James still didn’t understand what the fuck Lucian was talking about... because he was early in the game. He still had to experience things, experience the underworld and how it truly worked.
"Are you going to shoot around it or going to say it straight, Lucian? I don’t have time for little plays, poets, and bullshit." James said as he pulled all his power together, all his cool, to be able to face him, to look like the James they were talking about, they were whispering about.
"Oh, you know it, don’t you, James?" Lucian smiled once again. "You know exactly what I’m talking about. You know your mistake, but you don’t want to admit it." Lucian grinned, but this time he noticed that James wasn’t pleased. No, there was something in his eyes, though it was just an act, it still seemed... impactful. "I’m talking about your family, James, the Bellinis. You chose quantity, but we’re not cartels, we’re not in Dennus."
"I have quality men, Lucian."
"Yeah... but..." He stepped closer to James. "In your family, quantity outweighs quality... and when that little spark of betrayal ignites, it’s going to spread like wildfire, James."
"Like him?" James glanced at Pena, but did it because Lucian was just too close into his personal space.
"Yeah, Pena was a quantity man, and I just had a feeling he was going to betray me."
"I felt it James... more like foreseen it."
Yeah, even James back then started to understand why people feared Lucian, even his affiliates, even his friends... everybody feared him, because he was unstable, but when James showed up, that was the time he started to become not just unstable but more than that... a paranoid man.
"You see James, your family, is full of quantity people, who will betray you one day, because there is nothing to keep them in place... you know the cartel can do it, because there is no police, no nothing that could make the people betray them, no... but here in our little country there is police, there is so-called justice... and quantity men, women is ready to do whatever to save themselves." He looked deep into James’s eyes. "Don’t collect them like little puppies James, no, you can’t keep them in line, not hundreds, thousands... choose quality because those are ready to be with you, ready to save you... like Hector, Ferucci, Bella, Hans... people like them will be with you until the end... like Vallen with me." He looked at him, though even Vallen was kinda surprised and shocked about the situation.
"What if I can handle them?" James asked.
"No James." Lucian shook his head. "You can’t, and I just want to save you from something pretty traumatic."
"What would that be?"
"James." Lucian looked into his eyes. "There will be a time when you might snap, that you realize I was right. I want to save you from digging a mass grave and shooting your quantity men and women into it."
"Yeah you would James... you young, something I envy, I am jealous of." Lucian shook his head with a smile. "Don’t fall into a trap you can’t escape my friend, because once somebody betray you... you will never look at them the same, and you can’t escape it... you will hunt them down, you would do example out of them... and that’s the worst thing to do... this is the worst thing." He pointed at Pena. "Because it will spread that I killed him... spread that I am paranoid, while in reality I fucked up a long ago, choosing quantity over quality... and that decision now came falling down on me... a decision that now will make more people, those quantity men, to question their loyalty, to question who they are for... question their soul... and when it happens... I will fall... you will fall my friend." He looked back at James. "Don’t do it, James, you have so much time to choose right, you have the option of being the greatest in this era... no... you have the option to create a whole new era."
That time James didn’t fully understand what truly Lucian was talking about, no, he wasn’t in a situation like him, he never was betrayed... he didn’t feel what it actually means in their world. To him back then Lucian was just a man who saw too much, who did too much... who was steered to become something that will truly fall, not because of the people around him but because of himself. Yeah that’s what he thought, that Lucian will cause his own fall with his decisions...
"Thank you for the kind words Lucian but for me, keeping them close means they are family, it gives them loyalty and trust."
"That stubborn fire will burn you and everyone close if you let it loose." Lucian sighed. "Just remember... power is a chain, James... and you will feel it heavy on your neck sooner than you think."
"Yeah, but we are criminals aren’t we Lucian?" He glanced at him. "We are bound to suffer, to be in despair, in pain... bound to die sooner than everybody else."
"I like you James... but one day you will remember this conversation and realize what I said was right." He turned around waving his hand. "That Lucian is always right... have a good night, my friend.
"You too Lucian." James said as he watched him walk away... walk away and only meet once again... when Lucian lost everything... lost his mind, lost his family... and not long after was arrested.
And maybe just maybe... Lucian was right back then... he was right about everything. ʀᴇᴀᴅ ʟᴀᴛᴇsᴛ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀᴛ N0velFire.ɴet
James Bellini had truly created a whole new era, starting something that had never been done before by anyone. He didn’t just dominate the underworld, didn’t just hold it in his hand... even the government was with him.
He topped it all, surprising Lucian in every way, and everyone else along with it.
Lucian was truly right... right about everything.