Page 20 of King

“Yes, please,” I reply with a smile.

We take a seat on the sofas, and a waiter enters the room and comes over to take our order.I order a draft beer, and Stepan has a glass of some variety of vodka that I don’t recognize.

When the waiter leaves us alone, Stepan turns to me.“Now for some business, since we are both businessmen.”

“We are both businessmen,” I say.“But I’m trying to get my family business away from the Andropovs.I don’t trust them.I think they killed my brother.”

“Then you want revenge,” Stepan says and leans forward.“I can help you with that.”

The waiter returns with our drinks, and we are silent while he places them on the coffee table in front of us.

“Thank you,” I say and take my drink in hand.I hold it up to Stepan.“To my new father-in-law.My only father now.May we have a very successful and happy relationship.”

“By all means,” Stepan says and holds up his drink.“To a very successful and happy relationship.”

We take a drink, and then I lean back and sigh, wondering what will happen next.Stepan leans forward and looks at me with intention.“I have a business proposal,” he says, his voice serious.“I will take over Andropov’s route, and you will not lose any money by cutting him off.You can trust me.Nothing will happen to you or your business because of Natalia.We are family now.Blood is everything.”

I feel a jolt in my gut at his offer.I thought I’d have to spend much more time appearing reluctant or uninterested so that he could make the move, and here he is making the move right away before I’ve barely said anything.

I can’t believe my luck.I nod slowly and take another drink of my beer.

“I feel like I can trust you, Stepan,” I say and exhale.“I’m not 100% filled in on Andropov’s relationship with my family.I only know that they were using our trucks as part of their shipping process.You tell me what you need, and I’ll make sure it happens.”

He nods and takes a drink of his vodka.“This is good,” he says.“Both the vodka and this plan.You leave Andropov to me.I will handle him.I don’t want you to have to fight my wars.You and Natalia should enjoy each other and start a family.Family is everything.Everything else is just for family.”

“What’s in it for me?”I raise my eyebrows expectantly.

“I get rid of Andropov, and you make 15% of the clearance fees.That sounds good, yes?”

“That sounds good to me,” I say and hold up my beer for another toast.“Here’s to being in business together,” I say.“May we both be successful in all our endeavours.”

The waiter enters the room with our food, and Stepan points to the table.“Our food is here,” he says.“Now that business is settled, let's eat dinner.I am hungry.”

We move to the dining room table and take our seats, each of us sitting at the end of the table.The waiter leaves our food and then asks if we want another drink.

“Bring a good bottle of wine.Red wine,” Stepan says.“Tell Ivan one of his best bottles, please and thank you.”

The waiter comes back in with a bottle of red wine and presents it to Stepan, who nods in agreement.“Yes, please to open.”

The waiter opens the bottle of wine and pours us each a glass.Stepan turns to me and holds up his glass.“To my son-in-law,” he says.“I am very happy that you and Natalia are together.I will take care of business for us.Together we will make lots of money.”

“That sounds good to me,” I say and take a drink of the wine, which is delicious.

We eat our food, which of course is delicious: some Russian meal with unpronounceable names, but I know that it’s going to be good.For the next hour, we talk about my business, my personal business.We talk about my time in the army.We talk about my brother and my father, and I relay my sadness at their loss.

“You leave revenge to me,” Stepan says, nodding his head.“Is best you don’t get involved in the plans.I know how to take care of pesky problems.”

“Thank you so much,” I say and sigh heavily and pointedly.“After the sadness leaves, the anger returns that my brother died so senselessly.”

“You know what they say, ‘revenge is a dish best served cold.’That means you wait until your blood is cool and not when hot.When blood is hot, you are much more likely to make a mistake and suffer the consequences.My blood is cool.I know how this can be done without your involvement.Now that you are Natalia’s husband and my son-in-law, I don’t want you to be taken away from family life.”

“I don’t want you to get in trouble either,” I say and take a drink of my wine.

“Not to worry,” Stephan says confidently.“This is not a problem.”

For the rest of the evening, we talk about other issues.Sports that we favor, and we find that we share a love of baseball.After baseball, we discuss shipping and how much Stepan loves his yacht and cruising up the coast.

“One day, I go to Alaska through the Panama Canal.Have you been to Alaska before?”Stepan asks.