THE DON’S DAMSEL

Two

The private jet landed in the private airport my father had purchased several years ago. I had no idea why we needed so much privacy then but I do now. Being around people brings so much attention that our business doesn't require which means staying the hell away from paparazzi.

Asher fell into step beside me buttoning up his pressed charcoal suit then shielded his eyes with a matching aviator sunglasses I was wearing. The guy likes to copy me since we were kids and it never bothered me. I find it funny that my little brother hides behind the door whenever I'm getting dressed to take in every detail then practice it himself.

He was much more loved than I was being the first born in a mafia household. He was the golden boy that gets everything he wants while his older brother was sent to school to learn everything illegal. I hated that life at first but now, I relish in the power I have all across the globe.

"Boss, the funeral is about to start." Richard, one of my cousins and also employee stated as we traipsed to the waiting cars in front of us.

"As if he doesn't know that. It's just a funeral, Richard." Asher extracted the words from my mouth knowing I was a man of few words but those would've been the exact words to come out from my lips had I opened them.

I settled inside an onyx Mercedes Benz with my brother and Richard at the passenger side then two SUVs behind us. A call came almost instantly making me flex my hands because someone needs to be dead, I could feel in. Just that the death won't come from me this time around. I hardly ever use a gun against someone, my men do the dirty work all the time except if it is personal.

Like the one time I killed a woman my father was having affair with.

"Visilios." I answered like it wasn't obvious the person called after knowing whom he wanted to talk to.

"Boss, that shitty Aussie brought bad s**t here and wouldn't admit he's got no good s**t anymore. We need a new dealer as soon as possible." It was Michael, another cousin of mine that stayed back in New York because he was the only one I could trust.

My brother is a bit too messy to run the Cosa Nostra in New York or he'd burn it down before I could go back.

"Kill him and get a new dealer."

"You know how hard those are to find. He was the only one with those goods. I hope you have a few people to contact about it?" At the way his voice lowered, I knew he was right about the lack of dealers. And we need blows as soon as possible.

"I'll see to it." I hung up the phone gripping it in my hands. Piz-dets.

"What's going on over there? The Sicilians stirring trouble yet again?" Richard asked from the passenger seat not twisting around.

"No more goods." I answered in short words, my emotions zipped and face expressionless. This was a disaster and amongst the lapses I despise.

"Gav-no!” Both Asher and Richard muttered at the same time. The panic beneath their words wasn't there when they heard about the death of my father.

In no time, we arrived at the cemetery, the same one my mother was buried years ago. My hands tightened in two large fists remembering her last days and all the heartbreak she's been through for the man that never cared. I loathed the idea of love since then. It doesn't exists in our world because they do not value it.

The men would forever be disloyal and unfaithful which was something the women should understand. They were exchange for business and trophies in their homes, nothing more.

Marriages are arranged between two powerful families, not because of love.

The sight of the wrought iron fences and gates came into view as we drove to a paved driveway winding between the graves, a chapel, sun-blanched stone angels, carved headstones —marble, concrete, or granite in hues of white, black and gray. I eyed the people gathered around a grave all wearing black, some crying and mourning.

With gritted teeth and tensed body, I dismounted the car with my brother. The attention, dammit! It was there before they could even see us. People can be extremely nosy which was why I hated small towns such as Saint Petersburg. I like being in New York with everyone minding their business.

The graveyard smell of fresh-cut grass, hot stone, newly turned earth, floral scents from flowers left on graves, perfume, aftershave and smell of new plant growth in the summer. Weird that a don gets to sense such reeks but I've always been one to detect a single change in the atmosphere by just smelling it.

I could sense fear rolling off people in waves, death when it's about to be someone's fate and their emotions scattered all over the place.

"So many people! I had no idea they loved Pai so much over here." Asher wondered aloud, buttoning back his suit into place and checking for creases. He thinks I do that?

We made our way further inside with our heads high, shoulders wide open and steps large and ground eating. Those things never seize to intimidate people and it did just that with the ones around here. Not that there was a need, people quiver at the mention of my name. I just had no idea how that impacts the Russians.

When we stood in front of the coffin, people having parted way for us, I glared at it. It took everything in me to not throw a large stone or more preferably, a bullet through the coffin so it could reach my father's skull. He's done so many things that he is yet to pay for and I'm so furious that he died a peaceful death with a mistress at his bedside!

I'm here not only for the funeral, but to find the woman who's been worshipping him. Like I do the others, I'm going to make life miserable for her that she would long for death that won't come. She is the last mistress and the one I heard he loved more than the others. He never cared about them, not even the woman that gave birth to his children!

"So much love for uncle here that it is nauseating." Richard muttered from beside me but not with disgust like I would have liked it.

Richard knew nothing about Andrei Visilios, I would like to keep things that way. They only knew that I hated him with every single breath that I took and it was because of my mother but nothing else. I wanted to savor my revenge alone but I couldn't.

The blame will also be on the woman that made his death easy for him. Staying at his bedside when my mother was all alone because he sent her children away and went ahead to have s*x in their matrimonial bed! My teeth gnashed again as I lean down and pack sand in my right hand and threw it nonchalantly inside.

My eyes fell on a woman, it was hard not to notice her petite beautiful frame that's snuggled in a black dress and bonnet cap that closed her hair. She was crying while leaning against a woman beside her that appeared to be her friend. My eyes narrowed behind the sunglasses and watched intensely as she stepped forward and poured sand in my father's grave.

The questions tumbled off my cousin and brother's mouths at the same time. "Who the f**k is that?"

"Don't tell me she is the mistress. She looks too young." Richard followed Asher's words and they waited for me to react, they knew it was not coming.

It was confirmed when she started murmuring how much she would miss him and she loved him. Most people didn't hear that but I have sharper ears and eyes, gene from my father. I could read lips like I would read a with clear words.

So she is the lady love!