The Five Families (2)
It was the day before the bosses of the Five Families were scheduled to hold their summit. It was supposed to be a Sunday where my two wives shared me, but at least this week’s Sunday didn’t follow that particular rule.
“Elena, aren’t you clinging a little too tightly?”
“What’s the problem? It’s not like I’m going to wear you out.”
I had definitely been on my way to the Academy union office. The next thing I knew, I came to my senses and found myself wrapped in Elena’s arms like some kind of doll. She didn’t seem inclined to let go of me—the prize she had claimed in exchange for supplying the Marinelli Family with drugs. Of course, I didn’t spend the entire day trapped in her embrace. Kazin had arrived at the hotel after visiting all five families.
“None of the Five Families made a better offer than yours.”
“...Then the other half is basically ours too.”
“That’s right. You could say that.”
Kazin didn’t linger long at the top floor of the hotel. He had to personally oversee the unloading of the remaining half of the drugs from the ship he had arrived on.
“Elena, just in case, I should—”
“I’ll send Carso. You stay here.”
“....”
Today I felt like Elena’s personal stuffed toy.
“Luke, do you have a problem with that?”
“No.”
“...You definitely look like you have a problem.”
“I was just wondering when you started liking me this much.”
“....”
Elena seemed at a complete loss for words.
“Still, it wasn’t so bad when we were younger, was it?”
“Yeah. Back then you were the one who kept running to me saying you liked me.”
Elena didn’t deny it. I remembered the nights we returned home after eliminating targets with our father. Elena would wake up, see me covered in blood, and simply spread her arms wide to hug me without a second thought. That kind of normal sibling relationship shattered the moment our father began craving more than his rightful share.
From the adopted son of a Five Families underling and the boss’s biological daughter… to the adopted son of the Godfather who had brought the Five Families to their knees and his biological daughter. Elena and I had to adapt to that change, and in the process we began to see each other as rivals. It was frighteningly easy for adoptive siblings who had once felt like real family to become people one could hate more than strangers.
“...Luke.”
“What?”
Elena was still holding me like a doll. I thought I felt her arms tighten around me. Maybe it was just my imagination.
“Sometimes it feels like trusting someone only leads to… having that trust tested to see if it was real.”
Unfortunately, it is truly difficult for people to trust one another.
The letters on the newspaper lying on the table in front of the sofa where Elena held me began to shift and rearrange themselves. It didn’t feel like a mere quote—it was as if the paper itself was sympathizing with Elena. Or perhaps it had simply chosen the perfect line for the occasion.
“What does that mean?”
“I know I’m selfish. But… I wish that woman would just disappear from our relationship.”
The shocking statement made me tilt my head upward to look at her. Droplets fell onto my face. At some point, hot tears had begun streaming from Elena’s eyes.
“Elena.”
You might see her as an obstacle, but she was my salvation.
The words rose to the tip of my tongue but refused to pass my heavy lips. They would only wound Elena deeply. While I hesitated, she wiped her tears and continued.
“...Luke, I can’t even imagine a life without you.”
“....”
“So please!”
What Elena wanted from me was clear: a clean break with Felicia. But it wasn’t that simple. We still hadn’t seized control of the city’s central district. If I broke the engagement in this situation… it would mean immediate war with the Marinelli Family. Elena couldn’t possibly be unaware of such an obvious fact. She knew, yet she was begging me anyway—hurting so badly that she couldn’t hold it in.
“Elena.”
“....”
Her expression was heartbreakingly sad. Not because of the emotions she had poured out, but because she already knew what I was about to say. But her prediction was wrong.
“Elena, it might not be for a very long time. But from now on, I will be with you forever.”
Even if that time might not be long.
There was always the possibility that Elena and I would fail in our revenge against our father’s enemies. The families of those we killed for revenge had every right to come after us. Our father’s death had been revenge for what he had done to the Five Families, after all. Nevertheless, I was making this promise to Elena. Even if the time we could spend together was short. Even if death could strike without warning in this journey where we couldn’t see even an inch ahead. I would stay with her forever.
The path I had walked my entire life would give those words even deeper meaning.
“...Okay.”
Elena’s reply was simple. Whatever meaning she had taken from my words, she replaced her tears with a bright smile.
*
One day after that incident, on Monday—the start of a new week—Kazin and Haremo boarded the ship they had arrived on. The sea. It was the greatest obstacle preventing people from meeting, and at the same time the greatest blessing nature provided to bring them together.
As the new Boss and Underboss of the Fellini Family saw them off, their ship gradually moved farther from shore.
“Haremo.”
“Yes, Boss.”
“What do you think of those two?”
“...They seem to get along better than I expected.”
Kazin asked again to confirm what he had felt.
“Huu….”
Kazin let out a sigh of relief at having finished one task and pulled a cigarette from its pack.
“Boss.”
Haremo quickly lit it for him.
“The Five Families weren’t much after all.”
“What? You didn’t feel anything while meeting them with me?”
“...Huh?”
In Haremo’s opinion, the Five Families had been pathetically weak. Of course the Coast Guard was in the Fellini Family’s grip, but they hadn’t come up with any countermeasures. On top of that, some of the bosses had shown no dignity whatsoever.
“This confirms it. They’re nothing but relics who’ve fallen behind the times.”
Kazin especially despised how the bosses longed for a return to the days when the Committee was still intact. If that happened, both he and his organization would suffer losses again when supplying drugs. A merchant who lost money on every deal couldn’t stay in business. This was one of the deep wounds the Wolves had inflicted on the Five Families—by satisfying their clients however they pleased, they had raised everyone’s standards.
“Then the next drug shipment will probably go to the Fellini guys too.”
“Probably. But let’s not get too sure of ourselves.”
Kazin spoke while gazing at the land that had already disappeared from sight. In his heart, he thought how much he looked forward to seeing how the situation would change by the time he returned.
After Kazin and his subordinates left the port, Elena, the Wolves, and I remained.
“Good. Let’s head back to the hotel.”
“Alright.”
The moment Kazin and his men were out of sight, Elena pressed herself against me as if nothing had happened. As if there was nothing left to fear.
Ding!
We were about to take the elevator to the top floor. I never expected to run into Felicia inside it.
“Luke, perfect timing. I had something to tell you.”
“....”
She naturally joined us on our way to the top floor. Elena remained on guard, but Felicia’s expression was deadly serious.
“Felicia, what is it?”
“The bosses of the Five Families held a meeting.”
Elena and I stayed silent. It seemed Kazin’s visits had provoked them far more than we anticipated. We hadn’t expected the Five Families to gather so quickly.
“....”
Elena began biting her nails, apparently worried.
“Elena.”
“Ah…”
When we reached the top floor, we headed not to our suite but to another room. The moment we entered Felicia’s suite, Hev greeted us, and Elena recoiled at the sight of the giant moth.
“Felicia, how did you learn about it?”
“My father told me a little while ago.”
She began speaking as soon as Elena and I sat on the sofa. The story started with the fact that Vito Marinelli, Boss of the Marinelli Family, had attended the bosses’ meeting.
“Of course, Father pretended to be a complete wreck.”
Pretended? Although his condition was better than I had expected, he was still genuinely addicted to Blue Eyes.
“The meeting took place at a restaurant in Sanchez’s territory, and every single boss attended.”
“Sanchez must have led the meeting.”
Felicia nodded at my words. Vito Marinelli seemed to have remembered most of the discussion. Or rather, after learning the full story through Felicia, it would have been strange if he hadn’t remembered.
First, Sanchez and Russo had joined hands, while Carmen and Dragovich had formed their own alliance. Sanchez and Russo had insisted on handing Rita Carmen over to us. What stood out was that they already knew we suspected her.
“Wait, how did they know that?”
“Because there are always plenty of ears listening around us.”
Felicia answered Elena’s question as if it were obvious. It was strange, though. They knew we suspected Rita Carmen the most… but they didn’t seem to know why we had come to that conclusion.
Felicia had warned me about my father’s crisis, and Rita Carmen had proposed to Vito Marinelli that they eliminate my father together. The important part came after that. Carmen had claimed innocence, insisting she hadn’t killed any Wolves, and Sanchez had replied that the truth didn’t matter—what mattered was what we believed.
“It’s probably a lie anyway.”
“It could be the truth.”
Felicia mentioned one possibility—that Carmen might not have actually killed our father.
“What are you talking about? You said she made the proposal to your side.”
“Yes, and we refused. But since we, the family geographically closest to you, refused to cooperate, Carmen might have given up cleanly.”
“Well, it doesn’t change anything.”
Sanchez had spoken the truth. Whether Carmen had killed our father or not didn’t matter. Regardless, she was too dangerous to leave alive. Our father had pitied her for being in a similar situation and spared her, but that was that.
*
In any case, through Vito Marinelli and his daughter Felicia, we were able to grasp everything that had happened at the meeting.
“It’s fortunate they’re fighting among themselves.”
“Yeah. It would have been troublesome if they had all come at us at once.”
Since the Marinelli Family was cooperating with us, we only had to deal with four families. And those four were split into two pairs, each eager to kill the other.
“Elena.”
“...What?”
From Elena’s expression, it seemed she was thinking the same thing I was. There was no reason not to move as Sanchez hoped. While I discussed with my two wives how to respond to the Five Families’ meeting—
—in the western district of Hevilly, an entirely different kind of chaos was unfolding.
“Where is it?!”
“Right here!”
Police officers from the Organized Crime Task Force arrived at an office after receiving a report.
“...What the hell is all this?”
“Looks like Blue Eyes.”
The corpse of an orc with his mouth stuffed full of drugs.
“Goddammit! I know this bastard!”
The dead orc was one of Sanchez Family’s Caporegimes. The fact that his mouth was packed with Blue Eyes… This was clearly the work of the Carmen Family. An obvious provocation. It was most likely retaliation for what Sanchez had done to Carmen at today’s bosses’ meeting.
Of course, Sanchez didn’t sit still.
Bang—!
The door flew open violently, followed by a storm of gunfire. A group of thugs moved like an army in broad daylight, beginning their assault on Carmen Family strongholds. These weren’t secret bases used only by their men—civilians were openly present. But the Sanchez Family soldiers didn’t care in the slightest.
An attack on one side quickly led to an even larger counterattack.
“Guh!”
Carmen Family members overpowered the truck drivers transporting Sanchez Family goods and set the vehicles on fire. It was a warning that any move they made would be met with a heavy price.
Incidents like this erupted endlessly across the western district. The Russo Family was still observing from the sidelines, but the Dragovich Family had already joined the fray, supporting the Carmen Family.
In the midst of this turmoil, one man appeared directly at the Dragon Hill Hotel, headquarters of the Marinelli Family.
“Take me to your boss.”
It was none other than Mikhail Dragovich, Boss of the Dragovich Family, coming to meet his old friend.