Nikolai
My father walksinto my condo with angry concern on his face. Arman follows behind him, his stance ready for battle.
“How is she?” Dad demands.
“She’s asleep,” I answer. Exhaustion finally did what I wouldn’t and forced her to bed. The last two days since the fire have kept her busy. Not with action, there’s little she can do without the final report on the cause of the fire but worry. She’s paced every room of the condo. She’s called every member of her staff several times to be sure they were all right and assured them she would be paying them their last check along with at least two future payrolls. I managed to stop her from promising a third, but I know she’s already trying to figure out how to keep them all on the payroll while she figures out what to do.
The easy thing to do would have been to threaten her with my belt to get her to bed, but that’s not what she needed. Stress energy needs to be burned off, and me trying to take over that for her would have sent her into a spiral of panic and anger.
“What did you find out?” Arman asks, sitting on the arm of the couch.
“The fire chief called me this morning. They’re ruling it arson.” That’s not the worst of it, but I’ll get there.
“Who the fuck would want to burn down a deli?” Outrage twists Arman’s face. He barely knows her, Dad barely knows her, but looking at them now, I know they’d kill to protect her. Or to avenge her.
“I think I know.” I wipe my hand across my face. I haven’t had a chance to talk with my father in the last few days. I’ve been completely focused on Charlotte.
“You’re not going to like this. Sit.” I point to the chair and the couch. They both sink into them. “Where’s Roman?”
“Not here. Now go on.” Dad waves his hand; he doesn’t like waiting any more than I do.
I explain everything about what I found out about Ivan. I tell him about the years of taking our product and selling it as his own. I tell him about the crew I found out he has working for us and for him. I tell him about Yosif. I tell him everything.
By the time I’m finished ripping out his heart, he looks ready to break my face. But I know his anger isn’t focused on me.
“Why did you wait to tell me?” he asks, his voice low.
“I had to be sure first. When I got the description from Percy it sounded familiar, but I couldn’t really place it. But then I saw Yosif at the party. That scar of his, the one that runs down his face and is all puckered. I hadn’t seen him in so long, I’d forgotten about it.” He’s had the scar for so long, I barely see it when I look at him.
“He confessed?” Arman asks.
I nod. “He did.”
“What did you do to him?” Dad asks.
“I left him alone. I took care of the medical expenses for his mother and told him when she dies, he goes away. He agreed.”
Dad nods. “Yosif is an idiot who loves his mother.” He rubs his hand along his jaw. “Have you talked with Ivan?”
“No. But I have a feeling he knows that I’m aware of what’s going on. The fire, I think it’s a message.” I watch my father’s face carefully as I make my accusation. When my father is angry, he doesn’t shout and dance around with arms flailing. He lets it seep into his bones, but he stays reserved, calculating.
“He could have hurt her,” he says flatly, his fingers curl into his knees. “The old man, her friend, is he all right?”
“He’s still in the hospital, but they think he’ll pull through. They’re going to take him off the breathing tube tomorrow.” Taking her to see Mark after we were done with the fire department had made me want to find Ivan and rip out his heart while it was still beating. She kept herself together, because that’s what she does—she holds steady, stuffing her own feelings aside so she can help someone else. But I could see the raw pain in her eyes when she saw him lying in that ICU bed, wires everywhere along with tubes and the breathing machine.
“Her employees?” Arman asks.
“All fine. The fire started in the back, and they were able to get out the front. But the structure is gone.”
“Ivan wasn’t at the christening,” Dad remarks. “Gregor mentioned it, said he had been expecting him.”
“Ivan wouldn’t have set the fire himself, but it doesn’t look great.”
“The crew Ivan’s been running through us, you know who they all are?” Dad looks up at me, his lips pressed into a thin line.
“Yeah. I just need your okay and I’ll have it handled.”
“One of them could be the ones that set the fire.”