“Yes, thank you, Bern. I’ll make sure to get off your lawn.” Kaspar rolled his eyes.
I held up my hands. “I came here to ask for time. I know that things have been difficult—“
“Putting it mildly,” Old Bern interrupted.
I gave him a look. “Darren sent a man to my home. He tried to infiltrate my people. He threatened my staff and my wife with poison gas. How do you think I should react to that?”
Quiet all around. Torin looked stunned—he always was the kindest of the group—and Kaspar only ran a finger around his glass. Old Bern glared hot death at me.
“That’s one hell of an accusation,” Old Bern said.
“I can prove it. We have the interrogation records.” I gestured at Roza.
She handed out small USB sticks to each man. “You’ll find it all there, raw and unedited. Have your labs analyze it.”
“Gladly,” Torin said and winked.
Roza rolled her eyes.
“Is that why you called us together? You want to tattle on Darren?” Kaspar eyed me above his drink. “Doesn’t seem like you, Roman.”
“I know you’re all going to come together and move on me soon enough. I’m not interested in getting Darren in trouble any more than I want to start any issues within our group, but I will defend myself where necessary. Yes, I started a war between the Italians and the Mexicans, but only because Darren forced my hand.”
Not strictly true. Not remotely true. But plausible enough. I hoped Cassie was paying attention.
She sat with her back straight, looking at each man like a queen staring down her help. They ignored her, not because she was a woman—Maeve was an Oligarch and a woman and well-respected, after all—but because she wasn’t one of us. Married to me or not, it didn’t matter.
Only the Oligarchs had a voice.
The rest of the world listened.
“You know our rule,” Old Bern said. “No direct fighting. Squabbling with intermediaries is fine, so long as it doesn’t cause too much chaos.” He leaned forward and jabbed his finger at me. “Starting a god damn mob war is a lot of fucking chaos.”
“Oh, lighten up, Bern,” Torin said. “You raised some hell in your heyday. If I recall, didn’t you kill an entire Latvian gang once for disrespecting your son?”
“They deserved it,” Old Bern grumbled.
“Sparked a lot of revenge killings and tossed south Texas into turmoil for a decade. Are you sure?”
Old Bern grunted and waved an annoyed hand. “What’s your point?”
“My point is, Roman hasn’t said we should shut the fuck up and accept what he’s doing. He only asked for time.”
“Thank you, Torin.” I nodded my head toward him. “I will fix the mess I’ve made, but first I want to get married and make things official with my bride.” I put my palm possessively on Cassie’s leg. She sat up straighter. “Then I want to settle things with Darren as peacefully as I can. After that, I’ll fix my mess and pay whatever penance the group decides I owe.”
“Generous,” Kaspar said, sounding droll. Of everyone in the Oligarchs, he was the most dangerous and erratic. Old Bern was a mad dog on a leash and Torin was a grinning fool with the heart of a killer, but Kaspar was unpredictable, like ocean waves—calm one moment and slamming the sand the next.
“We don’t like this mess with the Ramos and the Liberto, we can all agree on that,” Torin said. “Did you know that Chale Ramos is still alive? Barely clinging on, but directing the war from his hospital room.”
That pleased me for some reason. I liked Chale. “I hadn’t heard that.”
“You don’t know everything. That’s a first.” Kaspar grinned at me.
“Enough of this.” Old Bern grunted and put a hand against his back, rubbing sore muscle. “You want time, Lenkov? I’m fine with giving you time. Two months is plenty, yes?”
“Plenty,” I agreed.
“I’m okay with two months,” Torin said. “Then you clean up your toys.”
I looked at Kaspar. He gazed back and pursed his lips.
“You know, Roman, if it were me in your position, I’d be a little more contrite. I wouldn’t bring my secretary and my wife, though they seem like fine people.”
“Thank you,” Cassie said.
Kaspar nodded to her. “But why do you get a pass here? We all know Darren’s not doing any of this for no reason. You took control of the Drozdov Bratva, and that was fine, you were always their patron. But then you brokered the alliance between them and the Liberto, and that made things more complicated. Darren pushed back only to try to counter your growing, untenable strength. Why should we give you anything at all?”
I stared him down and struggled to stay calm. Fucking Kaspar, I hoped he’d be on my side. I thought Old Bern would be the difficult one, but I was wrong.