“Why do you need to get to Morocco?” Marc asked. She took a deep breath.
“There’s a ferry from Tangier, in Morocco, to Barcelona, Spain. Once in Barcelona, I get on a plane to Moscow, where I’m supposed to deliver the diamonds to Anatoly Stankovski – the leader of the Bratva. I can’t get on that ferry without showing the diamonds. I need to get to Moscow,” she stressed. His glare grew more severe.
“Why do you need to -”
“I shared! Now it’s your turn!” she shouted. There was a long pause, and she figured he wouldn’t do it, but then he opened his mouth.
“Why’d you do it?”
It was a simple question that she didn’t understand, but his voice made her pause. Since he’d stopped her the day before, his voice had been hard. Rough. Scary. This was softer. Like he was trying very hard to understand something.
“Do what?” she asked back, keeping her voice level as well.
“You know what you did.”
“I have no clue what you’re talking about.”
“I’m being nice, Lily. I can go back to being mean.
“You can be mean, nice, happy, sad, and any other emotion you can think of – I still won’t know what you’re talking about.”
The hand on her throat moved to cup her jaw, and while she struggled against him, his other hand let go of her wrists, moving to cup the back of her head. He worked his fingers into her hair, getting a good grip.
“I could snap your neck. Are you listening, Liliana? I’m not one of those ‘no women, no kids’ mercenaries. If you stand in my way, I will get rid of you, simple as that, and right now, you’re a huge fucking obstacle that has pissed me off more than should be allowed. Tell me what I want to know. Tell me Ivanov’s plan for me. Tell me everything.”
She paused again, staring up at him. He was dead serious. The way he was holding her head, she could feel it. One quick jerk and it would be over. But she still didn’t know what he was asking her, what it was he thought she knew.
“Alright, Marcelle. Alright. Please hear me,” her voice was almost a whisper. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, honestly. I don’t know what’s going on. The last thing I heard Ivanov say about you was what he said in that anteroom, when you were there. The last I saw of you or thought of you was the other night, when I left your room. That’s it. I don’t know what ‘plan’ you’re talking about, and if there is a ‘plan’, I don’t know anything about it.”
God, he looked scary when he was mad. She felt his fingers clench and she thought, “this is it”. She’d heard rumors about him around the safe house. How for the right price he could steal anything. Kill anyone. She held her breath and stared right back at him, refusing to close her eyes. If he was going to kill her, then he would have to live with the memory of her stare.
Not that something like that matters to a heartless killer.
“I don’t believe you,” he whispered. She let out the breath she’d been holding.
“Doesn’t matter what you believe, it’s the truth,” she replied, then decided to go for it. “In fact, I don’t think there’s any plan from Ivanov, and I think you know that. I think this is your plan. You want to steal those diamonds back and pin it on me. You get away, I get stuck with the blame. Messing with my mind is your pathetic attempt to get me to open that safe.”
He shocked her by bursting out laughing.
“You think I’m messing with you so I can steal the diamonds back!? You tried to have me killed! I already stole the diamonds once, why wouldn’t I have just taken them then!?” he demanded.
I tried to get him … what!? What the fuck is he talking about!?
“You tell me, Marc! Maybe you waited so it would look like I stole them, or so it would look like we were in on it together, or any number of reasons! You’re the con man!” she yelled back at him.
More shocking than him laughing was him letting her go. His hands released her and she didn’t hesitate, she jerked upright and scooted as far away from him as the front seat of the car would allow.
“You think I’m trying to steal the diamonds,” he double checked.
“It’s obvious.”
“And I think you helped them try to kill me.”
“I … wait, what? Who? What are you talking about?”
Marc’s eyes closed and he leaned his head back. Lily watched him for a second, then reached for the gun. Without looking, he snapped his arm out and his hand was back around her neck.
“Why did you come to my room last night?” he asked, finally looking at her. She pulled at his wrist, trying to break free.
“I thought I was invited,” she growled.
“I never invited you to my place.”
“To fuck you. I’m pretty sure the invitation for sex was clear. I went there to fuck you, alright!?” she snapped, slicing her nails into the skin around his fingers.
“Ivanov didn’t send you?”
“No. He doesn’t even know I went there, he told me to go straight to my hotel,” she explained. The pressure on her neck eased a little, though he didn’t let go.
“He told you that?”
“Yes. That’s why he kept me there after you. To change the plan. He decided the exchange wouldn’t happen at the safe house, but at my hotel, instead. He kept telling me to go there and to not open the door for anyone but him,” she recounted the conversation she’d had with Ivanov.
“He didn’t want it happening near the safe house,” Marc mumbled, staring out the windshield.
“See? No big plot to kill you. But you – how did you even know I’d go to that gas station, huh? How long have you planning to steal from me? Before, or after, you slept with me!?” Lily demanded. He glanced at her.
“I didn’t plan shit. While I was hiding in a mosque I thought about those maps in Ivanov’s office. Looked at my own map. Seemed like the best route for you to take was that road. That gas station was the last place you could get water. If you hadn’t stopped, I would’ve stolen a car and come after you. If you hadn’t used that road, I would’ve been fucked. I got lucky,” he told her.
“Me, not so much.”
“Nope.”
There was an awkward pause.
“Get your hand off of me,” she finally broke the silence.
“Are you gonna reach for the gun?”
“At some point, yes,” she was honest.
He squeezed tight one more time, but then let her go.
“I don’t believe you,” he said simply. She rubbed at her skin.
“I don’t believe you, either,” she echoed his statement.
“So we’re at a stalemate.”
“Yes.”
“I need to get those diamonds back,” Marc started in a careful voice, his hands moving to grip the steering wheel. “I want to return them to the Liberians – they think I stole the diamonds for myself and sold them to a different gang. That’s what Ivanov told them, that’s what it looked like when they broke into my room and saw all that fucking money Ivanov gave me. I want to explain to them that the Bratva set all of us up. Get me out of the picture, and start a new gang war between them and their rivals, which will make the Russian’s little heist go unnoticed.”
“You want the Liberians to go after the Bratva,” she saw where he was going with his plan.
“Yes.”
“Why? You’re alive, you’re home free. We’re only a couple miles from Guinea. Just go away. Never come back. No one will even know,” she suggested. It seemed obvious. He shook his head.
“Because a double-cross is still a double-cross. You don’t do that, not to me, not in my world. Fuck with my reputation? I want them all to pay. I want to fix this and expose Ivanov. I need the Liberians to finish this, to know what’s going on,” Marc stated.
“I can’t help you,” she was honest. “Do you have any idea how long it took me to get here? A woman courier, transporting diamonds for a Bratva? Do you think I was their first choice? You have no idea the things I
had to do to get to this point. They won’t let me on the ferry without those diamonds, so those stones are coming with me.”
Again, another long pause. She could see him struggling with a decision. He glared out the windshield, his eyebrows furrowed together, his fingers tightening even more around the wheel. The leather creaked and shifted.
“You weren’t part of the plan to get me killed,” he checked. She shook her head.
“No.”
“You need the diamonds to get on the boat,” he started. She nodded.
“Yes.”
“Do you need them to get on the plane?”
She blinked. She hadn’t thought about it.
“I … I don’t know. I don’t think so. It’s a commercial plane, Air Swiss.”
“So you can technically get to Moscow without them. You just need to show them to get out of Africa.”
“Yes, I think that’s right. The guy at the docks is supposed to check them, then he’ll confirm it with Stankovski, who will then make sure there’s a plane ticket waiting for me in Barcelona.”
“We can make a deal,” Marc began, and his fingers let go of the wheel. “I don’t trust you. Even if you didn’t knowingly help Ivanov, he used you to get to me, I’m positive. You’re still his pawn. But I’ll help you get to Morocco. Without this car, you’re going to need me. You show the diamonds, you get on your ferry, you make it to Barcelona. I get the diamonds from you, I come back, I set the Liberians against the Bratva. We both get what we need.”
Lily kept staring at him. It could work. It could really work. They were at an impasse – he wasn’t going to let her go and she was the only one who could get the diamonds. He was right, without a car the going would be rough. She’d probably have to steal one, which would be a lot easier with his help. And having a man along to help, a man who was clearly very well versed in shooting and stealing, would make the whole journey easier.
“Why should I trust you to actually help me?” she asked the million dollar question. Neither of them had a reason to trust each other. Once that safe was open, there was no stopping him from doing whatever he wanted. He was armed. He was bigger. She was chained to his wrist. She had nothing, her only bargaining chip was the safe.
“You shouldn’t. But I make a promise, I keep it. That’s the best I can do,” he replied.
“I want a gun.”
His hand went back around her throat.
“I said I keep my promises, not that I’m fucking stupid. Now go open the goddamn safe.”
He pushed her backwards, shoving her out of the car. She fell on her back and rolled around to her knees, coughing and hacking. She heard him moving behind her, then his feet were against her back, shoving her again. She growled and crawled forward, hurrying to her feet.
He coiled the chain around his arm as he walked, picking up the slack. He led her around the car, back to the trunk. He’d popped it before he’d gotten out of the car and he eased it open. The shiny key pad blinked up at them. Lily licked her lips. Once she opened it, there was no going back. The explosives would be permanently deactivated. The diamonds would be out, she would be completely at his mercy. She turned to face him.
“Marc,” she breathed his name, and it seemed to have an effect on him. He frowned and wouldn’t meet her eyes, just kept staring at the safe. “I’m trusting you. I need to get to Moscow. I need to get on that ferry. You can’t possibly understand … I have to get there.”
He simply nodded and gestured at the safe. She took a deep breath. Worst case scenario, he took the diamonds and left her there. What could she do then? Walk back to Monrovia, pray she didn’t get killed along the way, and warn the Bratva of his plans. It was the only option. She couldn’t sit around playing mind games with him any longer.
“Open it,” he growled when she hesitated too long.
“Back away first,” she ordered. He finally looked at her again. “Back away. As far as the chain will allow. I’m holding these stones. You keep your distance.”
Marc looked like he wanted to argue, badly, but he complied. He slowly backed away from her, spooling out the chain and letting it drop to the ground. When he got as far as the links would allow, he made a big gesture of resting his hand on the butt of his gun. She glared and turned back to the trunk.
There were several sequences of numbers to remember and enter, but after a couple moments the safe was opened. She winced when it happened. It was like a death knoll on her plan. There was no going back to the original plan now. It was all “winging it” from there on out. She stared into the trunk, trying to stave off a panic attack. She’d never winged anything in her life.
“What’s taking so long!?” Marc yelled, his voice angry. She reached into the safe.
“This is the bribe! For the people at the dock!” she called out, holding up tightly rolled wads of money. She began shoving them into the various pockets on her cargo pants.
After the last of the money was stashed away, she could see it. Underneath a satellite phone and wrapped up in a pashmina was a gallon Ziplock freezer bag. Durable. Waterproof. Air tight. She reached into the safe, started pulling apart the scarf. The stones came into view. Lots of them, of various sizes, a couple as big as three or four carats, though most were smaller. All had the absolute best clarity she’d ever seen.
Her hands started to shake and the panicky feeling was back. This was it. The diamonds were out. He could just snatch them from her. Take them. Take whatever he wanted. He was a man, after all, and men were awful. Men were the worst. Men could do whatever they wanted.
Men were not to be trusted.
The idea had barely formed in Lily’s mind when she acted on it. She glanced at Marc while she peeled open the baggie. It was quiet out and the sound carried. She ignored it and began digging her fingers into the stones.
“Hey! HEY! What are you doing!?” Marc began running towards her. “We had a deal! We had a deal!”
Lily picked out several of the biggest stones she could find and she stood up, shoving them into her mouth at the same time. As the diamonds tumbled over her tongue, she swallowed them. Then she quickly hunched over, working fast to shove the baggie down the front of her pants, working it inside her underwear. Marc reached her just as her hand pulled free and he grabbed her by the shoulders, shaking her hard.
“Stop it!” she shrieked, stumbling around on her feet, gripping onto his t-shirt.
“Why would you do that!? Give me the rest!” he demanded.
“Go fuck yourself!”
He stopped shaking her, and for a moment she was glad, but then his hand dove down the front of her pants and gladness went away. She screamed and grabbed onto his wrist, yanking her hips back from him. They danced around, weaving back and forth. His fingers were gripping onto the front of her underwear, pulling at them, the baggie just barely out of his reach. She jammed her foot down on his instep, hoping it would get him to back away. Didn’t work. He grunted and next thing she knew, she was flying through the air. He body slammed her onto the ground, knocking all the wind out of her. As she tried to catch her breath, he knelt over her and continued his search of her panties. He finally pulled the baggie free and examined it in the sunlight.
“Stupid bitch. Goddamn stupid bitch. Why!? I thought we had a fucking deal!” he yelled at her.
“Fuck your deal,” she wheezed. He backhanded her, then grabbed her by the chin, forcing her to face him. With his free hand, he pulled a knife out of his pant leg and he pressed it against her throat.
“Fuck with me again and the deal is off. I’ll cut those fucking stones out of your stomach, little girl,” he hissed. She spit in his face.
Seemed the appropriate response.
One more backhand and he seemed at peace with what had happened. He crawled off her and stumbled away, looking over the remaining diamonds. Lily moaned and rubbed at her jaw for a moment. He wasn’t hitting her full force, she was sure, but it was enough force to make it feel like her jaw wanted to fall o
ff at the hinges. She finally got to her feet, keeping her distance from him.
“You can’t double cross me. They know the weight of that baggie, you can be sure. They know that there were several three and four carat stones, they’ll notice they’re missing. Now you need me,” she croaked out, dusting off her pants. He glared at her before walking back around the car and getting into the backseat.
“Only for one more day!” he called out. When he stood upright, he had some sort of bag in his hand. He shoved the diamonds into it first, then began loading it up with the bottles of water and jerky she’d bought the day before at the gas station. Her stomach growled loudly.
“What happens in a day?” she asked. He threw the bag over his shoulders. A thick strap went diagonal across his chest and he clipped it shut, securing the pack firmly in place. He yanked on the bindings, making it tighter so it was completely flush with his back.
“You have to go to the bathroom at some point, sweetheart, and any longer than that, I’ll go in and get them out myself. Now move.”
“Where are we?” she chose to ignore him. They were in a flattened area with bushes and scrub, and she could see trees around them. They looked like they were in the middle of nowhere.
“We’re about a thousand feet from the road,” he answered, and she assumed it was the truth.
“A thousand feet?” she sought for clarification.
“From where you stopped the car.”
“How did we get here?”
“I pushed the car here. You were in the backseat.”
“Wow.”
“This isn’t twenty questions, I told you to move,” Marc reminded her, and his hand went back to rest on his gun. She followed the movement, then stared at the gun. Her gun. That was her gun he was using, her Glock 22. The one she’d bought five years ago, the one that had traveled all over the world with her.
The one that had a very specific destiny.
“Where did you get that?” Lily asked, nodding her head at his waist. He glanced down, and when he looked up again, he was smiling.
“I knew this gun had to be special to you. There were a lot of weapons in that car. Some hidden, some in plain site, but this was the only one being kept in a locked gun case. Why? Must be pretty important to you,” Marc had put the pieces together.
Best Laid Plans Page 6
