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“Yes, boss,” the young boy—I guess he must’ve been in his late teens—sheepishly answered and came up to me.
“Get me a burger and fries from the cafeteria, okay? And get yourself one as well,” I ordered, shutting the door.
This world of ours was a terrible one for a boy that young to be in. I feared he wouldn’t live long in this business. He was better off doing something else.
He didn’t really have a choice, though. His father had owed the Bratva a huge sum of cash and had convenientlypassed away, leaving his family to suffer the wrath of the organization. Eventually, Diego offered to work for the organization and try to pay off his father’s debt, keeping his mother out of the way.
The boy was proving himself to be reliable. There was certainly some similarity between him and me, both of us forced into this life against our wishes. But no, now that I thought about it, that’s where we were different. He had wishes, whereas for me—this was all I had, all I knew, and the Josephine situation proved that to be true.
“You’re going soft on him,” Vlad said to me, disrupting my train of thought and pulling me back to reality. “I hope it isn’t weakness I’m sensing.”
“Watch your tongue. You may be my brother, but you’re not beyond my punishment,” I warned him.
Vlad was fond of testing the waters, looking for subtle ways to mock me or prove that I was unfit for the position of Pakhan, or Boss, of our organization. He had always dreamed of leading the group and had even made a case for it during our time in Boston, but was never awarded that rank. He was the most zealous to the cause. In the end, he was given the role of the Bookkeeper, controlling the finances of the business.
“Alright, alright. I hear you. I’m sorry.” He smirked and apologized. “Quite the hottie you got yesterday. Pretty wild one too. You always have a way with women, always bagging the finest chicks.”
“Why are you here, Vlad? Get to the point,” I said to him. There was always a reason for his visits. He wasn’t the kind to show up and say hi for no reason.
“Boss!” the familiar voice of Anton roared as he shot through the door. “Forgive me, but we had an incident.” He struggled to maintain his usual calm composure as he spoke. To my family, Anton was the young boy my father adopted from aRussian prison. To the Bratva, he was one of the most capable men, while to me, he was my best friend and someone I trusted implicitly.
“What is it?” I asked calmly, trying to read his mind. He raised his head and inhaled slowly. Anton towered over me in height and build, with a tanned face and his signature two-piece suit without a tie. He clutched his phone tight as he began.
“One of our warehouses just got hit by the cops and two of our boys have been killed. Another is currently seriously wounded, but we’ve got Dr. Langdon working on him already.”
“Who the fuck led the raid?” Vlad asked before I could say anything.
“Detective Lopez,” Anton answered.
Turning to me, Vlad said, “Detective Liam Lopez, huh? Sooner or later, you’re going to have to deal with him. I know you don’t want to, given your history with him, but this is the second time this month.”
Vlad was right and I already knew this, but I still couldn’t bring myself to hurt him. He was the one person I couldn’t.
“No, this is your fault, Vlad. You’re the one who convinced me you would be able to keep the cops off our tail,” I barked at him. “What the hell have you been doing?”
Before he could respond, I turned to Anton. “Take me to the survivors. Let’s sort this mess out. Was there any damage to our merch?”
“Everything’s been confiscated by the cops,” Anton swiftly replied, opening the door for Vlad and me. Vlad chuckled and followed us as we made our way to the elevator and down the building.
There were times I wished I was part of a different family, in another city or country, doing something else with my life, and this was one of them. Curiously though, I never could quiteimagine what a life other than this one would be like. How were such lives lived?
As we came off the elevator and passed through the lobby, the normal civilians around us were like jigsaw puzzles to me. How did they carry on with their lives? What did family mean to them? What did they do to make a living? How did they pass their time?
I’d seen a glimpse of how such a life was led when I was with Josephine, but now that she was gone, that understanding was gone too.
We approached the cars lined up for us just as Diego emerged from the cafeteria next door, two burgers with fries in his hands. He handed one burger with fries to me, and turned around when Vlad stopped him and asked for his burger. Diego, with subdued sadness, handed it over to him. Out of all my siblings, Vlad was the biggest asshole and he loved it.
“Hey!” I called to the boy. “Here you go.” I gave him my burger as I bit down on my fries.
When the boy left, I turned to Vlad. “What’s wrong with you? You don’t even like burgers.”
Vlad simply laughed, got into the car, and dropped the burger onto the seat next to him.
As the car drove us to the Old City of Philadelphia, I looked out the window and gradually my mind returned to the problems the organization had on its plate.
It was going to be one hell of a day. Anton pulled the car over a good distance away from the warehouse. This was a mess and the timing was inopportune. Then again, there never was a good time for such things.
Chapter 3 - Ivan
