Andrei steps closer, jaw tight. “He should not have come. This was a simple provocation. A test.”
“He will not do it again.”
Andrei leans against one of the nearby bookshelves. “We could make it look like?—”
“An accident.” God, it’s tempting. One “accident,” and one of the largest thorns in my side could be immediately removed.
“No,” I say. “We move forward with the IPO. One more month. Then we can leave Garin and the rest of this world behind. We don’t want to do anything to jeopardize that.”
“Understood. But should you change your mind…” He heads toward the door. “Shall I call in Blair?”
I run my hand through my hair, letting the last pulses of anger from Garin’s visit work through me. A moment ago, I’d felt murderous. Now, I must be the perfect businessman. Two worlds I have to navigate perfectly, at all times. But not for much longer. It is a responsibility that Sasha will never bear.
“Send him in.”
Andrei exits. Moments later, Thomas Blair enters, tight and pale around the mouth. Not a good sign. He carries a folder like it’s a bomb.
Thomas Blair is not a man who startles easily. In his mid-fifties, he’s dressed in an immaculate suit, silver hair trimmed with surgical precision. Normally, he possesses the quiet authority of someone who’s steered half the major IPOs in Chicago, radiating a steady, unshakable confidence.
But today, he looks rattled.
“Roman,” he says with a stiff nod. “Thank you for seeing me on such short notice.”
I gesture for him to sit.
He clears his throat. “I’ll get straight to the point, as I’m sure you prefer. The bank’s compliance division flagged some articles.”
“What articles?”
“Drafts,” he says. “Leaked to aTribunejournalist from two different sources. Neither have been published yet, and it’s not entirely certain they will be. Both suggest lingering ties between your organization and,” he glances at Andrei, hesitating for a moment, “violence. Organized Crime. All the way down your family line. There are also whispers of a whistle blower.”
I take a moment to process the information. Then I grit my teeth, working through the anger. “You know the nature of my operations. You also know I’m moving away from that.”
He nods. “I do. And that’s one of the reasons I’m eager to work with you on this offering. We’ll get you out of your less legitimate operations, make everything nice and above board. Profitable and useful to the economy. You make money, your company makes money, and Chicago becomes just a little bit safer.”
“And you’ll profit a bit too,” Andrei says with a wry tone.
“Well, naturally,” Blair replies. “I’m not a humanitarian. All the same, there are quite a few reasons I’d like to see this IPO get off the ground, my compensation being one of them.”
“Someone’s trying to put a stop to it,” I say. “In a backhanded manner.”
“It would seem that way. But all of the information is unverified.”
“That’s good,” Andrei says. “TheTribuneisn’t a gossip rag.”
Blair nods. “Correct. All the same, rumors of this nature could be enough to destabilize confidence. The valuation could drop. Or the IPO could be delayed. Or worse.”
I close my eyes. Less than a month. That’s all the time I have to scrub every trace of blood and violence from the financials, finalize the transition, and present a clean operation to the public markets.
If the IPO fails, I can’t go legitimate, and Sasha inherits a world I never wanted him to be a part of. A world that could very well swallow him whole.
“Who is the source?” I ask.
“We don’t know yet,” Blair admits.
“Find out. Put your people on it.”
“We’re trying,” Blair says. “But journalists protect their sources.”
