25. Arsen
25
ARSEN
“Wait, Otets!” Feliks Kiselev’s voice trails down the hallway to my office. “This will go wrong. Stop!”
“Looks like you have visitors,” Gedeon observes as my office door flies open.
Rolan storms in with Feliks hot on his tail. They’re followed by a disgruntled Malcolm. He makes one last feeble swipe at Rolan’s arm, only to be elbowed off by the old man.
“Sir. You can’t just—” Malcolm’s eyes shift helplessly towards me. “Mr. Adamov, I tried to stop them. They just barged in. No appointment, no?—”
“Is it true?” Rolan roars, opening his jacket so everyone catches the flash of a gun on his hip.
Gedeon’s hand twitches towards his own weapon, but I give him a warning glance. That won’t be necessary.
Yet.
“Malcolm, you’re dismissed for the day.”
My assistant scowls at the Kiselevs before he backs out of the room. The moment the door clicks shut, Rolan’s lips curl contemptuously. “Is it true?” he repeats.
Gedeon steps closer. “Watch your tone, Kiselev.”
Feliks puts a hand on his father’s shoulder. “Otets, this is not the right way to?—”
“Off!” he bellows, swiping off his son’s hand. “Touch me again, and I’ll bury you next to your sister. How dare you reprimand me?”
Feliks falters, but Rolan only has narrowed eyes for me. “I’ll ask one more time, Adamov: is it fucking true? Have you taken another wife?”
I don’t need to answer. I simply meet his eyes.
The man combusts. “Natascha hasn’t even been dead a week! Y-you… dare?—”
“‘Dare’?” I laugh in his face. “I don’t dare, Rolan. I do . I am the pakhan . As you reminded me once, taking a wife is my duty as the leader of the Adamov Bratva. That’s the logic you presented to me before offering up your daughter.”
“This woman was supposed to be your surrogate, but you were cheating on my daughter with this whore all along. You’re the one who killed her, aren’t you?”
“Otets…” Feliks warns.
“It’s okay, Feliks.” I calmly walk around my desk as the sky reddens behind us. “I had no personal interest in your daughter, Rolan. We came to an arrangement: I lived my life, and she was free to live hers. I had no reason to want her dead.”
“But… the baby…” he blurts. “That baby is part Kiselev.”
He’s losing his foothold. These are his last desperate attempts to stop his family’s freefall.
It would be repulsive if it wasn’t so pitiful.
“My baby has nothing to do with your daughter.”
“The child will be a bastard then,” he spits.
“If I remember correctly, you yourself were the bastard born from your father’s favorite mistress. Isn’t that right, Rolan?”
He cringes as if I slapped him.
But I haven’t even begun to inflict pain yet.
“I always do my research. I like to know my enemies. And I definitely know my allies—real or imagined.” I crack my neck lazily. “In any case, my daughter will not be a bastard. Especially since I married her mother.”
“So you’re admitting it?” Rolan presses. “You slaughtered my daughter to get her out of the way so that you could marry your slut.”
“I’ve been very patient with you up until now, Rolan. But call my wife a whore one more time, and I’ll make sure you join your daughter in hell.”
He pales, fists pulsing. “You killed her?—”
“ Otets !” Feliks cries, raising his voice for the first time since I’ve known him. “That’s enough!”
Rolan whips out his gun and aims it at his son. “I told you to shut the fuck up!”
I have to commend Feliks: the man doesn’t so much as flinch. “We’re not doing this here,” he says coolly.
“You’re gonna stand there while I have a gun to your face and order me around?” Rolan seethes. “One second. That’s all it would take to end your miserable life. One fucking second.”
“But then who would clean up your messes, father?” Rolan goes beet red, but his son has more to say. “You know better than to blame Arsen for Natascha’s death. You could have prevented Natascha’s death. Maybe that’s why you’re so angry.”
“Be silent, boy.”
I step into the fray. “Rolan, put the damn gun down. You’re making a fool of yourself.”
“This is between me and my son!”
“Except you’re standing in my office, on my turf.” I stare him down until, with a strangled moan, he lowers the weapon. “Good. Now, tell me: how could Natascha’s death have been prevented?”
“That’s not your?—”
“I wasn’t talking to you,” I interrupt, cutting Rolan off mid-sentence and turning my attention to Feliks. It might be the first time I’ve ever addressed him. It’s also the first time he’s made himself seem even moderately useful.
He gulps, then clears his throat and stands tall and proud. “Alessandro Calcagno has been trying to make contact with us for months now.”
Rolan glowers in Feliks’ direction. “That information is not for you to share, you fucking mudak . You will be silent or—” He shuts up the moment the cool mouth of my gun presses to his temple.
“You are the one who’s going to have to be silent, Rolan,” I command. “One more word out of you and I will pull the trigger.”
He swallows, but holds his tongue.
After a beat, Feliks continues, “My father turned down the request for a meeting with Calcagno. So then, about a month ago, Alessandro promised that if we didn’t hear him out, he would have no choice but to hit our family. He mentioned Natascha by name.”
That’s news to me. Important news. “You were warned about the hit on Natascha?”
“You miserable bastard!” Rolan screams at his son. “I’m going to?—”
But whatever Rolan was going to do is lost in the deafening sound of a gunshot.
My gunshot.
Rolan drops instantly, painting my carpet with his brains.
“I did warn him.” I holster my gun with a sigh, turning to Feliks. “At least you won’t be interrupted anymore.”
Feliks is staring down at his father’s body. “You… you killed him.”
“Do you have a problem with that?”
He inhales.
Exhales.
Then: “No. Not at all.”
“Good. Now, you were saying…?”
“My father thinks… Thought…” Feliks swallows. “He thought that Calcagno was just bluffing. Trying to scare him. He was sure that Natascha would be protected by virtue of the fact that she was your wife. I told him more than once that he needed to inform you of the threat. Everyone knew that you and Natascha lived separately, that she was vulnerable. But he was more interested in focusing on Pobeda and the launch. He didn’t think the threat against Natascha was worth losing sleep over.”
“Fool,” I grimace. “This could’ve been prevented.”
“The Calcagnos have had it out for you since Pobeda was first announced.” Feliks’ voice is even, but his eyes dart to his father’s body every few seconds. “They want to stop the launch. They think it’ll give you too much power.”
“Ah. So that’s why they approached you. They’re trying to break down my alliances.” I pluck a tissue from my desk and dab away a fleck of blood from the back of my knuckles. “You’ve surprised me today, Feliks. Still waters do run deep. I didn’t think I’d ever see you stand up to your father.”
“He was never a father to me.” The venom in his voice surprises me yet again.
“Well, now, you have a chance to be the man in charge,” I say. “You’re officially the head of the Kiselevs, with my blessing.”
His shoulders square with purpose. “I… I suppose I am.”
“The alliance between the Kiselevs and the Adamov Bratva doesn’t have to end with Rolan. Just as long as you can be loyal.”
“I can do that.”
I smile, extending a hand out. “Then I look forward to our next meeting, Feliks.”
His handshake is confident, firm. With a bow, he backs out of the room.
Gedeon waits until Feliks’s footsteps have faded away before he turns to me. “Well, fuck me. Only you can dole out murder and get loyalty in return.”
Smirking, I walk around Rolan’s body. “Once you’ve handled the body, meet me out front. We’re going out on the town tonight.”
“Anywhere specific?”
“La Passione.”
It’s Alessandro Calcagno’s most successful downtown club. I figure we’re long past due to pay him a visit.
His face breaks into a hungry smile. “Excellent.”