With My Back to the Pack

Once Upon A Scarlet Blotch

They sat in long wooden rows, with the judge at his stand, and Andrei Morozov once again, back in the defense chair, pleading not guilty to three counts of first degree murder. His crew sat in with the people, and were quite unconcerned. This was not the first time Andrei had stood up to murder charges, and he walked away from every single one. This time he was denying murdering a young kid, around twenty-three, and his parents, after he stumbled the plans of one of their cold cases, the bombing a residency hosting a Christmas party, that was never solved. 

His son, Jake, sat beside his father's bodyguards, Gaspar Vasilievich, and Seryogin Romanovich. Two men with muscles the size of their torso. Jake's hands were deep in his pockets, and his mind was deep in thought. He had grown up around all of this, and though he loved the entire gang, he knew that none of them attached any rleal importance to him. Yay, he was the boss's son, yipee, blah blah blah. He could not fire a weapon, and he was useless under interrogation. Whenever the gang thought that they had a snitch, they would tie me next to the rat, so he could watch them kill him. They would always finish off with a great big 'This is what will happen to you if you run your mouth.' That always scared him straight. 

The judge, was their secret weapon in this case. She was a long alliance, as her life had been put on the line years ago, and she continued to let him walk. Nobody was stressing about anything, except, for maybe the prosecutors. There was just no beating Andrei Morozov. 

Later that afternoon as everybody was leaving the courtroom (the judge had declared a mistrial, and was now discussing a protective order with her boss)Jake darted up to his father. Though they were biologically father and son, Andrei felt no particular affection for his son. If Jake became a threat, he would be gone like the wind, and nobody would grieve. 

You might be curious as to where the mother of Jake might be in all of this. Well, Jake never knew his mother. She had died before he was born. Among the rest of the mob, Andrei's only purpose for her was to have a son, an heir to the family tradition, and he had done away with her the moment that her purpose was filled.

To Jake, he was told that his mother committed suicide shortly after his birth, as she could not cope with the stress. You might think that Jake was spared from that pain of his mother's loss and his father's betrayal out of love, but it was really out of the fear that Jake might desert them if he knew the truth. 

Jake was raised by his father's bodyguards, and one could say that he knew not of a life. His father had hoped for a fearless, ruthless, blood-thirsty warrior as a son, and was clearly disappointed with the one that he got, one that could not kill a calf without a guilty expression.