Hostile Ground (The Arsenal #7) - Cara Carnes Page 0,37

disapproval deepening the lines along his face.

“Good. I feared whoever attacked me would come for you.” Not that you apparently care, you heartless son of a bitch.

“No. None of my contacts have leads, though.” Kostya’s brows furrowed. “How are you? The injury?”

“Healing well enough. It missed the artery by less than three millimeters.” He studied his father’s face. “I will find whoever did this and make them pay. For Ivan.”

“Good.” His father’s right eye twitched. “Perhaps you shouldn’t go to the auction tomorrow evening. Tell your client to acquire the assets somewhere else.”

Interesting. Kristof grunted and drummed his fingers on the desk. “That’s not possible. I gave my word I’d attend. I can’t pull out, not this close to the event.”

“Then I’ll go in your stead or send another.”

“Your involvement with me can’t be known. Ivan was the only one I would’ve trusted, and he’s gone.” Kristof forced the lie out. He’d never trusted the bastard any more than he did Father. “Surely you’ve learned something about the hit.”

“Why would you think I have?”

Pander to his pride. “You know everything that happens in Moscow.”

“You’ve angered many the past few years. You continued supplying Gavriil despite my caution otherwise. He is one of many you’ve affiliated yourself with that you shouldn’t have.”

The twitch returned. Father looked down again.

“Everything I’ve done is to strengthen the Sidorav syndicate. I’ve extended our reach without anyone knowing. Wasn’t that the intent of my forming the underground operation?”

“Of course; but, we must pull back and focus on our core business. Your radical movements have thinned our manpower. I didn’t realize how much until the attack on you.”

“So, it’s my fault I was attacked? Because I expanded your empire?”

“Perhaps.” He shrugged. “How should I know?”

Tension knotted Kristof’s stomach when the twitch returned yet again. Father was hiding something. He’d have no reason to unless it was him that’d put out the hit.

Damn.

Had Ivan discovered something about Kristof’s true mission? Had he outlived his usefulness? Or had Father simply decided Kristof had outlived his?

And why wouldn’t he want to expand?

Kristof’s plan had been simple—expand operations enough for Father to see nothing more than a flourishing syndicate. In truth it was bleeding money—a fact Kristof hid with large cash infusions from his own operations. The final strike was supposed to occur when Kristof retracted those infusions. By then his affiliations and arrangements would be fully in place and his father’s empire would collapse on itself.

Had Kristof managed to collapse it without realizing it? Was the Sidorav syndicate insolvent already?

“We will speak after the auction,” his father said.

“Thank you, Father, for everything.” Kristof clicked off and shut the computer down.

He’d missed something. Without full access to the Sidorav financials, he’d had to estimate revenue streams and expenses on quite a few of the larger operations. If Father was feeling the financial strains, he likely suspected Kristof’s true intent.

And he’d acted.

But why kill Ivan?

9

Addy wandered the sprawling mansion. The blissful silence on the com was both welcome and unnerving. She’d acclimated to the constant presence on the other end, a reminder she wasn’t alone. After what’d happened hours ago with Kristof, she’d expected Zoey or someone from her team to show up in her ear, but they’d given her the space she needed to get her thoughts under control.

Installing surveillance drones throughout the massive house gave her the excuse to remain awake. Insomnia was a pain in the ass she’d battled a lot through the years, but never as much as recently. She’d tried to sleep earlier, but her mind had wandered back to the kiss.

Why the hell had he kissed her?

The war is for you. The Addy you bury so no one can get to her. She’s in there and I will rescue her from the rubble your brother left in his wake.

Kristof’s words from earlier in the day had haunted her more than they should. He didn’t know anything about her. Where did he get off saying that shit?

It’s true.

No matter how many arguments she constructed, the end result was always the same. He knew her better than she knew herself.

Damn him.

Damn him for crossing that line and declaring a war she wanted no part of. Life was complicated enough without intimate relationships doomed to fail because she couldn’t ever put anyone above the work she did. Sex with meaning had no place in her carefully formed world. Needs were easily sated without emotional entanglements.

Okay, that was a lie. She may have dabbled here and there since she arrived