The Butcher's Apprentice

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"Si, caballeritos, little gentlemen," she giggled, nodding. "The friends are quite dressed up this evening, must be a special occasion," she purred. "I'll go tell them you're here," she said with a wink, turning and sauntering back over to the blackjack tables.

Vanni did notice, and smirked, nudging his friend teasingly. He busted his next hand and shrugged, stretching a bit as he looked around the room.
 
"Shut up." Ivan said with an embarrassed smirk. He sighed at the outcome of his own hand and picked up his drink, standing up from the table. "Losing money is one thing, but knowing it goes right to my brother's pockets is hard to swallow sometimes." he said before taking a sip from his glass.

Dimitri nodded, picking up his own drink and taking a sip. "Thank you, Carmen." He straightened up his papers and went back to looking busy. After all, one should always look busy when someone came to talk to them. At least, it was something he noticed his father always did.
 
"That I can definitely understand," Vanni commiserated, sipping his drink and looking around. "Oh, Carmen's coming back." He watched her appreciatively, but didn't let his mind go any further than that. She had a boyfriend, anyway, and he actually liked her, since she was kind enough not to mercilessly tease him like the other girls usually did.

"Alright, guapos, would you like to follow me? Dimitri can see you in his booth," she purred as she stepped up between them.

Vanni smirked as he stepped up and offered his arm to her, looking to his friend to see if he'd do the same.
 
Ivan happily stepped up to do the same on Carmen's other side, offering her his arm and switching his drink to his other hand. "Thank you so much, Carmen." he said, looking towards the booth. He honestly hadn't thought too hard about looking there. He had looked when they first walked in and he wasn't there, so why look again?
 
Carmen left her tray with Perry, giggling happily as she allowed the young men to escort her back over to Dimitri. She was beyond tickled by the attention, and she really did have a soft spot for the pair of them. They were some of her favourite customers, and not just because they were friends and relation to her boss. They were just pleasant to be around.

Once they reached the booth, Vanni removed her arm, bowed and kissed her paw, formally removing his hat as he did so.
 
Ivan, purring, kissed Carmen's other hand. "Thank you, Carmen." he said happily before turning and smirking at his older brother. "Do you have time for a business meeting, Mr. Zaitsev?"

Dimitri chuckled and shook his head, watching the two boys. "Well, you both are dressed for occasion, da?" he motioned to the empty space at the round booth and started moving his papers out of the way. "What is occasion?"
 
Carmen chuckled again and rewarded the boys with a kiss on their cheeks before returning to her tray and her work. After stopping by Marcus' table to sneak a quick hug and kiss of course, since Dimitri was now occupied.

"Yes, a pretty big occasion, but it's more Vanya's story to tell," Vanni said after greeting Dimitri and sliding into the booth next to his friend. He sipped his drink and looked to his friend to explain.
 
Dimitri turned to his brother with an intrigued look on his face and the conversation that followed happened in quick, excited Russian. Ivan told Dimitri everything that happened and Dimitri listened with an impressed look on his face. When his brother was done, he grinned. "Wow! I am watch once, but I am niet help. I am glad to hear apprenticeship is going so well!"

Ivan sat up good and straight, so happy to get such praise from his brother. He looked over at Giovanni, then back at Dimitri. "It was pretty swell...."
 
Vanni tried to follow the conversation, though with Ivan talking so quickly, it was very hard. He knew the whole story already, anyway. When his friend looked his way, he smiled and nodded in agreement. He paused for a moment, before carefully adding, "And Pyotr said he would talk to Aurora and Cesare for me, to maybe see what they say about me starting to get to see more as well. But we were thinking, we were really curious of how different injuries look. Well, Ivan was. I was more interested in how they were made. We don't want you to grab someone just to show us, but if something came up and we could see..."

His words were measured and careful, weighing what he should say to what maybe he shouldn't. Whenever it came to talking business, unless it was with Ivan, Vanni was much more guarded and tight-lipped than his friend, something he definitely picked up from watching Cesare and just generally being in his family. Even between Cesare and Aurora, if they were not behind closed doors, a lot of their conversation was veiled and carefully worded.
 
Dimitri took a slow sip of his drink as Vanni spoke and looked over at his brother when Vanni was done. "You are want to see more of eh...dark side of business?"

"Yeah." Ivan said, shifting slightly in his seat. "If it comes up, you know. Like Giovanni said, we don't want you to just pick some poor slob and...ya know..."

"Make example of him."

"Right."

He smiled. "Da, I am alright with. If I am catch someone cheating tonight, I am call you into basement with me."
 
Vanni smiled carefully and nodded. <I have been working on my Russian. I think it's getting much better,> he said, trying out his new skill to Dimitri for the first time. It was still a bit slow, and some of the pronunciations were a bit awkward coming from his native Italian tongue, but his grammar was much improved. The rest would just come with practice. He smirked at his friend and looked to Dimitri to see what he thought of it.
 
Dimitri smiled. <It sounds a lot better.> he said, making sure to speak a little slower than he normally did when he was speaking Russian. <You'll be speaking Russian as well as Pete in no time. Only without the southern accent he puts on everything....>

Ivan smirked. <Pete sounds weird when he speaks Russian....>
 
<No, I've been working on my accent, but some sounds are a bit more difficult for me to make. They're sounds that aren't in Italian or English,> he agreed with a nod. "Oh, and we were thinking to, you know, get some more suits of our own. These are okay, but they're off the rack. We were thinking about getting more proper, tailored ones done. Evening suits, not church suits or tuxes," Vanni added, switching back to English for the moment.
 
Dimitri nodded. "I am give you name of tailor I use." he smiled proudly at his brother. "I am honestly niet think you are ever finally want to wear suit..."

"Yeah, me either, honestly. I mean, you were wearing suits the minute you were able..."

"Da. But you are always artist." he looked over at Vanni and smirked. "You, I am always wonder why you are niet wear suit earlier. You are strike me as type."
 
"When we first moved here, Cesare made me wear lots of suits and sit in on meetings with him, but I hated them, plus I've long grown out of them. Running messages doesn't require a suit either. I only have a couple of suits for church and dinners now, and a tux. But maybe, if this works out with Pyotr talking to Aurora and Cesare, I'll have more reason to get more. Plus, the ones I have now, Cesare picked the style. I'd prefer to choose my own style now," Vanni explained, finishing off his drink for the second time. "What do you prefer to use to deal with cheaters and such? I know Cesare has his gloves and his Lupara, and Aurora has, well, Maxwell..." He spoke the hammer's name in almost reverent fear.
 
Dimitri, as fearless as he tried to come across, paled some under his fur and visibly shuddered when Maxwell was mentioned. He shook his head. "I am prefer to use the fist....Pete is prefer to use his guns. Is niet shoot, but is like to eh....what is term?"

"Pistol-whip."

"Da...that..." he laughed softly. "I am almost sorry Pete is off helping pregnant girlfriend..." he thought briefly on his own girlfriend and laughed softly. "But yes. I am prefer to beat into bloody pulp. If they are particularly asking for severe punishment, if they are hurt one of my girls for instance, I used to feed them to Adam....but he is eh...I am niet see him so much since I am hire big scary kraut back door guard...and I am niet see them since big scary kraut back door guard is go off and marry cute older Irish mouse we hired as inside bouncer...." he shrugged. "They are supply some of our whiskey now..."

"Jeeze, Mitry...you ramble when you talk like that..."

"Talk like what?"

"Your business voice. With the exaggerated accent and everything."

"Oh. Sorry." the teenager said, all hints of his nice, thick Russian accent gone. "I get carried away..." he still had a soft accent, but he had been in the country for almost 11 years now, and while Pete spoke near perfect Russian, Dimitri did actually know how to speak proper English. But the girls liked it and he liked to think it was intimidating...
 
Vanni smirked. "You remind me of your papa when you talk like that," he commented, quite amused. He looked around the room, examining the action at each table. "Do you think something might happen tonight? Ivan was telling me about this place we wanted to see if nothing was going on here..." he explained.


Meanwhile, Carmen was just coming out of one of the back rooms, having cleaned herself up after a quick break with Marcus who was already back at his table by now, when her ears perked to the quiet sound of crying in the next room. She went over and tried the door to see if it was open. It was, and she quietly pushed it open. One of the other girls was curled up on the bed, hiding her face. One of the boys had obviously gotten too rough and took a lot more than what he had paid for. Carmen started to see red, but she tamped it down for the moment. After a quiet, concerned and encouraging conversation, Carmen had the information she needed. She left the girl there for the moment, locking the door so no one would bother her until Carmen could get back to her, and stormed off to find Dimitri, tail lashing in agitation. On her way there, she kept a lookout for the culprit, but made no sign that she recognised him. There he was at the craps, acting like nothing had even occurred. But she knew it was him. She'd heard stories from the other girls about him. He was trouble, and she had managed to avoid him so far. It had not been anything this bad, though. Maybe, because he'd gotten away with the minor things, he thought he could get away with more. Well, he wasn't going to get away with it this time.

Spotting the three still chatting in the booth, she hurried up to them, finally letting the anger and upset show on her face. "Dimitri...we have a gran problema. It's one of the girls. She's been hurt..."
 
Dimitri laughed softly. "I think that's why I do it. He's so intimidating at work..." he looked around, sighing, about to open his mouth again when Carmen got up to the table. At her words, his ears flattened back against his head. "Who?" his eyes quickly turned to scan the room as he scooted himself out from the booth. "I don't see Katie..." he turned to look at Carmen. "Where is she? Is she ok?"

Ivan felt guilty for the surge of excitement that ran through him. A girl had gotten hurt, and he knew his brother's business well enough to know what that really meant in this situation. He was also proud of his brother for the fact that the girl's well-being came first and smashing the shit out of the guy apparently came second. He glanced over at Giovanni, a mixture of concern and excitement easily showing in his eyes. "Answers your question, dunnit?" he asked quietly.
 
Carmen put up her paws to slow him down a minute. "She's in the back. I locked the door so no one else could bother her. She's safe right now, pero, no, she's not alright. This puto, he's bad news. He has tried things, with the other girls, but nothing like this. We are try to be careful around him, but Katie, you know she's new. She didn't know..." She snuck a look over at the table, letting Dimitri follow her gaze. She gasped when she saw him propositioning one of the other girls. She looked back to Dimitri, panic in her eyes. "Por favor, Dimitri, you have to stop him!"

Vanni's expression was less excitement and more anger, as well as concern. He gave his friend a stone-faced look before looking to see what Dimitri would do. They had to move fast to get him before he did it again. He must have thought he'd gotten away with it once and figured himself invincible.
 
Dimitri growled and clenched his fists. "Carmen, I want you to go to the back with Katie." he slid his hand into his pocket and pulled out his small master key chain. "Lock doors to other back rooms. Ivan, go stop him." he said with a wave of his hand.

"Huh? Me?"

"Scum isn't worth me coming over to him in person." he said before turning back to Carmen. "The back rooms are closed for the night. If anyone complains, make sure they know who's fault it is and why they're closed....Ivan, go. Now. Giovanni, you go too. I don't care how you get him back to this booth, just make sure he comes."

Ivan looked at Vanni before scrambling out of the booth. On his way across the floor to intercept the guy before he got to the back rooms, he hastily smoothed down his suit and his hair and put on the most business-like face he could muster. He glanced over at his friend, really hoping he looked menacing and not like a nervous kid at Christmas.

"Carmen, the back rooms. I am talk to Frankie." he said, turning and taking the few steps it would take him to get from the VIP booth to the bar. He motioned Frankie over to have a quiet word with him, keeping an eye on his brother.
 
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