“Bring him here then, Ivan,” Roman pipes up. It’s important to him, making sure people understand that my father isn’t a man that chases people. If someone wants to meet him, they make the journey to him. Even if it’s a few feet across a restaurant.
“It’s fine, Roman.” Dad waves him down and gets to his feet. “I see someone else I need to say hello to.” He follows Ivan away from the table toward another with two older women sitting alone near the windows.
“He likes to go around and greet the people that come here,” Arman says. “These people live in this neighborhood. The more he befriends them, the more they’ll look the other way when they see something they don’t like.”
I watch him make his way around, greeting a few other women and men before making his way to the table Ivan’s standing at talking. With both of them occupied away from the table, I take the opportunity to let Arman know I’ve taken care of a situation for him.
“By the way, the debt Yogi and Boris went to collect yesterday. It’s forgiven for the time being.” I pick up my phone when a text comes through.
“Which one? They went on a few pick-ups yesterday,” Arman laughs.
“Oliver Harrison.”
He looks like he’s checking his mental filing cabinet. “Two hundred fifty thousand? You’re forgiving that? Why?” He sits up straighter now.
“Don’t worry about it. Just keep your guys off his ass unless I put the debt back in place.”
“You take the payment for yourself?” he asks with a wry grin.
It’s not something I, or my brothers, would do and he knows it. If I took the cash and pocketed it, there would be a problem. “Shut up.”
I read Viktor’s message. Charlotte is not being cooperative about the driving situation. When he told her he’d drive her to the doctor’s office, she went out back to accept a delivery and took off in her little car instead.
“Okay, well, whatever it was, it better be worth the quarter mil.” He downs the last of his drink.
I look up from my phone. “Odds are he’s going to come knocking on your door for another loan. If he does, double the interest. We’ll make up anything lost plus some.”
He shrugs. “You shouldn’t be on collection runs with those two.”
“No, probably not,” I grin. “But I get to have fun sometimes, too.”
“Yeah, guess so.”
“Nikolai, your phone is going off again. What’s going on?” Roman stares at my phone dancing on the tabletop. An email I was expecting finally arrived.
“Just some information I was waiting on.” I tuck the phone into my inside pocket and stand from the table. “I’ll see you boys later.”
“Boys, he calls us boys.” Arman jerks a thumb at me.
“Overcompensating for being the baby of the family,” Roman assures Arman. I’m the youngest by one full year. Not exactly the lowest fruit on the family tree.
“I’m going to say my goodbyes.” I ignore their comments and make my way to my father and Ivan.
It takes me twenty minutes to finally untangle myself from my father and make my way to the car. It takes another half hour to get home on the other side of the city where I can read the email without being disturbed.
Once in the quiet of my office, I pull up the email on my laptop and open the file.
Charlotte Harrison is written at the top. I take off my jacket and get comfortable in my chair. Time to do a little light reading before I go pick up my little rebel at her deli.