by Robin Caroll
She remembered her mother’s hiding spots. With a sad smile, she opened the closet and looked for a sweater or coat.
A knock sounded on the front door.
Sophia hurried and hung the quilt under an old winter coat, one much too heavy for Arkansas. She carefully closed her bedroom door and moved toward the living room but froze when she heard the voice she’d never forget . . .
“Hello, Alena. It has been a long time.”
Her heart lodged in the back of her throat. He was one of the men who attacked her and Mamochka!
She turned to run, but the other man, the man who’d crushed her hand, grabbed her. “Well, hello again, Sophia. Why don’t you join our little party?” He flung her onto the couch beside Charlie.
Her stomach turned. She was going to be sick.
Charlie put her arm around Sophia’s shoulders. “It’ll be okay.”
“Aww, isn’t this sweet?” Boris pointed the gun at Alena. “Where is the costume, old woman?”
“I do not know what you mean.”
Without warning, he reached out and slapped Alena across the face. Hard. She fell to the floor.
Sophia trembled. Dear Lord, help us!
“Now, let’s try again.” Boris turned to Charlie. “You. Translator. Tell me where is the costume and we will make this no painful for you.”
Charlie sat up straight and stuck out her chin. “What costume?”
“Wrong answer.” He slapped her, and she fell across the couch.
Boris pointed the gun at Sophia. “You. Sophia. Miss gold medal. You know what I’m talking about, don’t you?”
God, help me!
He squatted down to her eye level. “You don’t want us to hurt you again, do you? Not like before. Just show me where the costume is.”
She leaned over and threw up all over the coffee table and floor.
Boris jumped backward. “Otvratitel’no!”
Charlie handed her a tissue. From the corner of her eye, Sophia watched Charlie take her cell phone and press the speed dial for Julian.
She had to distract them, so they didn’t see! She lifted her head, then stood.
“What do you think you’re doing?” Boris growled.
She pointed to the kitchen, then the mess on the floor. She made wiping motions.
“Yes. You clean up this mess.” Boris nodded to the man who’d crushed her hand. “Go with her, Chester. Make sure she doesn’t try anything funny.”
“I will clean up the mess,” Alena announced.
“No. You and I are going to have a little talk, Alena,” Boris said, sticking the gun in her face. He nodded at Sophia. “Go ahead and clean up your mess.”
She made her way into the kitchen where she grabbed the roll of paper towels and a trash bag. If only she could find a weapon. Something. Anything.
“Hurry up. We don’t have all day.” Chester’s voice had already haunted her. Now it would forever terrify her.
She clutched the roll and trash bag to her chest and turned back to the living room.
Sweet Jesus, help us, please.
* * *
“Detective Julian Frazier.” He held the phone against his ear.
Nothing.
“Hello.”
Muffled sounds.
He checked the caller ID. “Charlie?”
In the distance over the connection, he heard a man’s voice. “Now, Alena, where is the costume, and don’t make me hurt you again.”
Ice ran through Julian’s veins.
“What is it?” Brody asked.
Julian put the cell on speaker, but pressed the mute button. “It’s Boris and Milton. They’re at Alena’s.”
“Let’s go.” Brody ran toward the parking lot, calling for backup as he did.
Julian kept a tight hold on his cell phone as he followed his partner to the car.
“I do not know.” Alena’s voice warbled, but was strong.
“You don’t want me to hurt you in front of your vnuchka. She already saw her mother killed over this costume. Surely you don’t want her to have more heartbreak.”
Julian’s right hand balled into a fist.
“Look how nicely she has healed, Alena. You don’t want us to have to break her up again, do you?”
Julian gritted his teeth.
“I did not say you clean up the mess, translator. Sophia can clean up her own mess.”
At least Sophia was alive.
“She can’t. Not with the injuries you inflicted on her last time.” Charlie was defiant, as always. Was she trying to get herself killed? “Let me do it. Then maybe you can tell me exactly what it is you want, and I can help you find it.”
“Fine. You clean up, then you help us. Sophia, you sit here, by your Babushka.”
“Charlie’s stalling them to give us time,” Brody said.
Julian nodded. “We can’t go in hot. If they hear the sirens, they’ll kill them all. We’ve got one shot at this.”
Brody grabbed the radio mic and gave the order for silent approach. He also requested emergency medical dispatched as well.
Julian pulled his gun from his holster and held it. The cold metal comforted his throbbing pulse.
“They’re going to be okay, Julian. God’s got them.”
If only he could be so confident . . .
Okay, God. If You’re there and listening, please keep them safe. Take care of them right now, until we get there.
“Maybe you are the smarter generation, eh, Alena? You got out of Mother Russia, too.”
“I left for my daughter. To give Nina chance to be best ballerina in the world.”
“Yes, Nina was beautiful dancer. My brother loved her, you know. He really loved her. When she disgraced herself with . . . the American, he was disgusted with her. Giving her body to an American when she had denied Dimitri.”
“My Nina was pure. The American took advantage of her heart.”
Julian could only imagine how Sophia felt, sitting there having to listen to such things about her parents. “Can’t you drive faster?”
“I’m doing eighty,” Brody said as they squealed around another curve. “This road isn’t exactly straight and flat you know.”
“Nina was a tease. She led Dimitri on, then got pregnant by a dirty American.” The man chuckled.
The sound stood the hairs on the back of Julian’s neck at attention.
“You don’t like to hear the truth about your mother, eh, little Sophia? Maybe I should show you what real Russian man is like.”
Julian was going to kill him.
“Okay, it’s cleaned up. Now, tell me what you’re looking for, and I’ll help you find it.” Charlie to Sophia’s rescue. Again.
Julian owed her big-time.
“The costume. I need the costume. Tell me where it is, and I will not hurt any of you any more.”
No, he’d just kill them.
Brody pushed the accelerator to ninety as they hit a straightaway on the road.
“I’m not familiar with ballet, so you’ll have to tell me what the costume looks like.”
“Don’t play me, translator.”
“I-I’m not. I don’t want you to hurt me or my friends again.” Charlie sounded weak.
Julian knew better. “She’s doing good at stalling them, but not provoking them.”
Brody nodded. “Has she had any training?”
Julian shook his head and concentrated on listening.
“It is pink costume. A fairy.”
“I think I saw it once. At Nina’s. It was in the attic.”
“No! It is not at the house.”
“I’m pretty sure it was in the attic with a bunch of other costumes she had. From her dances. There were a couple of trunks in the attic full of costumes.”
“There is no trunk in attic. You are lying, translator.”
“No, I’m not. Go look for yourself.” The pause only lasted a beat. “Oh, wait. You can’t because the house burned down. Did you burn down the house with
the costume you want so badly in it?”
Now she was provoking them.
“Almost there,” Brody said.
Julian tightened his grip on his gun.
“I told you not to play with me, translator.”
“No!”
Pow-pow-pow.
Julian nearly dropped his gun onto the floorboard. God, please! If You’re really there, please help.
Cries rang out over the phone, but Julian couldn’t tell whose.
* * *
Sophia sobbed as she reached for Charlie. Boris grabbed her by the hair and pulled her. “No, no, little Sophia. You should not help her. You must help me.”
The pain was as horrible as the first attack. They were going to die here. Now. Her. Alena. Charlie.
All because of her and her mother’s need to provide her with the gymnastic training she’d selfishly soaked up.
Lord, I’m so sorry. They wouldn’t be in danger if it weren’t for me. Please, take me but save them. They don’t deserve this.
She stood and faced Boris and Chester Milton. She stuck out her chin, just like she’d seen Charlie do.
Boris’s eyes narrowed. “You dare to defy me as well?”
He leveled the gun at her.
Sophia closed her eyes. Take me home, Jesus. I want to see Mamochka and my father with You in heaven.
A gunshot rang out.
Sophia felt nothing. Wow, this wasn’t the painful experience she’d imagined.
Thud!
She opened her eyes to find Alena at her feet, eyes open in death.
“Stupid woman jumped in front of the girl,” Chester growled.
“Doesn’t matter. It ends now anyway. Dimitri was clear. We are to kill them all and burn this place as well, and it will all be over.” Boris raised the gun again, leveling it at her head. Then, everything happened at once:
Charlie sprang up off the couch and lunged into Boris.
The gun went off, the bullet driving into the wall.
Boris and Charlie both fell to the floor.
Chester Milton grabbed Boris’s gun and pointed it at Sophia.
The front door crashed open. Julian and Brody jumped into the room.
Brody tackled Chester Milton.
And Julian caught Sophia just as the room tilted and spun.
Then darkness enveloped her.
19
Beep. Beep. Beep.
The sound was truly annoying.
And familiar.
Sophia blinked open her eyes to find Charlie standing beside her bed. “Hey, there. Welcome back. I was about to wonder if you just had a thing for hospitals.”
“How? I thought you were dead when he shot you,” she mouthed.
“Yeah. The bullet barely grazed my shoulder.” She pulled down the collar of her shirt to reveal a two by two square of gauze. “Didn’t even need stitches. Anyway, when he nicked me, I realized he might think he killed me if I slumped over and played dead.”
“You saved my life,” Sophia mouthed.
“Yeah. I did. You owe me.” Charlie grinned and winked at her.
“Alena?”
Charlie went sober and shook her head. “I’m sorry. She didn’t make it.”
“She jumped in front of the bullet for me.”
“I know.” Charlie reached out and squeezed her shoulder. “She made the choice to sacrifice her life for you.”
“After wanting me to have been aborted, she gave her life for mine.” Sophia didn’t miss the irony.
“She did the right thing,” Charlie whispered.
But she was just as dead as Mamochka. When would the dying ever end?
“Julian?” she mouthed.
“Is a hero, of course.” Charlie grinned.
“What’s going on?”
“Well, from what Julian and Brody told me, while they arrested Boris Taras and Chester Milton and have plenty of evidence to put them away for a long time, what they said at Alena’s—what Brody and Julian heard on the phone—implicates Dimitri Taras’s involvement in multiple crimes.”
Like her mother’s murder.
“While Dimitri lives in New York, records show his plane left there and filed a flight plan to land in Memorial Field Airport in Hot Springs in less than an hour. They’re trying to keep everything hush-hush to catch him.”
“Like that worked out so well the first time.”
Charlie laughed. “I know, right? Anyway, Julian, looking all menacing and bad boy, is cooling his heels at the station where they hope Dimitri will be soon.”
Sophia grinned. She could so see Julian looking like that.
But she was just a witness in his case.
“What’s wrong?” Charlie asked.
“Nothing.”
“Hey, I saved your life, remember? You owe me. Spill it.”
Sophia took a deep breath. “I know you tried to warn me not to get attached. I’m just in a case he’s working, and it’s natural for me to see him as a hero and feel some sort of attraction to him . . . but I can’t help it.”
Charlie glanced at the floor. “Yeah, about that.” She lifted her gaze to meet Sophia’s. “I was wrong. Well, no, what I told you is true, it does happen all the time, but not this time. I’m not saying he isn’t a hero—” She shook her head and smiled. “Let me try this again. I shouldn’t have said anything to you. It’s none of my business.”
“No, it’s okay. You’re right. I’m just saying even with your warning, my stupid heart won’t listen. Every time I see him, or hear his voice . . . heck, even just hear his name, my heart goes crazy. When he walks into the room, butterflies go spastic in my stomach. I try to tell myself to stop it. That he’s just doing his job, but for some reason, my heart isn’t listening.” Sophia couldn’t believe all that had just spilled out.
“Because your heart is smarter than your head, and smarter than me, too.”
Now Sophia was confused. “What do you mean?”
Charlie groaned. She lowered the bedrail and sat beside Sophia. “I’ve made a mess in something, and it was never my business in the first place.”
“It’s okay.”
“No, it’s not. I stuck my big nose where it didn’t belong, and I think I messed things way out of whack.”
Sophia touched Charlie’s hand. “It’s okay.”
“I think Julian is just as attracted to you as you are to him. I basically warned him off of you, too. I told him you were vulnerable and he could hurt you, so to not mess with your emotions. I’m so sorry, Sophia.”
“No, it’s okay. You were only trying to protect me. I appreciate it.” But her mind spun. Could Julian have feelings for her? If he did, what did it mean for them? Could they have a chance?
“I feel awful, and to make up for it, I’m going to tell you a little bit about Julian that I normally wouldn’t. I just want you to have a full picture before you decide if you should follow your heart or not, okay?”
Sophia nodded.
“I met Julian through my brother, Scott. He’s a mechanic, and a good one. Scott had a friend, Eli, who introduced Scott to his partner who was working on fixing up an old car.” Charlie shrugged. “It’s a guy thing, I don’t know.”
Sophia smiled, remembering the affection Julian showed “Maggie.”
“Anyway, the friend was Julian. Those three must have worked on the car forever. Seemed like every time I went by the garage to see Scott, Eli and Julian were there. I used to pick on them about they must not be good detectives since they were always working on those old clunkers.”
Three years—that’s how long Julian said it had taken him to restore his Charger.
“Because Scott’s deaf, I learned to read lips when we were kids. Used to drive my parents crazy because we could shut them out of a conversation since they never mastered lip reading. One day, at the shop, he and I started talking, but actually lip reading, back and forth pretty fast. Julian mentioned it might be helpful to learn how to read lips in his line of work. We began discus
sing how a lip reader could help out the force. Thus, my assignments from them began.” Charlie shifted on the bed. “I tell you all this to let you know I love Julian a lot. He’s done a lot for me and for Scott, and I would never want to see him hurt. He’s like another brother to me.”
“I understand,” Sophia mouthed.
Charlie let out a heavy breath. “When Eli was killed in the line of duty, something inside Julian snapped. He changed. I could almost see him physically withdrawing from everyone and everything. Except work. He buried himself in the job. I tried to tell him he shouldn’t. I begged him to go back to the department’s therapist. He wouldn’t hear of it.” Charlie ran a hand through her tangled hair.
How hard it must have been on Julian. His partner, his best friend, killed. Much like what Sophia felt about losing her mother, having her murdered right there beside her.
“He pushed me away. Scott away. God away. Oh, he’d never been a religious zealot, not by any means, but he believed in God. He’d go to church with Eli almost every Sunday. But after Eli was gone, instead of turning to God for comfort, he turned away in anger.”
Sophia knew she’d never get through everything if she didn’t have her faith to lean on. If Julian had nothing . . . her heart broke for him.
“He rebelled. I invited him to go to church with us, but he refused. Not politely either. Needless to say, Julian’s got some broken parts in him.” Charlie gave Sophia’s arm a squeeze. “But since you came along, I see those walls he’s built up coming down. Not crumbling in one fell swoop, you understand, but bricks slipping out of place. I think you could be the one to reach him, but I don’t want you to take him on as a project. Don’t think you need to fix him. You can’t.”
“I can pray for him.”
“Yes. I do. Every day.”
“I’ve been mad at God before. I know how it feels. But I also know how it feels to be welcomed back into our Father’s arms. To find the love and comfort there. I want the same for Julian, no matter how our relationship shakes out.”
Charlie leaned over and hugged her. “You’re a special woman, Sophia Montgomery.”
“And so are you.”
Charlie hugged her again, and Sophia closed her eyes and melted into the embrace. She couldn’t remember ever having a friend who was as dear as Charlie. She liked it. A lot.
