Ruslan still was.
“That’s not why I’m here.” Avoidance was his friend at the moment.
“No? What do you want?”
Scratching at the hair covering his jaw, Kaz considered his words before he asked what he wanted to know. “Gavrill.”
Ruslan frowned. “Our uncle? What about him?”
It was no secret that Ruslan had been closer to their uncle than any of their siblings. Truthfully, his relationship had been far better with Gavrill than it was with Vasily. Wherever Gavrill went, as long as there was no business involved, then Ruslan was on his heels, never too far behind.
He had been older at the time of their uncle’s death, so there was a stronger possibility that Ruslan remembered the details better than he did.
“January 21st—never forget that day. It was cold as shit, and the streets were silent because of that car bomb that nearly took your life. Someone—and even to this day we still don’t know the face behind the gun, just that he was Italian—walked up to him in the middle of the street and shot him, point-blank in the face. I don’t think they actually found all of his teeth.”
Fucking hell. Kaz hadn’t known any of that. He knew Gavrill died, or was murdered, rather, but he hadn’t known it had been so brazen.
“I’m confused. Why didn’t Vasily ever do anything about it? If you know it was the Italians, he had to know, too. Could probably find the gunman, too, if he asked the right questions.”
“There was a girl, Italian, left raped and murdered behind a pizza parlor in Hell’s Kitchen, all fingers pointed back to Gavrill,” Ruslan said. “Whether by his word or action, Gavrill had to answer for it.”
Something about the tone of his voice gave Kaz pause. “But …”
“But?”
“You don’t sound convinced.”
Ruslan signed off on the slip, sending the men on their way, gesturing with a tilt of his head for Kaz to follow him inside. “Gavrill was a lot of things, but even he had limits.”
Kaz shook his head, agreeing. From what he could remember of the man, he had been rather loud, quick to anger depending on who was speaking, and had a tendency to act before he thought. Was he a murderer? Yeah, weren’t they all? But a rapist … Kaz couldn’t see that, nor could he ever think of a time when Gavrill had even used that as a threat.
But he had been a child …
“And Vasily didn’t question this?”
“He was more concerned with ending the war. Men were dying—you almost died. If Gavrill’s death meant it all came to a stop, he couldn’t retaliate.” Rulan paused. “At least that’s what Vasily says.”
It didn’t have to be asked whether Ruslan believed that, the contempt in his voice told his true feelings. Everything he’d said only made Kaz more curious—it wasn’t meshing with the shit Carmine had said. Of course, it could have meant that he was just trying to get a rise out of him, say what he needed to push his buttons, but Carmine had been too arrogant in the way he spoke for Kaz to believe that.
“Why are you asking about all of this anyway?” Ruslan asked, peering over at him as though he could read the answer on his face.
“Had a run in with Carmine Gallucci earlier—he said some things. I was curious.”
It was at that moment that Kaz’s phone rang. He already had a good idea as to who it was.
“One day, you’re going to go too far,” Ruslan warned. “Who the hell is going to save your ass when Vasily decides to teach you a lesson?”
Digging his phone out, Kaz smiled absently. “Let’s hope we never have to find out—Kaz.”
“You know,” Vasily began, sounding rather thoughtful, “when I asked Irina to bear my children, you were not what I hoped for.”
“Someone’s in a mood,” Kaz said in return, already heading for his car, knowing what Vasily would tell him. “How about we skip the ‘I don’t know why you’re calling,’ discussion? Yes, I had a run in with Carmine Gallucci, and considering you’re not yelling, you know that he wasn’t hurt too bad—his pride, maybe. So really, what’s there to discuss?”
Kaz slipped behind the wheel, and as he switched the call over to the Bluetooth radio, his phone buzzed again, this time with a text.
“Are you trying to kill me?” Vasily asked. “Is that what this is about? I don’t understand. I’ve given you everything you could have ever wanted. Money, the best schools, the best cars … and yet you never do the simplest of things that I ask.”
“What was that?” Kaz had only been half paying attention to his father as he unlocked his phone, opening up the message.
“Kazimir!” Vasily snapped, that last little thread he had on his control breaking. “Stay the fuck away from the Galluccis. How many times must I say this?”