Chapter 31: Mikhail

I remember when I had my first fight with my brother.

I was eight and he was eighteen. We went on a camping trip, and he was supposed to be watching me while our parents went out.

He told me to play by the river and urged me to go past the signs that told everyone to keep away because it was dangerous.

Of course, I fell in the river because the reason the signs were there was the ground being unstable.

The current was so strong I couldn’t swim against it, yet Ivan stood on the bank watching me go down the river, crying for help.

Someone heard me screaming. It was an old man. He jumped in and saved me.

When our parents got back, Ivan lied and told everyone I disobeyed him and ventured out against his caution.

I got in trouble, but that night, I tackled him about his lie. I punched him, and he broke my arm. Another lie was told about how that happened, and because he was older, everyone believed him. No one would believe an eighteen-year-old would do such a thing to a little kid or try to drown him in the river.

I must have been around eighteen before our parents started listening to me.

It was clear starting back then that my brother wanted me dead. I just couldn’t understand his deep hatred for me.

Now I see. I truly, truly do.

I stand and walk over to the window, resting my hands on the white wooden ledge.

“Mikhail.” Eric says my name tentatively.

It takes me a moment to return my focus to him, and when I do, I can tell he knows I’m going to lose my shit.

“Ivan actually teamed up with Raul and fuck knows who else to get rid of my mother, my sister, and me.” I speak the words more to myself than him. “All so he could take over the empire.”

Seeing I’m having a hard time grasping the truth, Eric simply nods.

“I might be wrong, but that hardly ever happens when I have strong suspicions.” He looks uneasy. “I know things are already tense between you and your brother. The last thing I want to do is cause more problems, but I wouldn’t be a friend to you if I didn’t call it like I see it, or think it is. I would do the same to anyone else. I’m basing my conclusions on how things look to me.”

When I think of it, things look that way to me, too.

We thought the problem had to do with someone big and powerful. Someone more powerful than Raul. Ivan is exactly that.

We thought someone inside the Brotherhood was helping Raul. Ivan is exactly that.

We knew the person had to be watching our every move and would know our whereabouts at all times. Ivan was exactly that. Except he didn’t need to watch anybody. All he had to do was ask, and we’d tell him.

It was easy to isolate everyone on the night of the attack because Father was sick. That was the opportunity to split us up.

Ivan knew Talia really wanted me at the performance because I hadn’t seen her dance all season. He also knew neither my mother nor father would have both wanted to miss her performance, so he would have been best placed to go to the office and do Father’s work. Also, that Sophia would have offered to take care of my father.

It would have been easy for him.

Father told me the investigation team came back with the all-clear on Raul, yet Eric found fault and hinted at the possibility that they missed things on purpose. If such was the case, it makes sense now because my father also said Ivan personally assisted them.

So, either he covered things up, or he has them eating out of the palm of his hand.

Fuck. I can’t believe this.

“I really can’t believe this.”

“I can’t either, and I have no hardcore evidence. Just suspicion that points toward him.”

I could deal with this possibility if this was just about me, but my mother and sister are dead. Killed in the worst ways possible because of him.

Because he wanted to be Pakhan and take over the company.

“Something doesn’t add up,” he adds.

“What else?”

“I feel like there must be more to it than just the leadership and the company. That’s more about you. He wouldn’t have needed your mother or sister dead if that’s all it was.”

“No, he wouldn’t. He wouldn’t have needed them dead at all. Just me. I’m the one standing in his way of the leadership for all.”

“Then we need to look at the reasons why he’d want the three of you dead. Do you know what is in your father’s will?”

I shake my head. “No. No one is supposed to know that. Not even my father’s lawyers. Not yet. He’s been secretive about it.”

“He must have told someone something. The ticking clock is all based around when he chooses to pass on the leadership and ownership. Maybe he told Ivan something, or Sophia, and Ivan found out. I guess that part is irrelevant. The part we need to worry about is you being a loose end. He’s still going to want you dead.”

God, this is shit. All of it.

“I wonder what stopped him from killing me while I was in the hospital.”

Eric thinks for a moment. “Your father had you under strict supervision, and the Voirik were called in to assist. If people are working from your brotherhood with Ivan, they might not have had access to kill you.”

“God. He never told Raul I was alive, either. Both he and Felipe looked shocked I survived.” They both looked like they’d seen a ghost.

“Did he offer to go with you to Mexico?”

“He didn’t.” And I was so hyped up on rage and grief I never questioned it. Then again, I wouldn’t because he was here investigating.

“So, maybe he wanted you to kill Raul. Think about it. If the plan was still on and you were in a coma, then he might have just been watching and waiting for you to wake up and find out what you remembered. If you died, it would have made no difference to the plan. You being alive, though, identified Felipe and, of course, Raul. So, they both had to die.”

“My God. All this is happening, and the more we talk, the more I suspect him. But I can’t say anything to my father without proof. This is going to break him.”

He gives me a sympathetic stare. “I’m still working on the files. There’s still a lot to go through, but I’ll get it done and hopefully find something there. I suggest we focus on watching Ivan and seeing what we can get that way.”

“I’ll track his every move.”

“You’re going to have to be careful with who you trust, Mikhail,” he cautions. “You don’t know who else might be working for him.”

Damn it. “It could be anybody I know.”

I think of Sebastian and hope like fuck my brother didn’t sway him. I doubt it, but I don’t know. That’s the fucking problem with betrayal. Those who fit the bill to betray you are the people closest to you. It wouldn’t work otherwise.

“Let’s keep numbers small for now. You and me. If we need more muscle and brains, I got the hookup in L.A. I’ll come here to meet with you. I don’t think my presence at the office will help. We need Ivan to think you’re on your own. In the meantime, I’ll check everyone out, and him, too.”

“I keep saying I owe you.”

He smirks. “We’ll talk about that when you repay me.” He pushes to his feet. “Sorry for the bad news, old friend.”

“It’s okay.”

It has to be.

As the hours tick by, I’m aware of the two new elements I now have to contend with.

Ivan’s treachery and the woman in my bed upstairs who’s wondering where I am.

I have to deal with both.

I can’t allow my brother to take over, and I can’t allow the woman to make me soft so I slip up and don’t recognize the danger for what it is.

The next morning, I come up with a plan to set things in motion.

Something that seems like another joke the universe is playing on me.

I wonder if it is when José Diaz walks into my home office. Aleksander is just walking away after ushering him up here.

José must be wondering why I sent for him and why I’m not meeting him at Dmitriyev Ltd.

“Close the door and sit,” I tell him.

He does and sits in the same chair Eric was in last night.

“Is everything okay, Señor?”

“Not exactly.” So far, this man is the only guy in this game who doesn’t have anything at stake and doesn’t have anything to lose.

Nobody has promised him anything except his life in exchange for his help.

The only thing he values is that and Adriana.

“What’s going on?”

“I need to change up your work a little,” I reply. “I need you to split your time between the office in town and working here on the grounds of my home.”

He narrows his eyes in confusion. “What do you want me to do here?”

“You’ll be working here with Sebastian. I need you to watch over Adriana. But I also need you to watch everyone else.”

“Everyone else, including Sebastian?” He straightens.

“Everyone including Sebastian, and everyone who works for me.”

Understanding forms in his eyes. “You trust me that much to watch your men, Señor?”

“No, I don’t trust you. In fact, I don’t even like you. But if I told you the princess’s life could be in danger and someone worse than me may take her to get control of the cartel, I know you would protect her with your life. Is that right, José?”

He nods without thinking. “I would. She’s like a daughter to me.”

“Then do this for me. You notice something wrong, you tell me, and more importantly, you don’t speak to anybody else but me. Got it?”

“Sí.”