Russian Roulette

Chapter Fourteen: Joe Exotic and his Little Tiger

---Isador---

Isador watched quietly as Aleksei drifted off, smiling slightly at the mindless babbling of Aleksei as he succumbed to his tiring mind. Slowly, only after a few moments to make sure Aleksei had truly fallen asleep, did he slide to the floor and rest his back against the bed. He didn't want to go out of the room, not with the possibility of crashing into Jerome being so high. He also knew Aleksei had locked the door, he had heard the lock. That made him feel a bit better staying in the room. Isador slowly pulled his phone out of his pocket. The phone of which belonged to Benjamin, not Isador. Even with that, he had three photos of his cat on the phone that he'd taken before leaving his shared apartment. None of which revealed anything more than blank ugly tan walls and what could be described as a poor man's cat tree. Thankfully his roommate, also a fellow field agent, agreed to look after Isador's little fluff ball. He scrolled through the few contacts that were on the phone. Half of these people weren't actual people, and he couldn't just randomly text a fellow agent. Especially because the ones that were in this phone were to respond as if they were his old contacts for "car theft" or contacts for selling said stolen cars.

Sighing, Isador glanced up onto the bed at Aleksei. He couldn't tell if Aleksei was sleeping peacefully or not, he could only tell that he was still breathing. Without much thought Isador rested his head against the bed and looked up at the ceiling. *Are pigs even allowed as pets here? Or are they illegal and considered strictly farm animals?* He laughed quietly at the thoughts. It's not like he could just buy Aleksei a pot belly pig and be like *'Here's a pet pig, I hope you like him and I hope the mafia you're with does too!'* Well, technically he one hundred percent could do that.

---Aleksei---

Aleksei was pretty sound asleep, no notice of any disturbance or nightmares, good for him but he'll have a gnarly hang over when he wakes up...which probably won't be until a while from now.

The hours passed up until the next morning and then the afternoon, it wasn't until the clock hit 2pm did Aleksei begin to stir awake. He opened his eyes slightly to look at Isador, guessing he had a new pet to keep around him, Aleksei smiled upon seeing him and he carefully got up to his feet, "Good morning, my new found friend." Aleksei greeted as he bent down to look at him, "I gotta go take a shower but after I get out, we have some work to do." Aleksei said before picking up some random clothing on the floor and going to his bathroom. Very, very sanitary Aleksei.

He didn't take a long shower, just around 10 minutes and yet somehow, he still looked like a crusty mess when he got out, just this time, his hair was wet and messy, instead of dry and messy.

"Okay, let's go. I know you don't have any clothes for you to take a shower with but we can stop by the store to get you something on our way back." Aleksei explained as he unlocked the door and went out, he really didn't look back as he went into the living room, it was a mess to say the least. Ladies were laid out on the floor, bottles were everywhere and there were a lot of bullet holes scattered on the ground and shell cases on the floor. He didn't really understand it, they got shot at on a daily basis, why did they like playing with guns so much? The cleaning group came in like they always did and began to clean up what they could.

Aleksei led Isador to the kitchen and his face immediately turned into a scowl when he saw who had already beaten them there.

"Oh..hey Joe Exotic and look at that, his little tiger is here too." Jerome chirped out. He was wearing nothing but a red bathrobe as he ate some cereal, his face had an uneasy smile as he watched them.

SLAM

Aleksei jumped as the refrigerator's door slammed closed, "babe, there is no good food in here." a brunette woman yelled out as she walked over to Jerome who only let out an annoyed sigh, "eat cereal like the rest of us." he grunted.

Barbara gave him a glare before rolling her eyes and turning to Aleksei, "I would have Aleksei get us something to eat but word on the street is he got banned from his little restaurant." Barbara said before mocking tears. That...caught Aleksei's attention really quickly, his head snapped towards Barbara with a questioning glare, "How'd you know about that." he hissed out the question that wasn't really a question, he already knew the answer.

Jerome plopped the spoon into the bowl of his cereal and he gave Barbara a death stare before looking towards Aleksei with a shrug, "we were the ones who told that lady you did it. It was for your own good and hers, it's not good to get attached to people in this line of work, ya know." Jerome said as he approached the two men, Barbara hot on his heels.

"But you were never cut out for this line of work, so let me get you some more advice. Scatter away like the coyote you are, and hide somewhere." Jerome whispered in his ear before leaving the kitchen. Barbara went closer to Isador and reached out her hand towards his chest, "And you, I would stay away from Aleksei...word on the street is that he swings for the same team. If ya know what I mean." Barbara winked as she planted a soft kiss on Isador's cheek before walking off.

Aleksei only rolled his eyes annoyed, nope; he would not let them ruin his morning..or afternoon. "See, that's what I mean. I stay out of everyone's way but they hate because..." he couldn't even say it, hearing them say it as an insult constantly made him ashamed to say the word. "Anyways,, looks like they ate all of last night so lets just go." he added on as he went back towards the garage to where his cute little truck was sitting peacefully, "You see all of these cars by Sofia, most of them are stolen. You are a car thief, you steal cars. You see where I'm getting at here? Do you understand today's assignment?" Aleksei asked with a raise of the brow.