"You and I are the only things holding this family together, Dante. Don't you ever forget that."
An aged man spoke in a wistful voice while looking out on the wide lake in front of him. This old man was named George Lucas, and anyone who saw him at that moment would never believe that this harmless-looking old man was actually one of the most feared people in the modern world. At that moment, George Lucas looked like a simple civilian. He was wearing loose clothing that flowed freely down his body and on his head, he wore a hat that blocked the sun's rays from reaching his eyes. But underneath those clothes was a body sculpted from years of hard work and battle! There were scars and bullet wounds all over his body, and his eyes were hard and alert like a hawk scanning over his territory.
Beside this harmless old man stood a young man with an expressionless face. He had dirty blond hair and deep green eyes that looked sharp enough to pierce through armor! Unlike the old man who had an outward appearance that seemed harmless, this young man couldn't hide how dangerous he was! The young man stood with his hands held behind him like a soldier. His eyes were narrowed into a serious glare on his expressionless face, and the pure black suit he wore fitted him well enough to display his extremely well-built figure. This young man was named Dante and he was the head Cleaner for the Lucas family.
The old man held a fishing rod with one hand as he looked out into the lake in front of him, and he and Dante simply enjoyed the silence for a few long minutes as they watched the calm water waves reflecting the red and yellow hues from the setting sun. There was no one else around the lake since it was private property, so neither of them needed to worry about any enemies attacking them at that moment! George Lucas felt a tug on his fishing rod and he hummed as he thought that he had caught something, but the tugging stopped a few seconds later, and his expression fell once again as he spoke up.
"I don't have long left in this world, Dante."
"You're talking nonsense, sir. You're the picture of perfect health."
Dante finally spoke for the first time and the old man couldn't help but laugh when he heard what the boy said! Dante didn't speak that often because of how serious he was most of the time, but when he spoke, there was a seriousness in his voice that forced you to listen to him! This intensity that Dante had developed wasn't something that you could train even if you had been in tense situations all your life! It was something that you were born with and grew into! And as the Lucas Family Cleaner, Dante had been in enough life-threatening situations to nurture his intensity to a fine point!
George Lucas hummed as he spoke once again.
"Tell me, Dante… how many people have you killed in the five years since you started serving my family? Twenty? Thirty?"
Dante raised an eyebrow in curiosity when he heard this question. He remembered very well that George had once warned him never to speak about the finer details of his jobs outside of their mansion, but Dante could tell that there was something important about this question, so he simply answered.
"Eighty-nine, sir."
George chuckled roughly! The situation wasn't funny at all, but he couldn't help but feel amusement at that moment! Only someone like Dante would remember exactly how many lives he had taken! The boy was the best at what he did and that was the truth, and George felt pride in his heart for what the boy had accomplished. The Lucas family was one of the three large families in Stockham City, a large city a few miles north of London. The city was a hotspot for trade and commerce due to its proximity to various major ports and landmarks, but even though everyone thought that the legitimate businesses were what ran the city, those who were a part of the Stockham City Underworld knew that this was not true! The people who truly ran this city were the three families! The Lucas, the Bellegrini, and the Romanov!
Dante had only started serving the Lucas family when he was fifteen years old, but he had accomplished more than most war veterans. George knew that his time was coming to an end. In the prime years of the Lucas family, George had been the sole leader of one of the most influential and dangerous gangs in the entire city. There wasn't a single transaction that occurred in the city without his knowledge, and there wasn't a single person who would dare to cross their family. But that had been in the past. For the past ten years, the Lucas family had been nothing but a shadow of its past self. George had grown old, and in his old age, he had become tired and weary. He did not have the same bloodthirst and passion that he once possessed as a young man, and that prevented him from being able to change the world the way he wanted.
This lack of drive was what allowed the Bellegrini and Romanov families to rise to the prominence that they held today. Ten years ago, those two families wouldn't have even dared to show their faces on the same street as George Lucas, but now they even dared to count themselves on the same level as him! There were only two reasons why the Bellegrinis and Romanovs still didn't dare to try and get rid of his family. The first was because of the reputation that he had built for himself over the past few years, and the second reason was because of Dante.
Over the past five years, Dante had been working as the head of the Cleaners. A special branch of the Lucas family that specialized in handling problems before they could become problems. Uprisings from rival small gangs. Threats against the family. Money laundering. Cleaning up dead bodies. Threatening, murder, theft, destruction. There was nothing the Cleaners weren't capable of doing for the Lucas family. The Lucas family was a part of the Stockham City underworld, but the Cleaners went even deeper than the rest of the family would dare. They operated within hell itself.
And at the head of these monsters was Dante Lucas, a man regarded as the most dangerous killer in the city. Dante's presence and George's reputation were the only things keeping the family afloat at that moment, but George knew that his reputation was slowly beginning to weaken. Reputation was a powerful thing and George knew that his reputation as a cold-blooded killer and a ruthless gangster was the only thing preventing an all-out war.
But once he was gone…
George Lucas felt his hand tighten around his fishing pole as anger began to rise in their heart, but it wasn't long before he felt the anger die out, and he calmly released his grip. What was the point in getting angry? It wouldn't change the truth of the matter that he was already getting old and tired. There was nothing that he could do about what was coming. It was inevitable.
George felt another tug on his fishing rod, and he hummed as he thought there was a catch, but the tug stopped after a second and for the second time, his expression fell. George stayed silent for the next few minutes without speaking, and surprisingly it was Dante who broke the silence as he asked,
"Is everything okay, sir?"
George's lips lifted into a tired smile as Dante's words warmed his heart. When was the last time anyone asked him if he was okay? When was the last time he felt like there was someone out there who truly cared for him? Before Dante arrived in the family, George knew that there had been no one. George shook his head as he ignored the question and said something else.
"Richie and Angelina are returning soon, aren't they?"
Dante nodded. Richie and Angelina were two of George's three children. Richie was the second-born son of George, who was known to be an expert playboy and a rampant alcoholic. There was a time when Richard was the talk of the town almost every single weekend in the city! He would hop from bar to bar and spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on hookers and alcohol! He brought shame to the Lucas name and did whatever he wanted! He knew that no one could touch him because of his family name, so he used it to disgusting degrees!
George had gotten so angry at Lucas for his horrible behavior that he sent him abroad at the first chance he got! Richard had been studying business in Canada for the past four years and he was just finishing up his diploma so he would be returning home that week. Angelina, on the other hand, was the youngest child and only daughter of George Lucas. She was the apple of George's eyes and there wasn't a single person in the entire city who didn't know about her extraordinary beauty. George had been afraid of keeping his daughter in this world that was filled with sharks and vipers, so he sent her out of the country to study art in Japan. She had been there for the past three years, and she would be returning home around the same time as Richard.
George's third child and firstborn son was the only child who had stayed back and completed his education here in the city. Fredrick Lucas was a brilliant lawyer and he had studied the ins and outs of the business under his father for the past ten years. George always told Dante how proud he was of his first son, and Dante could see in George's eyes that he truly loved the boy.