39
ADRIK
The next day didn’t seem like another chance to experience marital bliss. Or peace.
Elena and I were together with my brothers and cousins at another meeting. I’d brought in several supervisors and leads within the organization as well, counting on the most important members of the family to be prepared for war.
Because that was what this was coming down to. Thiswaswar.
That angle that Elena had been so committed to yesterday wasn’t just something that she could call a passing interest. She’d landed on a connection that brought her to a can or worms. She’d opened it, and now we had more than enough intel to digest.
Giving her the prompt to talk hadn’t been hard, either.
That was how instantly I’d adapted to seeing her as my partner, not just my woman.
And as I listened to her in our large conference room toward the back of the house, I realized that I was one of the luckiest men onearth to have had a chance to realize my mistakes with her. To understand where I’d gone wrong with time to correct my path forward. So we could end up here, like this. Not a new husband and wife, but a Pakhan and his queen. A leader and follower, but one who could bring receipts to the table in terms of intel.
For over an hour, she’d shared her discoveries. Complete with a corresponding slideshow that projected on the screen while Sacha demonstrated the files that she referenced, she downright lectured us all about what had been happening without our knowledge.
Without my father’s knowledge, either.
I narrowed my eyes at that assumption. It emboldened my anger that Gregori had beenthissneaky to fuck with us right under our noses.
“The arrangement, from what I understood in my limited role at my father’s firm, was that Morovov Financials was a conduit to hide behind. Money trails are significantly harder to follow and when consultants, banking service providers, and others of the kind do some of the heavy work of making transfers in and out of accounts such as the Volkov ones, it can take time to weed through what goes where.” She glanced at me, as if waiting for me to add anything.
Sacha beat me to it. “That’s how it’s always been.” He scratched the back of his neck. “The Boss has always used Morovov Financials.”
Maksim nodded with a heavy exhale. “That’s correct. He did. For years.”
“And without too many noticeable differences with the fine-line reports and real-time analyses or checks, he wouldn’t haveknown what to look for when things might not have added up,” she said.
But you did. You’ve always known what to look for because this is what you’re trained to do so well.
She gestured to me. “What triggered the red flags and got your attention were when there were too many interferences that weren’t corrected beforeIcould notice them as the direct manager of them. My guess is that John Morovov no longercaredwhether he’d get caught siphoning money from accounts to feed into one of Gregori’s shadow accounts.”
It didn’t escape my notice that she referred to her father by his name. Maksim glanced at me, no doubt picking up on it too. It didn’t startle or impress me. I expected it. She’d been clear with her words to me that she had a real family now. She'd ceased respecting or acknowledging a connection with her father when he gave her away. She hadn’t been gripped with sorrow over how I’d killed him. That didn’t suggest any heartlessness on her part. If anyone were to ask me, she had toobigof a heart, a heart of gold. Elena had severed ties with John Morovov since he showed how little he valued her.
“And that syncs with his wording on the day that the last account was declared insufficient. That morning, when I tried to backtrack and understand who’d messed with the accounts, I didn’t think that he would be behind it. That was my fault. I merely assumed he would never take the effort todoanything himself, always relying on me to get the work done. But his goals weren’t in just handling the banking services. He had other plans. When I asked what happened, his answer was that ‘a situation had gotten a little out of hand.’ That a ‘miscalculation’ had happened. It was his situation of feeding small but accumulating bits of funds into Gregori’s network. They werescattered and not exclusive withdrawals from Volkov accounts, but he got more daring with time.”
Alexei shook his head, mumbling under his breath, likely cursing out his father.
“His ‘situation’ was one of his own doing. It consisted of acting like Gregori’s fundraiser, but once I discovered the issues and handled things from the inside here, he was cut off from those routes of revenue.”
I cleared my throat, reclaiming everyone’s attention. “And he was cut off from draining a single penny from our accounts again when I eliminated him as a threat.”
Watching Elena from the corner of my eye, I marked how she didn’t flinch. She maintained her composure, like always, but it wasn’t forced. She wasn’t barely hanging on and fighting to look calm and obedient. She just was. I no longer had to worry about her feelings where her father was concerned, and I knew it was a blessing I’d never take for granted.
“That was the first strike,” I warned them all as an announcement they should all heed. “The first strike of many.”
Elena nodded. “Now that we know Morovov Financials won’t be a source for any transfers of funds, it will be harder for me to track where and how Gregori is hiding his money now, moving forward. But we are keeping an eye on all that we can, trying not only to safeguard the Volkov accounts but also to be more proactive in hunting down what he is doing. At least, from where I can help, with financial records and money trails.”
“That helps,” Viktor said.
“It does,” Maksim agreed. “Follow the money. It’s as simple as that.”
For once, I didn’t see eye-to-eye on that with my brother closest in age. Nothing seemed simple about any of this. About our uncle hiding for so many years all to start up a shadow network. About how John Morovov had been moving and stealing our money right under our noses with the guise of being the reliable middle man for so long.
Gregori must have lured him in with something. Some kind of bait or incentive.
