Reese POV:
Pria, Nico and I sat side by side on one of the couches in my dad's office. We were waiting for him to show up and explain the reasoning behind his call.
My dad's home office was huge. Since we were on the third floor, his left wall was all windows overlooking our 200 acre property. His desk sat in the upper middle section of the room with two seats in front of it and his large black chair that practically looked like a throne sitting behind it. Multiple couches surrounding a table were positioned to the right of the entrance, and to the left of the entrance lay a twenty person conference table. The whole room was covered with a mix of browns and blacks, a modern but traditional design. His large wall on the right was my favourite part of the whole room.
He had every single one of my diplomas and business achievements framed and hung on the wall.
I would always catch him wiping them down and making sure they were perfectly straight. He is always so proud and supportive of me and he isn't afraid to show it. Just the thought of his love brought a smile to my face.
I was broken out of my thoughts when the large double doors flung open. My dad walked in looking very fancy. His hair was neatly combed to the side and his beard was freshly trimmed. He wore a black three piece suit fitted with dress shoes and a special Cryptic watch I designed for him. The watch gives him alerts, takes notes, replies to phone calls and messages, opens doors to any property we own, translates any language, detects suspicious people who are deemed a threat, scans people for weapons, and a whole lot more. The best part? It's tailored specifically for my dad so it would be completely useless in anyone else's hand.
Pria whistled. "Looking good Don!" She grinned in approval.
My dad took a seat in front of us and nodded at Pria. "Thank you Pria." He replied amusedly.
"Damn dad you meeting your girlfriend or something?" I questioned with a teasing smile on my face.
He rolled his eyes. "No Reese, I am not meeting my girlfriend because I do not have a girlfriend." He explained exasperatedly.
Nico, Pria and I looked at one another. Then we all turned back towards my dad and smirked.
"Sureeee." We all simultaneously replied.
He rolled his eyes once again before grabbing his laptop, putting it on the table in front of us and turning serious. "Okay on a more serious note, we have a huge deal and possible alliances on the table." He pulled out some papers and slid them towards me. I scanned the papers and stiffened.
"You're meeting up with the Italian and English Mafias." I blankly stated.
I could feel Pria and Nico tense on either side of me. I looked up at my dad to see him stiffly nodding. I could tell he was worried for me, he was scanning my face for some sort of reaction, trying to get a feel for my take on the situation.
"I think it's a great idea." I simply replied, putting the papers down.
I could sense the confusion in the room because Pria and Nico snapped their heads towards me, their gazes burning holes into the sides of my face and my dad furrowed his eyebrows. I kept looking at the floor.
"Ree-"
"They abandoned me twelve years ago." I started. "And it's been ten years since I've seen them. We can't give up business deals because of personal problems, besides I've been over it for a long time now, the past is in the past. I've moved on, and they probably have too. The fact of the matter is, we can supply both the Italian Mafia and English Mafia with weapons. In return they can supply us with drugs."
"Once we create a mutual partnership that benefits all parties, an alliance between all three of us can be formed." Shrugging, I rolled my tongue over my teeth. "There's a reason people keep their personal lives out of business endeavours. Run an empire on emotions, and you'll find that soon that very empire won't have a leg to stand on."
"To my knowledge, the English Mafia does not do alliances, and the French and the English Mafias are the only two Mafias who are even remotely close to us in power and resources." I paused. "And I use the term 'close' very loosely."
"An alliance with the English is simply a smart business decision. And whether we like them or not, creating an alliance with the Italians will only benefit us in the future. They need us more than we need them but it's always good to have options. I'm not letting you turn down a legitimate business opportunity because of something that happened ten years ago. Just leave the past in the past." I ranted. "Besides, I already have my family on my side, the Di Genova's will simply be business associates. Nothing more. They don't mean shit to me."
I looked up to see everyone smiling at me. Now it was my turn to be confused.
"What?" I questioned.
"Nico shook his head. "It's nothing Ree."
I raised my brows.
Pria grinned. "It's just sometimes you sound like an old man that's been through some shit."
Scoffing, I crossed my arms. "I have been through shit."
"That you have babe, that you have." She winced.
"Are you sure Ree?" My dad asked with lingering concern in his eyes.
I nodded my head. "Positive dad."
I was way past the heartbreak and abandonment, they didn't need me and I sure as hell didn't need them.
"Okay let's plan this out." He exclaimed.
"Both the Italians and the English are going to be here next week since the mafia ball is coming up. I believe they are going to stay in America for a while, so even though we are planning on working with them, we have to keep our guard up until we sign a written alliance. Understood?"
We all nodded our heads.
"Sometime next week we are going to agree on a date to meet. We are going to show them our products and they'll show us theirs. Reese, what warehouse is available next week?"
I grabbed my tablet and started sorting through the schedule.
"All warehouses are occupied except warehouse 30." I replied.
"Okay, we'll set up the meeting at warehouse 30. Once we determine that their products are good and legit, we make the deal." He explained.
"If it's taking place next week I can't come with you guys." I realized. "My team of engineers and I are going over the design plans of our 2022 tech launch. I'm going to be in design, manufacturing and management meetings all week. I probably won't even leave Cryptic until late at night." I frowned.
I started rapidly typing on my screen. "Maybe I can reschedule- "
"It's fine Ree, it's just the Dons meeting anyways." Dad explained.
"Okay, Reese will take care of the logistics and planning and Pria and I will lead the security team since Reese can't be there." Nico planned.
"Perfect." Dad replied standing up. "Ree you got time to go over your new weapon designs with me?" He questioned.
"Yeah they're here in my office, let me show you." I picked up my tablet and stood up.
"We are going to head on home to the estate." Pria informed us.
"Don, Pria and I will assemble the security team, just let us know when the meeting gets scheduled." Nico stated while grabbing his phone.
Dad nodded his head. "Will do."
"See you later Vanderbilts." Pria happily waved as she and Nico moved to leave the office.
"Bye." I replied.
Dad and I followed Pria and Nico out of his office but split ways once we approached the doors that led to mine. My office was mostly identical to my fathers. The only difference? I had tech sprawled out everywhere, and I mean everywhere. I usually kept my office neat and tidy but I was in the middle of manufacturing new weapons for the mafia and new car designs for Cryptic. I was crazy busy and my office showed the aftermath of that. My desk was cluttered with paperwork and blueprints. My conference table was loaded with multiple guns spanning different makes, sizes, and uses. My seating area was covered with laptops, phones, and holograms that projected my new designs for Cryptic. The whole right wall was covered with white boards that had my messy thoughts and equations sprawled all over. If someone went into my brain, this is probably what they would find.
"Dammit Ree you told me you weren't overworking yourself." Dad exclaimed while scanning the whole office.
"I'm not."
He raised his eyebrow. "This is just temporary madness." I sheepishly replied while gesturing to the mess we were standing right in the middle of.
"Oh please, I've seen your office at your estate. This is permanent madness." He dryly stated.
"Fine then." I huffed. "I guess you don't want to see the new guns I made you." I nonchalantly replied while turning around and walking back to exit my office.
3, 2, 1 anddd
"Wait."
I smiled and turned back around smirking devilishly.
"Yes Dad." I inquired teasingly.
"Iwanttoseetheguns."
Leader of the most feared mafia, my ass.
"Sorry, what was that? I couldn't quite catch it." I teased him more.
"I. want. to. see. the. guns." He irritatedly replied.
I gave him a huge Cheshire grin. "That's what I thought." I gestured for him to join me at the conference table and he came up right beside me.
"Okay so let's start off with the semi automatic handguns." I lifted up a Glock and picked up a filled magazine and loaded it. "This is my new and approved Glock 20." I smirked while moving closer to Dad showing him the design. "We already know that the Glock 20 handgun is the most powerful semi-automatic pistol in our inventory. This is the same gun.." I paused. "....but on steroids." I exclaimed happily. Dad chuckled at my excitement. "It has a polymer frame with a steel slide, resulting in a lightweight firearm." I tossed the gun between my hands. "Look closely at the handle." I passed the gun towards him. He furrowed his eyebrows inspecting the handle and his eyes widened.
"You added fingerprint scanners." He exclaimed in awe.
"Yep, the gun will only fire if it recognizes his owner. So if the gun gets taken from you in a fight, the enemy cannot use it against you."
He whistled lowly in appreciation.
"I also customized the barrel. The 'rifled' texture inside spins the bullet, creating velocity and accuracy. This gun has a barrel that holds small heat sensors. When a bullet is fired it passes through the barrel and the heat sensors transfer onto the bullet. The bullet in turn seeks out the heat source it was aimed at and targets the most lethal points on the body."
I looked up from the gun and watched my dad's reaction. He looked both equally shocked and intrigued.
"I also customized the Glock 17, and the Sig Sauer P226." I passed models of the guns over to him.
"Okay and now to the fully automatic weapons." I grinned.
"I don't know if I should be scared or happy that my kid is obsessed with guns." He explained with an amused look on his face.
I scoffed. "Don't act like you don't love it." He just laughed in response.
I pulled a large assault rifle towards me. "Presenting the TAR-21 assault rifle. It has the ability to be used both right-handed and left-handed. In one minute it can produce about 900 shots, and it only weighs about six pounds. You can mount a grenade launcher right on top of it and I added a night vision sight. I also added silencers so it is much more likely to go unnoticed by the enemy. Scanners are on the handles and trigger."
I grabbed my modified magazines. "Standard magazines hold up to 30 rounds, these ones can hold up to 200. The capacity is increased, which in turn saves loads of time that would have otherwise been used for reloading."
He shook his head in astonishment while admiring my work.
"Yeah bet you like my madness now huh?" I teased.
"This is fucking amazing Ree."
I shrugged my shoulders. "I know."
He laughed out loud before ruffling my hair.
I huffed and frantically tried to fix my now knotted hair.
"Come on, let's go try these bad boys out." He grinned.
I smiled and tossed him a gun.
"Let's see how good of a shot you are, old man."
"You're on."
_
Hope you guys enjoyed the chapter!
Until next Wednesday,
- Eliza