47 old & new

✨Yuri✨

"Yuri?" The man in front of me mumbled. His eyes are those of a Laskin trait, green with a little touch of orange and brown. His hair might be longer and stubble might have covered half of his face but I would recognize him anywhere.

My fist balled, my jaw clenched, Alex is fúcking alive after all this time? I swung my fist, it landed on his jaw. He threw back his head and held his shaken jaw.

"I deserve that" Alex wiped his bloodied lip.

"The fúck you deserve!?" I snarled, aiming another punch in his face.

"Nice right hook, princess" Angel walked past me and Alex enveloped her in a hug. "I miss you sorry ass." She murmured.

My brother chuckled, ruffling her hair playfully. "And I miss my baby girl."

I stood there watching as they fool around. Part of me was happy that Alex is alive, another piece of me was fuming mad because he made us mourn for him when he's alive and the rest of me hated that he's this close to my Angel. I, for one, had to see high Andi for me to hear her say what she feels and my brother has her where I wanted her to be.

Angel and Isiah are in the kitchen making lunch for us while I stare blankly at my brother on the couch.

"How are you?" he broke the long silence hovering over us.

"Wouldn't you wanna know" I sarcastically retort, tilting the whiskey on my hands.

"I'm sorry"

"You should be" I scoffed, refilling my glass and emptying it in one swig.

"I can't go back, trust me, the first thing I wanted to do when I woke up was to go back" the pain in his voice was clear as the day.

"Then why didn't you? huh? Did you know that Faith hasn't spoken a word until Angel?" it was hard to control my anger, I blamed myself for his death. Everyone in the family changed because of his absence and I had to step up, all this time he was fúcking alive.

Alex's green orbs dilate with loneliness. "I know. I know that, Yuri." He sighed "what I did was to keep her safe, all of you safe."

I slammed my glass on the wooden coffee table "we are in the fúcking mafia! Danger is in our lives no matter what we do, Alex. You could have saved everyone from being a mess if you had gone back!"

Alex's eyes looked at me with such tenderness and apology. He has no right to act as if he was the victim here.

"Yuri, you don't know what happened to-" Angel spoke but I cut her off.

"Don't fúcking defend this coward!" I turn my back on them and walk out of the cabin.

Angel wasn't helping at all. Why was she even defending Alex? Is he the reason why she can't give herself to me fully? Does she love him?

I threw the glass in my hand on the small pond behind the cabin. As if it would lessen the heaviness I was feeling. I hate that I'm jealous of my brother.

"Yuri" I heard Isiah's voice after a few minutes of my self-loathing. "I apologize for causing you such pain. I was the one who decided that Alex didn't go back to your family." He stood beside me as I tried to listen to his words. "Andi was on a mission that day in New York. She was after the assassin sent to kill Alex. She got to him before he killed Alex but the accident already happened. It was on Andi's instinct to save Alex. She didn't know who he was at that time. All she knows is that he's a victim that she tried to save. She brought him back to Siberia, I kept Alex's identity from her until he woke up.'

'Alex's injuries were serious and it took his body two weeks to heal. He wanted to go back but it wasn't safe and it will be to his advantage if he stays dead."

"Who is after us?" I asked when he seemed to redirect his narration away from that thought.

"The hierarchy is," he said calmly.

I looked at him dumbfounded. "Hierarchy?" he nods. "My father is a founding member of the hierarchy. That's just… it doesn't make sense."

Isiah sighed "the hierarchy built by these mafia families is a mere copycat of the real Hierarchy, Yuri. It's been there for hundreds of years, moving in the shadows of the underworld. Cleaning every threat on their way and your father stumbled on them a long time ago." I knew there was something else that Isiah wasn't telling me. "Alek tried to be the link of peace between the new and the old hierarchy but the new hierarchy wanted the power to themselves. There is a war between the past and the present hierarchy and your father was caught in between the war."

"What do you mean? Didn't he try to make peace?" This was so fúcking confusing and what is the connection of this hierarchy to Alex's accident?

"This is a lot to take in, Yuri. Let's have lunch inside, yes?"

"No. Tell me everything."

Isiah sighed "I can't right now. it's too dangerous for you to know everything. It might get you killed just like Alex."

He knows I won't settle for something like this. Everything I know about the hierarchy nor the underworld seems to be all wrong. How can I protect my family from something I know nothing about. If the hierarchy my father helped build was dangerous enough to rule the underworld with fear, then how dangerous is the old hierarchy Isiah is talking about?

Is the Black Rose who's killing each member of the new hierarchy part of the old one? What has Alex got to do with everything? Now that I know he is alive, I won't stop until I know everything. If Isiah won't tell me everything then I'll talk to someone who does.

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