A love like ours ✔️

♛5.Sugar coating

Soraya.

Cortez's capo, Alvarez, and Andrei Sokolov are meeting on our territory tonight. Cortez doesn't know but the russian is my friend. Not one in who's hands I'd trust my life, no. Those are the ones whom I consider family. But he called me to let me know about it, just as I was leaving MC 's HQs.

While it might be seen as a gesture of good will regarding the alliance we have, I know he found out about me looking for a husband. And he was one of the candidates I've considered. So at the end of the day he's just sugar coating me.

He's smart and quite handsome with his sandy blond hair and arctic blue eyes, and damned be that russian buid of his- the man could fight a bear and actually win- without even looking overly bulky. He also holds a position that would benefit my mafia, being Volkov's nephew and the vor responsible for intelligence, he's Bratva's third in command, after the packhan's son, Vladimir.

Not to mention that we've spend some time together, a few years back, while father had him over to strenghten the alliance with the Bratva. He offered to show me some fighting tactics, and of course I couldn't say no to that. Knowledge, under every form, is power. It could make the difference between life and death.

He was patient, he never belittled me or looked down on me for being a female power player in the mafia world, and I've discovered he can also be funny and charming. He's quite a good kisser and I bet he's great in bed too, but we didn't get that far. So Andrei checks quite a few boxes on my list, yet he's not my first option.

I'm at the Devil's Lair, a popular club in western Queens. The music is sensual, the air is reeking of sex, weed and cigarette smoke. The lights are low, red hued, calling for the patrons to indulge in debauchery.

I'm sitting on one of the metal stools in front of the bar, its coldness coming as a nice contrast against the already heated skin of my exposed lower thighs. The bartender passes me my cocktail. The pink concoction is fruity and sweet, yet strong enough to acomplish its purpose. I need to be sharp, but I also need to calm down my anger, or else I might just shoot the Brazilian between his eyes, right here and right now. While it's a tempting offer, there are just too many witnesses. I drown the glass, relinquishing in the slight burn the alcohol elicites with every sip. I feel its buzz rushing trough my bloodstream, warming me up from the inside.

Bringing Cortéz down is on my bucket list, so to speak. He dares send his capo to sway my allies on his side right on my territory. I cannnot believe the audacity of the fucker! The fact that he's on Navarro's team only makes my anger burn hotter. Cortez is either an idiot or very sure that we won't suspect a thing if he's doing it in plain sight. I scoff. Even if Andrei wouldn't have called, Addie was already onto it.

As I head for the the meeting table in the VIP section a sense of awarness lights my nerve endings on fire. I don't need to look, I know. Fucking awesome, the dickhead is here... just what I was missing. Our mafias are at peace, not quite allies, neither enemies. My family and his are have been close ever since our fathers married women who grew up as best friends.

I would have preffered if he sayed out of my part of town, New York already holds way too many memories as it is. But as painful as they are, this is my home. I won't be driven out of it just because of a selfish bastard.

I feel his gaze on me as if it were a phisical caress, but I dismiss it. Or at least I try to.

Ignore him, he doesn't matter. I repeat in my head like a mantra. My subconscious is laughing at my attempt, because it knows just how much he means even after everything, even if I tried my hardest to forget him. Impossible. Not when he's everywhere in the media, or when every year on my birthday, a huge bouquet of white roses paired with signed copies or rare editions of some of my favorite books arive at my door.