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His fellow passenger choose to lecture him, which Alexi foundironic.
"Considering you refused to identify yourself to me on the phone, I'm not sure what option you leftme."
"Considering the men in your family have been hunted like prey, I'd think you'd be a bit morecareful."
Alexi tried not to get defensive, but failed. He needed to know who the fuck dared to talk to him with such superiority. He pulled his cell phone from his jacket pocket and turned on the flashlight app, shining it directly into the face of his fellowpassenger.
"Yurdin. Why didn't you tell me you wanted to talk with me? I would have drivenout."
Relief to find his uncle's longtime butler sitting next to him was quickly replaced withconfusion.
"It wasn't safe to make contact until I knew you weren't beingfollowed."
"And how did you do that?" Alexiinquired.
"I had you followed, ofcourse."
The men rode for several minutes in silence. Alexi's mind raced, trying to understand why the longtime Volkov household servant had contactedhim.
He took a guess. "Is this about uncle'swill?"
Yurdin growled. "No, although it is about hislegacy."
Weren't they the samething?
After ten minutes of driving through the back streets of Moscow, Alexi recognized they were on the way out to the mansion in Barvikha. He hadn't been there since the night Nicolai had shot and killedViktor.
The night everything had changedforever.
The drive took much longer with George at the wheel of the sedan than Alexi in his beloved Ferrari. If Nicolai had done nothing but steal and crash his prized possession, it would have been enough to want to hunt him down and make him hurt. But Nicolai had done oh so much more. That night had been the beginning of the end of the Volkov Bratva as he'd known it the entirety of hislife.
The driver pulled the car to a stop at the entrance to the estate. The guards at the gate had changed. Gone was the carefree banter of his last visit. Tonight's security sweep was all business. The visual inspection of the guard holding a bright flashlight on the occupants of the sedan wasn't enough. One by one, each of the three men had to place their palm on the screen of a tablet and wait until their identity was confirmed before the guard finally stepped back, nodding to his counterpart in the guardhouse to open the recently repaired and fortifiedgate.
No one would be crashing a car through the entrance barricade again and live to tell aboutit.
It was odd to have Yurdin scaling the tall steps at the front of the house next to him instead of waiting to open the front door as was the custom for the butler. It was even more strange when the portal was opened by an unknown servant who bowed regally to them as they were ushered into thehouse.
Alexi didn't need to be told where they were going. Tonight's visit was business and all family business took place in the underground fortress. Memories of his last trip down the winding stairs with Nicolai beside him flooded back to him. On his last visit, it had been Irena Volkov who been there to surprise them. Today, it was his Aunt Yana, Viktor's widow, standing at the bottom of the steps, dressed from head to toe in black and looking like she hadn't slept in weeks. She probably hadn't. Losing one's husband and all three sons would do that to awoman.
Alexi was unsure of the protocol for their meeting. On the one hand, this was his aunt. He had fond memories of a woman who'd taught him how to color Easter eggs and swim in the sea as achild.
Yet he knew that tonight's visit was about business. It suddenly dawned on him that he and Yana had something in common. The family was looking to her, like Alexi, for leadership in the vacuum left by the men in herlife.
As the awkward meeting extended, Alexi leaned in, placing customary kisses of greeting on first one and then the other cheek of the grieving woman. "Aunt Yana, I am so sorry for yourloss."
She surprised him with fiery words. "We have no time for such things," she scolded. She turned to Yurdin to ask, "Did you informhim?"
"No, ma'am. It was not my place and it was notsecure."
"Very good. Goodnight,Yurdin."
The stately servant bowed and turned to retrace his steps, having beendismissed.
Alexi watched as the mourning woman reached into the pocket of her black slacks and pulled out a key ring before turning to approach the fortified doors to the Volkov man cave. It was a testament to how much had changed that the lady of the house was leading him into a space he was certain she'd never been before her husband's death. The only women to enter before had been hookers and enemies who'd come there todie.
The space was almost empty. Remnants of their past carefree life remained of course, out of place now with such heaviness. The billiards table sat unused. Card tables had no gamblers. Even the spanking bench where there had always been a woman on display for the men's use wasbare.
At least his uncle's blood had been cleaned from the stairs. In fact, the pungent scent of cleaning solution permeated the enclosedspace.
