Mr. Alvarez and Mauro were this fucking close to climbing on top of the table and having a fistfight but Roxanne and Melina managed to calm them down before Zack and Cody tried to use a bit of force. At this moment, the two girls were now beside Mr. Alvarez while Elsa was casually holding a knife pointed right at Mauro's crotch.
In my honest opinion, it was a band-aid attempt to keep the two away from each other but we just needed this meeting to move along so we could go about our ways.
With that said, Mr. Cuervo anchored the conversation to where we last left it.
"Alright, I'm not entirely in the know as to how everyone in my fold is mental-wise but I do try my best to keep everyone busy, happy, or… decent for the most part. To me, taking one's own is the coward's route and if I had complete control over their lives, I'd rather keep my people clinging to life rather than seeing them reduced to a pile of meat chunks."
He continued, "I've seen my people do it a number of ways: a shotgun in the mouth, overdose, riding out into the sunset, or the good ol' viking way to get to Valhalla. We see more of the latter if my games are held but more often than not, it's almost always death by OD'ing while one of my girls still has their mouth around their cocks."
Mary and Mr. Alvarez nodded.
"Same here."
"Mine too."
Sal spoke up, "I… That's really unfortunate but it's their lives. We shouldn't call them cowards by choosing how they… move on. Everyone's different and in a way, it's better than getting torn to shreds while finding the next meal after running out."
Mauro chuckled, "You, Sal? You're not particularly lacking in the food department."
"I'm just giving an example. Besides, I'm not what I used to be. If I was in my prime, I could take down that kid's— What's her name again? Ah! Tatiana, right? I could probably fare well against her in a fair fight. Maybe even Quinn too."
Quinn quipped from the side, "Keep dreaming, Sal."
"Heh. You'll get older too, I promise ya."
"Hmph."
It got quiet for a few moments but Castro spoke up after making sure no one was continuing the conversation.
"Excuse me. I don't want to bring this up this early but if I don't say this now, I don't I would be able to."
Mr. Cuervo's eyebrows rose up, "What do you mean? What is it?"
Castro looked down for a moment before facing everyone, "I'm grateful for this early summons because if you all don't already know, I'll be restructuring my family from the ground up. I'm gonna get a lot of resistance but since the majority of my people finally witnessed my… that person's— and my— that family's real nature, I'll also have a lot of support."
"Have you done something already?"
"Well, I've sent a portion of my people back already but it's to make sure that everyone involved is put in the cellars below our mansion."
Mr. Alvarez shook his head, "Wait a fucking second, you should've come back with full force! What are you even doing here?!"
"I trust those people and most importantly, Benjie's here. He's the only person capable of stopping them because most of my family members can't hold an assistant for too long. They'll just end up as a piece of furniture or an artwork like… you know what I mean."
Everyone kept silent but Sal turned to him with a concerned expression.
"Kid, I don't know what's going on in your head right now but you should end things quickly once you get home. I know you've suffered a whole lot but you shouldn't stoop to their level—"
Castro bitterly shook his head, "Sal… With all due respect, it's my fucking life. Mine, my wife's, and my kid. I'll get even before I think about doing it quickly."
After that response, Sal just looked at him solemnly before turning to me, "You're awfully quiet. Care to weigh in?"
"Sure."
"Good—"
"Have fun."
Sal couldn't believe what she heard, "What?!"
Castro let out a chuckle as he turned to me, "I sense something… a connection. Did something— Were you in a similar situation before?"
"Something like that."
"I see. And having fun is what you recommend?"
"That's what I did. It still sucked after I got more than even but I was content that I did something."
Our eyes shared the same shade as we were looking at each other. The other heads besides Sal were just watching us—the new heads, speak to each other on the same level. However, only a couple of people in this room knew what my story was and the person I was sharing my experience to was just beginning a path of revenge.
I wouldn't recommend what I did to any other people but if you still kept on after you lost everything, you deserve to get more than even after coming on top of it.
With that said, there was another moment of silence after that but it seemed like it was my turn to bring up another topic.
"Hermano. Before we get to the good stuff, what's your plan moving on?"
"Aside from wiping the floor with everyone and winning by a landslide?"
Mr. Cuervo chuckled as he looked at Mr. Alvarez, Mauro, and Benjie let out a short bout of killing intent, "Heh. Yeah, besides that."
"I'll be around but I think I'll split my team since the two people we're looking for are in different directions. Quinn's people— I mean, Mauro's people—"
Quinn interjected, "You're right the first time."
Mauro glared at the two of us but said nothing.
I shook my head as I continued, "The de Leon Family actually met one of them and exchanged vehicles while the other one was now a member of a different faction located much deeper in the provinces. And since I still have a promise to uphold, I'll bring some of us to Quinn's place to repair her car and—"
Mr. Alvarez interjected, "And fabricating a body for Eleanor, too!"
"Right, that as well. But while that's happening, Artem will lead the other group to the opposite side."
Mary interjected, "That reminds me. You brought a small ship over here, right?"
"Yes, why?"
"You won something from us, remember? I'll do this now since we'll be leaving soon but you can do whatever you want about the equipment in our tent, the people too. It'll be a pain to bring all of them back so just take what you want and have fun with it, okay?"
"Okay…"
Mr. Cuervo cleared his throat, "Hermano, you could use my place as a resting spot between you and your team's trips but I'll accept anything you might find between them. I have a few requests that my people can't find in this area."
"Sure, give me a list. I'll keep an eye out for anything."
"Yeah, that'll be nice. That reminds me, now that we're speaking about exchanges, what do we have for today?"
Sal sighed lightly, "Finally. I'll go first. Yield has been abundant but despite that, the wedding and the free stuff we gave away made us take a small hit. We'll need to ease a bit on the celebrations after that but we can still provide produce as usual. Besides, this place is very self-sufficient, it's the second best place in a zombie apocalypse."
Mr. Alvarez scoffed, "Are you telling me my fortress is just third?"
"No. Yours is dead last."
"What?!"
"Please. Everyone here had started to produce their own food after going through a quarter of our reserves. Only you and your people are still raiding huge warehouses and the larger towns to feed yourselves. You work in real estate, right? Turn one into a huge farm for fuck's sake!"
"Hey! We have farms, alright?! The de Leon Family only had theirs because of you!"
"And you still have nothing!"
"I said we have a couple, alright?!"
"And what do you plant in them?"
"W-Weed, lettuce, and tomatoes…"
"See my point?" Sal turned to me, "Kid, I forgot to ask, what can you put on the table? Do you have a farm of some sort? Don't tell me you two got close because you're doing the same thing? All that knowledge and nothing to show for it."
I chuckled lightly, "I have a little bit of everything but I don't have the means to produce quality honey such as yours."
"Oh? You're not half bad then. The samples were good, huh? Wanna start a farm yourself or do you want a shipment every other month? We could strike a deal right now."
"Do you have a mushroom farm?"
"What kind? Real mushrooms or "mushroom" mushrooms?"
"Heh. The kind where you don't see a large penis cutting your hair."
Sal chuckled as she got the reference, "We have both, actually. Give me something I don't have."
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