Page 37 of Total Obsession

"Anything, boss," I said.

He nodded his head. "Let's first address your little fuck up and get that out of the way."

I stayed quiet.

"The rat's causing a lot of problems for us now over the pond. He should be dead."

"Yes, I know," I replied.

"So, why isn't he?"

I shook my head. "I can't explain it."

"Well, try."

I sighed. "I got distracted."

"That's not like you," he said, giving me an interesting look.

"I know," I replied. "Was just something from my past that turned up."

Johnny made a face like he understood. "Let me give you a little piece of advice: Guys like us, we don't have pasts. We don't even have futures. We have presents. That's it. Remember that, and you won't get distracted again."

I nodded my head in agreement. "I understand. Do you need me to get the whole thing cleaned up?"

Johnny shook his head. "No. I'm going to have it handled a different way. Nothing for you to do at the moment."

I really didn't like hearing that. It was a bit of a slight against me to have someone else take over one of my jobs. It had never happened before. Yet, there was no arguing with Johnny on this point.

"Okay," I acquiesced. "I understand."

"Good. I've got something else for you to handle in the meantime. Something that doesn't leave this room."

I nodded my head in agreement.

"As you know, I've got four sons," Johnny said. "All of them very different. Primo, my first, wants to continue the family business, but he wants to do it in a different way than how it's always been done. Constantino, my second, is true and loyal to me and understands why we run things the way we do. Giovanni, my third? He doesn't want anything to do with the business. In fact, I think he'd be happier to see it completely shut down. He has a number of legitimate businesses and his ties to the family put those at risk. And Teodoro, my last? Well, he's just happy to take the clean-up jobs when they come to him. He's not really interested in management."

I knew Johnny's sons fairly well. He listed them in order of birth, but they were each actually firstborns, all by different marriages. The line of succession would have been fairly easy, if Johnny had followed the normal rules. However, him and Primo, his true first born, never saw eye-t0-eye on how to run the business. Johnny always got along much better with Constantino, the second of his sons by birth. It was obvious to anyone close to Johnny that he was setting things up so that the business would go to Constantino. It made for an interesting dynamic among them and certainly caused some questions about who was the proper successor.

"So, what do you need me to do?" I asked, confused about why he was giving me the rundown on something I already knew. Johnny's sons and I all grew up together in a way. His boys didn't get as dirty as I did, well, except maybe Teddy, who always had a certain affinity for gore, but we all knew one another well.

"I'm sensing that with me gone, the boys' infighting has increased. That's not what we need right now considering the power vacuum that me being here has created."

"I'm not really sure what I can do about that," I replied honestly. I wouldn't call them spoiled necessarily . . . Well, that wasn't true. I would call them spoiled, each in their own way. Trying to get any of them to change their mind on anything was a difficult task.

"I'm about to tell you what you can do," Johnny said, giving me the cue that I should just shut up and listen. "Let's start with our most difficult problem: Primo."

"He's pretty much already running the family at this point," I said.

Johnny nodded his head. "I know, but he's doing what I told him not to do. He's trying to take things in a 'new' direction, branch out, work with other families, like the Irish and the Russians," Johnny said, his disgust clear on his face. "The fact that he can't see how this will cause problems for us down the road tells me that he shouldn't be leading."

"So, what then?" I was almost afraid to ask.

Johnny leaned in close to me as if he didn't want even the walls around us to hear. "You're going to disrupt his plans and give him something else to deal with. I want you to carry out a hit on another boss. Make it a family Primo's trying to court. The Irish, the Russians, the Israelis. I don't care who, you pick. Just make it someone with sufficient power and make it clear that the order came from Primo."

I kept my features calm even though internally my heart was racing. Was Johnny really asking me to frame his firstborn son for a hit?

"You understand that puts him in a lot of danger, yes?"