95 The Recovery

"I think it's officially time for the next phase of our operation. Don't you?" I smiled sweetly at Henri and waited for him to look up from his crossword puzzle. The man had been coming to my room to sit with me for a while every single day for the month I'd been in bed after being discharged from the hospital. "Time to make Marco submit. And to make my name known."

"And how do you propose we do that, Madame?" Henri looked as bored as he sounded, now ultimately used to me bouncing random ideas off him. This one was special, though. I'd been thinking about it a lot.

"We start recruiting soldiers for my little militia. Common criminals, gang members, regular people in debt, or just anyone willing to hold a weapon or do some work for generous pay. You know, like the actual mob."