*Alessandro*
For the first ti in many days, I had managed to slip away unnoticed. Considering the increased security that Tallon had been insisting on for everyone, this was a huge task in and of itself. It annoyed to have to jump through hoops just to have a mont to myself, but I understood his fear.
After finding those bodies on our lawn, I was a bit fearful myself. The Russians were escalating their boldness, and it would only result in greater horrors for everyone. Of course, other than my second in command, nobody knew that I had been approached by the Russians. Although I hadn’t yet agreed to work with them, I also hadn’t given them a firm no. I was lying in wait to see what would work best for .
I took a sip of bitter coffee and tried to hide my grimace as the hot liquid hit my tongue. In an effort to avoid being seen, I’d been forced to go to a small cafe that I hadn’t been to before, and I was regretting it. I had no idea how they’d managed to create such horrible coffee, but it was easily the worst I’d ever had. To top it off, they seed intent on serving only the most pungent of foods. The heavy scent of garlic and onion might have been appetizing if it was not mingled with the sll of burnt coffee, but as it was, I was struggling. I could admit that I had lived quite a luxurious life, and I often found myself unable to deal with diocre places such as this, even when it was necessary for business.
I forced myself to take another sip, trying to look casual, when finally the man I was supposed to have t twenty minutes ago approached from the side. I turned my body so that I was prepared to move quickly if needed; he might have arranged this eting, but I still didn’t trust him whatsoever.
He sat down at the table next to mine, facing in a way that would keep passersby from being able to see that we were speaking to each other. Although we were far from the compound and it was unlikely that my family or Tallon’s n would wander by, I appreciated his discretion.
“Have you seen enough to want to work with us?” the man asked, his Russian accent light. He must be a younger mber of the family, I thought, one who had spent the majority of his ti in the United States.
“I prefer a little more discretion and subtlety in my work, but you Russians do have balls, and I can respect that,” I told him honestly.
I had been disgusted to see our n dumped so unceremoniously, but I had to admit that it was a big statent for them to make. They were not fucking around, and they were willing to do anything it took to make us understand that.
“I’ll pass along your admiration,” he said, a slight tone of sarcasm in his voice. “Do you have an answer for yet?”
I took another sip of the horrid coffee, mostly buying ti as I considered what to say. I was unwilling to express my allegiance to the Russians just yet.
“I’ll be in touch,” I said, then I stood up.
He looked as though he wanted to say sothing more, but I decided to exit quickly before he had the chance. It was obvious that the Russians were desperate to get on their side and would say damn near anything if it would convince , but I had seen and heard enough.
I walked down the cobbled street, the uneven bricks scuffing up my leather shoes as I walked. I couldn’t bring myself to care enough to tread carefully as I thought about my life and my past.
It wasn’t surprising that the Russians had connected with . I had always been overlooked in life. Although Jas and Becca had worked hard to always make feel like one of their own and I knew that they had fought through hell and back to keep my insane father’s family from getting their hands on , I had always felt like they were closer with Tallon and Dahlia than they ever were with .
It was difficult not to take even the smallest of slights personally, especially as Tallon got older and it beca clearer, at least to , that he was being grood to take over a leadership position in the family that I had never even been considered for.
The icing on the cake had been when Giovani decided to recognize Tallon as the Don instead of . It had been such a slap in the face to see my younger brother receive sothing that technically should have belonged to , and it felt like one more reminder that I would never be recognized as Jas’s true adoptive son, but instead as his grandson with the tragic backstory.
Now that we were dealing with the Russians again, it was bringing up so many mories of the last ti we had dealt with them, and I couldn’t help but reminisce over how much I had done for my family and how little Tallon had been involved in. Sure, he was older now, but that didn’t change the fact that he would always be that goofy kid in my eyes.
I just didn’t understand how that goofy kid had managed to fall into one of the most powerful positions in the entire country. Everybody knew that I wanted to be the Don. Everybody had seen how hard I had worked to prove myself again and again.
But I couldn’t ever seem to shake off the tragedy that they associated with . Instead of viewing as the competent and cunning leader that I was, they saw as poor little Alessandro, the orphan with too many secrets.
Fuck, I needed a drink.
I was so fucking sick and tired of wallowing in my own self-pity. I saw an Irish pub at the end of the block and decided to make that my next stop. It would be nice to down a few whiskeys before heading back. After all, I had gone to all the trouble of slipping out unseen, I might as well enjoy myself a bit.
I stepped into the pub and found that it was a much better match for my mood than the shitty cafe that the Russian had suggested. The windows were covered with dark blinds that filtered out the sunlight, and it seed that at least half of the lightbulbs in the place were out. I wondered briefly if they would ever get around to replacing them or if they preferred the way it left the whole pub in a permanent state of semi-darkness.
I made my way to the oak bar and sat down next to an elderly man who looked like he had spent the past half-century drinking himself to death. I tried my best not to look at him directly as I ordered myself a whiskey neat; I wanted to be able to tell myself that I would never be like that, but the fact that I was ordering room-temperature whiskey at two in the afternoon probably didn’t bode well.
The bartender sat my drink in front of with a paper napkin and I stared into the amber liquid, willing it to brighten the black mood that I’d found myself in. No matter how hard I tried, I was never going to be able to stop resenting Tallon for the life that he had. While I had been forced to go through damn near every bad thing that a person could experience from the ti I was barely a year old, he’d had his entire life handed to him.
I raised my glass and took a long swig, relishing the burn as it went down. I could feel the tension in my body loosening slightly as the whiskey did its magic. I took another long drink, downing the rest of the glass. I sat it down and gestured to the bartender to bring another.
Before he arrived with my second drink, my phone went off. I pulled it out of my pocket and saw that it was a contact I’d been working with to gather intel. For a second, I considered just letting the call go to voicemail so I could continue to drown myself in whiskey, but I knew that would just make feel worse.
“Hey,” I answered the call quietly.
The elderly man next to shot a dirty look, as though I had scread into the phone. I turned my back on him. He might be pissed that I was interrupting his precious afternoon drink, but I wasn’t about to leave the pub and risk having this conversation out in the open.
“I got that information that you were wanting. It was hard to find, but we ran a deeper check and did a little backdoor digging. I can’t get into it much on the phone, but suffice it to say, we know exactly where she ca from.”
My stomach flipped and I forced myself to focus in spite of the slight alcohol haze that my brain had slipped into. This could change everything, and I needed to be extrely attentive to what he was about to tell .
“Alright, give it to ,” I said, I was as focused as a tightrope walker.
“Like you suspected, Natalia is Russian.”
I slamd my hand against the bar. “I fucking knew it!” I practically yelled.
The bartender and my elderly neighbor both glared at .
“Sorry, just got good news,” I muttered to them.
“Yeah, apparently the Natalia that your brother knows didn’t even exist three years ago. Her real na is Natalia, but her backstory is completely made up. She’s not at all who she said she was.”
“Holy shit.” I felt tingles on the back of my neck as I realized how close my brother could have co to death. He had been alone with this woman many tis, and none of us had truly thought she was dangerous.
“That’s not all. We were able to find her real identity, and this is where it gets crazy. Natalia is Dmitri Zaytsev’s granddaughter.”
My mouth dropped open. I had thought that perhaps Natalia had loose ties to the Zaytsevs, that she might be a cousin or sothing. I had never suspected that she could be the granddaughter of our biggest nesis. This was so much worse than I had even begun to consider.
Natalia wasn’t just our mole.
She could be our biggest enemy.
“I have to talk to my brother,” I said, then I hung up.
I sat for a mont, thinking about what I had just learned and wondering how to best use it for my benefit. I decided that there was only one course of action I could take.
Unfortunately, Tallon wasn’t going to like it.
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