Ana awoke with a gasp, jerking her body up and gulping to calm her pounding heart. She’d been dreaming that someone was in her room, looking over her as she slept, which was beyond creepy. Especially since she’d been having the same dream for the last week. Ana kicked the thick blanket off of her legs and got out of the bed, yawning Ana slipped into the bathroom to relieve herself of her morning duties. After a quick steamy shower Ana slipped on a pair of booty shorts and a thin tank top before venturing out into the living room to turn on her very shiny and very awesome flat screen. As the drone of the morning television filled the room filled her apartment, Ana slipped out the door to steal her neighbors newspaper. She’d adopted the mischievous tradition in the last few weeks. Apparently she had a new neighbor right next door, and apparently that neighbor had yet to move into the digital age since the Times was dropped off at that door every morning. And after the delivery man so kindly dropped said newspaper off, Ana would slip out of her door and take it. IT wasn’t to be mean, at first it was just curiosity, the only times Ana had seen newspapers were on Papa Dimitri’s desk. She vaguely remembered sitting on his lap at the large glass breakfast table as a young child. Dimitri would sip his coffee, black, and balance her on his leg while he read the newspaper and spoke to her about the headlines with his deep Russian accent.He often spent time with her when she was a young child, since her father was often absent. Ana knew it was because she looked so much like her mother, and it was hard for her father to come face to face with eh daughter he loved and the woman he'd lost, so Ana was content with Dmitri.

“Ahh Tatyana, interesting world we live in malyutka(little one). A terrorist bomber took out 46 in Utah. Just because he disagreed with their religious views.” Dimitri explained with a frown as he sipped his coffee. Ana was only five at the time so she didn’t know much about terrorist but she knew they were bad men and they hurt people.

“That’s mean right Papa Mitri?” Ana asked, while “walking” her newest Barbie doll back and forth across the table. Dimitri adjusted the bow in Ana’s expertly curled dark hair and smiled, but it didn’t reach his eyes.

“Yes Tatyana, it is bad.” He said, taking a large sip of his coffee and flipping pages to look at the obituary, searching for one of his kills that should have been completed earlier that week. 

“Don’t worry, I will protect you from the bad men papa.” Ana assured, placing her Barbie down on the ground Ana grabbed Dimitri’s cheeks in her small hands and flashed him her brightest smile. Dimitri smirked at the small little child in his lap.

“You will protect me malyutka?” Dimitri asked. His smiled gave Ana hope and she brightened visibly and squeezed his prickly cheeks.

“Yes. I can protect you and Niko will protect me.” Ana vowed. Dimitri chuckled and shook his head. The little girl was so sunny and bright, her hope filled his heart with adoration.

"And who will protect Nikolai little one? Have you forgotten him?” Dimitri jokingly admonished while giving her a shocked face. Ana shook her head, curls bouncing wildly and once again messing up her bow.

“No, no, no. Misha will protect Niko and I will protect Misha. So we are all ok.” Ana convinced. Dimitri considered this for a moment. He knew his sons would guard little Tatyana to their graves, but the little one should know how to protect herself. He filed that thought away for later and turned back to Ana.

"Of course malyutka. In the meantime, a new carnival is coming to town Tatyana, perhaps we shall go.” He speculated, once again fixing her bow. Ana gave an excited giggle and nodded her head enthusiastically. Dimitri smiled, he liked the child this way, bright and un-shadowed by the harsh realities of life. He prayed to god that she remained this way.

When Ana returned back to her apartment, she made herself a cup of hot chocolate and sat down on her couch with the mug as she read the paper. She liked to mimic Dimitri’s habit, even though she detested the taste of coffee. Ana leaned back and put her feet up, biting her lip as she read an interesting piece about yet another political scandal. She was halfway through the story when her cellphone rang, blaring out the chorus of Drake’s ‘Crew Love’.

“Hello?”

“You have a race tonight at WestPoint. Four wheels, NOS restricted but it’s a straight race, no turns, no foreign drivers.”

Ana rolled her eyes at Mikhail’s direct instructions, ever since they’d slept together they hadn’t had many conversations, and his direct attitude got even worse. Not that Ana minded, it was her only sign that Mikhail wasn’t completely able to mask his emotions.

“Yes Misha, I’m fine just enjoying my morning coffee and reading about what daily goings-on in our world. How are you?” Ana said brightly with a smirk. The silence that greeted her afterwards made Ana bite her lip to hold in a giggle. She could practically see Mikhail pinching the bridge of his nose.

“I’ll be there, I’m thinking I’ll bring the Lamborghini Aventador. You’re welcome Misha.” Ana continued before hanging up the phone, knowing that there wasn’t much left to say, as long as she and Mikhail continued to ignore the purple elephant in their past they were fine. Before she could put her phone down it rang again.

“Yes?” Ana answered.

“For the record, you don’t drink coffee, you can’t handle the strong stuff. Secondly, I’m sure you were having a great time on the couch…braless. And third, I get the last word vozlyublennyim' (sweetheart).” Mikhail growled seductively into the phone before hanging up on Ana, leaving her staring at her phone with a rapidly beating heart and a stuck tongue. Of course, those were often side effects of dealing with Mikhail when he turned on the charm.

John sighed when he left his apartment and looked down at the carpeted hallway floor. Once again his newspaper was gone. He’d called the delivery company twice and they had assured him that his papers had been delivered, but every morning when he went to find it he was greeted with disappointment. To add to that, he’d been called into the station early this morning to work on a new sting operation. Against the Aleksandrov’s race tonight.

That family had been a thorn in his family’s side for generations, starting with John’s father (retired cop), his older brother(FBI) and John himself, they all ran into the similar problems that law enforcement found while dealing with a crime family. Most stings were bitter disappointments. In tough times, too many people could be bought, and most of their hot tips would be compromised before they could get anything good out of it. But tonight John hoped things might be different, a semi-reliable source had given the department a hot tip that a race was going down tonight, complete with the Aleksandrov family. Of course, this race wasn’t going to give them the hard hitting charges that everyone on the force knew they should get, but it was something. Hell at this point John would take this tiny drop and nurse it into a golden cow.

By the time John got to the station everyone was their prepping for the sting, and John took his place among his colleagues, accepting a cup of coffee from his friend Giovanni and turning his attention to the captain.

“We all know this will be sensitive. The race is believed to be going on at WestPoint. We are set to nab a few high rollers on this one. The Tresseti family should be there, that would give us a way to nab the biggest club cocaine suppliers boys, don’t let them slip. A few of our more violent gangs will be their two, names the 661’s and the Santi Kings. We have a few outstanding murder charges on their members, Jackson I was you to grab a few and see if we can’t squeeze a snitch out of them. Our undercover man has informed me of a new addition to the underground crime world that’s put some people on edge, so be on the lookout gentlemen. And,” the chief took a brief break in his speech to post up two pictures, “lastly, the Aleksandrov twins and their notorious ‘princess’ are guaranteed to be present at this race. Now, these are the big leagues. The twins have proven to be untouchable, I want everyone on guard.  We know these two have their hands in every criminal pot from here to Russia, but we’ve had trouble making something stick. Do not attempt to engage. I don’t need any fame seekers wanting to be the big man who brings them down. We may not be able to get gold this week but we can grab a few silvers. Now, we need informants, anyone you find will be pushed for information. Hearsay alone won’t give us a trial, we need someone close enough to the top dog to have evidence. You all have your assignments for the night, but until it time, everything is business as usual. The last thing we need is to tip these guys off on what we’re planning. See you tonight boys. Davidson, my office.”

                John watch the chief (and a very nervous Davidson) walk away and began to look over his very thick file. Tonight he’d be cutting off the drivers who tried to escape, along with many others officers. The file was basically filled with backgrounds on all the suspected criminals who may be at the race tonight, including the twins. John immediately went to their file and poured over it. Most of the information he already knew, but there was an alias at the bottom of the ‘known associates’ list that he wasn’t that familiar with. The Aleksandrov princess. Most her stats were unknown, but there were a few pictures of her in the file. She was a curvy black female, most pictures had her in large sunglasses accompanied by one or two of the twins, which meant she was high up in the criminal world. The pictures were taken from far away, but John could tell that the woman was beautiful, maybe she was dating one of the twins? She would have a lot of information, but given her connections, she would probably be difficult, especially since she won’t want to snitch and there was no evidence that she had actually committed any crimes. John mused over this for a while before he decided to get to his other case work, he’d have plenty of time with the Aleksandrov’s tonight.