America 1919

At this point, Donnie picked up the glass in front of him and smiled, "Here, I toast to the four of you becoming big stars in Hollywood someday!"
Experience tales at empire

Jessica Dole and the others lifted their glasses and sincerely expressed their gratitude to Donnie.

.

The clatter of the train continued, but this time without the company of Jessica Dole and the four beauties. Nonetheless, Donnie didn't neglect himself, bringing along a Hollywood actress for his return to Atlantic City.

This actress's journey earned her a paycheck of 500 US dollars.

Besides this actress, there were actually five other people on the train, though they did not stay in Donnie's private compartment but took regular seats instead.

They were only entitled to visit Donnie's compartment when he summoned them.

These five were none other than Max's group, the instigators behind the incident at Universal Studios.

Although Carl Lemore and others had no way to hold Donnie accountable for that affair, they were still investigating it. To ensure everything remained as reported in the newspapers, Donnie had decided to bring Max and the others back to Atlantic City to lay low for a few months.

After a few months, when the furor had died down, they would naturally be able to return to Los Angeles!

After the journey of more than two days, Donnie and his entourage finally arrived in Atlantic City.

Steve Cotting had already driven the car into the train station and immediately came up to greet Donnie with joy when he saw him!

"Is there anything going on in Atlantic City?"

Donnie asked directly.

"Indeed, there is something," Steve Cotting replied, taking Donnie's luggage from Max's hands and opening the car door for Donnie.

"Right, did you arrange the place for them as I asked you to?"

Donnie stood at the car door, looking at Max's group, and asked Steve Cotting.

On his way back, Donnie had already called Steve Cotting to arrange a place for Max and the others!

Steve Cotting said, "It's all arranged, in the Fifth District of West District!"

Donnie said, "Just have Chris take them over!"

Chris's truck was just behind the car driven by Steve Cotting!

"Sure!"

Chris nodded.

"Let's go to the tavern," Donnie said to Steve Cotting after getting into the car.

On the way, Donnie asked, "What's been happening in Atlantic City?"

Steve Cotting said, "The Family Alliance has already convened, and at this time, all the big-city gang leaders from across the country have also gradually arrived in Atlantic City..."

Donnie didn't let Steve Cotting finish before he understood the situation. With so many leaders gathered in one city, conflicts were bound to occur among these figures who were unchallenged in their own territories.

What Steve Cotting said next actually confirmed Donnie's guess.

Jealousy, competitiveness, and outbursts of foul language over disagreements frequently occurred in Atlantic City during this period.

Just this morning, Johnny 'Big Daddy' Torrio of Chicago and Joseph from Los Angeles had a verbal altercation on the street, which nearly escalated into a gunfight – over nothing more than which of their cars should proceed first after both cars came head to head!

Joseph had arrived in Atlantic City two days ahead of Donnie.

"Nucky has been mediating these issues every day now; I think he has lost his former glory!" Steve Cotting finally said.

Donnie didn't care about Nucky, certain that in the end, he would resolve everything.

"How's John? Did he have any conflicts with these people?"

Steve Cotting was somewhat silent, from which Donnie already knew the answer.

Under Donnie's gaze, Steve Cotting reluctantly said, "John had a bit of a spat with Mordaliz from Cleveland, but it didn't escalate to gunfire!"

"Why?"

Donnie asked.

"Dalitz thinks we're asking for too high a profit on the bootleg liquor business, so he wanted to renegotiate the profit split. However, the man is arrogant, so he and John ended up arguing!"

Cleveland, situated in Ohio, an inland city, relies on coastal cities to import high-quality foreign bootleg liquor. The low to mid-grade liquor they produce themselves, coupled with the fact that Cleveland is in the northeastern United States, makes transporting raw materials for liquor production difficult, hence even their own low to mid-grade liquor has a high cost.

It's for these reasons that Cleveland has seen several cases of deaths caused by inferior bootleg liquor recently!

After discussing this issue, Steve Cotting brought up some other matters to Donnie.

For instance, "Atlantic City Post" had firmly established itself in cities like New Jersey, Philadelphia, and New York.

However, with the end of the Miss America pageant, "Atlantic City Post" was only the best-selling newspaper in Atlantic City, with sales in New Jersey, Philadelphia, and New York being only moderate to low.

"That's as far as Robinson's abilities go!" Donnie said with some resignation, as he had previously thought that Robinson's skills could at most support the sales of a city newspaper, and now that the scope of the territory had expanded, Robinson's limitations were becoming apparent!