*Tallon*
“This is bad, Boss,” Alessandro said as he and several of my most trusted n gathered in the safe room in our compound.
We were surrounded by maps and docunts outlining recent Russian movents. The air was thick with tension; everyone was concerned about the increased violence we had been experiencing from the Russians. “Soone is leaking intelligence. It’s obvious that the Russians aren’t just getting lucky.”
“I agree,” Vincenzo added. “This last raid was so precise, it was obvious that they knew exactly where to go and what to grab. They also seed to know that you were elsewhere. I just can’t figure out who the leak could be. I’ve been going over everyone for days and I can’t imagine any of them betraying us.”
“Whoever the leak is, we’ll figure it out. They’re going to regret ever deciding to turn their back on us,” I said through gritted teeth. My jaw flexed with anger. I couldn’t fucking believe that one of my n would stoop so low as to beco a Russian informant.
Most of my guys had been with since they were teenagers. If they weren’t directly related to , they were usually soone I had helped get out of a shitty situation. Every single one of them had been treated like family ever since being put on my payroll. I believed in taking care of my own, but apparently, I had let that cloud my judgnt.
“Alright, we’re going to have to tighten up our intel. Anybody not standing in this room is no longer given information that doesn’t directly pertain to them. Alessandro and Vinny, I need you to back up on this. I’m going to rely on you to keep your ears to the ground and try to figure out who the leak could be. Frank and Eddie, I need you both to place wiretaps around the compound. I hate to spy on our own people, but at this point, it’s a necessity. The rest of you, tighten up security in all areas of the compound and around the city. It’s no longer acceptable for anyone to be totally alone as long as they’re outside the walls of the compound, and we’re going to double up guard duty. I know nobody wants to hear that, but it’s better to be overworked than dead. Of course, I’ll make sure that everyone who has to pull more guard shifts will be well paid for the trouble.”
The n nodded, everyone serious as we considered what it would an if we discovered who the leak was. I could tell that they were all hoping we were sohow wrong; the idea of having to take care of soone we had known for decades left a bad taste in all of our mouths. Although it angered beyond belief to know that soone was betraying , I was still a human being, and I had no desire to have to kill soone I knew well.
My phone buzzed and I glanced down at the screen quickly, happy to see that Natalia had texted . I couldn’t wait to call her after this eting was over. Things had been going exponentially better between us ever since we’d finally made love a few days before. It seed that she was one of those rare won who actually needed sex to feel a deeper connection to soone.
thought of being with soone who needed a physical connection with in order to be able to process her emotional connections sounded fucking phenonal. I’d have sex with her every day for the rest of my life if that’s what she needed, preferably multiple tis a day.
I looked back up from my phone, forcing myself to focus on the task at hand. It was extrely concerning to just how successful the Russians had beco lately. They had barely even been on my radar in my entire ti as the Don, but now they were coming back with a vengeance, and it was clear that they were thirsty for Italian blood.
Although Natalia was a welco distraction, I couldn’t afford to let myself get totally lost with her until we neutralized the threat. It terrified to think about how the Russians could use her against if they found out about our relationship. I made a ntal note to tell her to avoid being alone after dark.
“I cannot emphasize enough just how much I need everyone to be on their A-ga right now. This is the kind of shit that could destroy our entire operation. Alright, n, you’re dismissed,” I said, letting them go about their days. I motioned to Alessandro and Vincenzo to stay back.
“What’s up?” Alessandro asked quietly once everyone else had filed out.
“Keep this quiet, but out of everyone here, you two are the only ones who I know I can trust absolutely. This leak is definitely coming from soone close to . The last raid happened while I was–” I coughed awkwardly, wanting to be honest with them without being crude. “Well, it was while I was eting with Natalia, the night I spent with her. Very few people knew that I wasn’t at the compound that night. I didn’t exactly make it common knowledge.”
Vinny waggled his eyebrows suggestively at while Alessandro looked horrified to be talking about anything remotely close to my sex life. The horror was mutual. The last thing I wanted to discuss with my brother was my latest fling.
“You seriously think one of those guys in here just now could be the leak?” Alessandro asked, quick to change the subject.
“Unfortunately, I think they are the only people it could be. Nobody else would know my schedule that well, and that raid couldn’t have been a coincidence. And that’s not the only thing; I know for a fact that I was being followed the other day as soon as I left the compound. How would they have known exactly when I was going to leave if it wasn’t soone in my inner circle?”
“Wait, what the hell? You were followed and you didn’t say anything?” Alessandro was pissed. I knew he wouldn’t like that I had kept that from him, but at the ti I had wanted to keep the information to myself. It made more sense to gather all the facts that I could and then present them to my n, rather than co running every ti there was a threat.
“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you, but I’m telling you now. It’s clear to that sobody who was in this office with us is working with the Russians.”
“Then why the fuck did you just tell them your entire plan?” Vinny interjected.
“Because that isn’t my real plan. Only the two of you are going to know the real plan.”
Alessandro rubbed his hands together, forgetting his irritation at and eager to hear what I had to say. He loved this kind of shit; secrets were like currency to him. It had taken a while to trust him again after how he had reacted to becoming the Don, but at the end of the day, he was my brother and I knew he would die before he would ever betray .
Our relationship had a complicated past, but he had more than proven himself during my ti as the head of the family. Now that we were facing the Russian threat once again, I was grateful to have him by my side. He had been heavily involved in our last conflict with the Russians and would have more intel than most of my other guys.
The younger crowd had mostly co around after we had managed to crush the Russians, so this was all new to them, and besides, if my suspicions were correct, then I couldn’t rely on any of them until I figured out which one was betraying . Alessandro might not have always respected as his Don, but he would always look out for as his brother.
“You two are going to help figure out who the traitor is,” I explained, “by putting out bad information. This will work twofold. One, it’ll confuse the intel that the Russians are receiving so they stop catching us by surprise, and two, it’ll help us catch the fucking rat.”
“How do you figure?” Vinny asked.
“Every guy who was in this room is a suspect, which ans I want you two to divide them up amongst yourselves and keep track of who you talk to. That gives you both five to talk to. What you’re going to do is co up with a different lie for each person that you talk to. The lie needs to be extrely specific. I want you to write down who you talk to and exactly what you tell them, things like, ‘Tallon will be in Florence on Thursday’ or, ‘The Venice warehouse won’t be manned on Friday.’ Then we’ll wait to see what the Russians do. If they show up sowhere based on one of the lies you tell, that will tell us right then and there who our informant is.”
“Damn, little brother, you’re pretty fucking smart when you want to be,” Alessandro said.
I chuckled at his words. It didn’t matter how successful I had grown our family to be, I would always be his goofy kid brother. But I didn’t mind; it was nice to rember my roots. Sotis it felt like being the Don was more a character that I took on rather than who I actually was. People expect the boss to be gruff and hard, even cruel at tis. In order to be respected, I had to be able to take on that persona no matter how much it differed from who I actually was.
In the beginning, I had been able to uphold a clear line of demarcation between as the Don and as myself, but after a decade and a half of playing the sa character, it was easy to forget where the character ended and I began. Over the years, the side of myself who loved teasing my family and making everyone laugh had been mostly tucked away out of necessity, but it was a loss that I mourned greatly. So when Alessandro reminded of who I really was, underneath all the mafia bullshit, I appreciated it. I wondered if I had done a good enough job of showing Natalia the real as well.
“Alright, stay safe, you two. Don’t trust anyone,” I said, dismissing both of them.
They nodded and let themselves out of the safe room. I stayed for a bit longer, examining the maps I had out and wishing that I was in a hotel with Natalia instead. If only I could figure out how to neutralize the Russians once and for all, I could focus solely on my relationship with her. I took my phone out to see what she had texted during my eting.
“What are you up to today?”
It was sappy as fuck, but I couldn’t help but grin. It hadn’t been that long ago that I’d had to practically stalk her to get her to talk to , so it made ridiculously happy to have her be the one contacting just to chat.
“Just so work. You?” I sent back, hoping she would be able to see later.
“Sa. What kind of work?”
I settled into the chair and decided to just call her. I would talk to her for hours if she wanted to. I was putty in her hands.
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