Page 51 of Henri's Little One
“Hughes kept track of the accounts. He didn’t suggest where I should invest and actually manage the money. I used to do that myself until this job became so time-consuming.”
Rémy smiled. “And since Sean.”
Armand grinned back at him. “Yes, since Sean. I want to spend all of my spare time with my Mate.”
“Now that I know what it’s like to have one, you’ll get no argument from me,” Henri agreed.
“So, back to Ferone.” Alexei leaned forward. “If his stepson did that much for him, he could do so much more for a legitimate enterprise. I remember how grateful I was that Armand took care of my funds while I was incarcerated. Thank you again, my friend. You carried a huge burden for me.” He shook his head in disgust.
“It’s a problem for all of us. Managing that much money is a full-time job,” Etienne observed. “It takes time away from us, time we could be spending with our Mates. My personal finances grow, but they grow through inertia. I would have much more if they were invested in something other than Treasury and municipal bonds.”
“But Ferone is old school and refuses to go legit, and Frankie and his talents sit there languishing.” Henri watched Julien’s eyes flashed in obvious anger for his friend.
“Ferone is a fool. It sounds to me like he and Chernof would be soul mates.” Alexei’s sarcasm cut through the room.
“I’ve met Frank and like him, too. It would be wonderful if Vitas is right and Frank is Rene’s Mate. That would put him in Armand’s household, and he could take over the finances from Pierre plus the hiring without a hassle,” Henri added.
“And since he would be Rene’s Mate, there would be no hard feelings.” Etienne pushed his hair out of his eyes.
“I’ll bet Julio is on your ass to get a haircut,” Julien teased.
“He is all the time. There aren’t enough hours in the day. We all need financial managers. Too much of our time is taken up putting out fires like this Chernof business.” Etienne moved his hand across his face again, putting his hair behind his ear.
Armand finished his brandy. “Now that Alexei and Etienne have both said his name we need to attend to the devil in the room and begin to discuss what to do about that mad Russian.”
“You need to take his head, Alpha, there is no other solution,” Alexei stated firmly.
“I agree, the question is how do we do it and regain control of the European and Russian Councils without them seeing it as a hostile takeover?” Armand rubbed his chin. “Any ideas?”
“Show them the original Charter. We have it, I’ve seen it,” Rémy insisted.
“We have to clear up any misconceptions about Vitas first,” Henri clenched his teeth. “I don’t want my Mate in a three-way tug-of-war.”
“Vitas confided to Sean and the other Mates that Chernof’s Betas helped him escape. Ian told me yesterday. Is this true?” Rémy tented his hands.
“That’s what Vitas said to me, and his gift is a two-way sword. He can’t lie about anything other than not telling you that Etienne’s having a bad hair day.” Henri chuckled. Etienne gave him a black stare, and he got control of himself.
“This is a serious issue. It seems as if the Betas would turn on Chernof given the opportunity. We just need to give them the opening. If they do call him out, the councils will fall in line. They know how much pain it causes a Beta to report his Alpha. It’s only been done a few times in our history.” Armand poured himself another drink.
“And if I were a betting man, I’d bet that all those Alphas were incarnations of Chernof,” Alexei snapped. Slamming his fist on the arm of the chair.
“You may be right. Alexei, they know you, can you arrange to approach them?” Armand paused to sip his drink. “I know it’s painful for you, but there isn’t anyone else who can read the situation as well as you can. They beat Vitas, yet helped him escape. They obviously weren’t happy following Chernof’s orders.”
The others watched Alexei as he considered this. “I can try to get them away from Chernof. That would give the rest of you the opportunity to imprison him until the Assembly convenes when the European delegation arrives tomorrow. The Russians are already here unbeknownst to Chernof. Two of them contacted me today. They aren’t pleased with him either, but are weak and unable to challenge him.”
“If it comes to a challenge, it would be issued to Henri. Can Henri take him, Alexei?” Armand tapped his fingers on the table. Henri noted The Alpha scowled, he was getting impatient.
“From what Alphas Gerasim Brzezinski and Vsevolod Chekov say, any one of us could easily take him,” Alexei answered.
“Why haven’t they tried?” Henri blustered, thinking of the three months his Vitas spent in the cellar.
“No profit in it for them. Chernof runs his businesses down to the bone, and his packs are starving. Peace suits the other Alphas’ purposes. No one wants the undue attention of the Russian government, and he has friends there.” Alexei shrugged.
“It sounds to me like the whole council needs to be replaced. No one is looking after the packs’ interests.” Rémy slammed his fist down on the table. “Why are we talking about this? We should be doing something. I’ll go to the pit with the bastard.”
Armand gave Rémy a pointed glare. “You can’t. You have no grievance. You’d get stuck with the Russian packs. We want a change of management to serve under us. We don’t want to go to Russia, and have to live there and be the management.”
Rémy pursed his lips and gave a light nod to agree with what Armand said after a moment. “You’re right, Alpha, I’m sorry.”
