This promotion would change all that. Once they were my associates, everyone would know that they had allegiances to me and the Diamond Butterflies by extension. It had obvious upsides and downsides. There was no one in town that was important that did not know my name. Being known as someone close to me would open a lot of doors and lead to a lot of opportunities to make money. For the criminal world, you were protected from everyone that respected or feared my name. The downside was that the total opposite was true if that was not the case. Brown Owl establishments and affiliates would dislike them. The number of clients willing to hire you for big jobs went down. People that hated me or were rivals would target them to get to me. If they did not keep their noses clean, cops could use them to target me for crime investigations. They still needed to do the 10 missions as an associate before ranking up to the next level. Due to their ethnicities, I did not actually have to make them a big deal. It was customary to reserve their rank of made men to those of our ethnicity only.
Still, good work should be celebrated and recognized. Bianca was not, but she was a made woman. The same for Tommy, Cameron and Ronan. The 5 of them would be promoted to associates. I called them up one by one to let them know to meet me at The Rosy Face Inn. Nicolò was called next. It was his hotel and his district. He allowed me to use the lowest penthouse for the party. Because of all we went through, it was free. "Why don't you use your hotel?" he asked. "Daphne said I could never go there again." I told him. He scoffed. "And you're sticking to it!? She's your wife, but remember that your bastards are more pure blooded than Dante is. No one would blame you if you switched her out." he said. That was one way to look at it. Dante was my only legitimate son. He was still of mixed descent and of a foreign mother. My bastard children had mothers from the old country. If I divorced and married Bianca, Arminio and Nicolò would definitely allow me to raise Carlo to legitimized status. No questions asked. They were older than Dante as well. Carlo could be my true heir as well.
Celebrations at the hotel were not unheard of. As such, all the made men in town were invited. The 3 Catano children were still with their grandfather. He had specifically requested the time to get to know them. Neither of the twins could do anything. His word was law. It made sense. If Arminio did become the next head of their family, his children would then be the next leaders after him. If it fell through, he would have to deal with Asella's children taking the mantle. While it was no secret the man disliked both Arminio and Asella, he was a pragmatic man. This was the current fourth generation of his family. He had to give them some level of instruction and direction. He did not inherit the leadership from his father for his black sheep to fuck it all up. Rosario, Luca and Nadia were not going to be there. Everyone else was. I bought our guests of honor bouquets of flowers. Some liked them more than others. I took time to list each of their accomplishments. Everyone gathered got to clap for them. After they were done, I promoted my goons. Romeo and the rest moved for the initiation. It went well.
