Now, I faced Carina and began to explain why and how we were already worried about an outside influence that would compromise our trade agreement with the Garcia Cartel.
“Several months ago, when one of our accounts was mismanaged, we discovered that our banker was associated with shell companies. They were unclaimed and hard to identify ownership for, but once we did, we discovered a shadow networkthat had been formed, recently or perhaps years ago. Through further financial tracking, the money trails seem to indicate that this network had been formed with the intention of striking out at our assets and endangering our empire.”
She didn’t gasp. No reaction of alarm. This wouldn’t shock her since she was fully immersed in how things worked in our world.
Thank fuck I don’t have to water this down and explain it all like she’s clueless.
“Who’s behind this new network?”
I appreciated that even more, how sharp she was to connect the dots and zero in on the questions that mattered the most.
“Gregori Volkov,” Lev replied with a bitterness none of us could match. He loathed his father the most, hating him with unmasked rage for what he’d done to all of us.
Now Carina reacted. She blinked once, a single show of surprise. “Gregori Volkov? Your father’s brother?”
“Also the murderer of our grandparents when he bombed?—”
Carina cut off Viktor’s remark. “When he bombed a gathering of leaders. One of my father’s good friends had been killed in that bombing.” She sat up, alert. “Gregori is alive?”
“It appears that he has faked his death,” I said, hating that this could be true. “He’s been spotted, and Elena has been following where he’s spread his money and has hidden it to compile a new conglomeration of alliances. All that excludesus.”
“Elena?” She raised her brows. “She’slooking into this?”
Adrik stopped pacing and glared at her. “What the fuck does that mean?”
“I’m surprised. She’s so quiet and… mild-mannered. I wouldn’t think that she had it in her to be the mastermind behind unearthing all this.”
Adrik didn’t push. He huffed once. “Consider it a reminder that people aren’t always what they seem.”
I didn’t need that reminder myself. I saw each and every day how Carina was less of the spy or unfeeling ice princess I first thought she was. With her willingness in this meeting, I realized how she could be shifting her loyalty from the Cartel to the Bratva.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if this third party Enrique is tipping me off to is your uncle.” She clasped her hands and studied them. “If Gregori is trying to find ways to interfere with the Bratva’s empire, then the trade agreement struck between Dmitri and my father is one way to do it.”
“Arturo never mentioned him specifically?” I asked.
She rolled her eyes. “No.”
“You never had a chance to find any correspondence between them?” Lev asked.
“No.” She rolled her shoulders. “I was in the field or the control room. I was checking routes and following up on shipments, the brains behind the operations. Insisting on checking who he was talking to, though?” She let out a huff. “He was too protective of looking like the leader.”
“We suspected that Arturo was fucking with us,” I admitted. “When that shipment ended up with the Hernandez.”
She cringed. “And they’d be another way to come at you too. Everyone knows and respects the trade agreement my father had with yours. Or they used to. Now he’s screwing it up and tryingto rely on trade with theHernandez Cartel?” She shot to her feet and paced, exhibiting the same energy Adrik had.
“We need to get your informant,” Viktor said. “Find him and bring him in to get him to confirm that Arturo’s been trying to work with Gregori.”
“No.” Carina shook her head and stopped. She hugged herself while jutting out one hip. “We conduct a controlled sting. Arrange a handoff of a supposed surplus that you suspect my brother is holding on to.”
I frowned. “What suspected surplus? Of arms?”
“It’s not a suspected surplus when I’mtellingyou he has an extra cargo unit of guns from Colombia. Imply that you had word about this surplus and you’d like to purchase it. Test my brother. See if he’ll let you buy them instead of letting the Hernandezes or anyone else get their hands on it.”
“Test his loyalty?” Adrik asked.
She nodded. “Yes. Why not? It would end this speculation and show whether he’s interested in maintaining an agreement with the Bratva or anyone else.”
It wasn’t a bad idea. In fact, it held a lot of merit. “We weren’t supposed to have another shipment from Arturo for a while,” I said. “But I’m not opposed to it.”
