SEVEN'S POV
I watch the droplets of condensation roll down the side of my full glass. It falls the entirety of the glass before pooling onto the table from the rim. The coolness of my glass and the stack of ice in it have created the thin watery layer on the outside, the droplets of water catching the dim lights in the foggy establishment. Clouds of cigarette and cigar smoke fumigate the bar, a particular smell wafts through every now and then telling me someone is smoking pot in here too.
"Are you even listening, Sev?" Curby's voice questions next to me and I lift my head from my glass.
"No. What did you say?" I look over at him sitting next to me.
"Are your ears painted on, boy?" Grim asks from across the table.
"You'd think so by how selective his hearing has gotten." Curby answers Grim.
"He's been a little...distracted lately." Curby smirks and instantly I glare at him.
"Distracted?" Grimmy asks.
"No, I haven't. Curby is just talking shit because he doesn't like the fact I ignore him most of the time." I send him a warning glare to which he winks at me in reply.
Dick.
"What were you saying that was so important?" I ask him.
"Well I was talking about what happened over at the new farms Victor took from Sergey." Curby states.
"Mm. What about them?" I ask and take a drink from my glass. Spiced rum on the rocks, an old friend of mine.
"One of the farmers was hoarding some of the broken plants, thinking he could produce a little on the side for himself." Curby explains.
"And? They're broken plants, we'd just throw them out anyway why should we care if someone wants to be resourceful." I shrug and Grimmy shakes his head.
"What?" I ask him.
"It's like you don't know your uncle sometimes." He comments
"Why? What did Victor do about it?" I ask them both.
"Well Victor stated it was theft. That the farmer was stealing from him." Curby divulges.
"What did he do?" I ask although I think I already know.
"Killed him. Made his family watch him be tortured first though." Curby shrugs. I'm not surprised, I had assumed as much.
"When you say family...no kids right?" I ask to make sure. Both Grim's and Curby's silence speaks very loudly.
"No children, right?" I repeat, not wanting to believe what their silence has told me.
"The farmers eight year old daughter was a witness, yes." Grimmy finally answers and my fists clench in anger.
"What the fuck!" I stammer, my fist hitting against the wooden table and they both now stare down at their glasses. Knowing that Victor has yet again crossed the line of involving innocents. My nostrils flare in irritation at my uncles incompetence to keep to the laws of our world.
"Grim, is this the kind of shit my father would have done?" I ask and Grimmy's scarred face looks at me.
"Your father led very differently to how Victor does." He states.
"What do you mean?"
"Your uncle works on fear. He controls people through it, where as your father... Well your father was more equitable. Ivan was reasonable and charming. He didn't need to threaten people for them to follow or obey him, there was just something about him that people trusted." Grimmy explains, the collection of empty beer glasses on the table taking an influence on his speech.
It's been many years since anyone has uttered my fathers name. Hearing it now still stings in my chest.
"Were things different...when my father was Don?" I ask him and Grimmy eyes me.
"Many things were different back then. But I don't think your uncle would appreciate me going into detail of it all." He dismisses my curiosity with a drink of his beer.
I watch as he downs the entire glass before slamming the empty vessel down on the table.
"Excuse me. I'm going to get another." Grimmy states and slides his chair back, the wooden legs of the chair screech against the floor as he does.
"I always looked up to Ivan." Curby says quietly next to me once Grim leaves.
I look over at him, surprised by his confession.
"He helped me out at my lowest. I grew up in foster care, you know that already. But when I was nineteen I was no longer cared for by the government, I had no family, no home, no job, no idea what to do. I was on the street hanging out with addicts so it was only a matter of time before I started using myself." Curby sips his beer.
"Your dad caught me robbing one of the firms businesses. I was looking for money, to get more heroin. Instead of killing me for breaking in he helped me. Said I could stay with him, he'd show me a different way to get by. By then I had already killed two people over drugs, I was in it that deep. He knew I was already troubled but still thought I was worth saving." He frowns at his beer.
"I got clean, and he introduced me to you. Gave me the job of baby sitter but I felt important. Out of all of his men, he chose me to look after the most precious thing to him. He trusted me with you and I trusted him with my life." Curby reveals.
"Ivan was nothing like Victor." He concludes.
Curby's admission takes me by surprise. After all these years he's never gone into much detail about him and my father, but I'm grateful for it now. I hadn't even known Curby had known him that well.
I take a drink from my glass, trying to picture my father in his prime as the beloved and just leader of our gang. I can't help but wonder what he would be like right now, what would he be doing? Would he still be that same man Grim and Curby described? The same man I remember from my childhood.
I wonder what he would think of Lilianna. Would he understand how I feel about her? Would he let me see her? Did he ever feel this way about a woman himself?
Thoughts of Lilianna and my father hurt my chest and I take another large gulp of my drink in an attempt to drown those thoughts. A glance to my watch tells me Lilianna will be finished her shift at the bottle store soon so I'll need to leave if I'm to meet her at her apartment on time. With my drink empty I rise from my seat.
"You off?" Curby asks and I nod.
"You going to see Lily?" He pushes and my head whips around to make sure no one here has heard him. This may be a speak easy for members but talk of Lily is off limits anywhere. Curby should know this.
"I don't know what you're on about." I sound just as defensive as I hoped I wouldn't.
"I already know. There's no need to play dumb with me." Curby insists, his voice hushed and I sit back down so we can speak quietly.
"What do you know?" I demand.
"That you're into her. I'm not fucking blind." He rolls his eyes and swigs at his beer.
"Yeah well neither is Victor. And he's not deaf either so if you fucking say a thing..." I warn him and he shakes his head.
"He won't be hearing anything from me, you can trust that. I like that Lily, she seems like a nice lass. Just make sure you're not getting yourself into something you can't handle." Curby says.
What?
"Something I can't handle? You don't think I can handle a woman, Curb?" I frown confused at him. I have no idea what he means by this, the guys seen me on both my best and worst days at work. To say I can't handle anyone is a bit of an understatement.
"No, no I'm sure you know your way around a bird. I'm just meaning when you genuinely care about someone things can hurt when they go wrong." He explains.
"And trust me when I say this, having your feelings hurt is by far worse than being physically hurt. I'd take being shot over heartache any day." He comments and I frown.
Feelings?
Heartache?
"Who said anything about feelings. I just like her. It's not that deep." I tell him but he looks at me like I'm fucking dumb.
"Right. Well I suppose you're new to it all." He nods to himself.
"You'll figure it out eventually." He sips at his beer.
"Figure what out?" I frown at him, confused.
"The reason she makes you feel the way you do. Why it pisses you off to see other men even look at her. Why you want to be with her all the time. Why your dick gets hard with just the thought of her." He lists things like he's been able to look inside my own mind.
"You'll get there, eventually." Curby smirks and I frown at how smug he looks. He has no idea what he's talking about. He doesn't know anything about Lilianna and I, or how I feel about her.
Once again I stand from the table as Grim walks over with two large pints of beer in each of his hands.
"Right, I'm off." I announce to the both of them. Curby raises his half empty bottle while Grim just nods in farewell.
I stalk through the semi occupied bar to the back door entrance where my car is parked in the alleyway, nodding a farewell to the barman as I do. Perks of owning such places I suppose.
Curby's mention of my apparent inadequacy to understand my own feelings is bouncing around in my head. I know I like Lilianna, a lot but I don't think I have feelings for her.
Do I?
I push the back door open and pull my phone out from my pocket, opening the app to search up my question.
How do you know if you have feelings for someone?
I search and my phone pops up with various articles. I click on the first one, not bothered to read too much into the paragraphs someone has taken their time to write out and instead scroll to the list of questions.
Number One: Do you find yourself thinking of them often?
Well yes, I think of Lilianna a lot. A worrying amount actually.
Number Two: Does their mood effect your own?
I don't know. I guess if Lilianna was sad I'd be pissed off at whoever or whatever made her sad. When she's happy... I guess that makes me happy too.
Number Three: Have you researched or taken part in their interests?
I did go buy a book about that Greek myth Lilianna told me about. It's her favourite she said and I wanted to read it myself to see what the fuss was about. It's depressing as shit but I kind of enjoy reading it, knowing she has read the same words. Probably over and over.
Number Four: Do you find yourself becoming jealous of other people they set their attention on?
I guess that's a hard yes.
I pull my keys out my pocket and stand frozen at the drivers door still reading the questions throughly.
Number Five: Do you notice the little things about them that others may overlook?
Little things? Like the way her nose scrunches when she laughs? Or how she rolls her eyes whenever she's complimented, like she doesn't believe she's as beautiful as she is. Maybe the way she chews on her bottom lip when she thinks hard about something. Or perhaps the way she always taps and nods along to the songs we play in the car. The spec of brown in her right eye. The pink scar over her left top rib.
Jesus, I could probably go on but I think I've answered that question.
Number Six: Do they make you feel good?
I know they're probably not talking about sexually, but she did give me mind blowing head and made me come in my pants just from touching her, so with that aspect she does. But in the way they're asking I think the answer is also a yes. She makes me feel normal, as normal as I've ever felt. She makes me feel like I'm worth something, that I'm more than this life I've been born into. She makes me feel a lot of intense things - all good things.
Question Seven:
A quiet shuffle sounds behind me and a sharp pain shoots through my head within the same second. My phone and keys drop to the concrete from the force of something smacking the back of my head. I reach out to rest a hand against my car to steady myself and the other feels the back of my head where the pain is throbbing from.
"Ugh." I wince at my touch and pull my hand back to see it covered in blood, my head feels like it's spinning on an axis and I begin to feel a bit woozy.
"What the fuck?" I turn around just in time to see a wooden baseball bat being swung at me. A quick dodge to the side and the bat smashes against my car window, shattering it. My head is pounding and I'm finding it hard to keep steady vision.
Did I just get smacked in the head with a bat?
I step back as three men step forward, out from the shadow of the alley. The front one wielding the baseball bat in the air for another swing at me. I recognise him straight away.
Junior.
His bat lifts over his head before he brings it down on me with all his force. I'm backed against my car now with nowhere to dodge the blow so I raise my arms to protect my face from the hit. The wood cracks down against my forearm with a loud crack and I know straight away it's probably broken.
"What the fuck!" I yell at him.
"Hit him again, Junior!" One of his friends eggs him on.
"You're under a no retaliation order from Victor!" I remind him and clutch my broken arm.
"Victor isn't the boss of me." Junior answers, his tone reminds me of a spoilt little child. I suppose that is exactly what he is.
"He'll find out. He's going to kill you. All of you." I tell him and he hits me against my ribs with the bat and I lose my footing, falling down on to the wet concrete.
"Fuck!" I pant, the blow winding me for a few seconds.
"He's not going to find out. You're not going to tell him." Junior says.
"The hell I'm not!" I grunt in pain. He better not of cracked a rib. Last time I did that it took a fucking year to finally stop aching and heal properly.
"Bit fucking cowardly of ya to crack me when my back was turned Junior. You too scared for a fair fight with me? Is that why you need your two girlfriends to back you up?" I taunt him and his face screws in that spoilt child way.
"Fuck up! You jumped me when I wasn't looking, it's only fair." Junior yells, clearly triggered by my harmless taunts.
"Bit different though isn't it? I dragged you out with the cord you had wrapped around that poor prozzies neck. You got me with my back to you." I counter and smile down at my crotch before looking back up at him.
"Would you look at that, nice and dry too." I pat my lap with my good arm to draw his attention to it.
"Bet you didn't tell your girlfriends about how you pissed your pants as soon as I grabbed ya." I probably shouldn't be taunting him so much but I can't help myself. The kid is a joke, some kind of wannabe gangsta with anger issues and a passion for beating up sex workers. There's no way I'm going down in a fight against this little shit and his two disciples.
"Shut the fuck up! He's lying! He's lying!" Junior tries to assure his friends but I can tell they know it's the truth.
I take this moment, with Junior's head turned to his friends to grab my gun out from the back of my suit jacket with my good arm. I may be dumb enough to let my guard down, but I'm not dumb enough to never go anywhere without protection.
"Well anyway boys, you seem like a lovely throuple but I really should be going." I sigh and cock my gun, aiming it right at Junior's head. All three of them look down at me, I can tell by the looks on their faces they hadn't quite planned for things to be turning out this way.
With impeccable timing the back door flings open, revealing Henk the large barmen with wracks of empties to dump in the alleyway dumpster.
His eyes find Junior with his bat before looking down at me on the floor, bloodied and gun raised. In a flash the boxes of empties he's carrying are dropped and Henk produces his own gun, aiming at the three men.
"You good Seven?" Henk yells.
"Never better." I smile at Junior as his friends both raise their hands behind him.
"Boys!" Henk yells through the back door and I'm relieved the three stooges were dumb enough to try jump me at one of my own establishments as the sound of multiple heavy booted feet trudge to the back door.
How fucking dumb could you be?
If you're gonna come for me, at least be smart about it. I've been attacked many times but this has got to be the worst effort. Absolutely zero thought and planning has gone into this, I find it kind of comical.
"Junior let's go!" One of his friends pipes up.
"No, stay! It's just getting interesting." I smile at them, ignoring the immense pain biting at my arm, head and ribs. I can feel the blood trickling down the back of my head and behind my ear. My hair already feels wet from it.
"Junior!" His other friends yells as they both retreat. Junior glances to the now full back doorway of men with guns aimed at him then back to me on the floor.
He begins to walk backwards, eyes not leaving mine.
"Wait don't go Junior. I have a leaving gift for you!" I chime and aimlessly shoot my gun down at his feet. I had meant to just hit near his foot to scare him but when he screams I realise I've actually shot his foot.
"Oops." I laugh as Junior howls in pain and hops on his good foot clutching the one I just shot. His two friends help pull him back as they try get away.
"Wait I can do the other one too, even it out a little for you!" I joke, calling out to them as they run away, Junior hopping obviously.
When they're gone the pain shoots through me and my joking dementor fades. Little fucking shit hit me pretty good.
"Sev!" Curby kneels down to my side.
"Shit mate, you're bleeding a lot." He comments as he inspects the back of my head.
"No shit, the little fucker hit me with a fucking bat." I wince as my hand touches over the back of my head again.
"Get you anywhere else?" Curby asks.
"Think my arms broken, might of done my ribs but they're not as bad." I wince again as Curby helps me up.
"It's my head that's the worst. Think I might pass out." I admit when my eyes start prickling with black dots in my vision.
"I'm gonna take you in to get checked, your heads pissing out blood man." Curby ticks and helps me into my car.
"My phone and my keys are on the ground by the door." I instruct him as he sits me in the passenger seat.
"Right." Curby buckles me in, knocking my bad arm as he does and I wince.
"Watch it." I warn him and he rolls his eyes at me and shuts the door.
Curby gets into the drivers seat of my car, when he shuts the door the remaining shattered glass falls out of the frame. My keys in one of his hands, my phone in the other.
"How do you know you have feelings for someone?" Curby reads out what I was searching on my phone before Junior attacked me.
"Oi, give that here." I snatch my phone from his hand with my good arm and he chuckles to himself and starts up the car. He doesn't mention what he saw on my phone again as he drives me to the nearest hospital.
The wait is short at the hospital since apparently the bleeding from my head is "worrisome." X-Rays show the extent of my injuries, or lack of. My arm isn't broken, but the bone is cracked. My rib is bruised but again, not broken. And my head is stitched with twelve stitches at the back where it's split open. But there's no damage to my skull. Turns out Junior has a shit swing with my lack of breaks. Missed opportunity in my eyes, he'll never get the chance to jump me ever again.
Someone has clearly already notified Victor of the attack as he calls me while I'm getting my stitches done. He tells me he has people already talking to Sergey about how his son disobeyed the retaliation gag ordered, which has a price to pay. No one has found Junior yet but it won't be long, with a shot foot he'll turn up at an emergency room somewhere soon.
I'm discharged after spending two hours in the emergency room. The nurse tells me I'm not allowed to drive for the next twelve hours at least and that I can't go to sleep just yet. She asks if there's someone I live with that can come check me every few hours to make sure I'm not experiencing any after effects of head trauma. I lie about living alone and wave off her recommendations. I'm given some heavy pain meds, bandaged around my head and given a compression sleeve for my cracked forearm.
As Curby drives me home I scroll through the questionnaire I had been reading, and with the last questions I hadn't been able to finish before answered affirmatively the realisation hits me much harder than Junior with his fucking bat.
Jesus Christ.
Fucking hell.
I have feelings for Lilianna.
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