A nervous energy filled the room. Both Lieutenant Jones and I knew that wouldn’t be too difficult for me, considering my background. The way Davis studied me told me she also knew that wouldn’t be much of a sacrifice.
“Would that be something doable?” she questioned.
“That would be fine.” I kept my voice steady and the edge of excitement out of each syllable. “When would I begin the assignment?”
“Tomorrow.”
I glanced at Lieutenant Jones who still looked annoyed, but not about my being offered an opportunity, more about who was doing the offering. I knew I wouldn’t be given any details unless I accepted, and I was a curious person by nature.
“You can go back to your apartment to grab what you need, but you can’t bring anything identifiable with you. Grab shoes, clothes, toiletries, but nothing with your name or address on it. We’ll have your new identification waiting for you in your temporary housing.”
“Who will look after my apartment if I accept?” I asked.
“The department will take care of everything until you return. It will be just as you left it.” She stood up from the chair and reached over the desk to shake the Lieutenant’s hand before I had a chance to ask anything else. Her eyes flashed back to mine. “If you’re interested, come with me. We’ll discuss the details in the conference room.”
I nodded, stood up, and slid one last glance toward Jones and he caught it.
“Good luck.” He smiled and shook my hand, and I wondered what in the world I just agreed to. “Stay safe out there.”
I wandered out of his office almost in a daze as I spotted her rapidly walking into the conference room across from the cubicles. Two men were sitting around the table and it looked as if a presentation was about to begin.
I drew in a deep breath and looked back at Lieutenant Jones, who was already on the phone. He gestured for me to keep walking, which I did.
I made my way past the maze of cubicles until I landed in front of the conference room where they were quickly closing the blinds along the glass wall and motioning for me to come inside.
A man with light blond hair stood up and greeted me. He was probably my age or a little deeper into his thirties. He seemed kinder than Davis or at least he was a better actor.
“That’s Ellis with the FBI,” she informed me before pointing at the other guy, who looked to be in his late forties with salt and pepper hair. “And that’s Rodriguez from the ATF. You won’t see them after today.” She sat at the head of the table, and I sat in an empty chair next to her as Ellis turned out the lights and closed the door as Rodriguez turned on the projector. The screen filled up with four extremely good-looking men.
“These are the Volkov brothers.” There was a tremor of excitement weaving through her words. “They run the V Mafia. Their cover is Wolf Industries.”
Ellis slid a file across the table.
“You name it, they’ve done it,” she continued, but I already knew all about the V Mafia. They control the streets of New York while writing checks to cover their tracks and pave the way for their activities.
Any time one of us got close to something they were involved with, we were suddenly off the case, and it was handed over to, I assume, the people I’m sitting in front of.
Yet, they remained on the streets.
I kept my eyes on the frozen image of the four men. They were all attractive with dark hair, striking blue eyes, and bodies that rivaled most movie stars, but I knew what they were capable of. I reached for the folder and opened it up to see an image of a restaurant on the top sheet.
“That’s Meta. One of the hottest restaurants and bars in town. The Volkovs just opened it up. The place has a regular clientele of assholes running through it day in and day out. We’ve tried to get three different operatives in there.” She stopped talking.
I looked up at her.
“And that’s where you come in.” Her thin eyebrow rose.
“What do you mean?” I asked, sitting back in the chair.
“Management seems to go for a certain look,” she began. “And you fit it.”
My heart fell with the realization I was only tapped because of my hair color.
“Don’t get your feelings hurt. You’re an excellent officer. I wouldn’t send someone in who wasn’t. I also know you worked your way through college as a server.”
“How do you know I won’t be recognized?” I asked, flipping to the next page.
“You were in a dry suit and goggles when the press last featured you,” she said wryly. “Don’t let your fame go to your head.”
I bristled at how she spoke to me, but I knew better than to say anything.
“We’ve got word that in the next six months, the Volkovs are expecting three large shipments into the port.”
“Of what?” I asked.
Davis traded a glance with Rodriguez. “Weapons, mainly. We’re not sure what else.”
“One already came through and we missed it. We need to know how they’re getting it through the Port Authority.” She smiled and flipped to the next slide with an image of one of the younger brothers, if I were to guess.
“This is Devin Volkov. Devin does a lot of the dirty work. . . or at least he used to until his brothers began worrying about him screwing up,” she continued. “Devin’s begun his own side business. The brothers don’t know about it. That misstep offers us—you—the perfect opportunity to sneak into his world. If we can learn about what he’s up to on a grander scale, it might offer us the leverage we need to bring the brothers down.”
Rodriguez slid a piece of paper over to me. “This is your resume.”
I looked over the sheet. My name was no longer Lara Avery. I was now Avery Hill with lengthy experience as a hostess and waitress at several upscale eateries.
“We can’t be sure that you’ll be hired, but if you are, we need your full commitment. You won’t be allowed to reach out to the department in any way for any reason. It’s far too dangerous. Your studio apartment will be wired. Any written correspondence, we ask you to place on your desk before shredding it. We will be able to scan the image from one of our cameras. Anything you feel needs to be communicated verbally can be said in the privacy of your apartment and we will pick it up. If you’re ever in your apartment with someone and your life is in danger, we need you to say, I wish I could go back to Idaho. We will be there in less than two minutes.”
“How do you know it will only take two minutes?” I asked.
“Because we’re stationed on the floor above you,” she answered and a sick feeling settled deep into my bones.
The idea of being watched at all hours of the day and night was unsettling.
“These are dangerous men, Officer Avery. The sooner we have leverage, the sooner we can get the Volkovs off the streets. You will save countless lives. “The Volkovs don’t play by any rules they don’t create, and they have absolutely no problem getting rid of people who get in their way.” Her cool eyes stayed on mine as she watched me formulate questions I’d never get answers to. “We ask that you do what it takes to get the answers we need.”
“You can’t be sure I’ll be hired.”
“The guy in charge of hiring at Meta has a type. We overlooked it before but not this time,” she assured me.
“If you don’t get in, it wasn’t meant to be,” Rodriguez added.
Lieutenant Davis flipped to another slide, and my world melded into theirs as I learned about the Volkovs and why they needed to be stopped.
Chapter Two
Devin
“No fraternizing with employees,” Jaxson warned, his tone slightly teasing as I watched the new waitress fluttering around the bar.
There was something unique about her that pulled me in. She had a confidence that vibrated through the room, and her beauty lit me up.
Hard.
She didn’t belong here. I could sense that with every sideways glance she sent our way.
“Avery’s a good gir
l and doesn’t need to be brought down to your level,” Jaxson continued his do-gooding.
My brother was right, but I was kind of surprised he knew the server’s name. She hadn’t even made her way to the table yet. He usually didn’t get that deep into the weeds of our businesses, especially not down to every cocktail waitress and hostess name.
I reluctantly ripped my eyes away from the woman I could now call Avery. She was standing next to one of the bartenders that Jax dated briefly.
I hid a smile. He really was one to talk.
“Never in a million years.” I sighed, hoping I could order a drink soon.
I snuck another look in her direction and couldn’t believe how her presence fazed me. I definitely needed to stay away from her.
“So, you’re telling me the encrypted file that we got our hands on last night came up empty?” Drake eyed my brother, Blake, cautiously.
Blake had only recently come back into the fold. He’d taken time away from our family’s endeavors to play soccer professionally. None of us blamed him. I was sure every single one of us had imagined a different life, but that wasn’t the family any of us had been born into. It wasn’t until Blake had a career-ending injury that he came back into our world, and he was still learning the ropes.
It wasn’t like our lives were horrible. We’d experienced more luxury than most could dream of. We never had to worry about much of anything, beyond staying alive, but I knew there was a change brewing in our organization. I could sense a shift away from the dealings that brought our family great wealth and power. I didn’t understand where this shift was coming from, but the undercurrent was there. I understood wanting to legitimize as many of our dealings as possible, but I knew we couldn’t abandon the other world we ran. I brought my eyes back to Blake.
“That’s exactly what I’m telling you. Either Joel didn’t get into the right system or they were onto us and deleted all the files.” Blake swirled the ice in his water glass and sat it back on the table without taking a sip.
“Impossible. There’s no way they could have known what we were after.” Jaxson’s jaw clenched as he thought about our options.
After my father’s death, he and my mother oversaw our family businesses. Jaxson became the Pakhan, or mob boss, for the Bratva. “Joel must have hacked the wrong system.”
I snuck another look in Avery’s direction, but she wasn’t there. I tried to shake myself out of it. It was a exhausting always feeling like I had to go after every shiny, new object.
Maybe that was the problem. Women weren’t objects, but I treated them that way to suit my needs.
I gritted my teeth.
Ever since starting the therapy shit, my world had become filled with overanalyzing myself and reasoning my choices to death when there was never anything reasonable about my decisions in the first place. I was impulsive.
Voices raised around the table, and I brought my attention back to my brothers.
“I highly doubt that. You said Joel was the best.” Blake stared at Jax, who nodded in agreement.
“He is, but even the best can make a mistake.” Jax drew in a heavy breath.
“My guess is they knew ahead of time,” I told Jaxson. “I’ve worked with Joel on some of the most insane projects and never once did he get it wrong. Not only that, he tends to take a wide sweep of data, so if files have been deleted, he would see evidence of that in the history. He didn’t make a mistake.”
I knew it wasn’t a scenario Jax would want to think about, but we needed to deal with the possibilities of a rat. It wouldn’t be the first time a situation like that arose in our history.
“Then who exactly would have informed them that we were on the prowl?” Jaxson’s expression hardened, still not wanting to believe what this meant. “I don’t buy it.”
“I tend to agree with Devin,” Drake said, rather gruffly, rubbing his eyes.
Drake wasn’t getting much sleep since his newborn arrived. I felt for the guy. The only reason I lost any sleep was because of some midnight gambling, a bit too much partying, or a rendezvous of another sort.
“I’m willing to bet we’ve got a leak in the ship,” Drake said, lowering his voice.
I tried not to laugh at my brother’s not-so cryptic wording.
“Yeah. A definite leak in the old ship.” I grinned at my brother and he rolled his eyes.
“Nothing worse than a leaky ship.” Blake laughed, teasing Drake.
“We don’t have time for games.” Jaxson sat up straighter. “In less than four weeks, the biggest shipment of our lives will be sailing into port. Do you think it’s something to laugh about? Not getting the manifestos and—”
“If we don’t laugh a little, Jax. . .” I took a sip of my water, wishing it was a stinging liquid that coated my throat instead. “Then we’d all want to jump off the Brooklyn Bridge and never come up, and you’d have no one left to order around. We can’t all be as severe and staid as you are. There’s still life in us.”
A wry grin spread across Jax’s mouth and he shook his head.
“You think I’m dead inside.” His eyes narrowed on mine.
“I think it’s a definite possibility.” I laughed and so did he. “I’ll go back to the office and see who’s been involved with this project, look over their emails, messages, and cell logs.”
Drake’s brow rose in surprise. I wasn’t usually the brother who’d head back to the office for a midnight work session.
“If it’s one of our boys who’s the informant, it’s better to deal with it now than later,” Drake said solemnly.
I glanced in the direction of Avery and watched her make her way to the bar. A man’s hand grazed along her ass and my fists clenched, and before I had time to get really angry, the guy spilled a drink on her dress and stood back to get a look.
What kind of place were we running here?
“Hey, did you see that?” I snapped my fingers, and my brothers turned their attention to the bar where several men came to the feigned rescue of Avery. “That jerk spilled his drink on her on purpose.”
I watched Avery quickly head out of the bar and back toward the break room with another server right behind her.
“You really think so?” Jax asked, glancing at the men high-fiving one another.
My brow rose. “I think it’s a safe assumption. We need to get rid of those uniforms, buy a darker color for the dress or something.”
“Don’t like customers getting a little handsy with your next conquest?” Drake hid a smile I didn’t appreciate, but I let it slide.
“Very well, white knight.” Jaxson glanced at my brothers who all looked like they were holding in laughter. “New uniforms for Meta.”
I leaned into the table. “You think getting involved with what I just saw happen is because I want to get with her? I wouldn’t have to go that much trouble.” I shook my head. “That guy’s hand was on her ass. Is that the kind of establishment you want to run?”
“Absolutely not,” Jax said flatly, amusement running through his gaze. “But I’ve never seen you care much about anything besides. . .”
“Whatever.”
A server came over and began taking our drink order, but Jax interrupted her. “Do you mind sending Avery over to take care of our table?” Jax stared at me. “We want to make sure our newest hire is up to speed. See if she got rattled after the drink incident.”
“Absolutely, Mr. Volkov.” She smiled even wider, probably hoping the latest hire wouldn’t pass the muster, and bounded off to her next table.
“Consider it a favor.” Jax looked over at me.
“I don’t need any favors from you. Besides, we need to solve this problem or we’ll be having more than a few uniforms that need changing. We’ll lose all our staff. A sexual harassment lawsuit is right around the corner.”
“You just want to swoop in to save the day for her,” Jax continued. “That’s how you operate.”
“Not even close.”
My brothers
always assumed I had ulterior motives or would screw shit up. I admit I might party a little too hard now and again, but what we did for a living was wearing. Every so often, I needed a break. It wasn’t like my actions ever hurt the family business. I always separated my private life from my professional one.
“Who doesn’t have a sense of humor now?” Jax laughed. “I only think you like this girl. That’s all.”
“I don’t know her enough to like her or care one way or another.”
“Like that’s ever stopped you before.” Jax kept laughing.
“How’s it going with Jenn?” I asked, sitting a little farther back. “That was the bartender’s name right? Or was it Jessica. Should I call her over? Get the scoop from her?”
“Alright you two. Don’t make me call in Mama V.” Blake patted my shoulder. “You guys haven’t even started drinking yet.”
“I’ll look into what we discussed tonight, and I’ll put a report on your desk for morning,” I told Jax.
My mom never knew half the shit we disagreed about or she’d wonder how our organization ran so smoothly. As long as Jax and I kept it professional, things moved forward at a brisk pace. Once we started getting into the personal realms of brotherhood, the gloves came off and he became a complete prick.
It wasn’t like his life was perfect. After his divorce, we could barely scrape him off the floor, but I never brought that up. I didn’t believe in rubbing someone’s nose in their worst behavior. I moved on.
Jax doesn’t understand how to do that, though. His enjoyment comes from cataloging and reminding a person of all their faults and mistakes in life. Always a fun time.
I looked around the restaurant, still not seeing Avery.
“Thanks for going to the office,” Jax said, trying to soften his approach.
“No problem. It’s my job.”
“She’s still on break,” Blake whispered.
“I didn’t ask.”
“You didn’t have to.” Drake shrugged, answering for Blake.
The problem was that even after all my gripes with my brothers we were a close family. They knew me better than I knew myself, and at times I hated them for it.
Blake: A Romantic Suspense (V Mafia Series Book 1) Page 23