Chapter 26: His Background

< Shirley >
"Sienna, every girl I bring home isn't necessarily my girlfriend," Dylan defended me when Sienna approached me with an intimidating aura.
"But Dylie—" Sienna tried to coo him, shifting into her chirpy self again.
"And stop with that ugly nickname. You know, I hate it so much," Dylan hissed.
Their bickering was so hilarious. Even though they were arguing, I could see that they cared for each other as well. Dylan's concern was faint, but it was there, and Sienna's one was overloaded.
"Doesn't matter. I like the name. Or do you want me to call my little brat like I used to?" Sienna countered.
"I'm not a brat," Dylan breathed out. Though I was one to talk, Dylan certainly acted like a snob. "And obviously, I'm not little," he added. It felt like his blood pressure was rising, and his head would explode like cartoons.
"If I say you are, then you are," Sienna snarled, crossing her arms, knowing she had won.
"Congratulations, Sienna. You have successfully turned my brain into ashes." With that, Dylan stormed off upstairs, puffing his cheeks.
I was glad that I wasn't the only one who loved teasing and annoying Dylan. What could we do? He was just that irritable and gullible. It was easy to tick him off. He was like a firecracker, waiting for a spark of lighter to blow off.
When Sienna was done talking to her boys, she turned towards me with no trace of her previous maliciousness and said, "Are you still scared? I was playing around with you." She chuckled.
"Come, let's have a seat and chat," she offered, motioning towards the couch. She sat down beside me and smiled warmly at me.
One thing that bothered me about Sienna was the fact that I would never be able to tell what she was thinking. After all, she was an actress. She could hide her true emotions with a facade in an almost perfect way.
"Oh, shoot. I have to go to the office." Riley hurried towards the exit.
"Chill, dude. Dylan hasn't even gotten ready yet," Xavier informed him. Did 'office' actually mean office here or were they talking about a mafia base?
"Mr. Executive, how about you? Don't you have any work assigned to you?" Sienna inquired, a tight-lipped smile on her face.
"Nope." Xavier sat down on the couch adjacent to me. "I don't have anyone on my killing list today, so I'm just going to play some video games and chill." The term Executive seemed familiar to me because I had researched about the Mafia after I learned about Dylan's profession.
"According to my reports, you didn't finish off those bastards who were trying to steal our ammunition from the port," Riley rebuked Xavier, who let out a yawn.
"But I did kill them all, except for one young lad who managed to escape, so I didn't bother anymore." Xavier rested his head back on the headrest, stretching his arms as if they were discussing regular homework. It kind of disgusted and intrigued me at the same time.
"But what if that one escapee informs the other rival gangs?" Sienna questioned with a sharp look. I didn't expect Sienna to be involved and even be knowledgeable about such things, but then again, being the mother of a Mafia leader had its perks.
"That would be more fun that way." Xavier smirked as a sinister aura surrounded, lust for blood appearing on his face. It was out of my commoner-comprehension what they were talking about.
"I fucking should have known you let him escape on purpose, you bloodthirsty maniac," Riley cursed and started to drag Xavier out of the mansion with him.
"Those boys are a piece of work, aren't they?" Sienna stated. I turned my attention back to her and agreed with her. "Oh, I'm really sorry for all the ruckus they created. They don't have the best manners as you can already see with Dylan." I laughed at her remark. "By seeing your calm but surprised composure, I take it you know about their jobs."
"Yeah, not much though," I responded.
"Okay, let's make a deal. Tell me about you and your family, and I'll tell you about us, as in the Mafia world," Sienna offered, a sharp business look in her eyes, which bothered me a bit. But I didn't suspect anything.
"Now that's an interesting deal."
Thus, I started telling her everything about me and my family, including our family business, Mom and Adrian's profession, my educational background, and many more things. In return, she told me about many many things and stories that Dylan would never let me know.
In short, in their underworld, every gang had one boss, and many executives, executioners, advisors, assassins, spies, etc.
Xavier Ashton was the Head Executive or Caporegime of their organization, the one that controlled everyone's action and executed all of the attacks on the enemy, the leader on the frontline, more like the underboss.
Riley Chrispher was the advisor or Consigliere that planned everything and represented the boss in their absence in any meetings. He was the brains of the gang, as Sienna said. They were the ones who held power in their hands. But the one who exercised the most power was Dylan Lewiston, their leader. That information didn't surprise me, but the stuff she told me later on sure did shock me.
Dylan didn't create the mafia organization on his own. He snatched it from the previous leader by killing him. He joined the mafia at the age of seventeen as there was no certain age limit for anyone to join, only if someone was skilled enough, they took him in. After one year of joining, Dylan sorted out many complex plans to frame the previous leader then killed him himself and became the leader. Because the one who killed the previous leader became the next leader and if someone was weaker than their subordinates, they were destined to die in such a work field. However, I still said that Dylan was a ruthless teenager. I was glad I didn't meet him back then.
But there were conditions to become the leader and those were—he must possess exceptional skills with guns, high intelligence, brute strength, and quality to guide everyone—there were no doubts that Dylan possessed all of them. However, Xavier and Riley were his mentors since childhood, even though they only had an age gap of five years. Xavier taught Dylan how to use guns and Riley always tested his intelligence as they joined the Mafia world before Dylan. One thing was for sure, Dylan was shrewd from the moment he was born, and that is no exaggeration.
"So why did he join the mafia?" I asked the question I was the most eager to know.
"I'm afraid I'm not—"
"What the hell, Sienna? Why are you telling her all the confidential information?" snapped Dylan as he skipped through the stairs in a fit of urgency. He pulled Sienna to a corner and said something to her angrily, but Sienna seemed to have handled it as he calmed down.
Sienna was about to follow him to the breakfast table, but I spoke as a question popped in my head, "I forgot to ask, what's your relationship with Dylan?"
"I don't suppose you don't know about that," Sienna answered.
"I do know that Dylan is your adopted son, but I want to know whether you have any biological relationship," I let out. Last night, I clearly remember it being said that it was in Dylan's genes to hate salad so that got me curious as Sienna was known to be unmarried, and yet Dylan and she shared the same surname.
Sienna smiled amusedly. "You have a keen eye, Shirley," she said, and I smiled in return. "Yes, you are right. Dylan is my nephew, my sister's eldest son."
"What? Really?" I was flabbergasted to know that. "Wait, eldest son? Does that mean he has a sibling?"
A brief momentary sad look crossed over her Sienna. "No, he doesn't. Did I say he was the eldest?" She laughed it off. "You must have heard it wrong. He's the only son of my sister," she answered, covering her face with a bright, bubbly smile. "You have asked enough questions for today, Shirley. I think we should head for the dining hall now." She turned on her heels and left me alone.
I clearly didn't hear her wrong. It was a slip of tongue. But why wouldn't she admit it to me? Well, I guess I wasn't worthy enough to win her trust on the very first day.
As we were about to enter the dining hall, Dylan stood up from his chair, fixing his tie. Just when he was about to pass by us, Sienna grabbed his arm and flashed him a warning smile. She instructed me to take a seat. As I was about to sit, I heard Dylan cursed in a low tone, "Fuck my life."
"Where do you think you are going, Mr. Lewiston?" Sienna demanded.
"I wouldn't be heading for a party at this time, now would do I? Therefore, I'm going to the office," Dylan answered sarcastically.
"What did you have for breakfast, my dear?" she questioned, malice evident in her sugar-coated voice.
"Um, I had, um, I had a sandwich," he answered nervously. I put my palm on my chin and watched the show with eagerness. It was certainly interesting to see Dylan get bullied when all he did was bully others.
"Oh, really?" Sienna let out, and Dylan nodded his head. "Trisha, what did he eat right now?"
"Trisha, I had a sandwich, didn't I?" Dylan asked skeptically, sending secret signals towards the maid.
Trisha bowed her head and said with a blank stare into his eyes, "I'm sorry, sir. I don't like your breakfast eating habit, so I will have to expose you to Ma'am." Trisha turned towards Sienna and said, "Sir only had a cup of coffee, and he didn't want to eat anything else that I offered."
Sienna turned to glare at Dylan, who started making excuses, "It's just that I felt extremely nauseous today. I felt I would throw up if I had anything but coffee. It's not like I do it every day—" he cut himself off when Sienna shot him another death glare, warning him to not lie further.
"What did he have for breakfast for the last one month I wasn't here, Trisha?"
"He had several types of coffee every morning," Trisha replied blankly, and Dylan wanted to bang his head on the wall. Why anyone would want to stay empty stomach since early morning, was out of our comprehension.
Sienna then stared at Dylan with a dead look in her eyes. There was a silence before she raged, "Dylan Freaking Lewiston, how many times do I have to tell you to have something nutritious and edible for breakfast?"
They both argued for a long time before Sienna declared, "You are going to have breakfast right now on your own, mister, or else I'm going to shove it down your throat like I used to do. I can't believe I'm gone for a month, and you dare start skipping breakfast again. No wonder you have lost weight." Only through mother's eyes was it possible to notice invisible weight loss. "Geez, I'm glad I didn't let you move out." Every mom ever.
Sienna frowned as Dylan started walking back to the dining table and sat on his chair. However, he didn't move a single muscle to eat anything.
"Dylan Lewiston, start eating," Sienna commanded.
Dylan scowled at her and picked up a piece of bread, starting to chomp on it grumpily, without bothering to apply anything on it. Seeing me suppress my urge to giggle, he muttered, "You are enjoying this thoroughly, aren't you?"
"You bet I am," I responded and playfully winked at him, and he huffed.
"Add some Nutella, you idiot," Sienna ordered. Dylan frowned and started smearing the Nutella like he was murdering the poor bread. When he started eating, Sienna smiled and ruffled his hair. "That's like a good boy."
Shoving her hand, he muttered, "Stop treating me like a five-year-old." She chuckled and took the seat in front of me.
"Sorry, Shirley dear, you had to see this." Dylan rolled his eyes. "You will get used to it. Our family is just crazy like that."
Dylan snarled at her and replied, "It's just you who is crazy. And may God bless me because I have got the most annoying family in the world."
Well, I didn't know about being annoying; I found it rather lovely. However, Dylan sure got a messed-up family filled murderous wackos.