Viper

No Rest

WARNING - STRONG LANGUAGE. READER DISCRETION ADVISED

After that the crews reported their figures for the last two weeks as well as their projections for the next two. The War Dogs lead the way with the Irons lagging and threatening to lose more territory which did not sit well with the Don and the other leaders. Reason for this is that the Don distributed their payment after the profits of the Congregation were counted. It was distributed as bonuses, and a budget was allocated to each crew.

If the territory shrank, that meant each group would share the burden of the financial loss. This was to show unity and keep any one crew from becoming too weak to fight of a moving threat. Which was the case for the South side Irons. The rest of the leaders were mostly concerned with making as much money as possible with doing the least or exposing themselves the least possible.

As much as they all spoke of unity and family, they were all only concerned with what they could get for themselves, just like the Don. This made sense because the majority of the leaders were older and had been with the gang from their youth. At their age, they were more concerned with reaping the fruits of their labor and enjoying the good life.

Alex was a sign of the new, smarter, more ambitious generation. They wanted to make serious money as well as making a name for himself and his crew. There were many young members like Alex, but none as disciplined and thorough as him. This set Alex aside even from some of the older, more experienced leaders.

Truth is, even the Don felt a bit threatened by the ambition of Alex, who was the one who talked the Don into expanding to bigger territories and taking the organization nationwide.

The sad truth of the business was that it was a young man's game. The older members in their 40's or so who survived that long were often pushed out unless they had something valuable to contribute. There wasn't much security in the gang world. It was a dog eat dog world, even from within.

After the crews reported their results, the Don ended the meeting but requested an audience with Alex before leaving.

"Listen son, I didn't want to take too much time in there talking to fools like Cronk, but you gotta assure me that you got things under control in your hood. I don't want to be hearing from others that someone is giving you trouble up in there and bringing attention we don't want. I want you focused on the deal we cooking and not running around putting fires out yourself. That what your crew is there for," said the Don leaning in close to Alex, almost whispering in his ear.

Alex understood, having given his men the same speech earlier but still having to sit there listening to the Don repeat it. While this was going on, the other leaders of the crews stuck around wanting to have a talk with the Don. His personal guard known as the Wranglers kept every one away while he spoke with Alex.

"Man, what's with this shit. I got way more important things to go over with the Don than anyone else here," said Cronk as he waited.

"That's your problem. You think we all here to revolve around you," said Zyrus, still upset with Cronk for the loss of territory, profits, and the comment regarding his own men.

"I'm the only one who has to deal with two other gangs hot on my ass around here so don't give me none of that lip!" said Cronk.

"Now you know that aint even true. We all got people trying to more in on our zones but all at least are able to keep 'em off and not make a whole scene 'bout it," said the leader of the West Side Cruisers named Pinky. A six foot five, body builder type, with high cholesterol, who was blind from his left eye.

"Whatever man, yo just gotta worry about fats. I have the freaking Cartels starting to creep up as we speak, so don't talk to me about making a scene. You seen what they do to their own people? Don't tell me I don't got shit to look over," said Cronk.