Page 38 of Bound By Them
I saw the worst of their interactions after Patrick’s party, but it seems they’ve reconciled. Whatever this family’s faults, at least Sergey Aseyev genuinely loves his grandchildren.
Sergey gives Dmitri a tray laden with coffee. Troy falls into step beside Sergey. I hang back with Danica, following behind Dmitri.
Danica shoots me a look of pure vitriol. “Seriously, asshole, you have some nerve.”
“What? Your grandfather had a hospital stay. My grandfather wanted me to send his respects.”
“With a motherfucking fruit basket?”
Fuck, she is way too much fun. “You have such a filthy mouth.”
At my words, Dmitri almost drops the tray of coffee. Ha. He turns around and glares at us.
Danica looks guilty. I have to fight not to smile.
Soon after he ferries the coffee tray into a sitting room, Dmitri makes up some shitty excuse and takes off. That leaves Danica, Troy, Sergey, and me.
Sergey is quick to smooth over the awkwardness of Dmitri’s quick retreat. He pours coffee for us. “Tell me, Edmund, how’s business?”
Danica’s gray eyes widen in surprise. Maybe she thinks we’re going to start chatting about crime.
“The restaurants are doing well. Finch and Fox had some setbacks in Q1, but it’s already getting back on track.” I go on about some of our other restaurants and clubs. Salt, of course, isn’t mentioned. While I’m sure Sergey is aware of the sex club, he won’t bring it up, and neither will I.
He talks about a couple of the Aseyev restaurants. It’s all limited to legit business talk. Nothing about their underground gambling, or the designer drugs they import. Nothing about my family’s gambling rings, either, or our own less-than-legal imports.
But then he drops a bomb. “I heard there was trouble with your shipment coming in at Mirarosa.”
I freeze. Troy freezes. Sergey’s just going to casually bring up how his people lost us half a million dollars?
“What just happened? What are you talking about?” Danica looks between the three of us.
“Yes, we had some trouble.” A whole fucking barge exploded. If that isn’t trouble, I don’t know what is. I clear my throat and meet Sergey’s gaze. “You might know more about that than I do.”
His clear blue eyes widen a fraction. “No. I found out only recently.”
Interesting.
“What happened?” Danica refuses to be ignored.
I meet her gaze. “A shipment exploded. We lost several pallets of whiskey.”
“You don’t know who was behind it?” Sergey takes a sip from his own coffee cup, frowning to himself.
“No.” I don’t want to come right out and accuse the Aseyevs. Also, I don’t think he would’ve brought it up if the Aseyevs were behind it. This is throwing everything into question. I need to get back to Rendsell and talk to my grandfather. “Thank you for the visit, and the coffee. We’ll be on our way.”
But I want to talk to Danica before we leave.
“Here, let me get the tray for you.” I stand and pick it up.
“Thanks.” Sergey smiles, but I can’t tell if it’s genuine or not. “And please pass along my thanks to your grandfather for the gift. Danica, would you show Edmund back to the kitchen?”
He doesn’t want a Layton wandering unsupervised through his house. Understandable. But he’s just given me more access to his granddaughter.
Danica stomps down the hall, her ponytail swinging behind her like an angry metronome.
As soon as we’re alone in the kitchen, she rounds on me. “What the fuck are you doing here at my granddad’s house?”
“I thought that was clear.” I set the coffee tray on the counter next to the gift basket. “This was a get-well visit.”
