It was more of a seedy gentleman’s club than an office.
Dimitri nodded at the man behind the desk. “Mrs. Barrone.”
Boris waved his hand, the cigar stuck between his fingers dropping ash as he did. “Good.” He nodded back, this time at Donna. “Welcome to Pravda.”
Dimitri left, closing the doors. Neo and Temo took up positions on either side. Donna and Pierce stayed where they were. Boris’s men, six of them, were stationed all around the room. If she moved forward, she’d be in the middle of them.
Somehow, she wasn’t afraid. She was a little angry. And a little wired from feeding recently and the meeting with Fitzhugh. But mostly, she was resolved to end her involvement with these men tonight. “Thank you.”
“It’s a bold move for you to request such a meeting.” He smiled. “I like that very much. Too long the Italians have been timid. Let us drink to this monumental occasion.”
The man behind the bar started lining up shot glasses and filling them with vodka.
Pierce looked like he was about to say something. She gave him a slight shake of her head. If Boris thought he was going to get the advantage by getting her intoxicated, he was so wrong it was comical.
She also thought it might be dangerous not to accept the drink. Or maybe she’d just watched too many spy movies. Whatever. She could do this. She smiled at Boris. “Fine. But I don’t allow my team to drink on the job, so you’ll have to settle with me.”
Boris got up from his throne and walked to the bar. “I would not want your team to break your rules. I am happy to drink with you alone.”
She joined him. The bartender had filled six shot glasses. Boris picked one up and saluted her with a Russian toast, then tossed it back.
With less fuss, she did the same with hers. The vodka burned a little going down, but she kept from grimacing.
He watched her for a second. Did he really think it was going to hit her that fast?
She tipped her head toward the remaining glasses. “Who are those for?”
“For us, of course.”
“And after those are gone, we’ll talk?”
“Sure, sure,” he said. Amusement was thick in his voice.
This might be a joke to him, but it certainly wasn’t to her. She was done playing. She picked up a second glass and tipped it back, then chased it with a third. She set the empty glass down, then repeated the action with his second and third shots.
When they were all gone and the glasses upside down on the bar, she looked at him expectantly. “Okay. Let’s talk.”
Soft murmurs filtered through the room from his men.
After a moment of stunned hesitation, Boris laughed. “That is a very nice trick, but you will regret that, girl.”
Girl? What a chauvinistic pig. She held her tongue. For now. She needed this deal to happen.
She had yet to take off her sunglasses. Now felt like the right time. Just to show him how clear and bright her eyes still were. She removed them and held them out for Pierce. Or anyone, really. She just hoped someone took them.
Pierce did, understanding immediately what she wanted. He was great that way.
She held eye contact with Boris. “The only thing I regret is that we have not yet begun to talk. You’re wasting my time and yours.”
He threw his hand into the air. “Fine, fine, now we talk.” He leaned on the bar. “What have you come to see me about?”
She straightened, just to make a point of how little the alcohol was affecting her. He knew very well what she was there for. But if he wanted to play it that way, so be it. This was his house, his game, his rules.
At least until those rules no longer suited her.
She kept her expression even and serene, like this was just a minor blip on the radar of her life. But he wasn’t the only one who could play games. “You sent a messenger to my house. Yuri Lukin. He seemed to be concerned about an exchange of money between you, my husband, and my husband’s sister, Lucinda Villachi. Why don’t you tell me what that was about? Then we can talk about your money.”
The subtle widening of his eyes told Donna that he knew what she was talking about. But then he laughed and shrugged like everything she’d said was completely new to him. “I sent Yuri to your house with a gift of condolence. Nothing more.”
There was no polite way to call him a liar. “He did come with a basket. But that wasn’t all he was there for. I guess I should assume, then, that the five million dollars he said you wanted back was some kind of scam Yuri was running?”
Boris swallowed. Five million was a lot to pretend not to know about. Especially when it was owed to you. “It must have been. I don’t even know where Yuri is.”
“How about that?” She saw a chance to sow a little discord and decided to take it. “I guess it hasn’t occurred to you that I gave him the money, and he took off with it?”
“Yuri would not do that.”
“And yet, you have no idea where he is.” She knew. He was in cold storage at the FBI. “Well, if there was never any deal and never any money, I guess we’re done here. We won’t need to see each other again, will we? And by we, you understand I mean you or any of your men. Ever. Again.”
Boris bristled with unsaid things.
“Anything else you want to talk about before I go?”
He glanced to the side at one of his men, the look so fast and sly she might not have noticed if she’d looked away for a split second.
She caught movement out of the corner of her eye. A movement that her years spent around the volatile Villachi crew had taught her to interpret instantly.
One of Boris’s men was reaching for his gun.
Chapter Eleven
Instinct and the driving need for self-preservation propelled Donna with a burst of speed unlike anything she’d experienced before. In the blink of an eye, she was in front of the man attempting to draw his weapon.
Her hand was around his throat, her newly manicured fingernails digging into his skin. She shoved him against the wall and up a few inches so that his toes scraped the floor as he danced for his footing. “Drop that gun, or I will tear your throat out.”
Her eyes were probably glowing. Good.
The gun fell to the floor with a clatter. She dug her thumb hard into an artery, shutting down the blood flow. A few moments later, his eyes rolled back, and he passed out. She kicked his gun away, then released him.
He crumpled to the ground like a discarded grocery bag.
She turned to glare at Boris. “How dare you.”
His eyes were round. He sputtered but said nothing intelligible. He muttered something in Russian. A curse, maybe. Had the bar not been behind him, he probably would have backed up.
She wasn’t done. She took a few steps toward him, her spike heels clicking against the ancient hardwood. “What did you signal him to do? Take me out? Make an example out of me?”
He cleared his throat. Then he seemed to get ahold of himself. His eyes narrowed and filled with darkness. “Your husband died owing me money.”
“So now you own up to it?”
He rolled his shoulders. “I want it back. Or else.” He waved his hand at the man on the floor. “You do not scare me.”
Except she had. At least for a moment. Time to turn up the volume a little. With the same speed she’d used before, she closed the distance between them. Only an inch of air, maybe two, remained.
The height from her shoes made her slightly taller than him. “If I don’t scare you, you’re not paying close enough attention. You’ve never dealt with a woman like me before. I’m the kind of woman who will hide your body in my trunk while I help the police search for you. The kind of woman who knows you catch more flies with a corpse than a jar of honey. Do you understand?”
He nodded slowly.
“Good. If I see you or any of your men again, if they step foot on property I own, if they come within ten feet of my family, my friends, or my vehicle, I will destroy you and your entire organi
zation. I’m talking burnt earth and salted ground.”
He coughed like he’d just choked on his own saliva.
She smiled. “Now. The money you gave my husband. What was it for?”
Boris glanced around. Maybe he didn’t want to talk in front of his men. Too bad.
“I’m waiting.”
He exhaled in frustration. His breath reeked of cigar smoke and alcohol. “A deal.”
“I get that. What kind?”
“He was going to start distributing for us.”
“Drugs?”
Boris nodded.
Joe had been such a scum. That explained the drugs she’d found in the stash room. “And what’s Lucinda’s part in all this?”
Boris hesitated. Donna understood his reluctance. If one of his men were to reveal this kind of information, they’d end up in the river. Or wherever the Russians dumped their bodies. “For her cut, she would make sure Big Tony stayed out of it.”
“How much did you give her?”
“The five million was for both of them.”
No wonder Lucinda had wanted to get into that office so badly. That had to be the reason. She was there to get the money. And maybe even the drugs. That meant Joe must have told her about the stash room. At this point in her life, Donna shouldn’t let something like that surprise her. But it did. “Good to know.”
“I want my money back.”
She bet he did. She also knew that she’d calmed down enough that her eyes were no longer glowing. That must have given him a new boost of confidence. “What do I get in return?”
“I will personally see that you are left alone.”
“No. Not just me. My children, my sister, my friends.”
He nodded. “Da. All.”
She looked at Pierce. He gave a little nod like he thought that was a good deal. It was what they’d come for, after all. She returned her attention to Boris. “I’ll give you four million, and we’ll call it a deal. The outstanding million is the price you pay for bothering me with this.”
He frowned.
To get her eyes to light up again, she thought about the drugs and guns and blood money she’d found in her house.
The anger worked.
He recoiled a little. “Fine. Deal.”
She held the glow a little longer. “You break that deal in the smallest way possible, and I will return for you.”
He snickered, but the sound seemed mostly for show. Bravado for the sake of keeping face in front of his men. Well, he could put on a show on his own time. She needed him to understand how serious this was. She called down her fangs. “I mean it. If I have to come back here, all that will be left of you is a bloodless corpse.”
He snickered again. Louder this time.
She licked her top lip and, just for him, showed off her very pointy fangs. “You think I’m joking?”
Boris went pale. His head wobbled like a bobblehead. “I understand.”
She smiled and put the fangs away. “Great. Pierce will take down the address where you want the money sent.”
Pierce joined them, his iPhone at the ready. “I’ll have the money messengered first thing tomorrow.”
Boris spit out a location while he rapped his knuckles on the bar and glared at the bartender. The man hastily started pouring vodka again.
Pierce typed the address into his phone. “Nice doing business with you.”
Temo already had the doors open. He held them and kept an eye on Boris and his men while Donna, Pierce, and Neo walked out. Then he shut the doors, and they all got on the elevator, which thankfully needed a keycard for access only on the main floor.
No one said a word until they were out of the club, back on the sidewalk, and headed toward the parking garage.
Then Temo exhaled loudly enough to be heard over the ambient sounds of the city. “We’re clear. No one’s following us.”
Donna’s own breathing came easier. “Good.”
A soft curse slipped from Neo’s lips. “Not much gets my heart pumping these days, but that did. Woo, that was like being in a movie.”
Donna glanced at Pierce, then back at Temo and Neo. They were all smiling. But then, so was she. “We did it.”
“Yes, we did,” Pierce said. “But you carried the day.”
“You were something else, boss,” Temo said. “Something. Else.”
“He’s right,” Neo said. “Girl, that was impressive. You are fearless.”
Donna exhaled. She was shaking from the rush of adrenaline. “I don’t feel fearless. But I’m glad that went as well as it did.”
“Me too.” Pierce reached out and squeezed her hand.
“I’m keyed up,” Neo said. “Let’s get a drink to celebrate. Let’s do something.”
Donna shrugged as they entered the parking garage. “We could go to Rigby’s anyway.”
“I’m game,” Pierce said.
“Whatever you want to do, boss.” Temo grinned. “But I’m game too.”
“Just a round or two,” Donna said. “I haven’t unpacked a thing.”
“You’ll have time for that.” Pierce reached out and touched her hand again. “You deserve a little celebration after what you pulled off back there.”
“Yeah,” Neo said. “Plus, you look too dope to just go home.”
“Okay, but seriously, just a round or two.” Donna laughed. “I do look pretty dope.”
Temo hit the clicker and unlocked the SUV, then they all got in. Neo sat up front with him again, Pierce in the back with Donna.
They were just pulling out when Donna’s phone chimed. She checked it and saw a text from Charlie.
How long before you’re home?
Couple hours. What’s up?
We have a situation. Not sure it’ll keep.
What kind of situation?
A couple long seconds went by.
A citizen requesting sanctuary.
Donna looked up. “Charlie says there’s a citizen requesting sanctuary. I don’t even know what that means.”
Temo glanced at her in the rearview mirror. “Basically, someone’s in some kind of trouble and needs your help to stay safe. The governor’s property is considered neutral ground. A safe place. Like a church.”
“So should I grant it right now?” She looked at Pierce. “I know nothing about this person or their situation.”
“They can stay twenty-four hours before you have to officially decide. If you haven’t by then, they have to leave.”
Donna rolled her eyes. “Why is there never a handbook?” She sent a text back to Charlie. They have twenty-four hours, right? I’ll assess when I get back.
She didn’t want to end the night early on account of something that could wait. Not after these people had helped her through a tough situation. They deserved a little fun. A few drinks weren’t going to hurt anything.
Temo looked at her in the mirror again. “What do you want to do, boss?”
“Rigby’s. I’ll take care of this when we get back. It can wait.” She couldn’t imagine what kind of situation warranted sanctuary at the governor’s penthouse, but if the person was there, then they were safe and that was all that mattered in the immediate moment.
Her mind shifted back to Boris. He’d confirmed Lucinda and Joe had been working the side deal together. That was valuable information. The kind Rico might be able to use. She’d talk to him in the morning. It was late, and even though he might be up, it was one more thing she didn’t want to deal with at the moment.
Neo turned around so she could see Donna. “You know, anytime you need extra security, I’m down. This was crazy, but fun.”
“I’ll let you know. I could probably even put you on the governor’s payroll as a part-time employee.”
Neo made a surprised face. “Am I getting paid for tonight?”
“I don’t see why you shouldn’t. I’ll talk to Charlie about it when I get back.”
“That’s what I’m talking about.” She fist-bumped Donna. “Girl, I am
so glad you showed up at group. Hey, speaking of, you looking forward to that party Francine is throwing for you at her place this weekend?”
Donna took a breath. “To be honest, I haven’t really thought about it. There’s been a lot going on. And I haven’t gotten an official invite. You’re sure she’s still having it?”
“I’m sure,” Neo said. “Francine loves to give parties. She’ll get those invites out by email soon. Although she’s got to be assuming you already know.”
“I’ll text her.”
“I’ll remind you,” Pierce said softly.
“Thanks.”
Temo found a parking spot near Rigby’s, and they went in. The place was busy, but not uncomfortably so. Donna and Neo got their fair share of looks as they walked through to an available booth.
Donna smirked. “We might be overdressed for this place.”
“Might? Please, this place hasn’t seen women this good-looking since the Spice Girls tour bus broke down outside.”
Donna chuckled as they slid into the booth. “You’re funny.”
Neo’s brows arched in amusement. “Trust me, if we were alone, we’d drink for free all night.”
“I’m sure you’re right.”
Temo sat next to Neo, Pierce next to Donna. A server came by, and they ordered, then sat back and rehashed the evening’s events. Mostly, the conversation was about Boris. What he must be thinking, how Donna had handled him, and what was going to happen to the guy Donna had left unconscious on the floor.
Three rounds later, they were still at it, laughing and telling stories. Neo and Temo had inched closer together as the night wore on.
Donna’s phone chimed. She thought about ignoring it, but she was the governor now. She really shouldn’t do that. She pulled it out and checked the screen. “Hey, Temo, I got a notification from the camera app.”
Her phone chimed again. Then again.
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