CLASS ACT (A BRITISH ROCKSTAR BAD BOY ROMANCE)

by Julia Gardener

  “A few million? Try billions,” I said to her shock. Most people don’t realize just how much crime paid. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have criminal organizations. “It looks like Mr. Gregori is getting desperate to hold onto his fortune. The authorities have already frozen his assets in other accounts. The Atlantic account is his nest egg. He even came to America to handle it personally.”

  “The police are chasing after him?”

  “Try the CIA,” I said. “Word on the street is that he’s made some enemies in Langley. They’re after him because some of his dirty money has been linked to terrorist cells in Russia. Likewise, the KBG back home might be moving in on him as well. He used to be able to bribe the KBG into turning a blind eye on his activities. However, he’s gotten too big for his shoes and the KBG want to cut him down to size. It’s why he’s been acting so reckless.”

  Kelly eyes brightened. “Will the CIA be able to get him? Can they put him in prison and get justice for my father?”

  “Better them than the KBG,” I chuckled. “They’ll torture him for a few days before dropping his body in a ditch in Siberia. At least with the CIA, he can cut a deal and maintain some level of his wealth. If he cooperates with the CIA, Gregori will probably end up serving reduced sentence in a white collar prison. He’ll be out in five years with most of his wealth intact. That’s assuming he doesn’t change his identity and vanish off the face of the earth to escape the authorities.”

  A look of panic appeared on the woman’s face. “What do you mean, Jackie? There’s a chance he’ll escape justice?”

  “Last I heard, the bureaucracy of both organizations is keeping them from getting the green-light to go after him. If he doesn’t get his money out of Atlantic National Bank, then he has a chance to escape to some forgotten corner of the world.”

  The young woman’s eyes became dull again. There weren’t any happy endings in this line of work. “So either way, he’ll get away.”

  “Almost makes you want to root for the KBG.”

  Suddenly, Kelly got a look in her eye. “You said he was in America, right Jackie?”

  I raised an eyebrow. “Yeah, what about it?”

  “That means we have a chance to get him before anyone else,” she replied with conviction. “We can corner him before he escapes!”

  I almost wanted to laugh. “You want us to go after one of the most dangerous men on the planet? Forget it, Kelly. Let’s just keep our head down and let the authorities corner him.”

  She looked resolute. “You said there was a chance he would slip away.”

  “Better he gets away Scot-free rather than you end up captured,” I warned. “These men are ruthless. Gregori has a small army working under him. They’ll put a slug between my eyes and they’ll do much worse to a young woman like you. What do even plan on getting from them, anyway?”

  “Answers,” she said, anger burning her cheeks. “I want to look him in the eye and have him tell me why I lost my father.”

  I could relate to her righteous anger. My mother’s murder had been my drive all these years. It was the first thing I thought of when I awoke and the last thing I in my mind when sleep took me.

  The practical side in me saw a benefit as well. One of the Russian criminal organizations had a hand in my mother’s death. I could get answers from the Black Fang about the men who ordered my mother’s murder.

  The Russian mafia was a close-knit bunch even if they didn’t get along with each other. Sergei Petrov had ties to many of them. Besides, the death of Kelly’s father was the reason the Pastore family had let me investigate the Black Fang in the first place.

  “If we do this,” I began, giving her a stern look. “You have to do exactly what I tell you to do. Remember, it’s both of our lives on the line now. If the military has thought me anything is that a group is as strong as its weakest link.”

  She didn’t hesitate. “Agreed.”

  I liked that in a woman.

  “Who knows how long Gregori is going to wait around for his money,” I continued. “So we have a small window of opportunity to find him, get some answers, and get revenge. We need to move fast if we want to track him.”

  “Revenge…” Kelly murmured, almost frightened by the word. “Anything else about this Gregori guy?”

  I sighed. “Not much to add. Just getting his background was like pulling teeth.”

  “I hope you mean metaphorically,” she said, shooting me a disapproving look. “Do you have any leads on his whereabouts?”

  “I’m glad you asked,” I replied, taking out a sheet of papers from the folder. “The man’s like a ghost. I can at least confirm that Gregori is in the country. He might even be in the city but I can’t say for sure. However, I do have something else that could help us.”

  “Another lead?”

  “Something like that,” I answered, showing her a decrypted contract. “An interesting contract came up. It looks like your father wasn’t the first Atlantic the Black Fang approached. They came to a man named Jacob Cobbs before him.”

  “They were others?”

  “This man was a pretty high ranking executive up on the Atlantic Corporation’s totem pole,” I continued as she read the contract. “The problem was that he specialized in managing the company’s supply chain. He didn’t have the clearance or know-how to move funds from a bank account and cover up the tracks from the inside. Once the Black Fang realized their blunder, they tried to threaten his family and silence him.”

  Kelly followed along. “Is he still alive?”

  “Alive enough to hide and reach out to a professional like me,” I chuckled. I rarely took a contract that I could genuinely feel good about. “The man’s been hiding ever since with his family sent packing to Singapore for their safety. As far as the Atlantic Corporation knows, Cobbs is on an extended vacation. The Black Fang have his passport and personal information. It’s still a matter of time before they catch him.”

  “Where is he now?”

  “Even I don’t know for sure,” I shrugged. “Gregori’s men are cutting off all of his exits. His family was lucky to leave the country when they did. With his options running out, Cobbs has resorted to less than legal channels to save himself. The man I spoke to was his go-between. I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s hired more people to act as his liaisons.”

  “Why did he reach out to a hitman like you instead of the police or FBI?”

  “The Black Fang sent a man after him named Krause,” I said. “He’s an ex-East German soldier who turned to wet work after the wall came down. Now, he’s an assassin who works for the highest bidder which is Gregori in this case. Krause was taking hits when I was diapers. The man is a real professional. The Black Fang is sparing no expense in clearing up this mess.”

  “So he hired a hitman to stop another hitman.”

  “Exactly,” I answered, looking at the file on Krause. He was mean bastard of a man. “Not too many hitmen were willing to take up a contract like this, even for a fortune.”

  “He sounds dangerous,” Kelly shuddered. The young woman gave me a strange look before speaking. “Have you met Krause before?”

  Kelly was perceptive if nothing else.

  “We’ve crossed each other’s paths before…” I answered, trying to keep my face an emotionless mask. Krause had no moral code. He’d torture his target for hours before finishing them off. “I can take down Krause if I catch him off guard. If we eliminate him, Cobbs will give us all he has on Gregori. Not to mention a sizeable monetary reward for saving him and his family.”

  The young woman’s eyes were filled with concern. “Are you well enough to fight?”

  Right on cue, I winced as a sharp bolt of pain hit the side I had been injured. The wound had healed nicely thanks to Kelly’s medical skills. However, the pain lingered. I couldn’t risk using painkillers as they would dull my reflexes. “I’m strong enough to pull a trigger.”

  “Are you taking care of yourself, Jackie?” she scolded, sounding lik
e a worried mother. I couldn’t help but straighten myself up as though I was a schoolboy who had been caught in a lie. “Don’t exert yourself or else you’ll reopen the wound.”

  “It was just a scratch,” I scoffed. “It’s healing well enough.”

  As much as I hated to admit it, I could’ve used an extra pair of hands. I had been working solo for too long. Kelly was young, inexperienced, and a stranger to the criminal underworld. However, her medical training complemented my skill set. I had some knowledge of battlefield medicine from my days as a marine. Nevertheless, it’s difficult to treat a gunshot wound when you’re the one who needs a bullet pulled out.

  “Jackie, what do you get out of all of this?” she asked out of the blue. “Why are you helping me?”

  “You’re the key to everything,” I said with a cynical smile. “When they shot your father, they brought their war to my doorstep. The people I work for have given me a casus belli, a just cause if you will, for investigating, if not eliminating the Black Fang.”

  Her eyes narrowed. The young woman was too clever for her own good. “It sounds more personal than that.”

  “It’s got nothing to do with you,” I replied, perhaps a bit more bitterly than I would’ve liked. “What’s more important is that we have a job to do.”

  Kelly blinked in disbelief. “We?”

  “Police are still investigating the murder of Brian Chambers,” the newswoman read off the teleprompter. “He was found shot to death in his apartment. Jill, our local correspondent, is on the scene.”

  “Thank you, Betty,” said the correspondent, standing out my apartment complex. “Police are investigating what appears to be the murder of a senior security technician at the Atlantic Corporation.”

  The scene changed to the floor where I used to live. Police tape marked it as a crime scene. I looked away but kept listening to the news report.

  One of the building managers appeared on screen. “This place is one of the safest buildings in the entire city. We are baffled by what has happened. We’ve offered all residents of that floor to relocate elsewhere as the police investigate the scene.”

  The correspondent reappeared next to a policeman. “Reports have it that the surveillance footage for the apartment complex was tempered with. Management has neither the video footage nor security key usage information for the events that happened that day. Other residents on the floor reported loud yelling and the appearance of strange men on the night of the incident. Was this a simply a robbery gone wrong or a pre-meditated murder?”

  “We are still determining the exact chain of events,” he answered plainly. It was clear he was just as confused as anyone else. “We are working with building management and Mr. Chambers’ employer, the Atlantic Corporation to get to the truth.”

  “The Atlantic Corporation has not commented on these events,” the correspondent added. “Back to you Betty.”

  “His daughter, Kelly Chambers, is still reported missing,” the newswoman said. A picture of me appeared in the corner. It was the one taken for my high school photo book. “Police are requesting any information about the nineteen year old college student-”

  The screen went blank. I turned to see Jackie putting down the remote control. “Don’t let the news make you lose your focus. We’re on a mission.”

  With the television turned off, I could see my reflection on the blank screen. We had cut my hair short and dyed to a darker shade. The resemblance to my former self looked muted. “I barely look like myself.”

  I’d thought it would be too risky to go out when Gregori’s men were looking for me. However, Jackie decided to give me a makeover. From his experience as a hitman, he knew they’d expect her to be hiding out with her relatives or college friends rather than staying in town under a new disguise.

  “That’s what we’re going for,” he replied, holding a bag. The logo on it was that of popular clothing store for girls. “The best way to hide is in broad daylight as another person.”

  I guessed he spoke from experience.

  Located in a deteriorating two-story house in downtown, the safe house was rather cramped. Jackie had rented the bottom floor from the blind man who owned the property. It wasn’t much smaller than his other apartment. However, much of the space was taken up by his weapons and equipment.

  I pointed to his hand. “What’s in the bag?”

  “A gift,” he said, handing it to me. “Try it on.”

  “Explains why you asked my size,” I said, examining the clothes. I pulled out a miniskirt and a tight button up blouse. They were something a sexy cheerleader type would wear back in college. My dad would’ve freaked if he was still alive. “This is really skimpy.”

  “Whoever said I don’t get you nice things?” he joked to which I rewarded with a glare. The man opened up a nearby briefcase to reveal a disassembled sniper rifle. “More to the point, Krause likes skimpy. Nuns don’t strike his fancy.”

  I recalled the plan that Jackie had painstakingly setup. I was to locate and talk to Krause in a private nightclub called Noir. I’d get free entry on the account of being a woman.

  Then, I had to get up to the second floor which housed private rooms. That’s where Jackie would come in to finish him. We wouldn’t get another chance like this for another month. By then, it might be too late to save Cobbs and track down Gregori. “You said I had to just talk to him, not seduce him.”

  “Krause thinks anyone woman who talks to him is one that will spread her legs for him,” Jackie said grimly, examining the individual parts of the sniper rifle. “The man’s balls are his biggest weakness. For better or for worse, he likes college girls. I’d hate to use you as bait but this is the one night each month that Krause treats himself to a night out. He likes this nightclub called Noir. Most other days he’s holed up with whatever criminal organization that’s funding him. It’s hard to get a clean shot and a safe getaway when there’s a private army with him.”

  I looked through the bag and found some jewelry. There were a set of studded earrings and a bracelet. “Can’t you ambush him when he’s leaving?”

  “He rides with his entourage in a set of four cars with tinted windows,” he answered. “They park directly in the club’s private garage. I have no way of knowing which one he is in. I don’t want to risk using explosives, especially if civilians are caught in the blast.”

  It felt strange to take part in killing a man. Then again, Krause seemed like a monster from all accounts. He was said to have raped and beaten countless women. We’d be doing the world a service in getting rid of him.

  “If it gets us to Gregori…” I sighed. “You’ll back me up if things get out of hand?”

  He lifted his jacket and revealed a pair of high caliber handguns. “I swear I’ll come in guns blazing is he as much as slaps you.”

  I eyed the guns. “That’s reassuring. Will you be strong enough to do this? You were shot just a week ago.”

  He pulled out a high caliber rifle round. “I’m strong enough to send this into that sorry excuse of a human being. You can change in my room, Kelly.”

  I did so and reemerged from the room in my new clothes. Jackie and I took the subway to reach the private club that Krause was visiting at. We could’ve driven there but Jackie didn’t like using a car. They needed to be registered and tended to attract police attention. He told me of how a hitman he knew was arrested by the police when they pulled over his car for a broken taillight.

  After we got off the subway, he dropped me off at a distance from Noir.

  “Whatever you do, don’t hesitate,” he warned. He took out a phone out of his pocket and handed it to me. “You can’t second guess yourself in this line of work.”