“Power isn’t just handed to someone, it’s something that is earned through years of loyalty and hardships. I don’t expect you to hand me the title of underboss simply because I’m your son, nor do I want it.” I stand, buttoning my jacket. “I seek more. I may have my dark moments but I want a throne where kindness isn’t a weakness which is not in the mafia. I show respect even if people don’t deserve it, and this shouldn’t make you question my character, if anything… it’s a reflection of the man you are.”
He stands, slamming his fist on the table. Chips scatter, cards falling to the floor.
“You do not talk to me that way!” he roars, and I tilt my head to the side at his tantrum. “I’ve killed men for saying lesser to me.”
“Right, you’re the devil, I know. Thing is… the Devil used to be an angel. I was never an angel. I’m worse.” Lifting my brow at him in a sense of challenge, I turn to walk away, leaving Oz the powerful great speechless.
“Wait, we need him!” Gio proclaims.
“What if…” My father hesitates, I can hear the struggle in his voice as he sits in his chair.
“A test.”
I turn, intrigued.
“Mr. Ludwig, who owns the liquor store on the west side, he came to us about an hour ago. He wants a loan to put his daughter through vet school.” He shrugs, looking at my uncles before back at me.
“Do we give him the loan? If we do, at what percentage do we charge him before it’s paid off? Or do we take something as collateral?”
“Yeah, like his Camaro.” Tony laughs. Ludwig has a slick 1967 Chevrolet Camaro. Gorgeous sky blue with black stripes.
His daughter is a couple years younger than me, never actually spoke to her, but she seems nice. The Ludwigs almost had to close their store a couple times, their credit is shit and they can’t get a loan to save their life, let alone put a kid through college. The old man just can’t catch a break.
“You give him the loan, and when she graduates, you help her get her own practice and write us scripts for controlled prescriptions.”
My dad’s eyes light up like eyes of the Cheshire Cat from Alice in Wonderland, my uncle Tony’s mouth dropping in awe.
“If she doesn’t follow through with her ambitions, or the deal, then we whack the old man.” I crack my neck, awaiting my father’s grading of this so-called test. This way we don’t have to worry about our men who are going to doctors for shit, or us paying out of pocket for drugs. Mr. Ludwig will have to have a lot of faith in his daughter to go through with her graduating, and the deal afterward. His life is and will be on the line, so he better have a lot of faith in his daughter.
Silence falls over the room, my uncles looking to my father.
He nods, looking at the poker table.
“I’ll be damned,” he mutters before looking back up at me. “That’s fucking brilliant. Just brilliant,” he praises, and something weird settles in my stomach. Like butterflies, or a fuzzy feeling you get on Christmas morning. I don’t like that I enjoy his approval.
“You’re better than Kieran.” He points at me, but I don’t say anything. My brother would probably have a better plan, if not the same one. He taught me the trade of living the life on the other side of the tracks. You either learn to walk them, or get killed trying.
“I have a new guy that will help you with whatever you need. His name is Rip,” Dad informs as he puts the chips and cards back into their place on the table.
“Be here Thursday, at eight. I have a potential client coming through and I want you there, with that big brain of yours.” He looks up under his lashes, a maniacal look if any. My uncles might be impressed with my idea, but looking into my father’s eyes, he’s pissed I outsmarted him in front of his goons.
“Yeah. I’ll be here,” I inform dryly and leave the room before he can say another word. The smell of strippers’ perfume and smoke hit me like a brick wall, the beat of the music almost as loud as the pulse in my neck before I step outside and let out a breath I had been holding the entire time inside the other room.
Leaning against the brick wall that makes up the side of the building, I try to catch my breath and my sense of reality. I don’t want this, why did I do that? I should have said something else and failed his test. But I couldn’t, it’s as if something deep inside of me wanted to show him what I’m capable of and what he’s been overlooking all these years.
Now, I have the power to do whatever the fuck I want, and all I can say is New York is not safe in any way. Especially if all I desire is to show everyone what I’m capable of. I want to wreak havoc as much as I want to offer peace. There’s a fine line there and I want to find it.
Will I show mercy for women and children? The so-called respect I say I have, will it stay rooted in my soul when a man is groveling at my feet for one more day to pay his debt?
I’m afraid I shall not spare even a second more thinking about my character as long as my acts of solidity please a man I’ve been trying to my whole life.
A man gets out of a cab with a buddy, both of them laughing as they head inside, I slip into the back seat and tell the driver my address. Am I a good guy, or a bad
