Nonna = Grandmother
(chapter 2 will help you refresh your memory if you don't remember)
LORENZO RUSSO:
The sky is tar-black and the large clouds cover the sky like a blanket. I can hear a tapping on the window and then it becomes a pitter-patter.
Our cousins run around in our garden as the clouds spit out their beads of water. Puddles begin plinking as the rainfall becomes heavier.
"My dear, why don't you sit down? You've been standing there gazing at the view which I must say I understand but aren't your legs sore?"
I turn around and look at Nonna.
"You have brought every demon spawn known on earth into my home. Sitting down would make me comfortable with it," I snap, crossing my arms.
She lets out an exaggerated sigh, "You've always been so dramatic, Enzo. You know that's bad for you, right?"
I narrow my eyes at her.
I simply do not care if I am dramatic. I don't want five little children running in my garden in the rain, I don't want three teenagers, and I don't want four adults in my home.
Why are there that many people in my home you may ask? Well, they are originally called cousins but I call them the devils that have escaped hell.
Someone bangs on the door. "Let me in! Let me in! Please Enzo! I won't mess up your office again!" Alessio the five-year-old shouts.
Then another one bangs on the door.
"Please let us in! We wanna see Grandman Vivian!" Alessia cries.
Alessio and Alessia. The twins. The Devil Twins.
They are a menace to society.
"Look Nonna I've got the mafia ball to go to in two hours you can't drop off your other grandchildren here and make us babysit them," I sigh.
Her eyes widen, "I would never do that!"
I roll my eyes, "You've done it twenty times."
She stands up and places a hand on her hip. "Listen here young man, I wanted to talk to you about something. So complain one more time and I'm leaving them here for good."
"You wouldn't dare."
She smiles like a maniac, "Oh but I would."
I cross my arms, "Fine. What do you want to talk about?"
She sits back down, pleased.
I grab my coffee and take a sip of it.
"Well I met this lovely girl but I can't seem to find her. I want you to track her down so I can adopt her."
I nearly spit my coffee out.
"What?!"
"Enzo let us in!" Alessio and Alessia say at the same time.
I hold a hand up to Nonna, "Give me a moment."
I walk to the door and open it. I stare down at the two kids.
I take my empty gun out of my holster and hand it to them. "Here. You two play with this downstairs. In fact, pretend you're going to shoot Elijah with it. He loves when you do that to him," I say, grinning.
Alessio snatches from me, "Okay!"
Alessia frowns at her twin brother, "I want to hold it."
I sign and get my other gun and take the bullets out of it and pass it to her, "Take this one. Now go."
They grin and run away.
I shut the door and turn around.
"You want to adopt someone?!" I shout at her.
Has this woman gone crazy?
She has four sons, well technically three because of my deceased father, and nineteen grandchildren.
Why does she want to adopt a child?!
She stands up waving a dismissive hand at me. "She reminds me of your mother. I met her around a month ago. God, I swear she was the spitting image of your mother."
Pressing a fist to my mouth, I look at her in disbelief. "And what was her name, Nonna?"
She sadly chuckles, "Oddly enough her name was Athena. She looked around twenty. Blue eyes, brown long hair. Tall. Around five foot nine. She was beautiful. Very beautiful."
My eyes widen. Could she be speaking about our Athena? Shit, she wouldn't have even known if it was truly her because she never met her.
I pull my phone out and quickly pull up a picture of Athena from five years ago. I show it to her. "Did she look like this just a little bit older?" I ask her.
Please say yes. Please fucking say yes.
In her eyes, I see a flash of recognition in them. She nods, "Yeah but do you know her?"
I stiffly nod, "Yes Nonna. I do. She's our Athena. Where did you meet her?"
Her eyes widen and she looks at the floor in disbelief.
"Nonna, where did you meet her?" I repeat.
"A coffee shop," she quietly says.
"So no one was with her, no guards, just by herself? Free? Alone?"
She nods.
I can't hold back the proud smile on my face.
"Then that means she escaped."
✮ ✮ ✮
Ares eagerly looks around the ballroom, trying to find Athena.
"Ares don't get your hopes up," Dante says, frowning.
Ares rolls his eyes, "Shut up Dante."
"Why is Marcello not here?" Matteo quietly asks me.
Matteo is our eldest cousin. He's only twenty-four but yet he sticks to Marcello like a child.
I don't understand why he does that, Marcello doesn't either.
"Because he's a fucking psycho."
Matteo sighs, crossing his arms. "Have you ever wondered why he's like the way he is?"
"Not really. He's always been like that. Since he was ten."
"Maybe something happened to him?"
I shake my head. "No. I wouldn't have let it."
Matteo nods, looking around the room.
I glance at Dom who's staring at the floor lost in his mind.
I hold back a sigh. I know that face. He's overthinking again.
I told our brothers about Athena and now they think she will show up at the ball. I very much doubt that. I have my men looking for her in Las Vegas. I've got them looking for her everywhere.
I know I shouldn't be sitting here. I should be looking for her. We all should. But we must be here, it is a requirement to be here.
After this, I swear I'll find her. I won't even sleep until I find her.
I nudge Dom with my elbow and his head snaps up and he looks at me confused.
"You good?" I quietly ask him.
He nods, "Yeah. Why?"
I shrug, "You don't look okay."
He rolls his eyes, "I'm fine."
I sigh and look away from him. I've learned the hard way not to push him to his limits. I have to patiently wait for him to talk to me about it.
He's slowly getting better with his drug addiction but I know it will be worth it.
Anthony, the American mafia boss, hops onto the massive stage, grinning.
I look around the room and see Anthony's daughter, Emilia, staring at Dom. She doesn't even notice me looking at her because she's too busy watching Dom. I glance at Dante who's watching Emilia.
Well, I'm glad I'm not in their position.
I cross my arms, watching Anthony as he welcomes everyone.
Feeling eyes on me, I curiously look around the room and my eyes meet Camille's.
She glares at me.
I smirk at her.
She's always hated me.
I've always... Watched her.
She hates me for watching her but yet this time she's watching me.
I raise a questioning eyebrow at her and she huffs and looks away from me, angry.
She may be on the other side of the ballroom but yet I notice every small detail about her.
Her green long dress is nothing compared to the one on the last ball. She loves the color green. It suits her because of her red hair and she knows that.
I continue staring at her, not caring that I'm making her uncomfortable.
"Who are you looking at?" Elijah whispers from behind me.
"Camille," I answer with no shame.
I hear Elijah excitedly whisper to Ares about it.
Anthony finishes his speech and a slow romantic song starts playing.
I watch Camille slowly stand up with her date. They both move to the dancefloor, smiling at each other.
My jaw clenches.
"Is that Artemis?!"
I immediately look away and see Artemis walking toward us in a pink long dress.
I immediately stand up and she stops and stands in front of me.
She smiles up at me, "Hey Lorenzo—"
"You're back. Why?"
She rolls her eyes, "Because I heard the mafia balls are getting interesting this year."
I narrow my eyes, not believing her.
"Are you lying to me?"
She crosses her arms, "Even if I was why would I? I haven't seen you guys in ages—"
Before she can finish, Ares comes out of nowhere and hugs her. She loudly laughs as Ares picks her up, spinning around. He places her back on the ground, smiling down at her.
I roll my eyes and sit back down.
If it wasn't a requirement to come I wouldn't have.
The double doors open and the music changes into a more modern quick-tempo song. A group of people enter and I slowly realize that they are just performers.
It is heavily suspicious that Artemis is back. She should have told me that she was coming back. But yet here she is.
Happier than ever.
She sits down beside Ares, smiling at him as he talks about something funny to her.
Sighing I look back around the ballroom and find Hades on the balcony on the second floor.
He stands there alone, hands in his pockets, searching the ballroom for someone.
I look away from him and look at the Russians. They're on edge, constantly looking around the ballroom in fear.
Yavok drinks a cup of whiskey with his son Levi beside him.
Levi looks at me and I narrow my eyes at him.
He scowls at me.
I throw my middle finger up at him.
He looks away.
Yeah. That's what I thought.
✮ ✮ ✮
It's been an hour and I keep hoping that something terrible will happen so this ball can end early.
Sebastian has decided to invite himself over to our table and gossip with Elijah. And so has Anthony and his daughter.
"Yeah, so when I saw my wife fucking her bodyguard obviously I killed him," Anthony says.
I look at him, "You didn't kill your wife?"
"Why would I do that when I can make the rest of her life hell?"
"Touché."
He pats my shoulder with a cruel smile, "Now tell me, Lorenzo. My daughter hasn't been seeing the twins again, right? If she has, I can't promise that I won't cut their dicks off."
"I would say control your daughter but they really do need their dicks cut off."
Anthony loudly laughs in my ear.
I hold back from sighing, I've had enough of this shit.
My phone rings and I take it out of my pocket and look at the caller ID. Facing Athony, I say, "I'll be back." Then I stand up and leave the ballroom and answer the call.
"Yes, Nonna?"
"The kids may have... stolen one of your loaded guns and shot Francesco."
I sigh. "And why are we worried about that?" I ask her, bored.
"Well, when the kids shot Francesco they also shot at a wall many times but don't worry! I'm getting it fixed as we speak. I thought I should just tell you in case you wonder why there is blood on the floor, and holes in the wall," she rambles, panicking.
"It's fine Nonna," I say as I check my watch, "I'll be home in an hour or so. Just get those damn kids out of my house."
Nonna nervously chuckles, "Your uncles don't want them back. They told them to stay here for tonight or sleep on the streets."
I hang up.
I've had it with everyone.
I've absolutely—
BANG
Turning around, I grin. Someone's just been killed. I get to go home now. I happily walk back into the ballroom as I hear more gunshots.
The room is pitch black, people are screaming as they try to leave.
BANG
BANG
BANG
Who is that?
I squint my eyes trying to make out who the hell is holding a gun. I slowly grab my gun and point it at the dark figure.
The lights turn back on and whoever I was pointing my gun at is gone.
I lower my gun, slightly frowning when I see the blood on the floor. I look around and see a dead body on the ground.
Then I grin.
Levi lies on the floor, dead.
"You sick bastard!"
I look to my right and see Camille storming toward me with a very angry expression.
I furrow my eyebrows, "What?"
She stands in front of me, glaring at me. "You shot him, didn't you?!"
She always does this. She blames me when something goes wrong.
I cross my arms, rolling my eyes, "I wish I did but no I didn't."
She slightly falters, "But I saw you. You were—"
"Pointing a gun at the person who shot him? Yes. I was."
She shuts her mouth, her eyes softening. "Sorry, I shouldn't have," she quietly says.
"It's okay, Cami. I'll still continue to watch you, I promise," I say, winking at her.
Before she can say anything I walk away from her and walk toward my brothers.
"You goddamn pervert!" She shouts.
"Where's Elijah?" I ask them, ignoring Camille.
"He's checking out the people that got injured," Ares says.
"More people got shot?" Dom asks, confused.
Dante rolls his eyes, "No you idiot. When they were all screaming their heads off while running away, some of them tripped, hurt themselves, or something."
I nod, looking around the room.
I freeze when I see a wall with words on them written in blood. It says, "Because your time is running out."
"What the hell?" I mumble under my breath.
"What?" Ares asks, standing beside me.
I point to the wall, "Look."
Ares looks at it and then slowly a confused expression falls onto his face.
"That doesn't even make sense," he says crossing.
Dante and Dom look at it, eyebrows furrowed when they read it.
"You guys are idiots," Artemis says from behind us.
I turn around. "And why are we idiots?" I ask, raising an eyebrow.
"Because as I recall the last death involved a note on it? That said "Start bidding your goodbyes" and this one says "Because your time is running out"." She explains, looking at us like we get it.
When we all still look at her confused, she sighs, annoyed.
"Put them together and you get—"
"Start bidding your goodbye because your time is running out," I finish.
I turn around and look at Yavok glaring at his son's dead body.
Is it possible that someone is out for him? There's only been two deaths and each ball. His second in command and his son. Whoever it is seems to be only aiming at the Russians.
But why?
Yavok has done a lot of unreasonable things to a lot of people.
"Shit there's a person out for revenge," Ares says.
"Language!"
"I'M AN ADULT ELIJAH!"