“Tayte wants Irina?” Sandir asked in surprise.
“Seriously?” Greg huffed. “No offense, man, the woman’s cold as fucking ice. What the fuck does he want with a woman like that? He’s a moron if Irina’s his end game. If he’s gone behind your back and offered himself to Lev for the low price of Irina, guy’s going to want a refund before long.”
“Yet, I think it might be. What else is there?” Andrey was seeing it now too. There was no other explanation was there? Tayte had never been power hungry, not that I’d noticed anyway. He’d never so much as moved an inch toward top dog status, maintaining he couldn’t do it. Lev had his nuts in a vice but over what?
“Tayte’s not daft, not by a long shot. I don’t care what this looks like, he wouldn’t betray you this way. He loves you, we all do. He’s had plenty of opportunity to power grab, just like the rest of us. Waiting until you’ve got one foot out of the door makes little sense. No matter what it appears to be, I’m hedging a bet Tayte’s not going into this blindly. He might be the one to give you the out you want.”
“I think he has his own ambitions,” I said, wondering if Sandir was right.
“Possibly. All we can do is wait for word. Lev stays in the shadows for a reason, but he’s always been the man to say what goes. He needs someone at the helm and if not you, then he’s looking for a replacement. There’s only one other person I can see who could slot in right behind and pick up where you left off.”
That person was definitely Tayte, Andrey only voicing what we all knew. Tayte knew this business inside out, everything, having made himself indispensable and sure he had his foot in every aspect of what we did. He was dedicated, more so than the others at times.
“Then we wait for Tayte or Lev, one of them will want to talk soon.”
“All right.” Greg clapped his hands together. “In the meantime, let’s get these books done for the clubs. Gonna take a bit longer without Tayte but I’m not in any hurry to be anywhere. Anyone else?”
I thought about Jolie at home, hopefully still resting. It wasn’t like I was welcome to turn up any time I pleased, or at all, so I put my head down and did the administrative work we didn’t trust anyone else to do. The four clubs owned by the organisation were full of drugs and runners, the books seriously fudged, unlike Caulder’s which was all above board. Caulder’s was going to make an honest man out of me, I’d had the plan in my head since I’d bought the place years ago and I’d kept the bar as clean as a whistle for good reason. These other four were rat infested cesspits I couldn’t wait to be rid of. They had the potential to be so much more, yet they served a purpose and made some hefty cash which was why we’d left them as they were. A scant refurbishment every few years, some serious bribery to local coppers and the places ran themselves with insignificant problems. Honestly, we’d been lucky to run them as long as we had.
“Profits are decent on all but this one,” Sandir pushed a ledger into my hand, pointing to a line of numbers. “At a cursory glance anyway, I’d have to look deeper.”
“Not running at a loss though?” Because I had a Colombian drug lord I had to pay at the end of every month. Damn, I was so tired of it all.
“Not yet, I can see a downturn the last four months, don’t know if it’s caught up or not.”
“Okay, we’ll prioritise there for the next few weeks, see what we can figure out.” I wanted to close down those clubs and be shot of them, unfortunately it wasn’t my call, so juggle it was until I got the fuck out.
My phone buzzed on the table, Tayte’s name flashing over the screen. A text, not a call, which really pissed me off. Reading the single word he’d sent, I threw my phone across the room, a sardonic laugh ringing around the room.
“Sorry. He said he’s fucking sorry.” All eyes were on me and rightly so, I was a hair’s breadth away from tipping the table and ripping the room apart. Instead, I hung my head and took in a huge breath, letting it out again slowly. “I think we have an answer as to what Lev’s plan is. Did Tayte just betray me?”
“No.” Sandir was the first to dare to speak. “No. Not Tayte. I don’t believe it until I hear it from the idiot’s mouth myself. There’s an explanation.”
“Then what the fuck is he sorry for?” I exploded, jumping to my feet, the chair crashing to the floor.
The hurt was immense, my heart squeezing so painfully hard. Tayte was my friend, my brother, one I’d had for over twenty years and he’d left me feeling sick to my stomach. Way to break the camel’s back, as if the old bastard hadn’t done enough to me already. Christ, I was finished here, Lev could go fuck himself. Walking off into the sunset right this minute without a second glance back had never been so appealing.
Shaking out the creases of my jacket, I shoved my arms into the sleeves and straightened the lapels. Grabbing my phone from the floor, I walked past the table, past my men, and to the door.
“I’ll see you guys later.”
Tayte and Irina had the answers I wanted, and I was going to get them, come hell or high water. I’d been a good little soldier, hadn’t I?
