Vito

2 - Sharks

I stood outside the room that held in it the most politically powerful person in St. Louis. My office. Was I nervous? Not exactly. I was caught off guard, the mayor not wanting to be seen by other eyes here made me pause. As far as I knew, even my father had never directly interacted with the man, though they had apparently come to an agreement in the past. The type of agreement that lets a Mafia's work go unnoticed by the police.

I shook myself out of my senseless stupor. Worrying about what the visit might be for would not change the fact I needed to face this head on. I opened the door and entered, taking in the scene.

The man in the hooded suit sat in front of my desk, waiting with two bodyguards on either side. Two other bodyguards stood just a bit off from the door and as I walked through they approached. I stared them down.

"Just a routine check." One of the men said, not bothering to see if I was on board with the whole thing or not before starting to pat me down. In my own office. I seethed quietly but made no trouble for them, allowing them to remove the three pistols I hosted in my clothing. Finally, they nodded, gesturing I could go on. To my own desk. 

Many had commented I had a too large ego, some past women even referring to me as a narcissist. Narcissist or not, this show of blatant disrespect in my domain bruised my supposedly big ego. That was never much of a good idea.

By the time I reached my desk and sat down behind it, I had my face masked pushing down the annoyance for the moment.

"I apologize for the little paranoid display. As a fellow man in power, I believe you can relate to the valuing of safety." The man said, removing his hood. Indeed it was the mayor of St. Louis, in the flesh. He looked to be aging as most mayors do but those eyes still emitted some danger from them. They were the eyes of a resting predator, eyeing a piece of meat he couldn't decipher if it was prey or a fellow predator infront of him.

I took a moment, sighing and pouring myself a glass of vodka I also kept stored here. Let's just say I'm an avid fan of Vodka. I sipped it slowly, eyeing the man as I tested the limits of his patience, taking back control of the room. The mayor appraised me with the same smile he had from when I had sat down, expression unchanging.

"No harm done." I finally replied, swirling the contents of my glass thoughtfully. "Though I'm sure, as a fellow man in power you can understand the importance of setting up meetings." 

The mayor chuckled, his light brown eyes felt like they pierced into my very soul as he leaned forward. "Vito. We are two men who no door is unopened to in St. Louis, I'm sure you can look past the... suddenness of my visit." 

"Mayor-"

"Please. Call me Carol." 

"Carol. You know that no door stands unopened to me for a reason, no? In that case, inducing fear into people to not go against my wishes.." I paused, taking another dramatic sip of my vodka. "Would that not entail my own door being unopened? As to keep up the fearful respect commanded --no, demanded?"

The mayor leaned back, seeming to weigh his options. The bodyguards tensed, almost as if they were preparing to beat the shit out of me right then and there. Finally the mayor retained his smile.

He motioned to my half full glass of vodka, "May I have a glass?"

I pursed my lips as if considering it. "Sorry, but the vodka is shared in scheduled appointments only," I paused to gesture at him. "Of which you are not."

The mayor had a visible lapse of control over his features and I saw the annoyance, the sheer rage across his face. This was someone who, as you can imagine, was accustomed to everything moving according to his beck and call and not only was I denying that normality, I was pretty much challenging him with the disrespect right to his face.