“What can I do for you? Are you still trying to take on the Bratva all by yourself?” He shot me a conspiratorial wink, but I stiffened at the lighthearted comment.
He immediately registered my discomfiture, and his lips thinned beneath his salt and pepper moustache. “Is everything okay, Allie?” His voice was soft on my name, gentle with concern.
I must look more frazzled than I realized. I smoothed a slightly shaky hand over my hair, as though that would be enough to banish the signs of my sleepless nights.
“I, um…” I swallowed against the lump in my throat. The surest way to set off my tears was for someone to ask if I was okay. I was definitely not okay. I couldn’t bring myself to force the lie from my constricted chest, so I settled for edging around the truth. “Actually, I have been looking more into the Bratva. It’s pretty disturbing stuff.”
His bushy brows drew together. “Did you talk to my contact at the D.A.’s office? If he’s showing you case files that are too gruesome for you, I’ll have a word with him.”
My heart lifted slightly at his defensiveness on my behalf. “No, no,” I reassured him quickly. “I haven’t reached out to your contact yet. Besides, I need to get used to gruesome crime scenes if I’m going to handle this career.”
Mike gave me a grave nod. “This job isn’t always easy.”
I huffed a broken little laugh. “Is it ever easy?”
“No, it’s not,” he replied with a rueful shake of his head. “I’d like to be able to shield you from anything that might upset you, but I’m proud of how hard you work, Allie.”
My eyes stung even more fiercely at his praise. “Thanks,” I said thickly. I blinked rapidly before emotion could overwhelm me.
“You’re taking on all this extra research on top of your internship,” he said gently. “Maybe you should take some time for yourself. You’re too young to deal with so much stress. Your work ethic is admirable, but you should be enjoying your life, too.”
I blew out a shaky breath and summoned my resolve. I couldn’t allow his concern to derail me. “Thanks, but I really do want to know more about the Bratva. That’s why I came to talk to you. I have a few questions.”
He shook his head with a low chuckle. “Stubborn like your old man. Okay, Allie. What do you want to know?”
I squared my shoulders. “You mentioned that the Bratva operates differently than the Italian Mafia did when you and my dad took them down ten years ago. You said that’s why you haven’t been able to build a similar case against them. What did you mean by that, exactly? How are they different?”
Mike leaned back in his chair, his gaze going slightly unfocused as he considered my question. “Well, the Mafia operated under a strict hierarchy and a pact of secrecy. It was only when we were able to obtain evidence to arrest the big bosses that we were able to make our move on them. We did that through bugging the phones of their underlings, who never would’ve turned on their bosses.”
I leaned forward slightly, hanging on to his every word. “Yeah, I remember that from when I looked into the casefiles.” Their work had been methodical and brilliant. “So, that’s not how the Bratva operates?”
Mike’s gray gaze focused on me again. “The main problem with building a case against the Russian syndicate is that they’re much better at cleaning their money than the Italians were. We can’t catch them out on fraud or financial crimes like we did with the Mafia bosses. If you recall, it was the fraud case against Michael Ferrara that got us a foothold in starting to build our case against the entire syndicate.”
My stomach turned. Yes, I remembered that all too well. Because Mike had told me that my dad had worked with an anonymous Russian informant to get that initial information against Michael Ferrara. His fraudulent, tax-dodging gas scheme had been the in that my dad needed to build his case.
“Cleaning their money?” I prompted, my voice tight at the reminder that Daddy had secretly worked with a Russian to take down the Mafia, just like Max had said.
Mike nodded. “The Russians are experts at money laundering. They have far more international reach than the New York Mafia did. They move their funds across multiple borders, utilizing shell corporations and offshore banks to hide the dirty origins of their wealth. It’s far more complex and far-reaching than what we’ve been able to take on through this office. Getting proof of the Bratva’s money laundering is almost impossible by the time the funds are funneled to the U.S.”
My heart sank with each word he said. If I was right about the origins of the Ivanovs’ wealth from the aluminum industry, their family fortune was steeped in blood money. And now, they grew their wealth through their hedge fund. Niko himself managed that fund.