by Bella Rose
Finally he reached the exit and hit the bar to shove his way through the heavy metal door. He found himself in the alley out back. Only the dim yellow light fixed to the side of his building offered any illumination of the scene before him. Still, he felt as though he was not alone.
“Hello?” he called out. “I saw you leave. I know you’re out here. Why would you hide from me? I only wanted to ask your name.”
There was a rustle, but it could have been the breeze drifting through the alley and disturbing the trash gathered around the dumpster. The smell was strong. He caught whiffs of motor oil, rotting vegetables, and general city stink from the dirty asphalt. Yet overlaying all of that was a light feminine scent.
Vitaly inhaled deeply, drawing the bouquet into his nose. He identified vanilla, and perhaps a hint of cinnamon. If there wasn’t a woman out here now, she hadn’t been gone long. He jogged toward the alley mouth near the front of his building. Rounding the corner, he flagged down the doorman.
The burly man immediately ducked his head to Vitaly. “What can I do for you, sir?”
“There was a woman. She came charging out of the alley just a few minutes ago. Did you see her?” Vitaly demanded.
The doorman’s eyes went blank. “A woman in the alley?” He shrugged his meaty shoulders. “I don’t keep an eye on the alley, sir. If you want us to start watching the alley, you’ll have to put another guy on the door.”
Vitaly made a disgusted noise and cursed in Russian. “That isn’t what I was getting at, but thanks. I’ll keep it in mind.”
He turned away from the doorman and walked across the street. Throwing back his head, he stared at the night sky barely visible above the towering buildings. Then he heard it. A car door closing as though someone was trying to be quiet. He identified the direction the sound came from and went that way. He could not have said what it was that drew him so forcefully. Blue Hair had been right after all. If the woman was running away from him, he shouldn’t be interested in her. Yet there was something absolutely intriguing about the woman in black.
Vitaly crossed the street again, waiting for a space between cars and then sprinting to the opposite sidewalk. The shadows closed in. Suddenly an overhead floodlight flickered and went on with a low hum. The abrupt burst of light illuminated a woman getting into a car at the end of the alley.
The entire scene seemed to freeze. Vitaly was aware only of the outline of a woman. Long silky hair framed her face and flowed over her shoulders, the ends curling to gently cup her breasts. Her figure was exquisite and her legs were long and slender. There was something athletic and fit about her that appealed to him on a very basic level. If only he could make out her face!
“Wait!” He raised his hand. “Don’t go.”
She didn’t pause. She disappeared into the driver’s seat instead. Moments later the engine roared to life and the car backed quickly out of the alley. Vitaly watched it disappear, unmoving until he could no longer hear the whine of the engine. He felt strangely let down without understanding exactly why. He didn’t know her, yet he felt that he should.
Chapter Two
“I can’t believe you’re expecting me to believe that you have no more intel to offer me on Vitaly Volkov,” Alexandra Polzin griped to her best friend, Ivan Popov.
Ivan raised an eyebrow. “You know, most FBI agents would be appreciative of all the help they had received without a whole lot of compensation.”
“Whatever.” Alexandra glanced around and sighed. She and Ivan had been coming to this bistro together since high school. Now twilight was just falling and the sidewalk traffic was mostly couples or groups of friends heading out for the evening. The city never slept. “You know how much I love being an FBI agent.”
Ivan raised his eyebrow mockingly. “You might have mentioned that a few times.”
“And you know that growing up in this neighborhood and rubbing shoulders with all of you criminal types is as much of a hindrance to my career as it is a help,” she reminded him. Sometimes it grated on her that her fellow agents judged her for having grown up in a rough area. The Bureau had let her in because she’d been honest about her origins. That didn’t mean that some of the other agents didn’t look down on her.
Ivan snorted. “If you’re expecting me to feel sorry for you because of your choice of occupation, you’re barking up the wrong tree.”
“If having a bona fide Russian mobster for a high school buddy can’t help me catch some Russian mob thugs, what can?” she teased him.
Picking up his beer, Ivan raised it as though giving her a toast. “Yes, and can we remember for a minute that I’m not mafia connected? I run a chain of arcades. I might have some dirty money coming in and out to supplement my income, but I’m not part of the mob.”
“Okay, so maybe I’m pissed about that.” Alexandra picked up her own beer and clinked it against his in a sarcastic toast. “And you know I’m going to nail Vitaly Volkov to the wall one of these days.”
“Vitaly can handle himself.” Ivan gave a nonchalant shrug. “Besides, I’m not connected, remember? That’s no skin off my nose.”
“But you won’t help me!” she moaned.
“I don’t have anything else to offer. You’re just going to have to get your intel using the usual investigative techniques they teach at that fancy FBI academy,” Ivan pointed out.
“Okay, so that’s frustrating me. Because I’ll admit that it’s confusing to have nothing really damning on the guy after six months of surveillance.” Alexandra drummed her fingers on the table.
“Have you talked to Jacob?” Ivan asked slyly. “You know he’s far more connected than I am.”
“Yeah, and he’s far more careful than anyone else I know! Getting info out of him is like pulling teeth.” Alexandra started laughing. “The three of us were such a mess growing up, right? Jacob was the Jewish kid who didn’t want to learn Hebrew. My father was a florist who wished he could be in the mafia. And you were just trouble.”
“Complimenting me will get you nowhere.”
She gave an internal pout. Ivan had to know more than he was telling her. She needed leads, and fast if she was going to keep her place within her investigative team and with the Bureau. She put her face in her hands and wondered what to do next.
“Look,” Ivan said in a tone that suggested he was trying to placate her. “Vitaly likes to go clubbing. In fact, he owns Club 360. Why don’t you start looking there?”
“Like I haven’t dug into that already,” she griped.
“Have you gone out for a night on the town?” Ivan waggled his eyebrows.
Alexandra gazed at her friend in fascinated horror. “Whoa. Are you suggesting I try to seduce the info out of him?”
“The oldest trick in the book,” he pointed out. “And also the one that seems to work more frequently than not.”
Alexandra sat back in her seat and considered this notion. “Surely that wouldn’t work. He would know me right away.”
“Have you ever actually met him?” Ivan asked.
She thought it over. “No. I haven’t ever been face to face with him.” Though she had certainly seen photographs. The guy could sell underwear on a billboard. Tousled black shoulder-length hair, cobalt-blue eyes, and a smile that had more than a hint of the devil in it. Vitaly Volkov looked more like a playboy than a Russian mafia thug.
“All right. So why would he know who you are?”
“I’m the agent that took down his boss last year.” She said this with a hefty dose of pride. “He’s going to remember that. I took out Yuri Maximov and put him away for good.”
“Yes, although I have to remind you that your arrest actually put Vitaly in charge. You kind of did him a favor.” Ivan was chuckling. He took another swallow of his beer. “Still, as I recall, your name wasn’t published in conjunction with the arrest or trial. So why would he know you?”
“I guess he wouldn’t,” she mused. She twirled her empty beer bottle by the long neck. “They tr
y to keep the identities of the agents on the organized crime unit under wraps.”
“So?” Ivan prompted.
“I don’t know. It still seems shady. That sort of operation takes authorization and I can’t imagine Johnson approving it. He only likes me when I deliver arrests. It’s been a while since he was happy with me.”
“Maybe this all comes down to how much you want it.” Ivan shrugged.
Alexandra felt a stab of determination. “Don’t ever believe I don’t want this. I do. I’ve been angling for this next promotion to agent in charge for more than two years. I can’t quit now just because you’re not willing to help me.”
Ivan rolled his eyes. “Nice guilt trip, Alex. Next time you should try being less obvious.”
Alexandra sighed. It was time to start looking for creative ways to keep her career going in the right direction. Eventually she might even have time for that weird thing called a social life.
***
“So,” Vitaly said slowly as he gazed at Anton Maximov, “you’re telling me that there are now beat cops hanging out on every single corner of our route?”
The two of them were standing in Vitaly’s office at the Maximov mansion. Both men peered at a giant map of the city that had been pinned to the wall. It probably wasn’t the best idea to keep a physical map of their drug runs hanging in plain sight. Unfortunately, figuring out the problems that seemed to plague them had become top priority of late. Security was sliding down the list. It didn’t matter if they were secure when they couldn’t seem to get a route in place that wasn’t almost immediately compromised.
“It’s true, boss.” Anton scratched his head. “I don’t know why they would be there, either.”
“You know that empty building over here?” Vitaly pointed to an area just outside the range of their route and still in the jurisdiction of that district police station. “Someone needs to call in a break-in right there. And over here?” Vitaly indicated an area on the opposite side of the route. “There needs to be a report of shots fired in there. Understand?”
Anton’s expression cleared. “Distractions, no?”
“Exactly.” Vitaly shook his head. “This is freaking ridiculous. I swear we didn’t have this sort of problem before we started doing prescription meds. It’s like those things breed this sort of trouble.”
“Too bad they’re so damn lucrative, huh?” Anton gathered up his jacket and slipped his 9 millimeter back into his shoulder holster. “I’ll be back to the house as soon as the runners finish the route.”
“Did you tell Dimitri and Uday?” Vitaly asked. “You need to keep your brothers aware of where you are at all times. All of you do. That way if we get separated or attacked or something, we know where we’re supposed to be at least.”
“Got it.” Anton nodded. “You’re better at this than our father was, you know?” Then he offered Vitaly a wry smile. “And my brothers and I would have been a disaster. We’re fortunate that you stepped in.”
“I’ll take that as a compliment.” Vitaly pursed his lips. “Yuri was like a father to me after my own father passed away. I could always go to him when the shit hit the fan and he would give me good advice, even when it was painful to hear.”
“Da!” Anton agreed. “Papa was good at that.”
“Have you been to visit him upstate?” Vitaly asked, but he already knew the answer. None of the sons had been to see their father.
“He would not want it,” Anton said grimly. “He would want us to go on with the business and with life. No looking back, you know?”
“I know.” Vitaly turned back to the map. “Let’s just keep the rest of our asses out of jail.”
“That Ivan Popov should go to hell for what he did to the organization,” Anton snarled. “He took down this whole branch!”
“Yes, but we’ve built it back stronger than ever,” Vitaly insisted. “Surely that’s good enough for now.”
“For now.” Anton exhaled a deep sigh and then left the office.
Vitaly sat in the big executive chair and put his feet up on his desk. It was true that Yuri had been like a father to him, but he would never try to deny the fact that Yuri’s arrest and subsequent removal to jail had been extremely convenient for Vitaly. Still, all bets would be off if Vitaly ever crossed paths with the FBI agent who had taken down Yuri Maximov. They had no way of knowing whom it was, or what this agent was planning now.
“Which means we have to be extra careful,” Vitaly murmured as he stared at the map.
He deliberately turned away from the map and opened his laptop. Yuri had always taken care of all the accounts payable and receivable, the money laundering, and even things like payroll. He had made it seem effortless. Vitaly had since learned it was anything but. Since taking on the business all on his own, he’d been doing most of the work himself and getting little to no sleep at night.
“Hey, boss.” Uday stuck his head inside the office. “I’m taking a few guys and heading over to the big laundromat to pick up the deposit. You need anything?”
“Are you guys going to hit the smaller ones too?” Vitaly frowned. That went against protocol.
“No,” Uday assured him. “Dimitri is taking care of that. We remember you said not to be all in one place so we don’t get taken at the same time.”
“Exactly,” Vitaly agreed with a nod. “I’ll see you when you come back.”
Uday left and the door slammed closed. Vitaly walked to the window then and stared outside at the darkening sky. Sometimes he stood here in the evenings and remembered what it was like to grow up in a two-room apartment in a Moscow tenement. Even then he had dreamed of a better life and a chance to make something of himself. Now his task was to stay one step ahead of the FBI and remain out of jail. It made for a solitary sort of life.
He was richer than he’d ever dreamed possible, busier and more successful within the mafia organization than he could have imagined, and yet he was lonely. Rubbing a hand down his face, he wondered what had happened to make him so damn maudlin. Yuri would have said that Vitaly was giving in to the demons of doubt. When in doubt, simply take two steps forward and forget about the past. That had been Yuri’s mantra.
Vitaly walked to the sideboard and poured himself a shot of vodka. He raised the glass into the air. “To you, Yuri,” he said darkly. “For leaving me in charge, and to that damn FBI agent for all of the success that you allowed me to waltz in and claim. May you rot in hell.”
Chapter Three
Alexandra took a deep breath and reached for the door handle that led to the conference room. Her task force was waiting. She just hated to imagine what it was they were waiting for. She hadn’t had any good intel for them in nearly six months. Not since the big raid that had brought down Yuri Maximov.
She gathered her resolve and entered the room with the bold step of someone who was feeling a lot more confident than Alexandra actually was at that moment. “Good morning, everyone. Did anyone make coffee?”
There was a round of greetings, and then Joe Farelli gestured to the coffeepot sitting on a side table. “Help yourself. And Greta was nice enough to bring donuts.”
Alexandra poured a steaming cup of what was very likely bitter acid coffee and selected a fat jelly donut. “Thanks for the calories, Greta.”
“Hey, anytime.” The only other female member of the team, Greta had the appearance of someone who could have been named Helga and carried a club. She was brawny and tall, and probably twice the size of two of their male compatriots.
Alexandra slumped into her chair at the head of the table. Setting her butt into her seat and getting comfy, she wondered vaguely how much longer she was going to occupy that position. Then she took a big bite of the jelly donut and decided she wasn’t going to give up her spot without a fight.
She wiped her mouth with a paper napkin. “Okay, so what do we have this morning so far? And what’s the plan for this week?”
“Isn’t that what you’re supposed to be telling us?
” Joe asked irritably from the other end of the table. He raised his eyebrows. “You’ve been feeding the organized crime division tips and inside information since you came on board. Then after that last bust, it just all dried up.”
“The bust pretty much dried up my CI network.” Alexandra forced herself to be calm. “It takes time to build it back up again.”
Joe cocked his head and she noticed that he was sporting a new haircut, and that he’d actually put product on his wavy black locks. Was he trying to change his image? And for what? Then he straightened in his chair and looked at each of the other six members of the team. “I’ve been doing some investigating, and I’ve found something.”
“Okay,” Alexandra said in a bid to keep control of the meeting. “Can you share what you’ve discovered so we can discuss it?”
“You know Yuri had all those laundromats,” Joe said eagerly. “Well I’ve been looking into some of the activities at the larger of the six.”
“You’re talking about the one in the same vicinity as the Maximov house? Uday runs that particular shop. That is what you’re referring to, right?” Alexandra inquired coolly. She wanted to remind Joe that she knew the inner workings of the Maximov businesses very intimately.
“Yes.” Joe glanced at her, obviously annoyed. “I saw Uday yesterday, picking up the deposits. I’m thinking we should arrest him while he’s got one on him.”
“Uday Maximov isn’t the brightest bulb in the lamp, but he isn’t stupid,” Alexandra reminded them. “If he’s got a deposit on him, it’s going to look totally legit. They run those things separately, or in code. We’d have to have a warrant or something.”
Joe did not look pleased and Greta was smirking. Alexandra sighed. “You might be onto something with the laundromat, though. Did you see anyone that we could pump for info? Was there anyone suspicious hanging around?”
