Elimination

by Jackie D.

  “Do you need me to broker the deal?” Dylan hoped it might be her way out of the situation she suddenly found herself in, but she focused on the food as an attempt to look disinterested in his answer.

  “It’s already handled.”

  If there was a question in Dylan’s mind as to whether Nikolai had been the one to get rid of Roman, it was answered then. There was no way Nikolai could have found a buyer and made arrangements for the sale of Carol O’Brien in ten hours. He’d been planning this for a while. He was watching her closely, probably trying to see if she’d put the pieces together. Nikolai may seem rather reserved, even soft-spoken to casual acquaintances, but Dylan knew better. Nikolai was as cold, calculating, and dangerous as they came.

  “Good. One less thing to worry about.” She held up her cappuccino cup in a sign of appreciation. She picked up her new phone and put it in her pocket. “Is there anything else you need from me right now? I’d like to get some sleep. Late night.” She winked at him.

  “Be at my house at eight this evening. We have things to discuss. And, Sasha…”

  Dylan met his eyes and waited for him to continue.

  “That girl from last night, you should bring her again. I liked her, and you seemed rather protective of her. But if you’re done with her, I’m sure the others would like a shot.”

  Dylan nodded and headed for the door, not bothering to respond to the sickening remark. She knew there was more to it than sharing a nice piece of ass. He was fishing. She made her way through the busy streets to her apartment. She knew she needed to relay the information to the team, but there was no safe way to do it, not now. Nikolai might have promoted her, but he’d be keeping an extra close eye on her now. The whole situation just became significantly more complicated, more dangerous, and with a substantially more definitive timeline. She thought about Emma. Bringing her last night was to help her blend in, but now she feared she’d be in even more danger. Nikolai didn’t take chances and it was what made him successful. He’d be looking for Emma, wanting to make sure she wasn’t a loose end for him to tie up. Dylan tried to decide what would be more dangerous—keeping her close or out of sight. Keeping her close would put her in his orbit. On the other hand, if he couldn’t find her at all, it would raise suspicion. Shit.

  She picked up the phone Ivan had given her and sent a text to the burner phone they’d set up for Emma, just in case. This is Sasha. I had to get a new phone, broke my old one. Thanks for last night. I have the afternoon off. Feel like picking up where we left off? She pulled into her apartment complex and hoped she was doing the right thing.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Carol eyed the overweight man standing in her doorway. His face was red, he smelled of stale alcohol, cigars, and body odor. He tried to fancy up his disgusting presence with a suit, but Carol knew this type of man. Hell, she’d been dealing with this type of man in one form or another her entire life. They thought they were the top of the food chain, untouchable, and deadly. His presence should have intimidated her, but all it did was enrage her.

  “Where is Sasha? I want to speak to Roman.”

  He walked over to the counter and poured himself a glass of scotch. Her scotch. “You have me now. Trust me, you better off. Sasha is weak. I protect you. Roman gone. Nothing he can do for you.” Even in broken English, he was arrogant.

  She moved around behind her kitchen counter, wanting to be closer to knives if necessary. “What was your name again?”

  “Bogdan.” He sipped from the glass he’d so obnoxiously helped himself to.

  “Well, Bogdan, I’m sure you’re very good at your job, but I’m comfortable with Sasha. I’d like her back, please.”

  He smiled, finished the glass, and set it on the table. “You have me. Doesn’t matter what you like.” He walked back to the front door and opened it. “We pick you up next week for gala. Call if you have issue.”

  As soon as the door shut, she picked up her cell. We have a situation. She waited, annoyed at the amount of time that passed.

  What?

  She almost laughed at the response, so typical. New boss in town. I’m afraid my time is limited.

  You need to relax. You’re safe where you are. I’ll see you soon.

  She placed the phone on the counter before she picked up a glass and threw it against the wall. Through all the things she’d done, the lies she’d told, the people she’d outmaneuvered, she’d never felt like a sitting duck. Until now. Every day that passed was a day closer to those women finding her. That had always been her biggest fear. No matter who her friends were at the top, the women hunting her couldn’t be turned, and they were too noticeable and connected themselves to simply disappear without it coming back to her. Once they were gone, there was no one else who would care enough to hunt her down. They were the only thorn in her side. Now, something worse might be on the horizon. In all the scenarios that she’d played out in her head, going down at the hands of an incompetent Russian mob boss wasn’t one of them.

  No, she wasn’t going down without a fight, without a say. She wasn’t going to be bested by men who could be bought and paid for like used cars. She picked up her phone again and sent a text message to Bogdan. I’d like to speak to the new person in charge. Tell him I’ll pay.

  Chapter Twenty

  Emma knocked on the door and held her breath. It wasn’t intentional. She didn’t even realize she’d done it until Dylan opened the door. Her smile was wide, and her eyes said she was genuinely happy to see her, but there was something else there. Fear perhaps? Dylan reached out and pulled her closer, but kept them slightly in the hallway.

  Dylan wrapped her hand around her back and let it rest right above her ass. She leaned forward and kissed her cheek. “Hi.” The now familiar smell of Dylan overwhelmed her senses. Emma didn’t mean to take it in so fully, but it was compulsory.

  The sensation momentarily startled Emma. Her body gave in before her mind had the opportunity to protest. She leaned into Dylan’s cheek. “Hi.”

  Dylan pulled her inside and shut the door behind her. There was music playing again, just as there always was. “Sorry for that.” She pointed to the doorway. “I’m not sure if Nikolai is having us watched.”

  Emma stared at her, not fully understanding. “Us?”

  Dylan ran her hand through her hair and sat next to Emma at the table. “Nikolai is one of the most cunning men I’ve ever known. He requested that you accompany me tonight to his house. He’s never done that before. He gave some bullshit reason about liking you, but I don’t buy it for a second. Ivan must have mentioned that you were in my apartment. I never bring women back here. He wants to make sure you aren’t a liability of some sort. That or he’s angling to use you as leverage against me if I step out of line.” She looked down at her hands. “I thought it was best to have you here with me. I didn’t want him to send out anyone to look for you.”

  Emma pulled out her tablet and opened an encrypted video conference with the rest of the team. “I think you need to fill us in.”

  Dylan nodded and started to recount what had preceded their conversation. Emma said nothing as she watched Jennifer and Brooke in the background type as Dylan spoke. Tyler’s expression never changed. Caden, the most animated of the group, started to pace.

  When it was all said and done, Tyler spoke first. “My first instinct is to try to extract O’Brien before the gala. But, Dylan, you’re the expert when it comes to these men. What do you think?”

  Dylan was quiet for longer than Emma had ever seen when asked a question. “If we wait until the gala, you could get O’Brien, and I’d have the opportunity to identify all the major players here. We’ll be able to put faces to names. Not just from Russia but from all over the world. I…we could put a major dent in some of the worst criminal organizations in the world.”

  Caden’s face came into view. “We could also get killed. Remember, we don’t know for sure who O’Brien’s boyfriend is, and we can’t just call this in. There wi
ll be security to the hilt at the gala. What are we going to do? Walk in and arrest them? We don’t have jurisdiction there. Interpol relies on local law enforcement to make arrests, so they’re useless to us. Even if we could find a sympathetic agency, we don’t have time to fill them in or risk the chance of them making a mistake.”

  “I was never going to be able to do anything but identify them. Keeping track of these assholes, knowing who the players are? It’s how we help stop human trafficking. It’s how we prevent nuclear weapons from being bought and sold. It’s how we keep the world a little safer.” Dylan was trying to keep her voice low, but Emma could see her desperation.

  Caden shook her head again. “If we wait too long, we could lose her.”

  Tyler leaned forward, her focus on Dylan. “How long would you need at the gala?”

  Caden put her hands in the air. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

  Dylan ignored Caden. “An hour, two at the most. If it looks like they’re going to take O’Brien before that, we’ll pick her up, call off the rest of it.”

  Tyler nodded. “Okay. Let’s start working on the way to make this happen. This will be our primary objective unless something changes this week.”

  Dylan let her shoulders fall a bit, relieved. “Thank you.”

  “What am I supposed to do now? If Dylan thinks Nikolai might be watching me, or us, I can’t lead him back to the team,” Emma said, wondering out loud for herself as much as everyone else.

  Dylan ran her hands over her face and sighed. “I think the best option is for you to stay here with me.”

  Emma’s face ran hot with both annoyance for being in this position and at the possibility of staying with Dylan for a week. “With you here? At your apartment?”

  Tyler nodded her agreement. “You’ll be safest there. I’ll have Tony create a dummy apartment for you somewhere out of town. If Nikolai has the resources to do a records search on you, you’ll have an apartment listed under your name. I’m also going to have him put a more extensive background together for you than what he already did before the dinner last night. It should hold up in records searches if Nikolai is inclined to check.”

  “I guess it’s settled then. Have Tony send me over the information once he’s done, so I’m in the loop.” Emma knew she sounded annoyed, but she’d never felt so out of control in any part of her life. It was unnerving.

  “We’ll check in later,” Tyler said, and the screen went black.

  Dylan touched Emma’s arm. “I’m sorry about that. I just don’t want to take any chances.”

  Emma looked at the hand on her arm and willed the thrumming in her head to stop. “I understand why the decision was made. I’m a pragmatic person. I just don’t deal real well when things feel like they’re out of my control.”

  Dylan leaned back in her chair and smiled. “I function better with a certain amount of chaos.”

  Emma scoffed. “What a pair we are.”

  “Do you want to go work out?” Dylan’s question came from nowhere.

  “What?”

  “Work out. If we are being watched, I need to keep up with my everyday routines. I’d like to go for a run. Do you want to come with me? You can borrow some clothes.” Dylan stood and headed toward her bedroom.

  Emma was scared at the thought of going out in public. She’d never been tailed or watched before. But staying indoors certainly wasn’t going to do anything but allow her imagination to run wild.

  “Um, sure.” Emma followed Dylan to her room.

  Dylan handed her some clothes and headed into the bathroom to change. Emma dutifully pulled off her attire and replaced it with the workout outfit Dylan had given her. After changing, she went over to the full-length mirror. She took a deep breath and studied her face. She was surprised to see that worry and fear weren’t etched between her eyes. She’d never trusted a team before, but the relief of having people on your side was something she could get used to.

  Dylan came out of the bathroom. “You ready?”

  Emma gave herself one final look in the mirror and nodded. “Sure, let’s go.”

  * * *

  Dylan didn’t mean to stare, but keeping her eyes off Emma was proving to be more difficult than she’d imagined. Emma was using one of the park railings to stretch after their four-mile run, and Dylan was mesmerized. She’d been attracted to Emma since the first time she saw her, but the more time they spent together the surface attraction was shifting into something more real. She actually liked Emma. It wasn’t just because Emma was effortlessly beautiful, even though she was. It was because Emma was intelligent, funny, and awkward in the most adorable way. Dylan couldn’t remember the last time she’d thought about any woman this much, if ever.

  “Are you okay?”

  “Huh?” Dylan tried to buy herself a few seconds after realizing she’d just been caught gawking.

  “You looked really deep in thought,” Emma said, sounding a bit concerned.

  “You’re just really lovely.” Dylan hadn’t meant to be honest; it just slipped out. She wanted to take it back until she saw the blush creep up Emma’s neck.

  Emma shyly turned her head away. “I don’t think anyone has ever looked at me with as much intensity as you.”

  Dylan didn’t know how to maneuver this weird road of sudden onset honesty. She just knew she wanted off it before things got out of hand. “Do you want to go get something to eat? I know a place not far from here.”

  Emma agreed but still didn’t meet her eyes.

  Dylan requested a table toward the back of the café and sat where she could see everyone who was coming and going. She ordered a few of her favorite pastries to share. She wasn’t trying to be presumptuous, but Emma had looked a little overwhelmed by the menu.

  “Tell me about your siblings,” Dylan said. She hoped it would help Emma take her mind off the chaos, but she also wanted to know more about her.

  Emma waited for the server to put her cappuccino in front of her and took a sip. “My older sister, Felicity, is a teacher and a dance instructor in Texas. My younger brother, Sam, is a senior in high school.”

  “Okay, but what else? What did you all do for fun as kids?”

  “Like I told you before, we aren’t very close. My parents seemed to know what to do with normal kids. I wasn’t normal, at least, that’s what they said. Don’t get me wrong, my parents are good people. They gave me every advantage they could. They put me in private schools when they realized that I was smarter than most. I went to science camps during every school break. They just had trouble connecting with me. It was never like that for my siblings.”

  “They sent you away every school break? What about your sister and brother? Did they get sent away too?” Dylan had never had a real family, but she’d seen enough television to understand what one should function like.

  Emma shrugged. “They took them to the beach, to Disneyland, stuff like that. But yes, I was usually away at some camp or other academic activity.”

  Dylan’s heart hurt imagining a tiny Emma always being sent away. “I’m sorry you went through that. It must have been very isolating.”

  Emma picked at the pastry in front of her. “They were trying to do what was best for me, to help me cultivate my gifts.”

  Dylan put her hand over Emma’s. “You deserved to be a kid too.”

  Emma flinched at the contact but didn’t withdraw. “It just seems silly to complain about.”

  Dylan squeezed her hand. “There’s not an acceptable or unacceptable reason when it comes to loneliness. We feel what we feel, and you’re entitled to those feelings. I hope you know that.”

  Emma nodded, and tears welled in her eyes. “I’ve been so lonely for so long. It just feels like my normal.”

  Dylan hated to see the sadness in Emma’s eyes. She tried to think of anything to talk about that could take it away. “Any places on your bucket list?”

  Emma smiled at this question. “Pretty much everywhere. I have pictures all ov
er my apartment of countries, museums, landmarks. I want to see everything.”

  Dylan was about to tell her about her favorite places when a familiar figure walked through the door. He strode over to their table and pulled up a chair.

  Dylan released Emma’s hand and sat back in her chair. “Ivan, what can I help you with?”

  He picked up one of the pastries and shoved it in his mouth. “Boss wants to see you.”

  Dylan took a deep breath and steadied her nerves. “You know I have a phone, right?”

  He licked his fingers. “I was in the area.”

  It didn’t surprise Dylan he knew where she was, but it did irritate her. She forced a smile. “Okay, let me take Nada back to my apartment, and I’ll meet you there.”

  He shook his head and stood. “No, now. She can wait in the lobby during your meeting. I’ll drive.”

  Dylan’s stomach flipped, but she made sure to keep her face neutral. “Okay, let’s go.”

  As they walked to the car, she surveyed the area. None of Nikolai’s other guys were around, which was a good sign. She didn’t think he’d send only Ivan if he intended to kill her. She grabbed Emma’s hand as they walked, hoping to convey that they were in this together and she wouldn’t let anything happen to her. She just hoped that was a pledge she’d be able to keep.

  Chapter Twenty-one

  The drive wasn’t a long one, but it felt as if it lasted hours. Dylan couldn’t shake the feeling that something was very wrong. Some people would call it gut instinct or a sixth sense. Dylan knew it was neither of those things. It was merely the byproduct of having been around the worst humanity had to offer for as long as she had. These men traded on human life like it was part of the stock market; they’d buy, sell, or eliminate based on their whims. She had a feeling she was about to be on the receiving end of one of those whims. She might be walking into a predestined fate, but she’d do everything she could to save Emma.