"I had half of you supposedly competent morons doing nothing but watching and monitoring cameras for every movement these people make," I felt my fists balling as I got angrier. "You had one job! What the hell went wrong?!"
The group of men and women not daring to look at me, heads down and silent were the supposed experts on these kinds of matters. The supposed experts who didn't catch when the kids who were abducted from Ukraine were taken to Germany. Morons.
I slammed my palms on the table, making all the objects on it rattle. "Answer me!"
One of the women stood up and cleared her throat. "We barely had a trace on them, Boss. We didn't have enough to work with, we were bound to not find them."
I scoffed, unable to believe she actually dared to stand up and answer. She was probably right, but imagine what would happen if I let this one slide. I already have enough people not thinking I have what it takes to be tough and deal with this. I don't need my own people think I'm going soft.
"Not enough? You had access to the cameras of the entire world! When we hired each of you, it was for help not burden. You are supposed to be the best of the best. Now tell me, why is it that Gabriel was the one who found out about this when he wasn't even on this duty? Huh?"
Again, they were all silent.
I walked around the table and looked them in the eye. They seemed intimidated enough. "I want every single eye on them. Every single one. If any movement goes without watching, one of you is gonna take the hit. If any of those children die because you were all too incompetent to do your damn job, you won't like what happens. Get back to work."
They all quickly got up and scattered out of the room. They were the "Eyes" like we called them. A group of pro-level hackers and computer geeks we hired to help out Gabriel in these big jobs.
Once the last one left the room, Elijah closed the door.
"Man," Gabriel whined. "Now they're probably gonna quit on me."
I scoffed, "please. They're too scared to even do that."
He made a face as if to say true.
"What do we do now?" Elijah asked.
I sighed, I really don't know. I barely ever know what to do. What can I do? Still, I can't answer that.
"Let the person going to Ukraine know that plans have changed. I want them to find a way to infiltrate wherever Andrich is stationed and find out if he had anything to do with this. If he does, then I want everything they found sent over and need them to ask about the confirmation for a kill order. No killing without my command."
Elijah nodded, "that all?"
"For now."
He nodded again, leaving the room.
Gabriel sat on the table, "what are we going to do about the kids in Germany."
I sat down on one of the chairs. "I don't know, Gabe. We can't send men there, anyway. They'd kill them on the spot. Germany has turned against us entirely so there is no gang who will help us there. We can't really get any hands on them there."
"So the kids just...die?" He seemed hesitant when asking that question.
I ran my hands through my face. The frustration has really been getting at me. That and the complete lack of sleep. "I hope not. It's a sex trafficking ring, so they'll get sold first. It will be outside of Germany most likely so all we can do if find a way to hack their databases and find the kids' location outside of there. I'm gonna lock in France this week, that way we'll have a full 360 degree surveillance on them. We already have people stationed in parts of Poland, so I can leave them be for now. I'll get them on our payroll eventually."
"It'll work," he told me. Gabriel was good at this, reading me. He would know how unsure I was before I knew it myself.
He was a big help these past two years. My backbone really. He was there for me and took all my shit when I was sent to rehab after Dad decided he had enough of the pills I was taking.
He made sure I didn't relapse and didn't leave my side once. My road to recovery would have been much harder without him.
I nodded, not knowing what I could respond to that. I didn't look back when I walked out the door.
**
"Miss me, Princess?" Mateo extended his arms to me and smiled that shit-eating grin of his.
I rolled my eyes, but couldn't hide the small smile forming on my lips.
He didn't wait for me to extend my arms to him, he wrapped me in his arms and squeezed the air out of me.
"M...ate...o. St...o...op. Stop!"
He laughed and let me go, grabbing my face in his hands. "Look at how big you've gotten!"
He's ridiculous. "You were gone for a week. I didn't grow an inch."
He squished my cheeks and grinned. "You're so cute."
I smiled and pushed him off me. "And you're so dead."
He wrapped one arm around my shoulder and walked towards the hospital wing. "How's he doing?"
I shrugged. "He's stable. I've made sure he's been eating and having company regularly. But..."
"Like the stubborn man he is, he's stressed and not resting like he's supposed to."
"Exactly. If he keeps it up, he could get worse."
Mateo squeezed my shoulder, "how's our Aurora."
Just thinking about her made me feel pain. "Hasn't woken up. I just came back from visiting her and the doctor said no change."
We reached the outside of Dad's door. "Let me cheer him up," he said. "You know uncle Lorenzo can't resist my charms."
I laughed, "you try. I have to go now and set everything up for the meeting in four days. The Monsieur's are calling."
"Give 'em a croissant," he winked. "I'll bet they'll love that."
I laughed, "yeah. That or they'll shoot me."
**
"Listen, Madame," Dion Bisset, leader of the drug trade in France was sitting across from me in a conference room. France was the last country I could convince to ally with me in order to cage in Germany. Thing is, if they ally with me, I can recruit men in France that can keep an eye out for me. That way, I have people all around.
"I'm listening," I told him. Normally I'd probably die in these situations, but Elijah is beside me, having my back.
"I do not really see a reason to ally with you if I'm being honest. My business has been going fantastic for decades without the help of Italians. Besides, you are just a child. What can you offer me?"
As if I didn't know he would tell me that.
"I'm in charge of the world's largest and richest gun trade organization. I have allies all over the world, some of which might just be yours. I own most of the countries in Europe, South America and parts of Asia in terms of gangs and business. I can offer you the ability to keep you in business," he seemed surprised at my cool approach.
"You see," I continued. "Despite my organization not being so neck deep in drugs as yours is, I have more pull than you do. As you know, right now I am the Capo for the entirety of the world's Mafia, not just Sicily. It would be of great interest to you, in terms of keeping you and your business alive, to ally with me.
"So," I signalled for Elijah to bring out the offering, "to convince you a little further I thought I'd give you a gift."
Elijah and the men set down the four mini crates of automatic weapons from our warehouses. "No serial number, completely untraceable. Guns and drugs work together nowadays. Don't let yourself fall behind, Mr. Bisset. What do you say?"
He looked between the guns and I, contemplating his decision. Technically, he had no choice. Sicily had more power than him and could kill him for not obliging. However, that was the first thing Dad warned me about. He never ruled with death lingering because people tend to rebel when they see the bodies.
Threatening, however, is a pretty useful tactic. People are wary when they are threatened. They don't rebel when the stench of death is present in their noses, only with the sight of a body.
He looked angry, but he also knew just how cornered he was. So, after contemplating it, he faked his best smile and stretched his hand out for me. "Pleasure doing business with you, Madame Bianchi."
I took his hand and shook it, "pleasure is all mine. Thank you."
He nodded and ordered his men to pick up the crates and take them with him. Before he could leave, Mateo and Gabriel burst through the door like the devil was chasing them. Bisset looked between them and I, but kept walking.
"Mr. Bisset," I called as he exited the room.
He turned around, "Yes?"
"I'm not a child," I reminded him. "I'd appreciate you letting your counterparts know that."
He smiled, "I will."
Once he was gone out of the room with our men showing them out, I turned to Gabriel and Mateo.
"You better have a damn good reason to interrupt me in such a way during the middle of a conference."
"Something's wrong," Mateo blurted.
What now?
I raised an eyebrow, waiting for them to continue.
"Vee is missing."
It took me a moment to react to what he said. I didn't fully understand it at first.
"What?"
"Vee," Gabriel exclaimed. "She's missing. We can't find her. Not here and not with Nicolas."
I frowned, "what does he have to do with anything?"
Mateo huffed, "she went to visit him in Seoul two days ago! She wanted it to be a surprise, so she didn't tell him."
"Why didn't I know about this?"
Gabriel bit his lip. "She didn't want to bother you since you've been so overwhelmed with the France thing. So she told us to tell you when she was already there. And since you didn't want to know where Nick was--"
"She snuck out and took a commercial flight to another country without my approval. What were you all thinking?"
"That's not the point right now, Tasia. She's missing!"
"So she never got to Seoul."
"No. I called Nick an hour ago asking about her since she didn't answer my calls yesterday. I thought it was because of the long flight time you know. But she should have been there by now. I called Nicolas and asked if Vee had arrived all right, he didn't even know what I was talking about. He said she didn't call or arrive."
This was bad. Bad, bad, bad.
"Did you check the cameras?" Elijah asked when I couldn't formulate an answer.
"I did. I checked the Palermo airport cameras and it showed her boarding the plane. I checked the Seoul cameras too and it didn't show her at all. Like she vanished."
This couldn't be happening. Not right now. No.
I took a deep breath. "Did her flight have stops?"
He nodded, "two. One in Fiumicino and the other in the United Arab Emirates. Her flight was twenty six hours long. I checked the correct times over and over again."
Okay, Anastasia. Think. "Did you see her in the cameras of the other airports?"
"No. But I really only skimmed them. I wanted to let you know immediately."
"Okay. Go check the cameras right away again. Double check everything. I want no one but our core group knowing about this."
He nodded and bolted out the door.
"What do I do?" Mateo asked.
I sighed, "go over her purchases. The usage of her cards, traces of her cellphone. When was the last time she used her card and then coordinate with Gabriel on where she was supposed to be at that time. Also, tell Gabriel to check the last time she was on camera and if she looked wary."
He nodded and went off.
"You won't like what I have to say," Elijah warned.
"I think I already know," I told him.
"United Arab Emirates is known to ally with Ukraine," he said slowly.
"Which means Germany is involved," I finished.
It's always fucking Germany.
***
Freaking Germany, amirite?
Here's chapter two. If you guys enjoyed this chapter, would you mind voting? It really helps! Thank you, my lovelies.