1.2 | The Prince of Thieves

Chapter 14

A/N: This chapter is dedicated to TemiTemi01

They had attended the party with a few of his men, enough to fill the table for ten. Out in the lushly carpeted foyer, servers in red and gold livery bowed and smiled, and waved them towards the ballroom with white gloved hands. Here and there, guests had gathered to chatter over drinks, but he declined one, and instead chose to follow the flow of people streaming into the ballroom. Hana, seemingly the only Yakuza presence amidst the crowd of vors and their family tightened her grip on his arm at a few hostile stares.

'Leon,' she murmured under her breath, a tight, sweet smile plastered on her lips as she turned her head to his, 'Did you ever date that girl over there? Why is she looking at me like that?'

'What girl?' He kept his face forward and chin up, stoically waiting their turn in the queue. A few scandalised whispers had trailed their entrance and he could still hear the tail ends of them.

Thought they divorced.

Three years...

The Federov's heir and his yakuza wife...

The vory v zakone's next power, do you think? and Hush, don't let them hear followed quickly after.

'No, he didn't,' Mickey whispered from behind them, his face just stuck between their faces. Leon turned slightly to glare at the source of warm breath that had fanned his cheek. 'Some of them just can't forget how his marriage with you made them poorer.'

'Hmm.'

Then all of a sudden, the couple before them stepped aside to enter the ballroom, and they found themselves at a cavernous entrance, icy air from within blasting their faces. On one side of the door was a table about to spill with presents, and beside it was Aleks Udinov and his son. For a moment, the world seemed to be jovial and kind as they smiled and shook hands and exchanged good wishes. Leon could almost bear the fact that they were family.

'My father sends his best wishes and good health,' he said with a wide smile as he shook his uncle's hand. Beside him, Mickey and Dom handed a crate containing sixteen bottles of wine to two startled attendants. 'He selected these for you,' he continued with a wave to the present. And hasn't paid his share of it yet.

Aleks Udinov looked passably astonished as he raised his hands and proclaimed that the alcohol was his favourite. It was, indeed, his favourite. Leon had done his research.

'Please thank him for me,' he said with an even wider grin and another arm wrenching handshake.

When Leon retrieved his hand from his uncle's iron grip, his flesh still numb from the ordeal, they were handed over to another attendent like goods passed over at the market.

They trooped into the hall that was already bustling with conversation. At least thirty tables had been set out before a stage, and more than half of those seats had been filled. They were guided to a table at the front, beside the largest table that was set for fifteen. Heads turned as they entered, and Leon noticed his own people amongst the crowd. They nodded discreetly at him as he passed.

When they had arrived, he pulled out her chair for her and murmured an 'After you.'

She smiled and took her seat, arranging her skirt carefully as he just as carefully pushed the chair in. Tongues were already wagging at their first public appearance together before a crowd of the most important vor's in New York. Let them have something to talk about, then. And let her feel like a queen, he thought fondly. She had on a white, lace crop top that fitted snugly on her figure, and a high-waist chiffon skirt of a pale blue. They were from the snobby little shop on his street. He had finally convinced them to, erm, be friends with him by taking her on a shopping spree there.