Levi #5
“Most people would call it a promotion,” he said calmly as he set his phone down at the sound of heels. Another woman I didn’t recognize right away walked in and set a pile of thin folders on the table in front of him. She flashed us both a smile before leaving without a word.
“New assistant?” I wondered aloud. “What happened to Ramsey?”
“He apparently grew a conscience,” Augustine said, picking up the folders and flipping through them before opening one.
He liked having physical pages in his hand when going over business, though he made sure to destroy them afterward.
“And grew enough spine to do something about it, but lacked the intelligence to get away with it.”
“And that would leave him...where?”
“Here and there.”
No, he was not exaggerating. “Lovely, now back to my question.”
“Which has been answered,” he said as he flipped a page over and looked at what appeared to be a graph.
I glanced at the page and sighed, plucking it from his hands. “Put your glasses on if you’re going to read the fine print.”
I drained my glass. “Now...why me? There are plenty of people who could have taken the position without requiring me to be thrown into the mess.”
“A mess is precisely what we have,” he said, leaning back in his chair and frowning. “One of our most established and reasonably effective leaders has just gone down in flames. I didn’t mention it at the meeting, but he chose to take his own life rather than get taken.”
I whistled. “So he was that convinced he would go down if they got their hands on him.”
“Yes.”
“And you want me to go in and deal with the mess he left? Wonderful.”
“And who then, do you think I should choose? Anyone with the experience I need would be pulled from something more important. And the rest? Perhaps I should have told Leonard he was up for the position.”
“Am I supposed to believe for a moment you would have considered him?” I asked, rolling my eyes. The last situation he’d been involved in almost had an entire crew behind bars. It was a mystery how he was allowed to live, let alone continue to function within The Family.
“No, but my options aren’t exactly plentiful,” he said, staring at me with a frown. “What I also left out of my explanation was that the entire region was already in danger. We knew he was under closer watch than others, and as steady as his performance was, it had been dropping.”
I had also noticed, but there was no point in bringing that up, not when that wasn’t his point. “And? You can’t tell me there aren’t others who would want this.”
God knew there were plenty of people who would have jumped at the chance to gain more power and influence.
The only reason I’d settled into the role I had been in for the past five years was because it didn’t require me to do much more than sit on my ass, keep an eye on things, and make sure production, shipment, and money flow were all working, if not flourishing.
It kept me away from the uglier and harsher parts of the life, something I had been focused on from the beginning.
What would my life have been like if Augustine hadn’t decided to take an interest when I was twelve?
I hadn’t realized it at the time, but my mother had dreaded the possibility of Augustine looking into one of his many bastards.
Back then, I had thought my mom had been leaving the subject of my father’s return alone because she felt guilty about leaving me in the dark about his existence.
I found out who and what he was shortly after I turned thirteen, but that had been.
..well, I thought it was the coolest thing at the time.
What thirteen-year-old really understands the scope of something when all he can see is his dad living successfully on his own terms, by his own rules?
There were little things, jobs he assigned to me, nothing dangerous, but looking back, I knew he had been testing me, trying to see what I was capable of, and what he could eventually groom me to do.
Perhaps, between my mother and Dom, I might have been able to push him and his influence out of my life.
Except...my mother died. Between the factory she worked at full time and the diner she worked at part time, it was hard to say which one violated safety laws the most. If provoked, I would have bet it would be the factory that got her killed, but I would have been wrong.
Shoddy repairs and shitty equipment had resulted in an explosion that had taken my mother from me.
I was fourteen, and she had no other family.
While Dom had insisted his family could take me in, we both knew his parents had more than enough on their plate.
As amazing as Matilda was, I couldn’t crawl to her and ask for help, not when I had next to nothing to offer in return.
Augustine though? I could offer him all sorts of work to justify taking me in and making sure I had a roof over my head, food in my stomach, and, as a bonus, healthcare that wasn’t bottom-of-the-barrel.
I just had one stipulation.
“Is that so?” he asked, leaning back and steepling his fingers in front of him, looking like he could be pushed toward amusement or irritation.
“Yes,” I said, swallowing hard to hide the fact that my heart was beating furiously and my throat was tight. “I’m offering to work for The Family, in whatever way you think I can, isn’t that enough to make a request?”
“A request can be refused without consequence; this sounds like a demand...a requirement,” he said.
“I’ve helped take care of you for three years, Levi.
Do you think it would stop simply because Lana died?
I’ve accepted you as one of my own; you aren’t required to work for me to keep a home.
Your care can be arranged without anything more than a thank you. ”
“You don’t want that.”
“I don’t?”
“No, why make me do runs and deliveries? Why make me pass on messages in person? You could have had other people do that and still have something else for me to do to earn the allowance you’ve been giving me.
Clean your house, mow your lawn, anything, but you had me do business.
You want me to do business with you...so why not cut to the chase and get started? Sooner the better, right?”
“In some cases,” he said as if he were mulling it over.
“But...yes, I wondered if you might join me in the family business. You’re smarter than your grades show, far, far smarter in fact.
You know how to get people to trust you, which is even rarer.
And you’ve avoided trouble when doing something for me, which is.
..new. So yes, I have been curious if I might bring you into the fold, but there’s no rush. ”
“Dad.”
“Hm, what is this...request of yours?”
“You can count it as two parts, or two requests, I guess,” I said, leaning forward and staring at him.
I knew what I was about to say was going to be a big deal, maybe I didn’t know exactly how big, but it was a big step.
..maybe even a step closer to Hell. “The owner of the diner and the supervisor?”
“Cameron Dode,” Augustine said immediately, and my heart raced. “The man who ignored safety laws, precautions, and the reports that his kitchen was a threat to life and limb, that one?”
“And his inspector friend, the one he’s been paying off with his ass and cash.”
“You knew about that?”
“Yes.”
“Riley Fune.”
“Then you know about both of them.”
“I do,” he said, tilting his head. “What do you require?”
“I want them dead,” I said, holding up a finger. “That’s the first part.”
“And the second?”
I stared him in the eyes, hating the fat, greasy-smelling man who had hired my mother at the minimum rate and left her to struggle in a kitchen that was doomed to kill her.
And the man who had been using his position to get laid, and put extra money in his wallet.
That wasn’t just incompetence or mere negligence; they knew the building wasn’t safe.
The only reason it had killed my mother and the two cooks and not the whole building was sheer dumb luck.
The bus boy had been smoking at the back door with it open, directing the flames outside.
“I want to be there,” I said. “I want to watch.”
And for the first time in three years...he smiled.
How many times had I replayed that day, wondering if it had been worth it to sell my soul?
Fourteen-year-old me had known he was paying a heavy price, but he had never known what kind of price it would be in the end.
I hadn’t known I would be tying myself to a group with more blood on its hands than I could ever imagine, and would be more ruthless and cruel than anything I would dare to dream.
Or that I would be stuck there years later, trying to find a way to live a quiet life that didn’t draw attention.
And now this.
“Yes, there are plenty of people chomping at the bit to have the opportunity they see as being handed to you on a silver platter,” he said, looking me over. “I trust you’re smarter than that.”
“It’s being handed to me, alright, but I can’t tell if the platter is bent metal or has uranium at its core,” I said sourly.
“You want me to swoop into Portland, as your son, take over, and expect people to listen, and that I’ll get everything under control?
I know nothing about that sort of thing. ”
“As a matter of fact, you’ve been, if not outright running, then privately running a good deal of my business for almost five years now,” he said, arching a brow. “You’ve been handing out orders to people who’ve never even met you. Or did you not notice?”
“Of course I’ve noticed,” I said, grinding out the cigar. “But there’s a sizable difference between what I’ve been doing and what you’re asking…no, telling me to do.”