“Fuck yeah, he will be,” the other guard, Dan, said. “Which is why you and me can chillnow, before Anton’s plane comes in this evening.” He took his drink and sipped it. “Because you know as well as I do that Anton’s not going to relax for a single second until he knows who killed Dmitri.”
“Or when he deals with Katerina for lying about marrying into the Ivanov family,” Igor replied.
I winced, hating that they’d mention me. Of course, my uncle was livid that I’d defied him. But he’d be more furious if he knew I killed Dmitri.
“Who could’ve gotten close enough to be here, though?” Dan asked, gesturing loosely at the area around him. “That’s what Iwanna know. Who the fuck could’ve gotten on the property to kill Dmitri like that?”
Igor laughed once, mirthlessly. “An amateur,” he answered. “Whoever hid the bodies in the old well near the wood line didn’t cover their tracks well.”
Oh, shit. Malcolm! Joann! What if the soldiers realize those two participated in hiding Dmitri’s body with the other man’s?
“It couldn’t be the Ivanovs,” Dan said.
Igor shook his head. “No. It couldn’t have. They’re too busy recouping with Grigory’s poisoning.”
I narrowed my eyes, focusing on listening to all they said. Nik had asked for my help to look into Grigory Ivanov’s poisoning. I hadn’t been able to find much in surveillance videos, but the night that I’d tried to help him, to sleuth on behalf of the enemy, I’d ended up in Nik’s arms.
“I doubt Dominic Romano would’ve tried to have Dmitri killed,” Dan said, musing aloud between sips of his drink.
It was weird, watching them on the screen but hearing them in live time. It was like viewing a movie with the audio off just slightly, but I could hear them clearly, nonetheless.
“No. Not the Romanos.” Igor poured them both more vodka, obviously used to drinking a copious amount of the liquor.
“Why would they try to kill one of Anton’s leaders?” Dan asked. “It wouldn’t make any sense.”
I sat up, my gaze locked on my laptop screen.Iknew that the boss of the Romano family, Dominic, hadn’t killed Dmitri. I knew because that glory belonged to me. But why would they dismiss the possibility of the Romanos being involved? All Mafia families were enemies at one point or another, and the Romanos were loners, always against the rest of the world. At least, that was what it had always seemed like to me.
But then again…
I had always wondered if my uncle was in cahoots with Dominic Romano. He’d never done enough for me to witness directly, but when I read in between the lines of what he said sometimes, I had to seriously wonder. Skeptical of all that Anton decided to do, I lacked a specific indication that he’d allied with the Romanos. The more I thought about it, though, he’d never given any reason for me to think they were enemies.
Not like he did with Grigory Ivanov.
Ever since my uncle killed my father, he’d chosen to kill any former friendship between our families. That was obvious. But he’d never acted like that toward the Romanos.
This wasn’t the first time that this particular concept had entered my mind, either.
Way, way back—years ago—I’d overheard guards talking about “looking the other way” when a series of kidnappings took place. Even though I’d only been a child then, it was the first step of my thought that the Romanos might be someone Anton would want to ally with. As a child who was easily dismissed, I could slip in and out of areas. I would go unnoticed and be able to listen in to guards and soldiers talking, the innocence of youth a perfect disguise to cover my curiosity and nosiness. That was how I’d heard about where Nik and his brothers were being held. And I was the one who tipped off the right people to ensure those boys weren’t killed.
Talk about déjà vu.I focused, dismissing the wry thought. Here I was, at it again. Listening in to Mafia gossip, all to hopefully find Nik.
“No. I’ll tell you what doesn’t make sense,” Igor replied. “I can’t understand why Anton and Dominic seemed to collaborate on having that Ivanov fucker taken.”
I opened my eyes wide, fully alert. They’d actually said it. They were confirming that they were behind it and that they were allies and not enemies.
Butwhotook Nik?
Where was he?
Sitting up more, I strained to listen and pay close attention. This was precisely what I needed to know. Alongside looking for evidence of my uncle killing my father, I had begun scouring through the list of Kozlov properties for any indication of Nik being held at them. Now with Igor and Dan talking like this, I could truly believe Nik was nearer than I thought.
“It’s obvious,” Dan said. “They’re working piece by piece to dismantle those motherfuckers. It’s a shame Grigory survived. And now without Nikolai available and Maxim preoccupied, the Ivanov Syndicate will fall apart and crumble.”
“Just like Anton has vowed for years,” Igor added with a grin. He lifted his glass to clink it against Dan’s. “Just like we’ve needed for years.”
“It will be all the more for us. More power. More riches.” Dan drank to the illusion of such a shift in influence—an influence I would do all I could to stop.
I couldn’t sit back and let Anton get away with such a maneuver. No matter who he aligned with and which enemies he wanted to lean on, I would do all I could to thwart him.
