prison for it and was killed inside not long after. Some kind of prison riot.
“Claudia died from lung cancer when Dimitri was fourteen. The address I found for them was in the slums, really rough neighborhood. After her death, I couldn’t find any record of Dimitri attending any school or being admitted into any foster care system. As far as I can tell, he had no other immediate family to turn to after his mother’s death.”
“Except for Sergei,” Rome supplied from where he stood in the shadowed corner, like a statue.
“But why would he keep Sergei’s paternity a secret?” Luka asked. “If he just told him who he was, he’d be heir to a billion-dollar fortune.”
“Perhaps it was revenge,” Dad spoke up. You’d never have known he’d been in the hospital three weeks ago. Aside from losing a little weight, he looked no different than before the heart attack. “It’s possible Dimitri blames Sergei for everything that happened to him and Claudia. Maybe he felt Sergei had abandoned them, and now he’s looking for payback.”
“But Claudia left him,” Cris argued. “It was her choice.”
Dad grunted. “Grief can convince the mind of almost anything.”
I pressed my palms to my eyes, my brain wading through the mushy effects of the alcohol. “So, Dimitri helps Raphael escape prison…just for the money? What’s his game? There has to be more to it than that.”
“There is.” Ace pulled up the security camera footage from Sergei’s compound the day of the shooting. The day of our wedding. “The brigadiers shooting up your father-in-law’s estate the day you hightailed it out of Moscow? Same guys who helped Dimitri break Raphael out. Same crew.”
My face slackened with clarity. “They’re the Voiny. Dimitri is the leader of the faction that’s trying to overthrow Sergei.”
It was all beginning to make sense.
Cris blew out a heavy breath. “He’s been turning Sergei’s own men against him from the inside. Pulling the wool right over the boss’s eyes.”
Luka threw his arms up. “Why didn’t he just kill Sergei? That seems like a long time to wait to claim power for someone so greedy. Putting a bullet through Sergei’s eyes would have been a lot quicker.”
“He had to gain respect among the men,” I answered. “He knew those loyal to Sergei would revolt if he moved too quickly. He had to get as many as he could to go turncoat before he made his move.”
“Then, what?” Rome asked. “He kills Sergei and claims the boss seat? And the Voiny basically take over the entire syndicate?”
Luka shook his head. “It still doesn’t make any sense to me why he didn’t just tell Sergei who he was. He would have an automatic inheritance.”
“But not until Sergei died,” Dad pointed out. “Which could still be another twenty years or more. If Dimitri proved paternity, he’d have to arrange for Sergei’s ‘accidental’ death if he wanted to see that money anytime soon.”
“Besides, he wouldn’t be the only one inheriting,” Ace said. “Sergei changed his will not long after he adopted Lexi, leaving her everything. His entire fortune goes to her upon his death. Even if Sergei were to change it and include Dimitri in it, something tells me that he probably never learned to share as a child.”
“Are you saying he was planning to take her out, too?” I barked, the question coming out louder than I’d intended.
I fumed at the thought of that cocksucker laying a finger on Lexi.
Ace quirked an eyebrow. “If he wanted all the money and power for himself, both Sergei and Lexi would have to be out of the picture.”
“So, why is he making his move now?” Cris asked.
I could tell he immediately answered his own question, but I was the one who said it out loud. “Because she married me.”
“Which would have screwed up his entire plan,” Rome added.
“Sergei must have known more than he was letting on,” Dad concluded.
Ace rubbed his chin in contemplation. “He must have discovered what Dimitri was up to and called the impromptu meeting with Nico to cut Dimitri off at the pass. If Lexi was married to Nico, he knew Dimitri would have to fight our entire family if he wanted to get at her.”
“And Sergei knew he wouldn’t be able to stop Dimitri by force,” Luka cut in, pacing once again. “Not with so many Voiny at his back.”
Cris shot me a look. “Not to mention, Sergei knew she’d be in danger if she stayed in Moscow. Just like he told Nico, he wanted her