Chapter 34
DARIUS
Itook a deep breath, bracing myself for what was coming.
This was a bed of my own making. Consequences for choices I'd made. Choices I refused to regret.
I opened the wood door to the card room in Gregor's estate.
All my nephews rose to their feet.
Then Damien started a slow clap.
Within seconds, the others joined in. I raised my hands in surrender, a smirk on my lips, tension easing from my shoulders.
I fucking earned it.
Roman handed me a cigar as I took a seat at the card table.
Gregor dealt me into a hand of Durak. The room was dim, cigar smoke heavy in the air.
Food was spread on a side table, but the real draw was the bar cart stocked with each of our preferred liquors, including an unopened bottle of Macallan twenty-five-year Sherry Oak.
"So," Gregor said. "You came all the way here because we were fucking up. Letting our emotions cloud our judgment. Making poor financial choices because of it. That was the story, right?"
"It was," I agreed.
"Right. And you were mad specifically because Roman married our enemy. You said each of our wives cost upwards of a few hundred thousand dollars—expenses from chasing them down, missed business opportunities. Am I forgetting anything?"
"Yeah, you forgot about how our wives made us weak," Roman added. "How our children were a distraction."
Pavel piled on. "That the other families were going to come for us because we were more focused on our families than business."
"You specifically came down here because the bottom line was suffering," Artem added.
They were enjoying this too much, but I'd give them their moment. I'd earned the shaming.
"He had a number, didn't he?" Kostya asked.
"What was it?" Damien asked.
"Three and a half million if you included the lost opportunities from a strategic alliance my marriage to Nadia took off the table," Mikhail added.
Gregor nodded. "So that means if we include Nadia's non-existent contracts, we're at an average of half a million lost per marriage."
The room went silent. I braced myself.
"Wow," Damien said. "Half a million dollars each. Good thing Uncle Darius was here to make sure the senator did what she was told, right? That arms contract alone is worth two billion."
"Oh no, didn't you hear?" Pavel put his hand on Damien's shoulder. "He was too busy killing his new girlfriend's ex-boyfriend. Distracted. Lost the vote. And we had to pay over a million in bribery money to make sure he wasn't arrested for murder."
Kostya tilted his head. “So if we do the math, our wives have each cost half a mil, but his girlfriend just cost us over two billion? Huh, what do you always like to say, Uncle? The numbers don’t lie?”
Then Damien started another slow clap. "Let's hear it for Uncle Darius, the man who has never let emotion cloud his judgment."
The room erupted in cheers.
"I'm getting a drink," I said, standing and moving to the bar cart.
I poured myself a triple scotch, pinched the bridge of my nose.
My head hung low for just a moment before I turned and faced my nephews, who all wore the same Ivanov smirk.
"Fuck you all. But you're right, I affected the bottom line.
Good thing I'm planning on winning all your money tonight. That'll even the scales."
The room broke out in laughter, and the conversation shifted. For the first time, I felt like I actually belonged. Like I was really part of this family in more than just name.
I was part of the conversation now, laughing along with inside jokes about their kids and wives. Truly seeing this for what it was.
The others were right. Their families weren't their weaknesses. They were the reason they kept fighting.
Now I understood what Kostya meant when he said his wife taught him how to work to live, not live to work.
Their lives were whole now. Work was still important, but it was no longer the only thing that mattered.
Not for the first time, I wondered if Anna was going to be that for me.
Looking back, I should have known the moment I met her that she was going to change everything. But like my nephews, I was an Ivanov too, a stubborn son of a bitch.
Anna was going to be my everything. And she was going to be what brought me back to my family.
We played a few rounds of cards. I thought about what my and Anna's children would look like. Would they have their mother's musical talent? Or my head for numbers? Would they be neat and organized, or chaotic and eccentric?
It didn't matter. I would love them the same.
And Anna was going to make an amazing mother. Unlike her own horrid mother, she was going to love our children unconditionally. Support their dreams even if she didn't understand them.
"We need to talk some business," I said when there was a natural lull in the conversation.
"Yes, we do," Gregor agreed. "What are we going to do about the senator?"
"I have some ideas," Roman said with a truly terrifying grin.
"You going to sic your wife on her?" Pavel asked.
Laughter erupted around the table.
"I mean, I wasn't, but that could work," Roman said.
More laughter.
I poured myself another scotch. By the time I got back to the table, the tone had changed.
"This mission was yours, Uncle. How do you want to handle it?" Gregor asked.
My eyes widened. I hadn't expected him to ask that. Part of me had expected him to lord this entire situation over my head, use it as leverage to take complete control.
Everyone looked at me, waiting. Not an ounce of hostility or calculation in anyone's eyes.
They weren't holding Anna against me, because they understood. Another weight fell from my shoulders. I stood a little taller, ready to lead.
"We can't touch Anna's mother—yet. But Anna has shared details about her mother that are going to prove useful."
"Such as?"
"Most of the skeletons in her closet. Anna now knows where the bodies are buried. We're not the only criminal family Senator Collins has been working with."
"The Irish are the ones that paid her for the vote, right?" Pavel asked.
I nodded.
"They’re looking at trafficking guns here.
That's why they wanted the vote restructured.
But there's more. Our dear senator has been actively working with the Yakuza and some Italian syndicates to traffic drugs through the US.
We're not the first family she's double-crossed, we're just the first to find out about it. "
"What does that mean?"
"According to Anna, her mother has been double-crossing the Triad in favor of the Yakuza. Possibly playing two Italian families against each other."
"Goddamn," Damien said.
"Talk about a fucking death wish," Pavel agreed. "If you want to commit suicide, there are less dramatic ways to do it."
"Less painful, too," Roman added.
"We can't touch her yet, but I'm gathering information. I'm going to make it clear that if she doesn't fall back in line, steps will be taken to ensure her compliance—or obliterate her career and feed her to the sharks she created."
"When?" Artem asked.
"I don't know," I answered honestly. "I'm working on getting more intel. But I'm not making a move against Anna's mother until she agrees. Anna decides whether our threats will be idle."
"And why should we trust Anna?" Roman asked.
I shot him a pointed look.
He crossed his arms and smiled, enjoying the hypocrisy.
"Anna has proven her loyalty. She told me her mother was going to vote against me. Explained why. She's now using her access to her mother's personal files to get us the leverage we need."
It didn't hurt that when Anna started digging, she discovered her mother had been hiding bribes from the IRS in shell corporations under Anna’s name. Her mother had intentionally made Anna liable if the IRS ever came knocking.
It was just going to take time. The more I showed Anna what it meant to truly be loved, and treated her the way she deserved, the more she would realize she deserved so much more than her mother gave.
The cards were dealt again.
The rest of the night was spent sitting amongst my nephews, bantering, feeling the burn of cigar smoke in my lungs and the warmth of loyalty thawing the frost in my chest.
I had always been on the fringes, hidden behind a wall of ice. Always a step away from my family, on the outside in the darkness. Always alone because I thought that was where I was meant to be.
All it took was one stubborn little nightingale to drag me into the light and give me the way back to my family.