Chapter 44
CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
AUDRY
M arco could only protect me for so long. Sooner or later the other crime families would come for me.
I woke up with this thought in my mind every day following Yegorov’s death, and I wracked my brain for a way to fix it. To Marco’s credit, he didn't tell me not to worry. He didn't offer to fix it for me. His own hands were full.
Organized crime had taken a break from worrying about the money I took to dealing with the fallout from the death of Aleksandr Yegorov.
Having taken the Pakhan out, Marco had taken it upon himself to clean the house. The same day that he rescued me, he sent eight teams of assassins out. They took out the rest of the Bratva high command in Los Angeles, like they'd been wanting to do for ten years.
The head of the Council was pissed as fuck about him going off script. But I had a little juicy morsel, to help Marco with that. Among the little secrets that I had harvested from my little foray into the organized crime files where details of an account in the Seychelles belonging to Nicolò De Luca.
“He wasn't just paying him a little kickback to keep you off his back, he was also supplying De Luca’s organization with girls. De Luca had every reason to want him to stay in business,” I told Marco.
The satisfied look on Marco's face when he heard that, and the way that he sighed and leaned back in his chair, was more than enough for me to think that the chairman of the council had a world of hurt coming his way. It pleased me to be of use to Marco in such a way. Excellent use of my time and resources.
I was living with him in his Hollywood apartment, keeping a very low profile while we figured out what we wanted us to be. I thought that I would have heard from my dad by now but he kept his distance. It didn't comfort me much.
It was Kylie who came up with a solution to my mafia problem. As the man who had taken Yegorov down, Marco was the de facto heir to his territories. “Why don't you persuade him to share out the territories evenly with the families in exchange for your life? He loves you right? Would he do that for you?”
I sighed, “I don't know but I think he just might. I want to solve this on my own though.”
“Yeah, well, Marco might have his territories but you have access to his money.”
“I do?” I asked in some surprise.
“Yes, you do. We never closed the back door that we created when you were scamming him over that horse, and I think they never found it because it's still open.”
“For real?” I asked breathless with hope.
“Yeah, for real. We could offer them his money as compensation for stealing theirs.”
I grabbed Kylie and kissed her cheek hard. “You're a lifesaver. I love you so much.”
Kylie laughed nervously. “Yeah, okay calm down.” We weren't really big on showing affection, but I think the occasion warranted it.
“How do we do this? What's the best way?”
“Make it dramatic.” Kylie said. “Call a meeting of all the families and then, as you walk into it, I drop equal amounts of cash into all their accounts.”
I grimaced. “Do we really want to remind them that we had access to those?”
Kylie looked at me. “Good point. What do you suggest?”
I took a deep breath thinking about it, “I mean, I like the dramatic aspect of your plan, but how about we just withdraw the cash, put it in suitcases and walk into the room with the suitcases. Then as I am giving my presentation, you distribute suitcases to every family.”
“Oh my God, that is so dope. I could wear a black suit, Louboutins, slick my hair back…”
I grinned. “Exactly. We could match. Distract them with our theatrics, and then give them money. On top of Marco giving them Bratva territories, I don't see how they could insist on holding on to a grudge.”
Kylie laughed. “You're brilliant. I love it. Let's do it.” We high fived, and then I got Marco on the phone.
This was the hard part because I hated asking for shit from anyone. But it wasn't just my life on the line, it was also Kylie's, her fiancé’s and her sweet mother’s - who had no clue what her daughter actually did for a living.
“Hey you.” The affection in his voice killed me every time.
I cleared my throat. “Er, hi. Can you talk?”
“Yeah, I can talk. I'm just here with George going over some records that the council has asked for.”
I took a deep breath, “I have an ask. It's kind of a big one and I will not be mad if you say no.”
“What is it?” He sounded concerned.
“It’s about the Bratva territories.”
“What about them?”
“Would you consider…” I almost lost my nerve.
“Would I consider what?” he asked mildly.
“Would you consider divvying up the territories and distributing them among all the families?”
There was a small silence on the line. “To what end?”
“In exchange for my life.” I said quickly.
I expected him to spew some bullshit about how I shouldn't worry about that and he would take care of me but no, he didn't say anything for a long time.
“Marco?” I prompted tentatively.
“I'm here. I'm just trying to think how we can do this in the most advantageous way. Because they might agree to our deal but I know these people, they would hold it over our heads in one way or another. We have to do it in a way that they feel they got the better end of the deal.”
We. Our .
The language he was using truly made me feel that I was on the inside of something, maybe for the first time in my life. It wasn't just the words that he used, but the matter-of-fact way that he said them. I could feel those pesky tears pricking my eyes again.
“What do you suggest?” I asked once I could talk again.
“Maybe I can have a talk with Leggieri. He is in gambling and has the least interest in the Bratva. He's had about a hard time as me keeping them out of his territories, so I'm sure he had no problem with me killing them all. I could gently nudge him into suggesting we divide the Bratva territory amongst ourselves and have him bring it up at the next meeting. De Luca is really being a pain in the ass with these meetings, so we might as well use them to our advantage.”
I laughed, “That guy has really gone all corporate, hasn't he? What's next? Ya’ll are going to have to have deliverables?”
He huffed in amusement, “Yeah, soon we’ll be circling around action points and taking PTO.”
“Heaven forbid. Are y’all gangsters or are y’all gangsters ?” I teased.
He laughed. “Jury’s out. Anyway, let me set up a lunch with Leggieri. Leave this with me. It’s my deliverable.”
At that moment I truly fell in love with him.