Switched (16 page)

   Alexi listened for a few minutes,
nodding ever so slightly to the voice on the other end of the line. “Well now
that you ask there is something you can do for me. It seems I have a task force
nosing around two of my repair shops, interrupting business. We do insurance
claim body work and vehicle repair. It’s a legitimate and honest business. I’ve
shown them my records and everything and still they send in spies to see how we
do business. They haven’t found anything and yet they don’t go away. Maybe you
can help me there and I will help you catch Victor by playing along in your
ruse. Maybe I also give the task force some information on businesses that I
know for a fact aren’t on the up and up.”

   She was impressed with Alexi’s
mastery of English. Most foreigners didn’t speak with the eloquence and command
of the language that he did. Sitting back into the couch she got comfortable.
Something told her she was going to be here for a while.

***

   Eric was in a panic and
understandably so. Kali was feeling pretty low. All of this was the last thing
she ever wanted to happen. They, the infamous they, always said that the past
always had a way of catching up with a person, but this was more than she could
bear.
Pull on your big girl panties and own your past, Kal
, she scolded
herself.

   She gave Eric a forced smile to hide
her own fear. “Don’t worry. I met Alexi a few times and I’m pretty sure he
won’t hurt her. He just wants assurance Agent Brocco will help him out and I
have no doubt he wants to see Victor go down, too. He may be a mob guy, but
he’s one of the more polite and professional ones. Brocco isn’t going to flake
on us and try to nab Alexi. Right?”

   The agent had just gotten off of the
phone. “No, I have no qualms with Alexi Amelin. The task force has agreed to
lay off him if he can give them the scoop on an illegal operation. We have the
go ahead. Now, Laura, we need to get you in your vest so we can head over
there. We’re confirmed that Victor is on the plane.

   Brad hadn’t said anything.

   She grabbed the vest and gave Brad an
apologetic look, wondering if this meant the end of their relationship. God
damn she was
so
insecure. But if it was the end, she couldn’t blame him.
Wouldn’t. No, she’d understand it completely if he wanted nothing to do with
her after this. As she passed him to head toward the bathroom to put on the
bullet proof vest he grabbed her hand and stopped her. There was no way he
could go with his thigh stitched up. The agents had already told him no.

“Make sure you put that on right,” he
said. Addressed like a true Dom. He hid is feelings and proceeded to tell her
what to do.

Had she not been terrified for Amy, she
would have laughed. Instead she nodded and slipped into the bathroom to put it
on under the t-shirt she wore. When she was done she came out of the bathroom
and stood next to Brad, waiting for Brocco and Salazar to finish their
conversation.

Finally Brocco said, “We’re ready to
go.” Then he looked at Brad, “We’ll do what we can to make this go quickly and
painlessly.”

She noticed he said nothing about doing
it safely, but then nothing about Victor was safe. She was more worried about
Amy than herself and not so much because Alexi had her, but that if she was in
the same room as Victor, what Victor might do. He wasn’t above using women as
shields or shooting someone to make a point. Yeah, she could easily see him
doing something like that.

“Ms. Stanton?” Brocco asked. “It’s time
to go.”

She came to attention, realizing she was
clutching Brad’s hand. “Oh, right.”

She let go of his hand and leaned over
and kissed him.

“Be careful,” he whispered. At that
moment all of her fears that he would no longer want her melted.

“Take care of Eric,” she said and
started to turn to leave.

“I will, and Kal…”

She turned back to him.

“I love you,” he said.

The knots in her stomach twisted
violently. She merely nodded and turned, following the two agents out the door
and leaving the house that they were supposed to have lived in together, even
if it was temporary, behind her. Getting into the car was a blur and next thing
she knew, Salazar was driving out toward the countryside.

“So here’s the plan, Laura,” Brocco
started.

Fighting back a groan, because she knew
all about Brocco’s half-assed plans, she gave him her full attention and tried
to forget that Brad had just told her he loved her and she never answered him
back. She fought back the wave of panic that overwhelmed her as she wondered if
she’d ever be able to tell him that she loved him, too. Finally, she fought
back her concern for Amy’s safety. She needed her head in the game and allowing
her worries and fears overwhelm her wasn’t going to help her one damn bit.

“Alexi is going to pretend you’re his
woman. You’re going to play the part. Victor will hopefully grab you or shoot
someone and we’ll take him down. At worst we might let him get as far as the
front door with you.” Brocco stopped as if waiting to see if she had any
questions.

“So you’re going to let him kidnap me,”
she clarified. She knew if Brad were in the car right now he’d be protesting.

“We need something concrete to charge
him with. If he only comes in and argues with Alexi, the entire operation could
be a bust,” he admitted.

Salazar, a man of few words, didn’t
speak. He simply drove.

“Okay,” she said. “So we want him to
react. We want him to shoot someone or do something very illegal.”

“Precisely. We already have enough on
one of his guys to charge him for shooting Mr. Hudak. But we need Victor
specifically and Victor is such a hot-head we’re hoping jet lag hasn’t made him
calm and amiable.

She snorted. Nothing about Victor was
amiable unless he was lying to lull someone into a false sense of security.
“That shouldn’t be an issue.”

“Let’s hope not. We still have some time
when we arrive to work this out with Alexi and let’s hope he’s not secretly
working with Victor,” Brocco said.

Somehow she seriously doubted that. If
she remembered correctly, Victor and Alexi’s falling out hadn’t been a small
affair. It was a pretty big deal and bridges that big, when burnt, weren’t
easily rebuilt in a matter of years. Perhaps decades, but not years. “I
wouldn’t count on that,” she said carefully, pulling a lip balm from her jeans
and putting some on. She slipped the lip balm back in her jeans and hoped she
wasn’t under-dressed. She knew Alexi’s girls were a bit more high-class that
she was, but at this point it didn’t matter, did it?

It didn’t take long for them to finally
arrive at the gated grounds of Alexi Amelin’s mansion.

Chapter Eleven

Alexi hoped his offer would entice the
agent to take it. He’d give the task force one of the gang operations in the
area. If possible, Alexi always tried to find amicable solutions to all of his
problems and this was a golden opportunity to kill two birds with one stone.
Victor Kolknov goes to prison, the task force leaves Alexi alone, and everyone
would be happy. Especially him. Well, Victor wouldn’t be happy and that fact
made him smile.

He heard Brocco sigh on the other side
of the line. “You won’t take it personally if I don’t trust you?”

“Of course not. I know everyone is wary
of me because of my cousins and some of my associates, but you have to
understand that it is hard to be a Russian immigrant and not know members of
the Russian mafia,” he said.

“Of course,” said Brocco.

Alexi held back a chuckle. It was
obvious the agent wasn’t buying it, but he didn’t care. He only cared that
Brocco agreed to the deal. He was counting on Brocco wanting Victor more than
he wanted Alexi. “So what do you say? Can a concerned citizen lend a hand? My
friend Amy has told me she’d stay here with me until we worked out a deal.”

“I see.” Brocco paused. In the end,
Brocco wanted Victor, or Amy, or maybe both. “Fine, I’ll contact the task force
and arrange for them to leave you alone as long as your lead on the car theft
ring is legit and my agents and I will bring Laura to your house. Are you sure
your guys are escorting Victor and his men to your place?”

“Yes. I assure you. If I’m lying you may
arrest me for obstruction.”

“I would, too,” the agent said.

Alexi laughed. “Agent Brocco, you must
understand that at one time I thought Victor was a legitimate business man like
myself. I befriended him and invested in an import deal. He didn’t honor that
business deal and I lost a quarter of a million dollars. I have no love for
Victor, but being a legitimate business man myself I walked away and took my
losses like a man who made a bad decision. I learned from that mistake and
never dealt with Victor again. Admittedly I do see this as a bit of payback,”
he admitted. “But can you blame me?”

Brocco sounded surprised. “Oh. Now I see
why you’re so eager to help. You win no matter how this goes down.”

“I am a business man, Agent Brocco,”
Alexi repeated. “I do very little that doesn’t benefit me.”

“At least you admit it,” Brocco mumbled,
then added, “We’ll be at your place in a half hour so we can go over the plan.
I’m bringing agents and there will be additional agents and a SWAT team
surrounding the property.”

“Very good. Just make sure they aren’t
obvious or it could cause Victor to run. His plane lands at midnight. It makes
me happy to be able to help,” Alexi said before hanging up. He looked at the
blonde girl on the couch in front of him. She couldn’t have been more than
twenty-three. For her situation she seemed quite calm. “They are coming. What a
fortunate night this ended up being, and I thank you for your assistance. You
may leave with the agents after Victor is in their custody and as long as the
agents don’t attempt to arrest me.”

Amy looked baffled. “How do they know
where you are? And what if this Victor guy shoots all of us?”

Alexi laughed. “Everyone in Boston knows
where I live, my dear. As for Victor,” he shrugged. “I suppose there is always
that chance he’ll manage a lucky shot. But I have more men than him. All of
them with legal concealed carry permits and legal handguns.”

“That doesn’t make me feel any better.
I’m too young to die. If my parents ever find out they’ll blame all of this on
Eric and my friends and I’ll never hear the end of it.” She buried her head in
her hands.

“You are over twenty-one, no?”

“Yeah, and?” She ran a thin manicured
hand through her hair.

“Then you are a grown woman and your
parents should respect your decisions. Now, how about vodka?” He gave her a
smile in hopes she would just relax and be a good little bargaining chip. The
last thing he needed was a female who would emotionally break on him.

“Okay,” she agreed. “But can I have some
juice with it? Like cranberry or orange juice or something?”

Gary scoffed and mumbled something in
Russian that translated loosely to ‘unconscionable’ and ‘doesn’t know how to
drink’ under his breath, making Alexi smile. He motioned toward Gary. “My
friend Gary likes his
Stoli
and is always offended when people drink
their vodka with juice.”

She shrugged. “It’s gross otherwise. But
now they have the flavored vodka…”

Gary groaned and Alexi laughed. Despite
his objection to Amy’s choice of drink, Gary begrudgingly brought the young
woman a screwdriver.

She took a big drink followed by a deep
breath.

“You might need two of those.”

Shaking her head she said, “I better not
or I’ll be on the couch here snoring when Victor and his gun arrive.”

He watched her for a few moments and
gave her an appraising look. “So you are…”

“Engaged,” she finished quickly, licking
the drink from her lips.

Another chuckle escaped his lips. This
was, by far, one of the most amusing nights he’d had in a long time. “As am I,
though that’s not what I was going to ask. I was actually going to ask you how
you know Laura and ask if you were into the same kinky habits as my old friend,
Victor.”

She glared at him. Evidently it was too
personal a question. But she answered anyway, “That’s really no one’s business.
What Laura does is her own business, too.”

“Fair enough. I’m just curious what
possesses lovely women to allow males to dominate them.” He gave her an
innocent shrug.

“For some it’s just a bedroom thing and
for others it’s complicated,” she said, taking another long drink, draining the
glass. “May I have another, Gary? Besides, don’t you dominate your women, too?”

Gary growled a little but stepped
forward, took the glass, and moved back to the bar to fill the glass a second
time.

“Victor is a
Bljadun’
, it means
pimp. He is not right in the head and it makes me wonder how many of these men
who have these kinky inclinations are
not right
. My women get to make
their own choices and I don’t tie them up.”  He looked at his watch.