The Mafia's Obsession novel · Chapter 5 of 24

Chapter 5: The Rizzo at the Table

Silvio went down to dinner because staying in the bedroom would have been a kind of hiding.

He wore a dark suit that someone had left on the bed, and it fit him.

He did not ask how.

The long dining room held ten men around a table set with white linen and silver.

Vittorio sat at the head with a bruise darkening along his jaw.

He stood when Silvio came in, and the whole table stood with him.

"Sit here," Vittorio said, and pulled out the chair at his right.

Silvio sat.

Across from him sat a lean man with sandy hair and a thick gold chain, who had not bothered to stand.

Silvio knew him.

Dario Rizzo, thirty-one, heir to the other big dock family, a man who laughed at his own jokes first.

"So this is the bride," Dario said. "I expected a girl. Bought husband's a better story."

A few of the Rizzo men chuckled.

Bruno Lanza, bald and heavy at the foot of the table, stopped chewing.

"Eat, Dario," Vittorio said, very quietly.

"I'm only saying what the docks are saying. A Ferrante in a Sartori bed. Cheap price for a family that couldn't pay its own debts."

Silvio put down his fork.

His pulse beat hard in his ears, but his voice came out level.

"I did your cousin's customs paperwork for four years," he said.

Dario blinked.

"You never once got my name right. It's Silvio. Say it."

The table went still.

Dario's smile thinned. "I'll call you what I like, Ferrante."

"It's Sartori now," Vittorio said.

He did not raise his voice.

He reached over and laid his hand on the back of Silvio's neck, warm and heavy, and left it there in front of everyone.

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