Chapter 124
124
In the days after we returned from Milan, I tripled down on my efforts.
We had to replace the foot soldiers we’d lost when Fausto left, so I asked all my guys if they had family or friends who might want to join us.
Our foot soldiers’ lives had been utterly transformed by their training, and other people had noticed. We had dozens of applicants – but that was only the starting point.
Niccolo worked overtime to vet everyone, making sure that none of them had any ties to our enemies – or weaknesses like gambling or drug addiction that could open them up to blackmail.
Once I had a batch of new recruits, I trained them mercilessly ten hours a day. Massimo, Adriano, and Valentino helped. It really was like putting the new guys through basic training in the military.
Half of them dropped out… but the half who remained were fighters to the core. And they learned to follow orders not only from me but from Massimo and Adriano. Valentino was a bit young to command the same respect his older brothers did, but Adriano and Massimo transformed into officers who could lead men into combat when the time eventually came.
While the new guys were getting whipped into shape, the men I’d trained before Leonardo’s death had to work overtime to protect the grounds – but I never heard a single complaint from any of them. If anything, they asked if there was more they could do to help.
Niccolo and Roberto no longer trained with us, but that’s because they were working 12 hours a day on other projects. Roberto hired crews to replace every window in the house with Level 8 bulletproof glass. And those guys had to be vetted, too, which was a monumental task.
Once the windows were done, we installed a hundred cameras around the property. I worked with Adriano and Massimo to determine the biggest vulnerabilities. We put up cameras to cover them all and patched everything into a control room on the third floor so someone would always be watching 24/7.
The work was difficult and exhausting, but we got through it.
And it forged us into a team. Both me and the brothers – and the men who served beneath us.
Not only were we a force to be reckoned with, unlike anything Leonardo had seen before his death…
We were a family, willing to fight and die by each other’s side.
And when the time came to prove it, my men were ready.