“Everyone knows you,” Rinaldo says. “They know who you are, and they know what kind of influence you have. You are the best I have to keep everyone in line.”
“Are people skimming?” I ask.
“It’s always an issue with the new managers,” Rinaldo replies with a shrug. “More with the clubs than anything else.”
“I can take care of that.”
“I am quite sure you can.”
He’s right. I’m already forming plans in my head, based on the club managers. None of them will be too difficult to handle. If anyone is, they’ll be replaced.
“The thing is,” Rinaldo says, continuing, “I’m not sure it’s the clubs this time.”
“I’ll check it out. Dig into some numbers. I’ll figure out where money is going.”
Rinaldo and I go over a few more details about caviar importation. They’re all tasks I can handle, and I’m not concerned. I prefer sticking to the killing, but I am always pulled into the other ventures. Rinaldo trusts me to get the job done, whatever it may be. We go over some numbers before he switches the subject.
“I’m thinking of sending Nick away,” Rinaldo says. “Since Milena came into his life, he has less interest in the business than he had before, which was little to none.”
“At some point, he’ll become a liability,” I say.
“I would rather send him away than have him end up on the wrong side of your rifle.”
I raise an eyebrow and gi
ve him a little nod. If it needed to be done, I wouldn’t hesitate, but killing Rinaldo’s offspring isn’t something I’d look forward to doing.
“I could send him out West,” he says as he taps a finger against his lips. “We need eyes in Seattle, and considering what a mess they are right now, I don’t think he’d be in much danger.”
“It’s too soon. It’s unlikely, but if Landon Stark or someone else gets a notion that we had something to do with Franks’ death, Nick would be an immediate target.”
Landon Stark, former trainer of death-match participants for the Seattle mob had gone missing shortly after I killed Joseph Franks and sent the Seattle folks scrambling. They haven’t recovered, but it’s only a matter of time. Landon is also the mentor and father figure to my half brother, Sebastian Stark. Sebastian has no idea of our relationship and had nearly succeeded in killing me during a tournament game in the Arctic. I’d traded my life in exchange for killing Franks and removing the hold he had over Sebastian. In return, Sebastian had agreed to let everyone believe I was dead.
That didn’t last long.
“Landon is still missing,” Rinaldo says.
“He was a SEAL,” I reply. “He just might stay missing forever.”
“Do you have any suggestions?”
“If you put Jonathan to task, he might find him eventually. It would take effort though. If Landon is determined to remain missing, he’s no longer a threat. It might not be worth the expense in time.”
Rinaldo nods in agreement as he drums his fingers on the top of his desk. It’s not a customary habit for him, and I wonder what has him on edge.
“Sir?” I cock my head a bit to the side, but he just stares at me. “Is there a problem?”
For a long moment, he says nothing. Then he walks over to his desk and unlocks the top drawer before speaking.
“I want to show you something.”
Rinaldo pulls out a ledger in a green binder and opens it up near the back. A spreadsheet with a lot of numbers, calculations, and graphs takes up most of the page.
“See anything?” he asks.
Narrowing my eyes, I look closely at some of the numbers highlighted in yellow. There are a few lines that don’t match up. The amounts are small, but there are a lot of them.
“Someone’s taking quite a chunk.”