With a resigned sigh, she walked off the patio, around the house, and drove slowly out to the highway, where she would surrender herself to a man who wanted her dead.
CHAPTER 2
George read Lena’s hastily scrawled note for the tenth time, and it still said the same thing.
I love you, but things are moving too fast and I need time to think.
Don’t try to find me!
Lena
George fell back in his seat.
“I should have known that a woman like her would never marry me. She’s so beautiful, and look at me, I’m a shmuck.”
He bent down beside George’s chair.
“Has she ever done anything like this before?”
“No, but then, I’ve only known her for a few months. Oh, buddy what am I going to do? I love that girl; I can’t live without her.”
“Where does Lena live? I’ll go and talk to her.”
“It says in the note that I’m not to try and find her.”
“You’re not going to see her, just me. I want to make sure that she’s all right.”
George sat up straight in his chair.
“What do you mean? You think that something’s happened to her?”
He smiled. “No, not at all, but it won’t hurt to check on her, will it?”
“No, and thanks, pal, and, and, please tell her that I love her.”
***
After George gave him Lena’s address, Jessica walked him out to the car.
“You think that something’s wrong, don’t you?”
“Maybe, it’s just that Lena didn’t strike me as a woman afraid to speak her mind. If she thought George was rushing things, I think she would have just told him so.”
Jessica kissed him on the lips.
“Be careful.”
“I will be, and look after George while I’m gone.”
***
Inside a restaurant in Atlanta, Georgia, Lena sat in the corner of a booth. Seated across from her was Anatolii Ivanov, a crime boss from Brooklyn. Ivanov was a chubby man with sparse, reddish hair and thin lips, when he spoke, he revealed a thick Russian accent. Ivanov gestured over towards the bar, where six armed men stood at the ready.
“Imagine how surprised I was when Fedor told me that he spotted you coming out of that dress shop in the mall. I had all but given up on finding you, but then, I’ve always been a lucky man.”
“How did you get my number?” Lena said.
“Fedor was very persuasive with the woman who runs the shop. She gave us not only your number but also your address, and from there we followed you to that farm.”
“Why are you in Atlanta? If Gallo finds out you’re down here he’ll have you killed.”
“Sergio Gallo is dead. The old man died of a heart attack three days ago, and now his idiot son, Renzo is running things. It’s the perfect time to take over his territory.”
“With what? His crew outnumbers yours by at least three to one.”
“True, but I’ve got the element of surprise. The old man’s funeral is today and Renzo insisted that everyone attend; they’ll all be standing out in the open, in the middle of a cemetery, with nowhere to run.”
“So what? You’ll still be outnumbered and—” Lena stopped talking and looked back at the bar where Fedor stood, Fedor, who had a penchant for explosives. “You’re going to blow up the funeral? But what about the family, the children and wives?”
Ivanov removed a remote detonator from his inside pocket.
“How do you Americans say it? Collateral damage? It will be spectacular, and I’ll have a front row seat.”
“Where’s the bomb hidden?”
“Inside the casket, right under Gallo’s skinny dead butt.”
Lena squinted at him.
“Why are you telling me this, in fact, why am I still alive?”
Ivanov smiled, revealing yellow teeth.
“It’s a rare chance to brag, and despite the fact that you killed two of my men and ran off with my money, I’m still willing to take you back. You were the best hitter I ever had Lena. The targets never saw you coming. When a man thinks of a killer, he doesn’t picture a beautiful woman.”
“And what about the man I’m with, if I come back, will you leave him alone?”
“Yes, but only if you come back all the way, and this time, all the way includes my bed.”
An involuntary look of disgust crossed Lena’s face, and caused Ivanov to smile.
“You’ll learn to love me in time, and besides, you would have grown bored with farm life.”
Lena hung her head in an attempt to hide the tears forming in her eyes.
“I wouldn’t have been bored; I would have finally been happy.”
Ivanov placed a hand under her chin and raised her head up again.
“I’ve things to check on, but when I come back, I want your answer.”
And with those words, Ivanov left the table.
CHAPTER 3
Lena’s home was a well-maintained, split-level, in a quiet neighborhood about an hour’s drive from the farm. He parked his rental two blocks from the house and traveled there on foot, just in case.
When he arrived there, he found two men ransacking it. He entered without being noticed and listened to them as they spoke to each other in Russian. They were searching for something, that much was obvious, as their destruction of Lena’s things seemed more like a hunt for something, rather than random carnage.
When he entered the living room from the hallway, the men were holding opposite ends of a sofa as they tipped it over. The man on the right also held a knife, most likely in preparation to cut the backing away from the sofa.
The two men immediately dropped the sofa and straightened up to stare at him.
“Are you police?” The man with the knife asked in a Russian accent.
“No, I’m a friend of Lena’s”
“You’ve got bad timing friend,” the man said, as the other man slid his hand towards his jacket.
The man with the knife spoke a quick spate of Russian to his friend and the man stopped reaching for his gun.
“What did you say to him? Did you remind him that a gunshot would rouse the neighbors, and that then you’d have to stop your search?”
The man squinted at him. “You speak Russian?”
“No, but it’s logical. What about him, does he speak English?”
“Not a word,”
He said, “Then I suppose you’re the one that should remain conscious.” and rushed forward.
His boldness took the man by surprise and he made a clumsy stab at him with the knife. He kicked the blade away with a scissor kick and then followed with a blow to the man’s throat as the second man grabbed him around the neck.
He thrust an elbow back into the man’s ribcage and then flipped him over his shoulder to send him landing with a thud against the hardwood floor. Two kicks to the head followed and the man lay unconscious. Meanwhile, the man he had hit in the throat must have decided that a gun was just what he needed after all, since he was pulling one free from a holster on the back of his belt.
He reached down and wrest the gun away and then struck the man across the cheek with the butt of it, opening a bloody gash and sending the man reeling to the floor, to lie beside his partner.
After he found the gun on the second man, he bent over and picked up the knife. A second later, he ripped a window curtain down and then proceeded to cut it into strips. Once the two men were bound, he began questioning the English speaking one.
“Who do you work for?”
The man answered him with what he took to be a Russian curse, and so he reached over and sliced off the man’s left ear. The screaming had barely begun when he shoved a wad of curtain into the man’s mouth. He gave the man a minute to grow accustomed to the pain, and then he asked his question again.
“Who do you work for?”
He yanked the wet ball of fabric from the man’s mouth and the man simply
stared at him with murderous eyes.
After a shrug, he reached over and took hold of the man’s remaining ear.
“Ivanov!” the man shouted. “I work for Anatolii Ivanov.”
“Who is he and what does he want with Lena?”
“He controls the drug trade in Sheepshead Bay and Brighton Beach, they are parts of Brooklyn. Lena was his best killer, but she betrayed him and steal from him and ran off, was pure luck that Ivanov found her here.”
“How many people has Lena killed?”
The man tried to shrug, but his bonds made the act difficult.
“She must have killed dozens over the years. She learned how from her father; he was big-time killer with the Italians, and now Lena follows in feetsteps.”
“The phrase is, ‘follows in footsteps.’ What were you looking for?”
“Money, Lena take money when she run.”
“And Ivanov thought that she would hide it here?”
“No, but you must look, no?”
“I guess. Where is Lena?”
“If I tell you, will you let me go?”
“If you don’t tell me I will kill you and then force your friend to take me where she is.”
“But he does not speak English?”
“When he wakes up and finds you dead, he’ll overcome the language barrier.”
A moment passed as the man considered his options.
“There is a restaurant called Oleg’s in Atlanta. Anatolii is using it as a base.”
He kept staring at the man.
“There’s something else, what is it?”
“Anatolii, he is ruthless,”
And then he told him about Ivanov’s plans for the Gallo funeral.
He grabbed hold of the unconscious Russian and locked him in the hall closet, which he then secured with a heavy chair wedged under the knob. He walked back and helped the other man to his feet and headed for the back door. At the threshold to the kitchen, he warned the man to stay put and then returned to the living room. When he came back, he placed the severed ear inside the man’s side pocket.
“A good surgeon can sew that back on.”
The man nodded. “Da!”
And off they went.
CHAPTER 4
Oleg’s restaurant sat back off the main drag and a wide alley separated it from the storefront to its right. The other shops in the immediate area were closed, since it was a Sunday, but light shone from Oleg’s, despite the CLOSED signs hanging in the windows.
He pointed to the alley at the left of the restaurant, where a green Escalade was parked in front of a silver Lexus.
“Which one is Ivanov’s car?”
“The Cadillac.”
“The restaurant, does it run the length of the alley?”
“Yes, the back end is where they bring in the produce and meats.”
After driving around to the other end of the alley, he parked. He was driving the Russian’s car, and he gagged him with duct tape found in the glove box and pushed him along to the rear of the car, where he thrust the protesting Russian inside the trunk and slammed the lid, and then he made a call.
“Hello?” Jessica said.
“Hi, listen, Lena’s in trouble but I think I can help her. How is George doing?”
“He’s been drinking, but I finally got him to eat something too.”
“Good, if everything goes right, I should have Lena back soon.”
“How dangerous is it?”
“It’s manageable.”
He heard her make a sighing sound.
“What was that for?”
“To you, World War III would be manageable, but all I care about is that you return to me.”
“It’s what I live for.”
“I love you.”
“I love you too, see you soon.”
He put his phone back in his pocket and then removed a package from the back seat. He then walked casually over to Ivanov’s car. A minute later, he took out the knife he had liberated from the Russian and walked around to the rear door of the restaurant.
***
Ivanov slid back into the booth and smiled across at Lena.
“What’s your answer?”
“It’s yes, but if you ever harm George, I’ll kill you.”
“You really fell in love with this George, huh? Well don’t worry, as long as you’re a good girl, he lives.”
A pounding noise came from the back of the building and a voice yelled out, “Delivery!”
Ivanov looked over at his man, Fedor.
“Go back there and tell that fool that we’re closed.”
Fedor did as he was told and walked into the kitchen; three minutes later, he had yet to return.
Ivanov gestured to one of his other men.
“Yakov, go see what’s keeping Fedor.”
The man nodded and walked into the kitchen. Minutes later, he too had yet to return.
Ivanov slid out of the booth with a furrowed brow. Afterward, he walked over to his men and whispered a few words. A moment later, the four remaining men headed towards the kitchen, with guns drawn.
As the first two cleared the doorway, he kicked in the front door and attacked them from behind.
After watching Ivanov dive for safety behind the bar, he shot the two remaining goons and then dived behind a brick partition to use as a shield.
The two men that had entered the kitchen returned with guns ablaze and sent a barrage of bullets towards him. As the man on the right fell from a wound to the head, his partner advanced.
Lena freed the small knife hidden in her hair and jammed it into the base of the man’s skull. The man dropped to the floor along with the gun, and after a violent twitch, he lay still. In a flash, Ivanov bolted out the door, a few seconds later, the Caddy screeched out of the alley and away.
After retrieving a gun from the floor, Lena walked over to him.
“I see you can do more than fight with your hands.”
“Are you all right?”
“Yes, how’s George?”
“Devastated, he thinks he’s lost you.”
“We have to get to the cemetery, something awful is about to take place.”
He shook his head.
“I know about the bomb. It’s been handled; now let’s wipe your prints off anything you might have touched and get out of here.”
As they approached the car, the trunk popped open and the one-eared Russian, wild eyed and bloody, came at them with a tire iron. Lena shot him once in the forehead and he fell to the pavement with a wet thump.
Lena pointed up the alley. “We’ll take the Lexus; it’s mine.”
***
When they were halfway back to the farm, Lena asked a question, as he drove.
“I suppose you know about my past?”
“The Russian you shot, he explained everything.”
“When we get to the farm, let me have the car and I’ll get out of George’s life.”
“You could do that, just leave him?”
Lena wiped at her eyes.
“It’s what’s best for him. Let him remember me as Lena the decent girl, not Lena the hired killer.”
“He’s loves you, and I’ve known George a long time, for what it’s worth, I think you’re underrating him.”
“You think if he knew what I was, he would still want me?”
“All I know is that there are people that can forgive their loved ones anything. My wife is one of them. Besides, it doesn’t sound like you had much choice; from what I’ve learned, killing was in your blood.”
She looked at him sideways.
“What would you know about it?”
“More than I want to,”
***
When they returned to the farm, Lena took George by the hand and led him into the study. Three hours passed before they joined them out on the patio.
He looked up at his friend. “George?”
“We’re good. She shocked me, that’s for sure, but hell, I love
her and she’s given that life up.”
Lena kissed George. “I love you so much.” She then looked over at him. “We’ll have to run and change our names. Ivanov knows about George and about this place.”
“You won’t have to worry about Ivanov. It seems he choose to view the funeral of his long-time associate Sergio Gallo from a bluff overlooking the cemetery. From the description of the blast on the news, they may never find every piece of him.”
Lena opened her mouth in shock.
“You mean you put the bomb in his car?”
“It was his property; I simply returned it.”
Lena walked over and kissed him on the cheek.
“George was right, you are a tough man.”
Jessica grinned. “You don’t know the half,”
It wasn’t until George and Lena left for their honeymoon two weeks later, that he remembered the Russian he had locked in Lena’s closet.
PART TWO – HOME FIRES BURNING
CHAPTER 5
He watched the girl as she left the bagel shop with a coffee in one hand and her phone in the other.
She climbed into a red BMW Mini and headed north along the highway.
He followed.
As usual, it was her looks that attracted him to her. The girl was young, no more than nineteen and so beautiful that every male head turned to look her way in desire and adoration. She was dressed in a pair of tight jeans that accentuated her curves and her blouse was made from a thin fabric that her breasts seemed to strain against, as if seeking release.
He admired her beauty as other men, but unlike them, he felt more than mere lust and admiration. He felt the need to possess her, to own her, to take her!
The girl was on the highway for two minutes before exiting and turning left. Three blocks later, he watched as she backed into the driveway of a home in a suburban neighborhood. There were no other cars in the driveway and he parked across the street and watched her.
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