Chapter 6
IVAN
I can’t get her smiling face out of my head. It niggles me as I settle behind the desk in my home office.
She’s a strange creature. I wasn’t lying when I told her only my men are stationed on this floor, but I still expected more resistance from her. More fight. I wasn't even done talking when she stopped running. Just… froze.
What the hell is going on in that pretty head of hers? What makes her tick?
I turn on my computer and pull up her employee records, needing answers.
Melani Monti. The file is disappointingly thin, which is even stranger than her mysterious smile.
Zvezda doesn’t hire anyone without a valid ID, so she must have impressed Nadia during her interview enough for an exception to be made.
There’s a small note at the bottom stating her passport was stolen along with her visa, but it sounds like a load of bullshit to me. Is she an illegal immigrant?
I scroll through the two meager pages. The first includes a short bio, education history, and work experience.
A high school graduate from an unrecognizable Sicilian school I’ll need to verify actually exists.
But she does speak three languages fluently, so that might have swayed Nadia’s decision.
Three years of serving experience too—first at a restaurant in Sicily, then here in New York.
The second page consists of just four lines, which is Nadia’s justification for the hire:
The candidate has relevant service experience and interviewed well, demonstrating confidence and reliability. Exception made regarding missing documentation due to circumstances explained (loss of passport/visa). Proceeding with conditional hire at management’s discretion.
I tap my fingers on my desk, turning the implications over in my head.
This is no coincidence. I was only trying to rile her up when I called her a spy, but what if she really is one?
Who could have sent her? The Italians? We’re on a tentative truce with them, so they have no reason to spy on us unless they’re planning a war.
And they don’t have the balls for that. Not when we control the major powers in this city. Still, better to be thorough than dead.
I forward her details to Vasily Gordon, my cousin and the best damn tech specialist this side of the world.
Find everything you can about her.
Check out the Sicilian high school if you have to.
I want to know where she’s been and what she’s been up to for the past three years.
Once that’s sent, I close her file and finally do what I should have done before leaving the club. I call my brothers.
“Is James Salvatore on board?” Aleksei asks without preamble.
“Yes,” I confirm. “I took care of his problematic partners. While I was doing that, Lyev handled any potential scandals waiting to surface.”
Dima whistles softly. “Just how many people did we have to get rid of to create a clean path for Salvatore?”
“Enough to ensure there won’t be problems once the election starts.”
Lyev is Vasily's older brother—my other cousin. Where Vasily excels at technology, Lyev specializes in making people disappear. One erases lives. The other erases the evidence. Together, they’re seamless.
“So anybody digging into his past for dirt won’t find any?” Aleksei probes.
“There’s no dirt to find, Aleksei. I took care of it.”
“How did Salvatore take it?”
“He followed through. Got rid of his partners on camera exactly as we agreed.” Well, one of them.
I had to handle the other one myself when Melani appeared.
I curse silently at the memory. “He knows if he even attempts to betray us, I’m releasing that video to every major news outlet, along with all the dirt we conveniently made vanish. He’ll cooperate.”
“Good. Good job, Vanya.”
I shrug even though he can’t see me. “When haven’t I done a good job, Pakhan?”
“And we’re sure there are no complications?” Dima cuts in. “Nothing that could come back to bite us?”
My thoughts drift to the little mouse I’ve got caged in the spare room. “No, Dimitri. No complications.” None that concerns them, anyway. Melani Monti is my business, and I’ll be dealing with her my way. “James Salvatore will declare his interest in running tomorrow.”
“Great. Hopefully this will reduce the support Daniel Salvi’s been garnering and give him some healthy competition.”
“It will, Dima. You give Daniel Salvi too much credit.” He’s nothing more than a current moving with the waves. Right now, those waves are popularity, and he’d be smart to milk it while he can. Because sooner or later, they will crash on the shore and give way to a new wave. Obscurity.
Too bad we can’t kill the fucker. It would be bad PR given what his campaign is all about. But then again, there are worse things than death.