Guns & Roses

Dimitri

It has been a couple of days and all I could think about was Tatiana. I was avoiding her because every time I see her all I wanted to do was kiss here senseless. I can’t risk losing her, I haven’t felt this way in a long time and I know she’s different. But she’s our best shot at defeating the Mortellis. I was still caught up in my office trying to think of a new strategy but nothing comes to mind. I poured myself another glass of whiskey, racking my brain for ideas.

I heard the door opening and without looking up I knew it was Boris. He was the only one brave enough to do so, and I knew it wasn’t Tatiana by the sounds of their heavy footsteps.

“It reeks alcohol in here! What’s bothering you sobrat?" Boris asked as he took a seat in front of me.

“I don’t know” I answered

“You don’t know or you refuse to know?” He said, giving me the look.

“What the hell does that even mean?” I said looking up to meet him in the eye.

“I can see it in your eyes Dimitri, you are having second thoughts and you refuse to acknowledge it” taking my silence as his cue to continue “And I have a pretty good guess what’s causing it, or should I say who" Boris said, raising his eyebrows.

Letting out a defeated sigh, I closed my eyes and ran a hand through my hair. Boris knew me all too well. I was good at masking my emotions, especially when you lead a crime organization. But Boris knew ever since we were toddlers.

“I like her... But we are too far in to just change plans” I said.

“Are we though? You are the boss and I will support you in whatever decisions you make” Boris said, a small smile in his face

“Plus, it’s nice to know you are capable of feelings Dimitri!” He said as he laughed at me. If it were anybody else, the might be dead right this second.

“Thank you moy priyatel... But I don’t know what to do. Having Tatiana become the inside intel was a full-proof plan. We just got lucky that we got to her first”

It was true, that was the plan. Having Tatiana become the insider in the Mortelli’s was our strategy in getting one step ahead of Arturo. It was hard infiltrating them and I knew countless others tried, but having Tatiana- someone Arturo wanted, was our best bet.

“We need another plan of attack” I concluded.

“Or.. We could just attack. Dimitri, our organization had grown tenfold ever since you took over your Father, and we have allies to back us up as well. We could surely beat Arturo this time” Boris suggested.

It was true, back when my Father still handled the organization, it was fairly strong but so did the number of enemies my Father had accumulated through the years. When I was old enough to lead, I worked my ass off to eliminate the threats and strengthen our family. But even so, Arturo was a very cunning man.

“I want to destroy Arturo and I know we have allies here in Russia to back us up but I need to do it smartly, Boris and I prefer it to be with less casualties”

“I know that, but it’s her we’re talking about and I know you won’t take it lightly when something happens to her. Going through another loss isn’t a good idea Dimitri”

Just the thought of losing Tatiana just the way I lost her... I can’t even begin to think about that. I knew what Boris was referring to, he was after all, there to see me at my lowest.

The heavy silence at the office was suddenly disrupted by shuffling from the other door. Boris and I looked at each other, drawing our guns readying ourselves to shoot at the intruder.

Seconds later, the door opened revealing Tatiana, Viktor and the twins all toppled over. They were all grunting, more so Tatiana, as she was under three heavy men.

***

Tatiana

I was just getting to the good part when Viktor suddenly sneaked up from behind me.

“Spying now are we?” Viktor whispered. I rolled my eyes at him as I leaned closer on the door wanting to hear more.

So far, all I have gathered was that I was nothing more than live bait, because the moment Arturo finds out that I was an insider, I’d be dead before I could even say my full name. I admit, it was a good plan, infiltrating the Mortelli’s through me was smart, after all, Arturo had been wanting to recruit me for a long time.

I knew I was just a recruit here too, but I had thought Dimitri and I shared a moment. A real, genuine moment. But I guess he just wanted to get inside my pants just like the others. The thought angers me but I resume on eavesdropping. It was the only way of getting information since Anton avoided me like the plague, even when I wore the shortest gym shorts I could find to training. I was that desperate for answers. Since nobody was giving them, I decided on spying instead.

I literally couldn’t hear anything anymore. Just as I was about to stand up, two heavy weights landed on my shoulder. As I looked up, I saw the twins had a hand on both sides of my shoulder and started eavesdropping as well.

Andrei looked down at me and winked while both Viktor and Alexei had their ears on the door. There was nothing but silence from behind and I started getting up again but the twin’s weight was pushing me down.

When I shoved their hands away, which was a completely wrong move on my part since they were using me to balance themselves, we toppled over as Andrei managed to push open the door handle.

I couldn’t breathe. Literally. My whole body ached as three fully grown men was on top of me, in a far from sexual way.

“What the fuck is going on?!” Boris asked us as he withdrew his gun and headed towards us.

It just occurred to me that they were pointing their guns at us and was probably why they suddenly become quiet earlier. Boris offered a hand and I took it, rising up to my feet.

“It’s Tatiana’s fault!” Viktor shouted pointing a finger at me just as I noticed Anton enter the office.

“Wait, What!” I glared at Viktor ready to defend myself when his voice cut me off.

“Whoever’s fault it was, you guys shouldn’t be eavesdropping on someone else’s business” Dimitri said, smirking as his raised an eyebrow at me. Busted.

“Well now that you guys are all here, I have an announcement to make” He declared.

I saw Boris sending Dimitri a questioning look but he just shrugged it off. From what I heard earlier, I didn’t catch anything about new plans apart from them sending me on a death mission, but hey, what’s new?

“We’ll be conducting a mock battle here before we fly back to New York. It’s to gauge how your capabilities have improved through your training” Dimitri explained.

Mock battle? To prove what? If I’ll survive longer than they anticipated? The other guys seemed excited at the announcement but I tuned them out.

My thoughts led me back to what I heard earlier. I caught something along the lines of ‘losing her’ so it led me to conclude that her was the reason for all the hatred and that this fight was to gain revenge. And I got smack dab in the middle of two powerful mafia’s feud.

I needed to play my cards right or else I’ll surely end up dead. I noticed the other guys were starting to leave and I got up as well following them outside the door.

Just as I was about to step out, Dimitri’s voice stopped me.

“Stay Tatiana, I need to speak with you”