Uninterested in pausing with the calls I had to follow up on during the time that the chef would have my dinner prepared, I stayed in my office and leaned back in my chair.
“Thank you for looking into this matter,” I told the informant who was only now getting back to me from the other side of the world. It was easy to feel like we were remote here in the desert, near the border and working out of Las Vegas, but everything was connected. From Bogota to Moscow. From Toronto to Madrid.
Crime families never lasted long when they stayed within one area, and that was something that my father handled well.
Reaching out to claim friends and determine enemies. Branching out to investigate who was an enemy of our enemy.
Global connections helped us to diversify, but it seemed that with what Elena found out about this network that had been growing for years, right under my father’s nose, others were utilizing that same approach.
For the better part of two days now, I had been contacting old allies and former targets who owed me favors. In the vein of learning more about the individual who was gathering finances against the Bratva, I was calling those who might be able to shed more light about the possibilities of a secret network or alliance forming. It seemed impossible for no one to know about this, but based on what Elena was forwarding to me and emailing me, this was an awfully complicated web of secrecy.
Changing names. Switching to other service providers. Jumping around with legal representation—which almost always seemed like a red herring.
If my uncle was alive and scheming to create a large network, he was taking every detail into consideration and plotting this down to the most minute matter. This wasn’t the work of one man, though, and part of what I was hoping to find out through these friendly calls was to see who else could be working with my uncle.
If it’s him.
Done with another call, I set my phone down and wished that part of this mess didn’t feel like a question.
Not knowing if my uncle was alive added immense stress to my life. He was supposed to have been dead for many years. He was supposed to have been dismissed long ago as a traitorous stain on a difficult time in our family.
But if he were alive and working against us?
I growled, letting out a deep exhale as I set my head back.
I didn’t want to know how much worse this could get.
Anticipation had filled me since the doctor explained my father’s fate. The prognosis after his stroke wasn’t a rosy one, and from that day, I counted on being the next Pakhan. As I should.
What I hadn’t counted on—yet—was having to prepare the Bratva for a potential conflict like my uncle rising from the dead. Recognizing that a war was coming added an extra dose of hell to the worries I shouldered. But I couldn’t have called myself a leader, even an interim one, if I dismissed all that Elena was presenting to me.
Someone had been gathering and redirecting finances for many years, seemingly to counter our wealth and power. And if it wasn’t my uncle, I had to consider how facing this enemy would turn out.
If he’s him…
I shook my head, scowling.
What is it? He wants to present a real challenge to the Bratva throne? Why now? Because Father is dying? That wasn’t planned. That stroke just happened. Father never told anyone about his cancer discovery.
Tension tightened in my body as another thought hit me.
Maybe someone knew about his status, though. A doctor or technician could have leaked that information, and if it got into the wrong hands and Gregori wanted to pick up where he left off with his last attempt to get the throne…
I refused to let that happen. It couldn’t. I was next in line. The dynasty passed on from father to son. And if there were no sons, then to brothers and then the sons again. With four of usbrothers, Gregori would need to wait for my father’s deathandtake out all four of us. That wasn’t happening.
But maybe that had been part of his plan back then. To kill Grandfather and Father and swoop in before I was even close to an age to lead.
Footsteps sounded in the hallway, and before I could prepare myself for anyone coming into my office, Elena was there.
She jumped back slightly in surprise, seemingly unaware I could’ve been in here. “Oh.”
She lowered her gaze, but with another second, she faced me again.
Hmm.
She’d walled me off. I got that. And I couldn’t blame her with how stupid I’d been about approaching her. Yet, she was still professional enough to be a good little employee and give me the attention I was due as her boss.
“Nikolai mentioned that you’d be at dinner,” she said.
