The Russians looked up at him with angry eyes, but Alex didn’t let them damper his resolve. He leaned up again. “Okay, gentleman,” he said. “No more bullshit.”
“Bred sivoy kobyly?” Vagner asked.
Alex didn’t respond to his fake ignorance, but, instead, pulled out of his coat pocket folded fact sheets on each and every one of the Russian negotiators, and he slid them across the table.
And then suddenly, Vagner, whom Alex knew spoke perfect English, spoke up. “What are these?” he asked.
“Every sin each one of you have ever committed,” said Alex. “I didn’t want it to come to this, but I was tired of the bullshit. I think the CIA would be very interested in those fact sheets. Don’t you, gentleman? I think they would likely freeze all of your American assets, and all of those lucrative projects you already have under construction in the States, if they saw even a fraction of what’s on those pages.”
Then Alex’s smile disappeared and his soft eyes became hard and cold. The charming lothario, as they viewed him, was gone. The brutal former mob boss was in full view. “I will get permission to build each and every one of those hotels I’m requesting. And I will get that permission now. Because in fifteen minutes, gentlemen, the CIA will be notified by my people, along with the American media, just in case.”
“But the Kremlin has to give final approval,” said Vagner.
“Fuck the Kremlin!” said Alex. He’d had it up to here with those arrogant Oligarchs that really ran that country. “Fifteen minutes.”
But it didn’t take that long. Vagner and his team left the table, but they returned within five minutes. The deal was approved. The deal was done.
Alex didn’t smile. Because this shit should not have had come to threats and intimidation. But it had.
But that still didn’t dampen his joy.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Although Kari was upset that she had been cooped up in a hotel room all day, Alex made up for it that night. He returned to the hotel, they had dinner to celebrate his victory, and then they were out on the town, walking to a nearby club.
When they got inside, it was elbow-room crowded. And everybody appeared to be having a blast. Alex found a table near the back of the club where he sat Kari down, then he went over to the bar to purchase a couple of beers. Kari was happy, too, as she looked around, and began texting Jordan and Oz about how wired, and how exciting Moscow nightlife could be. Who knew, she jokingly said in her texts.
“Dva piva,” Alex stood at the bar and said in broken Russian, but the bartender understood and began pouring into mugs what he requested: two beers.
Alex leaned against the counter and waited for the order to be completed. But as he waited, he looked around. He could easily tell those who were tourists less by their dress, and more by their manners. Namely, the tourists had none. Loud and obnoxious, Alex thought. Especially his fellow Americans. One man even pulled down his pants and gave another man his ass to kiss, and his fellow compatriots all laughed. The locals, rightly so, looked at them with nothing but disgust on their faces. Alex smiled. And we wonder why they call us ugly Americans, he thought.
Then he looked further over. Not to see another obnoxious showoff. But because he saw what he thought was a concealed weapon on one particular man. Which was fine. He could have been Russian law enforcement. But he kept his eyes on him.
That man, he noticed, was walking around tables and bumping into people as if he was nervous and in a hurry. And he was making, Alex noticed as he watched him, what appeared to be a beeline for a certain table. When Alex looked where the man’s eyes appeared trained, he saw which table he was hurrying toward. And it was Alex’s own table. A table, Alex also realized, where Kari, her head down and buried in her cell phone, was sitting!
The bartender sat one beer on the counter, but Alex was already gone.
He took off, running toward Kari, waving his hands, and yelling for her to get down. “Get down, Karena!” he yelled as he ran. “Get down!”
But the gunman was closer than Alex was. And the man was pulling out his gun. Alex was pulling out his gun, too, as he had to push through a massive press of people, knocking one ugly American after another one out of his path. But he still wasn’t going to make it in time!
He jumped up on an occupied table and began running toward Kari by jumping from one table to another one. “Karena!” he was yelling as he ran. He could hear the fear in his own voice. “Karena!”
Kari didn’t hear any of Alex’s cries. The noise and music were just too loud. But for some reason she felt his presence. And she looked up.
But just as she did, the gunman stopped running and aimed his gun straight for her head. Alex was two tables away, but he jumped one and then the other one and lunged for Kari. He was about to tell her to duck, to get down, to move her ass, but he didn’t have to tell her anything. Kari quickly got down beneath the table just because of the terror she saw in Alex’s eyes when she looked up, and the way he was coming toward her. She didn’t ask questions. She didn’t try to see what might be wrong. Her ass got down!
The man fired his weapon just as Alex, lunging his entire body over one table toward Kari, fired his weapon too.
But Alex missed! His angle was too off, and he missed the gunman. The gunman’s bullet would have been spot on had Kari not ducked. But she had already ducked, and the gunman missed too.
But Tino Castellano, who was also in that club as security, didn’t miss. He aimed and hit that gunman in the back repeatedly, once he realized what was happening. He took out the man in a hail of bullets, just as Alex was falling on top of Kari. Had she not looked up, and immediately ducked, that assassin’s bullet, rather than Tino’s, would have hit its mark first.
The people in the club were screaming and running and stampeding each other trying to get out of there, and Alex’s men were running toward the scene too. But Alex was lifting Kari up. “You’re okay?” he kept asking her. “You’re okay?”
“I’m okay,” Kari said thankfully, looking over Alex’s body as he was looking over hers. And they both were grateful.
Tino ran to the couple. “You guys alright?” he asked.
Alex shook his head. “Yes,” he said. “And thanks.”
“No problem, boss,” Tino said. “You know him?”
Alex wasn’t sure. He took Kari’s hand and, along with their security detail who were blanketing them now, made their way over to the gunman’s body. Alex checked to ensure he was dead. He was. And then he checked to see just who he was. His men didn’t know. Alex didn’t know either.
“Find out,” he ordered.
And then he began to wonder if that sudden scene had something to do with that ghost of Ninochka he saw earlier. “Still no word?” he asked Tino.
Tino shook his head. “None, sir. We’ve found no trace. And there were no cameras in that area to review. None, sir.”
Alex exhaled. He still would declare to anybody asking that he saw Ninochka earlier, he didn’t care what scant evidence he had. But that was beyond the point. Kari was the point. And Moscow had too much heat around it right now for his blood. He had to get Kari out of there, and out now. He looked at her. “Let’s go,” he said. “I’m taking you home.”
At first Kari thought he meant the hotel. But when they piled in the car his security detail had on standby, and they were whisked away to the airport without even going back to the hotel to retrieve their belongings, she understood exactly what he meant.
They were going home.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
“He saw me.” She was gripping the phone with both hands. “He saw me!”
“Where? In Moscow?”
“Yes. At the hotel. I ran, and got into the cab, but he followed me. I barely got away. He saw me!”
“But why are you in despair? That is what we wanted, Narnia! We wanted to spook him. We wanted him to see you. That was why you were there.”
“But did you not hear me, miy druh? He almost
caught me. He almost caught me. That was not what we wanted!
“Settle down. You must settle down. He did not catch you. That is the point. It is going according to plan. You must understand that.”
Ninochka Kobalinski understood it, but that didn’t mean she liked it. But she was in it now. There could be no turning back. “Yes, you are right,” she said, with a sigh that was more from exhaustion than relief. “You are right.”
“It is okay that he followed you. That is a good thing. He didn’t catch you? That is good too. It is going according to plan.”
“Yes,” Ninochka said. “All according to plan.”
But although she said it, she also knew Alex. She knew, when he found out the truth, that every plan they wrote would have to be rewritten. And improvised. And then they still, given how cruel Alex could be, might not get out of it alive.
****
Two days later, back in New York, Kari and Jordan were packed and sitting in her brand-new car, more than ready to get on the road to Florida. They’d been in New York for nearly a week, on Alex’s insistence, and was anxious to get back to their normal life.
But Alex was antsy. And clingy. He had gotten a call that morning stating that the ship had docked and they knew who the buyer of his stolen crude oil had been. He couldn’t go with them to Florida because he had to get to Texas. But he couldn’t seem to just say his goodbyes to Kari and Jordan and let them go.
He kept lingering. And talking. Making sure Kari understood his rules and would follow them precisely. No stops in small towns. No speeding. No conversations with strangers when they did stop. Stay overnight in the hotels he designated only. Their reservations were already confirmed. No winging it. And on and on and on.
“For crying out loud, Alexio,” Oz had to step in and say, “we really ought to make a start! I’ve got to finalize the Moscow deal for you, and you’ve got to get to Texas for yourself.”
Kari smiled and looked at Alex, who was at the driver side window with his arms on the window frame. “Oz is right,” she said. “We all need to hit the road.”
Alex nodded. “Okay. You’re right.” He was about to reiterate his rules again, but he caught himself. Kari was a smart, sensible lady. She knew how to take care of herself, and he needed to understand that.
He leaned in and gave her a long, passionate kiss, and he didn’t care who saw him either. He had promised her that she could drive to Florida even if he couldn’t go along. But that was before Texas came a-calling. That was before he eyeballed Ninochka and that shit happened in that nightclub. He was more concerned about having her away from him than would have been the case. He was concerned!
“My plane should be able to meet up with you guys by the time you arrive in South Carolina,” he said, “and we can travel the rest of the way together.”
Jordan smiled. “Why would you get off a plane in South Carolina just to ride with us to Florida? Why don’t you just fly on to Florida and meet us there?”
Kari smiled. “He’s so young,” she said, and Alex laughed. And kissed her again.
When they stopped kissing, he knew he could delay no longer. “I’ll see you guys in South Carolina as soon as I can get there,” he said. “Just be safe. Don’t give me any heart attacks.”
“Don’t worry, Mister D,” Jordan said. “I’ll look after her.”
“You’d better,” Alex said.
“I will,” said Jordan. “Promise.”
“Call me every chance you get,” he said to Jordan. “Keep me posted.”
“He will,” Kari said. “He promise,” she added, and they laughed.
Alex squeezed Kari’s small shoulder, stood erect, and stepped back. And just like that, as if proving that Alex was the holdup all along, Kari and Jordan were off.
But as quickly as they drove away, a second car, from the guest cottages on the side of the estate, drove up. Alex walked over to the passenger side, where the head of the four-man security detail, Tino Castellano, was seated. “Protect them with your life,” he said to him. “Or you won’t have one.”
Tino nodded his head. “I will, sir,” he said. “You have my word.”
“Equipment ready?” Alex looked at the customized monitors inside the car that had four screen angles. The main monitor showed Kari driving her Rolls Royce completely in view. There were also angles of the street with which she traveled. A front view, a side view, and back view, and even a sky view.
“It’s all ready, sir.”
“What’s the radius?”
“Five miles.”
Alex was pleased. “That’s good. Now get on it and stay on it.”
“Yes, sir!”
Alex stepped back, and the security detail tasked with following Kari and Jordan, and following them clandestinely, did just that.
But Alex still felt that pain of separation. He’d give up his entire fortune for Kari, and he knew it. She and Jordan were what he truly wanted. Then why the fuck, he angrily wondered as he got into the limo where Oz was already waiting, did he keep choosing his fortune?
“Don’t worry, brother,” Oz said when he saw Alex’s distress. “Kari will get them safely home.”
“She’d better,” Alex said with a hardness in his voice that Oz found harsh. But Oz knew his big brother better than most. He knew Alex was only angry at himself.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
The drive to Florida was everything Kari and Jordan could have hoped for. They were singing songs and enjoying that new car smell and feeling carefree for a change. Even after what happened in Moscow, Kari still felt good. Especially seeing Jordan so happy. He couldn’t stop repeating the amazement of it all.
“From that raggedy Tercel to a Phantom? Wait ‘till those old biddies in Apple Valley see you now, Ma!”
“I’m not thinking about them,” Kari said. “No matter what I drive, they won’t be satisfied. They’ll declare up and down the only reason I’m not driving my Toyota is because I spread my legs for Alex.”
“That’s what some of those kids are saying at my school already.”
“I don’t know how. They haven’t seen this car yet.”
“Not about the car you drive, but about everything else. They think you’re just Mister D’s whore and he’ll get tired of you soon. They say you’re just one of many females he has. Even after he asked you to marry him, they’re still saying that.”
“Let’em say it,” Kari said. “That shit don’t bother me. I’ve been lied on my whole life. People would tell all kinds of tales on me. But me and God? We know what the truth is. Let’em say whatever they wanna say. Just smile and keep it moving.”
Jordan smiled. “That’s easy for you to say,” he said. “It’s not your mama they’re talking about.”
Kari smiled. “But it’s me they’re talking about. Don’t you think that’s a little closer than mother to son?”
But Jordan shook his head. “Nope,” he said.
Kari looked at him. She never really had a close relationship with her mother. She really didn’t know what that felt like. “No?” she asked.
“No,” Jordan said firmly. “If they talk about me like a dog, it’s okay. I wouldn’t like it, but big deal, right? But if they talk about my mama like a dog? No. I have to fight them. I can’t just let’em talk about you like that.”
Kari smiled. “You don’t get in fights,” she said.
“Because I outsmart them. I give them scientific words to describe what I’ll do to them if they keep disrespecting you. They don’t know what the heck I’m talking about so they just kind of ease away from me. They don’t know if I’m crazy or what.”
Kari laughed. “Neither do I, boy,” she said. “Neither do I!”
Jordan laughed too.
“But real talk, J,” Kari said as she drove the car that rode as if it was floating on air. “Don’t worry like that. I don’t care what they say. I’m good.”
“Driving a car like this? I would say so,” Jordan said. “Those guys at school ar
e going to wonder what in the world you got between your legs that would make a man give you a car like this!”
Kari wanted to laugh, because it was funny as hell, but she hit Jordan upside his head instead. “Stop being so vulgar,” she said.
But she knew he spoke the truth. Her multitude of critics in Apple Valley, Florida weren’t going to like it. They weren’t going to like it one bit.
“Where are we now?” Jordan asked.
“Virginia,” Kari said. “And still going strong. I can drive all the way to Florida the way I feel.”
“But Mister D won’t like it. He said we have to spend the night at those hotels he reserved for us. Whether we like it or not.”
Kari knew it too. “Yes, I know,” she said. “But that’s how I feel. I can drive all night.”
But she didn’t. She didn’t even get a chance to drive out of Virginia. They had seen one cop car pass them by. Then another one. But they didn’t give it a second thought. She wasn’t speeding or doing anything weird.
But then, just as she was nearing the North Carolina border, three different police cars sped up behind her, and one of them raced in front of her and cut her off. She had to swerve to the side of the road to avoid a collision.
“What’s happening?” Jordan asked his mother.
“I don’t know,” Kari said as she looked at the police cars that now surrounded her stopped Rolls. Two of the cops had jumped out of their vehicles and had their guns drawn and trained on them. A third cop was opening the driver side door of her vehicle. “Get out and get out now!” he yelled. “Get out or I’ll blow your brains out!”
“Do everything they say, Jordan,” Kari ordered her son as she and Jordan both lifted their hands in the air and got out of the car.
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