Russian Mafia Boss's Heir (13 page)

“I would have to if I wanted them to back my claim to leadership once Stanislas was out of the way—committed—whatever.” Mikhail put both of his hands on his head and looked as though he might be in danger of scraping his short hair right off his scalp in frustration.

“Fuck the council!” Alexei snarled. “What have they done but let him run in circles and looked the other way? You think they don’t know what’s going on? That bastard Yuri Pavlovic laughed at me the day I became a made man. He told me to enjoy my success while I could because my father would never let me live long enough to take over.”

It angered Tori to think that someone had treated Alexei so callously and then blamed him and called him a coward when he decided to remove himself from the lifestyle. It wasn’t fair. None of it was!

“Pavlovic is a bastard,” Mikhail said darkly. “But that doesn’t mean the rest of the council realizes what’s going on.”

“Bullshit,” Alexei shot back. “They know. Go talk to them and see how fast your name hits the shit list.”

“I don’t get it,” Tori mused. “You would think the council would be nervous that Stanislas would start divulging their dirty laundry.”

“He’s paranoid, yes,” Alexei agreed. “But his paranoia doesn’t come with the side affect of divulging inappropriate information at the wrong time.”

“Maybe not,” Tori agreed. “But what if the council
thought
it did.”

Both Mikhail and Alexei raised their brows in an obvious show of surprise.

“What?” she asked, shrugging it off. “You guys aren’t the only one with good ideas, you know.”

***

MIKHAIL HAD ALWAYS known that Tori had a good brain and a desire to use it. He’d just never really wondered what it would look like when she truly engaged in solving a problem. She had a bit of the devious in her, and he found it very attractive. Maybe even sexy.

She glanced from him to Alexei and set her jaw in what he’d come to view as her stubborn expression. The woman could certainly dig her heels in when she wanted to.

Mikhail wondered if she might actually have a viable solution. Stanislas was out of control. There was no doubt about it, but so far he only seemed to be a danger to anyone he thought might be an heir to his position. Even if he was the one who appointed that person.

“How would we convince the council that Stanislas was compromising their personal information?” Mikhail wondered out loud.

There was a gleam in Tori’s eyes that made Mikhail’s brain stop thinking about business and start thinking about how much he wanted to fuck his wife. Forcing himself back to the moment, he watched Tori consider his concern.

Then she smiled. “I suppose we would have to concoct something. Maybe we leak something about one of the council members to the cops or the press. Something like that. We can cite Stanislas as the source. That would be a simple way to do it.”

Alexei wrinkled his nose. “That’s weak, but the idea is sound. I just think we need something with a bigger, more damaging payoff.”

“Selling information to another family?” Tori suggested. “If Stanislas is paranoid, maybe he thinks one of the other families is out to get him. So what if he intentionally leaks info on that family because he
wants
to hurt them?”

“That’s not a fabrication,” Mikhail informed them with a groan. “The man is obsessed with the Orlovs.”

“Not surprising,” Alexei mused. “He’s been like that since he married Tori’s mother.”

“Probably because he was right to be worried,” Tori admitted. “According to my cousin, my mother was indeed more of an Orlov than a Vasiliev.”

“Okay.” Mikhail started putting things together in his head. “So we have the framework for a setup. Now we just need to fill in the pieces and figure out how to execute it and make sure the council knows Stanislas is responsible.”

“I think I may have the perfect thing,” Tori said slowly.

***

MIKHAIL COULD NOT help but think that this was all a very bad idea. Still, he had to give Tori credit for having the sort of courage he often believed grown men lacked.

The two of them sat and tried to be pleasant while they ate dinner with Stanislas. The spread put out before them was absolutely huge. Mrs. Tobolovsky carried dish after dish into the dining room. Although the effect was rather ruined when she consistently slammed things down and muttered beneath her breath while staring daggers at Tori. Mikhail remembered her mentioning this behavior in passing. How had he never before noticed how pervasive it was?

Stanislas pressed his napkin primly to his lips before speaking. “What is it you wished to say this evening, Tori?” He gave her an enigmatic smile. “Not that I believe you need an excuse to dine with me. It has been too long, my dear. I have missed you.”

Mikhail practically choked on his wine. The man had been bitching about Tori every other second, calling her headstrong and advising Mikhail on all sorts of solutions for keeping her “in hand.” Did he honestly not recall any of the things that he had said?

“Papa,” Tori began, using what Mikhail could now identify as her fake nice tone of voice. “I wanted to be here when Mikhail shared our news with you!”

“News?” Stanislas raised his eyebrows, glancing over at Mikhail. “And what news is this?”

“We’re having a baby!”

Tori said it with far more excitement than Mikhail would have attributed to the situation. He had to admit that she played it all very well. Somehow, the thought didn’t give him comfort. How many other things had she “played?”

“Wonderful!” Stanislas said in Russian.

The potential grandfather lifted his hands into the air and began babbling at about a million miles an hour. Mikhail didn’t follow the conversation. He heard snippets of compliments, excitement, and perhaps even a few plans that Stanislas was making for the supposed upcoming birth.

Then Tori laid it on thick. “We’re just so excited! And did I tell you? I’ve also made contact with my mother’s family again. Antonin Orlov has been so supportive! He keeps saying how he hopes that it will be a bond between our two families again.”

Mikhail watched the genuine enjoyment drain right off Stanislas’s face. His smile was now tight, his eyes chips of dark glass in his stony countenance. “You have been speaking with Antonin Orlov, daughter? Why?”

Tori gave him a wide eyed look of innocence. “Because he is my cousin. His father is my mother’s brother. Being pregnant with a child of my own makes me realize how very important family ties are, stepfather. I’m not a Vasiliev. Not really. I’m an Orlov. I want to know my family, and I want my baby to know both sides of his heritage. He’s going to lead the Vasilievs once Mikhail retires, but he may also be heir to the Orlovs as well.” Tori reached across the table. Mikhail saw Stanislas flinch when she touched his arm. Then Tori beamed at him. “It’s just so wonderful to have so much supportive family!”

***

TORI WAS BEGINNING to wonder if she’d been foolish to poke at this man. Her stepfather was
deranged!
Alexei had been right. She could actually see the cold calculation going on behind his hard eyes. There was no doubt in Tori’s mind that her stepfather felt she had betrayed him by getting in touch with her mother’s family. Perhaps that was what made her decide to go off script and ask what she truly wanted to know.

“Papa,” she began slowly. “What happened to my mother? She died, but nobody has ever told me how.” Beside her, Tori felt Mikhail tense up. She could practically hear his mental shouting as he begged her to stick to the plan.

“She killed herself,” Stanislas said tersely.

“No.” Tori shook her head. “She wouldn’t have done that. I know it. She wouldn’t have left me like that.”

“She did.” Stanislas stood up.

“Papa, where are you going?” Tori shouldn’t have cared if the old man left, but she wasn’t done with the topic of her mother. “Dinner isn’t even finished.”

“I am done.” Stanislas glared at her. “I cannot digest my food properly when I eat with a traitor.”

“Traitors?”

“One traitor. One.” He pointed one long finger at her, his lips pulled away from his teeth as though he was baring them in a growl. “I told Mikhail that he needed to keep a close eye on you and take you in hand.” Now Stanislas curled his lip. He was starting to look a bit crazed. “You’re just like your mother. I loved her, yet she married me for nothing more than power and security for her family. She was moving against me. I knew it!”

“I thought you said she committed suicide!” Tori snapped. “It sounds to me like you’re suggesting you might have gotten rid of her yourself!”

“Don’t be ridiculous.” Stanislas’s gazed shifted to Mikhail. “You will keep this woman under tabs. If she undermines our syndicate, I will have nobody but you to blame.”

“But she has done nothing wrong, Boss,” Mikhail said, his tone mild. “She has merely contacted her mother’s family out of curiosity about her roots—her origin. Surely that’s natural.”

“No it is not!” The old man was jabbing his finger at them as though he were having a tantrum. “When a woman marries, she leaves her family ties behind, and her husband’s family becomes her new focus and sole care.”

“That’s not fair,” Tori told him. “The Vasilievs are all I’ve ever known. I never had a choice. You’re not my father.”

“I have been the only father you have known!” Stanislas shouted. “Fine! You want to know what happened to your mother? The Orlovs killed her. That’s right! Her own family killed her because she loved me more than them!”

Chapter Seventeen

Mikhail watched Stanislas storm out of the dining room and wondered what the man was going to do. There was any number of possibilities. Mikhail thought that he had everything worked out. He thought that he had his men in place to head things off before they got ugly. Yet there always existed the possibility that one of the men would have conflicting loyalties that got in the way of them blocking a move or an order from Stanislas.

“I don’t know what to believe,” Tori murmured. “How can I know what happened?”

“We will find out.” Mikhail reached over and gently touched her arm. “Are you all right?”

He could see that she was ready to fall apart. Her lower lip was quivering. Mikhail moved his chair closer to hers. He opened his arms, holding his breath as he wondered if she would turn away. There had been so much turmoil between them in the last few weeks. Yet when he offered, she accepted.

Tori huddled in his arms, leaning over to press her face against his chest. He felt her body shake as she began to cry. He knew that she needed to get it out, to let the emotions run wild and unchecked as she began to process the possibility that her mother’s death had not been an accident or something natural.

“It’s going to be all right,” he whispered. “We’ll find the truth, Tori. And we’ll somehow manage to keep your stepfather from murdering his son into the bargain.”

“Alexei was only fifteen when my mother died.” Her words were thick with her tears. “He doesn’t remember anything. Who would know?”

“Did Antonin say anything?” Mikhail had always wondered if Vasily—and through him Antonin—had their suspicions about what had happened to the beloved daughter of the Orlov family.

“Not really. He just alluded to the fact that my mother’s marriage hadn’t been a happy one, and that it had been more of a political alliance than anything.” Tori sat up. “You aren’t a Vasiliev. Not full blood. Why would my father choose you?”

Mikhail shrugged. “The more your father acts suspicious of me, the more I wonder that myself. My mother was a Vasiliev. She was a distant cousin of Stanislas. Her husband was just a man, an Ivanov who married well and got a job within this organization. From the time I was old enough to follow along after my father, I knew I was going to be an enforcer.”

“So ten years ago you came on board and have done nothing but move up the ranks,” she mused.

“Ah, not quite,” he argued. “I was always within the ranks. Ten years ago, I became a made man. You could say that I proved myself.”

“How?” Tori asked.

Mikhail thought about that. He’d never truly accepted that entire situation for what it had been. Perhaps now it was time he did. “I reported the location of your stepbrother to your stepfather. He went after Alexei that night and would have killed him had Alexei not promised to leave and never return.”

“Oh my God,” Tori whispered. “He’s always been like this, hasn’t he?”

Mikhail didn’t even hesitate. “I would suggest that he has.”

***

TORI STOOD UP. “We have to get out of here. Now.”

“We’re safe here. The men know about your father.”

“The men have
always
known,” she agreed. “But there are those that want to make a name for themselves by doing him a favor.” She gave him a significant look. “Isn’t that what you did?”

Mikhail seemed to consider this. “You’re right. Let’s go. We need to report back to Alexei anyway.”

The two of them strode out of the Vasiliev mansion hand in hand. Somewhere in that house, Stanislas was plotting against them. It made Tori sad to be so certain of that, but there was no denying the truth. Not after the disastrous dinner announcement.

“Tori,” Mikhail said as he opened her car door. “Were you truly serious about feeling like my personal—” It was as if he couldn’t bring himself to say it out loud. “—call girl?”

She heaved a giant sigh. “Do we have to do this
now
? Don’t you think there’s enough going on?”

Mikhail ran around the vehicle and got inside. “Yes. We have to do this now. None of this matters if our relationship is dead in the water at the end of it all.”

His words touched her. She wouldn’t have thought it mattered one way or the other about their marriage. Mikhail had the Vasilievs. He was figuring out the details behind Stanislas’s mental devolution. What did it matter if they were still married at the end of it all?

“Tori.” He put the car in gear and pulled away from the curb. “Please. It matters.”

“Yes!” she finally admitted. “You don’t talk to me. You don’t pay attention to me except when we’re having sex. I have no purpose in that house. I have nothing to do, no job, no—nothing! My only purpose in life is to spread my legs for you. How would
you
feel?”