“If and when that happens, I’ll be happy to step back and give you the reins, but until then, I won’t entertain you meddling in my business decisions.”
He grunted. “Where do I sleep?”
“Accommodations are your own responsibility.”
He shook his head. “Talk to Grisha. You’ll see.”
I gave him a grim smile. “Of course.”
Maksim and I stood silently, watching as Sergei walked out of the large bay doors and disappeared from sight.
“What an asshole.” Maksim scowled. “You want me to have someone follow him?”
I shook my head. “Not yet. What’s on the schedule for today?”
He looked at his phone. “We have a meeting at eleven with our accountant to verify our ledgers. You have two phone meetings with our suppliers, and I need you to review and sign off on the security footage for insurance purposes.”
My eyes were tired, and it wasn’t even eight in the morning. “Talk to the guys and tell them to watch their six. I’m going upstairs to do some work. Meet me in my office in an hour.”
“You got it, boss.”
I lefttwo messages with Grisha throughout the day, but he never called me back. It was midway through the afternoon, and I was on schedule to get home in time for dinner, when I got a text from Yuri.
Yuri: Emergency meeting with Giselle at 5 PM. Mandatory. Will text address.
Me: Busy. Need to be in person?
Yuri: Mandatory
I looked at my watch. I was pushing it by meeting up with Giselle, but I could probably swing it if I left right away.
I steppedinto the small restaurant, and the owner discreetly showed me to the back. Giselle was in a private room. At theend of the table was her government laptop, which was already logged into a secure meeting with Yuri.
He peered at me through the computer screen.
I looked between the two of them. “What’s going on?”
Giselle stood up and ushered me to sit down. “We heard that Sergei has arrived in Vancouver.”
“He arrived this morning.”
Yuri spoke. “The Volkov family has taken his arrival as a threat. They’re gearing up for war.”
I looked with disbelief between Giselle and Yuri. “Why are they moving so quickly on this? He just arrived this morning.”
“There has been an increase in attacks between Grisha and the Volkovs over Moscow in the last few weeks. No fatalities, but it’s been enough of an escalation that sending Sergei to Canada meant only one thing.”
Grisha hadn’t mentioned any of this to me. “Grisha has been threatening to send Sergei to Canada for a while, but I’ve always been able to dissuade him.”
Giselle sounded genuinely distressed. “This is the very thing we’ve been working to prevent. A turf war between these two families will inevitably result in civilian fatalities.”
“We need to know what Grisha’s planning,” Yuri urged.
“Grisha’s been hiding from me all day. Sergei has already told me he’s in charge.” I looked between Yuri and Giselle. “You both need to prepare for the event that Grisha calls me back to Moscow and leaves Sergei in charge.”
Giselle looked more than alarmed. “We can’t let that happen.”
My phone buzzed with a text.
