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“I…” He pauses, and a frown flickers across his face. “I’m not allowed to sit in on this one.”
“I don’t care.” I turn and continue down the hall at a swift pace. Within ten seconds, I catch the sound of Alexei hurrying to catch up with me, and my lips press together faintly. Excellent.
“Kristof!” Aleksander rises from the head of the table the moment I step in the door. Mara is seated to his left, dressed in black as if the bitch is already in mourning. Several other lieutenants sit around the table, but my eyes go first to my brother and sister who each give me a subtle head nod in greeting.
“Aleksander.”
“Where the fuck have you been?” Aleksander presses a fist against the table as he glares at me. “No check-in. No calls. What the fuck?”
“Sorry, did you want me to pause the search for your daughter in order to make useless phone calls every hour? I told you I would call when I had news,” I reply, carefully managing the irritation in my voice. The door closes behind me, and everyone’s eyes snap to Alexei. Still, no one has a chance to say anything as I continue.
“I visited the front guard station and checked the cameras there. Nothing was shown entering or leaving the street. I expanded my search to the surrounding area and reached out to a contact at the local police department, but there’s no sign of her. I’ve been reaching out to my contacts in all surrounding Families for any hint of her.”
A half-truth. My house isn’t in the surrounding area.
“Fuck.” Aleksander slams his fist down on the table and sinks back into his thick leather chair. Nervous glances dart around the room. It’s clear everyone at the table was expecting me to return with an answer, but there’s nothing I have to give.
“Well,” Mara says sharply, pressing her red lips into a thin line. “How disappointing.”
“Excuse me?” I hover near my chair, staring down the table at her while Aleksander’s head falls forward and he rubs at his chin.
“You’re supposed to be the best, Kristof,” Mara says coolly. “And you haven’t found hide nor hair of our daughter. How on earth are we going to explain this to the Kuznetsovs? The wedding is next week.”
“Odd priorities,” I remark coldly, finally taking my seat. Nastja reaches across and clasps my wrist, squeezing in greeting while Ivan offers me a slight smile.
“The garbage man collected today,” she says in a low voice.
That’s all I need to hear to know that Nastja took care of the limo driver. He won’t be an issue. As subtle conversation rises around the table in the wake of Aleksander’s silence, Ivan leans closer.
“Everyone in the house is accounted for,” Ivan says.
Good. No one noticed Katja’s absence and it has to stay that way.
As I listen to the hubbub around the table, people offering their own lack of information while assuring they searched high and low, I spot Alexei out of the corner of my eye. He hovers not far from my left shoulder, clearly feeling out of place in a meeting where he doesn’t belong. He came, though, and that’s what is important to me.
He came because I asked him to. Choosing that over Aleksander’s order for high-ranking lieutenants only tells me all I need to know about where his loyalty lies.
“Enough,” Aleksander barks out and silences the room in an instant. He stands slowly, straightening his waistcoat, and one hand drops to the gold chain near his pocket. He fiddles with it as he stares down the table, and we lock eyes for a few moments until Mara’s touch to his arm draws his attention away.
“Alena has been missing for over twenty-four hours, and such a thing cannot stand.” His voice booms around the table. For a moment, he almost seems like a concerned father desperate for the return of his daughter. “We cannot have any of the other Families finding out that she’s missing.”
There it is. His real concern. I swallow down a scoff.
“The moment they learn we’ve lost the most important weapon in our arsenal, we will look weaker.”
“And if one of the other Families has taken her?” I ask. “The Italians? The Irish? They will already know.”
Aleksander’s eyes narrow.
“Then it’s even more important that we appear to continue as normal. Whoever has taken my daughter, when they look at us they will still see strength, and if they have sense, it will scare them into bringing her back. While I do not know which rat would decide to target my daughter, I still have not ruled out that it may be one of our own. Staff and security have been thoroughly interrogated, but we breed strong souls here. As such, all properties will be searched for any hint of Alena to ensure that this was not an inside job. None of the lower ranks have been allowed to leave their current locations until such a search has been conducted.”
“What about us?” pipes up a voice further down the table. “Are we under suspicion too?”
“Everyone is,” Aleksander remarks sharply, and his eyes narrow to slits. “I trust every person around this table, but make no mistake. The full weight of the Orlovas will come down on the culprit of this kidnapping, no matter who it is. Only when I have cleared this net will we look further afield.”
So, Aleksander suspects an inside job.
He’s right, in a way. My mind begins to run. Misdirecting Aleksander toward another Family bears the risk of being found out, especially since Alena isn’t with anyone else. But I won’t be able to keep her in my house for much longer. I would be discovered immediately, and my plan, as weak as it is, would crumble.
