Luc drummed his fingers against the table. “I’ve seen him fight.”
Caruso and Bruno shared looks with their respective soldiers while I frowned. Luc and Rory hadn’t discussed the fights with me, so I couldn’t read between the lines.
Icould,however, read that Aurora was losing patience with the discussion.
Caruso knocked the table with his knuckles. “I heard the Triads are renovating An Inch of Gold over on Catherine Street. In Two Bridges.”
“I thought that was a big cash cow,” I exclaimed.
“It’s one of the first casinos they developed,” he concurred. “Definitely a cash cow but it got battered to fuck in a raid last month. Needs a lot of work but it has that?—”
“Underground casino. I remember.” Seeing where he was going with this, I pointed at him. “Large enough for a fighting ring.”
“That’s where my mind took me when I heard the news. If we don’t keep up with the fights, then someone else will jump in.We have right of conquest so we want to keep the next match on track. That’s all I’m saying.”
“It was never our intentionnotto keep the dates,” Rory said snottily. “Bruno, your family can handle the whores, but I will be overseeing.”
There was a warning to Aurora’s words, but it came as no surprise. Rory was very hands-on with the hookers.
For the first time, Bruno sounded satisfied with the discussion. “I’ll have my accountants check out the current system that’s in place and get back to you re: necessary upgrades etc.”
“The building as a whole is disgusting,” she advised. “We will be heavily investing in individual quarters as well as common areas.”
“Is it worth it?” I protested. “Isn’t it better to scrap it and transfer to our current holdings? It’s in a prime location. The real estate value on a building of that size will be immense.”
Rory dipped her chin. “Bruno, that’s something I want you to look into.”
“Will do, Consigliere. What about the Albanians?”
Caruso snorted. “Where have you been hiding? The streets are a bloodbath!”
“You work with our enemies, you pay the price with your life.”
“If the city didn’t know that before, Don, then they do now,” Caruso cheered. “After my house raided the last known shithole where the Albanians were living, we haven’t heard of them hiding out in any other apartment buildings in our territory.”
“Maybe they moved to Jersey?” I glanced at Rory, who shook her head.
“I’ve conferred with the Satan’s Sinners. There’s been no movement. Wherever the Albanians have crawled off to, they went farther than the tristate area.”
“Perhaps Chicago? The Russians, Poles, and Greeks run that city, but there are a lot of gangs. Maybe they’ll have allies there where they can lick their wounds safely.”
“I’ll confer with Lyanov, Stan, and see what Chicago’s Forgotten Boys’ leader has to say. Speaking of, Hunter has done theCosaNostrayet another solid by going through Custanzu’s security with a fine-tooth comb after the infiltration into the palace.”
Palacewas stated mockingly.
“He didn’t tell me,” I groused.
“Yes, well, he told me instead. Perks of pillow talk,” she riposted waspishly. “The hack came from the city. A Favaro-owned residence that weinheritedrecently. Which makes sense considering the backers of the Nolita whorehouse.”
Before she could continue, I prodded, “Any idea who was behind the hack?”
“Hunter’s still investigating.”
“No leads at all?”
“If there were, then I’d tell you, wouldn’t I?” She grunted. “Anyway, as much as we believe we’ve cleared out the Favaros, I want to make sure we sweep a wider net over the city. A part of this will be on my networks, but any familiar faces that are spotted, ItalianorAlbanian, I want to hear about it. They’ve proven they can keep a low profile once, and we won’t let that happen again.
“I recommend that we intensify our presence in Nolita too. Keep it visible. Ensure that no one returns to the source.”
