Dangerous Allies (The Ruby Danger Series Book 1)

by Rickie Blair

  “They’ll test it and know it’s not mine.”

  “Yes, but it will take time. More than we need.” Mila headed for the exit.

  “Wait.” Ruby stepped between her and the door. “Sit for a moment and listen.”

  With a quizzical look, Mila perched on the sofa.

  “You don’t have to do this.” Ruby drew a deep breath and shook her head. “You can walk away right now.”

  “Your feet are cold? Why?”

  “He will kill you.”

  “You don’t know that. I think it will be fine.”

  “Fine? It was one thing to fool Antony because he was terrified. Dimitri won’t be frightened of you. You could end up dead. You probably will.” She paused. “Whatever he’s done, Mila, it’s not worth risking your life. Walk away.”

  Mila looked at the floor, fingering the silver locket at her neck.

  “No,” she said softly. “It has to be this way.” She looked up, smiling, and lifted an eyebrow. “We have no choice, remember?”

  “That’s not true. I can do the next part without you.”

  “You said you needed a distraction.”

  “Well I’ve thought about it and I don’t think I do.”

  “Dimitri will never let me go unless he’s dead.” Mila paused, still fingering the locket. “Or I am.”

  Her words hung in the air. Finally, Ruby nodded.

  Chapter Forty-Four

  Ruby drove the Fairlane through the deserted park, under trees that tossed and pitched in the wind. She stopped near the marina, where rows of empty docks gleamed in the moonlight.

  Mila put her hand on the passenger door handle.

  “Last chance,” Ruby said, raising her eyebrows and managing a tentative smile.

  Mila shook her head firmly and got out, holding the leather box.

  Ruby got out of the driver’s side and looked at Mila over the car’s roof.

  “You understand I can’t do anything to help you? That you’re on your own?”

  “You must leave. They will be here soon.”

  “I know, but listen. The marina’s closed for the season. There’s no one here. No one to help you.”

  “Go.”

  “Mila—” Ruby’s throat tightened.

  “You must go. Now.”

  Mila turned and walked out along the concrete dock, placed the box on the ground by her feet, and stood looking out at the lake. The cold wind whipped through her hair, tossing it against her face.

  Ruby placed her hand on the roof of the car, watching Mila, then slipped behind the wheel. She reversed rapidly over a patch of grass to a spot about twenty yards away, behind a row of metal storage huts. With the lights and engine off, she settled in to wait. She could see Mila through a space between the huts, but the car was hidden in the gloom under the trees.

  Dimitri and Antony would never know she was there.

  * * *

  Mila turned as a car crunched over the gravel beside the dock. Dimitri emerged, with a gun in his hand, followed by Antony.

  Even from twenty yards away, Ruby could tell that Antony’s nose was swollen and his face smeared with blood. His alpaca coat looked as if he’d used the sleeves to wipe his bloody nose. The corner of Ruby’s mouth twitched. Serves him right.

  Dimitri stood and stared out at the dock. Then he took a few steps in Mila’s direction, motioning for Antony to stay back.

  “Mila,” Dimitri shouted.

  She turned to look at him.

  “The box,” Antony called, “she’s got the box.”

  Dimitri walked down the dock toward Mila. He shouted something at her and she replied. Ruby was too far away to make out their words.

  Mila kicked the leather box to Dimitri, who motioned to Antony to pick it up.

  Antony ran down the dock between them, keeping his head down, grabbed the box and retreated. Kneeling on the walkway, he opened it.

  “Is it there?” Dimitri called, still holding the gun on Mila.

  “Yes. I have it.”

  “What are you waiting for?”

  In the Fairlane, Ruby turned on her phone and opened her e-mail.

  “Yes, Antony,” she whispered, tapping her fingers on the phone. “What are you waiting for?”

  Ruby watched them through the gap between the huts. Antony knelt beside the leather box. The screen from the phone in his hand cast a faint bluish glow on his face and the index card in his hand. He read Ruby’s account number from the card and tapped it into the phone.

  “Well?” Dimitri called over his shoulder.

  “Almost,” Antony called. He tapped again and then pumped his fist. “I’m in,” he shouted.

  “Is it there?”

  Antony tapped the screen a few more times. “Yes, it is.” He tapped some more. Then he stood up, walked out onto the dock, and held the screen up to Dimitri, who took his eyes off of Mila to look at it. Dimitri and Antony had a brief conversation and then Antony pocketed the phone and walked back along the dock.

  Ruby drummed her fingers on the steering wheel, scowling. Antony looked pretty happy for a man whose wife had just been murdered.

  Her e-mail beeped. She looked down and grinned at the three new messages. Her key-logger program worked perfectly. The first two e-mails contained the account number and password for her offshore bank account, which Antony had entered on her phone so he could withdraw the twenty million. The third e-mail was the important one. It held the number for Antony’s account, where he had transferred the money.

  Ruby copied his account number, then opened the bank’s login page and pasted it in. The password box came up and she looked over at the dock.

  “Come on, Antony,” she whispered, her legs jiggling, “give me your password.”

  Another e-mail message, with another number, appeared on her phone. She pasted this eight-digit number into the password box, tapped the login button and waited for the page to load.

  So far, so good.

  A message popped up on the cellphone’s screen.

  We cannot find that account and/or password. Please verify your entry and try again.

  The bank would lock her out after three failed login attempts. Rubbing her face, Ruby tried to think. Maybe she left off a digit when she copied the numbers. She went back to the e-mails, copied the numbers again and pasted them into the login boxes, then reloaded the page.

  We cannot find that account and/or password. Please verify your entry and try again.

  Blood pounded in her ears. What could be the problem? Was the key-logger program scrambling the numbers somehow? Getting them wrong? Her chest tightened as she stared at the screen. One attempt left.

  This time, instead of copying the numbers, she re-typed each one into the browser. Her hand hovered over the pad, ready to press login, when her e-mail beeped again with another message from the key-logger program. Two more digits.

  Chuckling, she let her head loll back. Of course. The key-logger program copied eight characters at a time. Antony’s password wasn’t eight characters. It was ten. Her husband had finally learned to use better passwords. She looked down at the phone and smiled. Too bad it wouldn’t help him.

  After typing in the last two numbers, she tapped login again and waited while the page loaded. When the screen filled with Antony’s account she scrolled to the bottom. She slapped her palm on the steering wheel when the total appeared. Five hundred and twenty million, give or take a few million. With a grin, she clicked on the transfer button and started to type.

  Within seconds, Antony’s account was stripped bare and the money transferred to two other accounts. The first account—a new trust in the girls’ names, set up by Ruby’s obliging lawyer when she cashed the bonds—she topped up with an amount equal to their original insurance settlement. The rest of the money went into the shareholders’ rescue fund set up by that lawyer who had visited her in Boca. Ruby grinned. Wouldn’t they be surprised when they logged on tomorrow morning?

  She closed her eyes a
second, savoring her victory. Then she slid the phone into her tote bag and reached for the ignition key, intending to drive out from behind the huts and be back on the road before Dimitri and Antony could reach their own car. Not that she expected them to chase her. They would have no idea they’d just been robbed by a dead woman. Grinning, she grabbed the key.

  But something kept her from cranking the ignition.

  She watched the three people on the dock. Dimitri strode toward Mila, closing the distance between them to about twenty feet. Ruby reached for the door handle and then dropped her hand in her lap.

  She told Mila she was on her own. Mila said that was okay.

  Antony had his eyes on Dimitri, so no one was looking in Ruby’s direction. If she planned to leave the car this would be the perfect moment. She could dart across the narrow driveway in the darkness and crawl to the dock on the left side, where the shrubs growing down to the water’s edge would cover her. With any luck, she could duck under the dock without anyone seeing her.

  Don’t be stupid, for once in your life.

  Dimitri raised his gun.

  Dammit. Ruby shook her head and reached for the door handle.

  Chapter Forty-Five

  Ruby ran across the narrow roadway and down the slippery rock-strewn incline beyond it until she reached the water’s edge. Crouching, she crept closer to the dock supports. Mila was visible above her at the end of the dock, but Dimitri and Antony were out of sight.

  Mila said something, but the wind carried her words away.

  Ruby worked her way along until she could grab a support and duck under the dock. A wave splashed against her, soaking her running shoes, and she shivered as the freezing water sloshed between her toes. But Dimitri or Antony would have to bend over the edge of the dock to see her.

  Now that she was out of the wind, Mila’s words drifted past her.

  “It was all lies.”

  Ruby strained to hear Dimitri’s response, but he was too far away.

  “I won’t,” Mila said.

  Footsteps echoed overhead. Leaning out from behind the support, Ruby looked up. Dimitri walked farther out onto the dock with the gun in his hand. As he approached Mila, she slipped one hand inside the collar of her coat and pulled out a chain from around her neck. Silver gleamed in the moonlight as she dangled the locket in her hand.

  “Do you see this?” she shouted. “Do you know where I found it?”

  The footsteps stopped.

  “This is my stepmother’s locket, Dimitri.” Mila was crying. She swore in Russian, softly at first and then much louder. “You bastard,” she screamed, “you killed my father.”

  “Mila—”

  “You killed my father. And my stepmother.”

  Dimitri lowered his gun, shaking his head. He looked at the ground.

  “I had no choice. Viktor made me.”

  “My uncle told you to kill his nephew’s mother?” Mila’s mouth twisted. “I don’t believe you.”

  “She was not supposed to be there. I had no choice.”

  Mila tucked the locket under her coat.

  “You married me so Viktor would not punish you.”

  “No, that’s not true.”

  Mila reached into her pocket, pulled out a gun and lifted it with a shaking hand.

  “And that’s why you wouldn’t let me go.”

  Dimitri took a step back, his own gun still in his hand.

  “Mila, stop. This is foolish.”

  “What about Sergei? What will he say when I tell him who killed his parents?”

  Dimitri lifted his gun and aimed it at her. His voice was cold.

  “You will not tell him.”

  They glared at each other.

  “Leave her, Dimitri,” Antony yelled from the walkway. He pointed at a light approaching on the lake. “The boat is coming. We don’t have time for this.”

  Dimitri glanced at the light out on the lake and took a few paces closer to Mila.

  “You, come with us.”

  “No.” She raised the gun and aimed it at him, her chin trembling.

  He took another step.

  “Stay away,” she said.

  “Put the gun down, Mila.”

  “No.” She wrapped her finger around the trigger.

  A loud crack echoed off the metal huts and Mila staggered back with a groan. She straightened up and slowly raised the gun again.

  Dimitri fired a second time. Mila fell back off the dock and into the water.

  Chapter Forty-Six

  Shit. Shit. SHIT.

  Ruby gasped as she waded into the freezing water and slogged to the end of the dock. The water rose higher and higher, tightening in icy bands around her chest. Her teeth chattered, her feet had gone numb, and her legs were growing heavy. As the water reached her neck, she swung her arms frantically through the waves and tried to connect with something. She drew a deep breath, ready to dive.

  Mila broke through the surface a few feet away, gasping, water spurting from her mouth. Her head tilted back and she disappeared.

  Ruby splashed over to the spot, sweeping her arms through the water. One hand closed on Mila’s heavy water-soaked coat and she struggled to pull her up. Frigid waves swamped Ruby’s face, but she held on.

  Mila gasped as she broke the surface, eyes wide and arms flailing. Ruby dragged her to the shallow water. They staggered onto the rocky ground directly under the dock, weighed down by their wet clothes. Ruby couldn’t feel her fingers or her feet.

  Mila bent over, wheezing and spitting. Slumping to the ground, she hugged her arms to her chest. “It hurts,” she whimpered.

  Ruby held a finger to her lips and shook her head. Then she helped Mila to slide off her coat and the Kevlar vest underneath it. As Mila lowered her head between her knees, Ruby wrapped the wet coat around Mila’s shoulders and stepped back to massage her own deadened fingers.

  “We have to leave,” she whispered. “It’s too cold.”

  Mila nodded, clasping the edges of her coat, and started to get up.

  Above their heads, a car crunched over the gravel beside the dock and came to a stop. Doors opened and slammed.

  “Hello, Dimitri,” a voice said.

  Shaking uncontrollably, Mila gaped at Ruby. Victor, she mouthed, pointing at the dock above them. Mila struggled to her feet and scooted for the edge.

  Ruby pulled her back.

  “No,” she hissed, “we have to stay here.”

  Mila’s teeth chattered as she nodded, collapsing on the ground again. Her hands and lips were blue.

  Chapter Forty-Seven

  Antony turned his head as a black sedan glided to a stop with its headlights off. Now what? He took several steps back, his muscles tensed.

  Beside him, Dimitri raised his pistol and pointed it at the car.

  The car’s back door opened and Viktor stepped out with a handgun aimed at Dimitri. Bogdan emerged from the driver’s door with an automatic rifle, also leveled at Dimitri.

  Dimitri laid his Makarov pistol on the ground at his feet and rose with both hands in the air.

  Antony stared at the M-16 in Bogdan’s hands, hair rising on the back of his neck. Bogdan could kill them all with a single burst. The cellphone shook in his hand. He tore his gaze from the weapon when Viktor’s feet crunched over the gravel toward them.

  “Hello, Dimitri,” Viktor said in a monotone voice. His jaw tightened and he gave Bogdan a nod.

  Slinging the strap of the M-16 over his shoulder, Bogdan walked over to Dimitri. He frisked him roughly from neck to ankles, pulling a sheathed knife from his waist. After bending to collect Dimitri’s pistol and tuck it into his own belt, he walked back to Viktor and deposited the knife on the ground.

  “He’s clean.”

  Viktor turned his head to Antony, who dropped the cellphone and raised his hands with his pulse racing. Viktor regarded him calmly, then studied the approaching light in the harbor before turning his gaze to Dimitri.

  “I thought we tal
ked about this, Dimitri. Where are you going?”

  “Nowhere.”

  “Then why are you here?”

  “To get your money back.”

  “Ah.” Viktor smiled, turning to Bogdan. “You see? He is retrieving my money, not trying to run away.” Viktor turned back to Dimitri. “So where is it?”

  Dimitri nodded curtly at Antony.

  “He has it.”

  All three men turned to look at Antony, who still had his hands in the air. His knees had turned to water.

  “I don’t have it here,” he said, swallowing, “but I can get it. No problem.”

  Tapping the handgun against his thigh, Viktor sighed loudly and looked away.

  “Everyone says they can get my money and yet, no one does.”

  “It’s in my bank account,” Antony said, bending to pick up the phone with a shaking hand and a sidelong glance at Bogdan, “but I can transfer it wherever you want.” He held out the phone to Viktor.

  “In a moment,” Viktor said with a flick of his hand. “But first,” he took a few paces closer to Dimitri, “where is my niece? Where is Mila?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “You don’t know? What kind of man does not know where his wife is?”

  Dimitri crossed his arms with a shrug and turned his head away.

  Viktor nodded again at Bogdan, who walked over and punched Dimitri savagely in the gut. Dimitri grimaced and bent over, wobbling slightly, but made no sound. Bogdan slipped Dimitri’s pistol from his own waist and smacked the gun against his cheekbone.

  Dimitri crumpled to his knees, blood gushing from his mouth. He spit on the ground and rose shakily to his feet.

  Bogdan backed off several steps, dropping the pistol on the ground next to the knife.

  Antony stared at the blood dripping down Dimitri’s face, unable to look away, his breathing sharp and shallow.

  Viktor slipped the cellphone from Antony’s limp hand and studied the screen. He pointed at the phone.