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“Doesn’t Natasha want it?”
I shook my head again. “She’s happy with event planning.”
Sergei huffed and stood up, walking to the window that overlooked the dance floor down below. “How is the other thing going?”
It was my turn to huff, albeit silently, at the abrupt change in topic and the fact he wasn’t going to be pleased with the next answer either. “Not as well as we’d hoped. We can’t find the next level in the supply chain and I don’t have the time to dedicate to it because I’mheredoing busy work with schedules and payroll and inventory. I don’t have to tell you what a waste of my time this is.”
“That does not make me happy, Misha.” Sergei’s pale gaze met mine in the tinted reflection of the two-way mirror.
“I know. But it’s not my fault you shot the last manager.”
“She had it coming.”
“I’m not saying she didn’t. However, the staff are… hesitant to accept the promotion.”
“I don’t care! I don’t care if you have to train a monkey to run this place. I want you to find that network, Misha, and fucking crush it!” Sergei clenched his fist and hit the window ledge. “We got rid of the Italians, families who have been dug into this city for the past hundred and twenty years. You brokered an alliance with the Irish on the north side. It shouldn’t bethatfucking hard to find the head of this snake and cut it off. That’s what I pay you to do!”
I wasn’t about to try and explain the nuances of this mystery organization or the varied layers of management they’d taken their time to establish. As far as I could tell after weeks of chasing my tail, our new competitor didn’t have a direct chain of command like a usual gang. Therehadto be one but the multitude of middlemen and the fact the street-level dealers knew next to nothing about their higher-ups made it all the more difficult to figure out what it was and where to go next. This group wasn’t a snake, it was a hydra—as soon as one head was cut off, another two grew in its place.
“If you’re not up to the task, Mikhail, perhaps we should bring in someone else,” Dimitri volunteered from the side of the room, his gaze unwavering as it locked onto mine. “That way you can continue managing Delirium and both of Sergei’s problems are finally solved. Something you have thus far been unable to accomplish.”
“Please tell me who you think is better suited to handle our competitors. You? Or are you going to waste even more time bringing someone over, someone who doesn’t know the city or how it works, in the hope of proving me wrong?”
“Everyone is replaceable,” Dimitri replied icily.
“Even you,” I countered.
“Enough,” Sergei snapped, turning to face us. “You want to fight? Fight the people outside this room. Fight the whole fucking city if you want. But in here, youbothwork for me. Never forget that.”
“About the manager,” I reminded Sergei, trying to get him back on track while brushing aside the overwhelming anger Dimitri managed to stir up every time we breathed the same air.
“Pick whoever you want. I don’t care.” Sergei stopped abruptly and pointed at me. “No, Idocare. They have to know us. They have to know our business but not so much of our business that they interfere like the last one. I don’t need another one slipping off to the police and chatting them up about what goes on here.”
“No one in our ranks knows the first thing about running a club,” I replied, trying to keep my tone even as opposed to exasperated, “let alone keeping it lucrative. If Delirium shuts down, we’ll have to move the whole operation. New security. New defenses. Plan new routes of travel foryoursafety. You don’t need a killer in charge, you need someone who knows the hospitality industry. Someone legitimate.”
“How about your nephew? He went to college. Wasn’t it for business?” Sergei asked, raising his gray eyebrows.
“Ilya?” I was not at all pleased by the happy look on Sergei’s face. He apparently thought the idea was brilliant and now I had to find a way to break it to him as gently as possible without reopening old wounds. “He’s in California, remember?”
Sergei made a face and gestured impatiently. “Doing what? What is he doing there that he can’t do here?”
“He’s out, boss. He’snotcoming back.” Other than the fact his mother would kill me if he wound up working for Sergei again, there wasnoway I was letting him step foot in Chicago with the current climate. My gut told me Dimitri would have him killed the first chance he could, even if he didn’t take credit for it.
“Sounds like someoneelsewe know,” Dimitri said darkly, confirming my fears. “I still say you should send people to retrieve that traitor, Sergei. Bring him back here and deal with his disloyalty personally. Show the men what happens when you turn your back on us.”
“Have you found my Wolf yet?” Sergei looked expectantly at Dimitri.
My attention shifted to Dimitri as well, waiting to see what his answer would be, how his words compared to the reality of the situation. Would Dimitri lie straight to Sergei’s face? And if he did, how could I prove it without revealing my own subterfuges along the way?
Dimitri gritted his teeth and gave one slow shake of his head. I’m sure admitting failure in front of me was physically painful for him. At least, I hoped it was.
“How can he have vanished into thin air?” Sergei glanced between us, still as bewildered as he was months ago when I told him Sasha “mysteriously” left. “You find people for a living! You’re supposed to be my fucking spy!” he yelled at Dimitri before his blue gaze narrowed on me. “And you! Why can’tyoufind Sasha?”
“I find people who don’t know any better,” I replied tersely. “Sasha knows better. And even if I found him, sending men after him would cost you in the end. He will kill them all and you still won’t have your Wolf back. My advice is to let him go.”
“Animals,” Dimitri snarled. “You should have destroyed himandhis lover when you had the chance. Now look. You have nothing to show for your leniency. This is exactly why we shouldn’t tolerate these types of people. They infect the organization from the inside out like a cancer andheencourages it!” To drive home his point, he jabbed a finger in my direction.
“No, you’re right, Dimitri.” I cut another glare at him, trying to keep my anger from boiling over, but it was a losing battle. “We have absolutely nothing to show for Sasha’s loyalty except Kazimir Belov’s death and the complete destruction of the Belov organization, who were the real traitors, in case you forgot. Sergei regained control of our assets in Moscow, practically tripling our profits overnight. But please, continue to cry over the loss of ananimalcapable of murdering every single person in this club. I’ll wait while you sort out your hypocrisy.”
