Not even two days after my brothers and my cousins received the depressing prognosis for my father, I had to face a challenge. A trial of decision-making that made me feel like the rest of the world was watching me.
Problems were ever-present with the violence and power we wielded on a daily basis. No such thing as peace could be expected to last long.
But I hadn’t considered that I’d be testedthissoon.
I had barely gotten acclimated to setting up in his office before I felt like I’d live out of it, on the phone and ordering for men to report to me here.
Maksim hadn’t left my side much, ready to address this massive issue that had landed on our lap.
A maid brought in a tray of coffee, but I lifted my head from rubbing my brow and waved her off. If I had any more, I’d burna hole through my stomach. “And this is the second time this has happened?”
Maksim nodded, glancing up when Viktor entered. He’d gotten word about a fiasco and was showing up to assist, however he could. Maksim, though, would be the one to have the most information. He often supervised shipments of the drugs and weapons we distributed. It was he who’d come to me this morning to bring word about a failed shipment.
“What’s going on?” Viktor asked.
“A failed shipment,” Maksim said. “It seems to be the second one so far.”
“Failed?” Viktor asked. “How?”
“The drug shipment was never sent. I got a call from the men at the warehouse who were expecting it to show up today. After a couple of men looked into it, they were told that the drug suppliers never sent anything because of insufficient funds in advance.”
Viktor furrowed his brow and looked at me. His incredulous expression was warranted.Insufficient fundswasn’t a term that should ever apply to our empire. The Volkov Bratva was wealthy with numerous streams of income and revenue, all of which was moved as needed. Our finances were fluid, but they were also not something that we individually managed. Due to the vast variety of things we bought, sold, or bartered—all under the surveillance of the law we tried to avoid—we relied on firms to handle it for us. Morovov Financials was the firm my father had vetted decades ago, and they had the responsibility of doing our “banking” for us.
“Is this something that could’ve happened with Father’s…” Viktor didn’t have to finish his question. We knew what he was referencing, and it wasn’t easy to label. His decline? That seemed too loose of a term. His health had plummeted with that stroke. He hadn’t gradually rolled down a hill of health status. His demise? That seemed too morbid after he’d lived such a full life so far. His death sentence? That seemed apropos but also disrespectful. As a leader, I preferred to walk a fine line between blunt truth and careful consideration of appearances.
“No,” I replied. “I don’t see how Morovov might have dropped the ball like this because of Father’s health. For starters, word is only getting out now. It’s only been three, almost four days, since his stroke. And secondly, everything that Father had in place is still in place as I take the reins.”
“If you’re thinking it could’ve been something like a contract that is now void,” Maksim said, “such that Morovov Financials only worked under a contract with Father’s approval, and a new contract would be necessary with Adrik in charge, no.” He shook his head. “I personally checked the contract with him.” He tipped his head toward me.
“We also had our legal team check it over,” I said.
Viktor frowned, just as bothered about this as we were. “So… what it is, then? Morovov is trying to take advantage of us in this transition? To fuck us over while we’re otherwise distracted with this bad news about Father?”
“We arenotdistracted,” I argued coolly. I knew he hadn’t said it as an insult. But it felt like one anyway. “We—I—am on top of this.”
“Of course, we are.” Maksim didn’t look too comfortable, though, clearly impatient for a solution. Before we could have one, we’d need to figure out exactly what the fuck went wrong.
“I thought maybe this could be another issue with the other Bratva families and gangs getting word about Father,” Viktor said. “How, uh, opinionated they seem to be about what happens next.”
I shot him a droll look. ‘Fuck their opinions. What happens next is I assume the throne as Pakhan.”
“That’s just it, though.” Viktor volleyed his look between us. “Word is that we don’t have a current leader in place until you sign in officially.”
“I can’t do that until he is dead,” I stated, even though he already knew it. “This phase of being in limbo doesn’t change anything. We are waiting for him to pass, as we should, but it’s not as though we are leaderless. We won’t be.” Hell, there were four of us brothers. If anything were to happen to me, and them, there were always Alexei and Lev.
Annoyance consumed me.
Such thoughts about the end of our rule were pointless. Other leaders in the city could try to claim we were falling apart as my father slowly died, but we were not crumbling down. We were not going weak. With this drug shipment issue or not.
Word of an important shipment failing could give the impression that we were weak, but we weren’t. I only had to get to the bottom of this and react accordingly. Likely with Maksim’s enforcement.
Or not.
Maksim was in charge of moving things for our illegal trade, but as I sat here in my father’s office, listening to my two brothers discuss the matter, I knew that I’d need to make a statement with this grievance. Not Maksim.Iwould need to lay down the law and punish Morovov for fucking this up. It would be an example, perhaps the first of many, of how I would tolerate no transgressions or attacks, if that was what this was. My decision and reaction to this problem would be the first demonstration of how securely I wielded the power as the Volkov Pakhan.
“Something’s got to give,” Maksim declared. “Father has relied on Morovov for a long time, a standard practice of having a third party move money so it’s not traced by the checks and balances in the commercial banking industry. The mistake could only have come from them. Money didn’t show up where it was supposed to, and John Morovov will be the one to explain why.”
I stood, straightening my cuffs. “Then he will be the one to explain to me what the fuck happened.”
