Total pages in book: 129
Estimated words: 120165 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 601(@200wpm)___ 481(@250wpm)___ 401(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 120165 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 601(@200wpm)___ 481(@250wpm)___ 401(@300wpm)
The room went silent. I opened my eyes just in time to see Gennadiy shove his chair back from the table and stand. “You think I’m making it up? You think you can come in here and call me a liar, just because you spread your legs for my brother?”
Radimir’s chair screeched as he stood, too. “That’s my wife you’re talking to. Speak like that to her again and I’ll smash your teeth out on the edge of this table.”
I stood up, my heart thumping, and put my hands up to try to keep the two of them from leaping at each other. “I’m not saying you’re lying, Gennadiy. But what if the call wasn’t from The Eight?”
Gennadiy scowled at me. “It was! It was Domaslav! I’ve spoken to him a hundred times; he deals with all the families in Chicago!”
I put up both hands to try to calm him. “Deep Fakes.”
Everyone stared at me. Then Radimir said, “What?!”
“Before I started my bookstore,” I said, “I did a business course at night school. One of the modules was on banking and avoiding fraud. One of the growing threats is deep fakes. Someone calls you, pretending to be someone you know. They sound just like them because they’re using a computer to mimic the voice. They tell you to pay someone or move money to a different account. People have lost millions, tens of millions. Now what if...someone used the same trick on you? On this family? Only instead of defrauding you for money...they tricked you into killing Spartak’s brother?”
There was a moment of stunned silence. Then, “That’s ridiculous,” said Gennadiy. But he sounded shaken.
I leaned in. “When Domaslav called you, did he know anything?” I asked gently. “Anything that only one of The Eight would know? A password, a code, anything that proves it was actually him?”
“We don’t use passwords!” snapped Gennadiy. “We’re—” He unleashed a long stream of curses in Russian, but I knew the anger wasn’t directed at me, and I knew what he meant. We’re Bratva. They were deeply traditional, they had honor. They did things based on trust, on promises. But that was exactly what had made them vulnerable and the fear in his eyes meant he’d realized it, too.
“Gennadiy?” asked Radimir quietly.
Gennadiy cursed again. Valentin put a hand on his back, but he shook it off angrily. “No,” he said at last. “No, they didn’t say anything that proves it was them.” He looked around at our horrified faces and shook his head wildly. “But that doesn’t mean...”
Mikhail nodded sadly. “Bronwyn is right. It’s the only thing that makes sense. Ever since you got that phone call, we’ve been asking why The Eight would want us to break the truce. Now we know: they didn’t. Someone fooled us.”
We all looked at each other in slack-jawed horror as the scale of it sank in. We’d been fooled into starting a war, and at the same time cutting ourselves off from all help. One fake phone call was going to destroy the whole Aristov empire.
I saw Gennadiy’s legs shake. He sat down heavily and put his head in his hands. “This is…” he swallowed. “It’s all my fault.”
We all came around the table and put hands on his shoulders. “Any one of us could have taken that phone call,” Radimir told him firmly. “We wouldn’t have questioned it, either.”
But Gennadiy just stared at the table, inconsolable. When he finally lifted his head to look at me, all the hostility was gone. “Thank you,” he said quietly. “Without you, we’d never have known.”
The others nodded. Radimir looked at me with such a look of love and pride that I melted. But it was the looks the other three gave me that made my throat close up. For the first time in a long time, I felt like part of a family.
“So, who did this?” asked Valentin.
I thought about it. “It would have to be someone who’d spoken to The Eight, so they could sample Domaslav’s voice.”
Gennadiy ran his hands through his hair. “That’s a long list. Domaslav deals with all the families in Chicago. Any of our rivals could have done it. There are plenty who want us gone.” He shook his head as he finally accepted the reality of it. “It’s the perfect fucking crime. One phone call, and they make us start a war with a rival and cut us off from all aid. They’ll wipe us out without ever firing a shot.”
“Can we go to Spartak and explain what happened?” I asked.
Radimir shook his head sadly. “We killed his brother. He’s not going to forgive that just because we were tricked into it. Besides, we’ve got no way of proving it.”
“All we can do,” said Gennadiy, “is get ready for war.”
51
RADIMIR
As the meeting broke up, Gennadiy reiterated that none of us should leave the mansion until this was over. “All of you are staying here,” he told us firmly. “I have plenty of room.”