Chapter Twenty-Four
Gabriel had only been to Memphis once. The first time that he had come, he had imagined pulling up to a rural speck of land with hogs and chickens running wildly about, but it was mildly impressive. The people seemed warm and there was a true appreciation for food, especially pork. Evidently, he’d landed in the Home of The Blues and barbeque.
Downtown Memphis was a busy little spot. Cars and trolleys littered the main thoroughfares. People walked up and down the streets in their suits with their heads attached to their cell phones. Cops stood on the corners. Pockets of homeless people hid in the alleyways, emerging only to beg for a few bucks or get something to eat. It was basically a little Manhattan. He shrugged, maybe not that similar, but the place had its own nice metro vibe.
Anatoly had put him up in the loft above his clothing store, Dmitry’s Closet. Evidently, his ex-girl had lived here before him, because while he was unpacking his things and putting them away, he found a letter to Anatoly. The guy had been a complete prick to him until he showed him that little note. He lit up like a Christmas tree, though he tried to conceal it.
Gabriel could understand. He missed Briggy so badly until it literally felt like his heart would fall out of his body. They spoke daily, but it was hard to keep contact, because of the time difference. He knew the time would come when his uncle would send him off, but he was hoping for more time with her. She had cried for two days when he told her that he was leaving. She had said that she would quit and come with him, but he had talked her out of it. Knowing the previous relationship with Anatoly and knowing that he was undercover, there was no way in hell that he was going to drag her into this anymore than he already had.
Today, Gabriel was set to meet the council. This was a big step. He would know all the players in the Medlov crime family, and they would know him. This was by far the riskiest thing that he had done. There was no turning back now.
Vasily knocked on the front door and waited for him. Grabbing his coat, and putting on his guns, Gabriel quickly met him and was escorted over to the restaurant. They convened the meeting in the basement of Mother Russia amidst the largest group of heavily armed bodyguards that he’d ever seen. He knew from the briefing with the DEA that there was once a basement to this place, but after the bombings the entire building had been rebuilt and a lot of rooms had been restructured. However, to ching that was wrong in the reports was that the basement no longer existed. It did exist, and it was now heavily reinforced. It would take an army to get down into this place and many causalities to get out of it.
Anatoly evidently had a serious thing for guns and bodyguards, because there were more of them than council members. And none of the council members’ bodyguards were ever allowed inside. They were completely vulnerable, if not under the boss’s protection.
The 15 men sat at a table built from old wood that Gabriel imagined came from Russia considering the organization’s nostalgic demeanor like kings at court. He also noticed that they were all a great deal older than Anatoly. Gabriel imagined that really pissed most of them off. These men were powerful, dangerous and notorious, yet a boy sat at the head of their table, and they had no choice but to either respect him or war with him.
However, Anatoly Medlov was no light-weight. Once Gabriel was seated in the corner, Anatoly came into the room with Vasily and three other men closely behind. He commanded their attention not with theatrics but with a scowl that rivaled Putin’s. He looked ready to kill at any moment. It was obvious that he did not trust them, or at least some of them.
In jeans and a t-shirt, he sat down at the head of the table and looked around. With a sigh, he began the meeting, indicating either his frustration with the men or himself.
“Vasily, check the room, please,” Anatoly said, pouring himself a glass of water.
Vasily quickly checked the room for bugs then nodded at his boss to begin.
“I have brought you all here to meet a very important member of my family,” Anatoly said slowly, irritated. He gritted his teeth as he talked. “My father has blessed the...existence of my cousin Gabriel Medlov, who is the son of Ivan Medlov.”
The room buzzed. They all turned to look at the stranger who had been escorted it the room. His familiarity was suddenly apparent.
Anatoly rolled his eyes. “It is my father’s wish, and therefore my own, that you humbly accept our brother, a fellow thief-in-law into the Medlov Organized Crime Family. His role will be minimal to start. He has been assigned Igor’s former position and will handle our trafficking efforts in South Florida. Once he has proven himself, he will be assigned other duties. Are there any questions?”
Gabriel could feel the angst and hesitation in the room. Anatoly may have been just a boy in years but his knowledge of the men and the organization was great and their knowledge of his brutality was evident. Anatoly stared them down as he sat quietly with the glass in his hand, waiting for them to say one unjust word against his father’s decision. But no one was that careless. Instead, they posed the questions to be more susceptible to Anatoly’s cooperation.
“Is there a file on this young man?” Khalid, the oldest and most respected of the council asked, turning towards Gabriel. “It is my request, Anatoly, that we all receive a little background knowledge on him. He is after all being allowed into the most sacred part of our lives. Know that I do not question the choice of my dear friend, Dmitry. I simply remember the boy’s father, and I want to feel more comfortable with him even being alive.”
Anatoly sat back in his chair. “You request is warranted, brat. A file will be provided to all 15 members of the council by the end of the day.”
Yuri chimed in after seeing that Anatoly was open to conversation. “And what of our South Florida shipments? This is a major part of our business. If he proves to be unable to fulfill his obligation as the trafficker of our product then it leaves both the family and the client in peril.”
“We don’t need to exaggerate the value of the South Florida inventory. It only makes up two percent of our global shipments. However, I will assist Gabriel in this. Only because my father has asked me, will I lower myself to this responsibility. However,” Anatoly looked at Gabriel, “he is my cousin. And he is of royal bloodline. So, while I completely understand your concern, I would ask that you know that I am more than capable of handling the South Florida shipments and all the others for that matter. And there is no need to worry if I am involved.”
“Of course there is not,” Yuri, bowing his head. “Knowing that you will be responsible for him and the shipments makes us all feel better about the situation. I’m sure.” He looked at Oleg.
The men concurred.
Anatoly nodded at the council member for his concern and his graceful digression.
“Any other questions?” Anatoly asked.
“Why has the boy been in hiding?” Oleg asked at the far end of the table.
Anatoly sat forward in his seat. “The council’s job is to ensure my father’s interests. The council’s job is to ensure the family’s diversity, devotion to the code and the sustainability of the organization’s financial foundation for perpetuity, if possible. The council’s job is not to question my father, the founder of this family. I don’t understand why a man of your age would not know this. But I do understand when my leadership is being questioned. Once a few years ago, my father allowed this council to be more than what it was founded to be, and it yielded bad fruit in the form of men thinking that they were bigger and greater than this organization. Since then, there have been modifications, and since then you all have agreed through blood covenant to that agreement. You were bound to it on that day. You are bound to the covenant still and until death. Do not forget it. Because I am not my father. I do not have history clouding my position. In fact, I do not forgive, gentlemen.”
The room was silent.
“Are there any other questions,” Anatoly asked, looking around the room at the men.
The room continued in silence.
Anatoly stood up from the table. “I extend my best wishes to you and to your families. Until our next meeting, be well.”
***
The words rang in Gabriel’s ears well after the meeting. I do not forgive, gentlemen. He could hear Anatoly say it over and over. He realized that while his cousin had not meant the words for him specifically, they had affected him most.
After the meeting, Gabriel had been brought to Anatoly’s mansion by Vasily, while Anatoly went to take care of some other important business regarding another deal taking place in Israel later that month.
Evidently, his cousin handled many different business transactions on a daily basis and none ever took place in his home city. That had been the cardinal rule since the horrible show down almost four years ago with his father. The Medlov Organized Crime family had done a complete 180 since then. Rules had been put in place that could not be broken.
Anatoly was going to go over a few of those rules with Gabriel tonight over dinner. This would be the first intimate conversation he had held with him alone. And in truth, he was very nervous about it. While Dmitry was more interested in his background and all the things that he had missed growing up away from the family, Anatoly would not be so interested in anything but operations and how he could use him.
At the very moment, Gabriel was alone at the mansion with the exception of one of Vasily’s underlings and the maids and house staff. He had been confined to the entertainment room and given a remote.
He wasn’t really a big television watcher. In fact, he hardly ever turned the thing on except to watch the news, but for now he calmed his thoughts by watching ridiculous reality shows and eating the candy in the bowl on the table.
Several hours later, after he had fallen asleep on the couch, he felt his foot being kicked. He looked up to realize that he was not back in Prague but in his cousin’s house. It was strange how lately he often went to bed and forgot where he was all together.
“Wake up, I want to talk to you,” Anatoly said, sitting across from him on the opposite couch.
Gabriel stretched and looked at his watch. It was almost eleven at night. The last thing he remembered it was six in the evening. Now the day had completely gone and was giving way to midnight.
Anatoly coddled a glass of vodka in one hand and rubbed his dog’s head with the other. Under a scrupulous stare, he put his bare feet up on the ottoman and motioned for Vasily to turn off the television.
“Are you comfortable in Renee’s old place?” Anatoly asked.
“Yes, it’s a nice set up. Thanks.” Gabriel answered, looking at his dogs.
“Well, you won’t be spending much time there. Until I’m comfortable with you, you’ll be expected to report here by seven in the morning. So, I hope that you’re an early riser. You’ll shadow me all day. You won’t be allowed to sit in on any meetings until I’m certain that I want you there. You’ll do what I say, when I say.”
“Cool,” Gabriel nodded.
Anatoly sat up a little and squinted. Pointing at him with the glass in his hand, he shook his head. “See that’s what bothers me about you, Gabriel. You think that everything is cool. You supposedly built an entire organization yourself, and you have no problem running around doing my bitch work. Why is that?”
Gabriel didn’t blink. He looked over at Vasily and raised his hand. “Hey bring me a glass of that vodka, will ya?” he said, turning back to Anatoly.
“To tell you that it doesn’t bother me not to run my own shit would be a lie, but just like you had to start somewhere to get somewhere, I’m here. I’d rather be back in New York running my crew, but we’re small fries. I know that if I ever want to sit at that table with those 15 men across from you, if I want my own money, if I want real power, then the best thing that I can do is to put in my time down here and learn something new.”
Anatoly sat back in his seat and took a sip of drink. As he did, Vasily brought Gabriel a drink. “Alright then. We’ll talk about the way things work around here after I give you your first assignment,” Anatoly said, letting whatever was on his mind fester.
Gabriel listened quietly.
“I want you to go to Dallas and find that woman that you said is Royal’s mother. Without scaring the life out of her, I want you persuade her to go to Jamaica to see her daughter.”
“Why me?” Gabriel asked.
“Well, for one thing, this all came to pass because of your nosy ass. So, it’s only right for you to have to go up there. Secondly, I don’t want to be bothered with it. I have a real organization to deal with here, and I need to keep my eyes on these men and my money.”
“Fine, when do you want me to go?”
“Sooner than later. Set it up; let Vasily know what you need, and get it done.” It was the first time that Gabriel had been given an unsupervised job since he arrived.
Gabriel happily took on the responsibility. “Done. Now, when will I get to chance to start working on this deal in South Florida?”
“We’ll talk about that tonight,” Anatoly said, glad that his cousin could stay focused. “We move at a very high tempo here. Nothing is done in a lax manner, nothing is done a second time. We do things right the first time. We are always thorough and always professional with our clients. Keep your emotions to yourself. If you see something you don’t like, then dealwith it. I don’t deal well with people asking me to back off a thing, a person, a situation. If I tell you to shoot and kill, do it. I don’t give a damn if it’s a woman, a child, a dog. It doesn’t matter. My final word is the final word. It doesn’t go any higher than me, and my word doesn’t change. So don’t ask. I’m not God, but I’m ruler of this. We need to be clear, because I saw your hesitation in Italy. And I didn’t like it. Killing is what we do. We supply guns to kill. We use guns to kill. We send people to kill. This is the industry that you want in – so if you don’t like the core purpose, get on a plane and go back to New York.”
Gabriel tried to control his impulse to cringe. “I understand completely. And I’ll do exactly as you tell me to.
Anatoly smiled. He always gave the kill speech, because his father had given it to him. However, he had hardly been in a situation where a woman was involved. And he’d never imagined hurting a child. He just wanted to see the guy’s face. “Though you probably will never see another woman killed. We don’t normally do that shit –with the exception of your father. And trust me, Victoria had it coming,” he said finally. He pulled out his cigarettes and lit one.
“If you don’t mind me asking, how did she have it coming?” Gabriel could finally ignore the statements about his father. He understood that it was just Anatoly’s way of giving him crap. And Gabriel already knew about Victoria. Briggy had told him the entire story from what she knew while he was back in Prague. However, to act as if he wasn’t curious would only look more suspect.
“Victoria was trying to expose our entire organization, even after my father gave her chance after chance. She’d contacted the cops here of all places. I still don’t know why she would call the local police department. Evidently, she saw all the press this one prick, Agosto, had received here.”
“Yeah, I even read about him,” Gabriel added. It was the truth. He had. The guy was a certifiable bad ass and had a lot of respect in the law enforcement community. Whenever anyone even mentioned Memphis, Agosto’s name was brought up to certify credibility.
Anatoly took a puff of his cigarette and laughed. “Plus, she had already tried to seduce my father in his house after drugging his wife. Big mistake. Not to mention that she just aggravated the shit out of me. She was a fucking stalker and crazy as hell. That last move just proved to us all that she had to go.”
Gabriel couldn’t help but smirk. He had heard the same story from Briggy and a few other things from Dmitry. She was a piece of work. Plus, there was no way to trace her. He had called the wine estate afterwards and asked for Victoria Jackson and someone had answered as her. It would be impossible for him to know if he had been set up to see if he would snitch or to know if someone was posing as Victoria to cover the murder. He had been taught during his training that an undercover agent couldn’t save everyone, and Victoria had been the one that he couldn’t save. Besides, if he had to save anyone at all in this it would Briggy.