by Alexa Davis
"I got the part," I repeated. "I'm going to play Hedda Gabler. I got the part."
"Holy fuck, Wally!" Her shout scared Anna, who ran and hid under the dining room table. "You got the part! You're a star!"
"Hardly," I laughed. "I'm a mediocre actor in Chicago who is going to headline an Ibsen play. That's a little more accurate."
"Bullshit!" she exclaimed. "This calls for a celebration!"
"Viv, my life is ruined right now," I interjected as she ran into the kitchen and returned carrying a bottle of champagne and two glasses. She popped the cork, poured the bubbly liquid, and handed me a glass.
"Let's celebrate," she said.
"My ruined life?"
"No, silly, let's celebrate your role on stage and the fact that you are now a working actor!" she clinked her glass against mine and sipped. I followed her lead and thought about what she'd said.
"Viv, what am I going to do?"
"Well, it seems to me that you have the perfect out, now," she observed. "You got the role and Peter is going to find a replacement for you, so there's really nothing to worry about, right?"
I sat silently, sipping my champagne as I thought about it.
"Wally, there's nothing to worry about, right?" she asked again.
"Well…" I said slowly, drawing my response out.
"Oh no, no, no, no, no!" she cried. "You've fallen for him!"
"Viv…" I shrugged.
"Yes, you've fallen for the billionaire Russian mafia guy!" she exclaimed. "You actually think he's going to fall for you and secretly hope that the fake wedding is real by the time it happens, don't you?"
"That sounds so cliché," I protested.
"That's because it is!" she yelled. "Jesus, Lexi, you can't fall for a guy who kills people who get in his way for a living!"
"Max isn't a killer!" I yelled back. "If he was, I'd know it by now."
"Right, and all those people who were taken in by con artists and fakes and lost their life savings knew, too," she said as she raised an eyebrow and looked at me. "Sex clouds everything, Lexi, and you've definitely been clouded when it comes to Mr. Malinchenko."
"That's not fair, Viv," I protested. "He's been nothing but good to me and he's never once done anything that put me in harm’s way."
"Hello? Where the hell have you been, sister?" She was getting exasperated. "You were attacked in the store by the Russian junior mafia, and Max assigned a security guard to you!"
"That was different."
"Oh, you've got it bad, girlfriend," Viv shook her head in disbelief. "Look, I'm not going to try and talk you out of your schoolgirl crush on Malinchenko, but I am going to tell you that it's not healthy to hang on to a man who is a criminal! No good will come of it!"
"But, Viv!" I yelled. "I love him!"
She gasped and then fell back on the sofa holding her glass in one hand and draping her free arm over her forehead. She sat there in silence for a minute before she sat up and looked at me.
"Lexi, if you are, in fact, in love with this man, then you need to sort out the mess that this whole thing has become," she said seriously. "You need to go back and have a real conversation with him and find out what his intentions are because until you know that, all of this is just speculation and fantasy."
"What am I going to say to him?"
"I don't know, how about starting with the truth?" she replied with a smile. "Tell him how you feel and see what he says."
"And, if he says it's just a business deal gone awry, then what?" I asked.
"Then, you'll have your answer and know that you're taking things a little too seriously," she said with a shrug. She turned to look at me and asked, "But what if he says he feels the same way?"
"Huh?"
"What if he says he feels the same way and that all of this is real for him, too?" she repeated.
"I don't… I don't know," I stammered. It hadn't occurred to me that maybe Max did feel the same way I did and that maybe he'd respond in a positive way, rather than blowing me off. Then, I felt anxious. I turned to Viv and said, "What if he does like me?"
"What if he does?" She smiled as she sipped from her glass.
"Oh no, this can't happen!" I cried. "Not now! Not after Josh! It's too soon, Viv!"
"Hey, hey, hey, slow it down, Wally," she said as she leaned over and rested her hand on my arm. "What's so bad about having a rich, handsome guy fall for you?"
"Because I didn't plan for it!" I said. "It's not logical, and it makes no sense!"
"I think you're nuts," she said shaking her head. "Listen to yourself, of course there's never a good time for falling in love. Please. That's how this stuff works! It's life, Lexi! You don't get to control it all, you just have to roll with the punches and decide which ones to absorb and which ones to deflect. Sometimes you are so hard headed."
I sat thinking about what she had said until Anna hopped up into my lap. She sat staring at me as she raised a paw and patted my arm. When I didn't respond, she chirped and patted harder.
"What? What do you want?" I asked as I looked down at her fuzzy, gray face. She mewed loudly and head butted my arm before sitting back down and staring up at me. "Okay, fine. We'll go home and see what's on Max's mind. Fine."
Viv smiled as Anna purred loudly. This was going to be a difficult conversation, but maybe some good would come out of it.
CHAPTER FORTY-NINE
Max
I decided that I needed to go visit Babi. I told my driver the destination, and then sat back as I thought about what Dementyev had said about Papa. I knew my father was a hard man, but to have ordered a hit on his own son was beyond the pale. Or was it? I wanted to talk to Babi and find out what was really going on with Papa.
When we pulled up in front of her building a little while later, I noticed that the house was dark, and I wondered if she was even home. Sometimes, Babi went out visiting and stayed the night at friends' houses when the hour got too late to get home safely. I knocked on the door and waited. When I got no response, I used my key to let myself in.
"Babi?" I called as I moved through the dark front room. "Babi, are you home?"
"Vladimir?" came the response from the kitchen. "Vladimir is that you?"
"Babi? What's going on?" I called as I raced to the kitchen and found her sitting curled up in a corner on the floor. "Babi! Are you okay?"
"Maksimka!" she cried as she stretched out her arms. I pulled her up off of the floor and sat her in a kitchen chair so I could check to see if she'd been injured.
"Babi, what happened?" I asked as I pushed the sleeves of her robe up so I could see her arms. There were fresh bruises that looked like someone had gripped her very hard, and I looked up at her and asked, "Where did these come from?"
"There were men here, Maksimka," she said in a grave voice. "They were very bad men looking for your father. They pushed me around and they looked for information, but they did not find it. I wouldn't let them."
"Babi, what are you talking about?" I asked as I got up and dug through the freezer until I found a couple of bags of frozen corn. I wrapped the bags in dishtowels and put them on the bruises. "Babi, what bad men? How did they get in? Who sent them?"
"Maksimka, your father has a lot of enemies," she said as she looked down at her arms. "He's been a target since he left Moscow, and now, they are out searching for him. "
"How do you know that?" I asked.
"I know because a mother knows," she said looking back up at me. "I know because Vladimir warned me that these men would come looking for him and that I should never give him up."
"Babi, Kristov is dead," I blurted out. I had no idea what my father had told her and after my talk with Dementyev, I wasn't sure what was true.
"Kristov?" she asked. A look of confusion washed over her face. "Kristov is dead?"
"Babi, he was executed in his home," I said. She looked at me and then shoved the ice packs off of her arms before bringing her hands up to cover her face. She shook as she tried to
hold back sobs, but before long, she was wailing as the tears flowed.
"Not my Kristov!" she cried. "He was a little boy!"
"Babi, what happened with Papa?" I asked, trying to be gentle, but knowing that time was of the essence if I was going to figure out what had happened. "What did Papa tell you?"
"He told me that something bad was happening and that bad men were coming to find him, just like in Moscow," she told me as she gulped back the sobs. "He said they wanted to take everything away from him and kill his family and that I had to help him hide."
"Babi, why did he think that they were coming for him?" I asked.
"Maksimka, you're father is not a bad man," she said as she looked up into my eyes. "He was just trying to do what he had to do to survive. Life wasn't easy for us after the wall fell. You know that. Your father did what he had to do to protect us."
"What did he do, Babi?"
"He got involved with some men who promised a way out of the country for you and your mother," she said as she tried to replace the ice packs on her arms. I reached out and repositioned them. "They got you all out of Moscow before the police came to try and arrest your father for desertion."
"Desertion?" I asked. "He always said he retired with honors from the KGB."
"Don't be stupid, Maksimka," she scolded. "No one retires from the KGB. You are KBG for life or you are dead. Your father deserted so he could relocate his family, and those who remained paid the price."
"You?" I asked afraid to hear what she would say.
"No, I was one of the lucky ones. I was able to hide with friends until your father could make arrangements to get me out of the country," she said. "But other family members were not so fortunate, and when the KGB came to extract information, some of them did not survive."
"That's barbaric," I breathed.
"You have no idea what barbaric is until you see the people you love slaughtered by a government that despises dissent," she sighed sadly. "I couldn't help them, no one could help them. So, I waited until your father sent word and then I trusted complete strangers to move me out of the country in the dead of night. I was loaded onto a truck carrying chicken carcasses to a farm in Poland and driven out of the country. It was disgusting – the smell of rotting chicken and death. But, it was better than staying and waiting for the police to come and question me."
"But you didn't do anything."
"Maksimka, you don't understand, you didn't have to do anything," she said. "You just had to be accused of doing something, that was good enough."
"But what about Papa?" I asked.
"Your Papa did what he had to do to make sure we were all safe," she said. The fierce look in her eyes told me that while my father might have done some terrible things, he did them with the intention of ensuring that those he loved would remain alive. "He made deals with the devil to get us to safety. Don't you ever judge him for that."
"I'm not judging, Babi," I said trying to soothe her anger. "I'm trying to understand why bad men came to your apartment and roughed you up!"
"I'm telling you, Maksimka!" she shouted. "Listen to me!"
"Okay, okay," I placated, holding my hands up in surrender. "I'm listening."
"Your father made deals with people to get us all out, and when he did, he had to promise them certain things," she continued. "Those things he promised to do did not have an expiration date, so he was obligated to do them forever. At first, it was easy things that didn't seem to make that much difference, but then as time went on, he was required to make concession after concession and he had to do things that he found morally wrong, but he did them because they reminded him that if he didn't, they would harm you and your mother and brother."
"But why didn't Papa tell the authorities in this country once he got here?"
"Don't be stupid, Maksimka," she said. "The Russian Mafia doesn't care about local authorities. They have no hold on how they do business, and if your father had reported them, they would have murdered us all without a thought. There was no escape, Maksimka. No escape.
“Your father did what he could to resist, but by the time he wanted out for good, he was in way too deep to try and leave. He had no choice. And, the time he did decide to try and get out, well, you saw what happened."
"No, what happened?" I asked. "I don't remember this time."
"Of course you remember that time!" she yelled at the top of her lungs. "They murdered your mother!"
The revelation came as a complete shock, and I stared at my grandmother with my mouth hanging open for a full minute before she snapped, "Close your mouth, the flies will get in and make a home."
"Babi, they killed Mama?" I whispered. I was horrified not by the fact that my mother had been killed, but by the fact that all these years, I'd secretly suspected that my father had done it out of anger and jealousy.
"Yes, they killed your mother when she and your Papa had decided that they would go to the police about the girls being smuggled into the country," Babi said. "Your mother could handle a lot of the unsavory dealings that your father did to keep you all safe, but exploiting other human beings in the way that the mafia did with those girls was more than she could take. She said it was because they were someone's children and she could live with a lot of things, but not the abuse of someone's child. She begged and pleaded with your Papa until he gave in and agreed to go to the authorities and become a witness."
"Did he go?" I asked.
"No, he did not," she said. "The day he was supposed to meet with the Federal investigators, your mother was hit by a car as she walked home from the grocery store. Your Papa told me that he thought it was a terrible accident until one of the vory v zakone showed up at the bar that night with a message from their captain. He told your Papa that if he ever said a word to anyone about the girls, you and Kristov would be next and that it would be no accident."
"They said they'd kill us?"
"Yes, they did," she said. "After that, your father made a vow to raise you and Kristov to be tough and to look out for yourselves. He didn't ever want either of you to be a victim of the promise he'd made."
"Babi, they killed Kristov," I said. "They went back on their promise. What am I supposed to do now? Sit back and let them run all over us?"
"Maksimka, your father and I are old. We have lived our lives. You are young, and you are the future of this family now that Kristov is dead," she said as she tipped the ice pack off of her arms and pulled me into a cold hug. "You have to do whatever you need to do to protect yourself. Even if that goes against what your Papa wants you to do. You need to make good choices and get out of the mafia life because if you are in it, you will not survive."
"How do I do that, Babi? I've been trying, but Papa keeps fighting me at every turn."
"Your Papa is a stubborn man." She smiled as she drew back and patted my cheek. "He was a stubborn boy who grew up to be a very stubborn man, but he loves you more than anything in the world and he is fighting to protect you. Help him."
"Babi, I met with Aleksander Dementyev tonight," I said, wondering what she knew about him.
"Scum!" she said as she spit on the floor. "That man is disgusting human trash! He has no loyalty or honor!"
"He told me that Papa killed Kristov," I said quietly. "I almost believed him after the way that Papa has treated me."
"Maksimka, that man is the worst kind of thief there is," she said as her face contorted with anger and pain. "He lies and follows no code of honor. He manipulates people by using their pain to make them doubt themselves and everyone they love. He twists the truth and turns it into lies. He is sadistic and cruel. He has no soul."
"How do you know all of this about him?" I wondered what Dementyev had done to get this kind of response from her.
"I have seen his handiwork," she said with disgust. "Kristov brought some of the girls he was helping to escape here to stay with me while he arranged safe passage to somewhere that Dementyev would never find them, and I saw what he'd done to them.
That man deserves to die a thousand deaths for what he's done."
"Wait, you were helping Kristov? Why didn't you tell me?" I demanded.
"Your brother didn't want you to get caught up in the dirty work, Maksimka," she said patting my cheek. "He was protecting you so that you could get out of the business."
"But he was telling me to get back into it!" I shouted. "What is going on in this family?"
"We take care of each other, Maksimka," she said. "Your Papa and Kristov were doing the best they could to draw you back in, but I prayed that you would stay away. I don’t understand your Papa."
"What do I do now?" I said helplessly. "Papa wants me to find Kristov's killers and make them suffer. How am I supposed to do that if I'm supposed to stay away from the family business? Babi, what do I do?"
She looked at me for a long time before she got up from the chair and walked to the refrigerator. She pulled out the milk and eggs, and then she took down the flour and began mixing a batch of crepes. I watched while she cooked, not saying a word, knowing that she was thinking and that the cooking was an integral part of her thought process. When she had flipped the last of the crepes onto the large blue plate she'd pulled out of the cabinet, she brought it over with a dish of jelly, some fresh fruit compote, and a container of sour cream and set them all down in front of me.
"Eat," she ordered as she began to clean up. "Eat, Maksim. It's good for you. You eat and then you'll know what to do."
Babi was right. By the time I was done eating the crepes, I knew exactly what I needed to do next. I kissed her on the cheek, went out to the car, and ordered the driver to take me home.
CHAPTER FIFTY
Lexi
I put Anna in her carrier as Viv called a cab for me. At the door, she hugged me tightly and kissed my forehead before she saluted.
"Go get your man, Wally!" she laughed.
"I'll do my best," I grinned as I walked to the elevator and headed down to meet my taxi. On the ground floor, I crossed the lobby and said goodnight to the doorman before heading out to the curb. The taxi was waiting and while I briefly wondered how the driver had gotten here so quickly, I wrote it off to the competition between drivers and was grateful that he’d shown up so fast. I asked the driver to load my bag into the trunk as I pushed Anna's carrier into the backseat and then slid in beside her. I gave the driver my address, but he didn't acknowledge me. I tapped on the Plexiglas divider and said the address again. Still no response.