Mr. Alvarez's last statement ended with him stroking his chin with a complex expression but I waved him over before he tried to do something stupid.
"Hey, the plan is to try and work with them. If you stir shit now while everything's going swimmingly with the de Leon Family and that group, I won't—"
He scoffed, "Won't what? Who do you think you are?"
For the first time in this meeting, Mr. Alvarez felt like a stranger, and even if we did have a short moment from talking shop, he was still a person that held a lot of power. He might be buddy-buddy with me for a short bit, but I still don't know the guy fully.
At this point, the atmosphere was getting a little heavy but I need to hold my ground.
"I'm the person who put you down, bitch. And if you want to return the fucking favor, wise up and think for once. You say you have a fortress but guess what? They have one too. Nigh impregnable too, according to the person you're trying to get killed—"
Mr. Alvarez completely ignored my provocations, "Whoa! Whoa! I'm not trying to get him killed—"
"Who do you think they're gonna come after if something ever happened to them? They're not fucking stupid. They'll piece it all together and they'll be like animals in heat once they found a new challenger. The random shamblers on the streets wouldn't be as exciting to them."
"So, you're saying we're gonna lose?"
I shook my head in derision, "Both sides will but as previously stated, aren't you all losing people on a regular basis? Is going to war with the government the solution? You know, to stop them from killing themselves? Or... since they're gonna die anyway, are you gonna use suicide tactics to cause massive amounts of damage? Is that it? The last hurrah or some shit?"
"..."
"If you're that desperate for food that you have to attack someplace that could easily send several tanks and attack helicopters your way, why don't you have someone in your fold take Sal's hand or you could do that yourself—"
"PUUUUUUU!!!"
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!"
"I HAVE A FUCKING WIFE!"
"Should we tell him?"
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! I'M DEAD!"
"Fuck, that's the most amazing thing that came out of you, holy fucking shit..."
"Yep, we're all gonna die today..."
"I'm... I'm gonna stay away from this one..."
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!"
I've never been so confused, "Is there... Is there something I said?"
"What do you mean by that?!"
"There's only so much I could do and I'm always busy so having another capable woman at the shop will do us wonders."
"Hey! I'm—"
"What? Half the time you spend on managing is fixing the mistakes that should not have been there in the first place! Dave handles some of the shit back home but everyone else keeps fucking it up. It still amazes me how we survived until now. I was about to start another chapter by myself if things continued as is."
"Stop with the jokes, you're not leaving even if I force you out."
"Heh, true. Anyway, are we done here? There's too much talking and I can only handle a little bit more," Quinn said as she turned to Mr. Cuervo.
"Then a little bit more," Mr. Cuervo replied with a smile.
After that, more topics were brought up but they were mostly concerns that were easily solved by common sense or with the help of the other family. And surprisingly enough, aside from the casual mention of drugs and some other illegal shit like prostitution or straight-up bloody murder, their organization functions like any other organization in the "legal" world.
Everyone needed the basic stuff to live and some other things though it would've been wildly different if it wasn't the end of the world.
Right now, everyone else was more focused on surviving, and somehow, cooperating with their long-term archnemesis didn't sound like a god-awful plan. And yeah, trying to live with these people didn't sound too bad either.
The original plan was to wipe half of the families in question and take care of the dregs later—because the head of the snake was more important—but like the substance that Sal peddled to each of us earlier, it all boiled down to how you use a certain substance in order for it to do good or bad.
That statement would've made my parents turn in their graves but I've already done a lot of things that would've prompted the same reaction.
I've killed and tortured people, turned away from the 'creator', and much, much worse. In short, my ledger was as bloody as it could get but it was done to achieve certain results that didn't betray myself completely.
Yes, psychedelics were the root cause of my parents' demise and I would've achieved complete vengeance after putting a bullet in each head of the people in this place but somehow, I felt that I should do something else entirely. It sounded cringe but for a higher cause, I could place the thought of vengeance in the deepest part of my head and only bring it back if I was wrong.
It sounded conceited and stupid but I could always raze this place to the ground—and each of their territories if I wanted to, but I wanted to see if my dream of everyone getting along could work now that we all share a common goal.
With that said, it didn't take long before the meeting was adjourned but Mr. Cuervo waved me over and handed me a set of keys and another keycard with the familiar dragon crest that was on the keycard Cynthia gave me.
At this point, everyone else had already left and only the two of us were in the meeting room.
"What are these for?"
"It's for the third house to the left of my mansion. You have your personalized floors here but you gotta have a house, your family's house. And yeah, you're gonna be busy today."
"Hmm? Why?"
Then Mr. Cuervo pulled out a live feed from the house he just gave to me, "See all those people lining outside? There are still some people that want to join your family even though you turned all of them away. Hear them out, you might find a few diamonds among the rough. Trust me, they'll line up on that spot all week if you don't see what they have to offer."
"I see—"
"Right, before I forget... I should return these..." Mr. Cuervo said as he placed the detonators for the plastic explosives that were mounted on the viewing platforms for the Castillo, Alvarez, and the Garcia Family.