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I grinned and glanced over at Leigh. She looked slightly surprised as Dante turned toward me, arms crossed over his chest.
“That’s how it goes,” I said. “I got to admit. I didn’t expect the number two guy in the Leone family to show up today.”
“And I didn’t plan on stopping by, but I was in the neighborhood on business and I saw this store was open, so—” He shrugged and swiveled his neck.
“What can I do for you? I’d offer you a seat, but that got burned up.”
“I wanted to talk to you about the fire, actually.”
I tensed, not sure how to respond to that. I didn’t think the Leone family would give a shit about some feud with the Jackals, since we were both small compared to their family. But if Dante was here personally, that meant he has a vested interest in this, and it couldn’t be good. I wondered if Clifton had gone to him, or if this was bad luck.
“What can I say? Bad electrical wiring.”
He snorted. “More like a bunch of asshole motorcycle douchebags.”
“Them too. They didn’t help.”
“I know about the Jackals. And I know they tried to hit you again, what, a week ago? Two weeks? I’m losing track of time. Lots of shit going down in the city these days.”
“About a week ago, yeah.”
“They’re probably not too happy with you right now.”
“No, they really aren’t.”
“How’s business been since then? Getting a lot of customers?” He paced around the room like a caged tiger. Leigh gave me an uncomfortable look and I nodded back to her, trying to calm her down.
Dante was dangerous, no doubt about that. He was the calmer, more collected of the top guys in the Leone family. Him and Vincent Leone ran their Philly operation, which meant they ran half the city. He probably expected me to bend over backwards to please him right now, and he was in for a rude awakening. I didn’t give a fuck who he was or what he did, my business was my own, and I only took orders from Hedeon.
“Business is fine. Jackals haven’t been back.”
“But they will be. And that’s a bit of a problem.” He smiled at me almost apologetically, like he didn’t want to be having this conversation any more than I did.
“I don’t see how it would affect you, unless you’re trying to muscle in on the pill business.”
He waved a hand. “We have our own business set up and moving. We don’t need whatever volume you’re moving, to be totally frank. No, I’m more worried about the trail of bodies you’ve been leaving.”
I grunted and leaned up against the wall. “Why’s that?”
“See, we got relationships with the police. And the police don’t like gang violence. When shit like that happens, they turn to us and they tell us to make it stop. If the city remains calm and the bodies don’t start dropping, then the police mostly leave us alone.”
“Mostly, huh?”
“Can’t ignore us entirely. Got to make some arrests. Low level shit though, nothing that really matters, but makes them look good.” He gestured like, what can you do?
“Pretty good arrangement then. You get to keep making money and your soldiers take all the heat.”
“That’s how these things go. But you’re starting to see my problem though, aren’t you?”
I grunted and stood up straight. “You want me to stop killing Jackals.”
“That’s pretty much it, yeah.”
“Here’s the problem though, Dante. The Jackals came at me. They tried to hurt Leigh over there. They tried to ruin my business. I killed them in self-defense, and to be totally honest, they got off fucking easy. So if I see a Jackal, I kill a Jackal. That’s how these things go.”
He grimaced a little like he smelled something awful. “I totally understand your position, believe me. I’ve been there. You can’t show weakness, not in this business, but sometimes ending a war isn’t weakness. Sometimes it makes prudent business sense.”
“In this case, you think it’s smart to back off.”
“If you do, I promise you we’ll make it worth your time. Maybe a few more customers come find your shops, yeah? Maybe it gets easier to move your product.”
“All that in exchange for ending a war that doesn’t really bother you at all, huh?”
He shook his head. “I just explained how it does.”
“Yeah, right, you said some words that I mostly ignored.” I took a step toward him. “Now you listen. The Jackals started this. You want it to end? Go talk to Clifton. Get him to take your fucking deal. I don’t plan on going out there on the hunt, but like I said, if I see them anywhere near my stores or my people, they’re going to die. No more questions asked. They already had their chance.”
Dante sighed and rubbed at his face like this was nothing more than a frustrating nuisance. And to him, that’s probably exactly what it was.
