"I mean for Christ's sakes Toni, I'm dealing with half a family here."

There he goes. His father was doing it again. Salvatore Leone was having a meeting in his office with one of his trusted Capos with the door open and was speaking loud enough for anybody in the house to hear him. Unfortunately the only one in the house right now was Raymond himself. Raymond's brother Joey had taken off to be with one of the young women he was currently messing with. If Raymond were to gamble on it he would bet they wouldn't be together much longer.

People talked and Joey had picked up a thing for prostitutes after vising one of their fathers associate's sex club on his 21st birthday. He'd been back more than a handful of times since then and had even became one of the working woman regulars. Raymond shook his head at the things he had heard and his father was hypocritical by making such a fuss even though he wasn't much better at all. 

Raymond sighed as he was also almost forced to continue listening in to his father's conversation.

"I mean look. Luigi's alright but he's heavy into the whores so do I fuckin' trust him to take shit seriously? Absolutely not. I got 2 sons, one of which is also gettin' into the whores but he's more focused on runnin' that piece of shit auto shop he owns. The others fresh outta high school but shows no interest in this shit when I ask him to do somethin' but let his brother tell him to jump and he says how high? I mean don't get me wrong. The kids a fuckin' natural at stealing and drivin' cars. He'll steal anything with a motor that ain't nailed down includin' my own shit, but other than that what's good he to me when he don't wanna learn organization or how shit works?" Sal complained to Toni who Raymond imagined was just standing there with an awkward look on his face.

This was always how it would go. His father would go on at lengths about how frustrated he was with him and his brother but yet nobody else would be allowed to say anything about them. God bless you if you disagreed though. It was almost enough for Raymond to feel some sympathy for the man but being around Toni he wouldn't want it. He worked to get to the position he was in and he would say that listening to the boss complain was part of the job. Out of all the people in his father's employ Raymond actually liked and respected Toni. He had every right to call out his father for how ridiculous he was during the whole time he worked for him but he never did. He took everything in stride.

"It's not like I don't love my kids Toni, ya know? It's just give me something to work with here. I mean look at us. We followed after our old men and look how we turned out. Neither one of us finocchios like half these men running around like women these days and we got our wits about us." Sal continued on before sighing and finally coming to a halt.

"I don't know boss, I mean Joey and Ray aren't that bad. I mean sure they don't seem to be as into the tradition of things as we are but I mean every new generation has to put their own spin on things ya know? I'm sure your father would be giving you hell if he could see you right now. And me? My ma won't shut up about me not being the man my father was. Lord knows to her I'll never measure up." Toni responded letting out some of his own complaints and response to Salvatore's ranting. He was probably the only one in the whole family who could do such a thing.

Raymond didn't understand why his father didn't just make Toni Underboss. He was so focused on finding a blood heir apparent when he had one right in front of his eyes. Raymond didn't really care to understand all that much either and if you asked his father he would tell you that was the problem.

It was then the doorbell rung.

"Raymond! Would you get that?!" His father yelled at him from his office.

Raymond got up with a quiet groan and went to the door to see who it was. When he opened the door he could see it was a fellow Italian so it must've been one of his father's friends.

"Hello there, I'm here to see Mr. Leone." The man said confidently with a friendly enough smile on his face. He must have been from out of town because he didn't even suspect Raymond was related to Salvatore even though he came to his house. It also proved he wasn't apart of his father's family as all his father's men knew Joey and himself.

"Sure I'll take you to him." Raymond simply replied and closed the door behind the man and led him to his father's office.

They walked there in silence with neither man saying one extra word to the other. Another sign he wasn't here to work for his father or in debt because if he was he would've been trying to kiss up to Raymond right now. It was actually refreshing and even though he didn't know this man he felt a bit thankful he held himself with such respect. After about a few seconds they arrived at Salvatore's office before he gave the door a mock knock and walked inside with the man behind him.

Salvatore and Toni both gave the man a once over before Salvatore turned to his son. Toni kept his eyes on their new guest.

"Well? Are you gonna tell me who this is?" Salvatore asked expectantly though it would take a fool to not know that he already knew the answer he was gonna receive. Even Toni knew by now which is why he didn't take his eyes off the new guest in the room or relax his stance at all. Toni was a heavy set man and high up the ladder but his current role was keeping his Don safe by any means. If this man made a move Toni wouldn't be unprepared for it.

Raymond however, shot his father an uncaring look and a slight shrug while saying "I didn't ask. You told me to get the door and he said he was here to see you so I brought him here."

Salvatore put his face in his hands and gave a loud dramatic sigh before turning to Toni who still had his eyes on the man in question and said "You see what I'm sayin'? This is the incompetent shit I'm talking about." Salvatore then gave the newly entered man another look before turning back to his own Capo. "Toni relax will ya? You're gonna give your self a heart attack. This here's a friend of ours from Philly. He's connected down there. Philip Ligambi is his name. Joe Ligambi's brother."

The man named Phillip gave a nod to Salvatore and another to Toni who relaxed his stance finally and returned it with one of his own.

"A pleasure to meet you Mr. Leone. I am indeed Philip Ligambi." Philip replied.

Salvatore waved him off before saying "Cut all that Mr. Leone shit out. You'll make me feel older than I am. Now I gotta go see Maria."

Raymond rolled his eyes at his father's innuendo joke that referenced his estranged step mother and with that he began to make his way to the door and leave the room but his father stopped him.

"Where you goin'?" Salvatore asked his son, though the way he said it, it was more like him telling him to not go anywhere. "I want you to sit in on this." Salvatore finished and he shot him a look. A look that said if he defied him now he'd pay later.

Not listening to his father when Toni was around was one thing. Not making his father look good in front of outside guests that was a no no. He had no doubt his father would do something drastic if he walked out of here. So with a silent curse to his older brother, Raymond went to stand behind his father's chair near the window.

Salvatore had turned back to the almost forgotten Phillip as the father-son combo finished their back and forth.

"I'm sorry about all that. My children get their defiance from their mother, God rest her soul." Salvatore said. Raymond did his best to hide his disgust at his father mentioning his mother like that in a negative light. This man had no respect though he'd go on and on about it all the time.

Philip on the other hand didn't hide his amusement from his face. "I understand completely. I have a daughter not too much younger than him. She also gets her defiance from her mother, though her stubbornness is more than likely from me." He said with humor in his voice.

Salvatore nodded then went into his desk and pulled out a bottle of scotch and a couple of glasses. Toni moved to retrieve the extra glass from the case but Salvatore was quick to catch him and cut him off.

"No no Toni leave that alone. Let Ray do it." Salvatore said as he poured two the liquid in the two glasses then swiveled around to face his son. "Raymond, look in my case over there and get a guest glass" He ordered.

This pretty much meant that he'd be serving the drinks too. He proved to be right as after he followed his father's orders and retrieved the glass which was quickly filled his father made a gesture with his head that told Raymond to serve em. He'd seen his older brother do it a dozen times. Once every man in the room had a drink. The meeting then officially began.

"So you boys in Philly have been doing good work since taking over things down there. You've been stayin' off the cops radar. Your brother's a real throwback to the good days too. Not too wild and reckless like those who've been around recently. Gotta say I've been hearing nothing but good things about you guys recently." Salvatore said. He sounded sincere but Raymond knew his father wouldn't just hand out praise for nothing.

Phillip nodded again before speaking. "Much appreciated Don Leone. We think highly of what this family has done here as well. We're all just looking to continue on in good business and put food on the table for our families while avoiding the harassment from the police. Which leads me to why I'm here today. We're looking for a favor. A mutual friend of ours told us about a heap of no show jobs in your part of the city. Unfortunately we've used most of ours up or places we were using have gone down. We were wondering if we would be allowed a business proposition of using or rather renting some of yours."

Salvatore sat back in his chair to contemplate a minute. Toni was reading the room and looking back and forth from his boss to Phillip to see what he could glean from either man. At some point during all of this he had lit a cigar to which his father or the other man didn't seem to notice but Raymond did. Raymond was looking on disinterestedly.

He really couldn't careless about all this stuff but his father was forcing him to sit in. He truly wondered how his brother could've lucked out of this. Unless this was all a set up. He'd have to find some leverage on his brother to get him to tell him the truth. Maybe threaten to have a conversation with that girlfriend of his about his weekend nighttime activities.

"Hmm.. So you guys wanna buy into some legal positioning up here to help look keep off the cops radar huh? That's not too bad an idea and we got the jobs to spare. Maybe you boys can show us how you stay low profile down there." Salvatore seemed like he was taking in his own words and continuing to think things over as well. "Yeah that sounds good.  How about 10 grand a job with a max of 10 jobs. Take what you need but remember we gotta spread some out among ourselves as well."

Philip then took a moment to think over what was being said. Raymond had a feeling he would agree right out but the man couldn't seem too eager. Your opposition would jump at that as a sign of weakness in negotiations.

"We can do that. We'll be taking 7 jobs so we'll send you your 70k in a week or two." Philip said with a satisfied look on his face.

He then stood up to go and shake hands with Salvatore but was stopped when he saw the Don had remained in his seat with a contemplative look on his face. It took him a minute before he spoke.

"I want you guys to do me another favor." Salvatore said as he looked the man in the eye before turning his chair and looking at his son and then back to the man. Raymond had a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach. "My son here, I want you to take him in with you guys down there in Philly."

"What?!" Raymond asked loudly in shock. He was taught to never disagree with his father in meetings in front of outsiders. He was also taught to keep his emotions in check during negotiations and let out his true feelings in private always but he couldn't help himself here. His father was asking a family from another city to take him in.

"I'm not saying you guys gotta make him. But take him in, give him some work. Show him the ropes or whatever. He's yours he works for you and I got nothing to do with him really other than I'm his father he won't be reporting to me at all. Sorta like a liaison or whatever between our families. I'll even throw in an 8th job for you. He seems to not wanna be apart of anything I'm apart of so this will probably work for em. Plus maybe it'll toughen em up." Salvatore said not even looking at his son now. 

The room was in silent shock. Salvatore seemed decided in this move. Toni was in shock at this move his mouth was open and the cigar in his hand was burning out but he still paid it no mind. Raymond was seething in anger at this decision. Here his father was deciding his future for him again. He didn't even rebel as openly as Joey did and here he was being the one who was about to be sent away. What fucking nerve his father had.

Philip didn't know what to make of this at all. Instinct would tell him this was probably a trap and that Leone was probably trying to put a plant in their family. He wanted to decline that option but the way it was phrased the whole deal would hinge on his decision of this added favor. He had to get this deal done no matter what. They didn't really have any other options. He looked at the young man in question. He had to be fresh outta high school. So unless he took acting in school then he was just as surprised by this as everyone else in the room. And the way he was looking at his father, there was a fair amount of anger in his eyes. He knew things must have been off between the two but for it to be this bad he had no idea.

He heard stories about the Leone's always being hard on their blood relatives but he really couldn't understand how this man was offering up the services of his own son. Especially if the rumors about him only wanting a blood relative for a #2 in his family were true. There would be no use over thinking this right now. He was sent up here to make a deal so he guessed he really didn't have a choice.

"Fine, we'll take him. He can return to Philly with me tomorrow. Do we have a deal?" Philip asked as he approached the desk and stuck his hand out for a shake.

Salvatore took a minute to seemingly resolve himself. He gave a side eye like he was trying to look behind himself at his son without looking at him directly before standing up and firmly shaking the other man's hand.

"Yeah, we gotta deal."Salvatore responded and with the shake of the hands between the two he had sentenced his son to exile.