Bella Donna

Chapter 20

Chapter 20

"Okay, this is super awkward," Heather stated, breaking the silence, as she and Hiccup were seated in his car while driving out of the Mayor's estate. Hiccup had promised that the twins would return her car to her apartment building before the night was through and Heather didn't really want to argue with the man who pulled her out of that sticky situation.

"I'm sorry," Hiccup suddenly said, catching the other off guard. Fishlegs wisely chose to have his headphones in and hummed an ABBA tune.

"Why the hell are you apologizing?" she questioned.

"Because I didn't keep a tighter leash on those guys," He responded with anger still in his voice. "They weren't even supposed to be seen together like that." he added and then murmured under his breath "If they ruin my entire operation..." The threat hung in the air and Heather looked at Hiccup with a raised brow.

"I'm curious but I don't want to intrude," she stated.

"You can just ask you know," He supplied. "Considering what you've seen me do and what I've seen you do..."

"Right," Heather said. "Okay then here goes, how the hell did you get those bigwigs to be your stooges?"

"Blackmail, plain and simple," Hiccup responded. "Elliot was the easiest to get actually," He added while somewhat fondly thinking back. "I had to establish my powerbase quickly when I came to this city so I thought what better way than to strike from the top. Our dear friend Elliot was running against a long-standing and loved politician."

Heather nodded as she remembered that upset in the voting tally. "Wait so you were responsible for that scandal?" she blinked and gaped at Hiccup.

"It was going to come out one way or another that the city's favorite had been involved in bigamy scandal one way or another. I just.... Helped the story along," Hiccup shrugged. "That pretty much tanked his approval rating. I mean, the guy married three women in various states. Got to hand it to his time management but still..."

"Elliot fell in line pretty quickly afterward. He's not doing anything illegal but relying on an 'alleged' Mafioso to fund his political aspirations would be a nail in the coffin if it ever came up. So he does his best to cover for me if I need it. To anyone else in Berk, I'm the son of the Haddock conglomerate that's branching out and developing this city. Too much of daddy's money on hand and all that..."

"So that's where the whole philanthropy angle came from," Heather muttered.

"I do give back to the community though so it's not bullcrap," Hiccup responded. "The Haddock family supports several charities and shelters,"

"That's pretty nice," Heather remarked.

"Yes, mom started that way of thinking." He nodded. "In her words to my dad, 'You make so much through ill-gotten-gains that you may as well give back to the community'. She went on to start shelters for battered women and it branched out from there."

"That's very admirable," Heather stated and Hiccup nodded before saying "Mom was a Mafia princess. She, like me, grew up in this lifestyle. She'd seen her friends marry Made Men but not all of them were nice people. Some beat their wives when drunk or displeased. She wanted to help them and it went from there."

"I should introduce you to Mom." Hiccup added. "I have a feeling you, Astrid, and her would get along swimmingly."

"But moving on, the two old men are judges," He explained to which Heather blinked. "They aren't really friendly and are hardasses on the bench but that makes it all the more unbelievable that they'd be in league with the mob."