Chapter 3
Kasimir~
“Just for the record, I know what this is.”
I grinned at my brother. “Hey, you’re the one who wanted me to start getting along with the Marchettis.”
“I told you to make an effort to get along with my in-laws,” Viktor drawled out. “I didn’t tell you to conspire with my wife to deceive me.”
“Wow,” I laughed. “Aren’t we feeling a little sensitive.”
Just then, our father spoke. “You’re driving your wife and the rest of us crazy with this pregnancy, Viktor. There, it’s been said to your face.”
Viktor shot my father a look. “You say that as if I don’t have reason to be concerned.”
“You are not concerned,” my father argued. “You’re upset that she is gravitating towards her family during this time, leaving you to feel a bit left out, considering. After all, the last thing that anyone in this room needs to do is be concerned for your wife.”
“Which is why we’re here,” I said, half-ass lying. “I mean, I really did ask for this meeting to give your wife a break from your craziness, but while we’re here, we might as well talk business.”
“Stay away from my wife,” Viktor grumbled.
“Too late,” I grinned. “She already adores me, and if you try to come between us now, I fear that it won’t end well for you.”
Viktor flipped me off.
“Since it’s clear that you’ve lost your mind, Kasimir is correct,” my father stated. “We need to discuss a plan for the working girls while Aurora is indisposed.”
“Aurora already has everything handled,” Viktor informed us. “She’s put Stephanie Alvin in charge of whatever she can’t do physically, but Aurora will still be reviewing the books and whatnot.”
Last year, in order to present a united front between our two families, my father had placed Aurora in charge of the prostitutes that worked Korolev territory, and where we hadn’t really cared too much about the revenue from that endeavor, it was now one hell of a money maker, and we had my sister-in-law to thank for that.
The working girls were also grateful for the structure, something that they’d never had before.
“And what of the auction?” my father asked.
A few months ago, Aurora had suggested putting together an auction for women in financial need.
While it was still considered prostitution, the auction was a way to provide a one-time financial opportunity for women that were desperate enough to consider prostitution as a last resort, but also weren’t quite there yet as far as turning it into a necessary lifestyle.
The rules were also rather simple, which could be appreciated by all. A woman could only sign up once for the auction, no exceptions. After all, the entire point was to help keep women from hitting that particular bottom, so it was up to them to make the most of their earnings.
Plus, since these weren’t regular working girls, those who applied needed to fill out a questionnaire of what they were willing to do and not do, making sure that the participants didn’t bid on someone that wasn’t to their liking.
Aurora had also been very adamant about every participant being vetted like they were applying to work for the FBI.
She didn’t want any law enforcement accidentally slipping through, and how could you not admire that kind of dedication.
As for the profits, we got thirty percent of the bids, and the girls got the remaining seventy.
There was also a minimum and maximum limit on the bidding.
Every girl started with a base of ten-thousand dollars, and each call after that came in thousand-dollar increments, the max reaching one-million dollars.
Of course, it was insane to believe that anyone would bid a million dollars on pussy, but I’d seen stranger stuff.
Plus, with the participants being vetted as thoroughly as they were, it was guaranteed that each man could cover the million if it ever got that far.
Aurora had also been very clear about how it was none of our business what the women did with the money once the monies were paid.
We were presenting an opportunity and nothing more.
If the women didn’t use the money to better their lives, then that was on them, and that’s why they could only enter the auction once.
Of course, there were a lot more details involved, but we were all leaving that up to Aurora.
The woman had a brain for business, and so she had covered all the bases before presenting the idea to our father.
She had approached him like she’d been approaching an investor, but with all the money that she was making for us, there was no way that my father would have said no to her.
“I’ll take care of it,” I offered. “While I’m sure that Stephanie can handle most of it, I still think that it’d be a good idea for a Korolev to show his face since this will only be our second auction. Some kinks might still pop up.”
“And what do you think of the consolation prize?” Father asked, but it was clear that he was speaking to Viktor. “I’m not sure if I consider that fair or not.”
With her mind working the way that it did, Aurora had also incorporated a ‘consolation’ clause for anyone who didn’t garner a bid, which was actually a win for these women.
If no one bid on you, then you got a flat ten-thousand-dollar payout since that was the beginning bid amount, but you got the entire amount, no split with the house.
So, the best thing that could happen to these women was to not get called upon, and if you were standing on that stage out of desperation, I could only imagine the relief if you didn’t get bid on.
With his heart on his sleeve, Viktor said, “I’m not going to question how or why she’s running the auction the way that she is.”
“Besides, I think it’s fair,” I chimed in.
Both my father and brother looked over at me. “You do?” they asked in unison.
I nodded. “They deserve the additional three-thousand dollars for the loss of what they could make if someone does bid on them. If you’ll recall, the first auction brought a sixty-thousand-dollar bid, which left the woman to pocket forty-two-thousand dollars.
That’s thirty-two thousand more than the base bid of ten-thousand, so...
yeah, I think that’s fair if someone doesn’t get called upon. ”
“I suppose,” Viktor murmured. “But I’m thinking that once every three months might be too much. I’m going to propose that we do it only twice a year, making the event more exclusive. It might bring in more money that way.”
“That’ll limit the amount of women that your wife can help,” Father pointed out. “She might not go for it.”
“Maybe,” Viktor conceded. “But once the baby comes, she’s not going to have that kind of extra time, and I think that she’ll see that once we talk about it some more.”
“Maybe we can double the number of women up for bid,” I suggested. “Right now, it’s only ten per auction, but maybe we can up it to twenty...maybe even twenty-five.”
“She might go for that,” Viktor replied. “Plus, it’ll give us more time to vet the women and the participants between auctions.”
“That’s your selling point,” I told him. “That’s what’s going to make your wife agree.”
“I think Kasimir is correct in this,” Father remarked. “While I am certain that Aurora will be a wonderful mother, you need to appeal to her Marchetti side on this. If you try to soften her with her upcoming motherhood, you may very well get a knife stuck in your chest, son.”
“Ha. Ha,” Viktor deadpanned, making me grin.
“He’s not wrong,” I said cheerfully. “You’re already getting on her nerves, so I can see her using any excuse to end you.”
Looking between me and my father, Viktor didn’t look happy. “Can we move on from my wife’s mood swings, please?”
“Mood swings?” I echoed. “Mood swings would imply that she’s not violent at times, and I haven’t seen it.”
He flipped me off again.
“Let us move on,” my father signed, recognizing that we were straying away from business to being brothers without a care in the world.
Choosing business over getting on my brother’s nerves, I said, “The Romanians are still playing too close to our borders, but no one’s crossed the line yet.”
Father looked over at Viktor. “And the Marchettis still aren’t experiencing any of this?”
Viktor shook his head. “I speak with Santino about this matter regularly, and a year later, they’ve still no issues with either the Romanians, Chinese, or the Germans.”
“Perhaps it’s just the Romanians being stupid,” my father suggested.
“Maybe,” I replied. “But that doesn’t mean that I’m not going to still keep an eye out.”
“Of course,” he automatically said.
After that, the meeting really did turn into a legitimate discussion about Korolev business, and we’d actually gotten a lot done. Granted, that was going to leave Viktor with some extra time on his hands, but if Aurora ended up really killing him, then it was probably because he deserved it.