Chapter 17 #2
“And yet, in my father’s view, it was,” she said. “My father saw this match as… like a thump to the head of his little brother. Maxim was never supposed to be hurt too badly.” She pauses, her eyes taking on a faraway look as if she were looking through a window and into the past.
“My father won the fight,” she says. “But it wasn’t easy.
From what I understand, Maxim turned what was supposed to be a kind of exhibition match into a massacre.
He didn’t hold back as my father was planning to.
The end result was my father beating him unconscious.
From what I understand, it was weeks before Maxim could see out of both his eyes.
I hear his vision still isn’t as it was before. ”
She sighs and finishes what’s left in her glass, then walks over to the drink caddy for another drink.
“Anyway, as far as my father and everyone else was concerned, the matter was settled. Maxim was expected to recover and all was supposed to go back to normal. And it did… until my father was found stabbed to death in the sauna of our house.”
She stops, and there’s nothing but the sound of the ice in her glass clinking as she stirs the renewed contents.
“Officially,” she says as she turns back to me, “he was attacked by our rivals at the time. I can’t say what their names were.
I do know that the first thing Maxim did when he became Pakhan was to obliterate that family. ”
I frown a little. “Obliterate? He… he had everyone killed?”
She nodded. “And not just those here in Fortune. Anyone from that bloodline he sought out and eliminated. Took him years to accomplish it. Members of the family who didn’t even know they had relatives who belonged to the criminal underworld were stalked and erased like paper drawings.
As far as I know, there are no more of them anywhere.
It’s since been nicknamed ‘The Great Culling’. ”
A chill runs up my spine as she takes a slow drink from her glass.
“The murder of someone in the brotherhood is a very, very serious crime, you see,” she continues.
“The consequences can be wide-reaching and devastating. So, if your father did put a hit out on the son of the architect of that genocide, then all I can say is that you are fortunate that you are with us and not them anymore.”
That’s probably what Alexei meant when he said that I was no longer a Pecora, outside of the obvious.
If my father’s become a target, it’s safer to be here, on this side, than with my father, or so it seems. I clear my throat.
“And what if my father didn’t do it? How can I prove that he’s innocent? ”
She snickers. “You can’t.”
“What do you mean, I can’t?”
“Just that. You can’t. It’s not even for you to try. Perhaps Alexei, if he believes in your father’s innocence—”
“He doesn’t,” I say with a little sinking feeling in my heart. “He just… He doesn’t.”
She regards me with pursed lips. “Then my advice is that you stay out of it. As much as you can.”
“I can’t do that.” I set my drink down on the coffee table.
I’ve hardly had any. The alcohol is being diluted in the melting ice.
“Look, my father might be a lot of things, but it just doesn’t make sense that he would try to have Alexei killed.
I mean, from what everybody’s said, this alliance is more for his benefit. Why would he destroy that?”
She sighs, giving it some genuine thought.
“Could be a power play,” she said. “Pavel’s always been jealous of his brother.
He may be behind all of this somehow. This could be a way for Alexei to catch a stray bullet.
Then perhaps he can blame your father for that and be rid of Alexei once and for all.
These kinds of assassinations have been known to happen before. ”
I must have blanched because she regards me curiously for just a second, then she says, “But if that’s the case, all the more reason for you to stay out of it. You don’t want to be in the middle of any of this when it all comes out. Trust me.”
She sits her drink down on the table next to mine, then rolls up her sleeve and shows me a long, jagged scar on the inside of her right forearm.
“This is what happens when you go around asking the wrong questions in the ‘brotherhood’,” she says.
“And I am of the same blood as them. Stay out of this, Izzy. It’s not your fight. ”
As she rolls her sleeves back down, it occurs to me that she’s never referred to Maxim as her uncle. She only ever calls him by his name. I wonder if he’s the one who gave her that mark.
The meeting’s over and Alexei and I are leaving.
I don’t see anyone else as we leave, and Alexei seems to have a permanent scowl on his face.
I guess whatever happened, it didn’t go well.
We pass ‘Uncle’ at the door and say our goodbyes, but Alexei has remained silent this entire time, even now that we’re alone in the car.
I want to ask him what happened in that meeting. I mean, I realize that they all were just talking about what was next in terms of his father’s arrest, but I’m not so green as not to know that he’ll probably be out before the day is done. And Alexei looks like somebody pissed on his shoes in there.
I also understand what my place is supposed to be in all this. I’m his wife. Not his colleague, and certainly not one of his soldiers. As archaic as it sounds, I realize I’m just supposed to sit back and shut the fuck up.
But I can’t. I look over at him and I hope he realizes that I’m not that kind of woman. I just can’t let this go.
“Alexei—”
“Don’t,” he says. He’s staring at the road, clenching his jaw. He’s like a wounded lion. I almost don’t want to come near him for fear he’ll rip my head off.
After a few seconds, however, he pulls the car over and puts it in park. Then he takes a deep breath and turns to me in his seat.
“I think you’re right,” he says. “I don’t think your father tried to kill me.”
I blink in shock. Did I just hear him right? “Wh–What happened?”
He shakes his head, looking down at his palms for a second.
“It’s hard to explain,” he says. “Things were different in that meeting. Dynamics have shifted among us. Somebody in that room wants me dead. I need to see my father about it, but I’ll have to wait until he’s out to speak with him privately. ”
I think about what Anya said about his brother and about how this sort of backstabbing has happened before… It might even run in the family, for all I know. “Alexei, listen—” He puts his hand up to silence me.
“I don’t want to talk about this just yet with you,” he says. “What I do want you to know is that… whatever happens, you’re safe. I won’t let harm come to you. Not for as long as I live.”
I look into his eyes and I know he believes it. I sincerely hope he intends on living long enough to make good on that promise.