She twisted around in her seat and climbed into the driver side to see if Brad was okay. Salazar had him lying down on the ground. The two men with Richard ran out of the parking garage and down the street and from around the corner came two paramedics carrying their supplies. Evidently they’d been waiting. She opened the driver’s side door and slipped out of the SUV, and rushed over to Brad, falling down beside him. “Are you okay?”
He nodded, gritting his teeth. “Chest and leg because lion heart there jumped out of the way. That’s gonna bruise,” he said, pointing to his chest.
Kali laughed, now fully aware of the tears streaming down her cheeks.
“Get back in the car and let the guys bring you to the hospital, okay?”
She nodded.
“I think we’re clear here, I don’t see those guys anymore. Send in the ambulance now.” Then he turned to Kali with a stern look. “I remember telling you to get in the car Ms. Stanton.”
She nodded, then paused, “Is Richard okay?”
Brocco nodded. “He was hit in the chest like we wanted, but he hit his head when he fell. Probably a slight concussion, but the hope is he’ll be fine.”
Sirens sounded in the distance, creeping ever closer. Finally she relented and climbed back into the SUV and waited while both Brad and Richard were loaded into the ambulance.
Chapter Nine
Victor Kolknov's cell phone rang just as Misha brought his lunch onto the veranda. He looked at the screen and felt a surge of annoyance run through him. Jason shouldn't be calling him. It should have been Richard. There was a chain of command and he didn't like it when it wasn't followed. He answered the phone with a scowl. "Why are you calling me? I only speak to Richard."
"Sir, Rich got shot. Hit in the chest," came the breathless voice on the other end of the line. "Don't know if he's alive or not. It looked pretty bad."
Victor pushed himself away from the table, ignoring Misha's confused look. "What happened?"
He heard Jason take a deep breath. "We went to grab the girl as she was leaving the eye doctor and we didn't know there were some of Alexi's guys in the SUV waiting for her. Tinted windows. We didn't even see them. One of them shot Rich in the chest. Frank got grazed in the arm. We shot one of their guys. When we heard the sirens and we ran. We didn’t take the girl with us; she was behind one of the gunmen."
"Fuck," Victor breathed. "That bastard. Alexi Amelin doesn't know who he's messing with. Did the police see you?"
"No, sir, we got away on foot before they got there. We left the rental car there in the parking garage. It was rented under one of Rich's aliases so they shouldn’t be able to track it to us," the man explained. "But Rich's ID and phone and all that, I think it was on him."
"Okay." Victor had to think. First he had to find out if Richard was alive and make sure the police didn't know Victor had anything to do with it. Then, he'd call Alexi directly and tell that son-of-a-bitch exactly what he thought of him. No, no, he wanted to confront Alexi directly. Finally he said, "Wait for me there. I am coming to Boston and we'll take care of this directly with Alexi."
Jason sounded surprised. "Uh, okay? Are you sure, sir? I mean, if they had no problem killing Richard..."
"We do not know if he is dead or not." He looked at Misha. "I'll have Misha call around to the hospitals in that area to find out. If he is in a hospital we need to make sure he doesn't share any information with the authorities."
"I'm pretty sure Rich would never do that, sir," the man assured him.
"Not of his own accord, no. But I don't trust police. They could talk to him and get information from him when he's semi-conscious. He knows too much about my business. We can't take the risk. If he is alive I'll send one of the girls in to pretend to be his sister and sit with him." He shook his head. While he liked Richard and Richard had been a valuable employee for a long time, if Richard was dead there was nothing Victor could do about it. He could only do damage control if Richard was alive and that's as far as it concerned him. "I will contact you again when I arrive at the airport. Rent another car under a different alias."
"Yes sir," Jason said.
Victor hung up without another word. He looked over at Misha. She appeared concerned. He knew that she and Richard had their flings every now and again and he didn't mind sharing her. "Start calling hospitals around Boston and find out if Richard was taken to one of them for a gunshot wound to the chest. Find out if he made it."
Her hand went to her mouth and her eyes brimmed with tears. "Oh my God!"
"You can pretend to be a reporter or his sister. Whatever. If you pretend to be his sister just say you got an anonymous text that he'd been shot. If you say you're a reporter, just ask for his status. If he's alive I'll send you out there to be with him as his sister. Do you understand what I've just said to you?" His eyes bore into her.
She nodded and wiped her eyes. "Yes, sir."
"Don't fuck this up or I'll publicly cane your ass." With that he strode off toward his home office to get Margaret, his personal secretary, to make his travel arrangements. It was turning into a fucked up day.
***
"Someone claiming to be Richard's sister just called the front desk and they told her he had died. It came from a number with a California area code," said a short, dark haired female agent from the doorway.
Richard winced as the doctor put the last staple in the back of his head to close the gash. "I don't have a sister."
"Good. That means Victor knows what happened and they all think you're dead. Everything is going as planned," Brocco said. "We might just have this son-of-a-bitch. But you two," he motioned to Richard and Kali, "Still need to record your testimony and sign affidavits. Yours,” he pointed to Richard, “will be back-dated, and yours, Ms. Stanton, will need to happen before we execute the next part of the plan. We have to catch Victor in the process of kidnapping you."
"Wait, that wasn't part of the deal,” Richard said.
Brad sat up, “Yeah, that wasn’t part of the deal.”
“It was always part the plan. There was no deal,” Brocco said.
Kali shook her head at Brad before he said another word and put her hand on his shoulder to get him to lie down. She looked down his wounded thigh and watched as a nurse sutured it. The bullet had gone through the fleshy muscle and made a clean exit.
On the opposite side of the room Richard sighed. “My guess is I won’t be able to contact Misha at all?”
“Dead is dead,” Brocco replied. She noticed he seemed to have become more callous and all business ever since they left the house that morning.
“She’s really the only friend I have,” Richard said. “She could use an out, too.”
Kali shrugged. She wanted to see Misha get out of Victor’s grasp, too. “Once they nab Victor, Misha could disappear and join you in witness protection? Her entire family is in Russia and she’s been estranged from them for years.”
Richard nodded. “True. By the way, Laura, it’s good to see you. I’m glad you’re okay.”
She smiled at him, noticing Brad didn’t seem as thrilled about Richard’s comment. “I’m glad you’re no longer employed by Victor. He would have killed me you know…”
“Unfortunately, I know.” A deep sigh escaped his lips. “He still might.”
Kali smiled at Brad when she saw a flicker of jealousy flash through his eyes. She leaned down and whispered into his ear, “Don’t be jealous. He’s Misha’s and you’re mine.”
Brad seemed to relax a bit.
***
Alexi Amelin wasn’t expecting to return home this early, but the message on his voicemail from that govnjúk, Victor Kolknov, set his blood boiling and instead of calling back, he immediately headed back toward Boston. While he didn’t recall taking one of Victor’s girls, it was possible. Some of his girls had been around. The accusation that Alexi had stolen money, however, was ludicrous. If anyone had stolen money, it was Victor. As he saw it he had three choices. He could give Vic
tor his girl back and allow Victor to think he could push him around, or he could have Victor and his minions beaten senseless and sent back to Los Angeles with their tails between their legs. The final thought was that he could have Victor and his guys taken out, but that was both messy and dangerous. He already had some cops snooping around two of his auto repair operations looking for evidence of a chop shop. He didn’t need this headache, too.
His friendship with Victor had gone awry when Victor cut him out of a lucrative import deal after they had agreed to invest the same and split the proceeds down the middle. Victor still owed him a quarter of a million for that little deal. The more Alexi thought about it, the more his anger grew and the more he wanted to twist Victor’s head off his shoulders. That súkin syn didn’t know who he was messing with.
One of his own men, Gary, an American raised by Russian immigrant parents, sat quietly in the passenger seat of the silver Lexus. He stared straight ahead.
“When we get back to the house we need to find out when Victor’s plane comes in. Did we find the girl? This Laura Stanton?” Alexi’s tone was stiff and clipped. He turned on the blinker to switch lanes, checked his rear view, and accelerated while changing to the far left lane.
Gary looked at his phone as if he was reading something, then answered in a surprised tone, “Oh, well I guess she’s not one of yours. It was one of Victor’s little whores who ran off, but I guess she lives here now. Goes by the name Kali Michaels. She’s the girlfriend of one of the owners over at The Black Lily. Brad Hudak. Hey, isn’t that an s-and-m club?”
“Yes, but I don’t know these people,” Alexi said with a frown. “Have someone pick up the girl. If Victor wants her, maybe he wants her bad enough to pay me the quarter million he owes me.” Alexi shrugged. It was nice having friends in all the clubs and even in various branches of government and law enforcement. It certainly made finding people and doing business that much easier. Now if only he could infiltrate the car theft task force and direct their attention elsewhere. Certainly there were real chop shops they could be concentrating on.
Gary began tapping his phone. “Rory and Case are on their way to pay Mr. Hudak a visit now. They have all the information.”
“Good. Perhaps if things go well tonight I’ll open that bottle of Cosson Seul Clos Des Lambrays I have in the wine cellar. I should have figured Victor’s obsession with kinky sex and women would be his undoing,” he commented with a grin.
A chuckle emerged from Gary. “If you get your money back from that súkin syn I will happily toast that.”
“It’s a 1937 Pinot Noir,” Alexi explained. While none of his guys probably cared about wine or had a palate for it, Alexi appreciated the finer things and had educated himself on wine. The bottle cost him several thousand dollars to acquire and he was saving it for such an occasion even though it was worth more corked than in the glass. He saw no point in one owning a bottle of wine no one would ever drink.
“That’s a red wine, right?” Gary tried.
Alexi nodded with a smile, but didn’t say anything. Gary was happy with his Stoli and could, in all fairness, probably taste the difference between a glass of cheap Russian vodka from an expensive one. That’s how it was among Alexi’s men. At least his girls appreciated fine things. He kept them dressed in designer clothes, adorned in diamonds and furs, and sipping on expensive wine and champagne. They rewarded him with attention, adoration, and sex. It was a fair trade off despite having to listen to his parents lecture him to find a wife and settle down. They wanted grandchildren and did not keep it a secret. That’s the only reason he broke down and proposed to Helena who was all too happy to share Alexi as long as she was in the will and she and any children she produced were cared for at least until her death. He sighed and looked at the dash clock. If all went well they’d be in Boston in the next few hours and he could have all of this dealt with by morning.
Chapter Ten
Amy hadn’t expected the big man to reach out and grab her out from behind the screen door, put the hood over her head, bind her hands behind her back, shove her into a car, or any of those things. She remembered only two years ago when her mother had suggested she take a self-defense class and she’d laughed at her. After all, who was going to come after her? Two Russian guys, that’s who, she told herself.
The men in the front seat were speaking Russian and she didn’t understand a damn word of it. All she knew is she got the call from Kali that she and Brad were heading home from the hospital with agents in tow and she’d asked Amy to order a pizza. Amy did, so when she answered the door she thought the man standing there would be holding a pizza. It was a little too late when she realized he wasn’t the pizza delivery guy.
The guys seemed to be arguing about something. Finally, one of them asked her in very clear English, free from any accent whatsoever, “You’re Laura Stanton, yes?”
Oh shit, she thought. These must have been Victor’s goons. Did she correct them and make them turn around? At least there would be FBI back at the house. “No. No I’m not Laura Stanton. I’m Amy Myers; I’m a friend of Ms. Stanton’s.”
The driver groaned. “You grabbed the wrong one!”
“No I didn’t,” the second one argued. “She’s just lying and saying she isn’t who she is. Why would her friend be in her boyfriend’s house?”
The driver said something in Russian.
“Fuck you, Rory,” the second one said.
There was an uncomfortable silence.
Amy wondered if she should interject. She wasn’t sure what she should say. Finally she came out with, “Victor is really going to be pissed off when he finds out you’ve got the wrong girl.”
“And you would know Victor is looking for you because?” the guy in the passenger seat asked.
“The Russian was a dead giveaway,” she deadpanned. The cloth bag over her head was getting kind of annoying. Her nose itched and it smelled like potatoes.
“So you know who Victor is, you know we are Russian, you are Laura Stanton,” the driver, Rory, said with a triumphant tone.
She sighed. “Can you please take the bag off of my head? I can’t breathe under this thing.”
“No,” came the reply from the driver.
“Look, I know all about Victor and Laura’s situation because she told me about it. Believe me, I’m not her.”
There was no response from the front seat.
She tried again. “I am Laura’s friend and I work for Mr. Hudak in his bookstore.”
“Mr. Hudak owns The Black Lily. Nice try though,” the guy in the passenger seat said.
She groaned. “He owns both. My boyfriend also owns part of The Black Lily and the bookstore. I’m really not Laura.”
But the guys weren’t buying it. After what seemed a good half hour driving the car stopped and both men got out. They led her along a concrete path for a few minutes and then the air changed, and through her stocking feet she could tell she was walking on tiles, then carpet. One of the men pushed her down into a plush chair. Possibly a sofa.
She couldn’t help but wonder if Brad and Kali had gotten home yet and if they knew she’d been kidnapped. Maybe there were search parties out looking for her already.
Then she heard someone say, “Alexi will be here in fifteen minutes. Victor’s party should be meeting their escort soon.”
“Good,” another man said.
She felt the cushion next to her cave with the weight of someone as they sat down. No one said anything more.
Wasn’t Alexi the rival Russian mafia guy the FBI had been pretending was Kali’s new boyfriend? She wondered if the FBI had a backup plan if something like this happened. What to do if Alexi Amelin actually found out the FBI was using his name to nab Victor Kolknov. She wondered if they tortured her she’d tell them everything she knew. Who was she kidding? Of course she would. From her understanding Alexi and Victor weren’t friends and it might behoove Alexi to cooperate with the Feds to put Victor behind bars.
&nb
sp; She decided to try again. “I’m only going to tell you one last time that I’m not Laura Stanton.”
A deep sigh emerged from the person sitting next to her. “You are in her boyfriend’s house alone, you know her life, and you seem to know a lot about Victor.”
She recognized the voice as that of the driver, Rory. “When they find out you’ve got the wrong person…”
“Can we shut her up? Do we have a gag or something?” the guy asked.
“Yeah, hold on, I’ll get one.”
It seemed to take a few minutes, but finally the hood was lifted and a ball gag was shoved in her mouth and firmly fastened behind her head with a buckle strap.
She tried to say something against the cold plastic, but it was no use.
“At least we know it works,” he said.
There was a chuckle on the other side of her.
She saw a man’s hand slip up inside the cloth bag, covering her eyes as the bag was removed. The cool air of the room around her hit her face. It actually felt good, but then the man’s hand was replaced with the blindfold. That second he removed his hand she saw the large room she was in. It was nicely furnished and there were large houseplants. But that was all she saw before the blindfold went on.
Relaxing into her predicament, she waited. What else could she do? Her hands were still bound behind her back, the idiots who took her were too stupid to be reasoned with, and now she was both gagged and blindfolded. It would have been almost comical if she wasn’t aware of the acute danger she was in. The minutes almost felt like hours until finally she heard the click of a door opening and voices coming into the room.
“You have Laura?” the man with the thick Russian accent asked.
“She’s right here, sir,” said the man called Rory.
There was a long pause. “Remove the blindfold and gag. I want to talk to her.”
She felt a hand on the back of her head fumbling with the buckle on the ball gag and the blindfold was simply pulled off. Her hands immediately went to hear head to smooth her hair. She looked to the chair across from her and saw a very attractive, lean man, maybe mid-thirties, with brown hair and eyes looking back at her with inquisitive curiosity.
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