In a high-end community on the edge of the Empire District, Bolton was looking at Nancy across the table.
The father and daughter sat like that, separated by a table.
Nancy had come back this time to get some money. She had been having a hard time lately and was a bit short on cash.
She had recently lost her job and had just broken up with her boyfriend. She wanted to go to another city to relax this summer.
Supporting all of this had one prerequisite: having money.
Money was important, indispensable, but she just happened to not have it.
Since Rob’s death, she had rarely come home and had rarely communicated with Bolton. She always felt that Bolton was too realistic about this issue.
That was his son, and also her brother, yet he could still work for the man who had killed Rob!
This was fucking incredible. She had never seen such a cold-blooded father, not even in movies or operas. The villains in those were more humane than him.
She couldn’t accept such a family environment and was also afraid that she might become the next victim one day, so she had entered an independent life in advance.
But this time, she had come back because she had no money.
She had thought of many occasions when she and Bolton would meet again. It could have been because Bolton couldn’t stand the inner torment, recognized his mistake, and then found her, crying and begging for her forgiveness, to get spiritual comfort.
It could also have been that he found that the only one he could rely on in the end was her, his daughter, so he wanted to get her forgiveness and then leave this sad city to start a new life elsewhere.
She had thought of many possibilities for them to meet again, but she had never thought that she would be the one to make the compromise first. To her, this was like a betrayal of Rob, although that poor bastard was already dead.
She had also never thought that the reason for her to make the compromise and betrayal was not her longing for family affection or anything else, but just because she had no money.
What made her feel even more… full of a sense of crisis was that not only was Bolton now living in a big house, but that bitch had shamelessly dressed herself up like a noblewoman!
And she, Bolton’s daughter, had to come back because she had no money to pay the rent!
Damn it, fucking hell!
“I thought I would have to wait until you got married for you to give me an invitation, telling me you were getting married, and that I should appear at your wedding in a formal suit.”
Bolton sat in his chair very reservedly and dignifiedly. He had started watching operas recently.
This was something he couldn’t have imagined in the past, not only because he couldn’t afford to watch operas, but more importantly, no one had guided him. He simply couldn’t learn how to watch operas!
Yes, watching operas requires an introduction, learning, and understanding of the original work and story to feel its beauty!
Lance’s success had made the Lance Family the ruler of the Golden Port City underworld. Some people couldn’t get close to Lance, but they could get close to those under Lance, for example, Bolton.
They would fete Bolton. As long as he made a request, those people would naturally not refuse.
Bolton was a complicated person. He could be absolutely controlled by his own desires, could give up hatred, give up everything.
But he could also, under the trend of desire, achieve relative calmness and rationality, as long as it didn’t touch his interests.
He didn’t take money or anything else, nor did he make any promises to others. Instead, he chose to watch operas with some people.
I just watched an opera with you. You can’t ask me to do this or that.
If you do, then I will refuse, and I will also ask you to watch an opera.
Under such circumstances, he began to formally contact and understand opera. He now sometimes imitated some of the characters in the opera. He felt that he was no longer the person he used to be.
The mud spots on his trouser legs were thrown away when he changed his clothes and would never stain his trouser legs again. He was already an upper-class person.
Although it might be a bit… exaggerated to say so, it couldn’t be said to be entirely wrong.
So now when he spoke, he would have a little bit of an air, a little bit of a tone.
This emphasis made Nancy a little dazed. She didn’t know that her father had such a side.
At the same time, Bolton’s words also made her feel a sense of tension. She realized that she was definitely not that important in Bolton’s heart.
After all, he could even give up his own son’s revenge. She was just a girl.
Nancy didn’t know what to say. She was actually a little… unsure of what to choose now.
If she continued to choose to leave and give him the cold shoulder, she might get farther and farther away from this family. In the end, they would become “relatives” instead of “family.”
She didn’t want that, especially after seeing this big house, seeing her former best friend wearing expensive luxury goods, looking at her like a clown.
Nancy pursed her lips. “I… I just found it hard to accept for a while.”
Bolton still looked at her with no change in his expression. “So now, have you accepted it?”
Accepted the fact of Rob’s death, and accepted other things.
Nancy was silent for a moment and didn’t speak. Bolton continued, “He made a mistake.”
“He sold out the family’s intelligence to the outside world, causing the family to suffer huge losses, so he died.”
“Nancy, he was my son. I am also full of sadness and regret for his death, but rules are rules.”
“The family is not the family of any one person. It belongs to all of us. Rob hurt not just Lance, but also all of us.”
“In school, if you make a mistake, the teacher may punish you.”
“In society, if you make a mistake, your boss may deduct your salary, and your friends may alienate you.”
“In a gang, if you make such a big mistake, then you can only have such an end.”
“I’m heartbroken, but I also respect his outcome.”
“If you still think this is our problem, you can continue to calm down.”
Nancy remained silent. She didn’t know what to say.
Just at this moment, the phone rang. Bolton made a shushing gesture and then picked up the phone. “This is Bolton.”
“…Okay, it’s very important. I see. I’ll tell the boss myself.”
After hanging up, he dialed the number of Lance’s office. Lance hadn’t given any other instructions these past two days, so he would be in his office.
The call was quickly answered. It was Lance. He recounted what had just been conveyed.
While he was speaking, Nancy noticed that Bolton, who had been stern-faced, now had a smile on his face, and even a hint of caution.
After he put down the phone, he glanced at his daughter, knowing that she had seen the change in him just now.
He had no intention of hiding it either. Originally, he didn’t need to be so careful.
With Gerald around, he could completely be friends with Lance like the others.
“This is what Rob brought me. I have to be careful at all times.”
He took out a cigarette and lit one. “Want one?”
Nancy looked at him with some surprise. He said with a smile, “I found cigarette butts in your room after you left.”
Nancy took one with some hesitation. A 35-cent pack of cigarettes was definitely a high-end product. She had only seen it, never smoked it.
The father and daughter smoked in the office, in silence. After a while, she finally said, “He… how much can he give you?”
Hearing this, a faint smile appeared on Bolton’s face. “So far, in two years, my dear, I’ve earned about… three or four hundred thousand. I haven’t calculated it in detail.”
“And the speed of making money will get faster and faster, because the boss’s territory is getting bigger and bigger.”
“We need more people, and it’s even possible that we’ll no longer just be internal, but may also have to be external!”
Morris being transferred to run the casino did indeed make many people a little envious and jealous. Everyone knew that the casino was a business that raked in money day and night.
Even if you didn’t reach in and grab a little, with Lance’s generosity, whoever managed the casino would definitely get a large sum of money.
But Bolton was not envious, nor jealous, because he was also doing a job that could not be replaced by others.
And with Morris’s job change, there was a high probability that he would be in full charge of the Lance Family’s intelligence work.
This meant that the money Lance allocated to him each year would be more. He needed to expand outwards, and expansion required money.
Hiring manpower costs money, bribing some people costs money, bribing officials in other places costs money. Anything related to intelligence costs money!
The benefits he could get from it would also be more.
These two years of getting along had made him understand a truth. Lance didn’t care if he was corrupt, if he had eaten his fill.
What he cared about was whether the intelligence and news he needed could reach him in a timely manner.
As long as Bolton could do this, and he didn’t take too much, Lance would continue to use him in important positions.
He would be better off than he was now.
He raised his chin slightly, like a proud rooster.
Three or four hundred thousand in two years. This had already surpassed the income capacity of the ordinary middle class. He was no longer far from the threshold of the upper class.
Nancy was so shocked to hear this number that she couldn’t speak. She realized why her best friend could live so stylishly.
That money should have been spent on her by him.
She cursed a few times in her heart, and then began to consider her countermeasures.
After about ten seconds, she finally said, “You have a point, I mean about Rob’s matter.”
“Everyone has to pay for their own mistakes. It’s just that… his bill is too heavy.”
Bolton did not respond to her, but continued to smoke.
Nancy lowered her posture and voice a little. “I’ve been thinking about these problems for the past two years. I realize that we are a family. No matter what you’ve done, that fact cannot be changed.”
“Let the past be the past!”
“We are a family. We should be together, not be torn apart by some things that have already passed.”
Bolton nodded slightly. “You’re right. We are a family. When your mother left, I promised to take good care of you.”
“Although he… was a disappointment, I still plan to fulfill my duties as a father.”
He paused for a moment. “You can stay in our old house for now, and then I’ll find you a job.”
Nancy said, “I want to live here. And she and I… won’t have any conflicts.”
Mr. Bolton considered for a moment and did not refuse. “You’d better be telling the truth. To be honest, I don’t have that much time and energy to solve your disputes, if they break out.”
“At that time, I can only let you go and live in the old house. This will disappoint us all, understand?”
Nancy nodded in agreement, and at the same time breathed a sigh of relief.
Bolton was very satisfied with her being so sensible. In fact, as things had developed to this day, he didn’t even hate anyone for Rob’s death.
There were also others in the gang who had done wrong things, even things they shouldn’t have done. Lance would also deal with them according to the family’s rules.
It wasn’t just Rob who was like this. Others were also like this. As long as they made a mistake, they would definitely be punished.
For example, the mole by Alan’s side, as everyone knew.
So much so that at this moment, Bolton himself was a maintainer of the rules, not a potential destroyer.
As an established interest group, he would be more willing than others to maintain the current rules.
As for Nancy, he didn’t think Nancy would cause any problems. She was just poor and wanted to live a good life. This was no different from them.
Nancy got permission and couldn’t wait to throw away her old, worn-out luggage. She went to pick her own room. Everything had to start over.
Brother Rob?
Sorry, she had also forgotten that brother at this moment. What she wanted now was to live the life of a young lady, not to continue to live a hard life and watch her best friend be a noblewoman!
Lance did not know about some of the changes in Bolton’s family. Even if he knew, he would not care. These were all small matters.
Now the thing he was most concerned about was, where had Jordan gone?
He gave Hiram a call and told him that Jordan should have gone over. Then he gave Lawn a call and said that Thurray could be brought over.
Not long after the call was made, Hiram saw two motorcycles appear outside the film company. Two guys who didn’t look like good people parked their motorcycles and stood on the opposite side of the road, observing for a while.
There was no doubt that, according to Bolton’s description, these two people should be the people they were looking for.
However, they only observed for a while and then left on their motorcycles.
They were here to scout. Jordan also felt the potential pressure of the Lance Family, so their current idea was not to have a direct conflict, but to take the person away first, and then find a way to get the account book back for his good friend, plus get revenge.
It has to be said that Jordan was very cautious, but he had chosen the wrong target. Even though he was already very careful, he was like a moth that had flown into a bat’s nest.
No matter how he flapped his wings, he was already completely locked on!
As they were leaving, a car followed them.
In a motel on the edge of the industrial district, the two motorcyclists quickly returned here.
“How does it look over there?” Jordan asked.
The two subordinates reported what they had found. “From the outside, it doesn’t look like there’s anything special. And there are no gang members at the entrance of the company. The situation inside is not very clear.”
“But their parking lot is in the alley next to the company, and there’s only one entrance and exit. Both incoming and outgoing vehicles can be seen.”
Jordan nodded. Although he hadn’t found out much about the Lance Family, this in itself was a piece of news.
He had also asked his other friends. Some thought that the Lance Family’s strength was not strong—not a single family had been destroyed by the Lance Family.
In other words, the Lance Family did not have its current status through war.
The Cassia family had died of internal strife. The Tita and Keane families had left Golden Port City on their own initiative because they had suffered heavy casualties during the internal strife.
The Lance Family and the Kodak family had had conflicts, but the conflicts were not fierce. After the other two families had left, they were already at a disadvantage.
Then, Bandy was said to have been silenced in the police station by the Bay Area. Gorry, after failing to assassinate Lance, had chosen to take his own life.
Fleming had run off to god knows where, and there was no news of him for the time being.
Stone was already serving his sentence.
It could be said that the Lance Family had gotten a big bargain!
This kind of news gave people the feeling of “I could do it too if I were up there.”
This was also the reason why Jordan didn’t know how to evaluate the Lance Family now. They seemed to have done nothing, but they also seemed to have done something.
So he chose to be cautious.
“Go and find out who their general manager or whatever role is, what he looks like, and what car he drives.”
“When he gets off work in the evening, follow his car and we’ll pick a spot on the road to make a move.”
“No direct firefight. Try not to open fire if we don’t have to.”
“Our goal is to take the person away. After we get him in the car, we’ll leave the city immediately. Don’t stop, just keep running. After we leave Likalai State, we’ll meet at the intersection of… and… highways.”
“Any questions?”
The others naturally had no objections. Although they were gang members, it didn’t mean they were all fools.
Coming to someone else’s territory to cause trouble, if you’re caught, the consequences will be very tragic.
No one is not afraid of death. They are also afraid. They also don’t want to get hurt. It’s just that because of face and the rules of the gang, they have to come.
For Jordan to choose this way, each of them breathed a sigh of relief.
It was just that they didn’t know that they were already very careful, but even so, at this time, in a parking space diagonally opposite the road, behind the windshield of a car, two people were staring at this motel.
In a phone booth not far away, there was also someone who was on the phone while staring at that motel.
Twenty minutes later, another seven or eight cars came, as well as two police cars.
The police cars were to maintain order. After all, a gunfight might break out. The police cars sounding their sirens in time would help the public to stabilize their emotions.
Hiram’s car was parked next to the car that was in charge of the stakeout. He sat in the passenger seat, looking at the subordinate in the driver’s seat opposite him. “They haven’t left?”
“A dozen or so have left, and there are still some people inside.”
Hiram frowned. It’s not good to make a move if the people are not there. And so many people are missing. If only two or three were missing, it would be fine.
He had the people on the stakeout continue to watch. They would go to a slightly farther place to wait first, and wait for these people to come back at night…
(End of a Chapter)