Besiege (SAI Book 4)

by Lea Hart

  Which was true, because the crazy man in front of her was up to something. Studying his cold gray eyes, she wondered why he was so interested. It wasn’t sexual. It was something else, and the sooner she could figure it out the better.

  The director clapped his hands and motioned for people to follow him as he walked out of the room. “Looks like your tour is moving on.”

  “I hope to see you soon, my dear girl. We have much to discuss.” He gave her a wink and then followed the group out of the room.

  Collapsing onto a chair, she let out a breath. What the hell was that? A rack of shivers rolled through her body and she decided she was done for the day. She took her phone out and speed-dialed Hank so he could come pick her up. He answered on the first ring, and when she heard his voice, she almost started crying. Swallowing deeply, she pulled herself together. “Honey, I’m done for the day.”

  “What’s wrong, Staz?”

  “Nothing.” Squeezing her shaking hands, she tried to regulate her breathing. “When are you going to be done for the day?”

  “Right now,” he replied. “I’ll be there in fifteen minutes and I expect a full explanation of what’s bothering you.”

  “Okay. I’ll be waiting next to Security. Just text me when you’re here.”

  “Hold tight. I’ll be there before you know it.”

  “Thank you, honey.” She ended the call and rolled her shoulders. Slowly, she stacked her papers and placed them inside her portfolio. There was nothing to be scared of. The museum was covered in cameras and she had no reason to believe that Firtash would return.

  As she put the books inside her bag, she gave herself a pep talk. Maybe it wasn’t Firtash who had sicced Ivan the Terrible on her, and, in fact, it was Sergey Belikov. For all she knew, Firtash was innocent and his weird fascination with her meant nothing.

  Feeling a tension headache crawl across her forehead, she decided to wait and see what Hank had to say. She knew Lucky and Hank had been working vigorously from their end since this thing started. Maybe they had enough to determine who was up to what.

  Lifting her bag over her shoulder, she walked out of the room and prayed she didn’t run into Firtash. One encounter a day was more than enough.

  ***

  “Do we have Ivan the Terrible following us?” Stazi asked as they drove away from the museum.

  “Three cars back.”

  “Wonder what he did while we were in Italy? Maybe broke some bones or buried some bodies.”

  “Possible,” Hank responded. “Are you going to tell me what has you spooked or do I have to wait until we get home?”

  “Dmitry Firtash showed up today at the museum. He was part of a tour that the director gives for high-dollar donors.” Seeing Hank’s knuckles go white on the steering wheel was Stazi’s only indication that he’d heard her. His breathing remained the same and so did his facial expression. “I was a little surprised, to say the least.”

  “What. The. Fuck?” Hank said quietly. “I assumed that you were completely untouchable when you went to work because of the safety protocol of both the museum and the Conservation Center.” Slamming his hand against the wheel, he let out a growl. “You’re going under lock and key until this gets solved.”

  “I already am.” Running her hand over her skirt, she shook her head. “You are by my side twenty-four hours a day. I’m lucky that you let me go to the bathroom by myself.”

  “Apparently, I’m not close enough because Firtash waltzed into your workplace without a problem.”

  “Let’s go home so we can argue in private because I don’t feel like yelling at you in a restaurant.”

  His head whipped around and he frowned. “Why in the hell would you yell at me?”

  “Because I’m so frustrated and scared and you’re the only person I can express it to.”

  Sliding his hand over, he lifted hers and brought it to his mouth. “I may just take you up against the wall when we get home, so I can express my feelings with your body.”

  Looking over, she watched him kiss her hand. “Do whatever you feel is necessary. If I’m going to yell, I may as well do it while you make me explode.”

  He let go of her hand and then slid it along her leg, lifting her skirt inch by inch as he moved higher. “We have a ton of red lights to go through before we get home. Bet I can make you come before we get there.”

  Pressing her hand against his, she shook her head. “You’d better not. I have no desire for Ivan to catch my O face. That would just be wrong.”

  Throwing his head back, he let out a big laugh. “No one gets to see your O face except me.” Pressing his fingers into her skin, he gave her a gentle squeeze and then moved his hand away from her leg. “I have a meeting with Sam and Lucky tomorrow and we are going to move this thing forward one way or another. The fact that Dmitry showed up today tells me that someone is ready to make a move.”

  “I wouldn’t mind it if they did, because I’m tired of waiting for something to happen.”

  “Me too, honey. I’d like to see that relaxed smile you had in Italy and not the one that doesn’t quite reach your eyes.”

  She looked out the window at the snarled traffic and the fading sun and wanted the same thing. It was time to take control of her life back, and if it meant confronting Dmitry or Sergey or someone else, then she was ready to do it.

  He said, “Hey, I forgot to tell you…my folks want to meet you and they want us to come over on Sunday for dinner. I told them we didn’t have any plans and we would love to come.”

  “Your parents want to meet me?” she asked incredulously.

  “Of course. They want to get to know the woman who has stolen my heart.”

  Letting out a long breath, she let her shoulders sink. “What if they don’t like me?”

  “Honey, that’s impossible.”

  Not that impossible, she thought. “Have you told them much about me?”

  “Everything.” He gave her a funny look. “Why do you ask?”

  “No reason.”

  “What are you afraid of, Staz?”

  “It’s just that I’m not a blonde preppy girl from Lake Forest and they might find that disconcerting.”

  Turning into the garage of his building, he parked the car. Once he turned it off and unlatched their seat belts, he took her hand. “My parents don’t have some Aryan view of love. They never taught my siblings or me that love had to look a certain way, so whatever prejudice you have should be put away.”

  “Okay. I was just worried they may not like that I’m Jewish.”

  “They wouldn’t care if you were Protestant, Buddhist, or Catholic. All they care about is how you feel about me.” He leaned back and shook his head. “Your family wasn’t easy on me when they found out I wasn’t Jewish. In fact, your aunts asked me if I was willing to convert.”

  “Sorry about that,” she replied. “I don’t care what religion you are and I guess I assumed your family would be as crazy as mine and that was wrong.”

  “Oh, they’re crazy—just in a different way. My mom is going to quiz you about your career because she loves art and has never had time to study it, and my dad is going to love on you and try to get you to agree to at least four grandchildren.”

  “Four. That’s a lot.”

  “He’s a pediatrician and loves kids and thinks it’s up to his children to give him a bunch to spoil. My youngest brother and his wife had a baby last year, and my dad put in a state-of-the-art play set in the backyard last month so the kid would want to come over all the time.”

  Laughing, she felt herself relax. “Let’s not introduce your father to my mother, because I’d hate to think of the schemes they’d come up with.”

  “We can wait until we get the Russian mafia off our backs to get the families together.”

  Opening the car door, she ignored the comment and grabbed her bag from the car. “Why did we drive to your place and not mine?”

  He came around the car and took the bag out of
her hand. “My place is a lot more secure and I don’t want to park on the street unless we have to. This is next-level security and it’s not going to change until I know that threat has been taken care of.”

  “Got it.”

  “Come on, honey. We have a wall calling our name.”

  “Can it be a wall in the shower? I feel like I need to get cleaned up after spending time with Firtash.”

  “Did he touch you?”

  Stazi punched the button for the elevator and shook her head. “No, he just took my hand and held it. It was creepy, though. He looks at me with such longing and intensity.”

  “I saw the same thing when we were at his house a couple of weeks ago. It didn’t seem like the usual sexual hunger, though. It was different somehow.”

  “I agree.” They got on the elevator and Hank checked his phone. “No one has been inside the building all day. I have an alarm that pings my phone if the perimeter is breached.”

  “You can breach my perimeter as soon as we have a shower, and then I’ll make us some pasta and we can watch a movie.”

  “I’ve never heard a better idea in my life.” Taking her hand, he kissed her head. “As pissed off as I am about the situation, there is a small part of me that is grateful because it’s brought us together.”

  “I like the us that we’ve made, but the whole threat thing is something I can definitely live without.”

  “Soon, Staz. Very soon.”

  “From your mouth to God’s ears.”

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  Friday, June 23

  Hank sat in his office and looked over all the intel that had been gathered. There was a stack for Firtash, a stack for Sergey Belikov, and another for Anton Vazov. Lucky and Sam would be here any minute and he expected them to come up with a solid strategy that would end this once and for all.

  Checking his phone, he saw the red light blink and knew which workroom Stazi was currently working in at the Art Institute. He’d kitted her up with a thin GPS disc that he’d adhered to the back of her neck. It was almost invisible to the eye and was good for forty-eight hours.

  The other thing he’d given her was the citrine ring that she wore when they’d gone to see Firtash. Everything that was said within a foot of her was being fed back into Lucky’s computer with certain words being pinged and going directly to his phone. They’d done something similar on an op last year and it had proven to be successful, so he saw no reason to reinvent the wheel.

  What he’d really wanted to do was bring her to SAI and have her sit in his office until they took care of the threat. The fact that Stazi laughed hysterically when he’d suggested it didn’t bother him a bit. In fact, she could pee her pants in hysterics and it wouldn’t have changed his mind.

  Looking at the intel, he felt satisfied that they’d completed SALUTE, which was an acronym for a log that they’d kept on the Teams when reconning a target. They knew the size, activity, location, unit, time, and equipment of Sergey Belikov and Dmitry Firtash. Now they were going to put an assault team in place and take action.

  Lucky walked into his office and slumped into a chair. “When is Sam supposed to arrive?”

  “Five minutes,” Hank responded. Taking a moment to study Lucky, he noticed she looked exhausted. “How are you holding up?”

  “I’m at mile twenty and I hate everyone and everything, but I can’t give up because I can see the finish line and I’m crossing the sucker. Also, I would never let anything happen to my best friend.” She stood, fixed her shorts, and then tightened her ponytail. “Come into the bat cave when Sam gets here.”

  “I’m here,” Sam announced from the door. He walked in and shook his head. “Nice to see you took time to get yourself together this morning, Lucky.”

  “Unlike some people, I have more important things to do than worry about my hair.” Looking him up and down, she crossed her arms. “When you get a real job, you may find that you have to give up your beauty routine and actually do something worthwhile.”

  “Children, play nice,” Hank said from his chair.

  “Sam wouldn’t know how if he read a book about it.”

  Hank saw Sam open his mouth and then close it as he watched Lucky stalk out of the room. “Why do you poke her?”

  “I can’t help myself.” Taking a chair, he sat down and crossed his leg over his knee.

  “I have a pretty good idea what that means, but I doubt you’re ready to hear it, so I’m going to keep my mouth shut.”

  “Appreciate it.”

  “Any chance the FBI might be willing to bring Firtash in to question him sooner as opposed to later?”

  “We’ve done all the questioning we can right now, and his fate rests in the hands of the Justice Department. My sources tell me that he and some associates are about to be charged in sealed indictments for paying $18.5 million in bribes to Indian officials so they could mine titanium and then sell it to Boeing for use in the build of the 787 Dreamliner passenger jet. Firtash is the alleged leader of the scheme and could face up to fifty years in prison as well the confiscation of his wealth. They also want him on money laundering, but they don’t have all the pieces in place yet.”

  “So why don’t they grab him now, before he flees the country?”

  “That’s a good question and one I can’t answer because the Justice Department moves at their own pace.”

  “What if we let them know that he’s obsessed with Stazi and might want to take her with him if he decides to leave the United States?”

  “Won’t change their agenda. They don’t deal in possibilities.”

  “Fuck.”

  “Lucky’s been digging into Sergey Belikov and I think he may end up being more of a threat than Firtash. It’s his shestyorka that are following you and Stazi around,” Sam said.

  “You think it’s Sergey giving the orders and not Firtash?”

  “Possibly. Right now, we don’t know who the king of the pile is. Firtash has a lot more money than either of the pakhans, not to mention a better veneer of respectability. His money is relatively clean and he moves about society with ease. But none of that means a thing if Sergey and Anton decide to make a move. They’d kill a member of their family with little hesitation, so right now we’re looking at them as being the biggest threat.”

  “Why could they possibly be interested in Stazi?”

  “If we could answer that definitively, then we could arrest them and bring them in.”

  Hank stood and grabbed his phone. “Let’s go over to Lucky’s office and see what she has.”

  ***

  Lucky stood in front of the wall-sized monitor and enlarged a map that she was studying. Stepping back, she grabbed her tablet and started typing commands. “Gotcha,” she said quietly.

  “Who do you have?” Hank asked as he and Sam walked into the room.

  “Firtash.” Turning, she looked at both men. “I’ve taken the Shodan map and written a program to image-search using facial recognition. Fortunately, all our people of interest have pictures on file, so it was relatively easy to write the parameters.”

  “This shows every digital device connected to the internet…right?” Hank asked.

  “Correct,” Lucky answered. “After Dmitry showed up at the Art Institute yesterday, I decided to ping all his devices and keep a closer eye on him. My gut is telling me he’s only part of the problem, but I should’ve done this from the start.”

  “Do I want to know how you acquired the IP addresses for all of his electronic devices?” Sam asked as he rubbed his head.

  “I’m sure that you don’t. If any of this makes you feel uncomfortable, please feel free to skedaddle.”

  “Who says skedaddle anymore?”

  Lucky let out a loud breath. “Sam, I’m working on about four hours of sleep and I have about ten seconds of patience left in me. You’re dry humping my last nerve and I’m seconds away from stabbing you with a pen. If you can’t play well with others, please just give us what you have and
hit the road. This is my best friend that we’re talking about and I can’t take one more smart-ass remark.”

  Hank watched the two face off and wondered if Sam was going to leave. There was nothing keeping him here and he had no reason to cooperate, other than wanting to prevent a crime. “She’s right, Sam. This doesn’t really concern you. If we get something valuable, we’ll pass it on. No need to compromise your career.”

  “Screw that. I’m not going to let Sergey or Anton get away with any more shit. Chicago leads the country in heroin overdoses, and Sergey and his Bratva distribute well over fifty percent of that. If I can help take them down, then I will.”

  “Now that we have that cleared up,” Hank said, “let’s figure our next step.”

  Lucky nodded, went over to the Microsoft Hub table, and started typing in some information. “The audio devices you placed inside Firtash’s home have proved to be invaluable. I wrote a program so that what we receive is translated immediately and then I’ve flagged it for certain words or phrases. It allows my team not to waste time on reading the complete transcripts. What we’ve got so far is that Sergey Belikov wants Firtash to make his private plane available as well as a warehouse in Bedford Park. What he wants to do with those has not been spelled out, but based on his business interests, we can guess that he wants to move either heroin or cash.”

  “Do we have eyes on the warehouse in question?” Sam asked.

  “Not yet. They have decent security systems installed, so I don’t want to raise a red flag and mess with it unless I have to. Having a drone survey it would be our best option but it’s ten minutes from Midway Airport and it’ll get called in and taken down before I can gather enough intel for it to be meaningful.”

  “Leave that to me,” Sam said. “I’m going to put a team on the warehouse and see what we can pick up. Worst case, we get something we can use in the future. Best case, we intercept whatever shipment he’s got. I have people on Belikov most days of the week and we’ve never been able to tie him directly to a heroin shipment. His bratoks or street soldiers usually handle the retail trade and we leave their arrests for the CPD to handle. We need the big fish and that’s either Belikov or his brigadiers. Getting them is the only way to make a real change in the landscape of criminal activity in Chicago.”