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หน้าหลัก / I Saved the Mafia Family by Being Cheap / บทที่ 1 - บทที่ 9

บททั้งหมดของ I Saved the Mafia Family by Being Cheap: บทที่ 1 - บทที่ 9

9

Chapter 1

At that moment, cigar smoke filled the Rinaldi family's meeting hall on the top floor of the Empire State Building. Every capo in the room looked like he'd just crawled out of a coffin.Camilla turned to Helena with a victor's smile."Helena, have you thought it over?"The hall was so quiet you could hear a pin drop.Credit cutoff notices from 12 underground banks, three blood-contract kill orders, and collection letters for dirty money lay in a neat row in front of Helena.Helena stood at the end of the long table, her face drained of color.She didn't look at Camilla. Her gaze passed over everyone and landed on the leather couch in the corner.I was sitting there holding three shriveled lemons.The estate cook had been about to throw them out that morning. When I heard, I thought, No way. Squeeze out some juice, add water, and you've got free lemonade. So I slipped them into my pocket and brought them to headquarters.Meeting her gaze, I sliced the lemons with a small knife and laid
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Chapter 2

The moment I sent the message, I was kicked out of the encrypted group chat.I put my phone away. When I looked up, a man had appeared outside the carved doors of the meeting hall.Dante Marchetti. Heir to the Marchetti family. Across the North American underworld, he was known for smiling as he went for your throat.He wore a custom Savile Row suit and strolled in unhurried, two lawyers with briefcases at his heels.Dante glanced at the blood contracts and debt demands piled on the table and gave a thin smile."Looks like I'm not too late."The air in the already tense hall grew even heavier.Several of the capos visibly stiffened.The Marchetti family was among the East Coast's most powerful criminal financiers. With the Rinaldi family's smuggling operation in ruins, everyone knew Dante hadn't come to help out of the goodness of his heart.Triumph flashed in Camilla's eyes. She leaned back in her chair, looking completely sure of herself.Dante's family had been pulling the strings b
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Chapter 3

I immediately shot back."There's no way I'm sleeping in a cardboard box!"I'd gotten used to a ten-million-dollar mattress, sanitized and free of dust mites. How could I go back to sleeping on the hard ground?"Besides, wouldn't someone charge you protection money under a bridge? Even if you sleep on the street, you have to find a spot where nobody makes you pay street tax. I checked. The homeless guys at an abandoned subway station in Queens stop charging after eight at night."Nobody in the hall said a word.Paolo's mouth hung open, and his fingers froze on his calculator.Camilla looked at me like I was an idiot."Chloe, are you really this clueless, or are you faking it? If the family goes bankrupt, you won't get a cent!"I muttered under my breath."I'm not getting any of the family's money now, either. And I've already put in $10,000 of my own."No one heard me.Just then, the heavy wooden doors of the hall swung open.The council of elders had arrived.Leading them was Antonio
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Chapter 4

Helena picked up the fountain pen with a trembling hand. The nib scratched against the paper.Camilla smiled.The capos all breathed out at once. Some were already exchanging looks, as if one signature would make the disaster hanging over the family disappear.From the couch, I stared at the words printed across the top of the contract."Transferred free of charge."Nothing in the world sounded worse to me than "give it away for free."At Costco, I never missed a free sample. I couldn't stand passing up a bargain.And here Helena was, about to give away docks and casinos worth tens of billions of dollars. For free."Don't sign it!"I stood up.The two bodyguards immediately came at me again and pinned me down on the couch.I startled Helena so badly that she flinched, and the pen rolled onto the table.Camilla glared at me and snapped a warning."Chloe! Don't you dare try anything! Say one more word, and I'll have you dumped in a slum sewer for the rest of your life!"She turned back t
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Chapter 5

Everyone froze as if someone had hit pause.Camilla was the first to burst out laughing."Chloe, what did you just say? Ten thousand?"She laughed so hard she shook, until there were tears in her eyes. Then she turned to Helena."Did I hear that right? A three-billion-dollar arms deal, and she says she paid only $10,000?"Her laughter stopped dead, and her gaze turned razor-sharp."So where's the other two billion, nine hundred ninety-nine million, nine hundred ninety thousand dollars? Did you pocket it and launder it?"Paolo's fingers flew over his calculator. When he finished, he leaned close to Antonio's ear. He kept his voice low, but it carried across the hall."If that much dirty money is missing from the books, that's betrayal. Under the family code, the punishment is three stabs straight through the body."Antonio slammed his hand on the table. His gray beard bristled, and his voice shook with rage."Chloe! Do you know what you're saying? You're in charge of the whole smuggling
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Chapter 6

Dante set down his whiskey. The crystal glass clicked softly against the mahogany table.He quickly composed himself and spoke in an unhurried tone."Ms. Rinaldi, choose your words carefully. In the dirty-money business, routing funds through a third-party account is common."Helena scoffed."Common? A shell company registered in Panama with five hundred thousand dollars on its books pays three billion dollars on behalf of the Rinaldi family. Then you use the bank receipt to pressure me into acknowledging that the payment went through."How generous of you, Mr. Marchetti. You even took on the risk of a double-cross for my sake. What's in it for you?"Elliot rushed over with his laptop."I checked the dark web records! San Marco Trading is owned entirely by the Marchetti family through three layers of trusts. It's a textbook front for laundering money! Its nominee director was the subject of an Interpol Red Notice last month in a separate forged letter of credit case!"He turned the scr
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Chapter 7

Helena had pulled herself together. Her green eyes were perfectly calm."One. Three days ago, a rumor spread across the East Coast underworld that the Rinaldi family's ten-billion-dollar smuggling operation had collapsed and our vault was empty. All 12 underground banks pulled out overnight and took twelve billion dollars with them. Who started that rumor?"Two. Our Las Vegas casino stock dropped 40 percent in three trading days, and who knows how many of our other gambling venues were trashed. Who's paying for those losses?"Three. The Sicilian arms dealers got a so-called inside tip in the middle of the night. By the next morning, a kill order had reached Manhattan, demanding a penalty of four point six billion dollars. Who taught you to get someone else to do your killing?"The smile on Dante's face slowly faded."What do you want, Ms. Rinaldi?""Compensation."Elliot stepped up with his laptop at just the right moment and raised a crucial point."Earlier tonight, your side also kic
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Chapter 8

Camilla lost the Rinaldi name and all her assets. That same night, she was shipped off to a convent in Sicily and locked away.In the meeting hall, Antonio stood leaning on his cane for a long time.Then the old mafia elder, who had spent 30 years carving out the Rinaldi empire at Enzo's side, turned, bowed low to Helena, and kissed her hand."Ms. Rinaldi, I was an old fool."His voice was hoarse."Half an hour ago, I was pushing you to sign your life away. I can't even look you in the eye."Behind him, a dozen or so capos rose one after another. Some took off their hats; others dropped to one knee."Ms. Rinaldi, that traitor Camilla fooled us too.""That's right. She said the Marchetti family would put up the money. We thought she really could save the crews.""Donna, be generous. Please don't hold it against us."Helena looked at them in silence for a few seconds, then spoke softly."Gentlemen, you did it for the family and the tens of thousands of men under your command. I don't bla
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Chapter 9

By the next morning, the whole Rinaldi family was buzzing.Everyone was talking about what had happened in the meeting hall the night before."Did you hear? The new Donna's best friend from the slums tore up the territory transfer contract right in front of a room full of bosses!""And the wildest part? She doesn't have a Wharton degree or a law license. She can't even read a money-laundering report. But she found the exact loophole in the contract and saved the family.""That's what you call talent. A miser's talent!"I sipped a free espresso from the headquarters dining hall and listened to the gunmen whisper as I walked by. All I could think about was the money I'd missed out on.If I'd known fame was worth this much, I would have charged admission at the meeting hall door last night. Two hundred bucks a head.That morning, the family's ruling council of elders met.Helena slapped my appointment letter onto the mahogany table."I propose appointing Ms. Novak as the family's chief fi
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