A Man of Honor.

Chapter 54: Breach.

"Run from a knife and rush a gun." ~ Jimmy Hoffa.

The next couple of days were quiet and busy.

With the war officially over the next step was making sure that the new order of things ran smoothly. And for the most part things did with only a few hiccups here and there. A representative from the Cintara Cartel arrived and talked with Sophia to see that relations were going well and that Nicky's previous dealings were to be honored by her. Which unfortunately meant that the city was getting an influx of drugs thanks to our new agreements and those warehouses we set the Bratva up with.

But as per the agreement Sophia made certain that the narcotics were only sold and distributed in her territories and anyone that was caught breaking her rules were swifty punished. Wanting to keep her hands clean after a war she and her comrades instituted a fine system meaning that any of the gang members who were caught selling that shit on our side of town where usually beaten and made to pay the Family and the Clan reparations and risked having the Bratva refuse to trade them drugs. That diamond smuggling operation with Grigori was picked up by Ivan who renegotiated with me to use Sal's old fishing boats to smuggle them in. This time we made damn sure that each and every rock was inspected before taking it and we had no trouble.

It worked too. In the first few days of the fine system being implemented we discovered several gang members who outed their own leaders out of fear of retribution and Sophia was sure to reward them for their cooperation. And with tensions eased between all three sides it was time for everyone to start making deals with one another. Tonen came to me wanting to get some forged import licenses so he could import some cars from Atlas. Paulie got some of Sophia's comrades to broker some new union contracts with the Schnee Dust Company. Bruce was offered a lot of money to let the Atlesians use his docks and workers under the understanding that it wouldn't be drugs or weapons going through them.

In short things were going as Roman had wanted, peaceful and profitable. What little difficulties and bad blood we had with the Atlesians were being buried as this new machine was beginning to get a coat of polish. Not that things were perfect. There were rumors that Nicky was still in town looking for a chance to make a move against us, and considering returning to Atlas could have very well been a death sentence for the bastard, it wasn't what I would call unfounded. But most of the rumors were still bunk, like that Nicky was currently in witness protection telling a bunch of agents all kinds of details to make mass arrests, or that he was using his hidden fortune to bribe the military. It was all bunk, Nicky having worked with Ironwood would have risked exposing their illegal dealings meaning I had no doubt that if Ironwood caught even a whisper of it he'd make sure that Nicky disappeared permanently, and however much money Nicky did have to bribe people it was nothing compared to the cash we had at our disposal. After all, Sophia had seized most of Nicky's cash and that made all the difference.

But bogus rumors or not, we kept our ear to the ground for a chance to take care of Nicky. If he poked his head out of whatever cave he was hiding in it wouldn't be very long before someone took care of him. Personally I found a lot of comfort imagining him living out of some cheap motel hundred of miles away wearing cheap clothes and eating fast food. Imagining Nicky as a defanged beowolf was fun but I did know better, even without teeth a Beowolf was still dangerous.

As for Neo and I, things were certainly improving. We were hanging out together more or less like we used to but I wouldn't exactly say that we were dating. We were still recovering from that falling out and thus we were taking things slow, rebuilding the friendship before we started building a romance. But with our feelings to one another having been laid bare it would be a lie to say that there wasn't a building tension, we were just trending carefully into this new ground.