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As I come up for air, I whisper against her swollen lips, “I’ve never been to Russia before. I’m relying on you to show me around.”
“You will love it, James, every single corrupt, delicious, secretive edge of it, and that’s just my family.”
She winks and as I stare deep into her eyes, I sense a storm building and wonder just what I have signed up for.
CHAPTER 36
ANA
MOSCOW
When I brought James home, it was a baptism of fire because every single member of my family, plus their wife and girlfriends, were in attendance. It was a homecoming of epic proportions and I could tell that James was overwhelmed.
If the flight over wasn’t enough to blow his mind, given the opulence of our huge private aircraft, our home finished the job the moment we swept through the gates.
It was a huge ask and a monumental occasion, and yet I didn’t have time to ease him in gently. After dinner, mama decided she wanted to spend some time with him alone and as the other women chatted in the silk-papered dining room, Titus nodded his head toward his den and we all dutifully followed him there.
The Romanov children.
Titus, Valentin, Arman and Alexei, Mikhail and myself taking the last two seats. It’s unusual for us all to be together, especially in one room, and I hate knowing the last time we were was at my father’s funeral.
The air is thick with anticipation and as Titus hands out glasses of vodka, I wonder what I’m about to learn.
The message was clear.
Mama is missing you.
It was code for get the hell back here; we need to talk.
Silence descends on the darkening room, not just from the darkness of the black sky outside, but from the sense of occasion.
This is a counsel of war. I recognize that and I sip my drink and wait for the bombs to explode around me.
Titus sits at his desk and regards us with his usual blank expression.
“A great deal has happened since we last spoke.”
Nobody replies and he reaches for the photograph that is becoming increasingly full of ghosts.
He points to our mother and sighs. “The last woman standing.”
He raises his eyes and the only sound in the room is the ice cubes clinking in the glasses.
“It was decided that Adele and Charles were surplus to requirements. There were questions being raised that threatened the entire establishment.”
He shrugs. “You may as well know that Boris Fedorov ordered the hit on them and Nikolai Barinov was positioned on a ridge above the highway with an automatic rifle aimed directly at their car. He took Charles out, who was driving, with one simple bullet to the head just before the tanker passed, driven by a man who was deep in debt to the Cardoza mafia. If Barinov missed, he was instructed to take them out anyway, and their fates were sealed the moment they stepped into the car. The subsequent inferno disguised the bullet in his brain as his body was reduced to ash.”
“Nikolai never misses.” Mikhail reminds us and Alexei growls, “Risky though.”
“Not really.” Titus shrugs. “They would have finished it another way if necessary. This way, America mourns the death of a potentially great president and recovers by fielding the next suitable candidate instead.”
“But where does that leave Burning Roses and The Rose Foundation?” Arman adds, shaking his head. “Marsha and Adele are dead, along with their secrets.”
Titus glances at me and smiles. “The Rose Foundation lives on for the right reasons this time. Charitable ones. Burning Roses will form again, no doubt under different leadership, but none of that is our concern. They were created to ensure the rise of two of their members. To join Russia and America together when the two members gained full control.”
“But they didn’t and there is still one huge problemleft.” Valentin snarls, and we fall silent as the final piece of this puzzle is yet to find a home.
Titus sighs heavily. “That one is not so easy to solve.”
