Florence Set The House On Fire

Chapter Four -- Florence set the house on fire.

Vuk's Point of View

"How is married life treating you?" Roman asks as we walk into the private club and I give him a nasty look, married life is not treating me good at all, and more than often, I wish I never got married.

"Florence has been quiet, lately." I point out and he frowns "That is bad?"

"How can you not see what I see? I find it strange that no one can see her the way I do. Florence is crazy, she is one of the craziest person I have ever met, she is stealth like a cat, she is fast, and small, so she will definitely get away in a fight. Have you seen her green eyes? It is filled with fire, and craziness. How can you not see this?" I frown at him, flabbergasted, how does anyone buy her good girl act?

"Probably because I don't want to sleep with her and you do." He points out and I glare at him, I do not want to sleep with her, ever, but - but, there is a certain domesticity that comes with sharing a bed with someone. 

Everyone knows how odd things between us are, everyone knows that she stabbed me on our wedding day, bad news spread faster than anything else. She wanted us to sleep in separate beds but I just can not allow that, we will share a bed and it does not matter if she goes to bed angry, every night, I refuse to negotiate. 

So, sharing a bed allows for certain things, and for the past few days of living together, I have gotten familiar with her schedule, the time she baths, how she loves to take care of her body, how she loves to listen to music as she works on her hair, how she pays extra attention to her face because she is acne prone, how she loves to snack on something in between her hair care. I notice everything about her and it drives me insane how she falls asleep in seconds, I can never be that free to fall asleep in seconds.

"So, her quietness means something bad." He says and I nod, but say nothing. Her silence is lethal, she is planning something and I have to be prepared, underestimating her is something I can never do again.

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"Order of things." I say, looking around the table, at my men and Florence's brothers. Our marriage merged La Cosa Nostra and Bratva in New York together, so, there are order of businesses. I am the Don, the Pakhan of Bratva, but Donatello is the Don of La Cosa Nostra, so we both sit at the high table, across from each other.

"We are working on the establishment of cash-intensive businesses." Marcelo - one of my associate says and Donatello frowns "List them."

"A series of Laundromats, Parking garages, ATM Machines, Car washes and bakery, to launder money." He says and I nod, then ask "How far is the Nightclub going?"

"We are building some in Las Vegas and the few we have in New York would be in effect in less than a month, we are currently working on the staffing and so many other things." Capo Stefano says and we spend the next two hours going over the order of things.

As the Mafia, we engage in some illegal businesses and we need other legal businesses to make our money clean, to 'wash' away the dirt, which is where money laundering comes in. We also distribute drugs, in certain quantities, I make sure to keep my eye on that, because it can get crazy and too much to handle, and while other Mafias partake in Human Trafficking, we don't, neither does the La Cosa Nostra. 

Most mafia do not, but smaller mob bosses looking to get a quick fix do, and I make it my job to catch them and put them behind bars or just kill them. Human and Sex Trafficking is quite extreme and it needs a lot of machinery to work, and refusing to partake in it does not justify the other crimes we commit, there is a line I am not interested in crossing.

"How far are you on Florence's security team?" Dante asks and I look up, to see he is speaking to Roman.

"She refuses the team we have arranged, because she does not want to be protected by a man, or something along those lines, so, I have been working to assemble a group of women for her to work with, good and able ones that understand the gravity of their job." Roman explains and Nikolai frowns "Perhaps she does not need a group, maybe just one person, I might have someone that can do that."

My phone rings and I see it is a call from one of my Capos, the one stationed at the mansion, I excuse myself from the meeting and I pick his call.

"Pakhan, the house is on fire." He says and I freeze "What?"

"Mrs. Romanova, your wife, demanded that everyone leave the house, and she made sure no one was still inside, no soldier and no member of the staff, then, she torched it all, she set the house on fire." He explains and I feel an headache blooming in my head.

"What is going on?" Roman asks, I did not know when he got here, and I see Florence's brothers standing too, so I tell them "Florence set the house on fire."

"Did anyone get hurt? Roman is on his way." I end the call and I dial Florence's number, it rings for a while and she picks "Hi, baby."

"You set the house on fire?" I growl and she responds "Yeah, I did. I don't like living there, it feels like I am in a cage, and I don't like to be caged. Also, Roman told me you looked into my ex boyfriend, so I did not like that, too."

"Where are you?" I snarl and she chuckle "Boston, I will see you soon, dushka."