My face is covered in droplets of blood, and so are my clothes.
Enzo hands me a cloth to clean myself, but I dismiss him.
"Now you know what happens when someone betrays us." Damiano says.
A Few Minutes Before Crashing the Meeting
"Damiano." I call for him before we enter the car.
He halts and waits for me to reach him. "Is something wrong?"
"Do you remember what we talked about at the meeting?" I ask him quietly.
"Yeah, about the Russian Roulette scheme we will be doing?" He asks confusedly since he thought that everything was clear at the meeting.
"Yeah, well, I thought about the whole ordeal, and I came to the conclusion that playing the Russian Roulette with blanks will not scare them once they find out that we fake it all." I explain.
"So, you want to replace the blanks with real bullets?" He asks again, still confused at what I am trying to hint at.
"No, that will put us in danger." I shake my head. Even with blanks, we are still in danger since having them fired directly at our heads has a high probability of death. I am already worried about this game killing one of my members with blanks, let alone playing with real bullets.
"I want you to kill Rocco. He has been stealing money and merchandise from us anyway, so we will be killing two birds with a bullet." I order him.
"I think the saying goes, killing two birds with one stone, but I get your reference." He chuckles. "What do you expect me to do?" he asks.
"Enzo will change the revolver at the last second it is placed on the spinning wheel. The original revolver will be replaced with an empty one. Since only one cartridge is supposed to be there, they won't think twice that the revolver will feel light when they pick it up, so that will give us an advantage at fooling them. The cylinder is made to carry 7 cartridges, so on the 5th turn, you will fire your own gun and kill Rocco." I explain my secret plan to him.
"Who will take Rocco's place? You know he has been our dealer for a long time, and I am not sure if our clients will like the new change." Damiano expresses concern.
"I have that covered. No one wants a traitor by their side in this business, so we will use that story if they ask for him, and we will name a new dealer. Hand picked by me." I tell him.
"You have everything planned, huh?" Damiano smiles. "At the best of my abilities." I smile at him.
"How come you didn't mention this at the meeting with everyone?" Damiano asks me.
"So, their reactions stay real when we play the game. If our members know that there is no bullet on the revolver, then they will get cocky, especially Max, and Andrei will pick on that; he is not as dumb as we paint him to be. So, I need them to feel that adrenaline rush and to have that thought in the back of their minds that a bullet might fire. Those emotions will show in their eyes." I tell him.
"That certainly makes sense." Damiano nods his head.
Flashbacks of the Meeting
There was a moment of silence, and they made an attempt to stand up, but my bodyguards stopped them from doing so.
While everyone is distracted, my hand that is holding the revolver is being hidden by the table. I felt Enzo's hand in mine for a second, and then it was gone as fast as it came. Andrei looked at us suspiciously; the exchange was unsuccessful because of this. If Enzo had made the exchange, Andrei would have caught us in the act.
It was a wise decision on Enzo's part. But now the game is going for real this time, with blanks, but still real.
It's a good thing that I can mask my emotions better than anyone here.
------------------------------------------------
The spinning wheel stops and lands on Damiano. He glances at me before he grabs the revolver, and I subtlety nod my head at him.
Damiano gets my signal, and in a split second, instead of firing the revolver, he fires his own gun at Rocco.
Since Rocco was in front of us, we ended up covered in his blood.
I sighed in relief. Thank God that nothing bad happened to any of my team with us going back to back in this game. The worry that I felt a few minutes ago left my body completely, and the only one who knew the real reason for my tension was Enzo.
Present Time
I stand up, and I start to walk behind all of them. "You see, Rocco was not only a traitor, but he was also a stealer. I was actually going to let him live, with a few scratches here and there, but still alive." I stop behind Marco's seat. I bend over and get close to his ear. He tenses at the close proximity. I continue talking, "Then, I found out that he was a traitor, and not only that, but he was about to join sides with the Morozov's." It was loud enough for everyone else to hear. I stand straight and continue walking. "And that is something that I cannot overlook." I stand beside Andrei, and I lean on the table. "But in the end, it is your choice who you pick." I say nonchantly, looking over at Rocco's body, "You already know what the consequence of your choice looks like. I wish all of you good luck picking." I pat Andrei's shoulder as I walk past him. I go over to my team, and I say, "Let's go."
All of us walk out of the room, with Mateo following right behind us.
When Alonzo opened the door, Morozov's men were untied and ready to fight. I applaud Damiano in my mind for ordering my bodyguards to take their guns and take them inside with us. So, with the same guns, Alonzo and Dante kill them all. I can hear Andrei's rage inside the room. I skip the bodies and continue walking outside of the building.
The reason why no one touches us, even though this building belongs to Rocco, is because he has everything that he has thanks to us. If it weren't for my dad, no one here would have a job, and me being the heir to his empire gives me the same authority that he used to have. Plus, Rocco was a jerk to everyone; if anything, I did them a favor. And no, this is not me justifying the order that I gave to kill him. Plus, I am sure the blood in our faces and clothes with no scratch on us might not look inviting to engage in a fight with us.
Once we are outside of the building, I turn around and say to Mateo, "Thank you for your help today." I offer him a small smile.
"My pleasure, gorgeous. See you around." He shakes hands with Damiano and Max before he leaves for his car, his bodyguards waiting for him.
Once all of us are in our cars, I say to Max, "Call the secretary's president; tell her we are on our way."
"We might want to change our appearance before heading there, Lea." Damiano gestures to our clothes.
"Enzo, stop by our headquarters so we can wash up." I order him, and he nods his head.
Lea 2, Andrei 0. I smirked to myself at that thought.
YOU ARE READING
Deadly Nightshade
ActionDN stands for Deadly Nightshade. Someone dear to me once said that I was filled with poison but that I was blessed with beauty and rage, whatever he meant by that. Then I met him, and he couldn't tear his eyes off of me. He thought that I wore stren...
