by K. J. Dahlen
“I don’t care,” the other man grunted. “Threaten him if you have too, just get me this contact.”
“I can’t threaten a man like Mikial Bannonkov.” Leon ground his teeth. “He doesn’t do threats well.”
“I never threaten.” Flynn’s voice was calm as answered the statement. “I follow through and I will get bloody if I have to. The shipment is already on its way. Coming into the Import business will avoid customs. I’ll have my man in position to pick it up the moment it’s delivered so Mikial won’t even know it’s there.” He paused then added, “But I need him to accept the shipment without question. Any hesitation at his end will bring in the authorities and I guarantee you do not want them involved. If this fails, not only will I come after you but my contact in Europe will track you down and end your life as well.”
Leon broke out in a sweat. There had been times in the past where he dreaded his involvement with McKenna’s cousin and this day was one of those times. Timothy Flynn brought out a fear in him he thought was gone forever. He had no doubt that he would follow up with his threat of bodily harm. The only way he could avoid being a victim was to follow through with his promise of getting Mikial on board with his plan. “I’ll try,” he promised the other man.
“You’d better do more than just promise, my friend,” Timothy threatened. “I don’t care how you do but get it done. Today. I need to know I have things lined up on this end. If you can’t do it, I’ll do it myself and you will not be happy with the results.”
“I’ll call him and get the transaction set up before the deadline,” Leon told him.
“You’d better. I don’t do failure very well and once you fail me, one time is all you get. I do not forget nor do I forgive those who fail me.” He paused then added, “And Leon, I have a long memory.”
When the line went dead Leon slowly hung up the phone. His lips tightened and a coldness entered his eyes. Leon could be ruthless when it was called for. And right now, it was called for. He went to his desk and unlocked the bottom drawer. Taking out a file, he sat down in his chair and opened the file.
The contents of the file were scant but could be used to bring the man down. On the surface Mikial Bannonkov seemed clean but things could be twisted, so it could look to the law that he might not be as legal as he seemed. Leon picked up his phone and called in a few favors.
As if on cue, Mikial’s phone rang in his pocket.
When looked down at his caller ID, he noted it was Leon calling. He looked over at Yuri and Barshan, then answered the call, “Hello.”
“Mikial,” Leon smoothed the way in. “I’m calling to ask if you’ve thought about my offer.”
“I’ve told you my answer several times already,” Mikial reiterated. “My answer hasn’t changed.”
“Circumstances may be changed today,” Leon hinted.
“What does that mean?” Mikial frowned.
“It doesn’t mean anything,” Leon insisted. “But you might find you need my services more today than yesterday.”
Mikial’s frown deepened.
“I’ll be in touch,” Leon told him ans ended the call.
Mikial shook his head then announced, “That was very strange.”
“What did he have to say?” Yuri asked.
“At first, he asked me the same question he’s been asking me for weeks, have I considered his request. When I told him my answer hadn’t changed, he threatened me.”
Yuri grimaced and he glanced at the other men in the room. “What do you mean he threatened you?”
“He told me I might need his services today more than I did yesterday.”
“What the hell?” Sazon grumbled.
Mikial raised his hands. Shrugging, he conveyed, “I’ve done nothing illegal or wrong here. I have no idea what the hell he was talking about.”
“Can he do anything to hurt you?” Pepper asked.
Mikial shook his head. “I’m legal and above board in my business dealings, in all my business dealings. I have no idea what he’s talking about.”
“Could something like this really hurt you?” she asked.
“It depends on what he does,” Mikial admitted. “I can’t imagine what he’s thinking about that could hurt me but as far as I know, there’s nothing.”
“Well, let’s just wait and see what he comes up with,” Barshan suggested. “Knowing a crocked attorney, it could be anything.”
“What I want to know is why he would think you would need him,” Raven pointed out. “Wouldn’t any attorney do the same thing he would do?”
The silence was broken when Yuri’s phone rang. When he answered the call, everyone could hear a hysterical voice on the other end. Yuri couldn’t get a word in anywhere as he listened to his caller.
Then Barshan’s phone rang and again, another voice bespoke of problems.
Again, Mikial’s phone rang and when he answered, he heard his manager at the Import business on the other end. “Mike, what the hell is going on?”
“The cops are here sweeping the place,” Mike grumbled.
“What are they looking for?”
“Damn if I know,” Mike replied. “They claimed they got a report of contraband being stored here but they never said what kind.” He sighed. “Whatever it is, they are ripping the place apart.”
“Okay, just let them look. We have nothing to hide,” Mikial told him. “Look I have to go I’m getting another call.” He disconnected Mike’s call and answered the second call. It was the manager of the gallery. “Boss the police are here and taking inventory,” his manager Beth told him.
“And?”
“After the shooting the other day, we moved several of Jessie Carter’s paintings into storage and one of them is missing entirely. The little girl painting is gone. The police are saying the missing painting has been stolen and it looks like it could be an inside job. Leon Knight is claiming the painting is worth a million dollars. According to the police, he’s demanding we turn the painting over to him, today.”
Mikial gripped the phone tightly. “The painting isn’t missing. It’s with me. No one took the painting. It’s just not in the gallery at the moment. Tell the police that and if they have any more questions they can call me in person.”
“Hang on a minute, the police want to talk to you,” Beth told him as she handed the phone over to the police.
“This is Detective Ross Maron. Who am I speaking with?”
“This is Mikial Bannonkov. I’m part owner of the gallery.”
“Oh yes, Mr. Bannonkov, I’m here to investigate the possible robbery of one of the Carter Paintings,” Detective Maron told him.
“The painting in question is not missing. I have it in my custody.”
“Yeah, well that may be but Mr. Knight has shown proof that he’s the legal owner of the painting and he wants the painting back in his hands today.”
“That’s not going to happen,” Mikial told the officer. “All the paintings are safe and in the custody of the gallery. I looked into the ownership of the painting and as far as I am aware, Mr. Knight does not represent Ms. Carter’s estate, i.e. he has no legal claim on the painting at all. They do not belong to him at all. I suggest you look into that rather than run around in circles looking for something he doesn’t even own.” Mikial hung up the phone and glared at his brothers. “Leon’s claiming theft of the painting and he wants it back today. Also the police are ripping the warehouse apart looking for contraband they got a tip about.”
“My security offices were raided after a tip was reported about us doing a loan sharking business out of the offices,” Barshan told them.
“Aaron called me to report the police were there looking for steroids and other illegal stimulants in the gym.” Sazon snarled.
Yuri nodded. “The police are downstairs. They want access to my security tapes to search for proof that several of our past clients have been ripped off. They’re looking for evidence of the robberies on our films.”
Yuri�
�s phone went off again and this time, it was Roman. The only one of them that had been missing this morning. He listened for a moment then hung up the phone. He looked over at Mikial. “That was Roman. The police showed up this morning looking for records of smuggling.”
“Smuggling?” Pepper cried out. “Smuggling what?”
Yuri turned to her. “Roman runs most of the ferry service in this town, and he also has a shipping service that runs from New Orleans to Minneapolis. He ships goods up and down the Mississippi River all year long.”
Turning to Mikial he stated, “This is probably what Leon meant when he told you, you would need him more today than yesterday.”
“That dirty bastard.” Mikial growled.
“I can’t help but wonder what he’s really after.” Raven exclaimed.
“What do you mean?” Yuri asked. “It’s obvious. He wants Mikial to yield to him.”
She shook her head. “I don’t think so. He’s bringing too much busy work down on all of you.” She pointed out. “Think about it, if he was after just Mikial, he would have just done his business. By bringing heat down on all of you, he wanted to show you he could and would bring down all of you, not just Mikial.”
Yuri thought about what she said for a moment. Looking over at Mikial he agreed with her reasoning. “She could be right.”
“So what else could he be after?” Sazon asked.
Mikial rubbed his fingers through his short hair. “We discussed this earlier, about me taking on a silent partner. He never told me who but we determined it must be Flynn.”
“I wonder what Flynn is really after?” Yuri said out loud. “I mean what would he need an Import/Export business for?”
“How about to avoid customs when bringing something into the country he shouldn’t be,” Raven explained. She laid her phone on the table.
“What do you mean?” Yuri asked turning to his right side to see her.
“I have connections on the streets from many years of living there and I just checked with one of them. Stevie told me rumors are floating around that Flynn was bringing in a shipment of diamonds and other contraband from a major Europe ring. Word is he’s looking for a way to build a pipeline for his ill-gotten gains.”
“How the hell did you find this out already?” Mikial exclaimed.
Raven shrugged. “People on the streets hear all kinds of things no one else wants them to know. Most people pay no attention to street people, overlooking those who don’t mean anything to them. Sometimes it pays to know the right people.”
Yuri smiled and reached his hand around her neck, pulling her close to him. “It does indeed.” His lips crushed hers and the kiss they shared was long and wet.
Raven sat back in her chair almost dazed a few minutes later.
Mikial broke the silence, “So what are we going to do about this?”
Chapter Eleven
“Can I make a suggestion?” Pepper asked. When everyone turned their attention to her, she swallowed hard but pushed herself to finish her thought, “If he’s bringing down the heat on you maybe you should return the favor and bring some heat down on him.”
“What do you mean?” Yuri asked.
“Leon Knight is a public figure or at least he wants to be. I know he may not have announced his candidacy to the public yet but those in the know are already making up their minds to back him or not. He’s a long time attorney, dealing with back stabbing people of all sorts here in the city. Knowing Leon kept my mother and I, a secret, I’m sure there are more secrets he has to hide.”
Yuri sat back in his chair and stared at her for a moment. Then he looked at Mikial and nodded. “She has a point but how can we do this quickly and quietly? An attorney’s secrets are not going to be so easy to uncover.”
Raven grinned. “Again, you just have to know the right person to call.” Reaching for her phone, she made a series of phone calls. When she was done, she laid her phone back on the table and smiled. “It shouldn’t take too long to come up with something Leon doesn’t want known to the public.”
Yuri snorted. “You scare me babe.”
“Why?” she asked.
“Because all this time I thought you were trying to hide and you obviously were very busy behind the scenes.”
Raven shrugged. “When you live on the streets you learn quickly who you can trust and who you can’t. If you have their back then they have yours. We live by our own code.”
“Let’s hope your friends can come up with something then,” Mikial stated. He turned to look at Pepper and saw the tears building in her eyes. “What is it?”
She dove into his arms and burst into tears. “I’m sorry.”
“Hey baby, it’s okay.” Mikial hushed her. “What’s wrong? Why are you crying?”
“I don’t know.” Pepper whimpered. “I was just thinking about my mother. She stayed with Leon for a long time and I have to wonder why. Was he different all those years ago? I can’t imagine she’d stay with him the way he is today.”
“It has been twenty years.” Mikial shrugged. “If he has changed it wasn’t for the better.”
Pepper looked down at his shirt and her fingers traced an imaginary pattern on the cotton material. “Do you think…” she couldn’t finish her query.
Mikial waited for a moment before he asked, “What?”
Pepper stared at him. “Could we go out there one day?”
“Out where?”
“Out where I lived. I know the trailer is gone and has been for some time but I’d like to see where we lived. I can’t remember too much about my mom and I thought maybe if I saw where we used to live I might remember more about her.”
Mikial wrapped his hands around the back of her head and held her close to him. “Yeah baby, we can go out there.”
“I know it’s silly but I feel as if I’ve lost so much.” Pepper bit her lower lip. “I couldn’t remember what my life had been before I was four and then I only had memories from the time Paul and Marie took me in. Now I’m remembering bit and pieces of the time before then, but I still don’t have a complete picture of my mother. I looked at her picture at the gallery and I felt so lost.”
“Why lost?” Mikial frowned.
“Because I couldn’t remember anything about her. It was like looking at a stranger and that made me feel sad. She gave me life and I couldn’t remember her. I couldn’t remember her touch or her laughter or even her smile. It just made me incredibly sad.”
“And you think going out to the place you shared with her would help you remember her?”
“Maybe.” She nodded. “I don’t know. Maybe it will, maybe it won’t. But I won’t know until I try.”
“We can go out there tomorrow if you like
“Please don’t go out there alone,” Yuri made the comment. “Ideally, it would be best to wait until this is over but I understand if you don’t want to. Just make sure you have some extra men with you to watch your back.”
Pepper looked heartbroken. “Maybe we should wait until this is over. It isn’t going to hurt to wait a few more days.” Shrugging she said, “I’ve waited this long.”
Mikial pressed Pepper closer. “We’ll go in the morning.” Glancing at Yuri, he nodded. “We’ll take extra men.”
Yuri nodded just as Raven’s phone began to ring. He listened as she talked to her contacts on the street. After a moment or so, he got up and got a pen and some paper for her. Raven smiled and began taking notes. Before she could discuss the first call a second call came in, then a third call. An hour later, she hung up on caller five.
She looked at Yuri and shook her head. Looking over at Pepper she said, “Leon Knight is a pig. A dirty, rotten, scum loving pig.”
Pepper nodded her head in agreement. “So tell us something we don’t already know about him.”
“I can do better than that.” She grinned. “With the information I just got, we can ruin the man without a doubt.” She looked hard at Pepper. “Are you going to be okay with that
? I mean he is your father and all.”
“He’s nothing to me,” Pepper insisted. “I don’t know what my mother saw in him but I don’t know him, I’ve never known him and now I don’t want to know him. He killed my mom and would have killed me if I hadn’t run away from him. He never even looked for me and told everyone I was dead. He’s lied and cheated all my life and I want nothing to do with him. I don’t know if that’s the way society handles things or not but that’s not the way I do things.” She nodded. “If you can take him down, by all means take the bastard down.”
“Then let the fun begin.” Raven grinned.
By early afternoon, they were watching the news. Report after report was airing about city corruption with Leon’s name being mentioned frequently. They had already shown a segment piece where McKenna had slammed her front door on a reporter asking about the fact that her husband put a building in her name that became known as a drug house.
The house was now under police guard and armed men patrolled the area.
By two o’clock, Mikial’s phone rang and when he answered the call, it was Leon. He didn’t seem happy. “What the fuck have you done to me you son-of-a-bitch?” Leon screamed.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Mikial told him with a grin on his lips.
“Don’t tell me this isn’t your handiwork, you prick.”
“Having a bit of trouble today, councilor?” Mikial growled.
“All you had to do was cooperate. That’s all.” Leon began. “All of this was unnecessary. Now you’ve opened a can of worms nobody wanted open.”
“All you had to do was accept my answer and move on,” Mikial reminded him. “You’re the one that kept pushing and pushing. You’re the one who brought this down on your head. At least be man enough to accept that every action has consequences.”
“I was doing what was best for everyone, even if you didn’t see that. Now you’ve ruined it all,” Leon stated. His voice seemed distracted. “All you and your friends had to do was cooperate just a little bit and everything would have been okay.”
“No you ruined a little girl’s life twenty years ago when you murdered her mother. Have you thought about her at all between then and now? Does it bother you at all that she’s your own daughter and you left her on the streets to die? Or that you declared her dead a few days later not knowing if she was even safe or not?” Mikial growled.