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“I can help you know? From what I remember, she kind of liked me.”
“Of course she did. Birds of a feather and all that,” I murmur. “I’m not sharing anything with you, Graham. Get out.”
He doesn’t move, but he also doesn’t speak. Seconds pass and I decide to pretend he’s not in the room at all. Time ticks by as we both sit in surprisingly comfortable silence. After several minutes, I look up and he’s scrolling on his phone.
“What is it exactly that you want?” I question.
He shrugs. “Like you said, I’m not quite in our old man’s good graces yet.” he suddenly smirks, eyes lighting up, “Remember when we were younger. I was 12 and you were 13 and he asked us to play a game of cards against each other. Remember how I won?”
“I remember you cheated,” I state, frowning.
“Yeah I did and then you told father, expecting me to be punished or some shit like that. He didn’t punish me though, he told you that there’s nothing wrong with getting your hands a little dirty so long as you get what you want. Cheating’s fine, just don’t get caught.”
“Any reason you’re telling me this?”
“Yes. You’re dealing with a woman in the outfit. Despite everything, she’s the head of an organized crime syndicate. And the woman is also kind of your Achilles heel.”
“Try not to make comments on matters you don’t understand, Graham,” I say through gritted teeth. “It’s unbecoming.
“But I do understand though. I know everything, just as I know you’ll inevitably fail. I’m not sure if father’s intentionally setting you up or if he truly believes you can handle her but you’re deluded if you think he’ll give you what you want.”
The worst part is, I get what he’s saying. He has a point. But still, I don’t have to sit here and listen to him.
“Again, what motivations brought you here? It almost sounds like you came here to warn me but I’m not deluded enough into thinking you actually care.”
“I do care though. I care about you messing up so I can swoop in and still your glory.”
My eyes narrow. “Seeing as that’s not going to happen anytime soon, how about you just leave?”
“No,” Graham says, slowly rising to his feet. “I wasn’t kidding about sticking around. I won’t interfere in your plans, but I also won’t stay still while you fuck up everything up.”
“Thanks for the vote of confidence,” I mutter, refusing to let him see how angry his words are making me.
“Talk to me again when you’ve successfully handled Mincetti.”
He walks out of my office and I’m leaning back in my chair staring into space. What both he and my father don’t get is that there’s no handling Katerina. If our last conversation is anything to go by, she’s not going to be backing down, and there’s no way to control her, not even by threatening her.
Our last conversation also tells me that there might have been some truth in Graham’s words. She can be my weakness because that conversation escalated into something volatile faster than I could breathe. She drives me crazy and not in a good way. I hate how much she affects me but considering it’s all in relation to my son, there’s not much I can do to stop it.
I let out a soft groan of frustration before opening my laptop to check on the programs I’ve been running. It’s cloaked with multiple VPNs bouncing my signal all over the world, every second in real time. Which means I can’t be tracked digitally or hacked into, allowing me to look into whatever it is I want to without worrying that anyone will find out.
Opening a cloaked window I tune everything else out as I feed in some keywords, easily breaking past the Mincetti’s family’s mainframe and firewall. I’m not sure exactly what I’m looking for. Blackmail material, probably. Even though it makes me feel like a horrible person. I feel like I’m sinking down to the depths of Graham and Katerina. Two people I know who would do anything, use anyone to get what I want.
There’s another hidden truth though. Another reason for hacking into the Mincetti’s. There’s something that’s been bothering me for years. Nine years ago, Katerina left the country and headed over to Moscow, almost immediately after she broke up with me.
I know something happened. Buried by either her or her family, I can’t say. I also know she would never tell me if I asked her outright. I’m not supposed to be curious, I’m not even supposed to care. But if what I find out leads me to even a silver of understanding her motivations and reasons why she did what she did. Then…
I don’t even know what the fuck I hope to achieve.
I arrive home later that night to find my son and his uncle on the couch, eating a bag of chips, eyes fixed on the TV. I’m momentarily surprised to find Graham lying there so casually, especially after the shit he pulled earlier today.
“You’re like a leech that just won’t go away,” I mutter in greeting, pulling my suit jacket off and unloosening my tie.
Nate looks up at the sound of my voice, his eyes lighting up.
“Hey, dad.”
“How was school today? And where’s your babysitter?” I question.
