Chapter 27
RUSLAN
“I’m sorry?” Valentina leans forward against the table, pointing at me with a forkful of instant noodles. “You think Ivy was the target? Not the drugs?”
Ivy’s throwaway comment about us looking at the wrong incident as the accident hasn’t left me.
To the point that I called a team meeting, which took three days to happen due to everyone’s busy schedules.
Bradley sits at the head of the table in a chair that creaks subtly every time he breathes.
Cassian and Raven sit on the right side of the table, Cassian drumming his fingers against the wood while Raven nudges at the healing tear on her lower lip with her tongue.
I sit next to Valentina and lean back as her noodles come dangerously close to spilling in my lap. “I know how it sounds.”
“Do you?” Valentina snorts.
“I want to hear him out,” Bradley says, his voice rumbling through the room. “You have a theory?”
I nod. “It’s technically Ivy’s theory, but what if we’ve been looking at this all wrong?
The war between the Russians and the Italians has been so prominent that when that plane went down, it just made sense that one of them was trying to sabotage the other.
Either for profit or to push the opposing family into such a difficult position that they’re easy to snap up and wipe out. ”
“Kraven is in a good position to wipe out the Italians,” Cassian says.
“Agreed. Their airline has been grounded since the accident with cops and worse crawling all over the wreckage. They’re hemorrhaging money,” Bradley says.
“But on the other hand, the Russians are seeping into the red because drug routes are drying up and they were relying on the Italians opening up an aerial route from the East.”
“Exactly!” I slap my hand down on the table. “They hate each other but from a business perspective, it sucks for both of them.”
“Russians don’t care,” Valentina replies. “They can take the hit.”
“Plus the tattoos on the men in that house,” Raven adds. “And the man Valentina interrogated from your kidnapping was one of Kraven’s men.”
“We haven’t heard anything from the Italians,” Cassian says. “If anything, they’ve been too busy trying to stay afloat.”
“Which in itself could be a ploy to make themselves look innocent.” Bradley nods slowly, rubbing at his jaw.
“Exactly. And before anyone suggests it, I did consider a third party was behind everything because only someone with a cover would risk attacking us. Knowing the blame won’t fall on their shoulders would be the only reason they’d be so fucking bold.”
“But?” Bradley fixes me with a steady stare.
“But what if we’re wrong and it was never about the drugs?” I rise onto the table and perch there with one leg. “What if the target was really Ivy?”
“Ivy?” Cassian’s brow lifts and his fingers drum slightly faster against the table. “But she’s a nobody, right? We cleared her?” He glances at Raven, who nods.
“I dove deep into her life. She’s as ordinary as anyone we pluck off the street.”
“But her father isn’t.” My attention drifts to them all one by one as they exchange glances.
“Her father was having an affair with Florence Marino. Now the Marinos were nothing more than gun runners, low down on the lowest rung. Grunts, if you will. People like Kraven wouldn’t give them a second glance, but his son, Alexei, was engaged to Florence a few years ago. ”
“Engaged?” Bradley suddenly sits up straighter. “There’s no way Kraven approved something like that.”
“I don’t think he did. The engagement was called off quickly. In Florence’s words, Alexei just wanted to date someone normal, but it turned out he just wanted to exert power. Probably because Daddy Dearest gives him none.”
“But you said yourself that Alexei strives to make Daddy proud,” Valentina says around a mouthful of noodles. “Why marry someone who goes against everything they stand for?”
I shrug. “Power? Who knows. Maybe it wasn’t even legit, but it was called off when Kraven found out and he also sent Alexei away because he was off his face on their own product.”
“Never a good look,” Cassian murmurs.
I nod quickly in agreement.
“Ruslan asked me to look into Alexei,” Raven says, leaning forward.
“He’s been hardcore in his support of his father ever since.
He still sniffs down their own product but he’s secured a bunch of good deals, he’s had his father’s back when some old general made a play for power, and he’s been vocal about finding a bride worthy of Daddy’s approval. ”
“A model son,” Bradley murmurs. He stares down at the table for a long moment, then looks back at me. “So, what’s your connection?”
“If Ivy’s the target, then why would someone want her dead?
She’s Camden’s daughter. Why would someone want to hurt him?
Or target him at all? He was in love with Florence to the point that he was divorcing his wife and running away with her.
But he was also changing his last name, and people do that to hide, which means they had someone to hide from. ”
Valentina suddenly chokes, gagging and coughing while her next mouthful of noodles ends up back in her cup. Bradley rises quickly and aids her by slapping her on the back a few times until her violent coughing fades.
“Oh, my God,” she croaks with tears in her eyes.
“Are you okay?” Raven’s on her feet, half leaning across the table.
“I am.” She coughs. “I just can’t believe Ruslan has a brain.”
“Hey! Fuck you!” I nudge her shoulder hard once I’m sure all the noodles are free from her mouth.
“Shit.” She coughs again. “Ouch.”
“It was Ivy who put it together, sort of. If we look at it that way, then the kidnapping might have been to straight up kill her, but I got in the way. Then the attack at the house might have been some bad timing. They wanted to burn that house down and Cassian and Ivy were there. She basically handed herself to them by accident. Her mother being beaten and raped while her father was being tortured. Her being attacked was part of his torture. Don’t you see? We were too caught up on the drugs.”
“You were,” Cassian points out with a smirk. “We all didn’t want to get involved.”
“If you didn’t, you wouldn’t have that sexy scar, would you?” I reply immediately.
Cassian snorts and his fingers calm against the table. “It’s a decent theory.”
“But only a theory,” Bradley reminds us. “If you’re right, Ruslan, then we have one glaring issue.”
“Which is?” I turn to face him, as does everyone else.
“Camden is dead. Why is Ivy still a target?”
My lips part but no immediate reason comes to mind.
That’s the one piece that doesn’t fit. If this is about the drugs, then Ivy’s life being up for grabs makes perfect sense because each family thinks she’s an insider for the other.
If the drugs are collateral, then her life being on the line makes no sense.
“We’re missing something,” Cassian says, his brow knitting together, and his fingers resume drumming. “It’s almost as if—”
He falls silent as the door to the room clicks open. Warm orange light spills forth, creating a soft glow around Ivy who stands in the doorway like a shadow.
Her hair hangs in damp clumps around her hair with a few lingering soap suds still clinging to her scalp.
The soft sweater and joggers she threw on turn dark gray as they soak up the water still lingering on her skin.
Fresh out of the shower and dressed in a hurry, she stands there barefoot with a light flickering in her left hand.
It takes me a second to realize it’s her phone.
“Ruslan.” When she speaks, her voice is shattered as if she’s trying to speak through something sharp in her throat.
My heart lurches in alarm and I slide from the table, tripping over the chair that rests between me and her. “Ivy? What’s wrong?”
She lifts her head, her eyes sparkling with heavy tears. Those tears roll slowly down her cheeks as I reach her, my stomach twisting itself into knots.
“My mom died.”