<h4>Chapter 306: Chapter 306 : Ruthless</h4>


    *Giovani*


    I was going to kill him. Figurately or literally, I was still deciding, but either way, I was going to fucking kill him.


    I stared at my desk, seething in aplete rage. The absolute disrespect Alessandro had shown at the breakfast table had set off my temper. I could only stew in my anger, not able to do a damn thing about that brat.


    If I had it my way, he’d be doing manualbor for the next year and a half for the way he was treating not only me but Olivia. I tried my best not to look at her all breakfast, but she was so damn beautiful, and I’d slipped a couple of times.


    The guilty looks she kept sneaking at me were far from discreet, and I hated every bit of it. She wasn’t stupid. She’d probably figured out why I had let Alessandro go so far.


    I sighed, rubbing my temples from the growing headache I was developing. Even in the darkness of my study, it still wasn’t enough to settle my growing need for murder.


    The door opened without warning, a burst of light from the hallway hitting my eyes, and I groaned, mming my head on the desk. The pain was only a slight distraction from the death metal screaming in my head.


    The light disappeared as the door closed, and I heard the familiar footsteps of Gabriele as he stopped in front of the desk.


    “So,” Gabriele started, “do I even want to know what’s going on with you and Alessandro now? ‘Cause what the fuck was that?”


    I red up at him before sighing. There was no point in keeping it hidden. Gabriele already knew, and now he had to work with both of us.


    “He caught me sneaking out of Olivia’s roomst night,” I muttered, kicking myself for being so clumsy. I should’ve installed locks on everyone’s doors and made up some excuse why they needed to be locked every night.


    As if crazy Russiansing to kill us wasn’t enough.


    “Oh, and what could you possibly be doing in her roomte at night?” Gabriele said sarcastically, rolling his eyes. “How’d you exin that one?”


    “Broken sink,” I grumbled in response.


    Gabriele shook his head in disappointment, but luckily, he knew to keep his mouth shut. He was shooting me a look that told me he thought I was an idiot, but at the moment, I couldn’t argue with that.


    He was right. I was an idiot.


    I seemed to lose all my brain cells whenever it came to Olivia. I’d probably jump off a cliff if she told me so. I groaned, throwing my arm over my face.


    Dammit. I’d fallen hard for her. It was more than falling, my feelings for her were already deep. I had to get myself together before I ruined both of our lives.


    The easiest way was to break off this thing we had going, but there was no way in hell I was going to let that happen, not with Alessandro still sneaking around, just waiting to jump in.


    That bastard had already taken a bit of my pride. He wasn’t going to get Olivia too. At this point, he was more of a problem than the actual fucking Russians.


    So much for family bonds.


    “So what do we do about Alessandro?” Gabriele asked casually. “Should I just keep following his orders?”


    “For the time being,” I growled, “until I can beat his fucking greed out of his head. I already spoke to James about Alessandro’s involvement, and he doesn’t want him in too deep. There’s only so much I’ll let him push me around before I snap. He’d better learn not to cross that line.”


    “Understood.” Gabriele sighed. “But just so you know, I hate taking orders from Alessandro.”


    Unfortunately for the two of us, Alessandro was a devil, and we’d spoken his name three times. The door burst open, hitting the wall as he strolled through arrogantly, a thick man folder in one of his hands.


    Fucking hell.


    Gabriele rolled his eyes and shut the door behind him, keeping prying ears from hearing whatever he had to say.


    “I told you to knock before entering,” I snapped at him.


    “So?” Alessandro just shrugged, uncaring as he stopped right in front of my desk and mmed the man folder onto the desk. “Somebody gave this to me. Scar on his cheek?”


    “Gennaro?” I looked up with interest then grabbed the folder, opening it up. Inside was a thick packet of papers, but my eyesnded on the first one.


    “Dmitri Zaytsev,” I read the name and then stiffened as I nced at the photo next to the information. It was a young man, probably only a teenager at the time, as he red murderously at the camera.


    The most damning evidence, however, was the background–it was a mugshot. There were even records of his fingerprints.


    “He’s just a fucking kid,” Gabriele scoffed. “How could he do so much damage?”


    “No,” I shook my head. “This is old. He’s in his thirties now, but this was all Gennaro could find, apparently. This sheet is long–misdemeanors, vandalism, inciting riots, arson... it goes on and on.”


    I spread out the papers, allowing Gabriele and Alessandro to take from it and read on their own as I kept searching through the new information we’d found.


    “He wasn’t charged?” Alessandro said incredulously. “How could they not charge him for setting a fucking apartment building on fire?”


    “Mikhail,” I said, stiffly. “Looks like every instance of arrest was wiped away by his cousin. But after Mikhail wasn’t there to wipe away his sheet anymore, he got arrested and was in prison for over ten years.”


    My jaw clenched as I saw a few familiar faces on the sheet.


    “Looks like his father was killed by our syndicate, too, and his mother died from illness while he was incarcerated,” Alessandro dropped the sheet in front of me. “Could that be a reason for all this?”


    “Probably,” I said, rubbing my forehead as I dropped all the information. “He was released six years ago and dropped off the face of the earth since then. That’s probably when he took up his cousin’s old position.”


    “He’s after revenge,” Gabriele said coldly. “Probably mes us for being sent to prison and his family’s deaths.”


    “He would be right,” I sighed, leaning back in the chair. I had no qualms about what had happened to the previous head of the family.


    Neither the Valentinos nor the Zaytsevs were good,w-abiding citizens. Our family werewless people who did terrible things, but we never did anything without a reason. Mikhail dug his own hole, and he lost his life because of it.


    But it was also true that Dmitri lost both of his parents at a young age and was deeply affected by our actions.


    I could sympathize with him. I had never been close to my parents, but it seemed he had been different. Losing both of them had taken a toll.


    But that didn’t mean I would ept what he had done. He had kidnapped Dahlia, injured her and tried to kill her... and he’d threatened my family and the organization I was in charge of.


    Sympathy wouldn’t stop me from putting a bullet in his head once I found him.


    I had never imed to be a good person, and I never would.


    “There’s no up-to-date information,” Gabriele remarked. “He’s hidden himself very well.”


    “Or the Russos have done it for him,” I scoffed. I was still pissed about that tidbit of information. We couldn’t touch the Russos, and the fact that they were working with the Zaytsevs on this was bullshit.


    “One thing is clear,” Alessandro stated firmly, “He’s ruthless. He’s been nning this for a long time, and he’s not going to stop until he’s dead.”


    “Then we just need to find him and kill him,” Gabriele said simply. “Simple problems require simple solutions.”


    “Agreed,” Alessandro nodded.


    “Hold on,” I red at the both of them. “We don’t have any leads right now. Having a motive for why he wants to kill us isn’t good enough to go off. He and his people could be everywhere, and we know he’s smart. With the Russos behind him, we’re stuck.”


    “So we do nothing?” Alessandro snapped, crossing his arms. “I should’ve known you wouldn’t have the balls to–”


    “Alessandro!” I yelled as I got to my feet, mming my hands onto the desk. I red at him, my temper fraying at the edges.


    His mouth closed with a snap as I took a few deep breaths to calm myself. Now wasn’t the time. He was still suspicious of me and Olivia, and I couldn’t blow it.


    “I never said we do nothing,” I started, as calmly as I could. “Gabriele and you will divide forces. Alessandro, you head out into Florence proper to do some recon. Take maybe five to eight men with you, and visit any ces we know they’ve been before. There might still be some clues hiding there.”


    “Fine,” Alessandro agreed easily. “But I’m in charge of this team. Make sure those men know that.”


    I rolled my eyes but nodded. Alessandro turned on his heel and mmed the door behind him. It was hard enough to rattle the few pictures I had on the wall, and I sighed, copsing into my chair.


    I was exhausted from dealing with him. I turned to Gabriele, who only raised an eyebrow in response.


    “Take your own force and investigate the Russos. See if there’s anywhere they could be hiding Dmitri or his organization,” I ordered.


    “Yeah, yeah.” He waved his hand, absentmindedly as he too, turned to leave.


    Right before he grabbed the door handle, I called out to him, “Gabriele.”


    He nced at me over his shoulder, a neutral look on his face.


    “Remind me to give you a raise,” I smirked.


    “You can count on it.” He grinned back before gently shutting the door behind him.


    I gathered up the papersid out on my desk and ced them back into the man folder I had been given.


    I grabbed one of the pens I had in a holder on the desk. It was just amon pen, most would assume, until I unscrewed the top. Inside the pen was a smooth, small key that I pulled out and used to unlock the desk drawer.


    I stuffed the man folder inside with all the other confidential information I had stored before locking it and resetting the key inside the pen.


    Once the pen was in the holder, it looked just like any other and no one could tell the difference, except for me and Gabriele.


    Now with everything else settled for the time being, I had time to myself. I smiled, my mind going back to a pair of bright eyes.


    It was time I took her out on a proper date.