Page 13 of The Disputed Legacy
Isabella, Roarke, and Olivia were protected within these walls. Guards and soldiers stood sentry to prevent anyone from coming in. My nieces and nephew would never go off on their own and they would grow up like I did, like my brothers did, behind countless men who’d die to protect their leaders.
Then again…
I furrowed my brow, recalling the most important time of my life when that hadn’t been true. Maxim, Nik, and Damon had been taken. They were held captive when they were just boys, and if it wasn’t for Katerina eavesdropping on Beatrice and learning where they were held, all three of my brothers would’ve been killed by enemies, shot execution-style.
I hadn’t been taken, which never made sense to me. Sure, I hadn’t been outside on the ground, playing with the other three when they were kidnapped, but I wasn’t far, just up in a tree from climbing in it and playing around. It wasn’t like I had been that concealed. The kidnappers could’ve taken me too, but they hadn’t.
Still, that time of my life changed my brain chemistry. I’d had my first experience of survivor’s guilt for not being kidnapped. I’d witnessed my father’s wrath and fear because his sons had been captured. I felt the deep despair and anxiety that I’d become a single child and lose my siblings.
It was just different now. Seeing my brothers’ children being born had flipped a switch for me. My perspective on life, on how fragile it could be, was changed now.
“Saul?”
I jerked my head up, blinking once as Maxim’s voice jarred me from this reflective reverie. “Hmm?”
“You all right?”
I nodded, wondering deep down how he could just deal with this new stress and worry. He’d welcomed a precious daughter into this world, but it was full of so much danger and violence. Too many unknowns to contend with.
“Yeah, I’m good,” I told him, shoving all these thoughts aside. They needed me to be strategic and on the task of protecting the family, not emotional and pensive. “And I’ll be following up with what happened yesterday.” Looking at Damon, I nodded again in agreement. “While it’s been a fluctuating pattern of watching what the Romanos have been up to in the last year, I’m more on board with your attitude. Fuck it. Let’s kill them all.”
Katerina shook her head. With her arms folded over her chest, it looked like she was hugging herself. But the stern set of her jaw and the simmering anger in her eyes suggested she was coiled up and dealing with wrath, not sorrow.
She’d lost her family when Nik led the operation to end the Kozlovs. That wasn’t how she saw it, though. When the boss of the Kozlovs, Anton, killed her father, she considered that the end of her true family. She was the one who’d killed Anton in the end, proving once and for all how little she cared for her uncle or saw any loyalty owed to him.
“There is no doubt that Anton was partnering with Dominic Romano,” she said, uniquely knowledgeable to claim that, not only because she was formerly a part of that family but also because she was a hacker and sleuthed on her own. “And that’s further evident in all that’s happened since Anton’s death.”
Not a single sign of sorrow or guilt showed on her face. If anything, she was proud of the fact that she’d avenged her father’s death.
Maxim nodded in agreement. “That’s true. Ever since Anton’s death, the Romanos have taken charge of the Kozlov properties. They didn’t waste time in bringing their turf into their own.”
“All the Kozlov assets—the ones that we didn’t destroy—were taken up by the Romanos,” I added. “The buildings, properties, wealth, all of it. Dominic Romano employed a multi-layered takeover since his so-called partner was no longer in the picture.”
Nik spun a pen between his fingers. “Yeah, but did we do the Romanos a favor in taking out Anton?” He sighed, reaching for Katerina to tug her to sit on his lap. They were partners in crime, two spies, despite becoming parents. Even though they were new parents, and Joann was babysitting for this meeting, Nik and Katerina could still be like this, calculating and on the project.
“Anton was dead one way or another,” he added, putting his hand on Katerina’s thigh as she settled in to sit on his lap. “But I’d hate it if we made anything easier for Dominic Romano by killing Anton.”
“As far as I can see, he’s not necessarily any stronger,” I explained. A big part of my waiting game, to watch and see what Dominic did, was relevant to what he was suggesting. “The Romanos were never strong enough on their own. I suspect Anton saw that, and he figured he could manipulate the Romanos into working with him and being an ally so he could take what they had.”
Katerina nodded. “That adds up. The Kozlov wealth and portfolio were always more than what the Romanos had.”
“And now with Anton gone and the Kozlov organization disbanded, all those deeds and accounts were taken by Dominic,” I said, looking at all of them to make sure they were following along. “That takeover wasn’t instant, but now that itseems like Dominic has assumed the most significant Kozlov assets, and they are now all ‘Romano’ assets, we can know that eliminating Dominic and his family will eradicate all that was once Anton’s, too.”
While letting one half of an enemy partnership get richer and stronger wasn’t smart, it seemed critical to erase everything in the end. If we’d hurried to go after the Romanos any sooner, more loose parts of the Kozlov empire could still be seized and used by others. Be it guns, money, or properties, we wanted no one to get their hands on anything to use against us. By waiting and letting Dominic Romano acquire all that Anton once had, we would be assured of taking it all out at once now.
We talked a little more about Dominic’s takeover of all that Anton’s death had freed up. Maxim and Nik referenced the few occasions where overzealous Kozlov leaders wanted to take the family name and start it up all over again independent of the Romano influence, but all those men had been killed.
It wasn’t like we could’ve gone after the Romanos when we handled the Kozlov Family as a threat. My brothers had been too preoccupied with their wives’ pregnancies. It was agreed that we’d wait and see, but now, like Damon bluntly put it, fuck it. As far as I was concerned, we’d waited long enough.
“I still wonder about what Dominic Romano will get out of this, though,” Father commented. Today was another good day, and I was grateful for his insight. He used to be good friends with Katerina’s father, Thomas, when he was the Kozlov boss. He used to face off with Dominic Romano in his younger days. Even though his memory couldn’t be trusted completely, Father had a more extensive history with our enemies.
“More power,” Maxim replied. “Exactly what Anton wanted, too.”
Father shook his head. “More power is only part of it. But taking the highest power would be more like an end goal.”
Takingourpower?I refused to consider it. The Ivanov Syndicate had always ruled in New York, and it always would. No one would unseat us as the most powerful family.
“If Dominic has played this situation just so he could acquire all that the Kozlov empire had, he has to know that he still wouldn’t be able to overpower us.” Father furrowed his brow as he got up to pace slowly again. He didn’t use his walker or cane anymore, but his gait wasn’t entirely smooth yet.
