Saint Valentine

21

We all gather in the conference room — myself, Valentino, Francisco and a handful of others from the strategy team. I've never met any of them before, but I suppose we'll be getting familiar. This definitely won't be the first defence strategy meeting I'll be a part of. But hopefully, it'll be the only one about the Sokolov family. So far, we're yet to hear any suitable suggestions on how to address the situation. No matter what we do, more people will die.

Most people in the room are men. There are a few women, but only a handful. I'm the only one in a dress. Everyone else is in a pants suit. I wonder if there's dress code I've missed. If there is, I'll have to get it removed. There's nothing wrong with wearing dresses to a meeting, even if it is about combat.

"Killing her is off the table," Francisco says. "The family will retaliate and more people will be hurt."

"Can we trade her?" someone else suggests. "We have her captured now, so can we trade her back to the Sokolov's for peace?"

"No, the killing will continue," Valentino says. "As soon as she's free, she'll continue right where she left off. She won't stop until she gets what she wants."

"Can't her family control her?"

"They're probably in on it," Francisco responds. "They haven't bothered to stop her yet, and they haven't been willing to negotiate."

"So how do we get them to care?"

"We have to give them something else they want," Valentino says. "It's power she's after, isn't it?"

"Alaska," Francisco states. "We could offer them Alaska. It's a high-profit area, valuable territory... They've been trying to get it off us for decades."

"We could, but it would be a big loss for the family. Our finances will decrease substantially."

"What other options are there? We've ruled out killing her, we've ruled out marrying her. What else is there?"

"If you marry her, her family won't come looking for her," a man in the back says. "What's stopping you from signing the marriage certificate, but keeping her locked up? She won't have the power she's after. She'll be miserable. She'll give up."

"I am not marrying her," Valentino states. "It's not an option."

"The family doesn't even have to know."

"I said, it's not an option. It's not happening."

"She won't fall for that," Francisco interferes. "She'll find a way out and there will be more bloodshed."

"And I'm not fucking marrying her," Valentino spits. I place my hand on top of his, trying to calm him down. But he's right. It's not fucking happening. Over my dead body.

"Marrying her won't do the family any good," I say. "Because then I'll be the one doing the killing."

"Bianca," Valentino looks over at me in surprise.

"I mean it," I insist. I've never killed before, but it seems to be the norm around here. You kill to get what you want, and that's exactly what I'll be doing. Valentino is right. I can't just sit idly by and let her take everything from me. I need to fight for it. And I'll kill for it — for Valentino, for our future children, and for the life we'll have together. I want it. It's mine. And I'm not going to let her take it from me.

"We need to overpower them," Francisco says. "We can't just retaliate. They have no regard for human life, so it doesn't matter how many of theirs we kill. We need to respond in such a way that they have no choice but to back down. We need to corner them."