“What’s this?”
“More shit to deal with.” She pulls up a chair and lowers into it. “The vineyard in Russia Anastasia is supposed to inherit isn’t entirely a vineyard, and making wine isn’t entirely the main business activity.”
I straighten, raising my brows. “What do you mean?”
“It’s an oil company worth billions.”
My pulse jumps. “What the fuck?”
“It’s actually Belzok and Co.” She tilts her head to the side and presses her lips together.
“You’re shitting me.”
“I wish I were.”
I bring a hand to my jaw and stare back at her in disbelief. Anyone who’s anyone in the oil industry knows Belzok and Co. They’re right up there with the best.
“I had to jump through all sorts of hoops to find this information, and dig deeper than deep,” she adds, and I can just imagine what she had to do.
“Tell me more.”
“Nearly twenty years ago when Anastasia’s grandfather died, he thought he was leaving a small gift of property to his granddaughter. She wasn’t even born yet. He’d worked on the vineyard with his family and so had many generations of Sidorovs before him. It was considered something to keep in the family because of the special wine they made. Nobody knew the land had oil until three years after his death. Someone accidentally found it.”
“Holy fuck.” As far as weird things go, this is a good one. “Uther, that motherfucking bastard. He hid that well.” This is the real reason he was shitting himself when I descended on him like a nightmare from hell and unearthed his dark, dirty secrets. Yes, there was the loss of his job with the Bratva and partnership with Volkova Inc. but this is most assuredly his greatest loss. A billion-dollar company at the tip of his fingers.
“Uther kept the company under wraps so it would look like he wasn’t a part of it but he’s the executor of the business and of Anastasia’s trust fund.”
“No surprise there.”
“No. Uther currently gets paid a monthly allowance and the bulk of the money goes to Anastasia’s trust fund because all profits, regardless of the business activity, are to go to her. It helps that the vineyard is still operating, but the real business gets transferred to Anastasia when she’s nineteen, which she is, and after marriage. She and her husband will then co-own the company because it’s meant to be a family business.”
And that’s where my dear brother thought he was going to fit in. This is what Zakh meant.
I wonder if Uther told Viktor what I have on him.
No… I don’t think so. I don’t know either of them well enough to guess their movements, but it doesn’t make any practical sense for Uther to divulge that type of information. Viktor is loyal to the Knights. He wouldn’t risk being linked to an accomplice whose crimes would cost him everything. Uther would have guessed that and definitely kept his secrets to himself.
This new revelation is something else. Another loss to them and another thing I would have stolen from Viktor.
“I guess I truly took a fuck of a lot from my brother.”
“Uther too. This document here”—she holds up what looks like a contract— “shows Anastasia starting the transfer process back to her father so he would co-own the business with Viktor.”
“And she seriously doesn’t know what she’s signing over?”
“No. They told her they were going to renovate the winery. There’s nothing here to suggest she knew anything else, or that any of the other Volkovas knew. Apart from Zakh, of course. This was something of a side business to more than increase wealth for both Uther and Viktor.”
Wow, I can just imagine their plans. The combined wealth of the companies between the two men would have been immeasurable because of the opportunities and assets that would flow from them.
“That’s not a binding contract, is it?” I glance at the document.
“No, just the initial paperwork of what would have been.”
“What are the termination and transfer of business clauses?”
“She’s allowed to give her portion of the business to whomever she chooses, but the co-owner needs to agree.”
Unfortunately for all those greedy motherfuckers, the new co-owner—aka me—won’t be agreeing to anything.