“There are families here who will kill you for one thing or another. I watched some scary men threaten some people, their families, and their kids if they didn’t cooperate–by listening, observing, and reporting back to them. We deal in more than just regular business contracts. I kept my mouth shut so I wasn’t threatened by my own dad.”

“I don't understand. What motivations are there for killing each other?”

She slumped into the couch. “How do you stay above the law? How do two people keep a secret? Threats or if one of them is dead. The connections run deep and wildly far. If I was blacklisted, I wouldn’t be able to show my face in public, let alone get a job as a grocery bagger. It’s the same thing as what made mafias so successful back in the day. We just run them publicly.”

To maintain power, multiple things needed to happen at once. Building a relationship with those who are trusted allies that support you and your goals to maintain your firm grip. These families stayed close knit for a reason. Keeping and expanding resources held power in multiple facets. If you held enough money, you could change the laws to your advantage via lobbying. How else would some of these big names remain on top? The political advantage was second to none. Then there was the threat of retaliation. If you and your allies are threatened, you band together to eliminate or contain those threats.

And those were some of the rules they played by.

“So they were asked to be what, moles?”

“Eyes. Ears. Silence. Encouragement. Those are the four tiers they want. Otherwise you’d be useless.”

“Encouragement to do what?”

“Eliminate threats.”

They killed after being threatened themselves?

I had to take a moment to look away from her. The twists and turns just kept coming, and I still needed to vomit. The standard was, what, killing? Was everyone guilty of something? Was blackmail the standard? Threatening someone’s life and turning them to killing someone else felt like a made up story, but if it’s in the name of self preservation, I wouldn’t know what I would do.

If all of this was true, I needed to get far, far away from people like Alexander who would kill me for turning him down. Sloane appeared too obsessed with what she was into and it made me wonder if she was acting in self preservation too.

Would I be capable of killing someone?

Was everyone scared for their lives?

That text was right. Let the games begin.

She waited for a few minutes before continuing. “I never wanted this life either, you know. We were born into it and it’s what our parents are handing down to us. Extreme wealth and notoriety above all others does not come without cost. It means the devil is constantly knocking at your door.”