Chapter 37: I Have a Way

"The Pigeon is here?"

Hearing the word "Pigeon," Truby froze for a moment. In that lapse of focus, Dave caught him square in the face with a punch, sending two streaks of blood spraying from his nose.

"Give me back my damn money!" Dave roared with fury.

Recovering his senses, Truby grabbed Dave’s wrist and shoved him away with force. "You lunatic! Get lost!"

He quickly put some distance between them and looked to the side. A man with a slender build and elegant demeanor, wearing a thin black trench coat, was walking calmly into the center of the crowd.

Luca’s gaze swept across the scene like a razor, and though his voice was quiet, it made the air instantly turn cold.

"Enough. In my territory, you need to learn how to show respect."

The commotion ceased at once; the scene fell into a deathly silence.

Both Dave and Richie recognized Luca. Having dealt with gangs for years, Truby understood even better exactly what kind of man Luca was.

Luca stood like an unbridgeable chasm between the two sides. The two factions glared at each other from across the divide, but for the moment, their fire had been extinguished.

The onlookers and nearby shopkeepers felt the scene was utterly absurd. Usually, it was the police who stopped gang fights, but here, a mobster had forced two groups of police to stand down.

"That's Luca the Pigeon," a grocery store owner, accustomed to such sights, boasted to a bystander. "In Little Italy, no one dares to start a conflict in front of him. See? Even the police have to follow the rules of peace here; they wouldn't dare defy him!"

The bystander was stunned.

The owner continued, "You can rest easy opening a shop here. No thugs will dare harass you. Of course, you only need to pay a tiny bit of protection money. Even if you have no money, it doesn't matter—you just need to offer your respect and devotion. Luca the Pigeon helps every one of his friends. He is the protector of the common people in Little Italy and the godfather in our hearts!"

The bystander was shocked. With someone so formidable, should he consider moving here?

At this moment, watching Luca’s sharp, angular profile, Truby’s mood was at its worst. He knew there would be no advantage to be gained today; Luca would absolutely not allow any further conflict here.

The money had to be returned in full—it wasn't like he could use it anyway; who would dare spend marked bills? He had been overjoyed at the thought of scoring a windfall, only for it to come to nothing.

Truby was incredibly irritated. But he despised Richie’s self-righteous attitude even more, and he didn't want to indulge Dave’s foul temper either.

*You sons-of-bitches! Who are you trying to impress?*

"Keep your money," Truby threw the cash onto the ground and glared fiercely at Richie. "You honest-to-God idiot, take your money and hand it over to your federal daddies."

With that, he signaled his men to leave.

But from behind him came three words.

"Pick it up."

Hearing Luca’s voice, Truby clenched his fists, but when he turned around, he wore a smile on his face.

Luca gestured to the money bag on the ground, his voice steady and powerful. "Return it exactly how you took it. Did you forget how to spell the word 'respect'? Pick it up."

The expressions of the policemen shifted repeatedly. Truby, a lawless cop, fell silent in the face of a mobster who was even more lawless than he. His clenched fists tightened and loosened, before finally relaxing.

He took a deep breath, silently picked up the money bag, shoved it into Richie’s arms, and immediately turned to leave, not wanting to stay a second longer.

The gaze of the onlookers felt piercingly sharp; he had lost all his face!

After driving far away, Truby finally let out a sigh of relief.

A colleague asked him, "With so many of us, we should have taught that Pigeon a lesson! We're the police! Why be afraid of a mobster? And he’s just a soldier."

Truby cursed, "If you want to die, don't drag me with you! All of us combined couldn't beat the Pigeon! Do you know why the gangs in Little Italy fear him? Because he used to be called the Butcher! He wiped out an entire gang by himself! You know about John Wick? The Pigeon isn't much inferior to him!"

The colleague: "......"

.......

【You have stopped a conflict between police factions; you have upheld justice and peace for the police...】

【Skill points +5】

【Skill fragment +1】

【Current skill fragments: 31】

Luca blinked, closed the panel, and turned back to the two officers.

"Officer Roberts, long time no see." Luca reached out a friendly hand. "Why didn't you say hello when you came to Little Italy?"

Richie felt a sudden sense of being flattered—perhaps it was the first time he had seen such a powerful side of Luca, to the point where even a corrupt cop like Truby feared him.

It takes a villain to deal with a villain.

He shook Luca’s hand. "Hello. I didn't know you were here... I mean, I didn't expect to run into you again here."

"This is my home, after all." Luca waved to the vendors and shopkeepers by the road. "Look, the people here all know me."

Richie stared at the scene in astonishment. The friendly smiles of the neighbors were so bright they felt unreal.

Little Italy really did have an ambassador of peace.

【Bond: Familiar】

After some conversation, Luca learned that Dave had actually joined Richie Roberts' special drug enforcement unit!

*Well, well! You two rare cards have ended up together, haven't you?*

Luca took Dave aside to catch up, his gaze glancing toward Richie, who was busy counting the money. "I'm curious, did Roberts invite you, or did you join him on your own?"

"Roberts is a man you can trust." Dave sighed in admiration. "I've never seen a cop find a million dollars and voluntarily turn it in, never! He's the first in history! Do you know what he said when I asked him why?"

"He said it was the right thing to do."

"So when he asked me to join him, I didn't refuse. I thought I should do some right things, too."

*The right thing...* Luca thought of the previous killers—whether it was the sniper or the pervert from the Seven Deadly Sins, all of them believed they were doing the "right" thing.

But most people did not agree with them.

Yet what Richie and Dave were doing would be recognized by many.

After the money was counted, Richie didn't stay long. After a brief chat with Luca, he took Dave and left the Bronx.

He was likely wary of Luca's identity as a mobster and lacked deeper trust. After all, the Mafia is a drug cartel.

......

"Those two actually ended up together..."

Luca waved at the departing car, smiling brightly.

He felt quite gratified that these two rare cards had come together to do what they believed was right.

From the current situation, Richie had already tracked down one of Frank’s dens, so Frank would soon be targeted by following the clues.

But that wasn't enough. To catch Frank, they needed to understand his U.S. military supply transport channels.

What was the point of destroying a tiny tire shop? Don't lose the watermelon while picking up sesame seeds.

......

New Jersey.

In a county town more than a hundred kilometers from New York, Richie Roberts and his team moved their office.

There was no other way; New York was no place for honest men. The police department and the DEA couldn't find anyone trustworthy there, and there was a high chance news would leak.

Moving the temporary headquarters to the next state provided more autonomy.

That day, the group sat around a blackboard covered with pictures of major criminals. Richie explained some intelligence they had recently gathered.

Four or five days had passed since the tire shop robbery, and they had already unearthed some information regarding Frank Lucas.

For instance, Frank’s drug business was run through his family. He was the eldest brother and had a slew of brothers and cousins. These relatives were scattered across the five boroughs of New York and surrounding cities, ostensibly running laundromats, tire shops, furniture stores, and hardware stores as legitimate businesses, while privately, they were all drug distribution hubs.

"This guy is very low-key in his personal life. He only communicates finances with his lawyer and accountant... He is imitating the Italians, using the same organizational structure to protect himself..."

After listening to Richie’s report, his superior asked, "How much evidence have you gathered? Without drugs, without witnesses, no one is going to jail."

Richie pointed to a photo on the blackboard. "This guy is Dominic Cortano, an underboss of the Lucchese family! We’ve already found out that Frank is connected to him."

He moved his finger to point at two other men. "Maligio, White Tiger—these two are capos in the Lucchese family who secretly help Dominic move goods... I believe Frank is also one of Dominic's distributors."

The intelligence this group of police had was still quite superficial; they hadn't realized that Frank was the true "North American General Agent." Following conventional wisdom, the Mafia was usually the ultimate villain.

*How could a black man's capability be stronger than an Italian's?*

"The Lucchese family?" The superior who had come to inspect frowned. "That makes things difficult."

The expressions of everyone in the room darkened. The Mafia was definitely a hundred times harder to deal with than the black gangs.

Just then, someone in the crowd spoke up, "If it's the Lucchese family... perhaps I have a way."

Everyone’s eyes fell squarely on Dave Mills' face.

Facing their curious gazes, Dave gave a dry laugh and pointed to an unremarkable spot in the corner of the blackboard. There, a handsome photo was pasted; he was smiling brightly, looking dazzling even among a group of mob bosses.

——Luca Greco.