Organized crime was definitely on the top of most activities nowadays. Handling things behind closed doors, secret meetings and obviously playing face to the public like nothing is going on, they are different from everyone else and they hide in plain sight unless you happen to stumble on one doing what they shouldn't be doing but yourself as an individual isn't gonna judge them, they will judge you. Curious ears and curious minds ask what they do for a living and they hide their real job from loved ones, it's a necessary evil seeing as you would never admit that you're apart of that life.

Lucious was slowly delving to have a second life and maybe a different life away from what he had originally built. Music was his passion but sometimes you had to get your hands dirty to achieve things that you want, what he wanted was his own company with a chance to make himself and others known to the public. Give people some sort of praise for going for what they want to accomplish, hard work gets the job done; yet, everyone has their demons.

Lyon needed a job done and he wanted to go against a family that has caused harm to the family that took him in and started to go at their personal assets, fronts, and it obviously couldn't be ignored or avoided; such aggression action only gets you an aggressive reaction. But this wasn't a job he could go at it alone even if Lucious desired it, he needed a partner and usually he was a team player, just not with strangers that he didn't know but in this life you'd meet people you never would have otherwise.

As a recommendation, he was supposed to meet with someone who could help put a close to rival family's aggressive activities. If you wanted to break them, you'd go at their resources such as their money, weapons and more until they didn't have much of a powerbase and that's when you land the final blow. The individual Lucious was supposed to meet with was from New York and he didn't have time to explore the city of New York yet as he wanted.

The location was at a cafe over on Michigan Avenue. Lot of civilians, nobody would be dumb enough to put themselves on the map with law enforcement unless they were in someone's pocket. Lyon dressed just for the occasion and kept a hat on to keep his face hidden from eager eyes, just as he entered the atmosphere seemed calm and it would give anyone reassurance with the smiles the workers give to people on their way in, all in all it was about having a good work ethic.

The smell of eggs eagerly filling your nose and the casual conversations going on around you. Lucious raised his hand over to the waiter as he went over to grab a table, upon sitting down his legs were crossed as he ordered buttered toast with hash and a cheese souffle. Time is what he just needed to pass while his mystery partner was on the way over, the job they were gonna do was gonna be riveting to others, but not to them.

Madeline had received word from her boss that he had a new job for her. In all her time working under Jemaine she had never turned down a job, but this one made her hesitate. She knew very few people on the West coast and even with all her travels, she’d hardly spent time in Seattle. Plus, there were no details in the note about what the job entailed; she was just directed to go to a café over on Michigan Ave and meet with a man. There was a basic description of him and a time for them to meet. That was all.

She dressed casually, black slacks and a light gray blouse. She made sure her weapon was clean and fully loaded, slipping it into the holster and pulling on a sweater to cover it. Her hair was curled and pinned up, so she would blend well into the area, or at least as well as Madeline ever really blended in. Nikolas drove her to the café, but she asked him to stay in the car. He tried to protest but Madeline waved him off. “It’s more important we be able to make a quick getaway if something goes wrong. I can take care of myself.”

She hadn’t had breakfast yet, so the smells assailed her the moment she entered the café and her stomach grumbled. Still, she ignored that and searched the place for the person she was supposed to meet. He wasn’t exactly hard to find – the hat on his face couldn’t disguise his body language. She let the hostess know that she was going to be joining that table and then walked over to the table, pulling out the chair across from him and taking a seat.

Without saying anything, Madeline picked up the menu and glanced it over. After settling on a breakfast of French toast, with strawberries and powdered sugar, she looked up at the man across from her, flashing him a charming smile. “Hello.”

Lucious still had time to pass after he ordered his food. He didn't have his novel with him, then again he didn't wanna be carrying a book around all day especially when this job was his idea; though, he was curious if the other family managed their finances and had it tracked through a ledger to track the money, where it was sent, how much and so forth. As time went by, his food was hot and ready as the waiter came by with the plate of the souffle and the toast with hash. Nothing like some good breakfast before leaving out on a job which may or may not involve murder somewhere down the line.

He was dressed like your average mafioso. Not a crazy suit but something that would make him look decent, the fedora pretty much hiding his face from view unless he looked up often though he tried to keep his head down when he could, not that anyone would really care but even your enemy can blend in the crowd and just hide in plain sight, but nobody would be crazy to do such a thing in front of a dozen civilians, especially knowing that there will be that one person that runs off and goes to tell the police.

Time passed little by little as he continued eating his breakfast. Though, his presence was noticed when a girl that was dressed casual sat right across from him and ordered his food, trying to blend in to look like a friend or just people who know each other. Lucious could only assume this was the woman he was supposed to meet with that was from New York.

"Hello." She said.

Lucious looked up and simply said...

"Hi."

Lucious looked over her shoulder and around to look into the crowd just in case there was any familiar faces or someone staring, though he kept his voice at a decent level so only the lady sitting across from him would hear.

"I assume you're the lady I'm supposed to work with. Though, wasn't any mention of who. I'm Lucious, by the way. They probably didn't say much but the job is to eliminate a weapons racket from a rival family, Ricci Crime Family; my boss assigned me to handle this to prove myself so hopefully this goes off without a hitch, though, we'll have to get rid of some people along the way, hope you're fine with that. You don't get anywhere without getting your hands dirty."

Lucious stopped talking. He picked up the toast that had hash on it and began eating.

Before Madeline could respond, the waitress came and took her order. She added some coffee to the order and it was quickly served. After adding milk and sugar, she turned her attention back to the man across from her.

“I’m Madeline. Madz for short, but you can stick with Madeline.”

She took a long sip of her coffee, letting out a sigh of relief as she did – there was nothing like that first bit of caffeine as it hit your system in the morning. The coffee was a bit watered down, but she could live with that for now. She thought about what he had said as she savored the coffee, wondering how their two families had ended up linked on this one job.

Tilting her head slightly at his last statement, she couldn’t help but laugh slightly. “I might be a pretty face Mr. Lucious, but I have no problem getting my hands dirty when the job calls for it.” Her eyes twinkled slightly as she took another sip of her coffee.

Her food was served quickly, which she was grateful for. She took the first bite of her French toast and was even more grateful that this café had been their meeting spot. She made a mental note to remember to come back here more often.

"So what do we know about the Ricci Crime Family? Are they based here in New York?" She didn't really care why they had to take the family out; she was given a job and she would see it through to the end. It wasn't her place to ask why. 

Lucious smiled. He liked what he was wearing so far, expected no less from someone with a little bit of action in her, or a lot even. They had a busy road ahead of them, was gonna take a lot of killing and destruction.

"So what do we know about the Ricci Crime Family? Are they based here in New York?"

Lucious shifted his posture to be more straight since he was slouched down to eat his toast just ever so slightly. He dusted his hands off by rubbing them together then clearing his throat.

"Well, let me fill you in in a little bit of history. Giulio Ricci is the Don of the family, though he has an interesting power base under him to manage things so in other words; if we don't shake things up a bit, Giulio doesn't come out to handle the problem. He has three capos, one manages the family finances while the other two control districts out in Brooklyn, other one is stationed out in Manhattan. Frank Delucci, Giorgi Faugno and last but not least, Alessio Iadanza."

Lucious stopped talking just around the time the waiter came by, she was holding a cup of coffee and it was for Lucious. She set it down next to his plate and he nodded at her, they exchanged smiles until she left.

"Like I was saying, they all control a major weapons racket and have a warehouse where they hold all the guns and the cash made from the trade. Burning the warehouse is one thing, Giulio is really only gonna yell at them and tell them to figure out alternatives, we also need t oget rid of his capos."

Lucious sighed.

"Interesting, isn't it?"  

Madeline listened to him explain what he knew about this family while she ate her French toast. So, they had three men to take out and a whole warehouse to deal with. Her eyes lit up slightly as he talked about burning the warehouse down.

“Burning a warehouse did you say? I do like to burn things down.” She smirked, winking slightly as she ate the last piece from her dish. Leaning back in her chair she picked up her coffee cup and sipped it, her next statement taking a more serious tone.

“Manhattan is Don Rafa’s territory, so I’ll need to give him a heads up that we’re making moves there. Other than that, I can’t see any issues.”

Well, that wasn’t true, she could see a lot of issues. Taking out three Capos and burning down a warehouse was no easy task; then they’d still need to face the Don himself. Undoubtedly, he would have a handful of thugs and goombas to try and get in their way. Madeline liked a challenge, but she had no desire to go on a suicide mission.

"This is quite a big job you’re laying out Lucious. Once we take out one of the Capos, the other two will know something is happening. They go into hiding and suddenly we have a bigger task on our hands. Our best plan would be to get all three to one location. Now, given my current position here in New York and the recent ascension of the new Godfather, I might be able to arrange that. If we can take out all three at once, undoubtedly Don Ricci would have no choice but to step forward and defend his family.

But, for me to involve my family in such a way, I would need to be able to tell Godfather Clement why. What has Don Ricci done to you and yours that is so extreme that we need to wipe him out like this?”

Lucious leaned back in the seat and began to slide the fedora off his head. It wouldn't matter since they were in public and nobody is stupid enough to shoot someone with a bunch of witnesses, otherwise you're just asking to be caught. This job was pretty big since it consisted of taking out an entire family and ruining their businesses. They'd be taking out a Don that's heavily protected by a bunch of thugs and goombas alone, his upper structure was another story.

Taking care of the family weapon's racket wasn't gonna be easy since he'd put bodies out to oversee the deal. 

"But, for me to involve my family in such a way, I would need to be able to tell Godfather Clement why. What has Don Ricci done to you and yours that is so extreme that we need to wipe him out like this?"

Lucious sipped his cup of coffee and waited before answering the question.

"Well, it's not what he has done to me, personally. It's just what he has done in general, he had a couple of Made Men whacked without authorization. Just recently, he threatened my boss that he would move in on his fronts and basically tax him. That's not everything though, he hasn't kicked up to the Godfather which is something I thought you were aware about, in case you haven't managed the finances lately. Good luck arranging a sit down however, his Capos don't listen to anyone but the Don himself."

Lucious decided to fix his collar.

"Almost forgot, on top of the weapons, he has drug fronts that we'd need to get rid of as well. That's half his income; It's a big job but I wasn't gonna storm all of these places by myself, couple of guys are with me to help out."

This job obviously wasn't gonna be easy, the two of them had some work to do.

An expression of annoyance passed over Madeline’s face when he spoke about taxes and thinking she’d be aware. Perhaps he didn’t mean to, but she didn’t enjoy when people questioned her ability to do her job. They had taken over a large operation and it took time to sort through the mess that the previous Godfather had left behind; it was really no surprise that they were still sorting through things. The previous Godfather seemed to have no sense of organization, no real books to speak of and so many under the deal tables that it wasn’t clear who was supposed to be paying what.

She also wasn’t pleased with his implication that a sit down would be ignored. Why would such a powerful Don ignore his new Godfather? If he felt he were more powerful than Jemaine, wouldn't have tried to take the position him. Maybe he wanted too, but Jemaine had beat him to it. This could pose a risk to her boss later down the line. 

She couldn’t help but wonder why this man hadn’t come to their attention yet, given how powerful and far-reaching he seemed to be. Don Ricci was not a name she was familiar with and yet it seemed he was earning quite a bit of money here in New York. She’d need to get back to headquarters and dig for some more information, just to confirm that Lucious was telling her. Better to be cautious than sorry later.

“He was threatening your boss you say? Does he want to expand from New York to Seattle? That’s quite an expansion.” It wasn’t often someone would expand across the country like that – the travel wasn’t easy and took time. She wondered if the Don had other reasons for picking Seattle of all places, maybe some kind of weakness they could exploit.

“Ok so, you don’t think we can lure them all out at once and you brought extra help with you. What exactly is your plan then? What happens if they flee the state? This isn’t just a big job, it’s starting to sound nearly impossible. Unless we stage coordinated attacks against several of them at once, so they don’t have time to tip one another off. Maybe I can get some help from the NYPD, I have a few of them on the payroll, and of course, I’m sure the Godfather will offer whatever support he can in terms of men and weapons. You seem to know this family well, where do we even start?”

It wasn’t that Madeline would back down from such an expansive wipe, but she wasn’t going to send her men in to be ambushed or killed. It was true she was mostly spur of the moment and horribly impulsive, but in her current position, she’d had to learn to be more patient, to plan things better. Especially when people’s lives were at risk.

"He was threatening your boss you say? Does he want to expand from New York to Seattle? That’s quite an expansion."

Lucious shrugged.

"Maybe he does, maybe he doesn't. Wouldn't surprise me though since he already has everything setup, my guess is the more places he can control rackets in the more money he gets which is basically easy money."

"What exactly is your plan then? What happens if they flee the state? This isn’t just a big job, it’s starting to sound nearly impossible. Unless we stage coordinated attacks against several of them at once, so they don’t have time to tip one another off. Maybe I can get some help from the NYPD, I have a few of them on the payroll."

Lucious listened to the lady talk for a few minutes. Though he chuckled almost half-way in, anybody could have cops in on the payroll and with enough money they'd be willing to switch sides at anytime, though he let her finish before he could reply.

"This guy could have cops on the payroll too. Enough money and whoever you're paying right now could roll to go on his side, believe me, money is a dangerous weapon and the guy is capable of beating people at their own game. You're overthinking this though, unless there's enough trouble the capos won't show to see what the problem is. They're not gonna turn tail and run because of a couple of people shooting up their men."

Lucious took a second to take a sip of his coffee.

"You seem to know this family well, where do we even start?" She stated.

"Well, I'm working on getting routes for their weapon transports. When we get that sorted, we could figure out a plan to hit those, of course you'd need to talk to your people and see what can be done; after that is done, you can contact me and we'll move further. Sound like a plan?"

Madeline finished off her coffee and nodded. “Very well, that makes sense. We’ll have to take them out in parts, slow and steady. Anything else could lead to all-out war.”

“It was a pleasure to meet you Lucious. I thank you for bringing Don Ricci and his antics to our attention and I look forward to working with you to take care of this problem. We’ll be in touch soon.”

The blonde woman smiled, slipping out of her seat and heading out of the café. This would be a large job and Madeline would need to take it back to Jemaine before they could really move forward. She would need men, weapons, and support from the other crews. And, most importantly, she had to confirm everything that the man had told her. She wasn’t going to attack anyone until she knew it’s what was best for New York as a whole.