I sat on my desk, playing with the ice in the glass in my hands. I waited for silence to be able to throw them the news. The boys were getting into the room, chatting and laughing together as I organized my words to know exactly what I was going to say.
"Let's ask Ace," Joe's voice caught my attention. I looked up at him. "Why is Elio here?"
I nodded.
"I will explain everything," I calmly said, placed my glass on my desk and got up. "As you all know, we were playing our little game to know who was betraying us for Fox's benefit. We found out it was Elio and I thought–"
"It would be a good idea to make someone who betrayed us and who is helping our enemy to sleep in the same house as us? How brilliant!" Romeo growled. I sighed and tried to have as much patience as it would take them to understand.
"If I kill Elio, then we don't get forward. I will use him to get us closer to Fox."
"Ace, are you considering him killing one of us at night?" Romeo walked closer to me.
"Romeo!"
"No, don't. You make decisions on your own and expect us to follow and obey your orders,"
"I am doing everything for the good of this house." I stayed calm.
"No! You're doing things that could kill us all."
"If you're so scared lock your door at night, Romeo," I smirked.
He stared at me then scoffed. He shook his head then said "you're so arrogant." I raised my eyebrows. "You think you're a strong man who someone like Elio won't have the guts to kill you. Right?"
"He's not going to do anything Romeo," I shut my eyes.
"Because you know everything, right?"
I nodded, "I do," I smiled and sat down. "And that just opened the door to finally talk about something more important than this nonsense. So let me tell you why we are having this meeting after all." I took a seat back in my chair. "I got a call," I started, "I know you all know the following information but I still need you to listen attentively." I took a pause, "As we all know, I was always Frank's right hand. And as we also know, he died recently and unexpectedly so we weren't able to assign anyone to be boss in his place because we were never sure who Frank actually picked. As expected though, his right hand takes control until a new person is assigned by the head."
I looked around at the faces that were emotionless and the unblinking eyes, knowing exactly how they will take the new sentences. I was also prepared for what to do.
"Now," I stood up, "the call I got was from the head, obviously. And he told me who is assigned in Frank's place."
"Hold up," as expected, the first voice that wanted to be a part of this conversation stopped me, "are you telling us you're taking Frank's place?" Romeo called out.
I rolled my eyes at his impatience but it was helping me out. I took a deep breath and looked him straight in his eyes, "did you expect someone else, Romeo?" I tilted my head.
"Why do you think we agree you rule over us?."
"Romeo," I shut my eyes and tried to control the adrenaline that was rising up.
"..."
"Romeo," I raised my voice.
"I don't see fucking Frank around to have his right hand rule–"
I stood up and slammed both of my hands on the desk. I looked dead into the eyes, challenging up. Mentioning Frank was where I drew my red line and the least he could do is respect the dead. I shut my mouth and tried to control my tongue before if anything comes out of my mouth at that moment, it would end up with him on the floor.
"When you talk to your boss, you talk with respect," I calmly watched him trying to catch his breath.
"Or what Ace?"
"Trust me, Romeo, you don't want to know."
He stormed out of the room and shut the door behind him. Silence filled the room as I sat back in my chair trying to recover from the idiotic scene that I had encountered.
I took a deep breath and closed my eyes for a few seconds before carrying on. "To continue, I will be ruling over The Franks just like Capo told me. If you have problems with that you can go complain but from now on, what I say is non-negotiable. Is that clear?"
"Yes," said Joe.
"Yes boss," said Niko
"Yes," said Luka.
I gave them a single nod. "That will be it."
They all turned to get out of the office before I interrupted them, "if Romeo is willing to have a man to man conversation, tell him to come to my office, if not, I give him until tomorrow afternoon to be out of the house him and everything he owns."
They were all speechless at my reaction. I might be acting rough with them, but being a boss of a gang wasn't something light to deal with. And it wasn't also something I was used to or even tried before. I was thrown into taking into hand everything after Frank and I had to show that I was able to do it.
They all left the room and before they close the door I saw Talia standing right in front of it. She held the door open for a few seconds and looked at me. Then she walked in and closed the door behind her.
"Is there something wrong?" I asked.
"You didn't have to do all of this to Romeo, Ace, he didn't say anything wrong to you."
I sighed. She walked closer to the desk and took the opposite seat from me.
"I know you have a huge load and now you are stressing, and that is fine but–"
"I am not stressing–"
"I know you won't admit it but–"
"No, Talia!" I warned her, catching her attention, "if I let it go this time and allow him to speak badly of me and Frank, I will never be able to be the boss. He didn't disrespect me but he spoke with a raised tone and didn't wisely pick his words. That cannot be tolerated here."
She knew that no matter what she told me, nothing will change my mind. She simply nodded and looked down at her hand.
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