by Sadie Jacks
“Someone had reached out to me through the Foundation. Said they had information on Amara. That they would only give it to me.”
“When did this information come through?” Turo demanded. “Why wasn’t I appraised of it? Why not Momma? Or Mas?”
I flinched as every question felt like a blow. Because I wanted to show I could play with the boys. But I could never tell them that.
“She’s here? She’s on the line? Talia!” Jessa screamed. “For the love of the goddess, you better fucking answer me, woman!”
“I’m here, Jessa.”
I heard her sobbing breath through the phone. “Ksenia has been frantic. She said you got kidnapped and no one could find you.”
My brow furrowed. “Ksenia?” The confusingly meek and strong woman Nik had picked up at the gym?
“Yes. Apparently she’s some kind of sensitive or something. I don’t understand it, but she’s been almost killing herself trying to find you.”
“I told her to leave it with us,” Rafe snarled. “That woman has no right butting into our family business.”
“All of you will leave if you cannot shut up. I am asking Talia questions. You all keep interrupting her answers. Now, be quiet, or leave,” Momma said softly. Her words landed with all of the subtlety of a nuke.
Once the line had been quiet for a second, Momma spoke up again. “Now, figlia, answer my questions. When did the information come through?”
“When Turo and Nik were in Whiteface,” I said softly. I was going to be in so much shit.
Momma’s loud nasal inhale heralded my punishment. “Figlia.”
My shoulders tensed up. “I know, I know.” How she made me feel like I was some errant teenager again with just one word never ceased to amaze and infuriate me.
“You’ve had this information for over a month and said nothing?” Turo asked. No longer was he my older brother. No, now he was the second in command of the Family.
I winced, but shook back my shoulders, even though they couldn’t see. “Yes. And I would do it again. There was no credible evidence that they actually had the information. Just supposition and nagging contacts. Apparently, they were looking for an Italian ally, and put themselves in a position to get the information on Amara.”
“But why go through you?” Turo asked.
If he’d stabbed me in the belly with a rusty sword, it would have hurt less. “Because I’m a valuable member of this family, just like anyone else!” The words were out of my mouth before I could stop them.
You know what? Screw them, my inner bitch said. “Because my position as the head of the Amatucci Foundation puts me in contact with all kinds of people. People that don’t want extra scrutiny. People who have nothing to do with law enforcement or the shadier side of things that we do. Because they knew that I would have the best chance of getting their information without having to run it through eighteen million people just to get a face to face with you or Momma.”
My breath was heaving by the time the verbal vomit was under control. More tears pricked my eyes, but they were angry tears now.
“Figlia, you are an important part of our family,” Momma said softly. “We do not think you any less than your brothers.”
I bit my lip. Held my silence.
I heard noise outside the door. Voices.
“Shit. They’re back. I’ve got to go. I’ll try to call again later. I love all of you.” I hit the disconnect button, shoved the phone back up on the ledge. Just as my butt hit the mattress, the wheel started to turn.
Please let it be Arkady. Please let it be Arkady. Please let it be Arkady.
A bald head slid into view.
Shit.
Chapter 22 – Foster
A cold slap of wind jolted me awake. I stared up at the sky, vibrant pinks and blues painted the expanse as far as I could see. Mornings were my favorite time of day. Everything was fresh and new. Not sullied by the secrets and lies that eventually came to ruin everything.
“Ser? Ty v poryadke?” Sir? Are you okay? A man asked as he stood over me. Dressed in a long trench coat, a briefcase in one hand, an insulated cup in the other, he peered down at me.
I nodded. Rolled to my hands and knees. Blowing out a breath as the world spun on a different axis, I waited for my belly to settle before getting to my feet. Turning, I said, “YA khorosho, spasibo.” I’m fine, thanks.
Dusting the new snow off my clothes, I walked away. I had to get back to the safe house. Get a hold of Nik and Turo. Start looking for the Kuznetsov family as soon as possible. Not to mention find out what the hell Karine was talking about.
When I was almost back to the apartment, I pulled the burner phone from my pocket. One missed call from Nik. Pleasantly surprised that I had about twenty-five percent battery life left, I hit the redial button.
“We heard from Talia,” Nik said as soon as the call connected.
I stumbled on my way up the stairs. My mind blanked for a second. “How? When? What did she say?”
“Hold on. I’m getting everyone back on the phone.”
I gritted my teeth as I rushed the rest of the way up to the safe house. Getting the phone hooked to a charger was priority number one. Getting more information from Nik was a very close second.
“I’m here,” Ryker called.
“We are, too,” Momma said. “But we need to make this fast. Papa needs to get his sleep.”
Talia’s other brothers joined in.
“Where is she?” Mas asked in his low, broken whisper voice.
“She’s in Russia. My local contact says Kuznetsov is an old family,” I said quickly.
“Tali gave us the name. Barrikad Kuznetsov. From what I can see, he’s a direct descendant of Gustav Kuznetsov. Boss of the Kuznetsov family. And the one in charge when Papa was in Stockholm,” Nik said.
I blew out a whistle. “I need you to start running a Karine Petrova. Something she said…she’s in this. I’m not sure how yet, but she’s at the center of it.”
“I want a status update, Foster. Now,” Momma said.
I didn’t even try to mislead her. Her tone was sharp enough to flay me alive. And that was through the phone. For once, I was glad to be in Russia and not within striking distance of the head of the Amatucci Family. “I hadn’t gotten as far as Barrikad being in charge, but Kuznetsov was my next call to Nik. According to my source, the information he gave me was right. I asked if he was lying. I believed him when he said he wasn’t. If he can do some digging on his side, we can get some answers on our end, we can figure out who is sitting between us stirring the pot.”
“And you think this Petrova is part of it?” Turo asked.
“Yes.”
“Why?” Ryker asked. “What does an unaffiliated third party have to do with Tali’s kidnapping?”
“She’s not exactly unaffiliated,” I said in a soft voice. Shit was about to hit the fan. “We were…involved…while I was stationed here. She knew me as Maks. But tonight,” I looked out the window glared at the bright morning sun, “last night, she cal—”
“She called you Foster Ambright,” Nik said. “I recorded the call.”
“Yeah. Said she was going to send my bitch to hell with me.”
“And you’re just now getting around to telling us this?” Momma asked. No longer were her words frozen and sharp. No, now they were hotter than the fires of the hell I should be in.
“She had a secondary. Knocked me out. I literally just woke up on the sidewalk.”
“How did you get hooked up with Karine back in the day?” Ryker asked.
“I was on surveillance. That’s all I can tell you.”
“Will my daughter be killed due to your loyalty to a job you no longer hold?” Papa asked, his voice whisper thin.
I tipped my head back, fought with myself. But he was right. “Nik, I need this line to be secure.”
“Already did that, numb nuts. Spill.”
My mouth kicked up at the corner at her sass. “This goes no
where. And I mean nowhere. Only because I feel responsible for Talia’s current location am I sharing this.”
“We know how to keep secrets, Foster. Just spit it out,” Ryker said, a deep throaty growl in his voice.
Yeah, I guess they all did.
“Karine Petrova was a go-between for WMD transport. I needed to get through her defenses. Get her to open up to me.”
“You seduced her,” Mas said.
“Yes. Once I got the information from her that I needed, I cut and run.”
“Was she running nukes?” Turo asked.
“She wasn’t specifically, but she was the broker who handled the logistics.”
“That’s splitting hairs, Foster. Why didn’t she get swept up?” Turo asked. I could hear the anger in his voice.
“That was never my problem or my job. I did my job and left.” I’d run away, afraid I’d lose the rest of what little soul I still retained after so long in a job built on lies and mistrust.
“Then it seems she didn’t think your job was completed if she’s coming after you now. And if she’s using my daughter to do so,” Papa said.
I nodded, scrubbed a hand over my face. I knew what needed to be done. But I didn’t want to do it. “That’s what I think as well. I’ll need to go back to the Agency, find the case files.”
Nik snorted.
So did Ryker.
“If you think you’re going back there so they can put their hooks into you even deeper, you’re even stupider than I gave you credit for,” Nik said. “And I didn’t give you a lot of credit to begin with. We’ll figure out how to get the case files.”
“What she said. But hear this, Foster. If this Karine is part of the kidnapping of my figlia, then she will die. Make sure you are at peace with this,” Papa said.
“Is there actually information on Amara?” Mas asked before I could answer Papa.
I was of the opinion that the world would be better off without Karine Petrova in it. Papa had my blessing to obliterate Karine. Hell, I’d hit the button.
“I don’t know, Mas. I was teaching Tali how to spot tails, check for bugs, and how to lie without getting caught, how to read body language. She’s an excellent student. The only reason I found out about the drop was because I’d overheard her making plans for it. Once she saw me, she shut the call down. Iced me out.”
I fought to keep the memories from invading. Fought to keep them at bay. Now was not the time to relive another fantasy. Not with her family on the phone with me fearing for their daughter’s and sister’s life.
“Girls’ night,” Nik said. “That’s when you rushed in and demanded we do something. She got the call or text or notification to meet on girls’ night.”
“Yeah.”
“I’ll go back through her stuff at the Foundation. See if I can find where the initial contact was made. See if I can find the contact through back tracing. If we can do that, we still might be able to get the information on Amara, if there is any.”
“I’ll head to Russia,” Mas said. “Tell me when you have something, sorella.” A low click sounded.
“Looks like you’re going to get an Amatucci travel companion after all, fucker,” Rafe said. “If my sister has sustained any further damage, I will be taking it from your flesh. I’ll get you a list for a medic bag. Get everything on it.” He hung up as well.
“Do you have any resources in the Moscow region?” I asked the remaining family members.
“I do. I will call and see if they are available to help,” Momma asked. “Bring my baby girl, home, Foster.”
“I will, Momma.”
“She’s gone. It’s just us,” Nik said. “Turo, Ryker, Nico, and me.”
“Is there anything we can do from a legal standpoint?” I asked the lawyer in the family.
Nico snorted. “Yeah, get her home, kill everyone else. International relations are a little strained between Russia and the US right now. Politics are a shit show. We need to keep this under the radar. If you get authorities involved, you get her killed.”
I knew what he was going to say before the next words left his mouth. “If she dies, I die.”
“Don’t get cocky, Ambright. You haven’t seen me angry yet. You don’t want to,” Nico said. “Bring my sister home.”
“Aaaaand, he’s gone, too,” Nik announced.
“Where are we with the other information, Nik?” I asked.
“What information?” Turo demanded.
“The information on Papa’s brothers,” I clarified. “If I can make contact with them, see if they’re trustworthy, they might be good boots on the ground.”
“If they disappeared after the Stockholm situation, why do you think they would help now?” Turo asked.
I shrugged. “I don’t know. But just Mas and me against a Soviet mafia family? We’ll all get killed. Including Talia. I need to know what resources I have, Turo.”
“I’ll see what I can get to you,” Ryker said. “How many do you think you’ll need?”
I shook my head. “I have no idea. I still need information on the Kuznetsov group before I can do anything. Running around Russia looking for a secretive group is the best way to get dead before I can find anything, let alone find and rescue Talia.”
Something that had been banging around in my mind finally shouted loud enough I could grasp the thought. “Who knew that Papa was the Amatucci in Stockholm that day? Was it widely spread news?”
Turo snorted. “I doubt it. Even back then, plans would have been kept quiet.”
“Then how did Kuznetsov even find out about Papa?”
“What do you mean? Gustav would have been there. He would have known the Amatucci family was to blame,” Nik said.
“But how? Papa isn’t even sure that it was his brothers who killed the Russians. How could Kuznetsov know?”
The line was quiet.
“Nik, pull up the information you sent me.”
My mind was chasing a thread. I had no idea where it was going, but I knew I had to follow it. “Why now? Why Talia? Why this blood debt? We’re missing something.” I let out a snarl of frustration. “Okay, we need to put ourselves in their shoes. We’re out on holiday. A rival group comes up, starts throwing their weight around. Two of their guys end up dead. Two of our guys disappear.”
“The natural assumption is that our two Houdinis were the killers of their two men,” Ryker said. “Occam’s Razor.”
“Exactly. But it’s not like the Amatuccis are a group of hotheaded idiots who go off at the slightest insult. They’re thinkers, planners. So it doesn’t make sense. Just because it’s the simplest answer, doesn’t automatically make it the right one. What if someone else was there? What if someone else wanted to start trouble and the Amatuccis and Kuznetsovs were just the first shot?”
“I’ve got the information pulled up, Foster. What do you need?” Nik asked.
“Is there any evidence that the Amatucci brothers killed Kuznetsov family members?”
“Let me check.”
I waited in painful silence for her to read.
“No. There was no official investigation. Kuznetsov removed their dead, paid off the authorities.”
“When did the Amatuccis discover that the two brothers were gone?” Ryker asked.
“Later that afternoon when Kuznetsov paid them a visit,” Turo said. “That’s what Papa said anyways.”
“No. That’s not right. At least not according to this. This says that the Amatuccis knew all along that their brothers were missing,” Nik interrupted.
There it was. “Someone is playing both sides.” I slammed my hand down on the table. This is why I got out of this shit. Why I’d left the Agency. Everyone was a liar. It just depended what the information was. “Nik, in the data you gave me, how sure are you of the reporting source?”
“Meaning what? Do I think they’re lying about it?” Nik asked, a hard tone in her voice.
“No. I mean the data they accessed. Did they verify it? Or just cut
and paste what they found?”
“You think someone went back and changed the information to point fingers at Papa and his brothers,” she made it a statement. I knew she was smart.
“Exactly. Legends and backdating are all crucial tradecraft. If the information you got isn’t the same date as the original report, then we have a potential mole. If the data and date match up, then we have a different avenue to examine.”
“I’ll get to checking on this part. What else do you need?”
“I need a deep dive on what deals went down because the Kuznetsov and Amatucci families were fighting. Someone needed both big families looking elsewhere. If the Amatuccis didn’t know their brothers were missing until the Kuznetsov family arrived, then they could have been kidnapped to make it look like the missing Amatuccis had killed two Kuznetsov members.”
“And that puts the likelihood of the Amatucci brothers still being alive,” Turo stated.
“It might. And if they’re anything like their niece, I’m betting they got away. Lived under the radar. Kept the family safe. Something.”
“So we’re looking for anything big that needed the Kuzentsov family in chaos. Was it an Amatucci specifically that was needed, or would any family have done just as well?” Ryker asked.
“That’s what we need to find out. If Karine is involved in all of this—which, from her comments last night, she is—then, we need to be thinking bigger. She is topnotch at logistics and long-term planning. That woman only wants power. The more the better.”
“But you’re a non-entity. At least now. What could this have to do with you?” Nik asked. “And I didn’t mean that to sound like it did.”
I waved that away, smiled at the phone. “You’re right. And no offense taken.”
“Did you screw her over? More than just literally?” Ryker asked.
“Thanks, asshole,” I huffed. “No. Not that I knew of. I mean, she was probably pissed when I bolted, but her personality wouldn’t have been injured by it. Surface emotion, unless it deals with her power potential. The woman doesn’t actually have emotions. Not really.”
“Let’s hope you’re right, Freud. Because if she’s pissed over a broken heart, then there’s no telling what she might or might not do to get back at you,” Nik said. “I’ll get started on this stuff. See what we can find.”