Chapter 5
Lorenzo spent the next forty-eight hours counting loyalties.
Not money.
People.
Three senior capos admitted Bianca had issued instructions Lorenzo never knew about.
Two defended her.
One refused to speak.
Adrian had handled enforcement.
Bianca had handled rewards.
The system was elegant.
Never openly against Lorenzo.
Always beside him.
If a business owner needed pressure, Bianca decided.
If a young associate needed debt erased, Adrian decided.
If a capo’s family needed money, Bianca found it.
They made themselves necessary.
Lorenzo made himself feared.
Elena had noticed the difference before he did.
At the next council meeting, Bianca entered wearing black and sat without waiting to be invited.
Her posture was perfect.
Her eyes were not.
They kept moving toward the men around the table.
Counting.
Lorenzo noticed.
“You built loyalty.”
Bianca rested her hands together.
“I kept the family alive.”
“Without me.”
“Sometimes because of you.”
Several men shifted.
Power moved with the sentence.
Lorenzo felt it.
Bianca continued.
“You make decisions. I deal with what they cost.”
Her voice never rose.
“When you closed a business, I paid the men who lost work. When you removed a captain, I fed his children. When someone needed help and you called it weakness, they came to me.”
Lorenzo’s jaw tightened.
The worst part was that some of it was true.
Then Al—no Alina. We have Claire or Anthony. Let's maintain. Claire opened a ledger.
“Some payments were support.”
Bianca smiled.
“Exactly.”
Claire continued.
“Others purchased votes.”
The smile stopped.
Payments appeared before disputed council decisions.
Large amounts to men who later supported Bianca’s preferred outcomes.
Adrian leaned forward.
“You call it corruption because she was better at loyalty than you.”
Lorenzo’s eyes moved to him.
Adrian did not flinch.
For years, he had been one of the few men who could do that.
Then Anthony placed another file on the table.
“Elena found this before she died.”
A draft restructuring plan.
It created independent family-support funds, removed Bianca’s discretionary control and required joint approval for enforcement actions.
Elena had not planned to destroy assistance.
She planned to remove Bianca’s leverage over it.
Bianca’s breathing changed.
Barely.
Lorenzo saw.
Then he reached the final page.
Elena had written one handwritten note:
If Lorenzo agrees, Adrian loses half his men overnight.
May you like
Adrian’s face hardened.
And suddenly both Bianca and Adrian had a clear reason to stop Elena before she reached Lorenzo.
