I sat in the car as I waited for Lorenzo to come out of the house. I scrolled through Instagram to pass the time even though my brain didn't register what I was seeing.
It's been three days since the rest of Vlad's family was killed and the middle of the week, making me mentally exhausted.
No one has even said a word regarding the Bratva since the news came out and frankly, I was glad. As much as I feared becoming the next target, I tried not to get it in my head. Sighing, I turned my phone off and tilted my head back. I jumped when the opposite door opened, making me curse under my breath.
"Dio mio," I took a deep breath in, calming my nerves. Lorenzo sat in and closed the door.
"The driver will be here in a few," I nodded as he buckled up, "but I have some news," I pinched the bridge of my nose. I had no idea how much more I could handle. "Luca made an appearance," I shot my eyes to Lorenzo.
"Sul serio?" [Seriously?] He nodded and opened his laptop before setting it on his lap.
"I was looking through one of his old estate cameras back in London. I guess you could say I was surprised to see him step out of a black SUV in the middle of the night." I frowned.
"You're telling me he appeared in London?" He nodded as he pulled up the footage he had recorded. He tilted the laptop towards me and pressed play.
The tape showed the driveway of one of the Lorenzo's estates in London. This one specifically was closer to the city and was the least protected security-wise. It didn't have a special system with which you had to go through a full security check before entering the property.
As the sped up time went by, not too long later, a black SUV drove into the property and stopped right by the door. The back door, facing the camera, which was aimed at the front of the house, opened and a man exited the vehicle. Lorenzo zoomed in closer on the man and it was clear as day that it was Luca.
After a full month of disappearing into hell knows what he finally grew some balls to show up.
Now, I don't doubt the possibility of him spending all of his time somewhere in Siberia where Vlad might have given him a bunker to stay in but it was a matter of time until he showed up in the public eye. And even if it was on his own property, in front of cameras that were only accessible if you were one of his people or had a talented hacker on board, it meant that he was no longer in hiding.
Meaning that we now know how to trace him and kill him for good.
The driver's door opened as the driver sat in and gave us an acknowledgement nod. I smiled at him before averting my eyes back to the screen. The car started to move as the video continued.
Nothing more interesting happened since he went inside and still probably laid around there.
"Finally," I said, turning my head towards the window on my side. I saw the beginning of conifers right by our gate that covered our property's fence perfectly.
"And he hasn't left. I've been surveilling the place since three yesterday and nothing. No sign of light flickering, no sign of the door opening or closing." I heard him type something on his keyboard. "It almost feels staged but it isn't."
"How sure are you that it's legit?" I looked at him before he shrugged.
"The footage looks clean. Too clean to be fake. But just to be sure I asked one of my mates in London to check it out. There's a certain radius he can reach before they get notified so he should be fine." I nodded before looking back through my window. "I just hope he settles here or keeps himself public to a certain extent. I don't think any of us want to continue this back and forth game." I nodded.
It was exhausting to look for him. And every time we got close, we were proven wrong. It seemed as if he staged it all and happily lived in the Bahamas or someplace, enjoying his life as we tried to find him but kept getting caught in his traps.
"London," I said quietly. "There has to be a reason he chose to appear in London out of all possible places."
"You're saying that he has some sort of job there?" I nodded before I grabbed my phone and scrolled through the contacts until I found Audrey's. I placed the phone against my ear as I tried to reach her. She picked up after a few seconds.
"Hey, Mar. Everything okay?"
"Hi, yeah, I just meant to ask, is there some kind of meeting Liam was supposed to attend in the next few weeks?"
"Hold on, let me check," she rummaged through some papers as she tried to find an answer.
"Meeting?" Lorenzo whispered.
"Yeah, he was supposed to fly out tomorrow and attend a meeting with Robert on Friday." Two days from now. "Why?"
"Don't tell Liam yet, or Alex for that matter, but Luca made an appearance in London and I just thought it was strange he chose that place."
"You really think he had planned on talking to Liam?"
"Less talking, more killing," she chuckled lightly. "But it's just an assumption. How are Alex and your brother?" I asked since we were already talking.
"Well, Alex locked himself in his room so he could work," I sighed, "I threatened him I'd bring a chainsaw and cut the door open but he just laughed at me," I smiled as Lorenzo chuckled beside me. "While Liam is the same stubborn asshole but times ten."
"Oh, dear, what now?"
"He insisted on going outside to his basketball court and is working out as we speak." I rolled my eyes.
"How did you threaten him?"
"Not much... Just said I'd stick the chainsaw up his ass after I cut Alex's door," a laugh escaped my lips.
"Oh, god. I think I'll buy you that chainsaw," she laughed. "But try to talk them out of it. Use that device if needed to scare them off but try it. They're both crazy."
"I don't even know how you like Alex," I smiled as I thought about it. Neither did I really. It was very spontaneous when it happened and after it did, we just moved forward. After getting to know each other, we both learned how much in common we had with one another and just started falling. Maybe I did more than him at first.
"Please promise me you'll check on them," I knew that Liam could overdo himself. Especially since he was drowning in physical and emotional pain. He could let his demons overrule him and make him do things that would make him end up in a graveyard. And not for explorational purposes.
"Of course, I'm eyeing him at the moment as I'm grabbing the sharpest knife out of the drawer," I smiled. At least she would go the extra mile to ensure he's okay.
"Thank you, I just don't think I can travel there yet myself. We have some business to take care of but if anything happens, call me. I'll help as much as I can."
"Of course, I'm... Oh, fucking hell he's about to do fucking pull-ups. I'll call you back when I smack his head," I heard the door open. "Hey! Liam, you fucking idiot-" the call ended before I could listen more. As much as it was amusing to see someone put Liam in his place, this had to be done. He had a terrible mindset when it came to bad decisions. And he was already injured. Not to mention the fact that he should be in bed for four more days.
"Well, she'll handle it well enough," Lorenzo said as the car came to a stop. I tucked my phone in the inner pocket of my grey jacket and unbuckled my seatbelt.
As we walked into the Rossi business centre, Lorenzo called his friend in London to see if anything has moved forward. I smiled at some of the workers who were just about to leave for lunch as we approached the elevator. I pressed the button and waited a bit until our elevator got down to our floor. A few workers exited before we got the chance to enter.
Flavio, our newest bodyguard, stood right in front of us as we reached the top floor where all of the Rossi clean business was taken care of. Or, well, it was how the money got laundered.
The doors opened just as Lorenzo ended his call before tucking the phone into the pocket of his pants. He wore his slightly less formal attire today, with a white polo shirt and grey dress pants, stitching the suit jacket. I couldn't blame him, it was one of the hottest days this week and wearing a jacket was a suffocation mission waiting to happen.
I, on the other hand, opted for the suit jacket. It matched my light grey pants with a white blouse underneath. I don't know why I chose to go all out but I guess business meant business for me. There wasn't much to choose from. Although I doubted anyone would've cared about what I wore unless I was naked.
We exited the elevator and walked straight past the giant reception desks at the front. This entire floor was rebuilt in under three weeks after the bombing a little over a month ago. Even though it was my first time seeing it in person, I helped Aldo decide on some of the colours and decorations.
For example, there were more seating areas to relax and converse with potential clients or fellow colleagues. Another new thing was plants. Before this place turned into a cement and shattered glass pile, it lacked the colour green. And considering the amount of carbon dioxide these lovely greens sucked in, it was a fair decision.
We walked over to Aldo's new office on the far right of the elevator before I knocked once.
"Entra," I opened the door as Flavio stood right beside the door to monitor the space and walked inside with Lorenzo behind me. Aldo's eyes went up to the visitors in his room and he smiled. But it wasn't very real. I knew what his genuine smile looked like and the one he'd just given us was not it. But I couldn't blame him.
"I can see you're doing very well here, fratello," he smiled as he glanced around the space. It was one out of the three biggest offices on this floor and, as every room, had windows from one side of the wall in front of us to the opposite one, bringing in the natural light of the outside.
His place was packed with shelves filled with binders and documents that I guarantee you Aldo has never even touched. It had a big desk in the far middle of the room, moved to be closer to the windows, two white armchairs sat right across from the table and a small, round glass table sat in between the chairs with a white, marble vase on top that held white orchids. Those were some of the few plants that were fake.
On the right of the door, Aldo had insisted on setting up a small seating area with two white couches placed one across from another and a small table in between. The bookcase that stood against the same wall, held some of Aldo's books and other pieces of literature he'd like to read. He wasn't very into reading but when he did take upon the task, he read dozens of books one straight after the other.
A huge painting of night Rome hung on the left-hand side with more potted plants placed around the room.
"I'm just trying to enjoy it," I sat down on one of the armchairs while Lorenzo sat down on the other one. "I mean, it's not like I have a choice." I sighed.
"Unfortunately, you don't. But at least make the best of it," he looked away from me onto his computer screen. I looked over at Lorenzo. "Any news?" He shook his head.
"Nothing happened yet," I looked back at Aldo who was now typing something on his computer.
"Is it that hard to learn Excel?" He muttered under his breath, making me smile. "Seriously, it's just two damn functions that you don't need a computer science degree to learn," he worked the mouse as he fixed whatever issue was bothering him.
I leaned back in the chair as we waited for Gabriele De Niro to arrive for the meeting. He was a part of one of the biggest mafias of the Cosa Nostra and some of our best partners. We decided to meet up in order to talk about brand new business deals to get us back into the underworld and to talk about our possible moves since the Bratva was slowly collapsing.
I didn't have any doubts about a few deals we were going to offer. One bigger deal included a brand new chain of nightclubs around Europe. Pricy but worth the wait.
Since our clubs were some of the most popular ones in Italy, we began to think if there was any way to increase our profit by opening more. We could start opening them on our own but one of the reasons Dante suggested working together was to further better our relationship with them.
I knew it was risky, considering the fact that no one knew what either of our families might decide on tomorrow morning, the Rossi and the De Niro were of similar morals and ideas. Years have passed working together nicely so I supported Dante's idea.
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The blonde woman entered a coffee shop in downtown New York. The bell above the door dinged, signalling the barista of a newcomer. She looked around the place, noticing a few people sitting in the small booths while they sipped coffee or tea, maybe chatted with their friends or whoever the other humans were to them.
As she stepped forward, each step becoming harder and harder, the barista brightly grinned at her.
"Hi, welcome to our shop, what can I get you today?" The woman twisted a ring on her index finger, slowly thinking out her options.
She definitely hadn't thought about stepping foot inside the shop but the scorching heat made it unbearable to walk around the city. Even her place to rest was too far off this city. She thought to herself what the hell was she doing here. Why had she come in here of all places?
"Mam?" She shook her thoughts away as the petit, brunette with a bob cut brought her back to the present. "Is everything okay?" The woman lightly smiled before nodding.
"Sorry, the weather is messing with my head," the barista smiled, "can I get an iced vanilla latte to go, please?" The girl nodded before typing the woman's order on the computer. A shiver went down her spine as the door opened and the bell rang.
"That'll be four fifteen," she took her small wallet out of her black backpack and handed the barista a five-dollar bill. As the girl took out her change, a man, almost six-five appeared on her side. She took a step to the side, away from the tall man. She didn't dare to look up at him, afraid that he would recognize her. "Here you go," as she took the change from the barista, she could actually feel the burning stare of the man beside her.
"I'll have a black coffee to go, thanks," she sucked in a breath as the voice registered in her head. Thankfully it wasn't the man she so desperately tried to avoid at all costs. But Egon wasn't someone to be trusted. Maybe he didn't pay much detail to her but the moment the barista handed her the drink, she was out the door.
The bell rang as she opened the door and stepped out in the summer heat. She turned to the right and walked away from the shop without looking back. A sense of fear rushed in as she made her way to the bus station but once she was on her way to her place, she eased back and thought of how her life will be once this was over.
She imagined lounging somewhere in Bora Bora, reminiscing on the good times she wished to have spent with her loved ones. Even if the memories were short-lived, they still mattered to her.
Once she was off the bus, the coffee shop wasn't even on her mind as she noticed her front door slightly opened.
Only, she remembered it vividly that she had locked it.
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