Chapter 444: Muted Colors And Feelings On A Scorched Masterpiece

[FROLO]

Aleksandr stared at the footage from both houses.

He’d been told by Kenzo what Rastenkin had done, and honestly it creeped the hell out of him.

The man could have taken anything. Forced whatever he wanted out of Kenzo with his fists, yet they had simply gone into Kenzo’s home when the man wasn’t there... to ask for tea.

Tea that they didn’t even drink.

Kenzo was still raging at how simply the access to his family should become.

For normal people it was bound to be impossible, but for Rastenkin and his Myrtles, the worst was bound to happen. And that was the contradiction Kenzo had right now.

Nothing they did to hide their families would ever be enough.

They had people they cared about.

People they couldn’t just wake up and decide to discard for being liabilities. And it didn’t make it any better that the Myrtles and Rastenkin didn’t have anything to lose but each other, which was a sacrifice they were entirely opposed to making.

But the home invasions past midnight?

That was dangerous.

Too dangerous.

"What are we going to do about this? We don’t have the Levinovich angle anymore. Katya Romanov already made his choice clear, Alek.

"This can’t keep going on, and the press doesn’t matter to these psychos anymore," Kenzo reasoned, not liking the fact that his wife and son should be easily accessed.

He’d hidden them properly for years, only for the Moskowsky psychos to find them with ease. It was unsettling on every scale, and right now Kenzo was trying his very best to think clearly, not that it was helping.

"I know we lost the Levinovich angle. But what if we expose the Romanovs as the Levinoviches?" Alek asked, and Kenzo facepalmed at his boss. Surely there was just no way Aleksandr looked at all the options and chose that one, right?

Because at the end of the day they all had to work for something. They all had to figure out what the fuck was happening and see how to fight back, because otherwise they were screwed in all the ways to hell.

"The Romanovs are allied with the Moskowskys in public. Revealing them to be the Levinoviches won’t do a thing. Even the underworld knows that Sergei is the most dangerous of them all.

That’s like adding a drop of water to a concentrated fluid and hoping the drop changes the intensity of it all," Kenzo said.

Alek knew that too, but he was feeling hopeless.

He couldn’t get himself to think clearly, given he was still haunted by Meera coming to Mrs. Smirnova’s door at one o’clock to check on him.

"What if we throw the towel in?" Alek asked, and Kenzo couldn’t help but laugh at that.

Throw the towel in.

They had so many chances to do that before shit exploded out of proportion. They had seen every chance and fucked it all up. And now that there was no way that Alek was considering a surrender at this point in time, right?

"We lost our chance at that three years ago, Alek. There is no turning back now. Sergei is coming for us. The least we can do is try to fight back for the sake of our families," Kenzo reminded him as Alek sighed.

He’d been so confident about taking out Sergei and hurting him like Sergei should hurt him. But then he’d managed to play a losing game.

One that involved sabotaging the very government he’d been confident about helping bring Sergei down. They had held on to Katya Romanov for weeks, and the government hadn’t once managed to even protect its people.

Sergei murdered more than he’d ever done for high-ranking officials in years. He made sure everyone was with him, and there was even enough evidence to prosecute him. There was nothing.

None of this even made sense because what the fuck was it that had Sergei controlled?

"Well, we have to do something! We can’t just sit here and wait for our families to be slaughtered!" Kenzo said frustratedly, and Alek understood him. The stakes had gotten impossibly higher.

Their leverage was slowly dwindling too.

Because the government had assumed that with Katya in their custody, Sergei Moskowsky would lose his mind and settle down. Instead, the barbarian had gone on the kind of spree that Frolo talked about in hushed tones.

"Our organization can help with that," someone at the door suddenly said, and Alek groaned, turning to them.

He looked like he was just three years older than Aleksandr if they were not the same age. And Alek wasn’t in the mood for war discussions with his peers. He needed good strategies, given that all of his had gone down the drain.

"This is not the place for you to be, pal," Alek said tiredly.

The man who had spoken had come with two others. People who were covered in blood, and for a moment Alek didn’t want to imagine it was the blood of his people.

Then again, there was no putting that beyond whatever these people were.

"You managed to get past our defenses, great. Now get the fuck out," Alek said, not mincing his words. They had far more important things to do than deal with more alliances that did nothing for their families.

The government was supposed to protect them, but it didn’t.

"You want Sergei dead? We can give you far better than that. We can deliver him to you, and you decide what to do with him," the man said, making Kenzo glare.

Kenzo was too tired to even lift a weapon right now. There was no point anyway if these people had managed to get to the internal office of the Bratva like that.

"And why should I trust you?" Alek asked flatly.

"You shouldn’t. But we both want the same things. Our organization wants information inside Sergei’s head, and you want Sergei’s head.

"If we work together, we can complete your hopeless fight with him, and you get your win," the man said, and it took everything in Aleksandr not to scoff at the offer.

He was past offers really at this point.

"Nice try. You can go ask Sergei yourself. Now, get the fuck out," Alek insisted, and the man smirked at him, grabbing a seat and settling.

The other two he came with also did the same nonchalantly, like Alek’s warning wasn’t something they had to heed.

"I don’t think you understand me, Daniil Aleksandrovich Petrovsky," the man said, making Alek stiffen.

"Careful," Kenzo warned, and the man looked at him brightly.

"Serving the Smirnov family even in their deaths. Your loyalty is worth applauding, Kenzo. But the only way we are leaving this place is if you agree to work with us. You can say no, but eventually you WILL agree.

"Whether it will be after we break your bones and force your hands by threatening the families you keep close and safe, or by mutual understanding. There is only one option. Yes," the man said.

Alek scoffed.

"What will it be, Aleksandrovich?" the man added, before his subordinates pulled surveillance footage of both Mrs. Smirnova and Kenzo’s wife and children.

This didn’t look good.

But then what the hell, right?

"Who the fuck are you, and why are you doing this?"

"My name is Latif. As for the why... You have to say yes first, Daniil," the man said calmly, like it was normal.

"No," Alek said defiantly.

And the consequences...

Damn.