Pretending to Be an Untouchable Crime Boss-Chapter 183: Shifting.

With that mentality, the family needed restructuring too, and James knew it.

Ferucci was out, Bella was out, and the two remaining were him and Hector, which meant the family was too weak. There are only two people that need to die and that is it, the family would crumble and even though Ferucci and Bella didn't really like to be leaders, they did their part in the family. They had people and knew how to use them, but now that they were not here, James needed new members who could stand beside them proudly, people who have the talent to lead others and work together.

The new era was here with a new family, but the question was, who would he choose to be the new leader in the family?

It was his family, but he knew literally nobody, only some guards like Mike, and that's it, nobody else he could really trust… or maybe he had, and that's when the idea came up in him. It was not the best, it had many flaws, but he needed to trust his instinct, he needed to trust him.

So James got out of the car and walked back to the tunnel to the room, where Marco's body was still there just like the others.

"Benjamin." He said as he looked at him, who was still stressing about this whole thing, that the government might have cartel members, making the whole system slowly collapse, but when he looked at James, he just had a feeling that something big was going to happen.

"Yeah?" He asked, and everybody looked at James, which just made everything more complicated.

James couldn't tell him head-on, because the others would be furious about it, and Benjamin himself would become a target of the government, of Linda, and the others.

"The ring you gave me." He said as he looked down at it and back at Benjamin. "It's nice, isn't it?"

He immediately knew, the second James said it, knew what he was implying by it, and he just froze even more. It was a bigger shock than the cartel itself, that the Vice President died, that the whole system had the chance to collapse on them.

He was in shock and disbelief that what James had just said meant what he wanted from the beginning.

Benjamin was accepted into the Bellini family, and not just that, he knew the plan, the revenge he wanted for his people, for his town, was not just possible, but was written in stone.

In that moment, a double agent was born, a double agent who was a director of one of the agencies of the country, Benjamin Bellini.

"Y-yeah, a nice ring…." He stuttered as he said it and understood how big it was.

The revenge he wanted for decades that he couldn't do because he hadn't had the power to do so, now was a step away. Now he was sure of it, he can avenge his people, his family. It meant more than anything else for him, that finally all the work he'd done, all the surviving, all the corruption, all the bullshit, now all made sense because he was in the favor of the most powerful man in the country… not just in favor, but in his family.

How crazy is that, what's crazier is that the others had no idea of it.

Linda understood to some extent, but she was far from truly understanding it and what it meant. Benjamin told her he would meet with James and all the dumb things… yeah, dumb things, because Linda thought he was just clowning and just wanted to play with James, wanted to get into his favor and mess with him.

But hell nah, Benjamin was not playing. He really wanted to become a Bellini, even if in the process he betrayed the whole system, he betrayed his homeland in the process… all for that revenge.

"Good." James said, and he glanced once more at Marco's body, then up to Linda. "Do what I told you in the meeting."

"What do you mean?" She asked back, and she felt it too, something was not right about James, like he had an aura around him, a different one. Linda herself felt it, like her hand shook a bit, but she thought it was because of what he did earlier with Marco.

"Marco, Isabella, and Silas, put them on the news with all the seized assets, show them and clown them in the news."

"Wouldn't it just anger the cartel?" Stephen asked from the back.

James turned toward him. "That's exactly what we want. If they act out of anger, they will mess up. If they have somebody in the government, they will want to do this faster, which means more possibilities to catch them." He said and turned back at Linda. "So do it. Also, put Emmanuel in the news, show them how y'all showed Lucian."

There was no way they would do that. They thought all the same, except Benjamin, who was still in disbelief.

If they would show them how they look… Marco missing half of his head, Emmanuel's broken body and that one shot to his head, and Isabella and Silas too, it would cause outrage in the public too, not just in the underworld.

"That's impossible—"

"What about Lucian?" His voice was firm and dangerous, like it was a threat… like if they don't show it, they will die. freёnovelkiss.com

"We will censor it then." Stephen said from the back again. "Lucian's body was barely visible, and if we show them, it will also cause outrage in the Union. Just think about it, Marco's head is missing, Isabella's head has a hole in it, while Emmanuel was clearly executed by that one shot. We can do it, but we can work around it, censoring it and putting a picture of them next to it with their names." Stephen explained, and it was true… the biggest threat in it wasn't the outrage but the Union and its rules.

If they show it clearly, the Union might mess them up with lawsuits, investigations, and international exposure. They only got away with Lucian because, well, it was done by the vice president who had connections in the Union, but the president himself hates the Union and only part of it because of the money and funds they get.

"Then do it that way, but send the message that they will die." James said as he turned around. "Good night everybody." He said and walked out of the room, leaving them in silence.

"What was that, Benjamin?" Linda asked as soon as James went out.

"What?"

"Don't play dumb, the ring you gave him as loyalty. You are with him now?" She asked and it immediately got intense in the room, because, well, shit… it meant they are enemies now.

"Loyalty? Don't make me laugh." It even hurt him to say it. "If we work with James, then why not make our own deal with him?"

"True, I mean we made a deal too." Stephen said. "We were ready to kill Carter to save ourselves and our families, didn't we, Linda?"

It was true, they were ready to do it, but then all this bullshit happened.

"We are the only ones that know about it, and we need to work together, so don't be enemies until it's over." Benjamin said, and it was true. There was no good in making enemies out of each other because it would just complicate everything even more.

"Right." Thomas said as he clapped his hands. "So do it. First, we need to cover this whole shit up, and Marco's body needs to be transported somewhere. I'm sure the news has already picked up the shooting and they are already covering it, so the second phase starts now. Let's do our job. Linda, me and you will cover up everything as we planned. Stephen, you do Silas, and Benjamin, you make your report on Isabella official, okay?"

"So no sleep, huh…" Benjamin sighed.

"That's a luxury now." Thomas said as he turned around. "Let's go, Linda." He said as he stepped out of the room.

But Linda was starting to believe she was the only one that actually was doing all of this for the country. Benjamin had his own reason to make a deal with James, and now Thomas and Stephen too seemed like they were partnering with James rather than looking at the bigger picture… the future of the country.

It just made everything worse, because if it's all over, if the peace treaty is over, then the agencies, the protection of the country, will be in James's favor if they keep doing this… and maybe she too needed to do exactly that.

Yeah, why should she be the only one that didn't make a deal with James to make herself in a better position if this is all over?

She not just lost her belief in justice but her belief in the whole system and people.

"I should really fuck with him…"