“What did I just hear?” Ezra was the first to recover from the shock, his hand falling to his side weakly.
“More like what we heard?” Elvis took an aggressive step towards Elijah, “You got a woman pregnant and left her all by herself?!” He growled at him.
While they are cold-hearted mobsters, the brothers hold the female gender in high esteem. Perhaps, it had to do with the fact that their mother tried her best to birth a girl while she was alive, only to end up with five boys instead. Thanks to that, they treasured each female child born into the family and of course, their wives.
The Draven had a lot of values which was why the brothers stick around and have each other’s back. And right now, a certain brother was about to receive the wrath of their anger.
While the others interrogated him for keeping his baby mama a secret, Ephraim asked just one question,
“Who is she?”
He already heard stories of the female he messed with her feelings while going undercover in the Luciano family and he had a nagging feeling that she was the one.
Meeting Ephraim’s steely gaze, Elijah swallowed and averted his brother’s eyes. It wasn’t until now that he realized just how bad he messed up.
“It’s that girl, isn’t it? The Luciano?” Ephraim already had his suspicion confirmed when he wouldn’t answer him.
.....
“Which Luciano?” Elvis had no idea and was the least bright among the brothers. He was the perfect description of all brawn and no brains. However, step on him and you have a god of war coming after you.
“Wait, Adele?!” Ezra figured it out, shocked. He said, “Eric is going to have your head for dinner tonight.”
“I had no idea,” Elijah defended himself, “I just found out about it just like you guys did now, so could you spare me the criticism? Moreover, it’s not like we can confirm she’s pregnant, Adele could be bluffing for all we know.” He wanted to believe that it was true. It hoped it was the truth.
“A woman doesn’t just call to announce that she’s pregnant into the phone while crying and it’s nothing.” Ephraim added, his words dripping with thick sarcasm, “Congratulations, Elijah, you finally upgraded yourself from our baby brother to a father. What a great cause for celebration after Eric skins you alive.”
“I didn’t mean to get her pregnant,” Elijah said, his head throbbing now.
“It doesn’t matter whether you intended to get her pregnant or not, however, Eric still has a deal to seal with Marcel and you of all people know he hates getting his hands tied up in a preposition.” He hinted at the fact that Eric would have no choice but to agree to the deal now, thanks to his actions.
“And brother, ” Elijah was startled when Elvis was suddenly beside him, placing his hand on his shoulder and squeezing tightly, “You should go check on your baby mama while we plan your wedding.”
Simultaneously, all three brothers burst into laughter and while it was funny to them, it wasn’t the same for Elijah knowing that he was in deep shit. Adele loathed his ass and would never agree to marry him and become a member of the Draven family.
Unfortunately, his brothers would never stand for it and would demand the child if she doesn’t want to end up with him. And Elijah had a feeling that Adele was not going to agree to that. There was no doubt about it, karma was punishing him. This was payback for what he did and he had no idea how to start restitution for his sins.
“I guess it was no use coming to get you for the job,” Ezra said and that piqued Elijah’s interest.
“What do you mean by that?” He asked.
“The Basil family was gunned down last night. The only surviving members were his wife and children who were luckily out of town at the time of the incident.”
“Eric thinks it was an inside job, a bait. whoever betrayed them, raise a false alarm and get them all in one place and then strike. It was a massacre and all suspicion falls on Fin. Eric claims the boy was ambitious and he’s often warned Baz about his young nephew but the man had a soft spot for the boy and look where that got him. Stabbed in the back by his blood. ” Ezra said.
Elijah shuddered, feeling the hairs on his arms and back standing up. He couldn’t imagine betraying his brothers for anything in this world. They were his family and he loved them with all of his heart even if they were a pain in the ass sometimes.
Ephraim took over from Ezra saying, “We think the target from the start had been their offshore accounts. Whoever did that has uses for the money and Eric is uncomfortable with such changes. He’s worried that the incident would cause a rift in the power dynamics of this city and he’s not sure that’s for good. Sadly, Finn, who could have been assisted in this investigation, was also killed; it turns out that whoever he was working with was wise enough to end him – and increase the workload for us. If he could betray his family, then his greed is unlimited. ”
“So Eric wants me to find the culprit?”
“Not really? We already have a lead and that’s the problem. The Bratva took responsibility for the attack and while that could be seen as a threat to our territory, Konstantin, their leader, was also murdered last night at the same time. Someone is playing a very dangerous game here and there are moves already in the streets. Eric wanted you and Ezra to sniff out the person responsible for this ruckus, but it seems you have enough problems on your plate already. ”
“Don’t be so sad brother for missing out on this chance to have fun, it’s not like you could have done better than me anyway,” Ezra was smug.
Both of them have always been compared based on their abilities since they were young and Ezra hasn’t outgrown the habit. Not to mention that both of them were good at one thing, stealth.
Elijah ran his hand through his hair, this mission could have been the real deal to get his mind off Adele, unfortunately, the cat has been let out of the bag and he had to face his problem head-on.
“I’m going then,” Elijah was about to leave when Ephraim said, “Wait.”
He turned.
Ephraim said to him, “The clouds are gathering and the violence is stirring in the air. These are hard times Elijah and whatever you do, you be careful. Solve your issues with that woman and keep an eye out. Don’t cause more problems, Eric has a lot on his plate right now. Cause more trouble and I’ll deal with you, myself. ”
“Thank you, brother. ” Elijah thanked him sincerely and took his leave. He had a goal now and it was to track down Adele wherever she was.
Elijah had to return to his place and pulled out a phone that he specially hidden. Adele might not know this but he planted a tracker in her phone while he was still with her. Though he felt guilty for invading her privacy, it was going to work for his good now.
Tracking her down the old-fashioned way might land him in trouble. He couldn’t go to see her while she was in Luciano’s territory. While Marcel’s hatred for him had eased, some other members of the family wouldn’t mind kicking his ass for his deceit. He played them and that was a huge smear on the family’s reputation.
With the phone in hand, Elijah began to track her down and to his surprise, she was wandering. From the time and distance, she was on foot and finally, she was able to settle down at a place. A restaurant from the looks of things on his map.
Elijah drove down there, his heart pounding the entire time. He has already prepared himself to be her rag doll – he anticipated a slap or two on the face, and maybe she would kick him on the knees, and not his groin, please.
Adele saw him first when he entered since she had been staying closest to the windows where she could monitor everyone’s movement. He had been expecting to see fury and hatred on her face when their eyes connected and took a deep breath while praying internally for strength.
“Adele,” He stood in front of her, unsure of what to do.
She lifted her gaze and said to him, “Why are you behaving like we don’t know each other? Have a seat and let’s move on to planning our wedding.”
“W-what?” Elijah nearly lost his bearing before his ass could even touch the seat. What was going on? He had come to see her, expecting to see a fight, not this submission.
Adele laughed, “I was thinking of ways to make your life miserable, and then this idea came to me. Why don’t we be miserable together?”