𝐏𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐬𝐬

𝐬𝐢𝐱

"Beep."

Cai groans, slamming his phone on the table in record time. He had been getting calls from all his heads of states, plus add in Min's repetitive calling.

"Beep."

The phone continues beeping, one of the many flaws of having the great iPhone.

"Oh my lord. I'm gonna pick it up okay?" He mutters into the empty office, leaning back in the chair with the phone in his hands. He quickly plugs his password in and stares at the picture presented in front of him,

"The fudge?" It was a picture of Atlas, the right-hand man of DARK, hugging a petite girl. You couldn't see her face but her hair was brown and short. She had some type of ribbon around the backpack, marking it as hers.

"Ring." The doorbell of his house rings, a constant series of rings following after. Cai rolls his eyes, knowing that the only person who could actually dare to do something that childishly would be Min.

He runs to the door and swings the door open, nearly missing Min's symmetrical face. Min stands there, momentarily in shock, clutching his cheek,

"Ah! You almost hit my face!" He screams, smacking Cai on his bicep. Cai shakes his head, a smile visible on his face as he kicks the door shut.

"And you rang my doorbell non-stop. There. We're equal now." Cai mutters, walking down to his office. Min pouts but follows his best friend anyways down the long hallways. They both stop in front of his office, with Cai pulling his phone out and showing the picture of the girl to Min,

"Do you know her?"

"Maybe. Maybe not. You never know." Min covers half of his face, lightly putting shade on himself.

"Min." Cai lightly chides, his warning tone coming out. Min relaxes, lightly breathing out,

"Yes, I've seen her. I don't know her personally though. But she wasn't scared of me though."

"She wasn't?" This piques Cai's interest. No one in Versailles, citizen or not, wasn't scared of them. Everyone always avoided anybody with a bandana.

"Nope." Min pops the p, sitting on Cai's desk.

"She didn't even flinch when I touched her and removed her hands off her luggage." He adds, polishing his glasses on his bomber jacket.

The printer gently clicks in the background, slowly printing out the picture of the girl. When it finishes, Cai pulls it out, pinning it to the corkboard behind him. Min groans,

"Really you're adding her to the blackmail list?"

The blackmail list was a big board of the other two gangs in Versailles. It was managed by Cai's inner circle and helped pinpoint the weakest part of any one of the gangs if he needed to target anybody.

Getting on there was a challenge since only the most important members of each group were on there. On top of that, no person in their sane mind would have a relationship with anybody if their significant other was part of a mafia group.

That would be like asking for a death wish in the mafia world. Sure, having little flings is pretty common in the mafia world but a full-fledged relationship? Hell no, if you wanted one of those you could go step in a Disney book.

"Who are you?" Min asks the picture, staring at the short girl that stays in his mind.

*

"And we're here." Atlas parks the small car in front of the small house located in the suburbs.

"Interesting," Tara says, turning her head to look at the long row of houses smushed together. It looked like the townhouses that she had seen when she went to New York.

"It's not bad eh?" He asks, sliding the keys into the keyhole, and twisting it until he gets the click.

Tara looks back, dragging the heavy luggage behind her.

To new beginnings.

The thought echoes in her mind as she walks into her new house for the next two years. The inside was very bright and very pop art-ish.

"What do you think of my decorating skills, piglet? I know it's not as good as yours, but it's there right?" Atlas's hand slides over the unfinished tapestry hung up near the window.

Tara's eyes stop right where Atlas's hand points. The unfinished tapestry. It was a color by numbers, one that you could get from any craft store. But it was unfinished, the completed half painted with greens and the uncompleted, a stark contrast of white.

She leaves her baggage near the entrance of the house, walking closer to the flat piece of canvas, gently palming the fabric.

"Did you not finish the painting? She asks, looking around to find some type of paint that shows evidence of someone painting anything. But she found nothing, all she saw was a box of unfinished noodles, still in their take-out box.

Atlas's eyes widen and his hand goes up behind his neck, rubbing the back of it shamefully,

"I didn't actually paint that."

"Then who did?" Tara asks, hooking her thumbs through the belt loops and swinging back and forth.

She looks at the uncared for home. Sure, the decorations were nice but there were dead plants everywhere. She could see more wilting green than the vibrant green that Juni's plants always were.

"A friend of mine." Atlas finally answers, desperately trying not to be interrogated by his sister.

"What does he do?" Tara asks, playing the role of overprotective sister. Atlas makes a sour face at her,

"Come on piglet, what is this? A game of interrogating Eeyore?" He asks teasingly, using her nickname in hopes of deflecting the questions.

Sure, he could have told her that his friend was a shipping official, just like him. But he didn't want Maurice to have to play catch up, so he just chose not to mention him at all.

"Really?" Tara raises an eyebrow just as the knock presents itself at the entryway.

"Were you expecting anybody?" She asks, getting a doubtful reply from Atlas,

"Huh."

Who's at the door?

I hope that all of y'all are enjoying this book, especially getting to slowly get introduced to Versailles's mafia world. Make sure to star, comment, or share if you liked it. TPWK, Sky