Chapter Two

The next morning when she woke up, she was hoping that Mickey would be gone. Except, her hopes were dashed when she heard loud cursing coming from the kitchen. She hurried down there to see what the hell was going on. Lucas was still asleep but she wanted to get up before him to be able to make breakfast. It appeared that Mickey had decided he wanted to make breakfast, or something. He wasn't doing a very good job of it. She started to yell at him in Italian because she definitely didn't want him to understand that she was calling him a moron who she should have let bleed out the night before, it would be less of a mess to clean up, and shoved him towards the kitchen table. 

"Wait hey...hold up...hang on...what slow down!" He yelled at her as he moved towards the table, she was shoving at his back the entire time. She wasn't short, really, but she was pretty slender and he was definitely considerably bigger than her in height and size so this wasn't easy to do. She was sure he was just allowing it as opposed to her really pushing him against his will. He sat down and looked at her. "Good morning to you too." 

"Ugh you....pain in my ass!" She yelled and went back into the kitchen to clean up whatever the fuck he was trying to do that was now burned to the pan. "Fucking moron, get your ass shot then come here and interrupt my fucking birthday sex I swear to God..." 

"If you wanted birthday sex that bad you could have just-" 

"NOT FROM YOU!" She yelled, "Why the...how did you get shot anyway? Sticking your big nose somewhere it doesn't belong?" 

"Does it matter?" He asked. 

"Yes because I want to make sure no one tried to follow you." She said and ended up throwing the pan in the trash because it was ruined and easier to buy a new one. She got out a new pan and some eggs from the fridge because that was quick and easy, bacon as well. She was too annoyed to make anything more than that for the morning and it would be more than enough for all of them. 

"No one else came here last night so...." 

"You're leaving, after breakfast." She told him as she started to crack the eggs open and into a bowl. He chuckled and shook his head before grunting softly in pain and shifting to get his phone out of his pocket. She looked at him and then went back to what he was doing, getting focused on beating the eggs to spend some of her excess energy. She shut him out until the point he was standing by the counter and she noticed him out of the corner of her eye. He set his phone down and slid it towards her. She looked down at it. A text message from her father.

You can lay low with Galina for a bit, she'll take good care of you and you can protect her as well.

"Mother fucker," She muttered. For now, she was going to accept that, but as soon as breakfast was over she intended to call him as fast as possible and explain why she didn't want that and it wouldn't be a good idea. She didn't even live out in the Hampton's, this was just a vacation home. She had her own loft in the city, it was closer to where she attended school. Though she could commute from where she was to school, she didn't want to have to do that because of the traffic and how long of a drive it was. She didn't know who Mickey was trying to run from but if he had to lay low now, it was bad. Dangerous even. She didn't think this guy could protect her with a bomb strapped to his chest either. "I'm going to have a word with him after we eat." 

"Suit yourself but it won't work." He said and went to sit down again, "Can I get some juice or something?" 

"You have hands, and legs, and can clearly see the fridge with your eyes that definitely work. Get it yourself." She snapped at him. He grumbled under his breath and went to the fridge then pulled out a carton of orange juice, which he started to drink directly from instead of trying to get a glass. She was about to scream at him to stop but took a deep breath instead. He was probably trying to push her limits and she didn't want to give him the satisfaction. Besides, she preferred coffee with breakfast so it wouldn't matter. Lucas did as well. She went back to cooking trying to ignore him, even when he burped so loud it seemed to make the walls shake. 

"What are you making?" He asked, poking his head over her shoulder. 

"Eggs, I mean...fuck is that not obvious? I have literally one ingredient here other than the bacon." She told him. 

"Sorry," He laughed, taking the entire orange juice container with him to sit down at the table. He looked at her and she looked back for a moment before focusing on the eggs again. Normally they wouldn't have been so plain and boring but she didn't want to reward this guy for being an ass so she wasn't going to make him anything special. A moment later, Lucas came into the kitchen and pulled her into a kiss. This immediately melted her bitter exterior and she kissed him back, wrapping her arms around him for a moment as she did. "Who's this?" 

"Seriously?" She asked as she pulled away from Lucas, "This is my boyfriend, Lucas, and Lucas this is the fucking moron who got shot like an idiot and ruined one of my pans. His name is Mikey or something." She definitely knew it wasn't Mikey but she wanted to annoy him as much as he was annoying her in the moment. 

"Actually, it's Mickey but close enough." He said looking Lucas over almost like he was an instant threat. She didn't know why, seeing as how they'd only met once before and hadn't even gotten along when that happened. She told him to his face he was going to end up getting shot and he called her hot. He also didn't seem to care that she was the daughter of his boss who would definitely kill him for doing anything to her. "Nice to meet you." 

"Same," Lucas said and went to make himself some coffee, "Your father sure knows how to pick 'em." 

"Useful idiot," Galina said, then laughed, except she said it in Italian. Lucas laughed and leaned against the counter as he studied Mickey like he was also sizing the guy up. 

"I know one of those words means useful." Mickey said. 

"I see what you mean," Lucas told her, turning his head to speak to her momentarily before looking back. "What is it that you do then, Mickey? Drug mule? Getaway driver? Waste disposal?" 

"Wouldn't you like to know?" Mickey sneered. "Who the fuck is this guy and why does-" 

"He works for my father as well, just in a better position than you." Galina said, "That's how he knows you are below him." 

"Working my way up, it's only been a month." Mickey insisted. 

"Getting shot doesn't also usually get you a promotion." Lucas told him. They went silent then started to glare at each other before she broke the silence by holding a plate of food out to Lucas. 

"Please just...ignore him." She asked, "I'll get him out of here soon enough then we can head back to my place in the city." 

"Wouldn't count on that." Mickey told her. 

"I know how to handle my father better than you ever would." Galina snapped at him. She made another plate of food for herself then gave what very little was left over to a second plate. She picked them both up and headed for the table, setting the plate with the least amount of food in front of Mickey. She sat down across from him and Lucas came over with three forks so they could all eat and set them on the table. She grabbed hers and started to eat watching as Lucas moved back and forth to bring them both mugs of coffee. 

"You didn't answer my question," Lucas said, "What is it that you do?" 

"Jack of all trades," Mickey replied. 

"He's a gofer," Lucas laughed, "You were right...useful idiot." He said the last part in Italian as well. 

"Okay I know that can't be a good thing, whatever you keep calling me, but since I only understand half of it I'll pretend it is." Mickey told them. He started to eat hungrily, every once in a while drinking more juice. Galina was pretty sure he was going to finish it, just to spite them, or at least thinking that it would. She didn't know why he thought that would work. As long as he was drinking he couldn't say anything stupid which was nice for both of them. 

"Your father really told him to stay here?" Lucas asked, "There's no way that's a good idea." 

"I agree," She said, "But you know how I am with him, I can get him to change his mind." 

"Not if...well, you know how he is don't you?" Lucas replied. He was right about that. When her father had his mind set on something or whatever he wanted was important she never got a say. At that point, she couldn't really see how exactly Mickey was such a huge asset to the family that she couldn't talk her father into making him leave but she didn't know. She was privy to a lot of the information that filtered through but not all of it. Her father was training her to do a lot of things outside of the illegal medicine she was practicing so it was typically beneficial for her to know. 

"I will go take care of that right now, then, it'll be easy. I promise." She said, leaning over to kiss Lucas on the cheek before getting up to head out of there. 

"Good luck!" Mickey called after her. She tried to ignore the urge to scream at him again as she headed up to the bedroom where she had left her phone. She was hoping, beyond hope, that her father would change his mind but she had a sinking feeling that it wasn't going to be that easy. It never was.

*****

For some completely not at all surprising reason, her father really liked Mickey. He was still just a gofer, as Lucas had called him, but she knew why this was. He definitely turned out to be the type to take orders, follow them, never question anything about it and then collect money. If she had to guess, he wasn't much of a snitch either (if any) and he was probably desperate to work his way up the chain of command. Given that he was quite the bumbling idiot and had gotten himself shot in a month like she'd predicted, she didn't know how he was ever going to learn to be a hitman. The thing was that maybe, just maybe, his penchant for following orders without question would lead to him also being easy to train. That kind of concerned her. If her father didn't like him even slightly, he wouldn't be in this house right now. He wouldn't have even been sent here. No, he'd have been sent to the actual doctor or the doctor would have been sent to him. This was going to be a problem. 

She tried to explain to her father that she couldn't really watch him there or stay with him because of school. She was very close to graduating and she needed to make sure that she got there on time. City traffic was terrible and she would be better off at her penthouse. If he wanted her to work for the family and be good at what she did then he should be concerned about her grades and life so she could make it to graduation in the first place. He did agree to that but even worse, he told her to take Mickey to the penthouse in the city. It seemed like she wasn't going to be getting rid of this parasite any time soon. All of this angered her to a point of screaming and throwing her phone at the wall. It drew attention to what her state of mind was and brought Lucas into her room a moment later. 

"Looks like I'll be getting you another phone huh?" He asked. 

"It's not funny! He wants me to babysit that dumb pile of moron until he's better and I don't know why!" Galina snapped back at him, "Sweet Mother Mary help me to not kill him in his sleep." Lucas came over to her and pulled her into a hug. She struggled for a bit before just relaxing and allowing it because, for some reason, his hugs always made her feel better. This wasn't the life she had wanted, it wasn't exactly what he'd wanted either, but they both knew that they couldn't really be together if they didn't also play by the rules. Lucas was good at what he did, sure enough, but he had never gotten along with her father to the point where he wanted to approve of them dating. Since he wouldn't give any sort of blessings for them to get married, they were kind of still stuck in the dating phase. Lucas was attempting to win him over but nothing he'd done so far was working. 

"It'll be fine, I don't have to work until later tonight anyway. Your father wants me at the club to transport some cargo, take care of a few things." He said, "We do those runs at night because they aren't as monitored." 

"I know," She said, "He told me to take Mickey back to the penthouse. He's going to get into all my stuff, yours too." 

"We'll just lock him out of the master bedroom, how hard could that be? He couldn't find his ass with two hands and a flashlight." Lucas laughed. She chuckled and rested her head on his shoulder then closed her eyes. She sure hoped that he was right about that because she didn't need this asshole invading her life and privacy more than he already had, even if she was pretty sure the guy already knew how to pick locks.

*****

The move from the house in the Hampton's to the penthouse in the city hadn't been too bad. Lucas had forced Mickey into the back then they had just gone to ignoring him for the rest of the trip. It had only been a few hours, after all, and though Mickey had tried to make it as annoying as possible he gave up when he realized it wasn't working. When they got to her place, Galina took him to the guest room and explained to him that this was where he would be staying. He was not to go in any room with locked doors (or try to get them open) and he was to mind his own fucking business. She was only doing this because she had to, not because she wanted to, and he was going to have to learn that he was an unwanted guest. This didn't mean hospitality either. The building that her penthouse was in was one of the many properties in the city her father owned. It was secure and monitored. If the person or people who had shot Mickey were still after him they would know better than to try to get in here unless they wanted a massacre. 

When she had taken care of that, she gave him some more morphine, hoping it would make him less annoying (and cause him to pass out) then she headed back down to the kitchen where Lucas had made them both coffee. She took the mug that he held out to her and took a sip, only to find that a considerable amount of rum had been added to it. She normally wouldn't have minded but it was so early in the morning and she wasn't looking to get drunk at that point in time. She gave him a look. 

"Sorry, thought it would help relax you." He said and took the mug back. 

"I do appreciate the sentiment but I also have to watch that dumb turd upstairs and I think it's best if at least one of us is sober." She chuckled, "But you have all the fun you want, I know it takes a lot more to get you wasted." Alcohol wasn't her favorite thing in the universe, mostly because of the hangover it caused. Popping pills was far more preferable and easier to control and she could get them from just about anyone in the 'family' if she wanted them. It wasn't something she did often but she did it enough to know how to have fun. 

"Your father is a piece of work, you know that right?" Lucas asked and dumped her mug in the sink. He rinsed it out and then went to make her a normal cup of coffee without alcohol. She sat down on one of the stools at the island in the kitchen and rested her chin in her hands as her elbows rested on the surface of the counter. 

"Oh you don't say? The Godfather of the entire damn mafia is a piece of work." She replied with a smug little smirk. He laughed and turned to look at her running his hand over the skin of his clean shaven head. 

"I will marry you, no matter what annoying ass things he does to us to try to distract us both from that idea." Lucas insisted. 

"You think bringing Mickey here and making me watch him is a distraction?" She asked. 

"You don't think it is?" He replied. 

"Guess you have a point. I think he figures if there's another guy here I'll actually give a shit and not fuck you or something." She said, "You have a cigarette?" He nodded and got a pack out of his jacket, with a lighter, and slid it across the counter to her. She picked up the pack and got one out. 

"That's not true though, and you know it." Lucas told her. 

"Oh yeah I know," She said and lit the cigarette, taking a long drag, "However, I don't exactly like the idea of him walking in on us doing anything like that and you know he will because he was born to be that way." 

"So what?" He asked, "I'll just show him who really owns that ass." 

"Ha ha..." She rolled her eyes but smiled anyway, "You think some sort of macho display of dominance over me will put him in his place?" 

"Maybe...or he could possibly be way too stupid to understand that sort of thing." He smiled back at her and grabbed her new cup of coffee, moving to set it down in front of her. She reached for it after tapping off the ashes from her cigarette in a nearby ashtray and took a sip. "So...what do you want to do until he comes down here and starts bothering us again?" 

"How about a movie?" She asked. It was pure luck that her birthday had fallen on a Friday, so she wasn't really going to have to worry about anything for that day, which was a Saturday. It was kind of late in the day and she knew that she was going to be limited on what they could do. It wasn't a good idea to leave Mickey alone there so their options were watching a movie, watching TV, or playing a video game. Of course, the last option was sex but usually those activities turned into that anyway and it wasn't something she needed to mention. 

"Sounds good," He said and headed with her over to the couch. She hoped that they'd at least get a few hours of quiet before the obnoxious whining started again. There had to be a reason Mickey was there and her father was being so insistent about it. It wasn't like him to do this, in fact, he never had done this before, and that raised a lot of red flags. Still, without any sort of evidence to something being wrong, she couldn't start outright making accusations and that meant living in denial until the facts showed themselves. It was one thing she was very good at doing and had been her entire life.