CHAPTER 7
“Aren’t you a sight for sore eyes,” Sue said when Ellie stepped out of the car onto the curb. “I’d almost go lesbian for you.”
“Almost?” She grinned at her. The driver had dropped her off a couple of blocks from the club, and Sue was standing outside a Chinese restaurant waiting for her. It smelled good, and she remembered that she hadn’t eaten dinner yet. Hell, at this rate, she should probably just wait until breakfast.
“If I was single, it might be another matter.” Sue pretended to fan herself.
“You’re not so bad yourself.” Ellie gave her a once-over, and she laughed. She was petite, but a complete badass and had thrown men twice her size to the mat in training. Tonight she’d let her dark hair hang free without her usual ponytail. She was wearing black pants and a burgundy blouse underneath a white blazer that fit her curves nicely. Ellie guessed she’d picked white so Ellie could find her in the crowd.
“Don’t I know it. Let’s go, stud.” Sue started walking.
“Shut up, Morales.”
“You love it.”
She laughed. “So what’s the situation?” she asked as they headed to the club.
“Hampstead had dinner with her entourage and then took a cab to Lucky. Lyev Koslov pulled up in a private car about fifteen minutes later.”
“Did he go in alone?” She dodged a group of people laughing and not paying much attention to their surroundings.
“No. Two women were with him who look like they play for the Swedish national volleyball team.”
“Does Sweden even have a volleyball team?”
“Do you not pay attention to women’s sports? I thought all lesbians did.”
“That’s a stereotype.”
“Spare me. These two women should front that team.” She stopped abruptly and took her phone out of her pocketbook. “Texting you the photo of him and his company that surveillance grabbed.”
Ellie’s phone vibrated in the inside pocket of her jacket.
“In the meantime, here.” Sue handed her phone over and Ellie checked the photo. Koslov was dressed in what looked like a black suit, but it could’ve been navy, given the distance the photo was taken from. Sue was right. The two women he was with easily could’ve been six feet tall each, though he still had a couple of inches on them. Both were dressed in slinky evening dresses, one black and the other red.
“They’re probably models. And Koslov is living up to his playboy rep, I see.” She handed the phone back, and Sue returned it to her pocketbook as she resumed walking.
“Or just living up to the act.”
“Or that.”
They crossed a street, and the club wasn’t too far ahead. There wasn’t much of a line, but that didn’t mean anything because it wasn’t yet eleven-thirty. Within an hour, the line would be much longer. Two bouncers stood at the entrance, dressed in suits. They probably had to have them custom-made, because these dudes were huge. She handed the driver’s license for Ellie Daniels over to the one checking. He looked at it, looked at her, and handed it back. She waited for Sue to go through the same process, and they entered.
Lucky was designed to evoke a 1920s-era speakeasy, and the décor and color schemes lent themselves to that. A bar ran almost the entire length of the back wall of the front room, bottles stacked on glass shelves behind it. Café tables dotted the room, and the chairs looked like they were modeled on the era, as well. The dance floor was in another room, and the thump-thump-thump of house music filtered through the wall.
“Club soda okay?” Sue said near her ear.
“Yeah. With lime.”
Sue moved toward the bar, and Ellie surveyed the room. Every seat at the bar was taken, and every table, too, but there was no sign of Marya or Koslov. She texted Rick and asked him if either of those two had snuck out the back.
A few seconds later her phone buzzed with his response, which was no.
She pretended to be checking her phone, but she scoped out the tables carefully. No sign of the targets. Sue handed her a glass, and she took a sip. Not bad, and it looked like it might be alcohol with the lime and the cherry in it.
“Anything?” Sue asked.
“No. Rick says they’re still here, though.”
“Let’s check.” Sue pushed through a group of guys taking up space next to the bar and went into the next room, which had more of an urban cool lounge vibe, with low couches and overstuffed chairs set strategically out of the way of foot traffic. The primary color scheme in here was shades of blue, black, and slashes of white. Track lighting kept it feeling warmer, however, and the music had an ambient vibe, but the thumping from the dance floor was still audible.
Sue ran her hand up Ellie’s arm and placed it on the back of her neck.
“Play along with me, girl,” she said as she pulled her closer with her one hand while she held her drink with the other. “Looks like a bunch of your people are in here.”
Ellie almost spit her drink out with her laugh. “My people?”
“Definitely a Sapphic vibe,” Sue said, breath warm on her cheek as she continued to pretend to be sharing an intimate moment with her.
“Sapphic? Really? Who have you been hanging out with?”
She giggled and stroked Ellie’s neck with her thumb and moved against her like they were dancing.
“Jesus, if there’s an Oscar for something like this, I’m nominating you,” she said next to Sue’s ear.
“A lesbian and a straight woman walk into a bar,” Sue said in a low voice.
“And then they went into the next room, looking for the targets,” she responded, voice equally low. She took her hand and led them deeper into the club. She checked the crowd as they made their way, and Sue was right. There did seem to be a concentration of women in this room, and quite a few appeared to have brought female dates. She’d have to remember that about this place. That is, if she ever had another date and decided to go out.
All of which was questionable at the moment, though she knew who she’d like to have a date with.
She squeezed past people who had congregated just on the other side of the doorway into the third room. A smaller bar than the first room was on the opposite wall, and this area had a few more tables set up. The dance floor had to be in the next room, because the thump-thump-thump seeped up through the floor and into her body. And yes, there was the doorway that would take you there. Lights flashed from it. Not much of a chance that she or Sue would be able to overhear anybody’s conversation unless they were right next to whoever was talking, but they could at least try for some photos.
“Let’s split up,” Sue said near her ear.
She nodded and let go of her hand to slowly work her way toward the back of the room, holding her drink close to prevent it from getting bumped. She made it to a corner without spotting anybody when her phone vibrated in her pocket. She leaned against a wall, out of the way of people, and checked it. Sue had texted a message: Swede at back corner table over here.
Swede. She laughed. Koslov’s dates probably weren’t even Swedish. She texted back. On my way. As she navigated through the crowd, she finished her drink, pushed to the bar, and left the glass there before maneuvering her way to the opposite side of the room where she spotted Sue’s white blazer. Once next to her, Sue acted like she was really happy to see her and positioned them for a selfie, which she took quickly. She showed her phone to Ellie and a few feet away sitting at a table was one of the women Koslov had come in with.
“Nice work,” she said, leaning close so Sue could hear. “Where are our other friends?”
“Don’t know. I’ll check the women’s room. Texted Rick to make sure they didn’t leave,” she said. “They haven’t.”
“All right. I’ll check the dance floor.” Although why the hell Hampstead would be doing that if she was trying to seal an arms deal with Koslov was beyond her, unless they were trying to keep up appearances. She put her phone back in her pocket.
The music
slammed into her when she stepped through the doorway. The dance floor took up the center of the room, level with the rest of the floor. Probably a good thing, since trying to go up or down onto a dance floor at a club was hard enough when you hadn’t been drinking. The DJ booth sat against the back wall, and lights spun and jerked in time with the beat. To the right of the booth, there was a black door that she guessed led outside. As she watched, the door opened and a guy carrying a box suddenly appeared. He kicked the door shut with his foot. So the door led to the storage area, and chances were, there was another door to the outside. The DJ bounced over to the door and propped it halfway open. Maybe she was able to get a breeze that way.
Ellie moved carefully around the periphery of the floor, scanning for Koslov. He was big, and she’d probably see him first. The music pounded through her shoes. As a cop, she hated venues like this because she couldn’t hear anything and people moved quickly and bumped into others. Great place to pick a few pockets. She checked to make sure her phone, ID, and cash were still in her inside jacket pocket.
The song’s beat changed slightly, and several more people pushed past her onto the dance floor. Christ, this was a bust. Nobody did arms deals on a dance floor. She tried to step back from the floor, but was hemmed in from behind. She stepped to the side, and the people dancing closest to her shifted to her right, and there was Koslov, right in the middle of the crowd, dancing with one of the women he’d shown up with. And though she only got a glimpse, right next to him was someone who looked a lot like Marya.
A hand on her arm made her tense up, until she realized it was Sue, who gestured at the floor and nodded, indicating she’d seen him, too. And then she did one of the worst things she could have done and pulled Ellie onto the floor with her.
“What the fuck,” she mouthed at her, but Sue just grinned and started dancing, swaying seductively at her.
“C’mon, O’Donnell,” she purred in her ear. “I know you can tear a floor up. I’ve seen it.”
“I was drinking,” Ellie shot back with a smile, but she pulled her close and started to move. Sue laughed, and the DJ slowed the beat to a slower groove and several more people hit the floor, pushing them closer to the middle.
“Damn, you’ve still got skills,” Sue said as she put both arms around Ellie’s neck. “Can I call you if I want to experiment?”
“Hell, no.”
Sue giggled in her ear then maneuvered them around until Ellie almost bumped into Koslov. She was so glad Rick wasn’t seeing this. He’d never let her hear the end of it. The beat picked up, and the crowd went with it, putting their hands in the air and whooping and hollering. Someone pushed into her back, and she tried to move to get out of the way. The crowd shifted again, and suddenly she was staring into the eyes of Marya Hampstead.
Oh, God. Busted. So busted.
Marya’s eyebrows lifted in surprise, and Ellie smiled and offered a “fancy meeting you here” expression and then made a show of getting out of her way. Didn’t mean to bump the dragon lady, she hoped her expression said. And it’s a total coincidence that I’m here, she added silently. Nothing to see here. Move along. The crowd’s arms shot up and people whooped again, and holy hellfire, Marya grabbed the lapels of her jacket and pulled her close.
What the fuck?
Marya Hampstead wanted to dance with her?
Was this even legal? There had to be a law against dancing with Marya Hampstead. Didn’t people implode if they got this close to her? And wait a minute, why was Marya trying to dance with another woman?
The song slowed again, and Marya leaned in and said in her ear, “This is an even better look on you.”
She managed a smile as the heat of Marya’s breath sent chills all the way down her legs. “Thanks,” she said, but Marya had released her lapels and was dancing with Koslov and his date again, as well as three guys from her entourage, who Ellie just noticed.
Sue suddenly appeared, still dancing, and gave her a full-on leer before she slipped her arms around her neck again and did another sexy groove against her. Ellie grooved right back. She was undercover, after all. Besides, she did enjoy dancing, though she didn’t do it in public much. Sue was a good dancer and kept them next to Koslov, who wasn’t too bad himself. Ellie glanced at him, then the woman he’d come with, and then she ran into Marya’s gaze again.
And stayed there for what was much longer than proper. She finally looked away, but not before the hint of a smile quirked the corner of Marya’s mouth. But she probably imagined it, right? She tried not to look at her again, but dammit, Marya knew how to move on a dance floor, knew how to work her hips, and yes, she was smiling a little and, good God, how could someone be that sexy without even trying?
Ellie focused on Sue. Marya Hampstead was hot incarnate, but she was also a potential arms dealer, and it was a very bad idea to lust after someone she’d probably have to bust later. Not to mention, she was her boss. Sort of. And probably straight. Oh, God, this was all kinds of messed up.
The song changed, and Koslov and his date started to leave the floor. Marya followed them, with a little nod at Ellie as she passed. Her entourage trailed after her.
“I’d go lesbian for her, too,” Sue said in her ear.
“Probably this whole bar would. Let’s see where they went.”
Sue started moving through the crowd, keeping the beat as if she was just trying to find another place to dance. Ellie followed and finally, they were off the floor. Sue gripped her hand and pulled her into the adjoining room and toward the bar, like she wanted to order something.
Sue leaned in. “Koslov at your three.”
Ellie looked to her right and sure enough, there he was, a few feet away, leaning down and talking to Marya, who was surrounded by her entourage. The body language between Marya and Koslov didn’t suggest a physically intimate relationship, but then, they might just be fuck buddies or something. Marya probably had some other phrase for it, and it sounded sexy and classy when she said it. She went through her knowledge of British slang. Shag mates was the best she could come up with and that seemed unlikely.
Sue handed her a bottle of water, and she gratefully chugged it. She was sweating underneath her jacket.
“On the move,” Sue said, and she looked up in time to see Koslov working his way through the crowd back toward the dance floor, both of the women he’d come with next to him.
“Where’s Marya?” she asked.
“Don’t know. Might be leaving.” Sue was already texting, and Ellie guessed the message was to Rick. She grabbed Ellie and pulled her close. “Follow Hampstead. I’ll stay here and see what Koslov does. And thanks for the dance.” She grinned and patted her cheek.
“You are enjoying this far too much.”
“Oh, yeah. Later.”
Ellie left her at the bar in the room just off the dance floor and pushed to the second room, the lounge area. She took her phone out and pretended to check it as she scanned—ah. There was Marya holding court in a corner with her entourage and a bunch of other people she didn’t recognize. One of them was taking photos as Marya posed with various members of her posse.
Still pretending to check her phone, Ellie instead snapped several photos of Marya’s group, hoping they’d come out in this light. She was about to take another photo when someone walked past doused in cologne that smelled like Polo. Zaretsky? Ellie looked around casually but didn’t see him right away. Before she let Rick and Sue know, she needed to make sure it was him and not some other dude who bought Polo in bulk and showered in it.
The cologne smell got stronger, and she looked around again. A guy walked right past her in a shiny black suit and yes, it was Zaretsky. She texted Rick and Sue and snapped a few photos of him as he worked his way through the crowd toward the room that separated the lounge from the dance floor.
She followed him, since Marya appeared to be doing fashion mogul things in the corner, and not involved in any arms trafficking at the moment. Zaretsky wasn’t big like K
oslov, so he was harder to spot, but when his cologne suddenly assailed her nostrils, she knew he was close. Someone should talk to him about that.
Finally, she got close enough to almost touch him as he kept moving toward the room with the dance floor. This was a man on a mission, from how he cleaved through the crowd. None of the casual side-stepping and smiles and nods that most people did in close quarters like this as they tried to maneuver. No, Zaretsky was clearly looking for someone, and it dawned on her that it might be Koslov.
Would he seriously try to pull something like shooting him on a dance floor? There would be witnesses to that, no matter how loud the music was. No time to text Sue as Zaretsky pushed onto the dance floor, and yes, he was working his way to Koslov, who was dancing happily in the center. Zaretsky’s right hand went into his front pants pocket.
Not a gun. A knife, maybe? Ellie practically threw herself onto the floor and started dancing right in front of Zaretsky. He looked at her, annoyed, as she gave him an inviting smile. He pushed past her, but now he was forced to sort of move with the beat of the crowd, since it was like trying to swim against a strong current otherwise.
The music shifted and people slowed down. She used the moment to catch up with Zaretsky as he got even closer to Koslov, whose back was turned. Shit. Zaretsky was digging in his pocket again and sure enough, he pulled out what looked like a knife. Switchblade, most likely, since Zaretsky probably wouldn’t want to risk stabbing other people with a loose blade on a packed dance floor.
She hooked one of her feet on Zaretsky’s leg, and he stumbled a little, but the crowd kept him on his feet. He regained his balance, and she prepared to Flashdance herself right onto his back when Zaretsky stopped and jerked to his right. Someone had grabbed his wrist and as she watched, the guy managed to disarm him—how the hell? Zaretsky jerked his arm back, and the guy who had grabbed Zaretsky caught her eye and smiled before he was swallowed in the crowd, too.
If Looks Could Kill Page 7
