Black Death And White Roses (1) Mafia Romance

21. Beers, friends and... other friends

Roxana

Three deaths.

It is normal that they are on my mind; all of them. They are if not my fault at least part of my doing.

I went to the police and my father died. I went to the police and the police died. Is somebody going to die everywhere I go from now on?

It's impossible to shake off the images of Alexandru and his wife. They had two twin daughters, who are not dead at least, but orphaned now, and believe their father was a criminal when in truth he had been a hero. My hero. What a big mistake had that proven to be.

Since yesterday the only thing I can do is google the incident and look at the images, google Ivan, and everything there is to know about him.

Strangely, he is still in prison, which opens the question of who is performing his vendetta. Probably an underling, which maybe can be swayed to leave me alone for enough money.

Not that I have any; I still survive on instant noodles and cereals. What are the odds of them finding me? Nobody in Moldova knows where I am, nor where Dani is.

If they followed me by any chance to Italy they have to enter my severely guarded workplace. Good luck with that, suckers.

I smile a bit to myself when I and Damian enter the driveway of the villa.

"Danke dass du mich wieder fährst, Mann./Thanks for picking me up again, man. I feel bad."

"Nichts zu danken, aber wenn du möchtest kannst du am Freitag mit mir und den Jungs was trinken gehen und mir ein Bier spendieren./ No need for that, but if you want you can come with me and the boys to town on Friday and buy me a beer."

"Ihr geht aus? Ihr wisst aber dass wir am Samstag arbeiten müssen damit wir den Termin schaffen?/ Are you going out? You do remember we need to work this Saturday to meet the deadline, right?"

"Ich weiß. Scheiß Christian, als ob jemand sterben würde wenn wir den Termin um eine Woche verschieben. Trotzdem, ein bisschen Spaß muss sein. Also, kommst du mit? / I do. Damn Christian, as if anyone died if we pushed the deadline for one week. But nah, we need some fun regardless. So, wanna come?"

"Es ist nicht seine Schuld. Der Besitzer hat wieder ein Treffen mit anderen Geschäftsleuten geplant und meint dass wir bis dahin fertig sein müssen./ It ain't his fault. The owner wants to have another gathering, or so, the week after and we need to be done and gone again."

"Ja aber sie können sich treffen egal ob das Dach über den Westflügel fertig ist oder nicht. Hör auf ihn im Schutz zu nehmen, er ist zwar unser Chef aber er ist nicht ein sehr guter Mann./ Yeah, but they can gather just the same regardless of the state of the roof of the west wing. Stop defending him; he is our boss but he is not a particularly considerate person."

I sigh.

"Er ist ok, aber du hast auch recht. Ok, also Bier am Freitag? /He is okay but you have a point. Ok so, beer on Friday evening?" I ask smiling.

"Kann es kaum erwarten. Vielleicht kannst du einige Sätze auf Italienisch lernen und uns helfen mit Mädchen zu quatschen. Alles was ich lerne, vergessen ich innerhalb von Sekunden./ Can't wait. Maybe you can learn some Italian pickup lines to wingwoman us. Everything I read is forgotten in a few minutes."

I can't help laughing.

"Ok gut. Ich werde mein bestes tun./ Okay, fine. I'll do my best."

The whole damn week all of us work like crazy to meet that stupid deadline. Besides that, I can't take my mind off the things that happened in Moldova. I dream a lot of dreadful dreams and call Dani a few times a day just to make sure he is alive.