couldn’t focus.

Dimitri had left before dawn. Again.

She’d woken to cold sheets and a text: Business meetings all day. Love you. See you tonight.

Which could mean anything.

Over the past two months, she’d learned not to ask too many questions about Dimitri’s "business meetings." He’d tell her what he wanted her to know.....carefully edited versions that removed the violence and the danger and the parts that would make her worry.

She’d accepted that.

Had chosen to trust him when he said he was keeping her safe by keeping her ignorant.

But sometimes, like this morning, when she’d found bruises on his knuckles that definitely hadn’t been there yesterday, she wondered what exactly he was doing when he wasn’t with her.

A knock on her door.

Melissa poked her head in. "Eve? You have a visitor. Says he’s a friend of Mr. Valentino’s?"

Eve’s stomach tightened. "Send him in."

The man who walked through her door was in his fifties, expensive suit, the kind of calm confidence that came from years of doing things most people couldn’t imagine.

"Ms. Thorne." He extended his hand. "Vincent Calabrese. I work with Dimitri. He asked me to check in on you, make sure you have everything you need."

Eve shook his hand, keeping her expression professional. "I appreciate that, Mr. Calabrese, but I don’t need anything. Dimitri’s security team is very thorough."

"I’m sure they are. But the boss wants to make sure you’re comfortable. Protected." Vincent’s smile didn’t quite reach his eyes. "He cares about you very much. Wants to make sure nothing happens to you."

There was a message there, beneath the polite words.

You’re important to him. Which makes you valuable. Which makes you vulnerable.

Eve had learned to read these conversations over the past months.