“Ho-lee shit,” smirked Gaspar. “Aren’t you assholes a sight for sore eyes?” The two men walked around, hugging the Gray Wolf team, kissing their wives and especially Mama Irene.
“Everyone, this is James Scarlutti III and Seamus Laughlin. Their grandfathers were old friends of ours,” said Nine. “You bastards look good.”
“Same to you, old man,” laughed James. After his grandmother died, his grandfather, James, married a much younger woman, giving birth to his father. It was all the more reason for James to ensure that his legacy was a good one, a legal one.
Seamus’s grandfather, Conor, was still alive and keeping business moving in Ireland. But they’d learned a long time ago, thanks to the Gray Wolf men, to pool their resources.
“I don’t understand,” said Ellen. “How can you help?”
“Well, ma’am,” said James, “it’s a rather long story, but our fathers were once the heads of very powerful families. Now, we’re heads of those families. But we ensure that our businesses are honest businesses, and we fight those that feel it’s their right to do otherwise.”
There was still confusion on the faces of the men and women standing around them.
“You said you knew the answer to what’s happening in our neighborhood,” said Annie. “So, what is it?”
“It’s a bit of a story, so stick with us,” smiled Seamus. “The Rizzolis dip their fingers into anything and everything illegal. They don’t care what it is. Drugs, women, alcohol, gambling, all of it. Two years ago, there was a casino being built in Minnesota on tribal land. The tribe had every right to build it there, and they were doing an amazing job of it.
“Suddenly, things started going wrong. Shipments of materials weren’t arriving. Fires were occurring all over the property. Locals were being harassed, beaten, even killed. No matter who they complained to, nothing was getting done.”
“Then the Rizzolis showed up,” said James. “Claimed that they could get it all built, up and running, within three months. They were desperate, running out of funds, and said yes.”
“Fuck,” muttered Nine. James nodded.
“We’ve never seen the agreements that were signed, but somehow, they gained control of the casino and the land that it’s on. The tribe gets none of the profits. But it’s not just on Indian land. They’ve built casinos on church properties, tribal properties, you name it. They don’t care.”
“Why casinos? You can build them legally anywhere nowadays,” said Ghost.
“It’s a place for them to run drugs, women, counterfeit cash, just about anything. If they run it, they control it. No one gets insight into how things are done unless you’re part of the family, and to become part of the family, you have to either marry into it or perform a trust act.”
“A trust act?” frowned Trak.
“Shit!”
“Damn!”
“You asshole!” Trak smirked at his teammates, then at the two younger men who had paled, holding their chests.
“Jesus, I should have known to ask right away if you were still alive,” said Seamus.
“Very much alive,” smiled Trak. “What trust act?”
“Murder. Rape. Theft. It’s very old school with these guys. We’ve been after them for a while now because we had someone show up on our doorstep with his left hand gone. He was supposed to rob a bank and couldn’t do it. He told them why. There were only women in the bank and two were pregnant. They said they didn’t give a shit and chopped his hand off.”
“No,” said Marion. “No, this is too much. This is too much for all of you. Just help us to find work and get back on our feet. We can’t fight that, and neither can you.”
“We can, and we will fight it,” said Ghost. “This is what we do. People like the Rizzoli family think they’re above the law because they’ve bought the law. We can combat that in our own way. Right now, we have a team of men guarding the remaining homes in your subdivision.”
“What?” gasped the crowd.
“Their mortgages have been paid off, which means that Rizzoli has no recourse. He can’t touch their properties unless he forces them to sell, which we won’t allow to happen unless they want it to happen.”
“These men, they sound like the kind of men that won’t accept ‘no’ as an answer,” said Greta. “You can’t possibly risk your lives for us.”
“Do you want your homes back?” asked Nine.
“Of course we do. We’d have to rebuild, and I don’t know how we do that, but of course we do!”
“We’ll worry about rebuilding later,” said Nine. “Right now, we want to get the rest of those lots back. I’m going to bet that we can find a way to do that and really piss off the Rizzolis.”
