sister into the house, she really hoped she was right.
Sunday morning, Jax sat on his surfboard near the Manhattan Beach Pier, just beyond the break. He'd ridden a few waves, but mostly he'd watched the other surfers, hoping David Graham would show up. He had a plan of attack, and he was eager to put it in motion. But it was nine and David hadn't arrived. Most of the morning surfers were hitting the shore. And he had to meet Maya at eleven for breakfast at Belle's. Luckily, Belle's was only a few miles away. He could hang for a while longer.
He had to admit it felt good to be in the water. He hadn't surfed in a couple of years. He'd done it a lot earlier in his life, but he wasn't that good at waiting for waves. He liked more constant action and not having so much time to think. Although, it was nice to have that time this morning.
He was mentally tired after having stayed up until two researching members of the Firebird Club. He'd dug further into the Bragins, learning more about their roster of companies, which was extensive. At least half of them dealt in classified information, which was concerning. Daniel Bragin had started out with one software company back in the seventies and had built an empire over the next fifty years, accumulating a great deal of wealth along the way.
What was also interesting was that Daniel Bragin's father had been born in Ukraine. It made sense that Bragin would have Russian ties since he was one of the original investors in the Russia House. But it also made Jax wonder if Bragin had some role in whatever was at play.
Was he disseminating information from his own companies? Had his daughter taken that over once she'd become CEO and Daniel had retired? Or were Daniel and his daughter victims?
Those answers still eluded him.
He'd also looked up Edward Coleman, Sylvia's father. Coleman's grandmother had been Russian, but Edward and his parents had been born in the US. The Colemans were a political family. Edward was a lawyer, who had become the DA of Los Angeles, then the California State Attorney General. After that, he'd had two failed runs at the US Senate and had ended up in private practice. He'd been married twice. His first marriage had produced his daughter, Sylvia, who he'd ended up raising after his wife died of cancer. His second wife had died in a car accident ten years ago. Since then, he'd been dating a woman in her forties, while he was nearing eighty, but the man had charm and money, so Jax wasn't completely surprised.
Sylvia's second husband, Mark Graham, had also been involved in politics, serving as a state congressman for eight years, before he'd divorced her and moved to Paris. Jax hadn't been able to find anything on Graham after that move, which was odd. Sylvia was a bit of a mystery, too. She ran the club like a mama bear protecting her cubs. She was suspicious of any new staff member or anyone threatening to upset a member, like Maya. But she'd been around the club when she was a teenager, she'd married Bozic’s stepbrother and worked at Falcon Motors. She was clearly involved with Eddie Bozic now, and her son was involved, too.
So, who was calling the shots? Was it Bozic? Had he encouraged Sylvia to leave his dealership and go back to the club, thereby giving him access to a lot of people with money, power and connections? Or was Sylvia in charge?
He didn't like Sylvia for the moniker "the Wolf" which had been mentioned in both Natasha's journal and by Yuri right before he died. He suspected the Wolf was one of the older guys—Constantine, Bragin, Coleman, Jagger, or Paul. Of that group, he'd put the first three as his top picks. But he needed more information, and his golden ticket to that info was David. He was Sylvia's son. He knew Bozic. He had access to the cars. He was right in the middle of the action. He also didn't like his mother, seemed to hate his job, and was now in trouble with Bozic, who'd threatened him with death. That also made Bozic a suspect for the Wolf moniker, although he was in his sixties versus seventies, which made him a little young for Natasha's circle, but not out of the realm of possibility.