Chapter 5

Antonio

DJ and I worked till the early hours of the morning. The more he explained about the investments he was making with the money the more I understood, his banker came around three in the morning and took the money then gave us both black cards. With some of the money, we bought an accounting firm that was going bankrupt, and we invested the other in different companies.

The banker left at around five in the morning; he was happy to be working with DJ again and told him a lot about how his wife spent all the money over the years. He told him she was selling the company now since she could no longer maintain it, I could see that DJ wanted it back, so I spoke to the banker aside and told him to buy the company when its value is low enough.

I asked him not to tell DJ until everything was done, and the company is under his name again. We went to bed after that, and I was exhausted. A loud sound that shook the building woke us up, I jump out of bed and went to the window to see what was going on. There was thick black smoke in the sky, the streets were full of emergency vehicles rushing to the site.

While I was still in a daze DJ budged into my room. “They are here.” It did not take rocket science to figure out who ‘they are, the Bratva was here, this is their style, they are loud, violent, and messy. “I can tell,” I say to him, even a fool can tell that there is a different player in J City and that things are going to change. “Let’s go have breakfast in the restaurant downstairs,” DJ suggests I know that he just wants to get the feel of things outside.

I nod my head then he leaves am sure to shower and I do the same. We meet outside my door and we go down together. When we get out of the elevator, the place is crawling with big men with different tattoos and scars on their bodies. They are scary and they are Russian. One can tell from their thick accent, their rudeness, and intimidating temperaments.

The restaurant has fewer people than usual, we sit, and a server comes and takes out orders. “You can tell that something is happening, everyone here looks on edge,” DJ says and I nod. He is right and I understand. Who would be at ease with these kinds of men here? “We must leave after just to check on the streets and see how much damaged they caused so far,” I tell him, I don’t know why I want to scare myself like that, but I want to see what I am up against.

While we wait the Russian comes in with four men by his side but more behind him, they look like bodyguards; they are talking, the guys behind him come in and scan the restaurant then each stands against the walls. They are all carrying guns you can see them sticking out from their suits, the temperature in the room dropped lower than it already was. He looks over at us then frowns and he walks towards us with the four guys close to his sides.

I keep my cool telling myself that he does not know, at least not yet. “Morning gentlemen.” He greets with his rich access, it's very intimidating but this is not the time for that. “Good morning.” I greet him casually and he smirks then turns to the guy next to him with a clean-shaven head. “You see Michail, I want people close to me to address me like that but not be too cocky thinking that I won’t kill them when the time comes.” The Russian tells the guy on his right.

“I see that Yuri, so you want me to take notes?” the guys say and Yuri laughs. “It’s good to have you here Brat, I was getting tired of these people here,” Yuri says then turns back to us, I was focusing on my coffee, but I was also listening to every word he says. “I have not seen you here before, did you just arrive?” he asks seriously than the first time he spoke, I can see why he is the second in command of the Bratva, he is vigilant and doesn’t play games.

“I didn’t know that you have to know everyone that comes in here, not unless you are the owner of course,” I tell him, I can see that he does not like weakness, and I am not about to show him how scared I am right now. He smirks and looks at the four by his side. “See! I like this boy, but really who are you and when did you arrive at my hotel.” He says with a serious face and I see the guys next to him flinch a little but when I looked again, it was like I imagine it.

“I am Antonia Rodrigues, and this is my friend Dorn Jones. We arrived here last week.” I tell him looking straight into his eyes so that he can see that I am not lying, I cannot imagine what he would do if he thought I am lying. “Mm business executives enter my hotel, and I am not even told about it. My staff needs to be changed if that is the case, we join you for breakfast so we can talk yah.” He says then pulls a chair to sit and gave us no room to refuse.

“So, tell me, what kind of business are you into?” he asks, and I look at DJ. He smiles and I know he will talk his ear off because this is what he is good at. “We are into accounting and investments.” DJ answers with a smile. “I hear there is a lot of money in investments.” The Russian comments and I pray he does not ask us to invest his money when we just invested the one I stole. “There is if you have the right person doing all the investments for you so that you can see a good return on them.”

I want to kill DJ, why would he tell him that when he knows these people are always looking for ways to launder their money? “It so happens that I am looking for someone to invest my money for me, you do it.” This is what I was afraid of and now we can’t say no because he is not asking but telling us. “We would be happy to but at a percentage.” Oh, Lord DJ! “I wasn’t expecting you to do it for free, we meet tonight, your suit, which one is it again?”

He asks, and I swallowed before I answered. “We are staying in the penthouse. The one on the Eastside.” I tell him and he smiles. “Now I know you mean business, good business people are not afraid of spending because they know they will make double of what they spend but I have to go now, I have a business to take care of, we meet tonight yah?” he says and DJ smiles.

“Yes, we meet tonight.” He says then the Russian stands up, his men the ones who were standing against the walls go out first maybe to check the area before he goes out, he leaves with the four right on his sides, and I sigh in relief. “We meet tonight yah?” I say to DJ with a raised eyebrow. “Would you rather I said no so that he can put a gun on our heads and force us to do it anyway?” he is right, he was not giving us a choice but telling us what will happen.

“You are right, am just scared that now we are bringing him closer to us,” I tell him and he smirks. “There is a saying, keep your friends close and your enemies even closer.” He says, I think he is being arrogant right now, we are nothing to the Russian for us to consider him as our enemy in fact we are the enemy, and we are not even sure if tonight he is going to kill us or not. “He might just be planning on how to kiss us you know,” I tell him and he shrugs.

“This is his hotel, and he doesn’t need privacy to kill us, if he wanted to kill us he would have done it right here and now. The people that come here know the person the Russian is so I don’t think they would mind him killing someone here.” He makes sense I am just scared that now we are getting ourselves deeper into this shit and I don’t think we can get out. Well, I didn’t think that I will get out of it alive after I stole his money.