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Alexei’s glare makes me so self-satisfied that I almost fall sideways off of my stool.
“Tell me about this coup.” Alexei grits through his teeth. “I’m still not certain that I trust you, or anything that you say… but you do have the added benefit of easy access to that bastard’s inner circle.”
For a moment, silence stretches between us as my brother waits to see how Luca will react to him calling his father a bastard. Luca doesn’t look up from his work until he dries his hands on a towel and turns to look at the pair of us as he makes his next cup of coffee.
“Well, yes, that is true. I have a solid group of men loyal to my cause. When my clan was founded… it wasn’t like this. The business dealings between your father and my grandfather were always tense but not like this. Not… the bloodshed and thewaythat it’s being done…” Luca trails off. “It’s not what this was ever supposed to be. The goals that we worked for together have been corrupted. It has become less about replacing an inefficient government and holding control of our territories in our way, and more about power and personal wealth.”
Alexei takes a moment to consider. “And you are not about personal wealth?”
“Do not look down at me like you don’t enjoy the finer things in life.” Luca gestures to the apartment that we’re sitting in, on a private street… where I’m the only resident in the building.
He has a point there. “But I think it should be more about the territories that we control. Safety for our people, the space to live proper and comfortable lives without the fear of rampant crime… among all of the other darker things that my father thrives off of.”
“He does seem to delight in carnage.” Alexei grits through his teeth, hiding his contempt for the same issues that I’ve heard him rant about all of the time. “And if I help put you to control your clan, you will be different?”
Something dark flickers across Luca’s face.
“Yes.” He answers flatly. He reaches into his pants and pulls out a phone that neither Alexei or I knew that he had. “My right arm.” he gestures to the phone. “My… insurance policy for being here, if you will.”
“You know that this means that your father will have to die, don’t you?”
I elbow my brother for the bluntness of the statement that he just made, but the words don’t seem to faze Luca either. I’m sure Alexei is just being testy because he thought that he took all electronics from Luca and the man had managed to get something past him.
“I’ve come to terms with that.” Is all Luca says. “Even as his son, I know I have to.”
“No love lost between you and your father?” Alexei laughs, but something tells me that there’s a lot more to this story than meets the eye.
A shadow seems to pass across Luca’s face every time that his father is mentioned.
Now that I think about it, the sheer number of tattoos that he wears, and the scars that I’ve felt underneath the ink… is any of that from his father? Is there far more there than I know?
Alexei is not the sort of man who will tolerate harm to a child. It doesn’t matter if that child is his enemy or not. And the abuser inquestion? It’s the closest to feral that I’ve ever seen my brother be.
“Well, it would seem that our goals are the same. At least for the time being. Time will tell for the rest of it.”
Luca gives a curt nod. “We will have to separate him from his web of informants first and foremost. He’s kept on the cutting edge of technology for a reason. If we are going to have any chance at making a move that he won’t know about in advance, that will be critical.”
“Tech?” I interject. “I can help there.”
Luca nods immediately, his mouth opening to already fold me into the plan. But Alexei stops him with a raised hand. “I don’t want you anywhere near this.”
“What?” I say at the same time that Luca adds. “She can be of help.”
“I won’t hear of it. Keeping secrets? Not following orders? You’re proving yourself to be a loose cannon and I can’t trust any spare parts.”
“That’s bullshit and you know it!” I see red. My temper snaps instantly. Panic grips me before I can come to my senses. If I had been here, then perhaps Derek never would have been bold enough to try to murder me in the first place. “You aren’t going to sideline me just because you’re worried that something mighthappen! Stop pushing me away, Alexei! You can’t dump me in Spain, or this apartment, or anywhere else that you try to pawn me off on! Use me! I can help!”
He assigned me bullshit security details and I’ve blown them out of the water. With the exception of sleeping with Luca and helping out Marci, I’ve done exactly what I said that I would do.
Alexei’s eyes narrow. He doesn’t want to fight in front of company. But Luca doesn’t feel like company to me. It feels oddly natural to have him here in the first place.
“I could use her.” Luca offers as he finishes his second cup of coffee. “She’s the one who changed your digital footprint, right?”
Alexei’s chin dips into a nod. Neither one of us breaks eye contact with the other. I’m not going to back down on this. I refuse.
“I’ll consider it.”
It’s the best that I’m going to get until Alexei stews on it. I push away from the bar and shake my head. It’s probably not the best idea to leave the two of them alone here together, but I need a moment to breathe.
