Page 119 of Fierce Pursuit

“No, I’m questioning your ability to continue to cover the entire American Ivanov empire. Maybe it’s time for a change. You clearly have too much territory, and the politics in Russia are seriously hampering our business dealings in Moscow. Maybe it’s time to consider bringing more of the family to the States. We should divide this country to conquer it.”

“It sounds as if you’re saying you can’t handle Russia,” Gregor countered.

“Russia is no longer for sale at an affordable price. The current regime has gotten too fat, too greedy off of our contributions. It is in the family’s best interest to reorganize and restructure our leadership.”

I knew Artem was considering making a move on Gregor’s territory by claiming Chicago but now was not the time.

If these two men started this fight now, it wasn’t going to end until blood was spilled, which could only benefit our adversaries.

We needed to be united against our enemies, not weakening our own positions to make their job easier.

I rested my palms on the island, stepping in between the two men and leaning forward to break their line of sight.

Neither man was ever going to blink if no one got between them.

“Gentlemen, this is all a discussion for later,” I said, trying to be the voice of reason. “Right now we have to deal with Solovyov. We looked the other way when they murdered my wife because of extenuating circumstances. That has emboldened him. He sees us as weak.We need to show the world that is very much not the case.”

Each man shifted uncomfortably.

Their gazes went to the floor or the ceiling, not wanting to look me in the eye knowing what they knew. Everyone in the room knew my wife had not been faithful, and I had since learned from Marina that it was with more than one man.

If I were in their shoes, I wouldn’t want to look me in the eye either.

Still, there were more pressing matters than my embarrassment over my late wife.

I pulled the crumpled ruble from my pocket. It was the first one I found with the coordinates written on it.

Then I unfolded another bill that I had found while Marina was sleeping.

“We need to figure out what these numbers mean. Putting them together, they’re too long for a bank account, too short for an overseas Swiss bank account. If the pattern follows the other bill, then we know at least one set of numbers is likely coordinates, but I have no idea what the others could possibly be. Nothing else is important until we figure this out.”

Each man leaned over to look at the ruble with the long line of numbers written neatly across the bottom margin. Mikhail pushed himself off of the back wall and sauntered closer, taking just one simple glance at the numbers.

“It’s a sniper hit,” he said with a shrug of his shoulders.

“What?” I asked.

“Explain,” Gregor demanded.

“The first numbers Kostya found are the longitude and latitude coordinates. We know that. This set of numbers is the military time the hit needs to take place, and then this is the date, which is in three days.”

Gregor glared at my brother. “Still questioning my choice of a husband for Nadia?”

Artem smirked and just like that, the tension was gone.

The argument about the leadership in the U.S. was far from over, but it was on ice for now.

There was nothing like a common enemy to get men to set aside their bickering and work together.

Pavel slapped his hand down on my shoulder and leaned in like he had a serious question.

Some information of the utmost importance to relay.

I took a step back and turned to give him my full attention.

“So, have you tried a true American McDonald’s hamburger yet? Ivan Avelovich Morozov says they are way better here than they are in Moscow.”

CHAPTER 34

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