Red

C H A P T E R S I X

We were not enemies per say, but that didn’t mean we stepped into the Petrov mobster safe house unarmed and without a plan.

We sat around a large table - myself, my father and my brother. Five armed men lined each side of the room, their eyes never leaving our bodies. We were instructed to keep our palms flattened against the glass of his table the whole time, any movement and they would shoot without cause.

Nikolai was an overweight man who I knew would struggle to keep up with a heavy fight. He had a stern face, made even more horrifying by a nasty scar slicing through this right eye and based on the location I would guess that it left his vision slightly impaired.

Next to him, at the table sat his second, a tall man built like a truck. Nikolai had strategically placed

him to his right, covering his blind spots. The Petrov leaders super power was his intelligence, not his physical strength and he ruled the mob by barking orders instead of getting his hands dirty.

Daria, his daughter glared at me from Nikolai’s left. She was pretty with high cheekbones and a resting bitch face. Her hair strawberry-blonde, her skin olive and she had a juicy set of full lips.

Her fingers were covered in large jewels, rough, sharp and big but her knuckles were soft indicating that she avoided fighting with her fists. Maybe she didn’t want to damage her skin, or maybe her arm strength wasn’t that good. Either way, she was clever enough to know the rings would aid her where her weaknesses lay.

“So you want our help to avenge ze death of your wife and daughter?” Nikolai asked, clamping his big bear hands across the table and setting his penetrating glare on my father. He drawl out his speech with broken English and a Russian lint.

“It is no secret zat we’ve been after ze Blackwell family for long time. But he very reckless man, no strategies just kill kill kill. What is your plan?” He rolled his fingers, gesturing for my father to speak.

“I want him to suffer, he must have a weakness. Family or someone he cares deeply for, we will find it and exploit it. Death is simply not enough, I want them tortured and brutally killed while he watches.”

“No, no, no. Ace loves nobody.” Nikolai interrupted. “Only his papi but we take of him.”

"You killed his father?” I found myself speaking up. Nikolai’s snake-like eyes slowly moved to me before landing right back on my father, dismissing me completely.

“Zis gurl, she a strong asset or weak like my daughter?” Daria stiffened her body awkwardly, visually humiliated by her fathers degrading. Her cheeks blushed and she momentarily appeared sad.

Nikolai sounded how my father used to sound. After five sons he couldn’t understand where he went wrong on his sixth child. A daughter, surely not. However, he worked me twice as hard compared to the boys and he soon came to realise my talents. Girls are judged, they’re weaker, more emotional, they can’t fight. Living up to that kind of prejudice was not an option for me.

I shot my first kill at eight years old, my father and his men did all the work. I just pulled the trigger. It messed me up, I remember the guys face haunting me every night. But I was told ‘get over it’ and soon enough I did, because that face was replaced with another face and then another and another. Now it’s second nature to me, pull the trigger before they do.

Cruel maybe but her father was right, Daria was weak. In that one moment of reacting emotionally to her fathers harsh words she revealed so much about herself.

“Willa is an important part of our family.” Antonio spoke up in my defence. “She is a key player in executing our plan.”

Antonio was the heir to my fathers throne and so he was well respected in our mafia community. Out of all of my siblings Antonio was the least capable of love, he kept himself cold and distant always. He did what he needed to do to ensure the power and safety of the family and he expected everybody else to follow suit. He will be a remarkable leader one day.

“You’re undercover?” Daria spoke directly to me, surprised, I think.

“Enough!” Nikolai blurted out, firing his black eyes at his daughter. “You do not speak. You are not worthy to speak.” He spat on the floor and she coiled back, lowering her gaze to her fingertips. “You useless woman! You know him ze most and yet you give us ze least!”

Antonio and I exchanged a look but my father sat staring at Nikolai.

“They’re coming after Antonio on Monday, he’ll have a tracker placed inside his body. It will lead us right to their quarters.”

“Fine, you get us ze coordinates and we’ll plan a joint attack zis month. Take out half of his men, to lessen his firepower but if he gets in ze way I won’t hesitate to kill him. I want him eliminated, I don’t care about some revenge plot.”

“If Daria knows him the best, Daria should be used as a distraction. We will take down more of his men if he’s out of the way.” Nikolai Petrov held his hand up to stop my brothers words.

“I won’t tell you how to play your pawns, don’t tell me how to play mine.” He turned to his daughter and scoffed. “She would only fail us anyway.” He looked my way and turned his nose up at me. “But I will advise.”

I narrowed my eyes at him, trying my hardest to keep my twitching fingers still. There was a right-handed pistol burning a hole in my pocket and I seriously wanted it to be burning a hole in his head. I hated how he looked at me, like I was less than. Clearly he thought I couldn’t compare to the intellect, strength or power of the mafia men surrounding us.

“I see why you have chosen ze gurl. Zey have gifts zat we don’t but zey also have weaknesses that we don’t. Gurls get too attached, fall in love.” I scoffed.

“Not me.” I reassured.

Nikolai didn’t bother to acknowledge my answer. “Ace is emotional man too, seduce him. You win his heart zats how you get ze kill. You get ze kill and the Petrov family will be forever alliances to you.”

“Oh, don’t worry I’ll get the kill.” I uttered with certainty, Nikolai didn’t even glance my way. Clearly he wasn’t going to waste his time talking to a female.

"We will get the kill.” My father corrected, raising a brow at me.

“We will get the kill.” I rephrased through gritted teeth because I wanted this.

My father shook hands with Nikolai across the table,

initiating the temporary merge of our two family’s.

The Valentino’s and the Petrovs. Two mafia families joining together to take down one leader, it was exciting. All this man power and big weaponry, yet I was in the centre of it all and I’m pretty damn sure when it comes down to it, I’ll be the one pulling the trigger.