Chapter 1

Not much happened over the next few years. One day, way before either of us knew it, our youngest were getting ready for The Prom. I wondered if they might balk at having the bodyguards go along?

When the two sets of twins lined up in front of Victor and I and said, "We're ready Boss!"

Victor and I looked up at each other.

"Ahh, and who are your dates, if we can be so bold as to ask?"

"Are they nice, and why have we not met them?"

"Oh but you have!" as six more of our 'extended ' family marched in. The paired of and our youngest and Pappy and Deke's children stood before us. Two were boy/girl two were a mix of one boy and two girls.

"I think, they are all OK, don't you "Boss?"

Tears came to mine and Victors eyes. The wives just smiled and kept saying how cute they all looked. I knew they were all close. We never had the kind of fights or arguments most families had. Yes, these were all family. To see the older twins, care about the others was both a answer to how they would share in the future but also a signal to Victor and I that it would soon be time to let these youngsters take over. Take over a very large and somewhat unusual business. We both had discussed things and both were reluctant to tell them everything.

"You know what many people will say, don't you?"

"Yes Sir!"

"Why?"

"Simple Sir, because we love them, trust them, and want to share with them this night."

"Three cars, Bruno, Victor and I were going too."

We stayed in the car. Bruno radioed about 2 fights that were taking place. Someone had said something about Paulo having two girlfriends and one being a sister. The other was when another boy had pulled Gina's arm, as to take her away from Ralph. The bodyguards were standing ready but did not interfere. Both the boys defended their dates. Ralph probably a bit more physically. The boy who had grabbed Gina was going to not be dancing this evening, in fact, even standing would be a bit of a challenge.

The boys had asked Bruno to make all the après' prom arrangements.

They seemed to drive around in circles, seemingly lost. A call was made to the car ahead for instruction. Bruno turned around, "Sorry kids. I'm lost, we have dinner for you at the 'Charles E. Cheez' place and a whole lot of games, but, damn, we can't seem to find it. Let's go ask at the hotel they might know where it is.

At the hotel, Bruno asked for Serge', he was not there. When asked were he was they thought on 14th floor, but they could page him. Bruno looked at his watch. "Nope, we'll find him. C'mon kids our reservations are in 10 minutes and on Prom night they won't hold them."

They took the private lift up. When they got out, first there was not a lot of room going up, second most of the lights were out or dimmed. Bruno asked the man if he had seen Serge' and was told he came up earlier. "Let's find him fast kids, we don't have much time. There was a mad rush inside the suite. Everyone was calling for Serge'.

As they entered they heard, "OK. OK, what do you think, you own the Place? OH Hell, I think you do."

When the lights came on, it was filled with friends and family. Some close friends from the Prom were there too. Food, a table of gifts for all the teens were on a table with names on them, even their friends were not forgotten. At about 4:30 everyone was leaving. Victor came up, handed his daughter a key card and told her they would all be back for Sunday brunch with them; then get them all back home. Until then to enjoy.

There was some issues we all had. We had seen the way they had been together. With the events of the evening now in mind, we wondered if a family could ever be too close.