The Monster In Us

39- before all eLse

"Vera, not now," My father scolds me.

"What the hell is going on?" I demand, pretty much forgetting the issue that I had come in here to talk to him about. It's definitely on my mind but I sure would appreciate knowing why Sergei is being treated like a traitor right now. He's been with Pantera since I can remember, always my father's second in command, there's no way that he's done anything to deserve this from my father.

My father turns to me and then hands me a black leather wallet. I open it up and gasp a little bit when I see a police badge. There's no fucking way.

"He's a cop," He says, his face stone cold.

I look back at Sergei, waiting for him to tell me that it's not true. He doesn't deny it though, he just closes his eyes and takes a few deep breaths, probably to deal with the pain of the beating.

If there's one thing my father hates more than Italians, it's cops. How dare they do the right thing? How dare they want a safe city for its inhabitants?

Even just seeing the badge, hearing the word 'cop', makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up because I'm immediately alert and feeling defensive.

After the initial shock of finding out that Sergei, the man who's been by my father's side for year and years, is actually an undercover cop, I remember why I came into the room in the first place.

"I need to talk to you," I tell my father.

"Does it look like I have time for you right now?" He hisses irritably, glaring at me now. Obviously, he's very angry right now in finding out that his second in command, his best friend (although he'd never admit to actually caring about the man), is a traitor. But I'm angrier at my father right now than I am at Sergei and I don't really care about his feelings because all I can think about now is that he was in charge of my mother's death.

"Make time," I snap at him. "I found something at Berardi that I need to talk to you about."

"I know what to do," My dad mutters to himself, completely ignoring me now because he's too preoccupied with this whole Sergei debacle. He lets his thoughts churn for a moment while he thinks and then he looks up at me. "You, stay here."

"I know that you-"

He interrupts me by pointing to the three other men in the room prepared to torture the life out of Sergei... or whatever his real name is. "Come with me. Vera, we'll be back in two hours, he will be dead by then."

"You want me to kill him?" I wonder with raised eyebrows. I figured that my father would want that honor but when I see him look back at Sergei tied to the chair and covered in his own blood, I realize that my father doesn't have it in him to murder Sergei. He cares too much, despite Sergei being a phony. He can order his death because it is what has to be done for the survival of Pantera but he does not have the strength to pull the trigger himself. Just like with my mother.

"Yes, we need to go clear this up before it gets out of hand," My father decides. "Two hours, Vera. He won't talk, just get his body out of here."

I nod in understanding. Too much is going on right now for me to focus on one thing but before I can get a hold on reality again, my father and the three men are out of the room and the door is shut between us, leaving me alone in the room with Sergei. I take a few deep breaths, ignoring the middle aged man in the chair.

Sergei is a cop.

My father killed my mother.

Coleman is dead.