by Nic Saint
There was a delicate cough behind her, and when she whirled around, she noticed she was no longer alone, a woman of slight build having noiselessly entered. With her flowing dark hair, interspersed with threads of gray, and her sweet smile, she didn’t look like a jailor. Then she found her eye darting back to the picture on the wall. The picture of the couple with the eight kids.
“Mrs. Petrov?”
The woman’s smile deepened, and she held out her hands. “Anna. Please. And you must be Laura.”
She hesitated, then gestured to the door. “Your husband… he locked me in.”
The woman clucked her tongue. “You have to forgive Valery. He likes to act first, explain later. I guess he was afraid you might try to escape.” She laughed, dozens of fine wrinkles appearing by her luminous gray eyes.
“Well…”
“Valery hasn’t much in the way of manners. You’re not a prisoner, honey. Simply the idea! No, you’re a guest, of course.”
She wondered how much to tell this woman, but before she could, Anna indicated the picture she was still holding.
“That’s one of my favorite pictures of Alex. Only sixteen, but a handsome young devil already.” She smiled at the memory, her hands clasping together in front of her apron. “That summer he was the talk of the neighborhood. Just got that snazzy new bike. Girls flocked from all over the place. We had to fight them off with a stick. Still do, sometimes.” She eyed Laura curiously.
“You won’t have to fight me off with a stick, Anna,” she assured the older woman. “I actually work with your son. Down at The Blue Moon. Something happened today—” The words stuck in her throat at the memory of the abuse she’d suffered. “If it hadn’t been for Alex, I…” She swallowed, the terror unexpectedly rising in her throat like bile.
Anna gestured to the sofa, a look of solicitude on her fine-boned features. “Take a seat, honey. You’ve been through quite the ordeal, haven’t you?”
She nodded, tears suddenly stinging behind her eyes at the kind words. She sat down, and Anna took her hands in hers. “If you want, you can tell me.”
Before she could stop herself, the words were spilling from her lips as the tears sprang from her eyes, and she was telling this petite woman everything that had happened that day, from the moment she’d gone in for the audition to the moment they’d carried Boris out of there, tightly wrapped up in the carpet.
If Anna was surprised at the turn of events, she didn’t show it. She merely listened intently. Then, when the stream of words dried up to a trickle, as did Laura’s tears, she rose. Moments later, she returned with a cup of tea and pressed it into her hands, then took out a flask and added a splash of liquor.
“It’s important for you to know that this place is your home now, Laura. No one will harm you as long as you’re a guest under our roof, you hear? You’re absolutely safe here.”
She took a sip from the tea. The pungent odor had warned her it was strong stuff, and her taste buds confirmed this. As the hot brew flowed down her throat, she felt its heat spread through her chest. Immediately, she felt the color seep into her cheeks. She blinked. “My home?”
Anna nodded seriously. “I talked to Valery just now, and he said it would be best for you stay with us for a little while. At least until this thing with Boris Sarnovsky is sorted out.” She waved her hand, vaguely indicating the dead mobster.
“How—how long?”
Anna smiled her sweet smile. “Just a little while, honey. Until this all blows over. Don’t worry. We’ve got lots of space. This old house is much bigger than it looks.” She laughed. “Had to be, with eight kids.”
Judging from her calm demeanor, it was clear that Anna had dealt with this type of situation before. “All right, I’ll stay here. But I really need to call my aunt and uncle. They’ll worry about me.”
“Of course. Just don’t tell them where you are.”
“I’ll tell them I’m staying with a friend.” She found her eyes drawn to the picture of Alex on the Harley once again. “What’s going to happen to your son?”
Anna’s smile faltered, and she sighed. “I think Alex is in a bit of trouble of his own now.” Then the smile returned. “But knowing him, he’ll manage to find his way out of it again. Like his brothers and sister, he’s quite ingenious.”
“I owe him.” She spoke ruefully, suddenly realizing how foolishly she’d behaved. “If it hadn’t been for him…” Her voice broke.
“No need to bring that up again, honey. Just let the dead past bury its dead.”
An apt expression, Laura thought. She suddenly wished Alex was here right now. She’d never taken the opportunity to thank him. All she’d done was complain and make his life even more difficult. He’d saved her from that animal, and she’d never even thanked him.
With a pang of concern, she realized that his whole family was now at risk.
She faltered, “I’m so sorry about all of this.”
“Oh, honey.” Anna wrapped her in a loving embrace. “You are not to blame, Laura.” Then, as she held her at arm’s length, fixing her with an intent gaze, she added, “Only that horrible man Boris is to blame. No one else, and most definitely not you. So don’t apologize, all right?”
Laura managed a weak smile. “All right. Thank you, Anna.”
“Don’t mention it. We girls have to stick together.” She patted her knee. “And now you eat. You look like you haven’t had a bite in days.”
“Oh, no. I couldn’t possibly—”
“Nonsense,” the older woman tutted. “You come with me. I’ll make sure you forget all about what happened. You eat and you’ll feel better. That’s a promise. Anna Petrov’s food makes everybody feel better. Just you wait and see.”
As she followed Anna down a narrow corridor to the kitchen in the back of the house, she realized she felt much better already.
CHAPTER 9
“I’ll see what I can do, Alex.”
Alex looked at the old man. Vyacheslav Kovshevnikov was a dear friend of the Petrov family and loyal to a fault. If he said he would take care of things, he would. He clapped the man on the back. “Thanks, buddy. I appreciate it.”
Vyacheslav pushed his ragged cap higher up his bald pate and scratched his grimy brow. “Now if you ever bring me a present again, wrapped up like this and all? I’d appreciate it if it was a stereo or a flatscreen or something. Anything but a dead mobster.”
“Only this one time, Vyacheslav. I swear.”
“You Petrovs have a way of springing a surprise on a fella.”
“Well, it’s not as if we’re making it a habit to bring you dead guys, now is it, Vyacheslav?” said Rob.
They were standing outside the ramshackle trailer that Vyacheslav called his office, staring down at the carpet containing Boris. Vyacheslav had a way of making people disappear, and had probably put more stiffs in cement than any other contractor in the state of New York.
“As it happens, I’m working a construction site out in Brooklyn,” he muttered, thinking hard. “We’ll be pouring foundation over the next couple of days. New local branch of Bank of America.”
Rob emitted an amused chuckle. “Boris will be thrilled to know he played his part in making corporate America great.”
“Only thing is, I have to keep him here tonight.” He darted a critical eye at the carpet.
Alex studied a bulldozer haphazardly parked between the shack and a pile of rebars. “Don’t you have a cooler or something? Put him in with your brewskis?”
“Nah. Big guy like him? He’ll never fit.” He pondered his options the same way he approached his construction business. Without allowing emotion to cloud sound judgment. “I could put him up at Koshkov’s. He’s got that meat room, remember?”
“Right.”
“When I tell him he’ll be doing the Petrovs a favor, he’ll jump at the chance.”
Alarmed, Alex said, “Uh-uh. Don’t breathe a word to anyone. Not even your boys.”
“Sure thing, A
lex,” said Vyacheslav, still rubbing his chin. “Other possibility is I could stuff him in the freezer. Thing is, he’ll turn into a popsicle overnight.”
Rob grinned. “That’s great. I’m sure Boris always wanted to be a popsicle.”
The contractor shook his bald head, his jowly face creased into an intense frown. “Not so great. Ice and concrete don’t mix. Reacts with the cement. I’d have to thaw him out first.” He heaved a deep sigh, the complexities of this job clearly preying on his mind, such as it was.
Rob slapped him on the meaty back. “I’m sure you’ll figure it out. Wouldn’t be the first time, huh?”
“Sure, sure,” Vyacheslav admitted. “Only, those guys weren’t as big as Boris. Big ass guy like him needs a big ass block of concrete. Otherwise you get cracks, see? And Bank of America don’t like cracks, see?”
“Who does?” murmured Rob, lowering his eyes to Vyacheslav’s substantial seat of the pants.
“You could always dump him in the East River,” suggested Alex.
“I could do that,” nodded Vyacheslav, eyes still riveted on the carpet, now thoroughly conflicted. “But he might float, you know. Fat guy like Boris? Gaseous as heck? We might have a floater on our hands.” He pondered some more, then finally sighed. “Nope. Concrete’s the way to go. Won’t be good for the foundation, but we’ll have to take our chances.” He wagged a censorious finger. “Gotta watch out for them cracks, boys. This ain’t no laughing matter.”
Alex couldn’t have agreed more, though from the look on Rob’s face, the latter found the exchange of ideas on how best to dispose of the late Boris Sarnovsky quite amusing. “I’m sure you’ll make us proud, Vyacheslav.”
“And Bank of America,” muttered Rob.
As the two brothers walked away and left Vyacheslav to his musings, Rob let out the guffaw he’d been holding inside.
Even Alex had to smile. “Can’t believe Vyacheslav is making such a fuss. I’ve never known him to have such qualms over dumping a dead body before.”
“Vyacheslav’s getting fussy in his old age,” opined Rob. “I think it’s about time he retired and left his business to the boys.”
“The Vlads still slaving away?”
“Sure. Vyacheslav won’t let either of them take charge of the place. Keeps the reins firmly in his own hands.”
“Pity.”
The two men strode to the truck in silence as Alex contemplated that ‘the boys’, twins Vladimir and Vladislav, affectionately known as the Vlads, were now grown men, and as big as the houses they constructed, but still firmly under daddy’s thumb.
“Wonder what Darlene is thinking right now,” Rob suddenly remarked.
It was one topic of conversation Alex wasn’t so keen to engage in. “I have to call her,” he sighed. “Let her know I can’t see her for a while.”
“She’ll be thrilled.”
“She’ll be pissed.”
“That’s what I meant.” Rob popped him a sideways glance. “You sure you want to go through with this?”
Alex hated to admit it, but he was having second thoughts about Darlene. Perhaps, he thought, it was just as well that this had happened. It provided him with some much-needed respite. And then there was Laura, who had been more on his mind than his official girlfriend. It told him everything he needed to know. He sighed again, and took his phone from his pocket. “I’ll give her a call.”
“Are you going to tell her what happened?”
“Of course not. I’ll tell her…” What, exactly? He couldn’t tell her the truth. “I’ll tell her something,” he concluded quite lamely.
Rob laughed. “You do that, buddy. Tell her something.”
Before he could put in the call, his phone chimed, and he saw that Darlene had beaten him to the punch. With some trepidation, he picked up. “Hello, honey. No, I haven’t been ignoring you. Battery problems. Yeah, that’s right.”
Rob rolled his eyes and gave his brother a prod in the ribs. In response, Alex took Rob’s head in a death grip. As a consequence of the ensuing struggle, his phone fell to the ground and shattered on impact. Alex stared at the wreckage.
Rob shrugged. “I guess the universe is telling you something, bro.”
Alex thoughtfully nodded while he retrieved his SIM. “I guess it is.”
CHAPTER 10
Laura gestured to the placemats. “Are you sure this is fine?”
Anna looked up from the pot roast she had stewing on the stove. “That’s fine, honey.” She smiled, then brushed a tendril of hair from her brow. “If only I’d known they were all coming, I’d have prepared a turkey. Only happens every so often that all of them drop in at once.”
After the events of that day, a family meeting had been called, and all of Alex’s siblings were coming home. As Laura’s eyed surveyed the Petrov kitchen, she wondered how they would all fit in here. The place hardly seemed capable of holding a dozen people, but she figured it must have, for Anna had told her this was the house where they’d all grown up.
Doling out plates and putting down cutlery for eleven, she ventured a stab at conversation. “It can’t have been easy, raising eight kids.”
“You just take it one day at a time,” Anna said as she stirred the stew, then brought the wooden spoon to her lips. She smiled, content with the result. “If someone had told me we would have eight kids, I would never have thought us capable of handling such a big family, but it doesn’t work like that. We had Michael first, and that was fine. Then Peter came along, and we adjusted. Then Erik and Diana, soon followed by Robert, and then, finally, the twins. And just when we thought we were all done, I got pregnant with Aleksander. That was quite the surprise. A spring baby.”
“He’s the youngest of the bunch?”
“Yep. Alex is the Benjamin. Never had as much trouble with the others as I had with Alex. But then he was always such a sweetheart I didn’t really mind.”
Laura smiled. She could see how Alex would bring his own little pack of trouble into this world. “He was a pain in the ass as a kid, was he?”
“Oh, he sure was. For one thing, he could never sit still for one second. Always running about. A real bundle of energy, that one. And then later, when he was all grown up, there were all the girls, of course.”
Laura frowned, and couldn’t suppress a stab of discomfort at this information. Yes, she could see how Alex would be popular with the girls. “He had a lot of girlfriends?”
“Sure. Dozens. I think pretty much every girl in the neighborhood at one time or another called herself his girlfriend.” She grinned. “His brothers were extremely jealous. He was the youngest, but he got all the action, they always said. They thought it just wasn’t fair.”
“And now he’s got Darlene,” she stated matter-of-factly, not letting on how she felt about the woman.
Anna sighed and wiped her hands on her apron. “Darlene Harvey.” She spoke the name as if it was cursed. “What he sees in her I’m sure I’ll never know.”
Neither did Laura, if she was absolutely honest. But of course, she didn’t care. Darlene was Alex’s business. Not hers.
Anna slapped a hand to her brow. “How silly of me. You must know Darlene pretty well, don’t you? Being colleagues and all?”
She inclined her head. “Yes, I guess you could say that. Though she’s not really a colleague. She’s my boss now.”
“How is she? As a boss, I mean?”
Laura grimaced and wondered how much she should reveal, but then found she’d already said enough.
Anna laughed. “Don’t tell me. You don’t like her very much, do you?”
Laura shrugged. “At work, she’s not a very nice person. Which doesn’t make her a bad human being, of course. Just that she’s never been very nice to me.”
“She’s a bitch,” stated Anna, and this time it was Laura’s turn to laugh.
“She is a bitch,” she confirmed. “All the girls hate her guts. She used to be one of us, and even though she was never really the kin
dest person, she was okay. Ever since she was promoted, she’s turned into some kind of dictator, bossing us around all the time and being totally unreasonable.”
Anna sighed. “It is often the way. Being in charge brings out the worst in some people and the best in others. I think it shows a person’s true colors in a way you simply can’t predict.”
It was true, Laura thought. Darlene’s true colors were the green of envy and the red of being royally pissed twenty-four seven.
“How long have they been an item?”
“Only a couple of weeks. When Alex brought her home, I thought she was nice enough. A superficial sort of person, sure, but pleasant, in a way. Then I heard all the stories, and I noticed how she would pester Alex all the time. I mean, call him every hour, on the hour. Demanding to know where he was, what he was doing, and who he was doing it with. Stalking him, if you know what I mean. Being bossy and downright impossible.” She sighed again. “Look, if she’s what Alex wants, who am I to cavil, right? I mean, it’s his life, and very soon now, he’ll probably want to move in with her and he’ll be out of my hair.”
Though she’d spoken lightly, Laura sensed the loss of her youngest to a woman like Darlene Harvey was hard on Anna. “He still lives at home?”
“He does. All the others have flown the nest. With Darlene in the picture, Alex will be the last one to leave.” She spoke wistfully, taking a seat at the kitchen table.
“Then it will be just you and Valery.”
“That’s right. We’re going on a cruise, you know. To celebrate being alone again, at last.” She laughed. “That came out all wrong! Let’s just say we’re celebrating us. After thirty-two years, it’s going to be just Valery and me again, and I don’t mind admitting it will take a little adjusting. That’s where the cruise comes in. Our second honeymoon, if you will.” Then her face clouded. “Though with all that has happened I doubt whether we’ll still be going.”