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A folder sat in his lap and he closed it. “Welcome back,” he murmured.
“Yeah. It’s great to be back,” I said bitterly.
“Is the love wearing off already?” he taunted.
I turned to him angrily. “I don’t need this shit. What the fuck am I doing here? Why did I even have to leave the country and jump bail if I was just going to come back in time for my hearing anyway?”
“It was easier with you out of the way.”
I felt my temper rise with the high-handed way my brother was dealing with the situation at hand. “So, what’s going to happen now?”
“You’ll have to suffer the indignity of being handcuffed again, but it’ll just be a temporary inconvenience.”
“What do you mean temporary? Are you going to be able to get me out?”
“Of course,” he said confidently, looking directly at me. “I’m not going to watch you rot away, especially for something you didn’t do.” For a moment, the shield was gone and in its place was the brother I knew once loved me, beyond anything else in this world.
“But what can you do at this stage? Sarah Dale has implicated me so publicly that nobody, no matter how corrupt will touch this case and try to help.”
He smiled. “Have faith little brother. I didn’t come this far and run this operation all these years without keeping a trick or two up my sleeve.”
I looked at him curiously. “What trick are you talking about?”
“I spoke to Sarah before her press conference,” he explained calmly. “And we agreed that she would feed the press to an easily disproven pack of lies. They would buy it and so would Bogdan, but every bit of evidence in her testimony can be dismantled and reversed as soon as her grandson is found.”
I stared at my brother in wonder. Even when I was very young, I was impressed by him. He seemed almost godlike to me then and now, I fully understood how he had taken my father’s blood drenched criminal organization and over time, turned it into one of the most successful legal enterprises in America.
“Bogdan seems to have dropped off the surface of the earth, but have no fear. Time is our friend and the bastard’s worst enemy,” Maxim said. “Every minute that passes brings his death closer.
I exhaled with relief. “So where are we going now?”
“Back home so that your bail conditions remain unbreached and I have organized a distraction to get you inside unnoticed. Thereafter, you’ll leave with the patrol car that will be sent to take you to the courthouse. You’ll meet McKinsey who’ll be awaiting you there,” he said referring to my lawyer. “She’s trying to put everything together for the moment Sarah makes her announcement.”
I looked out of the window onto the buzzing intersection of Union square that we were riding through. I didn’t love New York. I knew then that I wanted no part of this city. I wanted to take Bianca and move to a small town where we could raise our family without this madness. I turned towards Maxim. “I’m sorry. I really am sorry for all the trouble I caused you. I never wanted that.”
His lips twisted. “I know.”
“No matter what happens, I’m not going to be part of the organization anymore.”
“I know.” And this time his smile was real.
I realized he was relieved because he too, knew I was not cut out for this brutal world my father and he occupied.
Three hours later, I arrived in the back of a patrol car to the courthouse to meet a flashing storm of reporters and stoic law enforcement officials. Two police officers were flanked by my sides and my hands were handcuffed. A quick look back from the commotion and I saw my brother leaning against the SUV parked across the street. His eyes were on me and when our gazes met, he winked at me.
I winked back.
Then I straightened my back, ignoring all the microphones and recorders shoved in my face. I walked up the endless flight of stairs to the criminal court.
I didn’t expect any leniency to be given to me as I settled into my role as a defendant and listened as my attorney and other officials of the state stepped forward for my arraignment.
The room was full, and there were no familiar faces present except Yuri as the team had been ordered to stay low.
My indictment was quite robust, with accusations of my family’s conglomerate managing to penetrate layers of the state’s apparatus. It was considered a severe threat, especially given my family’s Russian background.
The charges were presented as a “dizzying array of criminal schemes, attempting to commit fraud, shipment thefts from cargo ships, federal robbery charges, casino fraud, money laundering, international banking fraud, extortion, wire fraud, credit card fraud, and identity theft.”
