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He doesn’t wait for me to say anything before addressing Drago. Staring at him with an appraising look. “We’ve met before, haven’t we?” Does he dare ask Drago that? Why?
“Yes, we were talking about my property in Omsk.” He’s going to pretend he doesn’t know Drago in front of me, which makes no damn sense unless he’s gauging our responses. They’re both working with Anatoly Petrov on his massive buildings in Omsk.
“I’m always interested in expanding my empire.” The liar. He’d rather keep everything small and isolated in his warm mansion. The only reason he’s helping Petrov is that his family helped him like my family had when Drago was a young orphan. If Drago could stay out of Russia he would.
“Yes, we must get together to discuss it sometime,” Volchek says, clapping my friend’s shoulder. Drago remains cool, but I sense the icy threads that will get Volchek’s hand chopped off if he’s not careful.
“I return to America tomorrow.” I don’t like the quickly masked frown on Vlad’s face. It reads of bullshit like he wants to meet with Drago about something much sooner.
“Perhaps you can have that discussion somewhere else besides my family’s graves,” I say through clenched teeth, getting rankled by his blatant disrespect to my family.
Volchek’s face, for a brief second, showed its true irritation before daring to feign remorse, and that’s all I needed to know. Am I staring at my family’s assassin, or at least the man who orchestrated it? “I’m sorry, my boy. It’s in poor taste.”
“My apologies, Roman.” Drago wisely creates a buffer between Vlad and me and then hands him a business card. “I must return to my hotel.” I watch as my friend departs.
“You don’t care for him much, Roman,” Vlad says. I’m not a fool, no matter what he takes me for, so I play along.
“What do you mean?” I ask, pretending to misunderstand his meaning.
“Tension eased as soon as he left.”
“I can’t rule him out from being the one to kill my family. There’s just something cold about that man.” It’s a lie that I tell with the straightest face. Drago may be cold, but he’s not evil.
“It is strange that he quickly came from Chicago on such short notice.” That’s what a great friend does especially because we live in a world of airplanes, but I don’t say that.
“It is interesting. Excuse me, Volchek. I must say goodbye to my family, privately.”
“I understand.” He clasps me on the shoulders and then walks away from the graves without even paying his own respects after knowing my parents for nearly twenty-five years, which makes me more and more suspicious.
It’s then that I see his son wrap his hand on his father’s shoulder, giving me my damn answer to everything. It takes everything in me not to reach for my gun and blowing his head right off.
Alek and the rest of my men follow as the crowd exits the cemetery.
“So, you don’t take Romanov as the one, do you?” Alek looks at me sideways.
“No, I was testing the waters.” My eyes haven’t left the spot where Vlad and his son had been standing when their exchange took place. Volchek hadn’t hidden his disdain for me, even in my deepest hour of grief. No, he and his son stood by my family in their graves as they assessed my moves.
The younger Vlad had my father’s watch on his wrist. It hadn’t gone unnoticed, although I guarantee that was his intention. I wouldn’t disrespect my family there, but my mind had never worked quicker as I considered all the ways to dispatch of the two along with every soldier that assisted in the crimes against us.
It’s late in the evening, and I’m sitting with a glass of my family branded vodka, thinking about today’s services and my dogs at my feet. “Boys, we’re going to get you some fresh meat to feast on,” I tell my cane corsos, rubbing their heads.
Taking another sip of my drink, I recall my father’s nearly ancient conversation with Vlad when I was twelve. “A hidden daughter.”
A smile spreads across my face as I sit in my secured estate, thinking how to go about getting the information I need. It’s time to call on my friend for his skills. “My brother. I need your help,” I say to Drago.
“Whatever you need.” Our lines are secure and untappable thanks to his technology.
“I need you to find someone, but it must be the most secret search possible.” Drago is an expert at these things, and with Volchek probably keeping tabs on me, everything must be done through others — for now.
Without hesitation, he says, “I’m in.” We end the call and I finally head to bed.
By the next morning, Drago sent me an encrypted file. Now, I had everything I needed to start my plan.
Here it is. There is the map of the vicinity and all the entrances.
Thank you, my friend.
Any time. Going home.
