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“What should I be worried about?” I asked hesitantly. There was bound to be some problems once we took her off the medications.
“Addiction is one of them,” Radick informed me honestly. “We will have to wean her off the drugs little by little so her body doesn’t go into withdrawal and stop her heart.”
Wonderful.
“Once we start weaning her off the drugs, she’ll slowly start to gain consciousness,” he continued while he glanced at the paperwork in his hand. “She’ll come off the tube once she starts breathing on her own. Her vocality will be limited, but with some speech therapy, that too can be resolved.”
“Okay,” I whispered. Dr. Radick focused his full attention on me. His brown eyes were a calming moment in a stormy sea. He was a good doctor. Patient and understanding. I wouldn’t be alive if it wasn’t for him and his team. I trusted him.
“We’ll get her set up at my clinic and keep you informed every step of the way,” he assured me. “I will give her the utmost care. I promise.”
Swallowing back the lump of emotion welling in my throat, I nodded, afraid that if I spoke, I would cry.
He gave me a sharp nod and then directed his team through my mother’s door.
She was safe now, and that was all that mattered. Everything else would fall into place, and I would be there every step of the way.
CHAPTERSEVENTEEN
Arctic Security was nothing like I imagined. It was huge. There were forty-two floors in total. Ten subfloors, twenty floors dedicated to the security business, and the top twelve were part of the consulting and legal firm.
Matthias had been at the office for the last few days, barely getting away except to sleep for a few hours. Then he would go right back. For the most part, he had taken over theBratvaagain, but I was fine with that. He wasn’t leaving me out of the loop; he was simply more efficient at running the operation.
I’d come in with little knowledge of how to run the mafia, and most of my time asPakhan, a title I still held, was spent searching for answers and revenge. Matthias was planning on teaching me everything he knew so we could truly rule as partners, but right now, he had a mole to find, and I was busy searching for my traitorous family.
When it came to the security company, we didn’t involve the operatives in mafia hits. The men and woman who made up Arctic Security were all legit, and Matthias didn’t want to taint that. He did, however, run a black ops cyber unit that tied in with the more criminal side of his empire. Mark would be so pissed at me if he knew where I was right now.
“We have more than fifteen satellites circling the globe at any one time,” Maksim informed me. “Our team has created back doors into the local law enforcement, the CIA, FBI, NSA, ATF…you get the point.”
Wow. That was scary impressive.
“The legit side of our black ops unit surveys security threats for other corporations. Social media monitoring, and so on,” he continued as he led me down the corridor. “We have trained analysts who search for keywords, photos, hashtags, videos and the like to remove all evidence of theBratva.”
“Is that why Matthias is able to run a corporation so legitimately without any problems?” I’d wondered how he managed to be the face of Dashkov Enterprises and Arctic Security.
“For the most part,” Maksim offered. “A good amount of our clients know who Matthias is, but those clients work in the underground. They’re just as shady.” He smirked. “Even the government contracts with us. They suspect who Matthias is, but when it comes down to it, they don’t care. There are bigger fish out there to fry. As long as we aren’t moving humans, the US government turns its head away.”
“That is a little worrisome.”
“Why is that?”
“I mean—” I ran it over in my head a few times to make sure I was wording it correctly. “We’re still running drugs and weapons. Drugs that cause overdoses. Guns that kill people. Isn’t the government supposed to be all about shutting that down?”
Maksim stopped so suddenly I nearly toppled into him. He didn’t look angry, but the air around us had certainly shifted.
“That is true,” he admitted. “But let’s look at it this way. We may sell the drugs, but we don’t put the needle in their arm. We aren’t responsible for what people do with the drugs we sell them.” I scoffed at his simple way of looking at the situation but remained silent. “We may sell weapons, but our guns don’t kill people, Ava. People kill people. We can’t help that.”
“Then why sell them at all?” I was curious. If their legit businesses were doing so well, why have the criminal element in the first place?
“Sure.” He shrugged and continued walking. “We could go completely legit, but then we couldn’t afford to employ nearly half the people we do. The compound would cease to exist, and the people we’ve helped would have nowhere to go. We wouldn’t have the resources to save the women like we did at the docks. Not to mention, we may sell drugs, but we don’t cut them with rat poison or fentanyl. They are clean and safe.”
I shot him a dubious look. He smirked. “As safe as drugs can be anyway,” he admitted. “If we didn’t sell guns, someone else would. Yes, we do what society considers, criminal and bad, but there are people much worse than us out there. We have morals and standards. Can you say the same about Ward? Or the McDonoughs?”
There was a part of me that wished I could disagree, but he had a point. Despite their illegal activities and looser than normal moral codes, for criminals, they were well above par. Sure, they killed…no,wekilled people and threatened them, but it was never just to watch them die.
What did Sansa say inGame of Thrones? “It isn’t what I want, but what honor demands?”
“You’re right,” I admitted. “I was looking at it from the wrong perspective.”
