America 1919

"Alright, at least for a short while, we won't have any trouble!"

The next morning, Donnie recounted what had happened at the Ritz Hotel to Robert and John, who had already returned to Elwood Village. His face finally showed the most relaxed smile in some time.

John still said with some resentment, "I say we shouldn't be working with Nucky at all. If he dares to challenge us, we'll deal with him just like we dealt with George. Just get rid of him, I don't believe he's always surrounded by a bunch of people."

Donnie glared at John and said, "What are you thinking? Can Nucky be compared to George Kurle? If he dies, the whole Atlantic City will be in chaos, and our business will be affected too!"

With Nucky around, Atlantic City could stay peaceful, and the various policies resisting Prohibition could be smoothly implemented. If Nucky were to die, it would be like headless dragons, and all of Atlantic City would descend into chaos. The resistance against Prohibition would undoubtedly be hit hard.

John grumbled a few words, still somewhat unwilling, "But if we sell our booze to them, we'll earn a lot less!"

Donnie said, "Slow and steady wins the race. We're in this for the long haul. To do business in Atlantic City, at least for the short term, we can't do without Nucky. Plus, Nucky has the connections, so we don't have to worry about sales volume in the early days."

John nodded, not quite understanding, "I just don't like that he'd sent people to assassinate you before!"

Donnie smiled, "Neither do I."

Robert then said to Donnie, "Three things. First, Prohibition is about to start. Although Atlantic City is resisting Prohibition, there's no denying it will still impact the average person. So I predict that the day before Prohibition begins, the whole of Atlantic City will be awash in alcohol. Everyone will hit the streets to stock up and take it home. What do we do then?"

The so-called 'Volstead Act' for Prohibition, though resisted in Atlantic City, was something you could do but couldn't candidly talk about. Plus, many average citizens of Atlantic City doubted such resistance would succeed.

Therefore, there definitely would be many people hoarding a lot of booze as a precaution.

This situation would naturally lead to Atlantic City's alcohol distributors making a fortune... provided they could bring out so much stock at that time!

Donnie casually said, "If we have customers, we'll sell, but we must keep enough stock for the next three days. I don't want Block Tavern to ever run out of alcohol; that would be quite the spectacle!"

After hearing this, Robert nodded, indicating he would handle it, and then he told Donnie the second matter.

"I've already spoken to some familiar taverns, and they're very interested in our stock. However, they hope we can give them a discount. These people seem to have prearranged it, speaking in the exact same terms."

Donnie nodded after hearing this, "Understandable. We're the newcomers, after all, and we can't compare to these guys. They certainly found out about our loan from Nucky somehow."

Robert said with some concern, "So, what do we do? Lower our prices or keep looking?"

Donnie scoffed, "Lower the price? Tell them the price of this batch of booze has just gone up from a 70% rise to 80%. If they don't want to buy, then forget it. Tell them we're not short of customers!"

Robert was slightly taken aback; he hadn't expected Donnie to be so resolute in refusing to lower the price, and then to actually raise it.

"Won't this drive these people to find someone else?"

Donnie patted Robert's shoulder and laughed, "Relax, things aren't like they used to be. If they had other sources, why would they come to us?"

Robert thought for a moment and understood Donnie's logic. Now, alcohol was seriously scarce in Atlantic City, and no one else had any stock to supply in the short term except Donnie.

"But I'm still worried. What if these people resort to underhanded tactics?"

"Damn it, if they dare, I'll crush their... to smithereens!" John immediately shouted assertively, finding his sense of presence.

Robert shot John a look and said, "They are over a dozen men strong, plus their underlings; there would be dozens. Even if they just stood there letting you at it, you'd still be at it for a while. And at that time, please keep your distance from me. I don't want to stand next to a John who's crushed dozens of men...!"

Humiliated by Robert's mocking words, John's face turned red. Unable to outtalk Robert, John simply tackled him to the ground and engaged in a tussle.

Robert, bent over, lay on the ground, his hands tightly covering the area between his legs.

This made John seem as if he had some unsavory habits.

It only made the already embarrassed and angry John even more flustered and vexed.

Only after John vented his emotions did Robert get up, brushing off the dirt from his clothes as if nothing had happened.

"Atlantic City isn't just about taverns, hotels, residential apartments; these places will also need alcohol. And even if we don't sell to them, just the night before Prohibition alone will allow us to sell plenty. Initially, we wanted to sell to them to avoid some trouble since our foothold in Atlantic City isn't that stable yet."

But now, things are different. We've reached a consensus to cooperate with Nucky, and with Nucky involved, these guys wouldn't dare to cause any serious trouble.

That's also why I agreed to cooperate with Nucky in the first place!"

Donnie explained to the panting John.

John sat there, took a big gulp of beer, and then said, "If you put it that way, I get it!"

Donnie turned to Robert and asked, "Alright, tell me about the third thing."

Robert said, "The woman you asked me to investigate, I've looked into her. Her name is Margaret Schroeder. Like other women in Atlantic City, she's a housewife. Her husband, Dennis Schroeder, is a baker's assistant. However, this guy likes to gamble and isn't good at it, pretty much giving all his wages to the casino.

Margaret joined the WCTU two years ago, and now she's an officer in the organization."

Then Robert added, "Oh, and they don't have any children yet!"

"So they are really married?" John thought back to his previous guess about Margaret.

"Whether they're married or not doesn't matter!" Donnie stroked his chin and smiled, "What's important is that she's an officer in the WCTU. Having that role is enough!"

Robert nodded, and seeing that John still didn't understand Donnie's intentions, he once again flashed a mocking smile.

John got angry again, but this time Robert didn't give him a chance to catch him, darting around the tavern's main hall, making it impossible for John to get his hands on him.

"You're already out of shape in such a short time!" Robert dodged John's reach with a swift move, his mocking BUFF at full charge!

Seeing that he couldn't catch Robert no matter what, John could only continue to pant heavily and sit down next to Donnie.

"There's something else I don't understand?"

Curious, Donnie looked at his big brother, "Since when did you start using your brain?"

"Me!"

Seeing John's clenched fists, Donnie too swiftly moved away, keeping at least three meters from John, before he asked.

"What don't you understand!"

John said indignantly, "Olman was obviously setting you up last night, so why did you agree to cooperate with him? Didn't you say that in Atlantic City, as long as we could cooperate with Nucky, we wouldn't have any problems?"

Donnie laughed and said, "I don't want to speculate about Olman's reasons for doing what he did last night, but you should know, just because we are cooperating with Nucky now doesn't mean we will always be in a cooperative relationship with Nucky. Right now, Nucky is working with us because he knows we pose no threat to him.

If in the future there's a conflict of interest and we have reached a point where we could threaten his position in Atlantic City, do you think he would still work with us then?"

"So what does that have to do with Olman?"

John still didn't grasp Donnie's point.

"You're so dense! Even a Russian bear isn't as slow as you!" Robert, standing beside Donnie, said proudly, "Donnie's point is simple. If one day we do have a disagreement with Nucky, then we need to have enough people on our side.

Olman is a good candidate; he has connections in Atlantic City, has relationships, and a bit of brains. I guess Donnie must believe that this guy will also have promising prospects in the future, which is why he's overlooking what Olman did last night!"

"Ah!"

John stood up, scratching his head and smiling, "So that's it. Now I understand!"

Robert made a frustrated face and said, "I just wish you could lend some of your strength to your IQ, because explaining things to you is just too much of a hassle!"

"Really?" John chuckled and suddenly reached out. Robert, who was now less than a meter away, didn't react in time and was caught by John.

"Calling me stupid, today I'll show you what a real heavy-hitter's punch looks like!"

Watching the two of them wrestle again, Donnie still didn't intervene, just dropped a line, "I've got some things to do, you two keep an eye on the shop!"

After saying that, Donnie took an address he had gotten from Robert and left the tavern!