Anatoli
"How the hell did you find out about the vineyard?"
He gives me a confident smile and I realize I'm right.
"I have a special penchant for getting information. I might be on a par with your lady friend there, or slightly better. She left a trace here and there but I cleaned it up."
I raise my brows. "You can hack?" Or maybe it's a little more than that if he can detect Gytha's traces. She's not messy in the least.
"It's my thing but I don't announce it. Sometimes it's better when people don't know everything about you. That way you can keep more things to yourself."
"Do the others know?"
"Malik. Not Mikhail."
I could have guessed that. Zakh seems closer to Malik than to Mikhail. It was just something I picked up on when we were at the wedding.
"Leif knows too," he adds.
"I guess that's why he wants me to get to know you guys."
"I suppose so. He wants us to get to know you too."
"What's your take on that?" I've never cared one way or the other about being a part of them. I always thought they'd reject me, but I'm curious to hear his thoughts.
"I won't lie, the situation is strange. I'm close to Leif, maybe closer than the others so I feel betrayed that he didn't tell me about you. But I get it. I trust the decisions he makes are for the best. So I'm on board."
I'm surprised by the lightness that fills me at being accepted. "That's good to hear."
"And you? What about you?"
"I'm on board too." I am, though not with Mikhail, but that goes without saying.
"Does that mean I earned some element of trust?" He keeps his gaze trained on me.
"You did." I'm not going to give my wholehearted trust to him because I never do that-except with Leif and Ehlga-but this is a start I think I need. Zakh gave me a lead to check out that I wouldn't have had. "I guess I don't have to ask why you told me. You want to be Obshchak. Don't you?"
"When our family got the opportunity to join the elite, I was always going to be the Obshchak when Father retired. I want it to stay that way."
Well, this is the first moment I've felt that I can now choose my subordinates.
"What about Malik? What should I do with him?"
"Whatever you choose."
"Can I trust him too?"
"He's in a weird place but he's on board. And yes, you can trust him."
Leif told me that Malik had been captured and tortured by one of our father's enemies years ago. He was held in captivity for close to a year. I assumed that's why Malik seems calculative and quiet. Shit like that can change a man in ways no one knows unless they've been through a similar experience. It happened to me once but I was only gone for a few days.
"Malik and I work together in the accounts department. When Father became the Sovietnik our role extended to taking care of the Raventhorn Bank." That is the bank that holds all the Knights' money. "Malik is the only one of us who trained with the Pakhan's security force and he served in the Navy for two years."
"Impressive." I especially like the Navy part.
"Well I feel like I should put in a good word for him since I'm trying to get a position that could be his."
"I'm assuming I can trust Mikhail as far as I can throw him?"
"Man, if you can do that much, I give you credit." He chuckles.
"You don't trust him?" I decide to cut to the chase.
Zakh grins. "That's debatable. We're Scarfonis. Power hungry men. But let's just say a few things have happened to make me question my brother."
That sounds important. "Like what?"
He pulls in a breath. "You might not care to hear it because of what our father did to you and your mother."
I see. It's to do with him. Zakh's right. I don't give a shit about our father. But perhaps this is something I should hear.
"Tell me anyway."
"I don't believe his illness was brought on by natural causes."
I narrow my eyes. "But he had a heart condition."
"Yes, but it didn't make sense. A man doesn't suddenly go from being active one day to so sick he has to be hospitalized because his heart is bad, then collapsing straight into a coma."
That doesn't sound right. "What do you think happened to him?"
"There were traces of oleander on the desk in his office. I had the place swept for it when he first fell into the coma. I suspected it could be something like that. I'm sure you know how deadly and undetectable that poison can be."
"I'm aware of it." I bite down hard on my back teeth, willing myself not to care. I don't for the old man, but what Zakh is suggesting is that there's something else going on. "Does anyone else know this?"
"No. I didn't want to say anything yet until I have more proof of who put the poison there. And what their plans are. If they slow-poisoned our father, they could be up to anything."
"How come you're telling me?"
"Our father is going to die and even if he makes it back, his position has already been dissolved with your arrival. But before you, the person who stood to gain everything was Mikhail. Now he's a sitting duck waiting on you."
"You think Mikhail poisoned our father?"
"Yes. As such I don't want him to have what he so desperately desired. Or anything. But now you have it."
"Didn't you want the chance to take over the company and be at the Pakhan's right hand?"
"Of course, I did. We would have all wanted that, but I knew it would never be mine. You can't want something that was never yours to begin with. It's fruitless. What you do is secure what is yours, or what should have been. If I'm doing it, I'm sure Mikhail and Uther are doing the same thing too. They'll be looking for ways to either supplement their loss or get it back. So I guess I don't have to tell you to watch your back."
"No, I have eyes on them."
"I have eyes on them too. I want to find out if Mikhail really did poison our father. You do know that if he did, and he's plotting your death too, it makes him our common enemy. It would be one more nail to hammer into his coffin." He intensifies his stare. "But if it's not him, then it means it was someone else who might have another agenda which could be the same as Mikhail's."
"Yes it does mean that." And it's something I have to be aware of. The worst thing that could happen is to get blindsided by someone I never saw coming.
"You have more eyes than me and our father's personal security team at your command, as well as your own. If we were working together it would be more hands, less work."
He's right. And that's a very clever way of asking for my help. It's just that even if Mikhail or whoever hadn't poisoned the old man, I planned to kill him the same way he had my mother killed. Knight's law or not.
Nevertheless, Zakh has raised points I would be foolish to ignore. I don't have to care about our father to work together with him and accomplish a common goal. Zakh has already proven his worth by telling me about the vineyard. I wouldn't have gotten that information on my own.
"I agree."
"Does that mean you'll do it?" He looks hopeful.
"Yes. And I think I just chose the new Obshchak."
He smiles wide and stretches his hand out to shake mine.
"Thank you, brother. Pleasure doing business with you."
"It certainly has been."
Mikhail is going to be more enraged with me when he finds out I've chosen Zakh, but that's his problem.
I won't rule him out completely though.
The best thing to do with an asshole like him is keep him right where I can see him. That way I'll know if he's planning to kill me, or trying to get his woman back.
Good luck on both, Mikhail.
You'll need all the luck in the world if you plan to come for me.