37. Adrik
ADRIK
M ost of the guests who’d come in for the wedding were leaving today. Throughout the afternoon and this evening, they’d head back out to where they called home.
Having them here and making my wedding more public than Elena wanted it to be was a good choice, though.
No one would ever mistake her as not being mine. She would always fall under the highest protection now, and she’d never have a reason to fear for her safety with the whole of the Volkov Bratva behind her.
It also showed how strong we were. How ready and alert I was to take over from my father.
There would be no grounds for enemies and rivals to whisper that the family was coming apart. No one would be able to get away with suggestions of a window of opportunity that could lead to a takeover.
And there was absolutely no chance of anyone lying that this was a coup, that we were ousting my father so I could take the throne.
Been there, done that.
I let the bitter thought fade from my mind as I waited out on the patio to speak with Stefan Rossi before he flew back to his territory in New York.
My uncle had tried a coup. He’d planted a bomb at a big meeting where he’d killed my grandparents, almost killed my father, and wounded many others.
One of the first things my father had to deal with as the Pakhan was reinserting order among all the families.
To remind them all that Gregori was no longer part of our Bratva, and if he’d lived, he would’ve been killed.
On that day, Gregori had shown his true colors and turned traitor on his own flesh and blood. But he’d also earned the wrath of the heads of other crime families who’d been in attendance at that large meeting.
That was why I was making time for Stefan Rossi now. I hadn’t had a chance to talk to him yesterday. I’d really tried to make it Elena’s day, our wedding day, not a meetup for business. I’d spoken with many guests, but Rossi and I had an understanding.
He, like me, had taken over as boss sooner than expected. Joseph Rossi was still alive and well enough to rule, but he’d taken a much younger wife a few months ago and wanted to enjoy his retirement now. Stefan wasn’t there when I’d gone to New York to ask around about Gregori. But he was here now.
Our shared hatred of Gregori was the link that ensured I’d always give him some of my time and attention.
As he showed up, though, nodding hellos at my brothers and cousins who joined me, it seemed like he was bearing bad news.
“Couldn’t have you leaving without catching up,” I said after we’d shaken hands and a server had brought him a drink.
He laughed once, wryly, and smirked at me.
“Yeah, and you’re going to want to hear what I’ve got to share.
” Tilting his head to the side, he indicated for one of his men to come forward.
If memory served me well, this was one of his nephews.
The younger man brought a thick sheaf of papers from a case he was holding and handed it to me.
It wasn’t all one set of papers. Copies had been made.
I took one and gestured for the man to distribute them to my brothers and cousins.
“No fucking way,” Lev snarled as he skimmed the front page inside the cover.
I flipped over the first sheet and froze.
“Is this a joke?” Alexei demanded.
I shook my head, both to tell him to watch his tone and that it wasn’t a prank at all.
Uncle Gregori’s face showed clearly on the image that had been printed.
It was a grainy still shot taken from surveillance, but it had to be him.
It was him. As I turned through the first few pages, I took in the variety of frozen still shots.
Him walking along a riverbank, speaking with a man.
Another of him eating with a group at a crowded restaurant.
A couple of him getting in or out of a car.
“That’s your father,” Stefan replied with a bite in his tone.
“Where’d these come from?” I asked. Breathing as steadily as I could, I tamped down the beast of anger that rose in my chest. It fanned out, radiating through me and coursing through my veins. Adrenaline mixed with fury, but I locked down on this surge of white-hot anger to focus.
“One of the independent contractors we’ve dealt with before,” he replied.
“Not one of your own?” Maksim asked.
“How can you verify if it’s legitimate?” Lev asked.
“Because I fucking trust who I hire,” Stefan shot back. “Don’t come right out of the gate questioning me. I’ve got just as many stakes in this shit as you do.”
I gave him a dubious look. Really? Do you really fucking think so?
He cringed. “Not as many stakes,” he corrected. “But I’m not fucking jumping for joy, either.”
“How is this possible?” Lev asked, tossing the papers to the table.
“It ain’t that hard to imagine,” Stefan scolded him. “Faked his death and wants to come back for round two of his bullshit.”
“We had so many investigations, though,” Maksim said. “I was young, we all were, but I know for a fact that our father was thorough about making sure that couldn’t happen.”
“The autopsy, the photos. They even tested some pieces of corpses that had flown off in the explosion.” I rubbed my temple, stunned and almost disoriented with the way my world was turning upside down in a flash.
“They catalogued it all. They scoured the scene and gathered the evidence to show that he was dead.”
“There was never any surveillance footage that could have shown where he could have left, either,” Alexei said.
Stefan Rossi shrugged. “I get it. I’d be in denial too. For fuck’s sake, it was almost twenty years ago.” He pointed at the papers. “But those don’t lie.”
I lifted my gaze sharply. “We’re not calling you a liar, either.”
He acknowledged that with a tip of his chin.
“You don’t have any grounds to try that line with me, as far as I can tell.
When you showed up at my uncle’s place and were asking around whether Gregori could’ve lived, I was off in Greece.
But that showed your interest. Your doubt.
Once I got back and I got in touch with your team, they gave my guys a little more to poke around with.
” He shrugged once more. “So, I figured I’d send that contractor on a wild goose chase.
He’s been sniffing around one of my nieces, and I ain’t sure if he’s good enough for her.
But he’s fucking done it now. He tracked this motherfucking zombie of yours and came home with the receipts attached.
Milan. Moscow. Budapest. Some training camp outside of Ostrava, and then down in Port-au-Prince and Caracas. ”
“Your contractor tracked him that far?” Maksim asked.
“No. And yes. This smartass tracked him around Moscow, but he hacked into databases and used facial recognition to get even further.” He scratched his chin. “Go to the back,” he said of the packet he’d given us. “He got close enough to track him in Caracas, just yesterday.”
A heaviness settled upon me.
We no longer had to wonder if Gregori was alive.
We had confirmation.
Stefan was right. Anyone could stage their death. Especially in our world. Bending rules and skirting the law were expected.
But this wasn’t something we’d dropped the ball on.
I had been younger, too, when this happened, but I remembered how thoroughly my father had followed up.
He’d had the role of Pakhan thrust upon him too soon.
He’d had to adapt quickly as a solo leader without brothers and cousins like I did now.
On his own, he’d held his ground and led.
Due to how close the betrayal had hit, he’d obsessed over making sure that Gregori wouldn’t threaten him or his next generation again.
“He couldn’t have done this on his own,” Maksim said.
We were all rocked by this revelation, this confirmation of our worst fear realized. Lev looked like he was stuck in an ugly trance. Alexei concentrated, muttering under his breath. Viktor and Nikolai studied the papers.
“Someone had to have helped him,” Maksim said as he looked at me. “For as thorough as Father was after that incident…”
“Maybe, maybe not.”
Stefan nodded, agreeing with me. “The only way we even got close to finding him was through those aliases your men gave us to work with.”
I raised my brows. “Not my men.” I cleared my throat. “My wife .” Pride rose up inside me that I could have a claim on that intelligent creature. It was thanks to Elena and her thorough investigation of the financial records she was most familiar with that we could even have those aliases to use.
“Good thing you snatched her up, then,” he mused dryly.
“I asked that contractor to see what he’d dig up with those aliases she had, and here we are.
” He smacked his hand on my copy of the papers.
“But from my understanding, those aliases weren’t consistent.
They weren’t used back when Gregori set that bomb to go off.
Maybe he ran off on his own and hid for a while before he started being active again. ”
“The timing’s not going to matter now. He could have done this on his own and waited to start on a plan. He might’ve had help that very day and schemed with others to build up a network,” I said. “All that matters now is that he’s fucking with us at all.”
He already seemed to be starting, interfering with our finances through Morovov Financials.
I didn’t want to know what his game was.
I had no time for it.
I never would.
“I agree,” Stefan said. “Whether he had help back then isn’t relevant now. What does make me suspicious is the name of someone who’s been spotted with him.”
Viktor held up the papers and pointed at one image. “Him?”
Stefan nodded. “Yusef Antonov. He’s former military with old familial links to the Soviets. It seems to my intelligence team that he’s acting as Gregori’s right-hand man.”
I stared at the image, prepared to take this intel to Elena and see what could match with what she’d discovered.
Stefan Rossi wasn’t in a rush to leave, staying to discuss this discovery with all details he could provide.
He was an informed associate, and he wasn’t interested in any danger on his side of the country.
Having him share this with us proved how solid of an ally they were, despite the distance between our territories.
While my brothers and cousins and I went through a range of emotions, our reactions based in anger, suspicion, and annoyance, one clear conclusion was obvious.
None of us were pleased about this threat.
And not a single one of us wanted anything to do with the man who tried to destroy our family.
I wouldn’t allow it.
My uncle might have survived his first brush with death.
But should he interfere with any of the Bratva business again, and should he dare to target any of us, I would make sure that he wished he were dead.