Chapter 5 - The Dawn Briefing
The armored SUV cut through the pre-dawn mist of the New York harbor, its headlights slicing through the drizzle toward the reinforced concrete warehouse that served as the neutral ground for the five families’ sunrise assembly.
Inside the back seat, the atmosphere was thick enough to touch. Casius sat beside Nadia, his expression carved from dark stone, while Leo sat across from them, nursing a cup of black coffee Vance had forced him to drink before they left the estate.
“You shouldn't be here, Nadia,” Casius said for the fourth time since they left the gates. His gaze flicked down to her hands, which were resting calmly in her lap. “This isn't an administrative meeting. When I walk through those doors, the Commission is going to try to tear the Leone name apart.”
“Your grandmother wore that dress because she knew she couldn't afford to be a spectator in her own house, Mr. Leone,” Nadia replied, her voice unwavering. She turned her head to meet his dark eyes directly. “And after three years of cleaning up your schedules, I’m not about to let a room full of aging capos rewrite my history—or my brother’s.”
Casius stared at her for a long second. A faint, humorless smile touched his lips, though his eyes remained hard as iron. “You really are Victoria’s granddaughter in spirit, aren't you?”
“No,” Nadia said quietly. “I’m just me. And that’s why this family is finally going to survive.”
The SUV slowed to a halt outside the heavy steel loading bay of Pier 48. Two armed enforcers pulled the doors open, revealing the damp, concrete-walled amphitheater where the leaders of the five families gathered twice a decade to settle territorial disputes and ratify blood pacts.
Around the central mahogany table stood the patriarchs of the remaining four families, flanked by their top capos. And sitting at the far end, looking smug and untouchable in a tailored white cashmere coat, was Gemma Rizzo, flanked by two lawyers carrying bulging leather briefcases.
As Casius stepped out of the vehicle, followed by Nadia and Leo, a murmur rolled through the assembly.
Gemma stood up, smoothing her coat with deliberate arrogance. “Well, look who finally decided to show up. We were wondering if your little secretary had to hem your trousers before you could leave the house, Casius.”
Casius didn't break his stride. He walked straight down the center aisle of the warehouse, his heavy boots echoing off the concrete. Nadia walked step-for-step beside him, her posture immaculate, wearing her oversized blazer like an emperor's cape.
“You’re late, Leone,” grunted Don Moretti, the elderly head of the Brooklyn faction, leaning heavily on a silver-headed cane. “And you come empty-handed. The Rizzo alliance is dissolved, and by the rules of the Commission, your succession is contested.”
“Contested on what grounds, Moretti?” Casius’s voice boomed through the warehouse, cutting off any further debate. He reached inside his jacket, pulled out the thick leather-bound ledger, and slammed it down onto the center of the mahogany table with a sharp, echoing thud.
Gemma’s smug smile faltered slightly. She exchanged a quick, nervous glance with her lawyers.
“On the grounds that the Leone family was built on a stolen foundation,” Gemma’s lead lawyer piped up, stepping forward and opening a manila folder. “We have documentation proving that Don Casius’s grandfather was an informant, and that Victoria Leone covered up the truth to maintain an illegal monopoly—”
“Shut up,” Casius commanded.
The single word carried such lethal authority that the lawyer snapped his mouth shut mid-sentence.
Casius didn't look at the lawyers. He looked directly at Gemma, his dark eyes narrowing into twin points of ice.
“You spent six months sneaking into my family’s private archive, Gemma, copying files you thought would destroy us,” Casius said, his voice dropping into a deadly, conversational hum. “You thought you found a skeleton in our closet. But you made one critical mistake.”
Gemma’s face paled. “What are you talking about?”
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Casius reached into his pocket a second time, pulling out the small data-snooping fob Leo had recovered from the annex, and tossed it carelessly onto the table beside the ledger.
“You stole the letters,” Casius said, “but you didn't read the last page.”
