The Twelve Tables Ch. 30

*****

Ben sat watching Vincenzo. Jules was overseas with Constantine and would be safe from all this he knew. Angelo, Carlo, and CJ were at the house with Peri, Emily and all of the children. Dante, Romey and a few of the others were both at the House of Lorraine that left only Josh and Dom. He struggled to overhear conversations from where he sat feeling impotent and humiliated.

As soon as the alarm had sounded the ship had pulled away from the dock and headed out to open waters. With Ben on board, Vincenzo had no concerns over his crew's safety they were attempting connection with the watchers through old radio's and the progress was slow and mired down by the lack of technology. As if someone flicked a switch everything came back to life in the data room, and Vincenzo's phone came to life, startling him making him drop it and scramble to pick it up. Within seconds phones and tapping of keyboards filled the room with noise.

"Shut down anything but the essentials," Vincenzo barked out at his crew. "We're on a temporary server that's being held together with chewing gum and prayers. Someone find out what the fuck happened to the server at the farm."

"On it," came a voice from the men working feverishly on the consoles fielding calls and uploading data.

"Great, we're up again," Vincenzo's youngest son Ricci came back into the room holding a red folder. He turned to Ben passing him the folder, "Fucking secrets and lies, man. Sorry but it was necessary. You couldn't have handled the truth. I'm still not sure you're ready for it."

Ben opened the file ready to dismiss most of what was inside as assumption or happenstance. What he found was a relationship that had built between Emily and Nik from the time he had married Emily and brought her home to the family. Once the secret email addresses had been uncovered it hadn't taken long to realise that Emily had been using devices, not on the Donati network. Once those devices had been found the full extent of her betrayal had been uncovered.

Emily had been groomed and pushed her whole life to become the wife of the second Donati son. The Pellegrini family help one of the largest government-sanctioned farms that grew poppies for the opiates used in modern medications. In a summary written by Joseph, it has long been suspected that the family had a business and dubious family connections to the Suebi and aided in thier illegal drug empire. It had not come as a shock to find Emily's sister had married into that organisation with the blessing of her parents.

Emily had manipulated everyone in the family under the guise of being the sweet, not too bright, motherly woman she portrayed to everyone including her husband. She had seen the disgruntled young Veronica Donati as her prime ally in bringing down this family and had befriended her rapidly, encouraging her views on the misogynistic rule of the Donati men.

She and Nik had each made plans together, as well as separately, for the day that Joseph and Antonia would retire. Nik because she felt that as a woman in this family she would never get the money and status she deserved. Emily because she had married the second son, who she would rule beside and eventually bring the House of Lorraine down from the inside and allow her family, the Pellegrini's to move up within the tables to a position of power.

While the twelve tables were essentially seen as equal, the power wielded by the Donati's by virtue of the respect they commanded from being known as fair and trustworthy amongst their brethren was assailable. Emily had allowed Nik to believe that once she and Ben came to power, she could live her life as she wished without any recriminations and come into an inheritance equal to that of her twin brother. Emily's love of her husband and children had always been held as the reasons she had resisted having any staff to help her, in the house or with the children. The reality was that she wanted no witnesses to any of the plans she had been putting in place over the last decade.

The folder detailed seemingly innocuous coffee dates with women known to have Suebi links, the introduction of Nik to the same acquaintances. It was Emily who had suggested a fashion boutique as a front for her party drug sales, knowing that as Nik got drawn further and further into that world, Josh would get dragged into it with her. She would expose them eventually, and that would eliminate one of Ben's brothers from the race to the chair, which she worried about due to her lack of male heirs.

As she gave birth to her first son encountering so many complications Ben had sided with the doctors and forbidden her from having any more children, Emily knew she had to start pushing her plans to undermine each of Ben's brothers. Emily hadn't counted on how protective Nik was of Joshua, and she had hidden her alternative life and line of work from him, as well as the rest of her family. Jules and Bianca enjoyed the good life and were no threat to Emily's plans, Carmen and Romey, on the other hand, could well prove formidable opponents, and she set to work making Carmen her best friend, by seeming weak and placing Carmen in a position of protector and caregiver for her.

It had been easy to manipulate a woman so lacking in self-confidence, that any praise was met with the exuberant joy of a puppy getting a treat, she had said of Carmen in one of her emails. Emilio was gay, and Dante was mentally unbalanced after his very public breakup with his social climbing girlfriend. Angelo and Carlo, she viewed as country bumpkins not worth her time or energy to worry about. Her only real threats, she considered were Romey and Josh.

Peri had come along at the right time for Emily. It had been easy to convince Nik that the woman meant to take Josh and his support away from her, especially as he spent more and more time with Peri and less time worrying about her. She had sown the seeds of mistrust so subtly, and when things had begun to unravel, with Nik being taken to the Battaglia, Emily had called on the person she had confided everything to help her. Her mother who had gone to the Battaglia and visited the facility on the pretext of wanting to refine their trials but had spent some time with Nik in a private discussion.

Ben sighed the betrayal of his love, and his family was almost impossible to bear, but the knowledge that she had done all of this with the blessing of her mother, so as to further her brother's futures appalled him. The mother of the Pellegrini family had pimped her daughters out. One to the family she hated and another she had forced into the arms of the Suebi.

Emily had played her part perfectly. She had been the loving and dutiful wife and mother. She had befriended his troubled sister. She had done it all to be at his side when he took the chair. The fact that his father didn't give him the chair was the one thing she couldn't have predicted.

Her actions of the last two weeks were well documented. They had cloned her devices, left tracers and bugs everywhere including her hospital room where she had spoken with many of the people involved in her subterfuge including the inpatient doctor they had met on her final day there. Leaving hospital to stay with Peri and Josh had been a masterstroke, and he could see how the plans were set in place for Friday, and he knew that his family would have moved to protect themselves. The attack had come early, though, and he looked up at the controlled chaos of the men as they gathered and disseminated information with well-practiced expertise.

"How could he ever become the keeper of the Watchmen if he hadn't even seen what was happening in his own home?" He asked himself. He poured over the information from the last few weeks and realised Emily had discredited Carmen and Romeo enough that she no longer saw them as a threat. The people standing in her way were Josh, Dante, and Peri. He felt an ice cold, calm wash over him. He needed to know that the new triumvirate of their family was safe.

He stood and walked purposefully toward his uncle. "I don't doubt its authenticity. I didn't' know, and I feel like a schmuck but I need to know Josh and D. are safe," he said in a calm but steely voice. Then he took the seat beside Vincenzo and began reading all of the incoming reports.

Vincenzo grunted but said nothing. He had bigger problems to deal with.

*****

"Emergency vehicles blocked the roads leading into the small business district where the publishing house was situated and leaving his car in the middle of the street, Dante got out and started to jog toward the absolute chaos that was the Publishing house. A burly police officer stepped into his path.

"I'll have to ask you to stand back," he placed a meaty hand on Dante's chest.

"I'm Dante Donati that's my family business," he said brushing the police officer's hand away and stepping past the makeshift barricade.

"Who's in charge here," Dino asked from behind Dante with a voice full of authority.

"Senior Sargent Beckmann," the constable answered uncertainty creeping into his voice as Dante continued into the rubble. "Find him. Tell him the Donatis are here and want answers immediately if not sooner," Dino followed Dante as he walked toward the building.

"Dante?" A young woman approached the two men from where she had sat on the back edge of an ambulance stretcher.

"Louisa, where's Josh?" Dante asked urgently. He saw her face fall and her head shake as if unable to speak the words. "They took the bodies in the first ambulance," she sobbed.

"No. Josh called me. He's okay we just have to find him," Dante said unable to accept that he had lost another brother.

"You weren't here," Louisa looked up at Dino as Dante walked toward several obviously high-ranking police officers. "The truck was out of control it just kept coming it was so loud, and the tyres screeched as it missed the turn and rolled. Josh and Dom and the others, they were in its path. He was lying there, so still. They covered him with a sheet and put him in the ambulance." She began to cry her whole body shaking now not just her head. She'd been one of the first downstairs after the accident and seen the carnage.

"Louisa," Dino said abruptly snapping her out of her tears. "You have to call Carlo he is worried about you. Do not tell him what you think happened. Just let him know we are here, and we are looking for Josh and Dom. Do you understand? This is important. If you are even half the woman Josh and Carlo have told me you are you will keep it together for everyone's sakes," he said in a stern voice. "Do not tell them your suspicions, only that we are looking for them, understand?"

"Yes," she said. "I can't get hold of him though. I have been trying to call him."

"The lines are back up now, he sent us to find you and get you out of here," Dino explained. "Call him but don't alarm him. He is at the house with Peri, and I don't think she could take hearing something like that, especially as we don't know for sure what has happened to Josh and Dom." He gripped her shoulders and looked at her, "I need to look after D. now and trust you to keep it together. Stay with the police, trust no one who isn't family, understand."

"Yes," she said her voice as serious as his as she finally understood what he was saying to her. Carlo had hinted at the family being targeted by underworld figures and had made her promise to be overly cautious in her daily routine. The idea that someone had purposely tried to run over Josh and Dom before losing control of the truck made her feel sick. She could be the woman they needed her to be, and she stood straighter dashing the tears from her face. She could be strong and trustworthy and loyal if they needed her to be. She looked around at the debris surrounding her and took a deep breath before making the call.

*****

"I'm the fucking warrior," Dino raged into the phone. "It's my job to protect this family when it's under siege, so I'm calling the shots right now. Get everyone to the Canungra Combined Services Base. They have hospital facilities. Get the watchers to pull rank, call in favours whatever it takes," he barked into the phone. "While everyone is scattered this way we can't focus on what needs to be done. Even in defence, we need a better plan than this."

"Canungra," Vincenzo's voice was sceptical. "Isn't that the Military Intelligence School?"

"Safest place I know of and the base commander is a friend of the family," Dino said. "D.s losing his mind trying to find Josh, send out the word, and I will get D. there."

"What about CJ, Ang. and Carlo, they're with Emily and Peri," the older man asked still reeling from the attack on the Donati farm and the knowledge they had lost Joseph and Antonia.

"They can skype in from there but it doesn't make sense to gather us all in an unprotected place," Dino compromised his initial demand. "It's relatively safe there they won't attack their best asset. The watchmen can all head there once the rest of us are at the base."

"All right do it, I'll get the word out and come with Benedicto. He needs to see his brothers are safe for himself," Vincenzo said not hiding his voice from his nephew who sat at his side.

Ben nodded solemnly. The news that his parents were presumed deceased at this point and that Josh was still missing had almost broken him, but he determinedly remained unemotional concentrating on the reports as they came in, of attacks on homes and business that belonged to the men of the tables.

Further damning Emily, was the fact that his home remained untouched as did his business. He felt confident that his children would remain safe, as long as she was with them and had been heartened by the fact that CJ and Carlo had not confronted her directly but rather informed her the family was under attack and had confined her with the children and staff in the cellars. They had made sure she had not had a moment alone to make another call or contact the men attacking the family in anyway, by giving her a personal bodyguard.

They had also explained that phones and internet were banned from his point, due to the temporary nature of the servers they had up and running. Emily wouldn't have been able to use her other devices without them being aware she was on another network. Not that the bodyguard gave her any privacy even accompanying her to the bathroom and standing beside the partially open door.

It was Carlo and CJ's early warning that had gotten everyone out of harm's way. His parents had gone to the Athenaeum. It was a given, and the predictability of it had been fuelled by the attackthat had cost them their lives. The attack there had brought down the servers and had scattered his brothers and uncles making them leave the safety of the House of Lorraine and head out of the city. Dino was right. They needed a place where no one would look for them, or expect them to be. He hated leaving the children at Josh's house, but they were safe there for now. Of that he was sure. Whether she was a pawn or a ringleader, Emily wouldn't jeopardise her children's lives.

*****

"Andreas is in surgery," Vincenzo reported as he and Ben entered the conference room where the rest of the Donati men had gathered. CJ had set up a web conference link to the house which showed the three men at the house on a monitor.

"Fuck," Manuel swore, and he walked over to embrace his brother and nephew.

"Josh?" Ben looked at Dante.

"He'll live, Pete's got him at the base hospital for a few more tests, concussion, few broken ribs, the rest is minor," Dante's voice was deep and carried the anxiety they all felt. Ben seemed to let out the breath he was holding.

"The truck was aiming straight for him before it swerved and rolled. It still clipped him before hitting the building, but it could have been much worse," Dom explained nursing his own injuries. He told them that Josh's watchers had commandeered the ambulance when it arrived and borrowed the paramedic's phone to call Pete, telling him to stay at his surgery until they got there. After picking him up, they had driven again to another surgery situated beside a medical centre, that housed pathology and x-ray as well as other services. They'd maintained radio silence until he was conscious again and was given a full examination by Pete.

"I'm gonna be the hard ass here, so feel free to hate me," Dino stood up and paced glancing at the gathered men, including those on the screen. "The steward at the Donati farm has identified the bodies of Joseph, Antonia, and Marisol. There will be time enough to grieve for them later, for now though let's make sure we don't lose anyone else."

"I hate you," Dante said in such a casual way it made them all look at him in shock. "What he said to feel free to hate him, I was just letting him know I do right now. Don't even pretend you don't," he said to Manuel and Vincenzo.

"Let him talk, he's the only one here making any sense at the moment," Charles said gruffly.

"The information we have is that it was homemade bombs dropped from a helicopter that destroyed the Athenaeum, Ang's house and the airstrip at the farm. A similar crate was left on the runway above Josh's house and the pilot did well to avoid it and land safely there."

"I owe that guy big time," Angelo said sincerely.

"The fact that they were close enough to do some damage but left Josh's house alone tells us she is valuable to them, and they won't risk her life, which means the house is safe for now. Anyone there should stay because no doubt they've been watching and know your there. No one leaves. There is a small army of watchers around the property and combing the surrounding properties," Dino continued. "We need CJ there to keep the servers running and considering the state of the main frame, build it up as fast as possible. Tell us who and what you need and we'll make it happen."

"I guessed as much and already have it on the way here," CJ nodded. "Let your watchers know a couple of Geek Squad vans should be rolling up here soon."

"Great one problem solved, moving on," Dino continued gathering momentum. "The continued attacks on homes and businesses tell us that they didn't see us all leave the House of Lorraine. Judging by Louisa's version of events the navy blues advice for Josh and Dom to play dead seems to have paid off, and the ambulance's return to the hospital with replacements playing the part of the corpses and Pete should make them all happy. Well done guys," he nodded in Dom's direction.

"The early warning that went out probably got most of you out of the way before they could track your movements," Vincenzo shrugged. "The sudden change in plans probably caught some of them napping as much as it surprised us. They can't have known we were onto her, or they wouldn't have continued with the calls and emails, so there was no reason for them to believe we would all have that alarm or move when we did."

"Yeah you guys saved the day," Dante nodded at the screen.

"Your undying gratitude and first born children are all the thanks I need," Carlo said leaning back in his chair and placing his hands behind his head in an exaggerated way.

"None of the women and staff have any idea the network is back; we told them we have a temporary solution for upstairs but have banned any phones or devices. The watchers have all of the children's tech. Emily, Rosie, and Peri have been told to keep theirs turned off or risk another shutdown. I doubt they have much reception down there without the hubs working anyway," Dino looked at CJ for confirmation of what he said.

"Yeah, all of that, plus I didn't want anyone getting news that would freak the others or the children out," CJ agreed. "As far as they all know we're working on it."

"I propose we send a few of us there at a time as the meeting place. Starting with the ones they will have had the least eyes on. We keep at least half here and let the rumours spread about Josh and Dom's deaths, as well as those on the farm," Dino said. "Add a few more for good measure. They've destroyed enough to have hit a target or two, even if they aren't the ones they wanted."