CHAPTER 34
CHRISTIAN ‘VICIOUS’ VOLKOV.
Almost midnight, the air con coughs groggily, you’d think a place like this where I’m sending a ton of dollars that would pay more than ten of my men would have better service.
But their services are shit, welcome to the sad reality of power.
Something creaks to my right, heavy snores fill the entire room and I’m appalled to look at the woman sleeping beside me mouth open, snores as heavy as a lumberjack’s power saw maiming the air.
I breathe in.
I hold it, releasing the tension once more.
Day four of being in this room and it’s almost as worse as sitting down and listening to my douche of a dead father teach me about love and weaknesses.
The irony isn’t lost on me when I recall my old man had no single bone of love in his body. Not for my mother, not for me and not for Kat.
As for his weaknesses? The man died from a gunshot wound by a rival gang, Martinelli’s gang to be precise.
I’m nursing a gun wound to the shoulder, still recuperating from a graze wound to the neck and a shrapnel wound to the other shoulder and my ass is still here.
Alive and kicking.
Guess I’m not weak, old man.
An innocent woman in a bed lies in front of me.
Machines drowning in a sing-song tune beep around me.
Juana sleeps on the next couch snoring like a tranquilized moose, a loose blanket covering her.
I swing the bassinet in my hands, watching Millie sleep.
Three days with her and we’ve been visiting this hell hole to keep her mother company.
To remind her mother if she gives up on Millie, me and Millie are stuck like this.
Together. Forever.
Day five, Alexia Green still remains immobile on her bed. Like Sleeping Beauty with no one to give her a magical kiss back to the real world.
I have a feeling kissing her would land her in a deeper coma. That’s how poisonous I am to her.
Day six, Millie and I go shopping for new clothes but she cries all the way home.
Juana gives her her bottle of milk but the little kid refuses it finally realizing I lied to her.
Mommy isn’t coming home, is she?
I almost see it in her little blue-brown eyes when we visit her mother.
I’d explain to the kid that mommy is sleeping and the surgery was a success but along the way I’m starting to think the docs have been bullshitting me too.
Day seven has Kai Davenport visiting me and Millie with the news I’ve been anticipating for a while.
Millie plays with her squishy toy in my arms as Kai gives me a report of what finally went down.
“Trinity. They blurred the plates and tracking their minivan wasn’t easy but we’ve got them”, Kai reports.
Maximo’s eyes are on me before he chuckles, “Didn’t think the padre had it in him to issue an attack on you. He’s your biggest follower, sarcasm intended.”
“He is”, I affirm.
Trinity?
Couldn’t have seen that coming.
“Not if someone gave him a seat at the highest food chain to eliminate you”, Kai suggests.
Millie throws her toy, grabbing my huge thumb in her tiny hands.
“Dante”, I say.
Dante Keaton.
“Bingo. The fucker is desperate to find his family and to be back on the streets. He’d hire anyone just to get rid of you.”
He’s got guts, I give him that.
Kai tips his head at me, “See you in the next war, Vitello.”
Then he leaves.
It’s me and Maximo left in my study and then a minute later, my men filter in one by one.
“You did the background checks on the four assistants like I asked?”
“Yes boss”, Jett answers, “Brenda Gibbins is the right choice. Suburban neighborhood, boring life, can blend in with people unnoticed. Perfect place for them.”
I look at the child.
Giving her to Jett feels like giving an egg to a toddler. The chances of said toddler breaking it being high.
“You understand what you have to do?”
I ask. Jett nods, “Yes, Sir.”
“And when the nurse wakes up and asks?”
“You never visited, Boss.”
Jett takes Millie, Jagger assists with the luggage.
I feel the girls’ absence in the silence that hits like thunder.
“What now?” Maximo asks.
I pour myself a glass of whiskey.
“I visit Trinity Chapel. I confess my sins to the padre.”
I make sure the padre meets his maker.