Good talk? Good talk!
“But it ain’t just Canton, and it ain’t even those Toledo bastards,” Jimmy went on. “It’s those goddamned Erie bastards. You hear what they did?” Jimmy slapped the table. “They joined up! They’re in the Consortium now!”
“Yeah,” Bad Jack said after a moment. He poured himself a drink, because he was gonna need it for this talk. “I heard. You want a drink?”
“That’s all you gotta say? Do I want a fucking drink?”
“No, Jimmy, I got a bunch of things to say. Starting with ‘Who the hell said you could talk to me like that?’” Bad Jack held Just Jimmy’s eyes until the other man flushed and looked away, waving his hand in unspoken apology. “That’s better.
“Now, let’s talk about Erie. There’s not a god-damned thing we can do about Erie, Jimmy. And why should we? That Outfit that ran us out, they got knocked out by a new crew. And that new crew? Lasted six months. Now we’re hearing how the latest bunch of punks went and invited Hershey in. Did you want to go back and have the crew grab Erie, instead? Close the circle, or something like that?”