Chapter Fifteen
Michael
Stepping away from the throne wasn’t difficult at all. As much as I enjoyed my time as the acting boss, it was where Anthony belonged. I sat on the side of the desk where I felt most comfortable, and watched as he finished sorting through a few months’ paperwork.
“These numbers.” He looked up and met my gaze. “Incredible.”
“I took advantage of opportunity.”
He waved his hands over the top of the desk. “You made changes.”
“If the changes were made by you, they would have been frowned upon. Change in management always brings change in procedure. People expect it. If anyone complains—” I shrugged. “You can blame me.”
“If anyone complains, I’ll send the new enforcer to pay them a visit. Sal told me about the informant’s fingers. Cap is earning respect.”
I gave a nod. “Cap’s a good man.”
“He stepped up when we needed him to. No questions. No excuses. Your men. You.” He shook his head and let out a light chuckle. “The best.”
“My men are an extension of me,” I said. “And, I was just doing what you asked of me.”
“While I was in jail. I didn’t know about the future. I thought about the life I’d lived. If I’d do anything different. We had a lot of time to think.” His face went expressionless, and his eyes fell to the desk. After a moment, he looked me in the eyes. “I’m not ashamed of the man I’ve been. But, I made decisions. I want better for you. For my daughter. For my grandchildren.”
I had no idea where the conversation was going, but so far, I didn’t like it. “What do you mean?”
“One day, they could come for you. The fuckin’ feds.”
I stood and folded my arms across my chest. “A risk I’m willing to take.”
“A possibility I don’t like to imagine.”
The thought of not being involved in the day-to-day activities of the family troubled me. I’d been abandoned by my family, and I would be damned if I would ever abandon the family that chose to adopt me.
Giving up wasn’t an option.
With my eyes still locked on his, I gripped the edge of the desk and leaned forward. “Some men are fighters, and some are pacifists. Where one man might stand up for what he believes in, there will always be others, with beliefs just as strong, who take a step back and wait for someone else to stand up for them. I’ve always been the man who stands up. I can’t help it. It’s part of who I am. Running guns satisfied me, and not for the reasons you probably think. I did it because I believed in the cause of the person receiving the weapons. Now, I believe in this family. I can’t stand down. Not now. Not ever.”
He leaned back and studied me. After a moment, the corner of his mouth curled into a smirk. “You make me proud.”
To many, those four words may have seemed insignificant. Although it was something I’d never thought I needed to hear, having Anthony say it to me filled me with a sense of pride that I had no idea existed.
I released the desk and took a step back. “Thank you.”
“Where do we go from here?” he asked. “I want your opinion.”
I sat, crossed my legs, and met his gaze. “What are you asking?”
“What changes do we need to make? I want the operation to run smooth.”
We.
I liked the sound of it.
He and I, together, could rule the entire state.
“The operation is in good shape,” I said adamantly. “There’s nothing you can do to prevent what happened from happening again, but I have no reason to believe it will. The men in this family are good, solid men.”
“Gino turned rat for twenty grand. I don’t understand what would...” He shook his head. “It makes no sense.”
“We’ll never know the truth, but I seriously doubt the twenty grand he mentioned was what drove him to be a snitch.”
I knew there was more to it than the twenty grand. I struggled mentally for a moment on whether to tell him what Carter said about Gino’s desire to be the boss, and eventually decided it wouldn’t hurt anything.
“When we were pressing Carter for information, he told us a few things about Gino. Things he wouldn’t have known if Gino hadn’t told him.”
His eyebrows rose. “What things?”
“Gino said if you were eliminated from the family that he would move from underboss to boss. Then, he would change things. That’s why he said he was snitching. At least that’s what he told the informant.”
“That fuckin’ Gino.” Anger washed over his face and his lips went thin. “We should dig that piece of shit up so I can whack him all over again.”
“Makes three of us that want to whack him again. You, me, and Sal.”
“Where is he?” he asked through his teeth.
“We fed him to the hogs. His teeth?” I chuckled. “I’ll never tell.”
He motioned to the ledger. “So, we change nothing?”
“I say not. If we can’t trust family, who can we trust? Our revenue is at an all-time high, and the morale of the men—now that you’re out—is right there with revenue. Leave things the way they are, and find something to replace the cigarettes in the short term. Even if the ATF isn’t looking directly at the family, they’ll certainly not look away if you come up in a cigarette investigation.”
“What replaces the cigarettes?”
“Those figures in front of you include no tobacco. Only alcohol. I’ve increased alcohol profits, and given an incentive to purchase more. I raised taxes and lowered prices for bulk purchases. We’ll reach a point that the market becomes saturated, but we can deal with that when the time comes.”
“What then?” He grinned a sly grin. “Prostitutes?”
The comment was made jokingly. I let out a sigh, shook my head, and met his gaze. “Guns.”
“Guns?” He waved at me. “The guns are yours.”
“I’m a part of this family. The guns are ours. I’ll teach you the business.”
I didn’t feel that I was letting go of my weapons operation. I looked at it as more of an expansion. If I could double sales, and I was sure that I could, my profits would exceed what I’d made in the past, even after the family took its cut.
It seemed ironic that we were right back where we started when Jimmy Cupcake came into my office and made the original proposition. Making the deal on my terms made it far more palatable. It helped that Anthony had become my father by proxy.
He shook his head. “We can’t take the guns.”
“You’re not taking anything,” I insisted. “I’m a member of this family, and I’m providing for it in a time of need. In doing so, I’m protecting you, and me, from potentially being arrested.”
He stood. “I like the way you think.”
“We’ll work out the details in the next few days,” I said as I stood. “I’ve given this some thought, and I’d like to put Cap in charge of the weapons operation. I’ll train the family on weapons familiarity, operations, and safety, but no one knows the business better than Cap.”
“Little Frank won’t be happy about losing him, but it’ll be best for the family,” he said. “Consider it done.”
“Sounds like we’ve got some work ahead of us.”
“Work makes the money.” He grinned a sly grin. “And, the man with the money makes the rules.”
He was right. The man with the money did make the rules.
But, for me, it was no longer about the money. What was driving me was a sense of belonging.
Belonging to a family.
My family.