Page 48 of The Russian's Forced Bride
“Wow,” Cassandra exclaimed, walking over to the wine cabinet at the far end of my office and grabbing three shot glasses. “Did we really just drain him of over twenty million dollars?”
“And more,” Maxim replied with a laugh, shrugging off his tie as he opened the Oban 21 bottle—its cork flying open with a resoundingpopthat felt like music to my ears.
Maxim’s smile grew wider as he looked at the tablet by his side, buzzing with notifications.
“Confirmation just came in. Joaquin’s crypto laundering node crashed.”
After pouring the amber-colored drink into our glasses, we each clinked our shots before downing them in one go.
The burn on my tongue was smooth, filling my taste buds with fruit, oak, and a smoky undertone.
I set the empty glass on my desk, leaning against the table with a smug smile as I watched Cassandra and Maxim get comfortable on the office sofa. Cassandra kicked off her shoes, curling her legs onto the sofa before pouring more wine into her system.
She and Maxim then conversed on how easy it was to poke Joaquin where it hurt most.
But it wasn’t all too easy. Maxim had been the one to pull the difficult strings and hack into systems that needed to be hacked—on my command.
Any wrong move would’ve resulted in Joaquin being on our tails, but Maxim had been smart enough not to let any slip-ups.
But then again, Joaquin was a smart man. It wasn’t going to take him long before he realized who had sucked him dry. And I was waiting—for his retaliation and whatever blow he thought he had in store for me.
Knowing Saavedra, if things weren’t working his way, he turned to eliminating the source.
Too bad I wasn’t an easy target to get rid of.
My mind drifted back to Arlette as I sat on my table, taking another shot of Oban 21 that Cassandra had poured into my cup before she went to the sofa, where she was now chattering away with Maxim.
She had asked me to meet with her brother officially. She wanted me to see that there wasn’t anything suspicious about him. The way she spoke about him was odd. Arlette hardly spokeof anyone so fondly, yet I thought she shared a stronger bond with her half-brother.
I guess I was wrong. And as much as I wanted to be happy for her, the kid gave me a bad feeling. At the back of my mind, I discarded it as a feeling of jealousy. Seeing Arlette with another male other than myself irked me—but that wasn’t just it. It felt like there were secrets he was hiding about himself.
There was something he wanted from Arlette, but she was too blind to see it.
Rather than forbid her from ever seeing him again, I figured there were other ways I could go around it.
But first, I needed to know more about him.
The quick background search Maxim had provided me wasn’t enough.
“I’m going to need both of you to do something for me,” I said, cutting through Cassandra and Maxim’s chatter.
Their attention was now trained on me. They seemed buzzed but alert—patiently waiting for the next instruction I had for them.
“Brandon Orozco.”
“Arlette’s stepbrother?” Cassandra asked, and I nodded before continuing.
“I want to know everything about him. And by everything, I mean everything. Where he schools, where he lives, who he fucking talks to.”
“You don’t trust him,” Maxim mused, setting his tablet aside and grabbing the almost-empty shot of wine on the glass-accented coffee table in front of him.
“I don’t trust anyone besides the Bratva, Maxim. And besides, that kid just showed up out of nowhere. I understand him trying to bond with his sister—but why just her?” I asked, furrowing my brows.
It made no absolute sense. And sure, Arlette wanted us to meet, but I needed to gather as much information as possible about him beforehand.
“Alright, sir. We’ll get some men to trail him and fish out as much information as we can,” Cassandra assured me, and a satisfied smirk formed on my face as I stared out the large glass pane windows, viewing the midnight city lights.
This war with Joaquin was gradually reaching its end.
