Chapter 3

Anastasia’s pov:

He is a bastard, An arrogant bastard,

God I wish I could kill him with my bare hands,

After meeting Dante, I got on the plane again heading back to Barcelona, During the whole flight Matteo tried to get me to calm down which was a failure, I was so angry that I felt my blood was boiling in my veins,

Once we land, my phone rings, It’s Papa, I am sure he got alerted of my arrival, I take a deep breath before answering his call: “Si Papa!”, “I want you in my office once you reach the mansion.”, He orders and the call ends,

Twenty minutes later, I walk, for the second time today, into my father’s office, This time he is seated behind his desk having a bourbon, I take a seat on one of the chairs in front of his desk,

“So tell me how did it go?”, He interrogates,

How the hell am I going to blow out the news to him?, Not daring to look at him straight in the eyes, I lower my head and I say: “Papa I don’t have good news.”,

I lift my head, He brings the bourbon to his lips and takes a sip before placing the glass again on his desk,

“Explain.”, He commands,

“I was so open to negotiation, Dante, on the other hand, refused to deal with me, He told me that you should have gone there by yourself.”, That’s when I begin stammering, “And… And…”,

I know that what I am going to say next will add fuel to fire, I stop talking for a second to regain my courage, I close my eyes, “One of his men tried to approach me, So, I killed him.”, I blurt out,

I reopen my eyes and I lift my head to examine his expression, He has a tense jaw and his brows are furrowed, He mutters something under his breath, He is probably cursing,

In front of me, even when we are talking about business, Papa made sure to never curse no matter how angry he was, He always respected me and I really appreciate it,

Suddenly, he hits his fist on the table making me jump in my seat, “Merida.”, He curses and I freeze in my place, my eyes widening in surprise, Well I guess there is first time for everything after all,

“I made a bad choice, I should have gone there by myself, I should have known by sending you there that this would happen, The Cosa Nostra are very conservative, They don’t involve woman in their business.”,

I remain quiet, not wanting to say something wrong and make things worse,

“Anastasia why the hell would you kill one of them?, You should’ve controlled yourself.”,

I think I screwed up for the first time since I was introduced to world of mafia, The problem is I don’t regret it that much, My feminist side is pretty proud of what I did, I made a point out there in front of Dante,

“Do you understand the gravity of our situation, We can’t fight longer, This war needs to end, We need to figure out another way to make peace with him.”, He stops talking and silence fills the room, All I can hear is my breathing rhythm with each raise and fall of my chest, “I am going talk to him Capo to Capo, Of course if he still wants to sit with me.”,

He is right, If Dante chooses to extend the war further, after my encounter with him today, it could be the end of us especially that the Russians are causing problems for us,

“You are dismissed now, Let me figure out what I am going to say to Dante, »,

Once out of my father’s office, I decide to visit one of our casinos, I always want to show up there unexpectedly to check on how our business is doing,

Half an hour later, I park in front of the Bella Luna, I get out of my Lamborghini and give the keys to the servant’s valley,

Now, I am allowed go around the city by myself, When I was younger, under the age of sixteen to be precise, papa obliged me to be escorted by at least two guards, He was afraid that I get hurt, I can’t really blame him, We had enemies everywhere,

Through the years I have proven to him that I can take care of myself, Having my independency today has cost me a lot of training, a lot of bruises and especially a lot of mockery from stupid men who assumed that I am weaker than them and incapable of fighting,

I make the first few steps on the entrance of the casino, All I hear are shouts coming from inside,

“What’s going on?”, I ask the first server that crosses my way,

“One of the customers is caught cheating at poker, boss.”, Boss, That’s what everyone calls me here, While papa is their capo, I am their boss,

“I understand.”,

I make my way towards the crowd,

“Return all the money you won and get off the casino now, Or we will have to deal with you differently.”, Angelo the manager of the casino says,

“I said that I didn’t cheat.”, The accused guy shouts,

I approach them with steady steps,

“Leave him to me.”, I say and all the heads turn to my direction, Recognizing me, everyone steps aside to clear the path for me,

I stand in front of him my arms crossed,

“Oh you sent me a whore, What a special treat.”,

“Back off what you just said or you will regret.”, Angelo threatens from behind me,

«Trust me he will regret it either way, »,

He needs to know who the hell is standing in front of him, He should learn to never insult a woman which is a lesson that I will happily teach to him,

I get my weapon from the back of my skirt, The sound of my mm9 chinks the air, I can hear on the background the loud gasps coming from the crowd, I hit him on the leg, I need him alive for time being, I need to extract information out if him,

In pain, he falls into his chair, his hand covering his bleeding lap, “Fuck”, He screams,

“That was for calling me whore.”, I can hear Angelo giggle behind me,

I lift the sleeves of the shirt of the man sitting in front of me, I am not surprised when I find the Cosa Nostra tattoo on his forearm, Just as expected Dante didn’t wait to cause a problem,

“Get him to the basement for me.”, I order, I like the bossy the version of me,

“Are you showing pity on me, Miss Anastasia by capturing me.”,

“Just wait and you will see.”,

The questioning room was simple, A lamp on the ceiling, a chair and a table where there are a variety of knives,

“It is obvious that Dante sent you, Now, tell me what he wants.”,

He stares at me without saying a single word,

“Speak now before I lose my temper and shoot you’re on the other leg, I don’t think that you want to spend the rest of your life on a wheel chair.”,

“I am a dead man anyway.”,

He knew I was going to kill him anyways, From the moment Dante ordered him to get here, he knew he was a dead man, Carrying that tattoo, he could never say no to his Don,

“He wants you to know that no one messes with him.”,

Seems like Dante is really playing with me, He should know that I am the one responsible of our casinos, He is totally messing with me,

So, why don’t I be a part of his little game?,

“I am done with you now.”, I kill him right the second, He didn’t even beg for his life,

Angelo enters the room after hearing the sound of my gun, He asks: “So what now?”,

“I will report this to my father, Plus, I will send Dante a great gift.”, I say smiling,

I have a great idea in my mind,

“You really sent Dante the dick of the man?, You can’t be serious, I didn’t believe it when Angelo told me about it earlier.”, Matteo says,

We are seated on couch of my office telling each other about how our days went, A tradition we developed through the years,

“I can be very creative sometimes, Dante should know who he is dealing with.”,

“Did we get a response from him?”,

“No, Not yet, But, I am pretty sure we will receive one before the end of the day or maybe tomorrow morning.”,

Matteo excuses himself to leave, Before he gets out of my office, I ask:” How is Julia?”,

Julia is Matteo’s little sister, She is only five years old, Sadly, we discovered that she suffered from cancer two years ago, Since then, her health situation has been going up and down, From the moment we found out about her disease, I stepped in to help my only friend, I was there for her first session of chemo; I was there when her hair started falling, I didn’t leave her side when she spent nights in pain, I even fully finance all her treatments,

“The doctors said that she is stable, At least for now.”, He says, sadness visible on his face,

I get up from the couch and I hug him, “Matteo do not lose hope.”, I whisper in his ear,

“Tell her that I will pass by tomorrow in the afternoon, I will clear my schedule for her.”,

“Thank you Anastasia, You know that Julia really loves you, I appreciate what you do for her, You are the friend I ever could imagine having.”,

Then he leaves, Knowing him, his eyes are probably watering now,

As soon as the door is closed behind him, I lock it, I regain my place on the couch, Tears start falling down my cheeks, I cover my face with shaking hands, I feel my whole body trembling,

I cry for my dead mother, for myself and exceptionally for Julia, The little girl doesn’t deserve what she is going through, She is so innocent, While she is lying in bed, other cruel men are out in the word going around killing people,

What kind of world is this?, This is so unfair,

She can’t stop crying, Tears of sorrow fell from her eyes like a river,

This is the part of me that I hide from everyone else, In public, I always make sure to show people the best of me, I have never cried in front of anybody not even my own father, But, deep inside me is buried a lot of fear, Fear to lose my beloved ones, Fear of experiencing again the same hurt I felt after the death of my mother,

Few minutes later, I calm down, I gather myself, wipe my tears and exit my office,