24. Chapter 23 #2
“Thank you for being willing to meet with me.” Sandro sat back in his chair and clasped his hands on his stomach the same way his father used to when he was making a deal.
“Please know that this proposal doesn’t come out of nowhere or even out of desperation.
My father and I had actually been discussing it for the last week since my sister’s wedding.
He told me it was time to settle down and do my duty of getting married and providing heirs.
Valentina’s name came up in that discussion and we had talked about reaching out to try to make a deal. ”
Luka chuckled as he crossed one leg over the other. “You know my sister will be pissed if we go through with this, right? She won’t make things easy on you.”
Don Accardi raised a hand, silencing his son.
“Valentina will do as she’s told. Hearing another don call her a wild card has made me realize just how out of hand she’s gotten lately.
I thought we’d had her contained, but apparently not.
That’s the reason I’m willing to hear you out.
I know your father raised you right and you will line her out.
But an agreement would need to be beneficial for my family as well.
I can’t just marry her off because she’s getting out of hand.
That makes it look like I can’t even keep my daughter in check. ”
“The accords are working and the families are seeing unprecedented success.” I crossed a leg over the other, propping my ankle on my knee as I copied Sandro’s pose.
“But I think we all know that will only last for so long. There will come a time when someone takes the throne of their family, someone that has only lived during a time of peace, possibly a current heir, and they will get greedy. They won’t understand the value of the accords anymore and they’ll want to take more for themselves.
When that happens, it’s every family for themselves.
There won’t be a question of who you can trust because the answer is very obviously no one.
But… if the Accardi and Vitale families share blood, then those two families never have to question the loyalty of the other.
It means that if one of the other families wants a war, they get a war with two families for the price of one.
This is why marriages between the families weren't uncommon before the accords. They understood the benefit of having an undeniable ally.”
Marco reached in his jacket’s inside pocket and handed Sandro a folded piece of paper.
Sandro opened it up, flattened it, then handed it across the table to Adriano.
“My father was prepared to work out a deal with transportation. It would be more cost efficient for your family if you could transport your drugs from New Jersey through our territory. We would be willing to give you passage. You would transport from the Holland Tunnel, use Canal Street through our territory, then over the bridge to Brooklyn. But as you can see, I’m willing to sweeten the deal and make things very lucrative for both of us. ”
Don Accardi looked over the paper. Neither of the twins moved closer, knowing they couldn’t be that openly curious, but both of their eyes were glued to the paper, reading it from where they sat. Finally, Adriano looked back up at Sandro. “You’d give me the brothel?”
Sandro shrugged. “My father and I didn’t see eye to eye on the sex trade.
While I understand that the older generation enjoyed things of this nature, the future is elsewhere.
So you would get the brothel and I would get access to the college campuses in your territory to recruit for my new business venture. ”
“How can I be assured you wouldn’t try to sell on those campuses or recruit numbers for your family?”
The drug question was valid, but none of the families were recruiting members from college campuses. That was too messy.
“The reverse could be true. Giving you access to my territory could open the door to you or your men trying to poach our business. But it won’t because we’d be family.
Our agreement would hold us to basic standards.
Not stealing each other's business, not starting trouble in each other's territory, not attacking each other. We’d be able to cross territory lines freely with the understanding that it wasn’t a threat.
If one of our men violated the terms, then they would be executed by the family they offended with no retaliation.
If one of us breaks it, the syndicate would treat it the same as they would if someone broke the accords. ”
Luka scrubbed his hand down his face. “This is definitely an interesting proposal.” He looked at his father. “The access to New Jersey would cut costs dramatically and having the brothel would allow you to make more connections.”
Tommaso ran his tongue across his teeth. “But the brothel is untested. When Lucian decided to open it you said you thought it would bring too much attention and was a great way to get caught.”
Adriano’s jaw ticked. “That is true. But he invited the heads of the families to his soft opening as a gesture of good will. He set it up properly and I was thinking of trying to emulate it. This would be easier.” I was surprised they were having this discussion in front of us, but it had to be a good sign.
“He’s probably rolling over in his casket right now that you’re offering it up for the trade. ”
“I think he’d understand that this deal would be extremely beneficial to us, so giving up his baby for the opportunity to make this alliance along with starting a new venture would make it all worthwhile.”
I highly doubted that. Lucian would never have made this deal, but I also knew that Sandro didn’t give a single fuck. He was going to run the family the way he wanted to and Manhattan would be better because of it.
Don Accardi rubbed his jaw as he thought. “What are you thinking as far as a timeline for the wedding?”
We had him.
Sandro leaned forward, putting his arms on the table the way Lucian did when he knew he had control of a room.
Even though he was nothing like his father, the similarities in mannerisms couldn’t be denied.
“In an ideal world, I would like Valentina to have some time to come around to the idea. But this isn’t an ideal world and definitely not ideal timing.
I would need the wedding to take place in a month's time. That would mean announcing the engagement immediately.”
Luka chuckled. “You’re going to have your work cut out for you.”
Adriano gave his son a withering look before turning his attention back to Sandro. “Make it two months and you have a deal. I’ll break the news to my daughter tonight. She’ll be by your side at the funeral tomorrow and then we’ll meet to sign the contract the day after.”
The men stood and shook on it, before we all headed out of the room.
As soon as we stepped foot outside the club, all hell broke loose. Some guy in a biker's cut was standing at the base of the steps smoking a cigarette but before I could make out anything else, Tommaso had his gun drawn and pointed at the guy's head.