“We need to get a handle on this,” my father stated, his booming voice filling the expansive room.
He’d gathered together my brothers, our Capos, and two representatives from the Kozlov family. Being in the same room as Vladimir and Alexei Kozlov only added to the tension.
As if there wasn’t enough of that already.
Everyone was on edge, the Russians still angered by the accusation they’d been involved at the attack at the club.
“We rounded up several traitors,” Vladimir stated from his perch on one of my father’s leather chairs.
I threw a look in his direction, noticing he was comfortable in his surroundings.
“Did they talk?” I asked. I’d already been told there was confirmation that several men from the Russian community had been lured to work for the Poles.
Alexei snorted. “True patriots to the wrong cause, remaining silent to the end.”
“Did you fucking try and obtain any information?” Niccolo snapped.
“Maybe we should have been the ones to handle their interrogation,” Salvatore added.
“Yebanyy mudak,” Alexei huffed. Yeah, maybe we were all fucking assholes.
I sensed Alexei’s rage climbing as he walked toward my brother, sneering at him. “We have methods of torture that are almost always effective. Perhaps I’ll find it in my good graces to teach you the fine art of knifework one day.”
“You fucking asshole!” Niccolo hissed.
“Enough! This isn’t getting us anywhere,” my father snapped. At least he was overriding the goddamn Russians.
“Bottom line. We need to deal with Casimine but the situation is delicate. We will do what’s necessary in order to keep this under control.” I kept my voice calm, even though the rage continued to build. What the fucker had done was reprehensible.
“Agreed,” Dominik said quietly. Of all my brothers, he understood the most what I was facing, the possible loss something I’d never be able to get over.
At least given the silence in the room there was some level of respect for what I was facing.
“Other than the bastard’s demand, has he indicated how he wants to handle the issue?” Vladimir asked.
Sighing, I turned to face the group, shoving my hands into my pockets, my drink remaining on the edge of the bar. There was no amount of liquor that would dull the pain that had nearly become suffocating. “As of yet, no. However, I won’t risk an innocent life. Whatever the demand, it will be followed.”
“You’re a fool,” Alexei stated, shaking his head.
I slowly turned my head then I walked closer. “It’s obvious you haven’t cared for anyone in your life. I feel sorry for you, Alexei. I really do. Perhaps one day you’ll understand there are more important things in life than business or the expansion of territory.”
“You have a price on your head. You shouldn’t take that lightly,” Brando said from the corner of the room.
“As I’ve had many times before.” How many assholes had hungered to kill me? My words seemed to echo in the room, or perhaps it was just the haze surrounding me pulling everything into a fucking vacuum. This wasn’t a situation I’d dealt with before. There was a code of honor amongst even the most destructive crime syndicates. Casimine had broken that honor because of his grief in learning of his brother’s death. My mind continued to wonder about the assassin. If Orpheus was behind it, he’d already arrived in New York. There was no amount of protection that would keep him from hunting me down.
There was no such thing as friendship or even a professional relationship when it came to accepting a job. Money was the only player.
“We sent a message of our own to Casimine, destroying two of his clubs,” Vladimir said in passing as he swirled his drink.
“That will likely cause additional bloodshed, Vladimir. The intention was not to destroy innocent lives,” my father insisted.
“A necessity, my friend,” Vladimir said far too casually for my liking.
“Where is Filip?” Salvatore asked.
My father shook his head. “Unfortunately, he’s yet to be tracked, but there isn’t a hole he can hide in where we won’t find him.”
My two brothers had been handling other aspects of business, only recently brought up to speed with the situation with Casimine and his son. It would seem our list of enemies was growing.