I put the pan on the fire and turned to her casually. “What kind of gossip?”
She stopped stirring the batter. “That he’s the one who’s taken the Solicitor General and her grandson. That he’s using her to blackmail you.”
My expression didn’t change.
Still, her eyes widened. “Wow, so it’s true! He did take the Solicitor General.” She shook her head in amazement. “Do you know he’s turned Bridgeport upside down with the buzz for us to prepare for all-out war? For the first time, someone is going all gangbusters to take your family out. He’s promised the pavements will be lined with dead bodies and the streets will become rivers of blood if anyone gets involved and helps you.”
I understood the instill fear technique and why he was utilizing it, but the way he was involving the community outside our world, made my hands clench. It had been unhinged psychopaths spraying indiscriminate violence into society in general that eventually caused the Italian Mafia’s demise.
Ultimately though, I had to take the blame for the way the situation had played out. When I took Bianca, I didn’t have a plan. I just reacted from the gut and on the assumption that Bianca was just another woman to him. He was well known for treating his women like they were nothing to him, sharing and gifting them around like they were boxes of cheap candy. I myself, once saw him at a party offer the woman he was with to someone he was trying to do business with. But I never thought he would start a war over one.
“Regardless how this all ends,” Aldie went on, “he’s just opened up a can of worms, hasn’t he? It was only a rumor before that that the Solicitor General was in your pocket, but now it’s pretty much confirmed. I’m right, aren’t I?”
I didn’t say anything.
“The only way out now, is if you save the Solicitor General and kill Bogdan.”
I cut a bit of butter, threw it into the pan, and watched it sizzle. Pancakes were the only thing I could cook.
“You’re going to save her, right?” There was no mistaking the fear and concern in her tone.
I faced her and held out my hand for the bowl of batter. “You know I can’t say anything to you.”
She expelled the breath she was holding and put the bowl into my outstretched hand. “I know, but throw me a crumb, won’t you?”
“We’re more powerful than you think,” I said softly.
“How big is the pile of bodies going to be for this to come to an end?” she whispered.
I wondered the same. I carefully ladled batter into the pan. “I won’t let anything happen to either of you.”
“And what about you?” she asked. “Bullets know no names. And according to Bianca, you already have four writing up a story on your chest.”
I was about to answer her when all the hairs on my body rose to attention. Bianca was around. I glanced towards the doorway, and saw her watching us with large haunted eyes.
She wore a white t-shirt with a faded cupcake on it, tucked into a pair of grey shorts. She held the puppy in her arms.
Aldie’s head whirled around in the direction I stared at. “Hey you,” she greeted with a bright smile.
My eyes on the first batch of batter I had poured into the pan, I waited for Bianca’s response but when she didn’t immediately say anything, I knew she must have heard part of our conversation. I lifted my eyes from the pancake.
“Solicitor General? What heap of bodies?” she asked, putting the dog on the ground.
Aldie made a weird sound. One, I’m sure was meant to brush over Bianca’s concerns, but it only made her sound as guilty as hell. I flipped the pancake. It was perfectly golden brown.
“Is someone going to tell me what’s going on?” Bianca demanded.
“Nothing is going on,” Aldie answered. “We were just chatting.” With a smile, she looked away.
Bianca’s angry gaze moved to me.
I met it head on, but she took my breath away. A painful jolt of awareness shot straight to my groin. Somehow, being furious made her look even more beautiful. Her disapproving gaze burned me in all the right places and it was as insane as it was exhilarating.
“I’m guessing you’re not going to answer me either.” She headed over to the counter to pull out a stool and plop herself on it. “Since both of you seem to connect with each other more than I ever will with either of you, then maybe, you should take advantage of your Russian comradery and actually speak the damn language. If you’re going to keep me in the dark, the least you could do is to freaking do it properly.”
She was pissed and I didn’t blame her, but the less she knew the better for her.