7. Galena #2
What happened to her… to us — that wasn’t Maxim’s fault. As far as I knew, he had nothing to do with the men who hurt us that day. Nothing to do with the blood on the street or the sterile beep of hospital machines.
I stayed silent, watching the trio as I sifted through the information I was learning and tried to make sense of it. “I was happy. Before. So you’re like mafia then?”
Cora laughed. “I like her. She’s a straight shooter.”
Ilias nodded back at me, an analytical look on his face that I understood as if he were thinking through all the angles. “Your brother is bratva. He is the boss of his outfit.”
“And you? What do you do?” There was a snark in my words that I didn’t hide, and I edged to a chair that was far enough away from the group that I still felt comfortable, and perched on the edge. I knew he was some kind of criminal .
“With my brothers, I own a company called Anthakos Shipping. We have a legitimate shipping company, and then we also do some shit that isn’t so above board.
I won’t claim to be a Boy Scout.” Maxim moved to speak, but Ilias shook his head.
“I told you no lying, so I want you to think about how much you want to know.”
“This is a lot to take in.” I was still in my diner uniform, and it was afternoon, even though the sun shone outside, I wasn’t sure what time it was.
“Maybe I should call Dolores and let her know I’m okay?
” I said to stall for just a second. How much did I want to know about what they did, and why did I even care about these people?
Well, that wasn’t hard to answer. I prided myself on being honest, even when it wasn’t easy.
Family. There had been so much that had been hard lately, but one of the things that had been especially hard was knowing (or believing) that I was alone.
Now, that might not be true. Maybe I wasn’t alone.
Squaring my shoulders, I said, “I want to know everything, but could I get some water?”
Cora galvanized into motion so quickly that it startled me, and I shrank into the chair. She gave me a sheepish grin. “I’ll get you one. This is Ilias’s place, but I know where stuff is.”
Nodding at her, I went back to see what I could figure out just by studying the two in front of me, from the tattoos on my brother’s knuckles to the fancy cufflinks Ilias was wearing.
Cora came back into the room with a small platter of cheese and crackers she had assembled from the kitchen, along with a tall glass of water, which she set on the table beside me.
“We called Dolores and her brother to let them know you’re alright, but if you’d like to call her, you can,” Maxim offered.
“Thanks for letting her know that I was okay.” There wasn’t much need to call her myself. Dolores was probably glad to see me gone. Her brother seemed freaked out by Maxim and Ilias, so I’d probably lost my job anyway.
After giving it some thought, I chose the question that felt most pressing to me.
When we’d been attacked, the man had mentioned the name Alexei to my mother, and she’d gone pale.
At the time, I thought it was because of what was happening, but now I wondered.
I wanted to know more. “You say that my father wasn’t a good man. Tell me why. ”
“First, I want to tell you how Maxim and I know each other to give everything some context.” Ilias looked over at Maxim for a moment.
I was surprised that he’d jumped in with answering, but nodded.
“Our fathers were business partners when we were younger. Them and two others. The Santelli mafia don and the O’Kelly mob boss. ”
I gulped down some water and took another piece of cheese, trying not to feel nervous about this piece of information.
This wasn’t good, right? Crime bosses? They killed you after they told you stuff.
Cora and Maxim had their eyes fixed on me, and suddenly my skin prickled from all the staring.
“Okay. Seems like the normal thing, right? Criminals all together?” My nose wrinkled.
I knew nothing about mobs or mafias, but it made sense to me.
Maxim passed the baby over to Cora. He had been stirring and looking around bleary-eyed for the last minute or so. “No. Not normally. Italians keep to themselves. Irish hang with the Irish. Russians … you get the picture. This was a departure.”
“They wanted to make a special deal and secure their businesses with each other.” Ilias’s words were succinct, and he met my stare head-on. “They were sex traffickers, all of them. So when we say Alexei Volkov was a scumbag, he was. My father was the same.”
Cora cuddled Vasily. “Mine too. He was the O’Kelly boss.”
“You want me to keep going, Galena?” he asked, pointedly.
He’d eased back into the loveseat, where he was wedged.
Even that seemed too small for him, the way he spread over it.
My name drifted toward me as if from a greater distance than across the vast space in the fancy brownstone.
My biological father was a sex trafficker.
Wow. Glad I hadn’t had dreams about my father being an astronaut or some dumb thing like that.
So, did that mean my mother had been trafficked?
So many thoughts whirled around in my brain like popcorn kernels popping in a pot on the stove, and I couldn’t quite catch them all. “Yes, keep going,” I said numbly.
“When we were all boys. Maxim, me, Angelo, and Conall.” He nodded towards Cora. “Our fathers made their deal. I was only ten years old. Maxim was twelve.”
Vasily had begun to fuss, turning in his mother’s arms. “I need to go change him and get him fed.” Cora gave me an apologetic look.
Maxim made to stand. “I can do it, zayka . ”
“No, talk to your sister. She needs you.” She leaned in for a kiss, and I caught the look on his face as he pressed his lips to hers and then to his son’s cheeks.
“I’ll get him changed and then go home with Lev.
Galena, we’ll talk later, and you can meet Francesca and Theo.
We’re going to have loads of fun. You’ll see. ”
She leaned the baby over to Ilias, who cooed at him and cupped his rosy cheeks. The baby smiled a gummy grin at him as the big man made a funny face and brushed Eskimo kisses against his tiny nose.
“Uncle Ilias loves you. Be good for your momma.” He gave the little boy another kiss before she pulled him back into her embrace and smiled indulgently at Ilias.
I wasn’t sure about anything yet, or if I would see her again, but she seemed nice. I had been happy that she was here, especially at the beginning. “It was nice to meet you, and Vasily.”
That glimpse into how they interacted was the most telling of all to me. I watched as Maxim said goodbye to Cora, and I saw Ilias lean back again, unbothered. He looked at ease with Vasily, and more than that… Vasily looked comfortable with him, as if he felt safe.
As I assembled a small cracker and cheese, I nibbled on it while Maxim said goodbye to Cora and his son.
Something instinctively warned me that there was much more to this story than just the initial deal that had been made; there had to be.
Ilias had been guarding his own words too closely, and I wanted to hear the whole story.