Pretending to Be an Untouchable Crime Boss

Dani grabbed the paper and with a pen he started to circle numbers all around it.

"Basically we are losing too much money… well not losing but we're giving out too much for useless things…"

"Useless?" James asked back because he could think of one thing that was useless.

Dani looked at Hector because he at least understood those numbers but he said nothing. "Look… boss."

"Just James, Dani, we know each other." He said it in a tone that just sent a chill in everybody. He was stressed, he didn't want it to be a threat, but a useless thing? What useless thing do they spend money on? He could think of one thing… or maybe somebody stole even more money… or what. "Say it."

Dani was now a little worried to actually say it, but he needed to, so he pointed his pen at one exact number. "This is the funerals and pensions that's going toward the fallen soldiers' and workers' families… it's just too much and outrageous, James," he said hesitantly, but dared not look up at James. Yet he felt it, that James himself was staring at him, waiting for him to look up to meet his eyes.

"Outrageous?" He asked back, but now Dani knew very well that he needed to go through with it and looked up into those empty eyes, that darkness that just wanted to devour him.

"It… it's outrageous, James… 1 million per family at least who have families that are 56… 56 million goes to something that doesn't benefit us… not just that, the funerals costs 10 thousand which also means another million dollars, and if we… the family continues to do this, the money is going to run out."

"But only those getting it who were with us since the beginning." James said as he stared now down at the paper.

"Yes, but still it's too much, a million dollars, it's just crazy, James. Nobody does it and if it goes like this, who knows how many are going to die… not just that the—"

James tapped his finger so loud on the table that Dani immediately stopped talking and looked down on the table, but not just him, this time Hector and Sophia too felt something… strange, something bad.

"We only give 1 million to those who have been with us since the beginning… that is how many people?" He asked, still the same emotionless tone. "80? Maybe 120 people?"

Silence. Nobody spoke a word, even their breaths were as silent as they just could control it, but shit, all of them felt it… Dani just hit the sweet spot of James.

He is for the people, especially for those who stayed all the 2 years with them, since then, when he could give them nothing, not even a salary, they stayed and worked as a guard, as a warehouse worker, or a transporter, a driver… they stayed when he didn't even pay at the beginning, nothing. They stayed when they knew they were getting nothing and their life could be taken away.

They still stayed because they saw something in James in that boy who didn't know shit about this life.

"1 million is too much for a life?' He asked again, and Dani was just staring down, already sweating like hell… but he ended up not answering, but what?

Yes, it is too much, or is it just a dumb thing to do, giving out a million if they die? He was sitting, panicked, not sure what his answer should be. Apologize or stand by it, but before he could even ask something, James asked another question.

"If we started again with the White Magic production with the Greenweed, how much money would that bring in a month?'

Easy question, especially for Dani, he is the counter, the accountant. He knew exactly what the numbers were, and knew exactly that they were the only ones who could rule the whole market not juts in the country but even the continent… which meant a lot of money.

Yeah, he just added more fuel to the argument. He fucked up.

"How much per month?" James asked again, now leaning back on his chair, still staring at Dani, who now looked up slowly, his eyes full of fear as he sweated more and more. Even his legs and hands started to shake.

"Billions."

"Per week?" James asked again.

"Hundreds… of millions."

"Per day?"

'T-tens of millions."

Silence again, but now it was silence on James's side too, because he just realized he's not rich… but more than that, especially if they really started doing all of that.

"And 1 million dollars is too much for a life?" He asked again.

"It is, James… because the operation isn't going, and we need weapons, ammunition, we need everything, even people. We need to pay them. We need to pay our connections and in the meantime set up everything."

"Are you dumb, Dani?" A straight question.

'...What…?' He asked, as he made the mistake of looking into James's eye again and he couldn't look away, because it would mean disrespect. It would even question his loyalty. So he just stared into James's eyes, those hollow, empty eyes.

"Silas, Isabella, Marco, they all died. What do you think happened to their money, property, warehouses, routes and all their properties? Where is it going?" He smiled at him. "We're working with the government."

"...what… did you say…?" He asked and looked to Hector, then Finn, and back to James… because he had no fucking idea.

He didn't just have no fucking idea about all of this, but he actually tried to fucking save the money.

All of it.

Because he thought the government was finally stepping in and fucking up everybody… He'd been counting the money since the whole robbery happened. He was literally doing the utmost to save the money or hide it somehow… that's exactly why he was stressed as fuck about the money, because he wasn't informed and thought the opposite, that they were getting fucked.

Yeah... nobody informed the man who has all of the money in the family… well, now he knows.