If definition of silence could become a person, it would certainly took on Carlos' face today. The Spaniard was awfully quiet from the moment they left Austin in the car Fernando borrowed them for their stay in United States of America. Carlos sitting behind the steering wheel reminded her of his version when he tried to act like he didn't care, when he left her in the hospital with Gianluca in order to cure himself from her. Alessandra even tried to just stare at him from passenger's seat, but it only grew her frustration when he didn't react. There was nothing to read from in his features, not a single twist or wrinkle. Carlos was keeping his composure perfectly. His palms were casually placed on the steering wheel as if he was driving to get something done for the crew, not to meet her presumed dead brothers. Alessandra leaned in her seat, trying to figure what could possibly happen overnight to influence him in such way. Yes, they drank some wine during dinner with Fernando, but she was absolutely sure nothing bad was said along the way. Yesterday, she was looking forward to spending over seven hours ride with him. Now, it seemed like a punishment for something she didn't do. To avoid this tensed atmosphere, she directed her thoughts towards her Nico and Daniel. She hoped they will be in the house by the time they arrive. Will they believe in her return? Will they accept her again and listen to reasons why it took her so long to pay them a visit? Will they forgive her? Alessandra swallowed hard at this point. The three of them were the last members of the East Coast crew, but neither Daniel or Nico had a duty to forgive and forget about what she did.
"Louisiana," Carlos announced suddenly, his voice hoarse from not speaking in last few hours. Alessandra had to realise he actually spoke to her before she looked out the window. They were surrounded by thick green forest. On the right side of the road a blue sign was placed to welcome all newcomers to the state of Louisiana. The captions on the sign were written in English and French with fleur-de-lis, symbol deeply ingrained in Louisiana's history, separating them. "Do you want to change and drive to the mansion?" he asked when the car passed the sign. "We can switch if you're tired," she gazed at him, but he remained focused on the empty grey road. "I'm not," he declined. "I was just curious if you didn't want to drive up to the mansion by yourself," he shifted a bit nervously in his seat, doing the most human thing today. "I'm fine. Let's just not stop anymore," she added.
As the member of East Coast crew that needed to be kept in secret, Alessandra didn't have a chance to travel a lot. Her assignments concerned people residing in USA. When some foreigner needed to be removed from the picture Mr. Webber was simply inviting such person to New York City, without a promise of safe return. During her stay within the crew, she heard a lot of things about the mansion in New Orleans, mostly from Nico who always awaited the moment to leave gloomy New York for this place. East's mansion on neutral ground was in the past a plantation. In the early 19th century, it was a home of the governor of New Orleans who was very fond of all four crews. He liked their money and respect, so mobsters could come to his city whenever they needed and stay as long as they wanted. Under his watch crews were going off with everything, including murders. Before governor died, his last will was to give his house to reigning boss of the East, while other three crews were given prestigous mansions around the city. Since then, the property was passed from boss to boss until the massacre at Sebastian's wedding. Technically, the mansion belonged to nobody, but who nowadays had the courage to deal with it?
Carlos parked the car in the yard in front of the house and Alessandra could see it from behind windscreen. It was huge with over dozen windows and shutters, but it looked as if nobody lived in it for years. The grass was uncut, bushes were high enough to reach a man's waistline. There were cracks in the walls and paving bricks through which plants were reaching out to the sun. Most of the windows were covered with curtains, even those in the famous ball room on the right. "It makes an impression of abandoned," Carlos hated to admit it, but she saw it with her own eyes. Were Daniel and Nico ever here? The moment Alessandra asked herself that question, another car pulled over in the yard with two men inside. Carlos was quick to reach for his gun, but she stopped him. Heart was pounding in her chest when she pushed the handle to get out of the car, to show herself to her brothers. Carlos followed her immediately as the two observed them carefully from their vehicle. From his side he noticed Daniel sitting in the passenger's seat. He had dark curly hair and tanned skin, just like him or Alessandra. Heritage of South European countries. Although he was aware Daniel and Alessandra weren't biological brother and sister, it was hard not to assume it at first. Alessandra stood next to Carlos, reaching automatically for his hand to feel safer. He didn't pull away. They could see Daniel unclipping his belt in the speed of light to get out, while Nico wasn't moving at all. Tears filled her eyes as familiar honey hues were coming closer and closer to her. She thought she will never see them again. "Alessandra," Daniel swallowed her name, like it was a poison and a treat in the same time. A gust of wind blew his hair away, revealing dark circles under his eyes. For some reason he looked miserable. She parted her lips to say something, anything, but Daniel fell into her arms, embracing her waist tightly. One woman was taken away from his life, just for another one to return in one piece. Fortune was indeed cruel.
Enchantment caused by her unexpected return ended quickly. Whenever Daniel and Nico found themselves in the same room, the atmosphere was becoming hard to swallow. The tension between two brothers could be seen and felt, yet Alessandra didn't dare to ask neither of them about it. One thing was sure, something horrible must have happen if after years of fighting side by side they turned into this. Nevertheless, in the evening brothers politely sat together at one table with Alessandra and Carlos to welcome them, also to hear about her adventures in Mexico City. Or at least they tried. Nico was very engaged in the conversation, asking for details when Alessandra wished to avoid them, like that time when she put a gun against her skull to please Pastor Maldonado. Daniel took a seat as far as he could from Nico. At the beginning, he was interested as Alessandra explained how Carlos found her in the church, that she didn't die from the shot. He was nibbling the food Nico ordered in a restaurant on his plate with a fork, fading away more and more. At some point Nico noticed that and he lost his appetite as well.
"Guys, what is going on?" Alessandra finally asked when sounds of cultery became the only ones hearable in the dining room. "What do you mean?" Nico played dump, forcing a small piece of meat into his mouth just to pretend everything's fine. "Really?" her eyebrows rose in surprise. "You can't even look at each other," she suggestively looked to the other side where Daniel was sitting with his head lowered. "Daniel is having a hard time adjusting to new surroundings," Nico spoke for him, trying to keep this dinner normal as much as possible, but Daniel snorted boyishly at his comment.
"Do you have brothers, Carlos?" Daniel asked, turning directly to newly met member of the South. "No, I don't," he answered politely. Up to this point, he tried not to interfere and let Alessandra handle the situation. He didn't want to be intruder meddling in family matters. "I have a lot of cousins in Spain, but I haven't seen them in years," As Carlos was speaking, Daniel took the knife which was lying next to his plate and started to turn it in his hand as if he wanted to throw it any moment. To say it was weird behaviour for Daniel was an understatement. Alessandra didn't recognise him anymore. Her charming, a bit goofy brother was replaced by this unpredictable wreck of a man which was scaring her. "Good. If you ever take my sister to meet your family, I have an advice for you," Daniel began to turn the knife in opposite direction. "Make sure they won't shot her to death, because you got comfortable for the first time in your life," Daniel turned his head to Nico who couldn't stand his gaze even for a second. Before Alessandra realised what was said at this table, Nico already jumped to his feet screaming. "Jesus fucking Christ!" he turned away from the table. "Like my brother, for example," Daniel continued, having no mercy for Nico. "When it was convenient he just pulled out the gun and... puff, puff, puff," he hit the table with his fist three times to imitate the shots, spilling wine on tablecloth. "Can't you let it go? She wanted it, Zoe asked me to do this in the first place! Why can't you be mad at her?!" Nico snaped, lowering himself over the table. He and Daniel were like two beasts in cages ready to be set free. "How dare you!" a strangled shout came out from Alessandra's mouth when Daniel threw his knife. Piece of cultery flew through the room, but Nico avoided it quickly enough. Daniel stormed out of the dining room, shutting closed the door of his bedroom later. "It's propably not the family reunion you hoped for," Nico summed up. It hurt him to see how this dinner turned out, how Alessandra's lower lip was trembling and eyes filling with tears, but it has been this way for some time now. There was nothing more to do to make things better.
Alessandra left the dining room. She didn't see a point in staying there, so she threw her coat on and sat on a metal bench at the back. Once beautiful garden which certainly witnessed a lot of kisses and flirts was now in ruin. Just like at the front, bushes in here were high, grass grew up to her ankles, while flowers died from lack of water and attention . At first she really thought the house was abandoned, because how two people could neglect a garden this much? She wished to be that way. Now she knew that the state of the garden was representing slowly corrupting relationship between her brothers. She felt a hand on her shoulder. It was warm and firm. She didn't have to turn her head to know it was Carlos. To be honest, she doubted he'll come after his weird behaviour this morning, but he did. The Spaniard sat next to her on the bench, embracing her with his arm and pulling her closer to him. "Everything is falling apart," she said, gnawing on her lower lip which was already cut open and bleeding. "My family, my brothers, us...," she enumerated and Carlos shifted next to her. "We're not falling apart," he assured her. "I thought we might once we come here, but now I understand it was stupid" he added, not knowing when words started to spill out from his mouth. "When did you have those thoughts?" Alessandra gazed at him with worry written all over her face. "In Austin," he confessed. "I was afraid seeing your family after such a long time will pull you away from me. It wasn't right. If I wanted to see my family in Spain, I know you'd be the first person to put me on the plane. Somehow I couldn't do the same for you," Carlos felt ashamed. It was hard to explain, but she understood him. "At least you're telling me about it now. Wanting me always by your side doesn't make you a bad person," she spoke. "Still, if you want to stay with your brothers and fix whatever is broken between them, I will allow it as long as you will remain happy," Alessandra's heart clenched as she could see in his features how much it cost him to say this and it only proved to her his love was true.
"No," she denied. "I don't think it's my responsibility to fix them anymore. I wish, but they're big boys and they have to want it first. I'm not going to force them into conversations. Maybe they need some time apart. Until we came here they thought New Orleans will be their prison, but after the deal with Stroll they're free," Surprisingly, she felt at peace with what she said. It was true, she couldn't babysit them. It was time for her to start her own life, in Mexico City. "Maybe Max and Fernando could help here," Carlos proposed. Brothers indeed needed some time apart from each other as well as this place, so a job could only help them focus. "You think so?" he nodded. Alessandra didn't want to stick her brothers into ranks of other crews, although Max and Fernando were few people she trusted. Carlos brought his hand to her face and brushed her cheek with his thumb. "I love you," he whispered when she looked into his eyes. "I love you too," she replied, connecting their lips in a sweet kiss. Tired from their ride from Texas they soon went upstairs to the bedroom Nico prepared for them. They laid in bed and Carlos immediately fell asleep. Alessandra, on the other hand, couldn't rest and it was a sleepless night for her.
In the morning when she still couldn't fall asleep Alessandra dressed into comfortable clothes, took the car keys from Carlos' jacket and went outside. She drove towards Lafayette Cementery where she suspected Zoe could be buried. Upon arriving Alessandra felt relieved, because Daniel's car was parked next to the grey metal gate. She stepped out of the vehicle to enter famous in whole country temple of the dead. She found Daniel after few minutes of wandering around gravestones and family graves. He seemed so fragile in comparison to what she saw during dinner, like he was about to fall to his knees and lay in the ground by her side. She approached him carefully to not scare him away. He must have found her presence comforting, because he finally opened up to her. He told her about everything. How he met and fall in love with Zoe, their encounter with Romain, the box containing secrects all four crews swore to protect, betrayal of Nico's girlfriend who turned out to be working with Romain, ending with how the Frenchman kidnapped Zoe which led to her death. "I do realise it was the only way to stop Romain. He couldn't be out there with the box, but she died in my arms...," his voice broke at end, so Alessandra embraced him with her shorter arms as tight as she could. "I can't stay with you, Daniel," she said as her brother buried his face into her hair. "I know," he nodded. "All I ever wanted is for you to be happy and he makes you happy," Alessandra smiled at the thought of Carlos which was a final proof to his statement. "You and Nico can't stay here either," she continued. "There's too much pain, memories... They will keep on hunting you," Daniel was aware of that long before his sister came back from the dead, but he didn't have the courage to leave. Where he suppose to go? Who will want a lost member of the crew which didn't exist anymore? "I'm sure Zoe would want a better life for you," she added. Daniel grabbed her hand hard. Their fingers intertwined like a seal closing and ending this chapter of their lifes for good.
THE END