Ecstasy

The Other Side of Lorenzo Antonov

"Half a truth is often a great lie." 

- Excerpt from Benjamin Franklin 

I'm eating a piece of cake and Dariya is thinking. Hard. I know she is because she has this dull look in her eye. She's obviously wondering about something.

Right?

I've been living here for around three months and I'm slowly picking up on stuff like this.

Amusing.

It's very tense in this house after Lorenzo and Dariya's heated argument. Very scary and uncomfortable. I don't see them in the same room and if they are they grumble Russian to one another and with the courtesy and chance Cai is in the room, he'll translate it to me.

I want to know why he calls Dariya, Dolly. Cai doesn't tell me why even though I ask almost every time.

"I want you to ask Lorenzo about bringing you into the mission," Dariya tells me and I blink rapidly showing my uncertainty.

"I don't want him to be mad at me... so no," I tell her and she whines.

"You don't understand," she says and I laugh.

"Uh, I think I do," I tell her, standing up and throwing my paper plate in the trash can.

"Please. He doesn't listen to me." I come back and sit down in front of her though. I'm genuinely interested in hearing her out.

Seemingly unlike her brother.

"Any logical reason I give him, he doesn't want to listen. He shuts them down without any thought," she begins, " He always says that it's because he doesn't want you to get hurt or it's too dangerous or even that you don't know how to wield any sort of weapon. Trust me, I think you do. You were a stripper after all, you're not stupid and walk around with no weapon."

I nod. Kind of offended about the fact that he thinks I don't know how to wield a weapon but he means well. He doesn't want me to get hurt.

Dariya grabs my hand and holds them tightly, "Brielle, you're my only hope. He doesn't want much work but at this point that's what's going to happen. He has to worry about looking for some time in his schedule and when it comes to the police and someone who is higher up on the assassin worklist, it's even worse. Darione was really good. Best in California. Time is not in our favor."

I sigh. Maybe I should hear her out. This seems difficult. She wants me involved because they have no other choice, it's not like she just wants me to go and help them out for the fun of it.

"Okay, how much money did he request?" I ask.

"He's asking for his old amount which was around 25K or instead next to 10K per month. That's either 285 or 120K per year," she explains and my eyes widen, "It's ridiculous, isn't it?"

He's joking right? Who in their right mind would ask for that much money?

"Yeah... What Lorenzo is going to do if he finds him..." She looks at me nervously so I know that she's hesitant to finish her sentence.

"Dariya..."

"I don't know what he'll do," she says and I know she's lying because she can't look people in their face. It's ironic for her to be a contract killer and a bad liar.

"Tell me," I demand and she groans.

"Since he hit me, he's not going to be nice," she confesses, "He's really not going to be nice. He's most likely going to kill him or torture him hopefully the first option."