Mafia and his Angel

Andrei I watch as Luka throws another punch at the now mangled face of Daniel Walters. It sounds brutal to just stand here and watch but it’s my job, well not my job to watch, but my job to oversee. He owes us money. He's one of the regulars. The regular drug addict who always needs more, needs another fix, needs another loan to pay for his drugs. Being part of the Bratva has its responsibilities, the bratva of Manchester, the mafia, we rule the underworld in the whole of the North West and we’re expanding every year. I have responsibilities to the Bratva, the family. This being one of them, overseeing the drug empire, dishing out reminders that our clients need. I’m 2nd in command to Pakhan, the boss, the authority, also known as my father. My father moved to the UK from Russia over 40 years ago as a young man with only £40 in his pocket. He built his empire from the ground up to what it is now, he started small dealing his drugs and lending out money to people in need, obviously he had high interest and there was extra interest if you missed a payment. We own half the country, we deal in drugs, guns, money, anything you can think of the family deals with it. The Russian mafia wasn’t yet established in the Uk until my father came here and started it. He had a couple of issues with other gangs but he either made friends with them or killed them. That's how you get by in this life, you make your enemies friends or you kill them. As soon as my brothers and I were old enough, we got brought into the family business. All our family are part of the business now. My uncles, my cousins and my siblings. We each play a role. We are all cogs in a well oiled machine that my father runs, he's ruthless and unforgiving. We all do our jobs and do it to the best of our ability to avoid the wrath of my father. He wasn't always so ruthless but since my mother left he changed into a cruel bitter man. I look back at Daniel, we have him chained up, hanging from the ceiling, his shirt ripped open, Luka worked him over pretty good, he's covered in blood and new bruises. This is the price you pay for not sticking to the deal. Luka throws another punch, he's my cousin. Son of my uncle Pavel were a close family, Luka deals out the beatings for me, he likes this type of work. He likes getting his hands dirty since I got promoted. I use him more and more. I trust him to do what is necessary. Daniel groans and sags in the chains around his arms, he's bleeding all over the floor from his face, the basement is where we do this type of business, this is where we do a lot of business. It's easy to clean up any spillages, with the easy clean floor with its drainage in the middle.  “Enough” I step towards my cousin, he throws another punch to Daniel's gut and smirks at me. “Luka! I said enough” he moves away from him and shakes his hand. His knuckles are bloody and torn from all the punches he's thrown in the last hour, we have been here a long time. I was hoping to get to the gym before the end of the day, looks like that's not going to happen.  “Ice your hand” Kostya throws a cloth at Luka, i walk over to the slumped body in the centre of the room, the smell of rush is in the air from the blood spilled it irritates my nose, i never liked the smell of blood and it always made me feel squeezy as a kid but nowadays i've grown accustomed to the smell and blood drops circle the floor around Daniel.  “Daniel.” i slap his face gently to get his attention, he opens his good eye “now you know what happens when you don’t pay us back. I expect payment next week” he nods his head sluggishly “I’ll pay. I’ll p-pay” he stutters out then sags against the chains again “Get him out of here” I motion for my cousin and brother to get rid of him. They unchain him and he falls to the floor with a loud thud. Luka kicks his foot, he appears to me unconscious, not uncommon with the round of punishment he received. We’ll have to drop him off at the hospital if we want him to live.  “Get up danny boy” Kostya says, slumping against the wall, clearly not interested in the situation, that's typical Kostya, Daniel doesn't move. “For pete's sake. Get him out of here Luka” I grumble at Luka, he grunts and me and Kostya laugh, Kostya gets up and walks over to Daniel on the floor and crouches next to him to check his pulse “Come on cuz, can you not handle a little druggy” “Shut up Kostya” Luka pushes Kostya out of the way and grabs Daniel's foot, they drag him to the basement door. Luka opens the door while Kostya heaves Daniel on to his back. They put him in the trunk of Lukas' car and shut the door. I look at the floor and it's covered in blood. I grab the hose pipe and turn on the water. I spray water on the blood, watching the red liquid swirl down the drain, the smell of rust still lingers in the air but it’ll be gone by tomorrow. I don’t like my job but I don't hate it either. I don't like causing pain to people but it is necessary to stay in control. I could get one of the shestyorka, the errand boys to do this clean up but sometimes i like to do the easy menial jobs to clear my mind. Helps me think about nothing, I like to decompress after a beating. I don't usually watch the beatings. I just turn up after the message has been given just to make sure they understand what's going on but Daniel has missed 5 payments now and the little reminders were not doing him any good so he needed a deeper message. Part of my job as 2nd in command or sovietnik  is to watch over the working unit collecting the money while supervising their criminal activities. I work directly with my father and alongside the Security group with my brother Nikolai. We plan  specific crimes for a specialised group within our organisation and I choose who carries out the operations. I have soldiers in my team and Luka and Kostya are just some of them, they're the ones I trust the most, I report anything and everything straight back to my father. Well oiled machine.  I hear the basement door open and close. This brings me out of my thoughts, someone walks down the stairs. “Andrei, your father would like to see you” I turn around to face my uncle Pavel. He looks just like my father, a short plump man with salt and pepper hair. Even though he's a short plump man and a number of people could easily overpower him he still has the look of evil in his eyes that tells people not to mess with him.  “Uncle, let me finish this and i’ll be right up” I nod to the floor, he shakes his head at me and tsks a sure sign of his annoyance. My father does this as well. “Leave it. Mischa will clean up.” his russian accent is thick like my fathers me and my brothers who were all born in the UK don’t have much of an accent its more like a twang, my uncle turns around to look up the stairs “MISCHA!” he yells and a young boy comes running down the stairs. “Yes sir” he's so eager to please our family. He's one of the newbies, recruited straight out of high school. My father brought him on as a favour to one of his oldest friends before he died, he's mainly on grunt work, clean up crew, running errands for us. Anything that no one really wants to do.  “Get this cleaned“ my uncle points to the mess that i’ve almost cleaned up “Yes sir” he approaches me, I hand him the hose, he nods his head at me and gets to cleaning the mess up. I hand him the broom as I pass it on my way to the stairs. He thanks me and I follow my uncle upstairs “Did mr walters get the message?” he asks me, he has a smirk on his face. He clearly likes the idea of hurting people. My uncle is in charge of weapons dealing. He's in charge of distributing our weapons throughout the country. My brother Nikolai is in charge of my uncle and that's fine by me. My uncle Pavel can be a bit of a liability when he gets too angry, his emotions run close to the surface. Well one emotion does and that's anger.  “I don't think he will be missing a payment again” i reply “Why does my father need to see me?” He guides me towards my fathers office. He’s always in his office nowadays, we used to hold family meetings at our restaurant but since my mum left he doesn't go there anymore unless my babushka, that's my grandma, forces us all to have a family dinner.  My uncle doesn't answer my question, he just grunts at me and opens my dad's office. My brother Nikolai stands to the side of my father, they're looking over some paperwork. They both look up. Nikolai smiles at me and I nod my head in hello to him. I know better than to speak first in my fathers presence.  “Son, thank you for coming. Did Mr. Walters get message?” he asks, he points to the seat in front of his desk and i take it.  “He did father. Is everything ok?” I nod towards the papers in his hand, he hands me a sheet. It's a loan slip for John Peters. I look at the numbers, and it looks like mr. Peters has missed a few payments and he owes us a lot of money. Not uncommon when drug addicts take loans from us, it's a risky business and they promise they'll pay us back but they never do. I know it sounds stupid to keep lending them money but if they dont have the money then how will they buy our drugs?  “Mr Peters has taken out quite a few loans from us and his payments have decreased a lot over the coming months until the last few months he hasn't made a single payment. I need you to go pay him a visit.” “I can go for you "brother” Pavel comments before I have a chance to accept. “No!” my father yells, my uncle's outbursts are becoming more annoying, “your job is to push the weapons into sheffield, how is that going so far?”. “We are still working on detail, when  have definite plan i will speak to Andrei about situation” my uncle nods to me “Do we have more information on this Peters?” I ask my father, my brother hands me another folder, I open it and find a dossier of information on Peters. I close the folder. I'll look at this in my own office when Luka and Kostya are back.  “That's all the information we have so far, if you need more i’m sure we can have someone gather more but it should be enough information for you to do your job” my brother replies “What would you like me to do father?” i ask “I want you to pay him visit, get money back. Do not leave empty handed”  “Of course father, I will take Luka and Kostya with me”  “Good. Now leave me” he flicks his hand at us and we leave the room. My brother follows me out but Pavel stays behind with my uncle.  “Wonder what crap he's telling dad now” my brother says “Probably about how he would be better in charge or that one of us has done something to shame the family” i respond. Our uncle was never happy that he wasn’t put 2nd in command , my father isn't stupid. He knows my uncle wants to take over and has been trying to stake claim on the Bratva for a number of years now but my father won't let my uncle in on any of the big jobs, he isn't part of the inner circle. That's just my father and my brothers and my sister but she’s rarely involved in the big stuff she would rather just be in charge of the restaurant and leave the rest to us.  My brother huffs at the side of me “Want to go work out?” i ask him “Sure” he slaps me on the back “i’ll grab my stuff and meet you there” he runs off upstairs. I make my way to the gym room in the house.  We live in a 10 bedroom manor house out the outskirts of stockport, its private with its gated driveway, no neighbours within half a mile of us, the house sits on nearly 2 acres of land that has been landscaped beautifully. It has everything the family could want, we have a huge family size kitchen/diner that seats at least 12 of us on a good day. If we need to host more we have a separate dining room that can seat up to 24 people, that's if dad is interested in entertaining or Babushka decides on a big family gathering. I live here with my dad and my brothers and sister. My uncle con and his daughter live here too but we hardly ever see them around. We have 2 formal reception rooms which we usually chill in, a cinema room, leisure suite which has a 11m2 pool, sauna, jacuzzi and a gym.  The gym has lockers which we can leave some stuff in, the lockers are usually used by the other guys that don’t live here. My uncle Pavel lives about a mile away in a smaller house but nonetheless extravagant.  I change into my work out gear and start hitting the punching bag waiting for my brother.