Sufferable Acceptance

Forty-One

Amelia

I waited for Theo and his dad to get back. He promised he wouldn't be out long, but the meeting with Nikolas made me nervous. I spent about an hour working on some tracking for Lorenzo. I was trying to track all of Nikolas' men so we could study their movement over the past few days. That would give us an advantage if tonight's meeting went bad.

I sat in the living room helping Oli with a school project. Sooner than I expected I heard a door slam. I looked over my shoulder towards the front door, and saw Lorenzo storming into the house. He looked upset. That told me that the meeting didn't go well. Lorenzo gave Theresa a kiss on the cheek, and told her he'd be in his office working. He left for his office, and we all heard one more door slam.

I saw Theo come through the living room looking frustrated. He kept his head low as he walked.

I waited for him to look at me, and then gave him a questioning look. He shook his head and sighed. I followed him to the bar down the main hallway.

I found him sitting in a lounge chair with his jacket off. He had a bottle of liquor in his hands, and he was looking for a glass. I walked past the counter and pulled out a glass for him. I walked over to him and sat across from him. He stared at me, quietly for a few minutes.

"Nikolas wants a war." He said. "Dad is having Marcus move onto the next phase of the plan."

He took a sip of his drink then continued, "He's chasing after a life he thinks Dad stole from him."

"Are we ready for that?" I asked him.

"I'm not sure. I don't know anything anymore. We're vulnerable. We can't afford to lose any more people, and what happens if something happens to one of us?" He asked.

I wanted to comfort him, but we both knew that even if we won this war, we wouldn't go unharmed. There was nothing I could tell him that would make him feel better. Theo loved his family so much, and because of the Petrovs he was going to see his family suffer.

I sat with Theo for at least an hour, and then helped him get to bed. He leaned his whole weight on me as I helped him upstairs. I managed to get the rest of his suit and shoes off. I pulled the covers over him, and left the room. I wasn't ready for bed, so I went looking for Alfie. I found him in his room on his computer.

"Hey." He said to me.

"I just put Theo to bed." I told him. "He's taking the Petrov thing pretty hard."

"And how are you dealing with it?" He asked me.

"What do you think? My psycho dad, and closest mentor are trying to kill the Romanos. I can't even look at Lorenzo or Theo without feeling the guilt start to crush me." I said.

"Amelia, it's not your fault." Alfie tried to convince me.

"But these are our people! I'm a Barboza. You know what they're like. They play dirty. Even with us on Lorenzo's team they are still better prepared than us. If Nikolas wants this bad enough Dad would do anything to make it happen." I said.

"Lorenzo is a smart man. I promised you when I asked you to take over that Lorenzo was a capable boss. He's been around for forty years. That's worth something. I wouldn't have committed my career to him if I thought he couldn't get past this. Have a little faith." Alfie explained.

Alfie was right. It was Lorenzo Romano we were talking about. He was more powerful than anyone I'd ever worked for.

"We haven't talked about you telling Theo about me." I said to him.

"Come on Amelia I didn't have a choice I'm sorry. Theo had Marcus looking into you, and thought it was weird they couldn't find anything on you. They didn't want you working for them if they couldn't trust you." He explained.