Unfortunately, the few minutes that I used to grab my stuff and talk to Misha and Mrs. Lee were enough for Louis to drive quite far away. But when I stop by the highway leading to downtown Chicago, I catch a glimpse of his car in the distance and turn to follow him. You won’t get away from me again, bastard.
I tighten my grip on the wheel, burning with determination, and keep my gaze on Louis’s car. I will get him this time. I won’t fail.
I keep some three hundred feet between us all the way to downtown, but when Louis drives off the road and into the neutral territory of Bedford Park, I lose him at the first intersection. Goddamnit! But no, it’s alright, it’s nothing. I breathe out, feeling my heart pounding in my chest, and look around. I just have to check all the streets nearby. He couldn’t have gotten far away.
It takes me a while to drive around the blocks, and I’m almost starting to feel desperate when I suddenly spot an Italian man with wavy hair, wide shoulders, and a black coat. Is it Louis? No, it’s probably one of the Messinas’ spies-but what if not?
My whole body tenses up in alertness, and I lean over the steering wheel to take a better look. Oh damn, no, that is Louis! He even stops by the doors of a coffee shop to check something on his phone, and I recognize his face in an instant. Gotcha.
My heart picks up its pace with a rush of adrenaline, but I force myself to breathe and focus on finding a parking spot. I keep glancing at Louis through the rearview mirror, and I clearly see him take a quick look around and enter the coffee shop. I guess he has a meeting or something. The crowd inside doesn’t make it easier for me to shoot him. But it does make it easier to get closer to him, and then I’ll just have to wait for a good moment to get rid of him once and for all.
Do I want it, though? Am I actually ready to do this? Doubts crawl their way into my mind again, but I push them back down and check my sheath. I’ve waited nine years to get revenge for my mom’s death and Misha’s suffering. Giving up now means betraying them, and I can’t do this. Even for my own heart, I can’t.
I pull the hood over my head, pretending to hide from the drizzling rain, and rush into the coffee shop. There are plenty of people already, complaining about the weather over the slow and rhythmic music. I hang around the counter for a bit, locating Louis’s presence from the corner of my eye. He’s managed to secure a stool by the bar counter, and judging by his coat hanging on the stool next to him, he’s still waiting for someone.
Well, I guess I have to find a place for myself as well. For a moment, I even contemplate going back to my car-I have to wait for Louis to finish his meeting or whatever, so it doesn’t matter where I’ll be in the meantime, right? But eventually, I decide that it’s better to keep an eye on him and stay as close as possible. Who knows what he plans to do next.
So I order a cup of coffee to stay alert, find an empty corner on the other side of the coffee shop, and sit down to wait. I keep my eyes on Louis, and I can see that he keeps glancing at the entrance in what looks like nervousness. Whoever he’s waiting for, it must be someone important.
Finally, after almost fifteen minutes of waiting, Louis fidgets and sits up straight, and even though he keeps staring down at his empty cup, I know he’s already noticed his companion. And indeed, a few seconds later a person walks over and casually takes the stool next to him. It’s a woman, clearly older than him, in an elegant dark blue coat and with a hat and a scarf keeping her face and hair hidden.
But even though I can’t see her properly, especially from the other side of the shop, I can’t help the feeling that I know her. There’s something in her figure and manners that tugs at the strings of my memories, and I feel a tight feeling in my chest. It only grows stronger when I catch a glimpse of her profile, and this time I can’t stop myself from getting closer to them.
God, I’m probably seeing things, it can’t be real. Why would she be here?
But when I follow a group of students between the tables to keep myself hidden and slip into an empty seat next to an old couple, I hear
Louis’s voice. “… wanted to ask you.”
“Well, it better be something important. If my husband finds out about this, the two of us will be in big trouble.”
My eyes widen at the sound of her raspy voice, my hands grip the edge of the table, and my heart sinks into what feels like icy water. Why is Aunt Olga here? What the hell? My mind still refuses to believe that it’s her, so I focus on their voices, hoping to prove myself wrong.
“I know, and I really appreciate that you-”
“Get to the point, boy.”
Yeah, it’s definitely Olga. What is she doing here, though? Is there some kind of a deal with the Italians that I don’t know about? I frown, blankly staring at the table to focus on my hearing.
Louis clears his throat. “Yes, sure. Uh, I don’t know if Elena mentioned this, but I’m in some sort of trouble with Sasha.”
I purse my lips. What trouble? I think everything is perfectly clear. “Apparently, she thinks that I killed her mother, but I have no idea what she’s talking about. So I was hoping you’d be able to clear it up. She was your sister, after all, wasn’t she?”
By the time Louis finishes his question, I can barely hold myself back from walking over and digging my dagger into his neck. Can you imagine the audacity? He still wants to pretend like nothing happened, and it makes me sick. He’s such a goddamn-
“Well, it is a complicated story.”
I blink. What? What is she talking about?
Olga sighs, and that’s already a bad sign. She doesn’t show her emotions for nothing…but I know she did love her little sister, and the sadness in her voice makes my own throat tight with grief.
“I assume you didn’t know Valya, but she was a very kind and naive woman. Ever since we were little girls, I knew she wasn’t made for the life of a Mafia family. She wasn’t good at fighting or tracking…well, your people. So our parents quickly married her away to Nikolai Travin, a wealthy and brutal mobster from Moscow.”
So they didn’t care about her. They knew what kind of a man my father was, but they didn’t care. I can’t help but tighten my hands into fists just thinking about it. Olga is right, Mom was too kind for the Mafia life, but her parents just handed her to a monster.
“He quickly moved here to be closer to Yuriy, and a year later, Alexandra was born. My sister was obsessed with her, and she even learned how to stand up against Nikolai to keep Sasha safe. Or at least, to keep her from being injured. He is…not a very human person.”
“Yes, that much I know.” I can barely hear Louis mutter over a burst of laughter at the next table, but even that is enough to hear how grim he is -and something in my chest tightens in response.
“You’re very observant, huh?” Olga smirks, but by the time she continues, her voice turns grim as well. “So when they found out that Sasha got pregnant before marriage, Nikolai was furious. Valya had bruises for at least two weeks, but somehow she managed to talk him into keeping the child. I don’t know if you remember that time, but relationships between our families were tense.”
Louis huffs. “Weren’t they always tense?”
“No, not like that. You tortured our people, we set spies deep in your family, the police were plotting against us, and pretty much everyone was on edge.”
“Wait, when was this?”
Olga hums. “Some nine years ago?”
“Oh.” Louis pauses. “Yes, I remember.”
“Then, you should remember how tense it was. Who in their right mind would openly go into the enemy’s territory?” Olga’s voice suddenly turns angry, but I can hear something deeper behind it. “But that was what Valya did. Our patrol caught her on the Italian border trying to sneak there on foot in the middle of the day.” Wait, what?
“I tried to talk to Yuriy and convince him that Valya would never plot against us, but he was deaf to my words. He always is. When Nikolai arrived to get Valya, Yuriy told him that she was a traitor and couldn’t be trusted anymore. He-he told Nikolai to kill her to prove his loyalty, and…”
No, no, it’s not true.
“… Well. You can guess what happened after.” Olga’s voice is cold and grim, piercing the invisible cotton in my ears that muffles all other noises around me.
It’s impossible, I don’t believe her, I-
I shut my eyes with my throat tight and my body burning with fury.
It’s a joke, it’s a lie, it can’t be real. Father…he’s not that bad, he couldn’t-
“Are you alright, sweetie?” I startle when someone touches my shoulder, and I realize that the old couple sitting next to me is looking at me with concern. “Do you need help?”
“No, I-”
I don’t even realize it when I get up on my feet and look around in a daze.
“I need the truth.”