From Russia With Claws (8 page)

She narrowed her eyes, feeling a complicated surge of emotion flow through her. She’d already thought that the two attacks might be related. And her protection detail going missing was something that needed an explanation. That was the first item on her agenda for the day.

When she didn’t reply immediately, Andrey frowned. “Promise,” he ordered in a tone that made her thighs clench. “Or I’ll put a detail on you myself.”

“Do you have a death wish?” Galina countered, not bothering to keep the annoyance out of her voice. “You’re right, I do think I can take care of myself. And you know how I know that? Because I’ve done it before.” She pulled away from him, not liking being told what was going to happen in her own life.

“I’m trying to protect you,” he ground out, his voice getting deeper as his temper flared to life.

“Here’s a newsflash: I don’t need your protection.” She inhaled sharply, picking up his prickly scent of pine and amber. “You don’t get to dictate what I do just because you’ve seen me naked.”

Andrey’s nostrils flared and his eyes turned even darker. He stormed out of the bathroom. Galina sat on the edge of the tub, listening to the sounds of him getting dressed. The urge to go out there and apologize to him was nearly overwhelming, but she stayed where she was. This was the problem with the males within the
Volk Organizatsiya
. They had that unbending habit of thinking they knew what was right for everyone else, most especially their women. Well, Galina had been away from the family for years and had experienced how good it felt to make her own decisions.

Andrey didn’t say good-bye. The sound of his shoes on the wood floor, followed by the click of the front door as he closed it behind him told her he was gone. Galina sat for a few moments, missing his presence with a dull ache that surprised her. Then she pulled herself up and began to get ready to face her father.

How to Succeed in Smuggling without Really Trying

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, her detail—suddenly reappearing after their conspicuous absence—following her through the gates. They’d been waiting for her when she drove out of her garage. The question of where they’d been the night before still required an answer. She intended to get one when she spoke with her father. And then she intended to replace them with guards that could be trusted.

Galina had dressed carefully this morning. For ten minutes, she’d sat in her car, steadying her breathing. On the outside, she looked cool and untouchable, but that wasn’t how she felt on the inside. She was getting ready to do something no Sudenko woman had done before.

She was going to ask for a line of business of her own. Not a business like the Red Crown, the jewelry shop where Irina worked, passing along stolen gems. What she was asking for was a venture of her own, that she would run, from planning to execution. Leading, eventually she hoped, to voting rights within the
Volk Organizatsiya
itself.

Not right away, of course. These things had to be approached delicately. But she intended to lay some groundwork, to prove that she was more than just a pretty face and breeding stock. She knew her father’s organization needed to diversify and she had some ideas.

Now she just had to get her father to listen.

Nikolai would help. He didn’t want to see Alexei in power any more than she did. If Papa was old school, then Alexei was living in the Mesolithic age. His ideas for furthering the family business involved more gunfire and a lot of dead bodies. He’d drown the family in blood if he were left to run the business unchecked.

She stepped out of the car, brushing imaginary lint from her tailored Armani pants. She’d gone with what she hoped was corporate chic—nothing outwardly sexy but still feminine enough to remind everyone she was a woman. She didn’t want to disguise or hide her gender in the hopes of running the business, but she didn’t want to be taken lightly either. She’d chosen a dark cashmere sweater and a patterned wrap over one shoulder. The only jewelry she wore were her favorite onyx earrings and a huge steel cuff chased with heavy Celtic engravings of wolves. Might as well remind them of who and what she was.

She passed by one of Alexei’s bodyguards on her way to her father’s study. The bruising around his eyes and the swollen top of his nose were consistent with a recently healed broken nose. Galina stopped.

“Looks like you caught yourself a good one, Timur,” she said by way of greeting. A hollow feeling settled in her gut. Had one of Alexei’s men been the one to jump her last night? She knew he wasn’t happy about her presence during the last meeting, but would he have been able to call off her protection detail?

With a sinking feeling, she realized he could do exactly that. Papa was the only one who could have countermanded his order, and if Papa hadn’t known…Galina swallowed nervously.

Timur grinned lasciviously, displaying a gaping hole where one of his front teeth had been. “Got hit with a vodka bottle when I wasn’t looking,” he answered.

She tried to get a scent read off of him, but without much success. He smelled a little nervous, but the same could be said for many who spoke with her. She continued on down the hall.

Nikolai, Alexei, and their father were already gathered around a table that would eventually seat the other powerful families within the Organization. “What are you doing here?” Alexei’s voice was just shy of a sneer.

Galina smiled sweetly at him, and then ignored him completely. She turned to Papa. “Did you call off my security detail last night?” she asked him as he stood to greet her with a kiss on the cheek.

“No,” Ilya replied, his sharp eyes searching her face. “Why do you ask?”

“I just didn’t see them when I pulled into my garage. They were probably there and I just didn’t notice.” She kept her eyes on her brothers. Nikolai was saying something to their brother. Alexei’s gaze flicked over to her, but otherwise he didn’t react to her news. Galina sniffed the air to see if she could catch a whiff of nervousness or fear, but the room smelled as it usually did.

Galina took a seat next to her father. He looked confused, but that was nothing compared to Alexei’s response. Breaking off his conversation with Nikolai, he snapped, “What are you doing?”

“I would think that would be obvious,” Galina said, keeping her voice pleasant and even. “I’m going to sit in on the meeting.”

“The hell you are,” her brother said, taking a step closer to her. “Women don’t come to meetings.”

“Well, this one is, so you’d better get right with the idea.” Galina sharpened her tone, a verbal baring of teeth. This was the first step. She had to gain permission to be there.

“What do you know about the business anyway?” Alexei stood over her, hoping to threaten her physically. It might have been frightening if he hadn’t been doing this for her entire life.

Oh thank you for such an obvious opening, brother dear
, she thought. Containing a grin, she began to list off points on her fingers. “I know our holdings are not what they once were. I know that the other families are hesitant to continue alliances with us because we’re perceived as weak, as failing. I know that if we don’t further diversify our interests, we’ll be left in the dust, running numbers and selling dope at a stop sign. I know that we need to move into the twenty-first century or we’re sunk.”

Her father opened his mouth, and then closed it again. He looked shocked. Then he turned to Nikolai and Alexei. “Do you both agree with Galya’s assessment?”

Nikolai nodded slowly, face serious. Alexei looked to be in danger of spitting, he was so angry. Galina leaned forward, taking Ilya’s hand in hers. “Papa, I don’t say this to hurt you. I love our family and I want to keep us safe. But if we continue doing business in the same old way, we’ll go the way of the dinosaurs.”

“What do you know about anything?” Alexei’s voice was all snarl and snap. “You’ve had your head in books for the past five years!”

Galina gave him a withering glance before turning back to her father. “And when I had my head in those books,” she said, dismissing her brother, “I was learning things.”
Unlike you
went unspoken but clear to all of them.

Alexei made a move behind Galina’s back, the scuffle catching her attention, and then her father was standing, his face thunderous. “Enough!” The old man’s voice was hard, the sharp bark of an Alpha calling his pack to heel. “You will remember where you are!”

Turning her head, Galina saw Nikolai holding back Alexei. She came to her feet in one smooth motion, baring her teeth. Ilya jumped between them, holding his arms out to keep them separated. Alexei’s face began to morph as his anger got the better of him.

Papa moved faster than someone his age should have been able to, backhanding Alexei across the muzzle. A high whine escaped her brother’s lips, and his face slowly reverted back to human. “You will
not!”
their father shouted. “You will control yourself. We have guests coming!”

“Come on, Alexei,” Nikolai said, giving Galina a significant look. “Let’s go for a walk.” He took their brother’s arm, forcefully steering him toward the door, but Alexei shoved away from him with a growl and stalked out of the room.

Ilya walked to the bar and poured himself two fingers of vodka. He downed the drink in one gulp, throwing the liquor back with practiced ease. Galina got up and poured one for herself. She smiled when Papa frowned at her.

“You are too young,” he scolded.

“I’ve been legal for four years, Papa,” she chided him gently. He needed to stop seeing her as a little girl in blond pigtails. She’d been grown up for quite some time. She sipped at her drink, smiling at him over the glass.

Sitting down with a sigh, Ilya rubbed at his forehead with a heavy hand. “I do not know what you want, Galya. You embarrass Alexei, you do not know your place. I want to find a nice husband for you, but you fight me at every turn. What am I to do with you?”

Galina tried not to bristle. Alexei was the embarrassment, not her. How many times had Nikolai had to clean up one of his messes? Ten, twenty times? More? And “knowing her place”? It was that kind of hidebound thinking that would keep them from utilizing all of their assets to the fullest extent. It was stupid and wasteful.

Taking a deep breath, she let all of her frustration and anger go. She was close to getting what she wanted, and she needed to remain calm. In a soft voice, Galina asked, “What if I could prove that my ideas have merit?”

Ilya took another swig of his vodka. When he spoke, his voice was harsher than she was used to hearing. “Tell me.”

She wrapped long fingers around the rocks glass in front of her. It kept her from fidgeting as she met his gaze. “There are plenty of people who would pay handsomely for art and artifacts that can’t be acquired through the usual means.”

“Smuggling.”

“If you want to call it that,” Galina conceded. They had a number of smuggling operations, but none that dealt in the fine arts. She had the knowledge and contacts. She just needed the infrastructure already in place at her father’s operation to make it work. “I have a number of buyers just waiting for the right product. It’s got minimal risk.”

“Galya, you know that women and business do not mix.” But there was a hesitation in his voice that she knew she could capitalize on.

“Papa, you sent me to school to learn. And I did.” She leaned forward, eyes on his face. “I’ve been watching you run the business since I was old enough to walk. I can help our family. Let me have this so I can show you what I can do.” A chance, that’s all she wanted.

“And after that?” Her father stared at her as if he knew the inner workings of her mind.

“You can see my results and make your own decision.” She smiled at him, as if this was of the least concern to her. “And I will accept whatever you decide.”

Ilya’s eyes narrowed. “You should have been born a boy,” he said with a frown.

Galina kept the calm mask on her face through an effort of will. She would not show her father how much his words had stung. “But I wasn’t,” she answered softly. Then she smiled, “And besides, you have two sons already.”

She didn’t say that one of them was too busy stroking his own ego to be able to run the family and the other was too busy cleaning up the other’s mistakes to be effective in his own right. “I can do this.”

Ilya pushed up from the table, the small jowls along his jaw line shaking slightly. “Very well, Galina. You have your wish. I will give you a few men to use in your operation. Don’t disappoint me.”

I’m not the disappointment
, she almost said, but kept it to herself. Because she knew that she was a disappointment to him. What good was intelligence and drive when they were housed in a woman’s body? Galina didn’t feel like she lacked anything, but her father certainly did, and she knew that others of the old guard felt the same as he did.

She stood with him. “Can the men be of my choosing? With your approval, of course,” she added quickly. She suspected that her father would select the most recalcitrant and unbending of his people if she let him in the hopes that she would fail. And if Alexei had a say in it, he’d make sure she worked with idiots and psychos. She needed young men, eager to make a name for themselves and with the ability to think for themselves.

“And I want a new set of guards. I’m not impressed with the ones I’ve got.”

Her father’s eyes narrowed, sweeping her from head to foot. “Did something happen?”

Andrey’s words came back to her. “I went to lunch with Maksim yesterday. He had to leave early and took his guards with him.” She thought it best to leave out the assault with flying fish. “I had to walk back to the museum by myself. I didn’t see the car or either man anywhere near me.” That Maksim came out sounding like he’d been unconcerned for her safety too was a mark in the “win” column.

Papa’s face turned red. Taking her shoulders, he peered at her face. “Are you all right?”

Resting her hands on his, she said, “I’m fine, Papa. But I want different guards.”

He sighed, dropping his hands from hers. “You are a good girl, Galya. Why don’t you want to settle down and have babies?”

“Who says I don’t, Papa? I just don’t want to do that
right now
.” She winked at him.

Ilya threw back his head and laughed. He wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her into him. She smelled his cologne—a cloying scent that made her wrinkle her sensitive nose—and alcohol leaching from his pores. He must have tied one on last night. “Come now. I will introduce you to the rest. If you are going to be working for me, you should meet them.”

“Have you thought of who will replace Sergei yet?” It wasn’t a high ranking position, but a competent person could make something happen in it.

“Alexei wants Vasily.” Her father guided her down the hall, leading her toward the front parlor where her father always met with his lieutenants when he was home. He usually preferred to meet with them at one of his businesses, but with the death of Sergei, everyone was being more circumspect.

Galina frowned. “What does Nikolai say?” She knew what Nik would say. Vasily was a cocky thug with about as much sense as a rock—although Galina wondered if rocks might be insulted by the comparison. He was hired muscle, nothing more, but he was one of Alexei’s long standing confederates and he was loyal only to him. He backed Alexei on every play he made, even the disastrous ones that got people killed. Usually the wrong people. Vasily was a menace. Which made him Alexei’s perfect choice.

“He thinks Vasily to be unseasoned.” Her father’s eyes snapped with mirth and Galina grinned at him. Trust Nik to be diplomatic and understated in his disapproval. “I agree with him. He suggested the Demidov boy.”

She fought back a laugh. Everyone under the age of fifty was still considered a boy in her father’s eyes. She knew vaguely of the man he was talking about—at least Andrey’s age if not a bit older—and he’d be a good fit. Much better than Vasily anyway.