Madamme Flo was an old member of the Martinez Gang and most members of the table respected her. Her newfound love with the Contractor was to overthrow Sancho.

I could not understand why Sancho did not see this coming and why he was quick to do away with me. Without me, this Table would have come for his blood. I was the stability the Table needed and I ensured that they saw that today.

I was not going to play cat and mouse with these table members right now. They need to be ruled by fear. So that when I am gone for a few months due to my pregnancy they will be in check.

Sancho ordered Larry to get my chair and Larry took my chair, placed it where I was in the Deputy Leader's position, and ushered me to sit on the chair. There were very few claps of hands and I did not fail to notice those who still felt I should be a member at the table.

They were the ones that were glad that I was back. At that moment, Sancho stood up and said, “If there are no more questions, we should move to other businesses of the day.”

Madame Flo was not going to give in that easily, as he stood up and said, “We still have to vote,” she said.

“There will be no voting today, as you can see Cassie already has her seat and she is seated as a Table Member. Please kindly, have your seat unless you want to unseat a seated member while she has a seat,” Sancho said.

“You are not a true leader and she is not a member of this table. You cannot tell me to sit down,” said Madame Flo.

Well, those were her last words, from where I was seated I threw my knife and it slashed her throat before she could utter any more words. Everyone, including Sancho, was shocked at my ability and my aim.

I stood up looked at all of them in the eyes and shouted. “Is there anyone here who wishes to speak against our leader? Is there anyone here who thinks Sancho is not supposed to be the leader of the Martinez Gang?!”

It was only my voice you could hear in the entire building, as once again, the entire building was quiet.

“You have forgotten how you became table members. Zach operated for years without table members and so was his son, Lisandro. Don’t you ever forget that, now, pay allegiance to your supreme Leader,” I ordered, and without hesitation, everyone bowed to Sancho.

“Thank you, my deputy, can we now go to other business of the day? Cassie, what are your plans for the Senate President? He had made a mark on another Senator. Do we proceed or prefer advice?” said Sancho.

Unlike the Contractor, we just didn’t go ahead with killing because you wanted someone dead. We have decided to add advice to the contract so that when we feel that the person being alive is to an advantage, we can alter the time life of the kill.

And that was what I proposed to the Senator. I decided that we should pay him a visit and tell him to pay allegiance to the Senate President and show all the pieces of evidence we have against him. He could be useful to us and the Senate President too.

The table saw the wisdom in my proposal and voted in favor of my proposal. When we were about to leave, the matter of Madame Flo’s seat was made known by Alex.

“She has no one to replace her, no siblings, no relatives,” Alex said.

“Larry, I now proclaim you now, a Table Member, you will take access to all Madame Flo’s activities and territories,” Sancho declared.

This was not planned and it was uncalled for. I get it that Sancho feels threatened by the Table members, but I do not need a distracted Larry in the building of this empire.

I stood up to oppose the move. I wanted to speak to Sancho to let him understand that declaring Larry a Table Member undermined fellow leaders.

Larry grabbed my hand and shook his head. I got the sign, it would look like a disrespect to Sancho.

We were done with the meeting and I could see respect and fear in the eyes of the Table members. If I had to ensure complete control of the Martinez Gang, I would need to do something extra and special.

“Thank you, Cassie, for all you did today. Once again, I am grateful,” Sancho said.

“Sancho, I need your head in the game. How could you have allowed Madame Flo to play you this way? If she had succeeded, you and your family would have been wiped out completely, you know her,” I said.

“But you asked me to reinstall the table and I did that,” Sancho replied.

“I did not say that so that you could get killed. It was to protect you from the Contractor and that is what played out today,” I said.

“Okay, Cassie, I got your point,’ Sancho said.

“So why did you put Larry on the Table, to anger them more or to take a swipe at me?” I asked.

“Neither. I need more friends than enemies at the Table. You saw it yourself. I don’t have friends and we formed this Table to protect me,” Sancho replied.

“Please let me know next time. Stop making hasty decisions. If you want friends, then start building friends like I did with you,” I said.

“You made your point, let me know how the meeting with the Senators goes. We had better start making good progress unless someone at the Table will come for us again,” I said.

Larry and I left. Lary was quiet and I did not know whether it was the new position he found himself in or my objection to that position. He is now a Table Member in charge of Madame Flo’s territories.

I was wondering how he was supposed to fit in. Larry is very smart and brilliant but a Mafia Boss. No way, they will eat him raw. I smiled to myself at the thought of that.

“Should I be concerned?” Larry asked. The question that brought me back to reality.

“Concerned! Concerned about what please?” I asked.

“You were smiling, so tell me what that was about,” he said.

"Oh that, yeah, I was thinking how you are going to be Mafia Lord. ‘LORD LARRY’. That would be very funny,” I laughed.

Larry laughed too, but he laughed because he was only mocking me and I could see it written all over his face.

“You missed the picture, Cassie. Sancho out-smarted you on this one. Making me a Table Member was about you and not me,” Larry said.

“Would you kindly explain or should I go back and beat it out of Sancho,” I asked.

“You want to beat the Supreme Leader because he outsmarted you?” Larry said. Now he was laughing uncontrollably.

“Okay spit it out, I am losing my patience,” I said.

“Madame Flo has four territories, right?” Larry asked.

“Please go on, I am listening,” I said.

“You are the Deputy Leader, do you have any territory?” Larry asked.

“No I do not and you had better stop dragging this if you do not want to get me angry,” I said.

“So listen to me carefully,” Larry said.

Every Table Member has one territory but Madamme Flo. Larry explained to me that Sancho knew that Larry could not handle the Territories without me but needed another ally at the Table. Since I was without a territory, Sancho imagined that I and Larry would share Madame Flo’s territory.

Wow! That was a fantastic plan. I told Larry that we were, making progress!