He sat up and sipped his coffee before answering. “As a matter of fact, I do.”
Ivan perked up at this news of business, paying more attention to my father than his new wife. Actually, Raisa wasn’t anewperson in his life. They’d known each other for years and had been apart for so long. I recalled when they first dated years ago. I supposed it wasn’t fair of me to be too judgmental if they were so deeply in love now when they finally had a chance to embrace it.
“What’s going on now?” Ivan asked.
Talk about an understatement.Now?We had no shortage of trouble and chaos. That was the way of the Mafia life. Someone would always want our power and money and someone would always stir up drama to get it.
And we’ll always have agents after us.
It was just that woman who’d captured my attention.
I shook my head, dismissing her from my head again.
“Some of the men have been picking up on some chatter from the Riveras,” my father replied.
Ivan rolled his eyes. “They’re always talking up some stupid shit or another.”
“What’s it about?” Raisa asked.
I had gotten so used to Gabriella not being present for business talk. My father seemed to want to spare her the details. It was a combination of her not wanting to know too much and his not wanting her to be exposed to a lot of the details of what we handled. Gabby hadn’t been born into this life. She was an outsider still fitting in.
Raisa, however, was a Mafia princess. She'd singlehandedly killed her father, Konstantin Petrov, and that was after a lifetime of suffering under his strict rule.
My father had taken a while to get used to her being in his family, but since the wedding, it was clear that he trusted her. Shewasfamily. Therefore, he didn’t hesitate to answer her directly.
“Something about a new leader.”
“You mean there’s been infighting among the Riveras?” Ivan asked. “And someone is trying to replace Marco Rivera?”
“No.” My father shook his head. “Something more like a leader is trying to claim the role of starting a new organization or club.”
I furrowed my brow. “Like our confederation of the Bratva heads?”
We’d recently called a council meeting with them when we’d made a case for Lev to be accepted as an official Dubinin heir, as Ivan’s son, rather than a Petrov, as Konstantin’s bastard grandson.
“No,” my father replied. “Something more diverse.” He appeared troubled, pensive, like he didn’t have all the details yet. If he needed answers, he’d have more spies put to task. I’d help with the efforts too, but it seemed he had something specific in mind for me.
“Regardless of what it is, we don’t need a new organization taking form.”
Obviously not.
A group of crime families banding together would present another collective enemy for us to deal with. My father didn’t make a habit of joining with others. He ruled as a lone wolf.
“The frontrunner for this new leader is Sergei Romanoff,” he told me.
I laughed. “Weren’t you tempted to ask me to take care of him a few years ago?” I was familiar with the former commander from an Eastern European army.
He nodded. “Yes, but then he was in jail so it wasn’t as much of an issue. Now he’s out, released on parole. Even though he hasn’t directly targeted our family in years, it would be wise to eliminate him before he can cause any disturbances.”
I shrugged. It sounded simple enough. Hunting down hits was just what I was born to do. Shifting into work mode would help this weird obsession with that agent.
It was time to get to work.
“Consider it done.”
I left several minutes later and called up Simon, the main hacker and cyber spy I relied on the most. After a short call asking forwhat I needed to begin this hunt for Sergei Romanoff, I headed home to shower and pack the few bare essentials I would need. By the time I was dressed and ready to leave, I had a full file on my phone.
“Prague?” I huffed an indifferent laugh.
