Russian Bastard | A Mafia Novel ✧

Chapter 11*

You guys are absolutely amazing, the story reached 510 votes omg! Here is a chapter early, dont worry I'm still posting another one on Wednesday ET! You guys have been reaching all the vote goals since I posted so I've been updating twice weekly which is amazing! Hope we can keep this up <3

You'll all absolutely love this chapter, trust me;) You'll love Charlie and Zeke and Tatiana are going to have some alone time... ;)

Chapter 11*

Tatiana

It was two weeks since the shooting at the party and one week since her little tryst with Zeke. Thanks to the current situation and circumstances, she was excused from attending the dreaded mafia housewives weekly brunch and she was able to participate more in the family business affairs. Though the Belluchis and the Vasilievs have been closely working on who had attacked both families and shot up the house of Pavel Vasiliev, there has yet to be any new leads.

"Anything yet?" she asked Charlie, their resident hacker. Today, she wore a dark carmine pink chiffon wrap dress with ruffles while Matteo wore his usual suit. She and Matteo had gone to the Vasiliev estate, hoping to see if there had been any developments.

"Nothing... Yet," Charlie said, her eyes zooming across the screen, clicking away at the keyboard in the Vasiliev's security room.

"Honestly, your tech sucks. You should seriously upgrade. I can hardly do anything with this crap," Charlie had said when she first arrived at Pavel Vasiliev's door. A week after the shooting, she went with Matteo to drop off Charlie to inspect their security and how they had been hacked.

Until now, she laughed at the expression Pavel and his children collectively wore when they brought a loud, bubbly persona by the name of Charlie Brooks, an eighteen year old, at his doorstep.

"You must be..." Francesco had been at a loss for words.

"Charlie Brooks, at your service," she had said, shaking his hand while chewing a piece of gum.

"Forgive me, bu I thought Charlie was a guy..." Ivanov said, confused.

Charlie waved him off as she walked into the house as if she owned the place. "Yeah, yeah I get that a lot. Techy hacker, computer codes, being smart. Well, surprise! I'm a girl. It's short for Charlotte by the way, in case you were wondering. Anyway, are you gonna show me to the room where the magic happens or am I gonna have to find it myself?" she asked, raising her eyebrow at one of the most powerful mafia families in the world. Nina, however, shrugged off the initial surprise and took the situation in stride, leading her to the security room and leaving the rest of the family to catch up with them.

That was one of the reasons why Tatiana loved Charlie. She was herself, and wasn't easily intimidated. And it was refreshing to be around such a person when all you've known for as long as you've lived was the masks everyone wore.

"Are you sure she is competent?" Pavel had asked them dubiously, looking at where the eighteen year old disappeared off to. "Not that I don't trust your judgement, I just worry that—what with her being so young..."

"Trust us, she's the best at it we've seen. She actually hacked into our own system a few months back, it's why we recruited her," Matteo said, laughing good-naturedly. Tatiana saw Zeke's handsome face quirk up in a small, amused smile before he caught her staring and she looked away, blushing ever so slightly.

Pavel noded, trusting their judgement. "Would you like a tour of my home?" he asked Matteo.

"I'd love to, thank you." Matteo bowed his head courteously and Pavel led him away into the house. Francesco and Ivanov had already left, talking quietly amongst themselves, leaving her and Zeke alone in the mansion's vestibule.