That was how the morning of the casino party’s second day began.
Melvi Dormentaire and Huey Laforet gave the impression they had their eyes fixed on the whole town, but easily surpassing their expectations, the day started with an encounter between an innocent beast and a camorrista.
The top floor of Ra’s Lance
Ra’s Lance was a combined commercial building, and its upper floors were a hotel that catered to the wealthy. The grand suite room was as spacious as a modest party venue, and you needed more than just money to stay there. Only the chosen were granted access to it.
The very first “chosen one” to stay in that room, a young boy named Carzelio Runorata, was gazing uneasily out the window. “I wonder if Charlie’s okay… Do you think he’s hungry?” he murmured.
Two voices responded from behind him.
“Don’t worry, young Master Carzelio. Charlie’s fine. He simply doesn’t know the city, so he was startled. He’s gotten rather lost.”
“That’s right. And we told the cops to handle it peacefully, so he’s not gonna get hurt or anything.”
“Not by the police anyway.”
Carzelio—or “Cazze” for short—was an ordinary child in terms of looks and innocence, but his mind worked more quickly than those of others his age. And given the fact that he’d picked up a huge grizzly on a whim and kept him as a pet, he also seemed to have a screw or two loose.
“If he gets into a fight with some mafia people, they might shoot him or cut him open, right? What if he…dies…?”
Before that happened, the mafia would probably take a whole lot more damage. That was what Cazze’s twin guards—Gabriel and Juliano—were thinking, but they didn’t say it. Instead, they tried to reassure their master, Bartolo Runorata’s grandson.
“It’s all right. We’ll go look for him. Won’t we, I?”
“Yeah, Me, that’s right. If anyone tries to hurt Charlie, we’ll do everything we can to stop them.”
Stop their hearts, he meant, but he didn’t actually say it.
Cazze was innocent and a little crazy, but he wasn’t the type of person who enjoyed cruelty.
That was true now, of course. The twins were aware that his future environment could change his simple, ingenuous personality in any number of ways.
But they would not be the ones to change him.
They were quite particular about this, and they didn’t speak with Carzelio any more than necessary. They left the room, preparing to get to work.
When they saw the dozen or so brawny men standing in a row out in the hall, the twins refocused on the situation.
“Do you think they’ll come, I?” Gabriel asked his brother, eyeing the heavy security.
“I dunno. If somebody did show, who would it be, Me?”
On paper, Carzelio was the guest of honor at this casino party, but he didn’t have any direct authority. That said, he was Bartolo’s biological grandson, and he had very few relations his age. On top of that, he was relatively popular with the family men. He’d have more than enough value as a hostage.
Even so, they couldn’t begin to guess which syndicate might go after him. There were too many possibilities. There were rival mafia families, of course, and an odd Camorra syndicate known as the Martillo Family was also involved. From what they heard, the group didn’t have any ties to the original Neapolitan Camorra, but they certainly weren’t an organization to take lightly. Despite being a small outfit, the twins couldn’t slack off on their job as bodyguards.
On top of that, there was Melvi Dormentaire, who’d been hired to help out. The man was ostensibly a collaborator who’d been sent by Huey Laforet’s organization. However, while the Runoratas had joined forces with Huey, they didn’t trust him enough to show him their backs.
In addition, the twins and other members with sharp instincts had picked up on the fact that Melvi had no significant loyalty to Huey. It would probably be better to focus on his connection to the Dormentaires, whose family name he shared. The House of Dormentaire had no official agreement with the Runorata family, and it was plenty likely that they’d try to use Carzelio.
A single glance was enough to show them they were surrounded by enemies.
They didn’t have time to worry about it, though. Not that there was any real reason to be worried anyway.
They were the Runorata Family.
Even if the whole world turned against them, they always had to go for their enemy’s throat first. They had to be the fangs sharp enough to tear open a jugular. The faithful dogs of the Runorata Family’s security team were filled with that sort of insanity and camaraderie.
It wasn’t just the twins, Gabriel and Juliano. All the members had that same grit.
Carzelio Runorata was innocently attended by these mad dogs.
He wouldn’t show his true brilliance until quite a while later—but the boy’s current growth hardly mattered. The men had compensated for his inexperience by building a solid fortress around him.