Chapter 3
The first capo admitted the truth after Dante stopped asking politely.
Javier had been talking about succession.
Not directly.
He had been careful.
“What happens if Dante decides he’s done?” Javier had asked.
“Who keeps everybody together?”
Another capo remembered Javier saying the family had become “too cautious.”
A third said Javier complained that Dante had lost his appetite for confrontation since becoming a father.
Dante listened without interrupting.
The picture looked simple.
Javier wanted more power.
Maybe the barbecue was his attempt to challenge Dante publicly.
Attack Leo.
Force Dante to intervene.
Shove him.
Take a swing.
If Dante backed down, Javier looked strong.
If Dante overreacted, Javier could claim the boss had lost control.
It was crude.
But Javier had never been subtle when angry.
Dante confronted him at a neutral office two days later.
Javier arrived alone.
“You’ve been asking people who replaces me.”
Javier did not deny it.
“People talk.”
“You started the conversations.”
“You’re fifty-five.”
Dante almost laughed.
“I’m not ninety.”
“That isn’t what I meant.”
“Then say what you meant.”
Javier looked toward the windows.
“You changed.”
“Because I have children?”
“Because everything became about protecting them.”
“That sounds like criticism from a man who put his knee on my son’s back.”
Javier flinched.
Good.
At least shame still existed.
“I lost my temper.”
“You challenged me in front of the family.”
“I lost that too.”
Dante studied him.
“That’s a lot of things to lose in five minutes.”
Javier looked away.
Then Dante asked:
“Did Clara know what you were going to do?”
Javier’s head snapped back.
“No.”
Too fast.
Dante noticed.
“So why did she move people closer?”
“I don’t know.”
“Why did she tell them they might miss something?”
Javier’s face changed.
Only slightly.
But it was enough.
“You didn’t know she did that.”
“No.”
Dante leaned back.
For the first time, Javier’s anger had been replaced by confusion.
May you like
That mattered.
Because if Javier had planned a public challenge, his wife apparently understood the audience better than he did.
