by Renee Strong
The thought didn’t make me any more comfortable. If the Russians had really lifted Lexi from her apartment, they were intending on starting an all-out war. And if that were the case, sending four of the highest ranking members of the family into the belly of the snake was plain suicide.
Bobby seemed to read my mind.
“We’ve had a decade or more of peace with the Russians. Vlad says he’s not looking for any trouble and I believe him. Plus, we have every other member of the crew briefed on this meeting. Uncle Carlo is expecting a call at one p.m. exactly. If he doesn’t get it, the place will be surrounded in faster time than it takes for one of Vlad’s goons to pull a gun.”
I bit at a piece of skin on my lip. I didn’t like this, not one bit. My instincts were telling me that something was off—including with Bobby. He was hiding something from me and that unsettled me. He was always honest with me about things. He had to be when it came to the life we led.
We pulled up to a parking garage a couple of blocks from the nightclub. It wasn’t likely Vlad’s guys had eyes on us this far away. It minimized the chance that they could stick a bomb under to greet us on our return.
Besides, this garage was one of ours. The guys who worked there were on our payroll. It was as safe a place to park as we could get. One of them would drive us the rest of the way.
He parked the car toward the top of the lot, far away from any pedestrian entrances and right under a security camera. I’d make sure he had one of the garage guys sit on the hood of it and watch it to be extra safe. That was as much control as it felt I had on this situation. And I hated it.
The look on Dominic’s face when he walked in the room and saw me sitting there made me want to laugh.
I’d settled comfortably into an armchair in front of Vlad’s desk. I’d politely refused a drink. Years of working in a bar had taught me better than to accept a drink from someone I didn’t know or trust. Even if you saw it sealed and opened in front of you, it wasn’t worth the risk that someone had managed to lace it with something in the second your eyes were off it.
Tommy and Vince were each standing on one side of the room, hands folded in front of them. Beside Tommy, there was a duffle bag filled to the brim with God knows what. I reasoned that none of us in this room wanted to find out for definite. A couple of no-neck, heavily tattooed Russian guys were standing beside Tommy and Vince, unsmiling and looking at nothing.
Everyone else in the room was tense, but Vlad and I chatted like there wasn’t a thing wrong. I’d had plenty of practice talking to “bad guys” in my time. I was never nervous with them. I chatted to everyone the same, whether they were pariah or preacher. Vlad seemed to find my ease and unstressed conversation refreshing. He threw back his gray-haired head with every small joke I made, laughing as if I was the funniest person he’d ever met. Which was nice. I’m not that funny but he was doing wonders for my ego.
Vlad spread his hands wide and stood up when Bobby and Dominic walked in.
“My Italian friends!” he said. “Come, sit by Lexi in front of me.” He smiled at me, his deeply lined face creasing more with his warm smile. “We’ve been getting to know each other and she is just lovely.”
Bobby sat into one of the three seats in front of the desk, farthest from me, but Dominic stopped at looked at me before he sat, a mix of confusion and annoyance on his face. I smiled sweetly at him and he sat down, never once looking away from me.
“I’ve just been telling Lexi that we would never do what those people did to her poor face.”
I tried not to look too irritated at the current state of my face. I had put on enough makeup that I’d need to remove it with a trowel later, but the marks were still visible despite my best efforts.
Vlad sat back down and shook his head regretfully.
“As I was saying to Lexi before you got here, we’re not in the business of messing up pretty ladies. That’s very bad practice indeed.”
His accent was still thickly Russian, so that “bad” sounded like “bet.” It charmed me, as did Vlad himself. I knew that to rise as high as he had as an immigrant to Angel City, he had to have more blood on his hands than a butcher, but in person he was gregarious, twinkly eyed, and quick to laughter.
Dominic remained stony-faced. Bobby crossed his legs and eased back in his seat.
“Well, Vlad, I am glad to hear that because you know our policy on women and children.”
Vlad nodded vigorously.
“The same as our policy.”
Nobody disagreed with him though I was skeptical of the claim. I’d seen enough news stories on the women trafficked into the city to know that someone was doing it—and that they tended to be of Eastern European persuasion. I let it go.
“So you can imagine our surprise when Lexi told us what had happened to her,” Bobby said. “And that one of the goons who did this to her seemed to be Russian.” Bobby leaned forward again. “I’m willing to believe it was a coincidence, Vlad, but the fact remains, someone knows who it was. Nothing like this happens in our city without one of us knowing something.”
A flash of anger darkened Vlad’s face.
“Yes, well that is my thought, too. You say this one—Serge—that he was the instigator.” Vlad turned to me. “And you didn’t find out the other one’s name?”
I shook my head sadly and saw Bobby and Dominic’s gaze turn to me in surprise as I did.
“No, unfortunately, I didn’t.”
Vlad chewed the information over for a moment. “And was there anything you could tell me about Serge? What he looked like?”
I shook my head again.
“No. He had a bag on my head the entire time. The only thing I noticed was that he lisped.”
Vlad stopped still.
“He what?”
I tried to explain the word. “He had a lisp. You know, someone who can’t pronounce their ‘s’ right?”
Vlad stood up. He shouted something to one of his guys in Russian.
“I know this man,” he said turning back to me, Dominic, and Bobby. “He will be dealt with. You have my word.”
I gave him my most winning smile. “And I thank you for it, Vlad. You have been most kind.”
I stood up and extended my hand to him. Vlad looked bemused by the gesture but he took it and shook it. He raised my hand to his lips and kissed it, then patted it.
“You are an impressive woman. I look forward to meeting you again.”
Dominic and Bobby stood up.
“You’ll be in touch soon?” Bobby said. “There’s more to this that I wish to talk about.”
“I will,” Vlad said. He stood up, took me by the arm, and led me to the door. He picked up my hand and gave it a kiss again.
He turned to Bobby and Dominic who had walked to the door. Tommy and Vince were hanging back behind us.
“I thank you for giving us the chance to make this right.” He took Bobby’s hand and shook it and then Dominic’s. “Our peace is important to me. That will not be jeopardized.”
I gave him one final smile and we started out the door.
I waited just long enough for us to be seated in one of a nearby diner on our payroll before I started asking Lexi questions.
“You have something you need to explain. Why didn’t you give up the name of the other guy?”
I sat in the booth across from her, my gaze pointed at her. She wasn’t looking at me. Instead, she was looking around for the waitress, my question seemingly lower on her priorities than getting a slice of pie. The waitress, in turn, was being distracted by Tommy and Vince who were chatting her up.
Bobby had gone to call Uncle Carlo to tell him everything was okay.
I banged the table with my fists to get her attention.
Lexi turned slowly and stared at me with an eyebrow raised and an unimpressed expression on her face.
“You need to stay cool.”
I felt my cheeks color. “Sorry. That was impolite. This whole situation is getting to me
.”
Whatever Tommy and Vince had said to the waitress made her giggle, cutting through the moment.
“I get that,” Lexi said. “But losing our tempers now will only bring more trouble to our doors, not less.”
She was right, I knew. She was saying exactly what I would have a week before. Staying calm was what I was known for. Now that I had someone like Lexi to worry about, my cool demeanor was harder to hold.
Lexi was still a little frosty with me. I knew that was because I had decided she had to get out of Angel City. When I explained it to her later, why she couldn’t stay around—and near me—I was sure she would understand.
I still had no idea how she had come to me at the meeting with Vlad. My sense told me Bobby had something to do with it. I’d be having a long, angry conversation with him later.
As if he knew that I had internally said his name, Bobby walked back in and sat into the red, leather booth seat beside me.
“Carlo has called the boys off. He wants to meet later to talk. I told him we needed to talk first to compare notes and figure out our next step.”
He clicked his fingers at Tommy and Vince.
“Hey, guys. Do you want to stop distracting her so that we can get a coffee and something to eat?”
Tommy and Vince stopped their conversation reluctantly.
“A round of coffees and pie, please,” he called over to the waitress. He looked back to Lexi. “You want pie?”
She nodded happily and I once again was taken aback by how at ease she was, right after a meeting with the leader of the Russian mob. Clearly, this girl was not easily scared. “Would love some. With ice cream.”
Bobby lifted his face to look at the waitress again who gave a small nod to say she’d got the order. He turned back to me and Lexi.
“So what did I miss?”
I crossed my arms and looked back at Lexi again.
“Lexi was just about to tell me why she didn’t give up the other guy.”
“I was wondering that myself, Lexi.”
The waitress arrived to the table with a coffee pot and some cups. We waited until she had filled them and left to keep talking.
“The photo on his desk,” Lexi said as she poured creamer into her coffee. She ripped the top off three sugar packets and dumped them in.
“The what?” Bobby said.
Lexi stirred her coffee and tapped the spoon against the edge of the cup,
“The photo on Vlad’s desk was him and Jules. I figured that if he knew him well enough to have a photo of him, he might not be too happy to have his name mentioned in front of his guys.”
“Shit,” Bobby said. “I didn’t think of it before.”
I looked at Bobby expectantly. “What?” I demanded.
“Vlad’s son is called Yulian. I didn’t put it together with the name ‘Jules’ before. Vlad’s son was the one who kidnapped Lexi.”
Bobby leapt up from his seat and Dominic slid out beside him. They both looked panicked and nervous.
“Hey, sit back down,” I said.
Bobby reached into his pocket to pull some money out. He dropped a lot more dollars than our order had cost on the table. “I think you don’t get what a big deal this is, Lexi. This is serious.”
The waitress arrived over to the table with three slices of pie. She stood hesitantly, unsure whether to put them down.
“We’re staying,” I said to her. “You can put them down. Thanks.”
She stood still another second and then did what she was asked. The second she was gone, I asked Dominic and Bobby to sit back down. Tommy and Vince stood uncertainly by the lunch counter, poised to do whatever they were told next.
“Sit,” I said and Bobby and Dominic acquiesced. They sat into the booth and looked at me expectantly.
“I’m aware this is serious,” I said. “But what’s your plan here? You’re going to go in all guns blazing and start unholy war with the Russians?”
I cut into my pie with the corner of my spoon and ate the cut piece greedily. All this excitement had a way of working up my appetite.
Bobby gave a small snort of laughter. “Not even a week ago, you were tending bar. Now you’re advising on mob matters?”
I put my spoon back into my bowl and scooped a bit of ice cream with some pie.
“Yeah. That’s exactly what’s happening. Because what we do next will decide a lot.”
“We?” Dominic said incredulously.
“Yes ‘we,’” I replied. “I seem to recall it was my face that was punched and my body that was forced into the trunk of a car. I think that entitles me to an opinion.”
Bobby leaned an elbow on the table and put his face in his palm.
“Fine,” he said with a sigh. “Give us your opinion.”
I stole a look at Dominic. I was still pissed at him but that didn’t make it any less easy to stop staring at him whenever I had the chance. His strong jaw was tight with tension. I wanted to reach out and stroke his hand, to make his nerves a little less jangly, but I was still too angry with him to do it. I pressed the hand that wanted to touch him under my thigh to stop it from betraying me.
“Vlad didn’t know about Serge,” I said and Bobby tilted his head inquisitively. “You can’t fake the kind of surprise he had when I told him about Serge’s lisp. As far as I can see, he had no idea that someone was planning to kidnap me.”
Bobby nodded.
“True,” he said slowly, gruffly. He paused a moment. “I’ve known Vlad a long time and I’ve seen him lie. He’s shit at it. Dom, did you get the sense that it was a show for our benefit, him ordering his guys to find Serge?”
Dominic still looked annoyed. He took a long few moments to answer.
“No,” he said finally. “I don’t think he was lying.” He bit his thumbnail. “What he does next will tell us how much he knew. How he deals with Serge, I mean.”
Bobby took his face from his palm and looked at me more seriously.
“So what are you thinking?”
“You’re going to have to tread carefully with the information that Yulian was a part of this. I would sit on that until you have some more to go on. And you still have the scooter, right?”
“Yeah,” Bobby said. “Vince is tracking down the owner ID.”
“I’m willing to bet that when it comes back, it’s going to be registered to Yulian or to someone associated with him,” Dominic said. “That’s enough to quietly go back to Vlad and put a soft word in his ear about his son. That’s going to need a delicate touch.”
“But there’s still one question I have,” I said. “How Jules and Serge knew enough about where and when to find me to snatch me.”
Dominic’s face clouded. “I’m starting to get an idea of how that happened. We’ve got a rat in the camp.”
Chapter 12
Lexi
Dominic had changed his tune about me leaving the city. Or at least, he hadn’t brought it up in three days. After our conversation in the diner, Dominic and I had taken a cab back to the DeLuccas’ weekend house. Before we headed back, I asked to make a stop though—at one of the high-end department stores in the city. And I made sure that he’d come in with me.
I took my time holding up and choosing lingerie. I couldn’t go back to my apartment, after all. It wasn’t safe, at least not until Vince or Tommy had been sent round to check it out.
So I insisted to Dominic that I needed new underwear. It was cheeky and presumptuous of me. I didn’t have enough in my checking account to even make my rent—not that I wanted to live there anymore, know that I knew just how unsafe it could get. Only God knew if my next paycheck was going to come in. So I told Dominic that he would have to pay for it.
I don’t think it even crossed his mind to refuse to pay for what I wanted, especially not when he saw what I was buying. I thought to myself, I could get used to this. This life of his, sure there was violence and danger: but there was also excitement and more money in than I had ever seen in my life.
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I held up a red, silk negligee and held it up to my chest.
“What do you think of this one?” I purred in my most seductive voice. The sudden bulge in his trousers told me exactly what he thought.
“I like that one,” he said.
I picked up a black teddy and held it up against me, shoving my breasts forward.
“Or this one?”
I’d gone through this routine with a dozen bra and panty sets already and my plan looked like it was starting to work. Dominic was staring at me with that same wolfish grin he’d given me the night we’d met.
“Just buy what you want and quickly,” he’d said breathily. “You can have it all. I need to get you home. Now.”
He grabbed my hand and the little cloth basket of underwear and negligee and steered me quickly to the checkout desk.
As I took my place in the line to pay, he stood behind me, passing his wallet around to my hand. He stood close enough so that I could feel his hard length press into my leg. I could barely contain myself as the cashier ran the card.
Right there in the line, he started to nibble on my earlobe and I flooded with excitement. The cashier silently kept bagging the armfuls of underwear I had picked up. I wondered what she thought of the two of us. I’m sure we must have looked a sight: me, a big girl with a messed up face, and him, a guy with model good looks, nuzzling in my ear.
Could she tell that he was hard? I wondered. That he was pressing urgently against my ass?
A month ago, I would have said that I would never go in for a public display like this one, that I would tell a guy to get off me and stop embarrassing me.
But Dominic was a powerful guy and that power was sexier than any aphrodisiac I could imagine.
Only the tiniest sliver of shame kept me from demanding that he take me right there, bent over the sales counter.
The salesgirl finished up the transaction and gave me a wicked grin. “Enjoy your purchases, ma’am,” she said with a knowing look and I thanked her quickly before grabbing my bags in one hand, and Dominic’s hand with my other, and dragging him outside.
