Kazin and Haremo hadn’t been heading towards the hotel long when the sound of gunfire erupted.
After the first shot rang out, chaos ensued as gunfire erupted from all directions.
The men guarding the warehouse, Carso’s goons, began unleashing the firepower our family was proud of against the intruders.
“Damn it! This is a whole different ball game!”
A black man shouted in confusion.
That black trash didn’t last more than a few seconds before he became a heap of meat on the ground.
“Brother, let’s get inside the warehouse for now.”
“No! I’m alright, you guys go help!”
“Understood!”
I made sure the wolves with me joined in as well.
“Everyone stick to your tasks! This place will be fine! Hurry!”
I shouted at the stevedores and associates who were suddenly scared by the unexpected gunfight. Kazin had brought in more drugs than usual, so the workload had increased correspondingly.
Only after my shout did the guys at the dock begin to move their hands and legs again.
“….”
However, since a shootout was happening right next to them, their work speed inevitably dropped.
“Wipe them out now!”
Giovanni shouted loudly. I could see him sprinting with his men right away.
A stark contrast to Carso, who was commanding from a little further back.
With Carso’s men already functioning like walking turrets, Giovanni joining the fray had completely demoralized the black guys.
Bang! Bang—!
The tide had clearly turned.
Suddenly, a car blared its horn loudly and slammed into Carso’s men.
It seemed like there were at least a few bravado-driven guys among the black crowd.
“Shoot him!”
“Take that bastard out first!”
But our family’s members and the wolves weren’t about to let such a large target go wasted.
There were some minor casualties, but all the black trash stealthily moving in the dark, aiming for our drugs, were dealt with.
“Make sure to keep any surviving bastards separate!”
Giovanni was doing perfectly well without me even having to say it.
Differently from earlier, now we needed to find and single out the living ones.
“Brother, we’ve taken care of them all.”
“Everyone who came here is dealt with, right?”
“Yeah, but I’m not sure about those who scattered elsewhere yet.”
Those guys were reportedly being pursued by the crew at South Port. It didn’t seem like that result had been relayed to Carso yet.
The intensity of the shooting was gradually subsiding.
“At least, the rain will make blood cleanup easier.”
“I’ll handle it right away.”
“Yeah, just in case, keep the lookout. I don’t have exact numbers, but I think we transported about 20% of the drugs.”
“Understood.”
The sudden commotion had come to an equally sudden end.
I entrusted the site to Giovanni and Carso and headed back to the Lupus Carlton Hotel.
“Wolf!”
Just as I reached the hotel entrance, I heard someone call for me.
Haremo must have been left behind somewhere, as Kazin was waiting for me near the entrance. Of course, our family’s members were around for precautions.
“I told you to stay inside the hotel.”
“Well, technically, this is inside the hotel too.”
Kazin responded with a pointless joke. I led him towards the ground-floor lobby.
“So? Is the situation over?”
“For now. It’s not certain, but the ones who got onto the dock are all taken care of.”
“Were they black guys? These guys have no fear at all.”
“What can we do? The world’s changing—unfortunately, not for the better.”
It was true that our family, as well as the Five Families, were not in a good situation.
That’s why these lowlifes dared to target our drugs right up to the dock.
“Any idea who’s behind this?”
“Not yet.”
“Do you have anyone suspicious in mind?”
“There are plenty of suspects. Too many, actually.”
The most likely candidates were the black gangs gathered in the southern part of the city.
If not, it would be the work of Sanchez or Dragovich.
Considering that the blacks primarily lived in the Harlem area in the southern city, it was likely Dragovich rather than Eddie Sanchez, whose base is in the western city.
“But how much drugs did you bring in?”
“Didn’t you hear from the boss?”
“Haemington?”
Kazin seemed to be referring to Max Haemington, so I assumed he meant Massimo Cremona.
“I’ve heard. But it was only said to be enough to meet our standards. I didn’t get the specifics.”
“It’s about 1.5 times more cocaine, and 2 times more diamorphine (heroin) than usual.”
That was a significantly larger amount than Elena and I had anticipated.
As the sole supplier of diamorphine, it was quite impressive that the quantity of diamorphine surpassed that of cocaine.
No one else could manage that kind of supply except for the Tyrenian folks.
“Oh boy.”
Kazin said, looking somewhere.
What caught my eye was Elena stepping into the first floor wearing a white fur coat. Next to her was Felicita, dressed even more flamboyantly.
“Kazin.”
“Donna Felini. You’re looking beautiful as always.”
“Thank you. But… could you step aside for a moment?”
“Of course. Mrs. Felini is looking beautiful as well.”
“….”
Kazin was too busy greeting Elena and Felicita.
I could imagine a myriad of thoughts swirling in Kazin’s mind as he had to address Elena as Donna Felini and Felicita as Mrs. Felini.
“Luke!”
As soon as Kazin stepped aside, Elena immediately dropped her dignified demeanor.
“Are you hurt anywhere?”
The same went for Felicita.
“Don’t worry about either of us. I’m fine.”
I raised both arms intentionally to reassure the two, indicating I hadn’t been shot or anything.
“Elena, Kazin told me that this time, the cocaine is 1.5 times the usual, and the diamorphine is twice as much.”
“…That’s quite a lot. No wonder it felt like the shipment was excessive.”
Normally, the ship carrying drugs from Tyrenia was two or three vessels. But this time, there were an astonishing five.
There had to be a reason for all that.
*
Meanwhile, I was slightly bothered by the fact that the blacks had come up from South Port.
It was clear they had passed through the Marinelli Family’s territory.
“Feli, did you guys not know about this?”
“…No.”
Felicita answered in a somewhat dispirited tone, as if she couldn’t face me.
While it wasn’t her fault… it would’ve been better if Manfredi or her family had alerted us about any unusual signs.
“I’m just glad you’re unscathed.”
Felicita, trembling as she held my hand, looked pitiful in my eyes.
“Let’s move to another spot first. There’s no point being here.”
“Yeah.”
The three of us took the elevator to the top floor. In the meantime, I felt a bit hungry.
It might be because I hadn’t eaten properly, engrossed in Elena and Veronica’s intense conversation.
“Anyway, we’ve dealt with all those who rushed in.”
“Sarina doesn’t seem to have arrived yet.”
“She’s probably on her way. They’re just faster.”
I told Elena that I was planning to have Sarina chase those who had scattered across the port.
“Yeah, that sounds good.”
Elena didn’t argue against my suggestion; she seemed to have calmed down slightly.
It was clear she was worried due to the fear I might get hurt.
“What about Veronica? Is she in her room?”
“Yeah. I’d say so.”
“….”
Elena didn’t seem pleased with Veronica’s indifferent reaction to not even coming out to greet her.
Well, since I hadn’t been shot, I decided to head with my two wives towards Elena’s Room.
I immediately called the wolves at the site to pass my orders to Giovanni and Carso.
“Yes, boss. We’ll do that.”
I had Giovanni assign the task of tracking the blacks to Sarina, while I instructed Carso to oversee the transportation and repackaging of the drugs.
After a brief call, I went back to my two wives.
“….”
Elena and Felicita stayed quiet for a while, feeling my touch or caressing me with their own hands.
But that didn’t last long. I brought up the issue of who might be behind today’s events.
“I think it’s the black guys gathered in the southern city. Or else, it’s the work of Dragovich.”
“Why do you think that?”
There was no need to elaborate on why I suspected the blacks.
Recently, they had attacked another city’s mafia family.
The Calon Family, based in Bangor, located southwest of Hebili.
Though it was a relatively recent incident, both black gangs cooperated to push them out of the city and took control of the cocaine supply.
It was unbelievable that the organization supplying cocaine had succumbed to such changes. Selling drugs directly to the black gang?
But there was nothing our family could do since we hadn’t yet fully taken out Hebili.
“Dragovich would find it easier to get close to the blacks than Sanchez.”
“They also have influence in Harlem.”
Felicita added with a fitting remark.
It wouldn’t be strange for either the Sanchez Family or the Dragovich Family to pull something like this against us.
Since they’d split into two families within the Five Families, if I were in their position, I would have retaliated this way too.
“…It all sounds plausible.”
Elena said, and mentioned she would contact our connections to gather information.
“I’ll call the Rat Hole.”
“The Rat Hole? There’s no real information there anyway. Don’t waste your money.”
“It’ll just be for reference.”
The two seemed to be calming down a bit, starting to bicker among themselves.
“Oh, Luke. While you were out, Viola called.”
“Viola?”
I thought it might be related to the situation of taking control in the northeastern city.
“She wants to meet Veronica. What do you think?”
“…Veronica?”
Viola was Carmen’s sister, and Veronica was Carmen’s daughter. Although they weren’t blood-related.
In other words, Viola was like an aunt to Veronica.
An aunt wanting to meet her niece, which is all very ambiguous since Viola had long since parted ways with Rita Carmen.
“Well, I think it would be okay.”
“Alright.”
Elena seemed inclined to allow Viola to meet Veronica according to my opinion.
After that, we chatted about this and that until we received a report that Sarina had arrived on-site.
The situation had been completely taken care of, and they had even apprehended some survivors.
Additionally, the drugs Kazin had brought were smoothly being transferred from the dock to the warehouse.
“Great, then we’re off.”
“What?”
“Elena, today is my day to be with Luke. Don’t forget that.”
“….”
Elena couldn’t refute Felicita’s statement, but she wasn’t going down quietly either.
“Alright, we’ll do that. Though, I’ll have you back in my arms in just a few hours.”
“Don’t worry. I’ll return you in one piece when the time comes. I’m not like you.”
“What?”
Indeed, no one could match Felicita in terms of aggravating Elena in such a manner.
“Elena, calm down.”
It was my job to soothe her. Of course, Elena looked satisfied that she could have some skinship with me thanks to Felicita’s provocation.
“Luke, let’s go.”
“Got it.”
I followed Felicita to her room.
“Luke, I’ll make sure to tell Manfredi properly.”
She assured me once we reached her room that this would be the last of such incidents.
“Thanks. If you do that, we’d be grateful.”
It was naturally the right thing to show Felicita gratitude.
“I’m just glad you’re safe.”
Felicita’s trembling hands holding onto mine looked truly pathetic.
“The issue is over now. Don’t worry.”
As I checked the time, it was already quite late.
While soothing Felicita, I remained vigilant, utilizing the good view from the top floor to keep watch over the situation.
Even after carefully placing Felicita, who had fallen asleep in my arms, over the bed, I couldn’t bring myself to sleep.
Such matters needed to be handled at the rank of underboss, not the boss.
