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"The trouble is all that damn trash in the movies and in the newspapers," Michael said.
"You've got the wrong idea of my father and the Corleone Family. I'll make a final
explanation and this one will be really final. My father is a businessman trying to provide
for his wife and children and those friends he might need someday in a time of trouble.
He doesn't accept the rules of the society we live in because those rules would have
condemned him to a life not suitable to a man like himself, a man of extraordinary force
and character. What you have to understand is that he considers himself the equal of all
those great men like Presidents and Prime Ministers and Supreme Court Justices and
Governors of the States. He refuses to live by rules set up by others, rules which
condemn him to a defeated life. But his ultimate aim is to enter that society with a
certain power since society doesn't really protect its members who do not have their
own individual power. In the meantime he operates on a code of ethics he considers far
superior to the legal structures of society."
Kay was looking at him incredulously. "But that's ridiculous," she said. "What if
everybody felt the same way? How could society ever function, we'd be back in the
times of the cavemen. Mike, you don't believe what you're saying, do you?"
Michael grinned at her. "I'm just telling you what my father believes. I just want you to
understand that whatever else he is, he's not irresponsible, or at least not in the society
which he has created. He's not a crazy machine-gunning mobster as you seem to think.
He's a responsible man in his own way."
"And what do you believe?" Kay asked quietly.
Michael shrugged. "I believe in my family," he said. "I believe in you and the family we
may have. I don't trust society to protect us, I have no intention of placing my fate in the
hands of men whose only qualification is that they managed to con a block of people to
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vote for them. But that's for now. My father's time is done. The things he did can no
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longer be done except with a great deal of risk. Whether we like it or not the Corleone
Family has to join that society. But when they do I'd like us to join it with plenty of our
own power; that is, money and ownership of other valuables. I'd like to make my
children as secure as possible before they join that general destiny."
"But you volunteered to fight for your country, you were a war hero," Kay said. "What
happened to make you change?"
Michael said, "This is really getting us no place. But maybe I'm just one of those real
old-fashioned conservatives they grow up in your hometown. I take care of myself,
individual. Governments really don't do much for their people, that's what it comes down
to, but that's not it really. All I can say, I have to help my father, I have to be on his side.
And you have to make your decision about being on my side," He smiled at her. "I
guess getting married was a bad idea."
Kay patted the bed. "I don't know about marrying, but I've gone without a man for two
years and I'm not letting you off so easy now. Come on in here."
When they were in bed together, the light out, she whispered to him, "Do you believe
me about not having a man since you left?"
"I believe you," Michael said.
"Did you?" she whispered in a softer voice.
"Yes," Michael said. He felt her stiffen a little. "But not in the last six months." It was
true. Kay was the first woman he had made love to since the death of Apollonia.
Chapter 26
The garish suite overlooked the fake fairyland grounds in the rear of the hotel;
transplanted palm trees lit up by climbers of orange lights, two huge swimming pools
shimmering dark blue by the light of the desert stars. On the horizon were the sand and
stone mountains that ringed Las Vegas nestling in its neon valley. Johnny Fontane let
the heavy, richly embroidered gray drape fall and turned back to the room.
A special detail of four men, a pit boss, a dealer, extra relief man, and a cocktail
waitress in her scanty nightclub costume were getting things ready for private action.
Nino Valenti was lying on the sofa in the living room part of the suite, a water glass of
whiskey in his hand. He watched the people from the casino setting up the blackjack
table with the proper six padded chairs around its horseshoe outer rim. "That's great,
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that's great," he said in a slurred voice that was not quite drunken. "Johnny, come on
and gamble with me against these bastards. I got the luck. We'll beat their crullers in."
Johnny sat on a footstool opposite the couch: "You know I don't gamble," he said.
"How you feeling, Nino?"
Nino Valenti grinned at him. "Great. I got broads coming up at midnight, then some