19. Maksim
MAKSIM
Carina texted that she was going to have lunch with Elena.
It gave me the chance to continue this meeting with Nikolai and Alexei before heading home to have dinner with her.
It didn’t matter how often I reminded myself that we had an arrangement.
We couldn’t help but gravitate toward each other and want to spend time together—even in seemingly domestic ways like sharing meals.
Before her, I’d eat whenever I found the spare time, too busy working.
Now, I felt like I was finally understanding what people meant when they said a balance could be found between work and family.
That had never applied before because my work was for and with the family.
Carina was family, too, but it was different.
It was personal, like when we were together, the rest of the world ceased to matter as much.
Dean had some intel for me about the Garcias’ movements, and he was available to go over some new details before heading out to a warehouse to check on how much product was already moved.
“It’s kind of weird not having her here,” Dean said.
“Carina?” Nikolai asked.
He nodded.
“Why?” I asked wryly. “Because you still think she’s a spy?”
Alexei rolled his eyes. “We all struggled with whether she was a spy or not.”
Dean shook his head. “No. I mean it’s weird to see you without her. She’s been glued to your side for so long now.” He held his hands up in a truce-like manner. “I’m not saying that’s good. Or bad. Or anything.”
“It’s probably best that we don’t have her in on this specific discussion,” Nikolai said. “Since we’re planning to increase security and move things where we can in the event that the Cartel is no longer in our consideration for trade at all.”
“Yes. It’s probably best for now,” I agreed. If Carina were in on this talk, she’d need to pick a side. She’d stand with us. Yet, it’d be hard for her not to look out for the Cartel, too.
“Would she defend him?” Dean asked. He stacked his arms over his chest and raised his brows.
“We’ve been here talking about preparing for the possibility that Arturo Garcia is compromised.
Like that tip she got that he’s now working for a third-party that could damn well be Gregori.
Would she protest and defend him against any accusations like that? ”
I wanted to state that she wouldn’t dream of defying me like that. Yet, I knew how strongly she valued her past and the crime family she had come from. It wasn’t only a matter of power. It was family pride. It was her wanting to do right by her parents’ memories.
“She seems to be wary about him, and it sounds like she’s concerned whether the alliance set up with the trade agreement could be broken,” Alexei said.
“She’s not na?ve,” I replied. “I think she’s been dreading how badly Arturo could be messing something up for the Cartel. And her opinion of him is already low enough that she anticipates him doing something stupid sooner or later.”
“And she’d stick with you? With us?” Nikolai asked. “If the Volkov and Garcia trade deal is over, she wouldn’t insist on leaving?”
No. No fucking way is she leaving me.
“They’re married,” Dean said.
“Contingent on the arrangement that the families stay allies,” Nikolai said.
“No.” I shook my head, not even willing to consider her leaving me.
There was no expiration date on our being married.
“She has likely been dreading how bad things are going with the Cartel leadership because she knows she is staying here, with me.” I hated to make her pick and choose, but it wasn’t my fault that Arturo wanted to fuck around.
I respected that her past mattered to her.
If anyone ever tried to convince me that I wasn’t a part of the Volkov Bratva, I would fight it too.
And if Arturo was trying to do something stupid, he’d pay for it.
Fuck around and find out.
That was where we were at now.
Trying to prepare for making Arturo cease being a concern.
“My marriage is not going to save Arturo Garcia from being punished for breaking our trade deal. Especially if he is trying to align with Gregori’s network.”
Alexei nodded. “No mercy.”
“Just like there was none for John Morovov,” Nikolai said.
They all looked at me, as if asking the obvious question that would follow.
If I would execute Arturo Garcia as the next man we’d discovered to have a link to our nefarious relative who had faked his own death years ago.
It shouldn’t have even been a question. I’d lost count of all the people I’d killed. Many more were waiting to meet death by my hands yet. There was no changing that aspect of this violent life. I had no intention to change, either.
But this would be a uniquely tricky situation. Carina hadn’t cut ties with her family like Elena did when John Morovov gave her to Adrik. My wife hadn’t dismissed her brother and wished her Cartel would suffer. She was proud of her heritage. She had homesickness for what she’d left behind.
Killing her brother wouldn’t be an easy action to sweep under the rug.
“She already views him so negatively,” I said carefully.
“But…” Dean winced and raised his brows in a silent question. “If you had to handle him permanently…”
I shoved my hands into my pockets. “Then I would need to handle him permanently.”
Alexei crossed his arms. “Arturo can’t be left as a loose thread if he’s actively trying to stir up trouble with our distribution of guns.”
“We will not let him get any more leverage in this territory,” I declared. “Not for the benefit of Gregori and whatever he’s trying to accomplish.”
“Whatever he’s trying to accomplish?” Nikolai frowned. “It’s obvious. He’s here to take the throne. Again.”
“No, he’s not,” Alexei growled. “He can’t.”
If my uncle wanted to come and claim the position of Pakhan of the Volkov Bratva, it wouldn’t have been his first attempt.
He set off those bombs at a meeting of the bosses to take out my grandfather.
To also kill my father. He’d lived and he’d ruled with great success all this time that we thought Gregori was dead.
If Gregori wanted to come back and reappear to take the throne, he would need to assassinate Adrik. Then me. And then Viktor and Nikolai.
“None of us will let him try,” he growled.
“Regardless,” I said, sticking with the facts and needing to have a plan for a solution.
Letting our anger or other emotions get the best of us wouldn’t get us any closer to fixing this.
“We are aware of Gregori trying to sabotage us. If Arturo Garcia is implicit in that effort, then he will be dealt with accordingly.”
In other words, killed.
I wouldn’t let my wife’s concerns stop me from doing whatever was necessary to protect my family.
She was my family, too. She was my wife.
Maybe she could be the mother of my children.
If she wasn’t already, she was bound to be soon.
But I couldn’t prioritize her connection to her Cartel over the needs and threats that we faced as a Bratva.
Duty had to come before love.
Love?
I lowered my gaze and paused before saying anything else. Before thinking about anything else.
No. That’s not going to be another obstacle here.
Carina knew what she was getting into when she told me “I do” at our sham of a wedding. That forced and rushed ceremony was legitimate. And she damn well knew that by becoming my wife, she would be expected to adhere to the needs and demands of my family. Not hers.
Love wasn’t part of the equation.
“Before anything can be done or decided, we need more evidence and intel about Arturo doing business with Gregori,” I said.
“Elena’s been digging into the financial records from the Hernandez Cartel and she’s trying to track more potential links between the Garcia Cartel and the shadow companies that Gregori hides behind. ”
“Can’t we send her to the Cartel to get someone?” Dean asked.
I glared at him, genuinely pissed and curious how he thought I’d ever let her leave.
“Not to send her back for good,” he amended. “But she’s familiar with the compound. She has to know of someone she could bring out for us to question.”
“I won’t risk her getting back in her brother’s reach.” I shook my head and wished I could throttle him for even suggesting it.
Something didn’t add up with Arturo offering me his sister the way he had. Something bothered me about what he could be viewing as an ulterior motive. It was a strong enough suspicion that I didn’t care for the idea of sending her to the Garcia Cartel for any reason unless I was there with her.
“We can consider both of us, both me and her, going to visit and to potentially find someone to question,” I said.
“But how the fuck would that work?” Alexei asked. “They’re loyal to him. To the Cartel. Not her or you.”
I shrugged. “Then maybe we can set up another sting, only this time to lure Arturo out too. I don’t know yet. We’ll decide more about how to obtain more intel so we can decide if he needs to be taken out or not.”
The sooner that was decided, the sooner that was done, then I could begin to coax Carina into a new phase of fully and wholeheartedly accepting that her life would always be here with me.
No one else but me.
As my wife in the Volkov Bratva.
Not a dismissed princess in any Cartel.