I frowned. “Doesn’t the Volkov family run that?”
“It’s one of their main bars.”
I opened the door of my vehicle. “What happened?”
“I’m not sure exactly, but when the fight was over, more than ten people were sent to the hospital.”
“Was Sergei one of them?”
“Unfortunately not, but he was responsible for putting most of them there.”
I wondered when I had stopped caring about all this shit. “Do they have him?”
“No, apparently he got away and I heard that several witnesses cited Sergei, so I’m expecting the cops to show up here.” I could hear Maksim light a cigarette on his end of the line. He had quit smoking years ago, but I noticed that he lit upwhen he was under extreme stress. And lately he’d been smoking like a chimney. “What do you want to do?”
I let out a long sigh. “I’m going to come back in tonight and help you deal with this shit show.”
“Thanks, boss.” He sounded relieved. “I’ll be waiting for you.”
I hung up and paused before starting my vehicle. If Sergei hadn’t sent me that photo of Oleg and Mila, then who had?
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
MILA
I stoodoff to the side of the kitchen, waiting for Axel to get off the phone so I could wish him a good night. Ever since the night Giselle had shown up here and I had gone a little bit crazy, things had been different between us. More brittle, more careful, and more surface.
I didn’t like the feeling, but I didn’t know how to shift the energy between us.
I studied my husband. He was dressed in an expensive dark suit with a crisp white dress shirt, and he was obviously heading to another business dinner. I knew from his conversation in Russian that he was on the phone with my uncle. He sounded colder and more robotic than he had in weeks.
“Because he purposely went into their bar and started a fight.”
Another long pause while he listened. “I understand that, but I’m taking away his authority over my men. No one is willing to work for him.”
He listened for a long time, then shrugged. “You can negotiate all you want, but I’ve already outlined my terms. If you can’t accept that, then tell me now.”
Another pause. “Fine. I’m putting him on cleanup detail only and restricting most of his access until further notice.”
He hung up and let out a long breath as he stared at the ceiling.
“Everything okay?” I asked in a small voice.
He looked over, but his expression was hard to read. “Of course.”
I knew he wasn’t telling me the truth, but I didn’t know why. “Are you going out for dinner?”
He looked at his watch. “Shortly.”
I wondered why I bothered. I started to pack up my bag. “Okay, well, have a good night.”
He watched me for a moment. “Where are you off to?”
“Oleg is taking me to David’s.”
His eyes narrowed for a moment, and his voice was low and calm. “Who’s David?”
I glanced up at my husband, wondering why he always caught me off guard and made me feel nervous. “Not who, what. David’s is a giant craft store.”
