“This thing of ours……

Four simple words, what do they mean? The Family Business. 

So many family names. Mezzo, Luciano, Lucania, Byrne, and Patangeli.

You’d think they were the five families of New York, when you heard these names, you’d go to the one who bore that name when your father was alive and his father before him. 

Like them or hate them, they have become infamous and respected within the society of the chosen. I know that, I’ve read the journals, I’ve seen the bloodied newspapers.”

The Narrator uncorked a bottle of bourbon. Watching it fill the glass with a smirk on his scarred face, turning his head, looking down at the pages he sighed. 

“My father was a man of the cloth, he had different aspirations but it never stopped him from getting what he wanted.

A better life, a higher meaning, and becoming one with a god. We all had our nice little things to hold onto, ya know? That thing that kept us tethered to what is right and what is wrong. 

We never wanted to be animals, we were simply men who wished for a better chance at the american dream.”

The Narrator finally took a sip of the bourbon, hearing a slight snicker come from behind him. He turned his head, noticing the young girl with fiery red hair that cascaded down her back and matched her emerald green eyes. 

“Oh piss off Vin, your father was a man alright but he was not one of the cloth. He went down to Jenny’s every fuckin’ night.”

Raising an eyebrow, the narrator now simply known as ‘Vin’ scoffed before turning his head, going back to looking at old newspaper clippings and speeches that were held by the numerous regimes of the American Mob. 

“Just when I want to delve into the illusion of having a catholic father, here comes the fucking Irish with their druid ways.”

Vin never saw it coming, considering his back was turned, he felt the quick thud of a pillow hitting his back and he knew he had offended his partner. Though that was a given, she was easily offended sometimes. 

“Ha-ha, you coming or what? I hear that 'The King’ is back in town. I don’t want to be you if he sees you’re caught up in fantasy land again.”

Sighing to himself, he knew she was right. He decided to close the book, placing it on a shelf and grabbing his bomber jacket. 

Knowing that he wouldn’t be back until later this evening or tomorrow at the earliest, he knew this line of work was different from others. He wasn’t really made for much else. 

“Let’s go meet Pace, I don’t want to have to go the fuckin’ Arms Dealers and deal with the Van Graffs and their overpriced arms.”

Shrugging, the red-haired woman followed after him, tossing him the keys as they made their way out and noticed a little ruckus going on over at the local grocer. 

“Isn’t that Fat Tony’s cousin? Little Gio?”

The woman raised an eyebrow at him, deciding to bite and simply bowed her head for a second before meeting Vin’s eyes. 

“How many ‘Fat Tony’s’ do we even know? It could be the one in Paradise, Summerlin, The Strip. Fuck..it could be the one in New York for all I know, which Fat Tony!?”

Vin smirked but decided to narrow the search down to a single number of one. 

“The one who works with ‘The King’ and he’s a shot caller, let’s go see what’s up and then we can go deal with the King’s business, eh?”

Shrugging, the woman followed after Vin who arrived with a simple whistle, attracting the attention of a few goons and one Little Gio who looked at him like he was a bug of some kind. One that could be squished with the heel of his overpriced boots.

“Who the fuck are you? Do you know who the hell I am? This ain’t your business. Derek here owes us some money, I suggest you walk out of here kid, we don’t want you getting hurt in Lombardi territory, ya catch my drift, eh?”

Lombardi territory? Must have been a war of some kind because this kid must not have known who he was working for or he was playing a little scam here, that wouldn’t fly out here in Vegas. 

“I’m Vincent. A lot of people call me Instinct though, I’m here on behalf of The Wolves, we don’t remember having any fucking Lombardi people out here Gio. What would Tony say when his son is a rat?”

Gio looked a bit out of place now, he probably had no idea that the crew his father worked for would be out here. There was a reason why they were a little out of town like this, people like Gio trying to install another crew for power.

“Now...Gio, you’re going to return the money, you’re going to get in the car and we’re going to go for a little walk. Clear?”

Before Gio could even voice some other disagreement, the woman who stood behind Vincent pulled out a piece, quickly removing the safety and making sure that everyone else understood what was going on. 

Vincent smirked, there was no room for negotiation, this was business. It was all it would ever be, nothing would change that, nothing would make it any different. Not even the fact that his father was a made guy. 

“I understand, give the money back boys. Lemme go take a little walk, tell Santino that I’ll be back soon.”

And Gio walked with them without another work, stepping inside the black Lincoln as the red-headed drove with Vincent in the back with Gio watching him like a hawk. Making sure that no moves would be made, this was an act against the family. 

Gio never spoke for a few minutes, he watched the buildings go by before they were in the countryside. He knew this wasn’t the way to ‘The School’ some people called it, ‘The King’ ran a tight ship and this kind of shit was not meant to be brought to his doorstep. 

“We doing this or not Vincent? I got a family-”

Vincent scoffed, he wasn’t going to wack Gio. In fact, he wanted to make sure that this continued. Vegas was a place for business, just not in the open and Gio was about to learn that. He waved his hand, Gio looked outside and noticed the countryside compound. It looked like a ruin but it was quiet, seemingly held together by a few working people. 

“This before you is the former compound of one high level member of our society. He got deported by the Feds some time back, been a few months since his reign over the streets of Las Vegas. I come back here, like to look at it and see what I can accomplish as a man in my position.”

Gio noticed the way he stated those words, almost like he had ambitions and who could blame him? Everyone had ambitions in this life, it just took one with the balls to do it and make sure that said plans could be taken care of quietly and effectively. 

“What do you want from me Vincent? You seem to have a plan in mind for all of this already, why do you need me? You have a compound not being used and plans for you to be King.”

Shaking his head, Vincent decided to turn and face Gio, noticing the older man had an aura of power around him. He guessed he had earned that, not much else though, things would be looking to change and Vin knew he was that man to bring that change.

“The Lombardi crew, they usually stick to Albany, Buffalo, basically, New York, where all those biker fucks maintain their little control. Now you’re out here in Vegas, maybe I want to assist them a little, bring something new to the table and bring it to ‘The King’. A favor for a favor, you understand?”

Gio knew what this meant, Vincent wanted to get his foot in the door, make sure that he got the right people and that he knew who gave him that little chance. Santino Lombardi was a businessman, he knew that he had limited connections, making a deal with the Vegas Mob, that was something different and special.
 

Taking a deep breath, he knew his options were limited to the grave or an open communication with ‘The Wolves’ and in this society, he had to take his chances elsewhere. With ‘The King’ and ‘Witcher’ around, things needed to be kept quiet. So he walked back to the car, sitting on the hood as he stared off into the distance for a moment. 

“I understand, when does this sit-down happen? I need to know that my crew won’t be fucked and that we won’t be taken as special guests by the honoured society of Las Vegas or Nevada as a whole.”

That was too right, the people in Nevada were loyal to their crews and to hear another family from out of the state were going to try to move in. That was a big no-no unless improved by the overall council of the American Mafia, this was something that needed to be treated carefully.

“They won’t. You will have the protection of the Las Vegas crews.They won’t be touching you, neither will any of the other families. Just keep local and don’t wander too much, now let’s get you to a bar, I don’t want to have this conversation until your boss and mine will be here to discuss their business together.”

Nodding his head, each of them entered the car again, though neither of them seemed comfortable with what was going on.