I sighed as I sat at my desk.
“What’s that sad sound for?” Lev asked as he passed by.
Having two doors in and out of this room made it seem more like a hallway, but I didn’t mind it. I minded when Adrik came by because I’d need to put a little more effort into avoiding him while still being professional. But it was sort of nice to have the others walk through when they did.
Back at my father’s firm, I’d been secluded and holed off. I was always so paranoid to close my door and shut myself off from the rest of the office. Because of the secretive nature of the clients I managed and the potentially dangerous financial information that I handled, I had wanted that shield of privacy. Perhaps it was all in my head, that need to cower and hunch down and to avoid attention.
Here, there was no such need to hide anything. I was in with them now. They all knew about the sordid deals and services that they collaborated on.
Sometimes, it almost seemed like I wassaferhere.
You know you are.
I furrowed my brow, thinking back to that intruder they’d killed. I still didn’t know what that was about. I’d ceased asking the brothers and cousins about it. Maybe it was just one of those things that happened. These were dangerous men and they’d have countless enemies.
I turned in my chair to face Lev, not wanting to blow him off. “Nothing.” I pasted on the brightest smile I could manage.
“Nothing?” He huffed. “People don’t sigh fornothing.”
I shrugged. “But in my case, it is nothing.” I rolled my shoulders. “Some of these things I’m tracking can get tricky, that’s all.”
With Sacha and Igor more or less like the employees I supervised and worked alongside, I had more time to investigate this Gregori network.Thatwas what made this almost exciting. Everything I discovered led me to deeper proof that a network was at play. Alliances were being formed through shell companies, and I knew that had to mean that different groups or people were forming an organization. Continuing to investigate it all was keeping me busy and preoccupied, and I relished the opportunity to do something more in-depth and advanced than the same old of bookkeeping and checking accounts.
“Oh, yeah?” Lev crossed his arms and leaned his hip against the desk. He wasn’t interrogating me, but he looked curious. “Like what?”
“Um.” I cleared my throat. “Well, to start with, the first time a payment showed up from the biggest account for this company”—I showed him on the screen—“it seemed like it was a brand-new entity. When I looked further back, like more around the time when your uncle might have died or not, or rather, when he started picking up the pieces after almost dying?—”
I glanced up at him and noticed the hard set of his lips in a thin line. “Sorry. Did I… say something?”
Now it was his turn to sigh. “No. You didn’t know.”
“What? I’m sorry.” I had to have said something wrong.
“He’s not my uncle. Or wasn’t.” He frowned again. “If this is Gregori Volkov that we’re talking about, he was my father. Not my uncle.”
I cringed. “Sorry.” I hated the blush on my cheeks. “It’s hard to remember all of you. Not that it’s my business or anything. I thought Alexei and Viktor were Gregori’s sons and the rest of you were brothers.”
He allowed a small smile, and it made me feel a little better. “There are six of us. Alexei and I are brothers, and the rest are our cousins.”
I nodded, imprinting this into my brain so I wouldn’t make the same mistake. Based on how mad he’d looked at the association being mixed up, I could infer that Lev didnotlike a reminder that he was related to Gregori at all.
“Um, so what was I saying?” I faced the computer again. “Oh. Right. The dates. I thought this larger shell company was newer, but I tracked through old title changes and deeds and I realized it was just renamed and relabeled over the years. Still the same route that indicates the same owner, but it wasn’t new.”
“How long ago did this shell company start?”
“Over fifteen years ago, as far as I can tell.”
He glared at the screen and mumbled something under his breath.
“Lev?”
After a moment of him blanking out like that, he jerked his head toward me and raised his brows. “Hmm?”
“You okay?”
Once more, he sighed. “Yeah. Fine. And I appreciate your working so hard on this.”
His praise warmed me from the inside out. It wasn’t as good as it felt when Adrik praised me, but I would take what I could.
