It's update day! Here's chapter 6, hope you all enjoy<3

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Chapter 6

Zeke

11 o'clock

Zeke heard the guests screaming, demanding to know what was going on after hearing the gun fire as he carried Tatiana into the house, up the stairs, and into his bedroom in the North wing. By this point, her eyes had closed and she was practically passed out. He laid her down before picking up his phone to call for their personal team of doctors and nurses.

"Come to the house. All of you," he said abruptly before hanging up. He ran his fingers through his hair, losing his mind with worry as he stared at her face. Despite the grime, dirt, and blood on her, she was still beautiful.

Her friends, Carmen, Louis, and Nathaniel slammed the door open, evidently having followed him as he carried her.

"Where are your doctors?" Nathaniel demanded, going up to her laying on his bed, touching her.

His nostrils flared. He had the audacity to touch her after having done nothing to protect her. Of course his family's security was to blame for the hitmen even being on their property but his job was to protect her and he couldn't even do that. And now, she was laying on his bed, shot. In agonizing pain, and he couldn't do anything to help her.

"Don't touch her," Zeke growled at him in a dangerous voice, holding his arm in a tight grasp and ripping his arm away from her. He was filled with anger and worry, Nathaniel should not test his patience.

Nathaniel looked up at him and saw the expression on his face. Wisely, he removed his arm from him and stepped away from her.

Carmen approached her slowly, tears streaming down her face. Louis laid a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"She's going to be okay, right?" she asked, looking at Zeke with tear-filled eyes.

"She will be," he said in a firm voice, leaving no room for doubt. He wasn't sure if he was trying to convince her, or himself.

Before he could keep convincing himself that she was alive, his knees buckled underneath him. He groaned in pain as he stumbled, kneeling on the floor of his bedroom.

Carmen rushed towards him. "Oh my God. You're shot," she stated the obvious in disbelief, calling Louis towards them.

"Hey man, I think you should sit down," Louis said cautiously as if he was speaking to a tiger ready to bite his hand off.

When he didn't protest, Louis and Nathaniel helped him up to sit in one of the high backed chairs in his room. He had all but forgotten about his pain when he saw that Tatiana was hurt. He had put it at the back of his mind while they were still in danger outside but now that he had her safely tucked away on his bed, he succumbed to the agonizing pain of the two bullets embedded in his back.

12 o'clock

The guests were just starting to calm down. Their personal team of doctors had arrived 30 minutes earlier and he had refused their treatment, ordering them to treat Tatiana and the rest of the far more fatally injured first. The rest of their doctors were in the West wing in their personal medical room that was set up for times like these, treating the rest of the wounded soldiers.

He was watching the doctor work on Tatiana's wound, looking at her face to see any sign of pain. However, the doctor assured him that she couldn't feel a thing after all the morphine they gave her. They had already removed the bullet from her side and now they were just stitching her up, assuring him that it was nothing to worry about.

He almost slapped the doctor when he said that. Of course he was going to worry, she was shot for fucks sake.

"You're being stupid," Bianca said to him as she wiped down his back with a damp cloth. When Tatiana was fully treated and sleeping peacefully, he left her with Carmen in the room. As much as he didn't want to leave her side, he had to go to the medical room since the bullets dug deep into his skin and longer tools were needed in order to fish them out. "You should've gotten yourself treated already."

He had two bullets embedded in his back. He couldn't remove his shirt due to the pain from moving his torso so Bianca had to cut open his bloody shirt.

"There were soldiers who needed the doctors more." He hissed when Bianca accidentally pushed down hard on a spot near one of the bullets.

He practically felt her roll her eyes behind him as she continued to clean his bloodied back without saying another word.

1 o'clock

The bullets had just been removed by the doctors and now he was treating himself to a glass of vodka to relieve some of the pain. He had refused the pain killers, there were others who needed it's drugging effects more and didn't have the luxury of being able to drink alcohol. His torso was wrapped in bandages and as he was downing his second glass, Francesco walked into the room—one of the many living rooms in the house that he had escaped to—wearing a sling. He got lucky, only a single gunshot wound to the arm whereas he previously had a bullet embedded in his shoulder and mid back.

"Father is calling a meeting in a few minutes," he said to him before settling down on one of the cushions, groaning in relief.

Zeke rolled his eyes. "Cheers." He his glass without enthusiasm as he drank from his second glass.

2 o'clock - present time

"Someone tell me what the fuck just happened," their father all but yelled, slamming his hand on his desk.

It was four hours after the shooting. All hell had broken loose when the guests at the party heard the gunshots and it took approximately two hours for them to calm down, promising that everything was all right by spinning some bizarre story about some cars backfiring. That excuse appeased most of the crowd, but the smarter ones weren't to be fooled. Father had to personally speak with the VIP guests he invited and assured them that they had everything under control.

They were in their father's bigger office, the one he used when he held strictly mafia business only. It was a big room with plain walls and no windows. The main piece of furniture inside was a big vintage, mahogany table that dominated the room with several chairs situated around it. Father sat at the head of the table, his children gathered next to him. The capos followed after and the rest of the men were some of their high ranking soldiers and associates, some sitting down while the rest stood leaning against the walls. There were about forty people in the room and almost every single one flinched at Pavel Vasiliev's enraged voice.

One of the capos, Artur, cleared his throat. "I'm afraid it was the fault of some of my men, Don," he spoke hesitantly. "The security cameras in the South and West wing were placed on loop, the entirety of the back of the house as well."

Father shot him an unnerving stare. "Who were the men?"

Artur gestured to four men standing behind him, all looking down.

Zeke watched his father as he stood from his seat, slowly walking towards their side of the table, placing everyone on edge with each step he made.

"Do you realize the importance of what tonight was meant to be?" he asked in a low voice as he stood in front of the four men. "Tonight, was the night we engaged in an arms dealership with the Belluchis. And I personally asked for Tatiana Belluchi to oversee tonight's exchange," he said, his face getting angrier with every word he spoke.

"Now, not only had there been an attack on my house, two of my sons were shot. But that, sadly, wasn't even the worst of it," he added with  a dangerous glint in his eyes that made even Zeke momentarily be terrified of him. "The worst of it is that Agnieska Volkov's only daughter was shot on my territory."

Most men had gone rigid when they heard Agnieska Volkov's name. Her name was legendary among their ranks, even if not all of them knew she was a royal. Years ago, when the Russian Royals had all been wiped out, Agnieska fled with her nanny. A royal child, with a target on her back but with deeds to lands, a collection of jewelry, riches of all kinds but most importantly, money. She had not been the most popular person Russia had loved but in her own right, she was powerful.

He remembered the story his grandfather had told them as children. How a beautiful child had saved their family from bankruptcy in exchange for their protection. Until today, Agnieska was one of their major benefactors.

Father and her had grown up together which was why they called her tetya. She was always around when he was a child but he had barely seen her in the past decade.

Father rubbed his temple in frustration before finally facing all of them once again. "What's done is done. Find someone to figure out how our security was bypassed. And find someone to fix the security cameras. Your punishment shall be decided once we have found who had the nerve to shoot at my family in my home," he said. "You're dismissed." He waved his hand for them to leave as he sat back down on his seat in exhaustion.

The capos and soldiers left, leaving Pavel and his children behind along with their three most trusted advisers—Boris Bykov, Gavriil Ozlov, and Vasily Kozlov. Boris and Gavriil were father's closest associates ever since he was a young man and Vasily was Zeke's age. Everyone was against him being an adviser of the family but he had proven himself to father and now he was ranked higher than all capos.

"Some people from the press were found in front of the house and they heard the shooting," Ivanov spoke up, breaking the tense silence. "The guards caught most of them and are talking to them as we speak but some ran off."

"I'll deal with it," Nina piped up. "I have some connections down there, I'm sure I can get a handle on it."

Father gave her a small smile but it didn't reach his eyes.

"The press is not our only problem," Boris said. He was a tall man in his early-fifties with warm brown eyes and greying hair. "Some of the VIP's we had invited are from other mafia families, no doubt they would have informed them what has happened by now." Gavriil nodded in agreement.

"And it'll only be a matter of time before Agnieska finds out about this. She has close friends here too and I doubt she'll stay quiet, what with her daughter being shot," Vasily added and Zeke shot him a look to which he only shrugged at him.

Father sighed. "Francesco," he addressed him. "As soon as you're fully healed, talk to our spies. Figure out what's happening in the other families."

Francesco only nodded at him in acknowledgement.

"There's something more to this," Zeke argued, looking at them each in turn as he swirled his drink around. "This wasn't just an attack on the family. This was an attack on the Belluchi girl," he said with indifference. It pained him to be talking about her in such a careless manner but he had no choice. He didn't know who to trust anymore. Only their higher ranked men knew of the exchange.

"It wasn't a coincidence that they started firing only as the Belluchi's were handing over the packages. When I pushed Tatiana down, at least five bullets were aimed at her," he continued. "Two were embedded in my back, one hit her on her side and I was able to push her down before the last two shot past. If any of those other bullets other than the one on her side had hit her, she would've died instantly." He clenched his fist at that.

"We should also look over the tapes, there were some suspicious men at the party that I wasn't familiar with," he added.

"I agree," Francesco backed Zeke, looking at him. "I noticed some of them and was having Peter look them up since they didn't appear to have been invited. I had him go through the cameras and that's when he went out of the house to alert us but by then the shooting had started," he said, referring to the man who had run out the back of the house to warn them. He was thankful Peter had, otherwise he wouldn't have had the precious few seconds to act before running to Tatiana and shoving her down. He shuddered at what could have been tonight's outcome. The situation could have ended up with them arranging a funeral that night.

"This was an organized attack. Someone who was smart and had the resources to pull this off was behind this," the advisers interjected.

Father pondered over their statements. "Call the Belluchi's," he said to Francesco. "Inform them of our suspicions. No doubt the rest of Belluchi's party had already informed them of what transpired here tonight." He rose from his seat. "Stay alert. This could be bigger than what we have ever faced before."

He directed his piercing gaze at Zeke. "Stay with the Belluchi girl. Don't let any harm come to her," he said with finality before sweeping out of the room.

As their advisers rose and left the room, his siblings stared at him with an unreadable expression.

All he did was shrug, downplaying the responsibility that was suddenly placed on him and downed the rest of his drink.

Translations

capos - high ranking officer

don - boss

tetya - aunt

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