Roman offers his signature grunt again and turns back to me. "The shipment comes through on Thursday. I want the delivery teams paired with Radin contacts on every run until I'm comfortable they can operate cleanly."
"Done." I pull a chair out across from Roman and sit down, feeling relieved that part of the job is over. I'll have a separate meeting with Kazimir later to discuss his fight security, and given the stakes on fight nights, he's likely to be pickier. But for now my job is done.
"Kazimir, coordinate the pairings. You know the Radin guys better than anyone. Put the right people together." Kazimir jerks his chin up at Roman’s word and follows the men out, pulling the door shut behind him. With the room quieter now, my cousin turns to me, ignoring Timur who has his face buried in his phone.
"How's the girl?" Roman asks. It's just like him to not pull any punches. He cuts straight to the next topic of discussion and doesn't leave me wondering what he's thinking.
"Moving forward," I say. "She trusts me. We've been seeing each other regularly and she's opened up about the arrangement with Orlov, the alliance, why her family is pushing for the marriage."
"And?"
"And she's not happy about it. She'll go through with it because her father's told her to, but there's no loyalty to Orlov. She sees herself as a sacrifice."
Roman turns his coffee cup in his hands. "What about the other side? What do we know about Orlov?"
Timur sits forward and finally looks up from his phone to open a folder lying on the table in front of him. He spreads three printed pages on the desk in front of Roman.
"Orlov's operation is bigger than we thought," Timur says. "He's running product through Yekaterinburg on four separate routes and he's been expanding south for the last six months. His crews are well-funded and well-armed and he's recruiting hard."
Roman scans the pages. "What about the marriage? What's his angle?"
"That's the interesting part." Timur taps one of the financial summaries. "Our sources say Orlov isn't looking for a partnership with the Belovas. He's looking for an acquisition. The marriage gives him legal access to Belova's contacts, their territory in Perm, and apparently, a hefty cut in on their profit. Once the families are merged, he intends to absorb them. Sergei thinks he's gaining a partner. What he's actually gaining is a buyer who plans to own everything he has within two years."
Roman narrows his eyes at me. "Sergei doesn't know this?"
"Sergei sees what he wants to see," I say. "A strong family offering his daughter a good match. He's not looking past the wedding because the wedding is the only thing keeping him alive right now. If he knew Orlov's real intentions, he'd pull out... I think he just has his eyes on those trade routes and thinks it'll help his family survive the Radin-Kuzin merge. We're swallowing a lot of his sales."
Roman sits back and sighs. I know he's really thinking that stopping that alliance is key. We can't allow Maksim Orlov to take over the Belova empire. If he does, he becomes so powerful, he wouldn't just threaten the new smuggling operation. He'd also threaten the fight club and everything Roman and two generations before him built.
"What if we approach Sergei directly?" he says. "Show him what Orlov really is. Offer him an alternative."
"We could," I say. "But he won't take it. Sergei Belova has hated the Radin name his whole life. His father hated it. It goes back generations. You could walk into his study with proof that Orlov plans to gut his entire operation and he'd still choose Orlov over us because at least Orlov isn't a Radin, and we're married to that name—literally."
Roman exhales through his nose with pursed lips. "You're sure about that?"
"Sergei's stubborn, proud, and terrified. He'd rather hand his family to a man who's going to eat him alive than accept help from us." The intel Timur gave me really helped me understand what we're up against. Spending time with Marina was icing on the cake. I've soiled her good now—ruined that pussy of hers for any man, and if Orlov found out, he'd start a war. One he would lose, but a war, no less.
But it would end the alliance to Marina's family and preserve ours. Still, I know there's a better way now. One that won't end in Marina being caught between us.
"Then the original plan stands," Roman says. "You compromise the girl and Orlov walks."
"No."
Timur eyes me cautiously because the fucker knows I have no intention of doing that anymore. Marina is so much more than a bargaining chip. How do I walk into her life to manipulate her after having her so intimately and knowing what her father has done, and then do the same thing? I can't.
"The original plan was to ruin her for Orlov," I say, leaning back. I have to share this delicately so I don't upset my cousin, but it has to be said. I'm not letting her go. "It works, but it's wasteful. If we destroy the girl, the Belovas go back to being weak and isolated and eventually, someone else picks them up or they disintegrate on their own. Either way, we don't gain anything. We prevent a problem, but we don't gain a single thing from it."
Timur clears his throat, and I notice his glare but I ignore him. "And then Orlov could move against us." Which wasn't something we worried about before, but hearing how big his empire is, it may be more of a threat than we thought.
"What are you proposing?" Roman asks, furrowing his brow. "Because it sounds like you have some scheme cooked up in your head."
"I plan to take her for myself." I say the words and let them fizzle out when they get no reaction. Then I add the punch. "If I convince Marina to come marry me instead of that doucheOrlov, we align with the Belovas and they'll be forced to side with us."
"A hostile takeover?" Ro asks, shaking his head.
"In a way. The point would be to disarm Orlov so he can't fight back and to strengthen our side. With the Radins, adding the Belova weight behind us would mean an unstoppable force Orlov can't fight against."
Timur shifts his weight but says nothing. Roman is very still as every risk runs through his mind.