“They wanted to know what we did for Joe, I said we collected rent,” I told him.
He nodded. “Think this might be a regular thing?”
“Probably, now I’m starving, let’s go find something to eat,” I said as we headed off.
It was a couple of days later that Mack pulled me to one side.
“Joey is in the hospital, you know anything about that?” he asked.
I told him what had happened, how the lorry had not arrived and the envelope that should have been full of money was full of cocaine, how I’d hid it but carried on to the warehouse. I told him about the four men, what I had done to two of them, what they had done to Travis and how I had let one go because, to live a life of fear was worse than dying. He would have known some of this, he would have been the one to organise a clean up. I also told him about the tug from the cops. The fact that the cops had let us leave without too much trouble was something to think about. They could have kept us there for longer, they could have trumped up some charges that would later get dropped but would inconvenience us, something didn’t add up.
He nodded, “Joe needs to know, Rob.”
“Not yet, Mack. Wait a bit, let’s see what Joey does next, but tell him about the cops. They were asking about his activities,” I replied.
Joe was still occupied for the next couple of weeks with Joey, leaving me and Travis with the guys. We moved around the business as we had before but this time I wanted a say and to my surprise, it was welcomed.
“Jon, don’t you want this all legit? We could make a lot more money if it was,” I asked Jonathan one day.
“Well, Joe is getting older, he has talked about taking a bit of a back seat for a while. To be honest it might be good to not have to keep looking over our shoulder all the time.”
What had happened to Travis and I had unnerved them. They had all seen their fair share of violence, especially Mack, over the years but now they had families, children and it was time to settle down. A plan was hatched. I would study each business and present to Joe how it could be made legal, better, more profitable and how he could filter his money into legitimate business.
****
A little over a month later Joey made his first visit to the office, he took a seat outside while I was sitting with Joe and the guys going through plans, first the construction side. This was easy, Joe already had a building company, all it meant was for all monies to go through the books, every purchase to be accounted for and proper building applications submitted. I explained how much easier it would make life. With Jonathan’s help, we explained about the tax benefits. The properties Joe already owned were okay, what they needed was proper supervision. If we got the repairs done and redecorate, we could attract a better tenant and higher rents.
The loan business could be licensed but it caused more hassle than was worth it really, I suggested that we let it go. The cigarettes and booze, well, that was just plain hijacking and there was not much that could be made legal about that.
The drugs were another thing I wanted out of. I knew that Joey was dealing, cocaine and heroin, I also knew that Joe would not be happy about that. If the police were starting to nose around, they could mistake this for his activities. Now was the time to cut Joey loose.
“Joe, you know that night?” I said, I didn’t have to say more, he knew exactly what I was talking about
“Yeah, Mack is still looking into that,” he replied.
“Well, there’s no need. I know who set us up and I’ve dealt with him. He’ll walk around with a permanent reminder not to fuck with me,” I said, referring to the scar left on Joey’s face.
He looked at me, his features hard and I could see a pulse pounding in his temple. The room stilled as his face showed that he had understood what I was saying.
“That prick Joey did it, didn’t he? That fucker set you up and for what? Have I not treated him well, not treated you all the same? He does that to his brother?” he shouted.
It was obvious the pain he was in, his own flesh and blood had arranged for his adopted sons to be hurt, to be killed.
“Joey, get the fuck in here,” he shouted.
A very timid Joey entered the office, his eyes darting from me to his father. Joe jumped up from behind his desk and paced to where Joey stood, his face puce with anger. Joe seemed to struggle for breath and sweat beaded on his forehead. I stood, walked over and placed my hand on his shoulder, he was getting too old for all this shit. His heart was not good and as much as he needed to know what Joey had done, I didn’t want him to be that stressed.
He looked up at me. I towered over him and for the first time I really saw him, a tired old man albeit only in his sixties. He’d had a hard life and it showed, now it was time for him to sit back a little, enjoy the rest of his life. There were many people out on the streets wanting a piece of his action, a lot younger and willing to shoot for it. The world was changing, the old school attitude would not keep Joe from losing what he had, there was little respect anymore.
“Joey, what you did was wrong and for what, jealousy? You can’t be trusted. You skim money off every collection you make, you’re stealing from your own father. And did you know that crack you sold to Macy’s kid, he died, Joey,” I said standing side by side with Joe.
The room quietened, the guys watched and Joe stared at me. Macy was a woman who lived nearby, she regularly asked to borrow a bit of money, to tie her over until her next pay check. She was a decent woman trapped in a shit life with a drug addict for a son. A now dead son. Joe wasn’t aware of what had happened, it was something we had kept from him until we were sure Joey was his dealer.
“This is what’s going to happen, Joey. You’re going to leave, you’re no good to us. You want the drugs, you take it but you will not peddle your shit on our streets. You get on with your life doing whatever the fuck you want but if you so much as breathe a word about what you know, what has gone on here, I will fucking bury you,” I told him, my voice quiet and menacing.
“Do you agree with this?” Joey shouted at his father. “Are you going to stand by and let him do this, take what should be mine? Listen to him “our streets”. Since when has he been in charge, huh?”
He turned to look at Jonathan. “You’re the Consigliere, do your fucking job and advise dad. This is bullshit.”
“I work for your father, Joey, not you. And Joe, Rob is right, you need to cut him loose,” Jonathan replied.
Joey was starting to panic, it was clear he would never receive the support nor the respect he thought he had.
“We can earn money, dad, lots of it, people want the drugs. You get them addicted, they have to come back for more. You’re letting him take this away from us and if you do that, you’re a spineless prick.”
I took a step closer, I would not tolerate him disrespecting his father that way. He had the life he had because of him. He never had to really work. He had a new car every year, new clothes, money in his pocket because of what his father did. More importantly, he had neither the brains nor the capacity to take over. Joe and every person in that room, that day, knew it.
“Dad, you don’t want this, you guys don’t want him running the family, do you?” Joey asked, looking around the room.
No one answered him.
“Joey, my son. You are my flesh and blood and I love you but, as Robert has said, you are a liability. I know what you do and it pains me, here,” Joe said, pointing to his heart.
“It pains me, Joey, that you think I am fucking stupid, blind and without ears. That shit you sell kills, Joey, it kills.” Joe was shouting.
“And you haven’t,” Joey shouted back.
“I haven’t what?” Joe replied, confused.
“You’re not a saint, dad, you brought me up in this fucking life, you’ve killed, I know you have.”
“I have never killed anyone, and I did wrong. I should have kept you out, like your sisters,” Joe replied, a sadness creeping into his voice.
“Oh
, Saint Evelyn and the nutter, Maria. Yeah, you did good dad, real good. And what about my mother, huh? Did you make her life so shit that it killed her?” Joey spat the words.
“Don’t you dare mention your mother, the cancer killed her,” Joe shouted.
Joe took a step closer, his body shaking, I guessed with anger. I placed my arm across his shoulder, halting his advance and closed the gap myself.
“You are dangerously close to seeing just how angry I can get. Your father loved your mother, she died from an illness,” I said.
“What the fuck would you know, huh? You think you are his son, you’re nothing but a fucking street kid. You should be kissing his feet he took you and that prick in.”
From the corner of my eye I watched Travis move so fast, closing the gap between him and Joey. Thankfully Mack was there to block his way.
“Not here, not now,” Mack said.
“If you want to take me on, take Travis on, you are heading the right way. As you already know, that’s something you need to think real hard about,” I said.
He pointed, jabbing his finger at me. “You won’t get away with this,” he shouted, without a huge amount of conviction.
“I just did. Remember what I said that night, Joey. Now fuck off out of my sight before I change my mind and bury you now,” I said, my eyes dead of any emotion.
He turned and walked away, slamming the door so hard, the windows rattled in their frames. The only sound was a release of breath from Joe who seemed to have aged yet another ten years in that moment. I led him by the arm back to his desk, gestured with my hand for him to take his seat so we could carry on before we were interrupted. He stopped mid way, looking at that chair he had sat in, at that desk, for the past forty years. He stared up at me, his eyes full of unshed tears and shook his head, a sad smile crossed his lips.
“Rob, you sit, you have the respect of everyone here, me included. I trust you to deal with this, I think it’s time for me to take a back seat. I’m tired,” he said sadly and he walked out of that office, sealing my fate.
I looked from one guy to the next, I wanted confirmation that they were with me on this. They too were getting on, in their forties, they had all led a life of looking over their shoulders and most had families to protect. I wanted for us all to have a better future, a more secure, safer one.
Each in turn nodded their agreement, Paul a little more hesitantly than the others, but he was good at what he did, I didn’t want to have to go into battle with him. I had learnt enough over the past couple of years to understand exactly what each did, their strengths and weaknesses and I wanted them to be part of what I thought was the future for us all.
“So, here’s what we’re going to do,” I said, taking my place at the desk.
To celebrate, Travis and I took ourselves off to a tattoo parlour. I knew exactly what I wanted, something I had drawn a long time ago, something that was significant to me and especially at that time of my life.
An angel, not just any angel but a fallen one. An angel rejected by God because she had chosen to sin. I had spent from the age of eleven choosing to sin. I always knew exactly what I was doing and for a long time I enjoyed it. Only now did I want a different way of life.
Chapter Four
It took a couple of years to really lose the crap and turn around the rest. We formed various companies, we paid as little tax as we could legally get away with and we made money, lots of it. Once a week I sat down with Joe and told him what we were doing, it was important to me that he was in the loop. In the meantime, he enjoyed his semi retirement. Evelyn was grateful to us, we had finally got the old man to relax a little, to potter around his garden and enjoy his wealth.
It didn’t come without problems. We had a couple of new gangs on the street trying to muscle in before we were ready. Travis and I still got into the occasional fight, settling some dispute or other, showing who was still in charge.
We spent the first year updating the apartments, redecorating and with a little coercion, removed the low rent tenants and replaced them with better ones. The only one I was a little sad to see go was old Mrs Wren and her cats. We made sure we found somewhere for her to live. Not too far from the apartments was a low rise block where the residents were mainly elderly and were able to keep an eye out on her. She had a small back yard, somewhere for her cats to roam.
We saw nothing of Joey but we kept track of him for a while. He had decided selling drugs was going to make his fortune, but he was one man, no back up against some serious competition. I was often approached by one dealer or another and kept informed of what he was doing. They did this because I was still someone to be respected. I allowed them on my streets to sell their shit. It went against what I believed, but I could control who and what went on. People would always want drugs, we were in a low income environment and no matter whether their kids went hungry, the people living there still had money for drugs.
We had not lost everything we did, there was still the odd personal debt to collect but I wasn’t involved on a street level anymore. I had grown up a lot in the past couple of years. A powerful man I was always told, although still only early twenties. At twenty-two I earned my first million dollars with many more to follow over the next ten years. That first million was a huge milestone in my life. I was no longer hungry, no longer poor, I wore the best clothes, owned the best cars and now I wanted somewhere to live. It was time to move out of Joe’s, to leave the comfort of the only real home I’d ever known.
****
Although we kept the small office, a reminder of where we started, a development opportunity come up and we moved. It was to be a purpose built complex in the heart of DC and I had the top floor converted to an apartment, three bedrooms where Travis and I would live. Evelyn came and looked after the place for us. To start, we rented out most of the floors in the office block but as each section of the company grew we took them back, for staff. We decided that we would start an umbrella company, bring everything under one roof. Vassago Corporation was formed and Joe finally retired completely. He handed over most of the companies to me. The ones I didn’t want, I let go and others I paid a small price for. Joe understood that the money he had accumulated over the past few years was because of the work I had put in, and as much as I earned very well, he only wanted a small price.
“Why Vassago?” Joe asked me one day.
We were sitting side by side in his summer room drinking espresso. I smiled, it was my little secret but I would share it with him.
“Vassago was a fallen angel, Joe, but one with a good heart. He’s the discoverer of the lost and hidden,” I said.
For the first time ever, he pulled me in to a hug.
“Rob, you have lived the life you’ve had to. You have done well and there are many people indebted to you. You have made their lives rich and I don’t mean just with money. You are a good person, it’s time to believe that. Vassago,” he said with a laugh. “I like it. You, Rob, are the discoverer of the lost and hidden.”
It took me many years to fully understand what he meant.
Vassago owned stores it rented out, a hotel, a couple of bars, a restaurant, five tenant blocks, a construction company and a realtor. Property worth millions. Managing this was easy. I placed each of the guys in charge of one section and gave them shares in Vassago as a thank you for their loyalty to Joe and I.
Each division had one or two floors, depending on the level of staff. Paul heading construction, Richard had properties, Jonathan headed his team of admin, accountants and marketing. Mack and Travis dealt with security, we were still aware of our enemies, some from the past and no doubt we would acquire some new, legitimate ones.
The first real argument I had with Travis was over the business. I wanted him to have a share, to be part of it, but he was and still is a street kid at heart. He knew he would be no good sitting in an office all day but what he was good at was his quick thinking, his ability to detect trouble and he was the ultimate gadget m
an. There wasn’t a computer around he couldn’t hack into. I left him with Mack, they worked well as a team but I always had him by my side, he was the one who had always driven and this continued. We were brothers, inseparable by a bond that had formed many years ago.
“Trav, I want you to be part of this company,” I had told him.
“Rob, I don’t want it. Listen, I still have family, one sniff of a bit of money and who knows what will crawl out of the woodwork. I earn well, you’ve looked after me and what the fuck do I know about running a business.”
“That’s not the point. No one can take away what you earn, whoever they are. You deserve this. You’ve been here the whole time, you’ve got your hands dirty over the years, now it’s time to share in it.”
“No, you know me. I’d be bored shitless I gotta start working for a living,” he laughed.
The problem with Travis was that he’d had no education really. Sure he could read and write, but he was more a man of action. No matter what, I would make sure he got his share whether he wanted it or not. I set up a bank account in his name and he would earn well, whatever profit share I was entitled to, I split with him. I had enough money to last me my lifetime.
****
One of the other events that had a great affect on my life was Evelyn. She had been dating Carlo for a while, someone Joe liked. I had met the guy quite a few times, there was something about him I didn’t like but I would not voice my opinion. She had cared for her father, Joey and her sister, Maria, who had been sick for so many years now. She cared for Travis and I, and now it was time for her to think about herself.
She still fussed over us, still fed us and spent her whole time trying to create as normal a life for us as was possible. She was oblivious to a lot that went on and I wanted it that way. I loved, in my own way, three people only, Travis, her and Joe. They were the only people I was able to have a connection with, the only people able to affect me. So when Carlo proposed, I was pleased for her. I knew, however, that he didn’t like how she was with Travis and I. It was not jealousy, we were her brothers, but he didn’t like the connection the three of us had, the bond we shared that he could not be part of, could not break. He understood, but didn’t like that he would always share her with us. He hated that we had developed this silent communication between us, an understanding of each other he would never get.
Robert (Fallen Angel Series Book 1) Page 11
