Chapter 16

sixteen

Alexandr – One Month Later

I keep pacing back and forth,

"Al, will you sit the fuck down?" Sergi snaps; he hates it when I pace, but not telling his woman the truth about who he is is starting to get to him. I raise a brow at him, and he sighs while Damian chuckles.

"She'll be here any minute."

I sigh, knowing he's right, but don't sit down; we're in the conference room at Volkov Phoebe's another daughter to her.

"As good as can be…she's trying."

He nods, giving me a sad smile, then takes a seat. I wasn't lying; she has been trying, though we haven't done more than a peck, she lets me hold her hand now, even though it took two weeks for her to. She's talking to me more now as well, telling me about school and her life. Apparently, after I broke that Brent guy's hand, he transferred schools. She had a twinkle in her eye when she explained. It is like we were us again.

Baby steps.

The door opens again, and Noah walks in with Basil behind them. Noah nods at me, slapping a hand on my shoulder, and greets Damian, while Basil comes to me and says, "How's my daughter?"

I nod. "She's doing okay."

He sighs and nods, then takes a seat. She's still refusing to sit down with him, and he's disappointed, but it's expected; he hasn't exactly been a father to her. As it stands, Selene can do no wrong in his eyes despite her trying to sell his other daughter. He was supposed to monitor her, but I don't think he is, which pisses me off even more; he's blind, and Phoebe doesn't want anything to do with him anymore.

Each man in the room has two men with them; one stands behind their family head, while the other sits beside him.

The door finally opens again, and I smile my first smile all day as my girl walks through, looking badass in her leather, showing us that the Angel of Death is present.

Just when I thought she'd ignore me because she's donned her mask, she doesn't. She walks up to me and places a peck on my lips. I smile again and squeeze her hip. She gives me a wink, then sits next to Sergi, who will be acting as her guard today while I'll act as Damian's. We didn't bring anyone else because our building was full of our men, and about eight men line the walls inside the room. I fought Phoebe about her sitting next to Sergi. I wanted to be with her, but she stated it would make her look weak, so I folded this once.

I sit next to Damian as Sergi sits on his other side, with Phoebe next to him.

All eyes turn toward my brother, and I smirk. They all think he's taking charge of the meeting, but he is not; this is Phoebe's show. Damian smirks, too, and while I hear Sergi chuckle quietly, all the men around the table frown, looking at each other, confused.

Damian stands to get the meeting started. "Okay, gentlemen, let's start this meeting, shall we?"

A man who came with Noah clears his throat and questions, "Where's Mihai?"

Damian looks at him and says, "Unfortunately, Patrick, Mihai will not be joining us; not only do the Romanians not care about keeping the peace in these meetings, but it is about him." He looks at each man, and they nod in silent agreement. Patrick bowed his head slightly out of respect; he'd spoken out of turn, making Noah look weak. Noah scowls at his man and swirls his finger, telling his men to swap positions. Patrick pales slightly while doing so.

Damian continues as he looks at my woman. "The floor is all yours." He smirks.

Her face doesn't change, keeping in character, but her eyes show amusement toward my brother. He, Sergi, and I have to hold in our chuckles, shit's about to get funny.

She stands and looks around the men. The men who are not family heads frown; only Stefano and my father look at her with pride, while Basil sits in confusion about why she's taking charge.

"Gentleman, I would like to thank you all for coming. I understand how busy you are. There is one additional person who would like to be involved, so I'll patch him through. I will be representing him in person while he listens in."

She gets her phone and dials her uncle while the men frown again, and just as Juan answers the phone, without so much as a hello, the man seated next to Basil speaks up.

Shit, it's about to get bloody. I rub my hands together. Daddy's getting Ares his new bed tonight.

"Really, Damian, letting a little girl playing dress up take over our meeting? What the fuck is this? Women know their place; it's at home cleaning and popping out babies, not getting in our fucking business," he says, looking at Basil. "What is your daughter doing, Nonos ? This is an embarrassment to our council." He growls the last bit as Phoebe sits down.

I hear a slight chuckle from the phone line, and I have to bite my tongue, wanting to kill the fucker for speaking about her like that, but I keep my mouth shut. I don't want her to think that I don't believe in her, and plus, she's now got her knife out, twisting it in her fingers. She's already hurt my balls, and I don't fancy getting stabbed as well.

I look at my brother and Sergi, and they're both smirking. I shake my head.

"You have a problem with me being here, Belen? Because I'm quite sure you didn't have a problem fucking Selene's ass over our dining table when you thought the house was empty last year." She says it coldly, and Basil's amusement turns to venom while Belen stills, then quickly snaps out of it.

"You're a lying whore. You're the one who fucked your father's men behind his back; you shouldn't even fucking be in this room, bitch."

The men at our table grow extremely silent; half don't know what to say, while my father is being held down by Stefano. You don't insult a woman who he sees as his daughter. I look at Sergi and see that Phoebe is also trying to keep him in place.

I look at Basil, and he seems, by the glares he's sending his daughter, like he believes his guard, and that has my rage boiling. Damian has to put a hand on my shoulder to keep me in place. And Basil fucking wonders why his daughter wants fuck all to do with him. I can also see Stefano fuming, but he is trying to keep it under wraps to keep control of my father.

Juan chuckles. "I really wish I was there now because this just got entertaining."

All the men looked at the phone, confused; they recognized his voice but couldn't understand why my girl had contact with him.

She smiles sweetly. "Gentlemen, I believe you all know my uncle, Godfather of the Spanish Mafia, Juan Garcia." Belen doesn't seem deterred by the recent news. I know he wasn't there when she killed Christian, so he's just fucking ignorant.

"I don't give a shit who your uncle is. Your whore ass shouldn't be here; what you did to your sister is despicable; you even got your father to ignore her for months. Your're pathetic."

I growl, ready to jump from my seat, but Phoebe just laughs. "You mean the sister who has you completely fooled? The one who tried to sell me to Christian because she owed him thousands in drug money? The same one who likes to eat pussy while my so-called fiancé is busy fucking the girl who's trying to get my sister off. That sister?"

Belen just laughs. "You're bullshitting yet again, so your father cuts her off. You're a spiteful bitch, and you're a traitor; leaving your contract marriage to Alexandr is punishable by death. A coward is what you are."

It happens fast, so fast that we all look in shock. Phoebe is out of her seat in seconds. She jumps on top of the table and slides down toward Belen, before she stabs her knife into his hand. He screams out while I shoot up from my seat and raise my hand, making the men look at me, ready to get their guns out, thinking that is what I'm doing until I shout, "Called it!"

Damian and Sergi groan out loud while I grin like a loon; they thought she'd keep her cool. They each retrieved $400 from their pockets, and pass it over to me, and I smirk. The men in the room all raise their brows in confusion while Juan chuckles over the line.

"How much did you win, Alex?"

I state, "$800," with a grin.

I look at Phoebe, and she rolls her eyes.

"Can we get back to it, please?" she asks sarcastically.

I chuckle. "You won't be rolling your eyes when I get that new cat bed for Ares you said wasn't worth the money. Now, because Damian and Sergi lost the bet, he can have it." Both men scowl while Phoebe chuckles, then turns back to Belen, who has gone pale. Her father looks at her in disgust, still believing his man, and I sigh; he has no chance of a meeting now.

Phoebe starts to talk again, gaining my full attention.

"Tell me something, Belen. What did dear old Daddy say about what happened to Christian?" Basil stills, his eyes closing slowly, while Belen stutters out in pain, "T-that a s-stray b-bullet h-hit him."

She chuckles, then leans down close. "Wrong, I killed him. I shot him between the eyes."

He chuckles darkly despite the knife in his hand. "Yeah, right, you're nothing but a weak bitch. This here is b-because d-daddy is watching."

She tsks at him. "Ever hear of the Shadow."

His brow furrows. "Everyone has, y-you stupid b-bitch."

"Did you know that she was my grandmother?" He pales and shakes his head, not believing it. She leans down and whispers, just loud enough that we can all still hear, "Have you ever heard of the Angel of Death?" He looks ready to pass out, and not from the blood loss.

"N-no, you're not her, y-you're weak, a-and s-shy."

She smiles her evil smile, making Noah, Liam, and their men all look at her in shock, and grow pale, including some of ours who were unaware of Phoebe's lifestyle.

"Actually, Belen, I am; my grandmother and my tio Juan taught me to be the best of the best assassins going and, not to brag or anything, but I am."

She pulls the knife from his hand.