Chapter Seventy Six

Chapter Seventy Six
Nicholas POV

I left Camilla asleep in the early hours of the morning. The sun was not even up yet. I spoke with my father briefly before I headed out with a small group of our best men. We had a flight to catch to Naples and then needed to regroup once we met up with Carmen Patron. There was little time to figure this whole thing out.

In turn, Tanya had been packed up and ready to go. She was on the first plane back to New York, accompanied by two guards. They had their orders. Once they landed, they were to call me for the next instructions. I was hoping to have a plan by then, so that Tanya could make contact with Thomas Cain and we could set the next steps of our plan in motion.

We made it into Naples without incident. My first order of business was to head to the villa where Carmen Patron would be waiting for me. It was nestled deep in a cliff that overlooked the Amalfi Coast. It was well hidden and really only visible from the water. I followed the directions she gave us, keeping my eyes on a constant lookout for anything that seemed out of place. You never knew if we had been followed, and I didn't want to take a chance her location could be compromised. She was technically not in Naples, but an hour away, closer to Salerno than Naples.

Eventually, we pulled up in front of a large iron gate, with a keypad and a call button. My driver rang, and an unfamiliar voice answered in Italian. "Posso aiutarla?"

The driver did not speak Italian, so replied in English. "Is Carmen Patron available?"

"Un Momento."

"Hello," Carmen's voice came over. "Who is this?"

"It's me Carmen," I said from the back seat. "Nicholas." The gate swung open a moment later and we made our way up a long curving road. There was nothing to indicate whose property you were approaching, nothing on the gate, nothing identifying as we drove up the winding road. Very inconspicuous. The road was about a mile long and then there was another gate, this one shorter. No call boxes here, but there was a guard house, and a man armed with an automatic rifle stepped out, his gaze narrowed at us as he walked to the driver's door.

"Mr. Carmine," he said as he peered in through the open window. "The Donna is expecting you." He stepped back, pulled out some kind of remote from his pocket and the gate opened. He waved us through, watching us from behind as we drove up to the circular driveway of the villa.

The villa wasn't what I'd call small by any standards, but it wasn't intrusive in size either. It blended in nicely with the hillside greenery, it's second story displaying a wraparound balcony. That very balcony held two more heavily armed guards. They said nothing to us as we exited the vehicle. They simply watched as we approached the front door. Before we could reach it, the door swung open, and Carmen stepped out with Enzo at her side and another armed guard flanking her on the other.

"Is all of this necessary, Carmen?" I ask with a chuckle and a motion of my hand toward the guard.

Carmen tilts her head slightly. "Maybe not, but I've not been home in a long time. I can't be sure who to trust, you know," she smirks. "Come in, we have plans to make."

Carmen turns on her heel and walks back inside. Enzo stands there a moment, surveying the men with me. "Your fathers' men?" he asks. "Where's Marco and Jimmy?"

"Handling another situation that Cain has managed to create. And Michael went to Chicago to clean up that mess. You going to invite us in?" I ask as I take a step forward. Enzo shrugs and makes his way inside ahead of us. The men with me exchange glances, then two post themselves outside. I head inside, my father's three best men at my side.

"Good to see you," Carmen says to one of the men. He steps forward and kisses her on both cheeks with a smile. I didn't even know he knew her.

"You look lovely as always," he greets. "Enzo," he gives him a nod and steps back. Enzo nods back and retreats to a chair in the corner of the room, one where he had clearly been sitting earlier, with a drink half-finished and his usual newspaper folded up next to it on the table.

"Let's get down to business," Carmen says as she takes a seat and motions for the rest of us to do the same. "I have a plan, but we must execute it without any casualties aside from Thomas Cain, and we must be quick. A boat will be docking at one of my shipping centers tomorrow night. We can use that as cover so to speak. This will make it look like business as usual. By the time Thomas Cain arrives, though, there won't be anyone from the fishing company on site. It will be our men."

"Okay," I regard her. "How do you propose we get Thomas to come there specifically?"

"I understand that you have someone who is to make contact with him, no?" she says this, and I know she has already spoken to my father.

"I do."

"Good," she nods and taps her finger on her chin as if she's thinking. "We will use Gabriella as bait."

I have no idea who she is referring to. "Brilliant," one of the men with me says with a finger snap. I give him a look, and he shrugs and goes silent.

"Who is Gabriella?" I ask.

"My niece," she says with a grin. A moment later, I do a double-take as a petite dark-haired woman about the age of thirty walks in from a door to the side of the room. At first glance, you might think it's Camilla, but it's not. This woman is obviously older, slightly shorter, and her hair is only to her shoulders. Aside from that, I can see why Carmen thinks she can double as Camilla. From a distance, Thomas wouldn't know it's not her.

"Hello," the woman waves at us from across the room with her long red painted nails. "Happy to help, so long as you don't get me shot," she lifts a brow at Carmen and then wanders to the chair near Enzo and sits.

"Your niece," I say with a deferent tone. "It could work."

"Of course it can," Carmen says. "She's going to be far away, so he won't really know it's not Camilla. He will never get close enough for it to matter. Now, I've also got another card up my sleeve."

"You do?"

"I do. Mike, Cain's soldier that you had been holding? Michael brought him to me a week ago. He's here. I'm hoping that it will throw Cain off. I heard he's traveling with the girl. Your soldier, what's his name?" She pauses, thinking, "Oh yes, Grim," she looks at me. "What a terrible name, but I totally see it. He told me personally that he thought Mike would be a big help if we could get his sister back. He wanted to come and help too, but it seems that Jimmy put a stop to that.".

"I see," I say, quietly seething that Jimmy and my father have kept things from me. "Why is it I am just now hearing about this?" I ask.

Carmen waves her hand in the air like she's shooing away a fly. "I've been in this game since before you were born. I made myself scarce to you and Camilla because I was making my own plans. It's most important to me that my granddaughter is safe." She stands and begins to pace. "There is a debt owed, revenge long overdue." She turns to me. "For the death of my son."

Now things are sliding into place. Carmen's entire reason for being here at all is slapping me in the face. She'd not want to get her hands dirty at this age in her life. But she does. Because she wants to get revenge for Cain's killing her son and daughter-in-law, and what better way to do it than here, in her family's territory, where they do not have the resources that they would have in Chicago. "What if we hadn't of been able to lure him here?" I ask.

"I was hopeful, you know, that the plan would work. I was not in a position in the States to make this happen. But here, I have all the power. I intend to make it even, all while saving my granddaughter from a horrible fate. I cannot even believe that she has to deal with any of this at all. I had long ago made sure that she was removed from this life by sending her to New York City for college. It turns out, no matter what, it found her. But I trust that you will make sure she stays safe, Nicholas?"

"Yes, of course I will." I look around the room, all eyes are on me. "What else are you not telling me?" I ask.

"Not much, but you need to make that phone call and we need to get this ball rolling." Carmen sits back down and leans forward as if she's trying to say something quietly so no one else will hear. Of course, everyone can hear, so that's not the point of this. "Nicholas, is she going to marry you? Where do you stand with that?"

"I'm sorry?" I ask.

"Did you ask Camilla to marry you or not?" she says loudly.

I look around and everyone is waiting for my answer, heads cocked to the side staring at me. "I did, but what does that have to do with anything?" I ask.

"It has everything to do with it!" Carmen exclaims. "This," she motions around the room, "It's all yours when you marry her. All of our estates, our villas across the country, homes in the states, all will be yours."

"I don't care about that," I say. "I care about Camilla."

"I know that Nicholas, that's what makes it better. Aside from that, every man in this room will be loyal to you. Loyal to Camilla, till death. You will be the Don." Carmen says it as if it's a fact, then stands. "You knew this capo degli uomini (leader of men), it will be."

"Now make the call," she hands me a paper with specific instructions for me to give to Tanya. I make the call and then we wait for confirmation that the message has been passed. The plan is in motion, and my stomach is in knots as I think of all that could go wrong in the next twenty-four hours. Regardless, I can't help but feel that very soon, Thomas Cain will be dead.