Chapter 361: We Could Have Him Taken Care Of

Dante set down the intelligence package and looked at his man with the kind of calm that came from someone who’d already thought through multiple scenarios.

"How much has he found out?" Dante asked.

"Not much yet," Paul said. "But he’s persistent. He’s using his Valentino name, so people are willing to talk to him. And he’s got resources, he’s systematically working through your territory, methodically building a picture of what you’ve been doing."

Dante stood and walked to the window overlooking his gardens. Enzo. Of course Dimitri would send his brother. Of course he’d use the Valentino name as leverage to open doors.

"Luca," Dante said, and his second-in-command who was sitting opposite to him, where he’d clearly been listening. "What do you think?"

"He’s a threat," Luca said immediately. "If Enzo keeps digging, if he finds The Covenant connection, if he reports back to Dimitri with confirmed intel about who’s backing you..."

"Then Dimitri knows exactly how serious this is," Dante finished. "Then he understands that this isn’t just personal vendetta. It’s corporate warfare."

"We could have him taken care of," Paul suggested carefully. "Make it look like an accident. A robbery gone wrong. Something that doesn’t trace back to....."

"No," Dante said, cutting him off.

Luca understood why immediately. "He’s Dimitri’s brother. And Antonio’s son. If anything happens to him...."

"Antonio would burn Rome to find out why," Dante said. "And Dimitri would burn the entire world. I’m not stupid enough to touch Enzo Valentino directly."

He turned from the window to face Paul and Luca.

"But I’m also not going to let him gather intelligence that compromises my position," Dante continued. "So here’s what we’re going to do."

He sat back down and gestured for them to listen.

"Paul, I want you to spread word through every connection you have in the underworld," Dante said. "I want you to make sure everyone in the neighborhoods, every dealer, every mid-level operator, every street contact knows one thing: Anyone who provides Enzo Valentino with information about me, answers to me. And anyone who answers to me faces consequences. Death. Disappearance. Destruction. I want them terrified of talking to him."

Paul nodded slowly, understanding the play.

"But," Dante continued, "I also want you to seed false information. Feed it to people you trust, people you know will tell Enzo when he asks. Make it sound real. Make it detailed. Make it convincing. But make it completely wrong."

"What kind of false information?" Luca asked.

"That I’m weakened," Dante said. "That I’m still dealing with nerve damage and mobility issues. That my recovery is slower than expected. Tell them I’m planning to leave Rome for a while, go somewhere to finish healing. Tell them whatever sounds plausible but makes me look less like a threat than I actually am."

Luca smiled slightly, understanding the strategy.

"So Enzo reports back to Dimitri that you’re weakened and leaving," Luca said. "Dimitri lets his guard down. He thinks the threat is passing."

"Exactly," Dante said. "And while Dimitri’s attention is elsewhere, while he’s dealing with actual operational crises instead of preparing for me, we hit him harder. We take more territory. We sabotage more deals. We dismantle more of his operations. By the time he realizes the intel he got from Enzo was garbage, we’ll be too entrenched to stop."

He looked at Paul directly.

"Make sure the fear is real," Dante said coldly. "Make sure everyone in that underworld understands that talking to Enzo means death. I don’t care how you communicate it. I don’t care what you say. But I want the message to be clear and absolute. No one talks. No one cooperates. No one helps him gather information."

"It’ll take a few days to put that in place," Paul said. "But I can do it. I’ll have the fear spreading through the neighborhoods by tomorrow night."

"Good," Dante said. "And Paul....keep me updated on what Enzo’s doing. Let me know everywhere he goes, everyone he talks to, what he’s asking about. I want to track his investigation in real time."

"Understood," Paul said.

After Paul left, Luca stayed behind.

"This is risky," Luca said quietly. "If Enzo figures out the information is false, if he realizes what you’re doing..."

"He won’t," Dante said with absolute certainty. "Because The Covenant’s intelligence is good. The false information I’m feeding him will match parts of reality in ways that make the whole package seem credible. And by the time he figures out pieces don’t add up, it’ll be too late."

He stood and returned to the intelligence package.

"This is how we win," Dante said. "Not through direct confrontation with a Valentino. But through strategy. Through control of information. Through making Dimitri believe he understands what I’m doing when he actually understands nothing."

Luca nodded slowly.

"The Covenant is going to like this approach," Luca said. "It’s exactly their style. Control information. Control the narrative. Control the outcome."

"That’s why they invested in me," Dante replied. "Because I understand that in this world, the man with the best information wins. And right now, I’m about to make sure Dimitri Valentino has nothing but garbage."

***

POV: ISABELLA

The shaking started in her hands first.

Isabella sat on the edge of her bed, staring at her palms, watching them tremble slightly. Not dramatically. Not so much that anyone would immediately notice if they glanced at her. But enough that she could feel it. Enough that holding a pen required concentration. Enough that lifting a water glass meant gripping it with both hands to keep it steady.

It had been thirty-six hours since her last dose.

The medication was supposed to arrive three days ago. It always arrived on schedulea discreet delivery, a package that looked like nothing special, a routine that had been part of her life for so long she’d stopped thinking about it as unusual. Take the pills. Calm down. Function. Repeat.

But the package hadn’t come.

Told herself it would arrive tomorrow.

Tomorrow had come and gone.

Now it was the morning of Day Three without the medication, and Isabella was beginning to understand what panic actually felt like.