by Sadie Jacks
I blew out a low whistle. “They could topple governments, regimes, monarchies.”
“Exactly. They like their power and will do just about anything to keep it.”
“How does this tie into the Amatuccis and Night Terrors though?” Tank asked.
Nik held up a finger. “I’m getting there. So, 1968, the Cold War was still going strong. The US is dealing with the civil rights movement and the Vietnam War. USSR was dealing with the Warsaw Pact. No fewer than six major crises came up from 1948 to 1970. Information was gold and the Petter’s were writing their own checks.”
Nik disappeared from the screen as a world map of that time was put up. The section of the world with Italy, Sweden, and Russia was blown up to fill the screen. “Now, what can you tell me about this map?”
“Most of the Eastern Bloc countries are accessed either through Italy or Russia,” Smoke said. “At least by sea.”
“Exactly. A lot of trade was—and is—still happening by sea. So if you’re an information broker operating out of the good old Kingdom of Sweden and you see the world changing around you, what are you going to do?”
“Make sure you have some way to influence the change,” I said.
“Yes. And?”
The rooms on both sides of the conference call were quiet.
I studied the map, tried to think like my old self. The underhanded, dirty, double dealing mind I’d separated myself from.
The light dawned. “You’d want to make sure you would have information sources in the future. If information is your only currency, then you need a constant supply of it. For a world in turmoil, you become a hoarder.”
“Gold star, Fancy Pants,” Nik said.
The infil team laughed.
“Damn it, Nik.”
She laughed. “This is serious, quit interrupting me. So, you’re a dastardly minded information broker with a mind to the future. The Amatucci family is already a rising star on a global level. The Night Terrors are the boogie man in the USSR. They’re both in your backyard. What do you do?”
“Start a war,” I said.
“Or at least a blood feud,” Nik said. “Right on the nosey, FP.”
“So what happened that day? How did the Night Terrors lose men? How did the Amatucci brothers go missing?” Mas asked, rubbed a hand over his throat.
“According to my partially verified source—two sisters who worked in the brothel—they saw both Kuznetsov and Amatucci men that night. Serviced both of them. But, both men from their respective families walked away. The sisters were the last ones with customers that night. They closed everything up.”
“Did they see what happened?” Smoke asked. Her voice was hard. She had a big problem with people taking advantage of the little guys. Or girls, as the case may be this time.
“Yes, but that stays under the hat. The Petter’s are still active and are willing to kill to keep their secrets. And they don’t care who is around who might become collateral damage.”
Something in the way Nik said the last, the way the names kept banging around in my mind…it was like all the pieces fell into place. And the picture those pieces created wasn’t good. Not for me. Not for Talia. Not for anyone involved.
“Petrova, Petter. Both mean the same thing…son of Peter,” I said.
“Damn it. Mas, slap him upside the head,” Nik snarled as the screen switched back to her face.
Mas’ hand lifted and cuffed the back of my head without a moment’s notice. “Thank you. I’ve been wanting to hit him.”
“Karine Petrova is a Petter. You said it yourself, their reach is global now.” I glared at Mas. The man had hands like steel gloves.
“But Petrova has a bigger game playing,” Smoke said. “She got sad she lost Fancy Pants’ dick. And now she’s running a longer con.”
I shook my head. “That’s not possible. Now, she might be mad that I ditched her, but she’s not mad about not being in my bed anymore. That woman doesn’t understand emotions, at least not as they concern her. She’s more than able to wrench and wrangle them in others.”
“Either way, Petrova is a Petter. How did she get the information about Stockholm?” Tank asked. “We do have someone to save. We can discuss psychological theory later.”
I nodded. He was right.
“Fancy Pants, how long ago were you stationed in Moscow?” Nik asked.
I rolled my eyes. “If you can get into my files, I’m sure you already know. But for everyone else, Moscow was my second to last posting. I did a year back at Langley before I got out.”
“Yes, but the timing, Foster. The timing,” Nik sighed.
I blinked. Watched as my mental chess board shuffled again. “No fucking way,” I breathed.
“Yes fucking way. You bolted right about the time Petrova and de Silva hooked up. Mas had left Antonia, you left Karine. Both of you rat bastards left ladies floating in the wind. What do women do when they need to bitch about the stupid men in their lives and beds?”
“Get drunk and share too much information,” Smoke said immediately.
Nik nodded. “Precisely. So we have two women who are pissed off with the men. One of those men makes a huge splash in the media. Global media, mind you. The sex ring we brought down touched a lot of nations. Imagine Karine’s surprise when she finds out the company the man who done her wrong works for is at the lead of the charge. Karine is still a Petter, and de Silva is still a friend.”
“Another bitch fest, with years to soak up the evil ooze,” Smoke said.
“Smoke, I like you. You should come to girls’ night.”
“NO!” The sound reverberated through both sides of the line.
Smoke blinked rapidly. Narrowed her eyes at me. “Thanks, Grasshopper. I’ll bring some tequila.” She didn’t look away from me.
“There goes the city,” I said, doom and gloom evident in my voice.
Smoke smacked me upside the head.
“Thank you, Smoke. I didn’t even need to ask you. We’re going to be friends.” Nik gave her a huge smile.
Smoke just nodded. “You were saying, bestie?”
All the men groaned.
“I’m saying de Silva knew more about us than we realized. She probably did record searches for Petrova when PC was blasted all over the news. She could have found Foster Ambright on the rolls. It would have been easier than falling asleep for her.”
“But that means you would have been hacked. Are you suggesting someone made it through your firewalls?” I asked Nik.
She nodded. “Remember the first time you met the Amatuccis?”
My eyes widened. “Shit, you’re serious.” That day was forever etched in my brain.
“As a heart attack. Her blitz attack was something I’d never seen before. I had to scurry my tight ass off just to keep her from getting farther into the system than she did.”
“Which led to everything being unplugged.”
Nik nodded again. “So Petrova now knows who you are, Foster. She knows you’re with Talia. Probably saw you both all gooey eyed in the Victory Celebration footage that was shown for weeks on end.”
Nik leaned towards the screen. One of her red eyebrows raised high. “What do you think a scorned information broker is going to do to get back at the man who walked on her?”
“Find a way to shove a knife into my belly and twist it.” I slumped back into my chair. This was literally all my fault. Not just teaching Talia tradecraft, but being around her at all. I’d put a target on her back and hadn’t even realized it.
Just like realizing the work I had been doing for the government was all shady had almost killed me, the fact that I’d dragged Talia into the cloak and dagger of my past was this close from turning what was left of my soul into ashes.
“Well for fuck’s sake, Fancy Pants. You actually love her,” Nik breathed.
I’d forgotten I had an audience. Shit. I pushed everything back inside. Stuffed it down deep. Now was not the time to have this kind of revelation. And
to have it pointed out by a woman I considered more of an annoying little sister than a colleague.
Someone’s hand fell on my shoulders. Squeezed. “Leave,” Mas said. “Nik, good job. We’ll call back.” He closed the laptop.
The infil team moved like the ghosts they were. They traveled single file out of the apartment. But not a single one of them tripped the alarms. They were that good.
Mas took Striker’s chair. “You didn’t know.”
If there was a time and person to be honest with, it was Mas and it was now. I nodded. “I was pretty sure I was incapable of it.”
He studied me for long moments. After the long, agonizing silence, he sat back. Nodded. “I will not kill you.”
My smile was a little lopsided. “I appreciate that.”
“On one condition.” He held up a finger.
I snorted. “Of course there’s a condition. And it is what?”
“That you tell her and make her believe it.”
“Technically, that’s two conditions, but I’ll let it slide this time.” I smiled at him.
His smile was not one of joy, but of promise, as he returned it. “Good.” Without saying anything else, he turned back to the laptop. “Get the others. I get Nik.” He winced, rubbed his throat.
I got up, went to the door. Everyone was standing in the hallway, a group of death dealers just shooting the shit like it was a regular Tuesday night. Waving them all back in, I waited for the last person to cross the threshold before I set the alarms up again.
“Those are shitty alarms. And…since I’m officially part of the girl squad now,” Smoke said. She pulled her arm back, let her fist plow into my arm. “Get your shit together.”
The nerves in my arm went dead as I just stared at her. The women who were connected to this family were batshit crazy. There was no other word for it. And they somehow found each other out in the great unknown.
I prayed for the rest of the men in the Amatucci family. They needed to find their women before their women found the girls. It would be murder otherwise.
“Let’s go, Fancy Pants. Time’s a ‘wasting,” Nik called from the computer.
I got the alarms set back up and operational. And they weren’t shitty alarms. I glared at Smoke’s back. They might be low-tech, but they worked.
“Back to the matter at hand. On the call with Tali earlier today,” Nik began.
Mas’ entire body jolted. “You’ve heard from her again.”
Nik nodded. “She’s okay, for now. A little worse for wear, but holding on. She’s got an ally. Who knows how long that will last. Apparently, she’s been ordered to appear at a dinner tonight.” Nik shrugged. “Some kind of pissing match about the latest catch is the best analogy I can give you.”
Mas made a noise low in his throat, his eyes went dark. “Then we get her tonight.”
Nik shrugged. “If you can put together the op in the next few hours, then I highly suggest you do. She needs medical treatment.” Nik turned to look at me. “Foster, I put Jessa and Nico on Ryker’s plane a few hours ago. They can hang out for as long as necessary. But this way they’re already on the ground no matter the time you extract T.”
I nodded. “Good thinking. But the safe house is full. We have no room for them here.”
Turo pushed his woman’s head out of the way to join the conference call. “We’ve set something up. Nico will contact you and Mas with the new safe house. We Amatuccis have a global reach as well.”
Something inside me relaxed. Maybe, this single time, it wouldn’t be so bad to have someone else helping run point. I’d have to wait to give full judgement once I had Talia back in my arms, but until then, I was cautiously optimistic.
“You have the exact location of Talia,” Nik said as she shoulder bumped her man out of the way. “I did some digging. Got the collective doing their share of excavating as well. I’m sending you the file, everyone needs to memorize it.”
“Memorize what, Grasshopper?” Smoke asked.
Nik’s smile went huge. “We found the structure. I can’t confirm the architecture to a full one hundred percent, but the latest blueprints are the last ones filed. They will at least give you a better idea of what you’re walking into.”
I could have kissed her. You know, if I didn’t think of her as an annoying little sister. “Turo, kiss your woman.”
He sank his hand into her dark red hair, pulled her head back. Captured her mouth. When he pulled away, her eyes and mouth had that sloe-eyed, sexy cast to them.
“I didn’t mean like that. The kiss was supposed to be more brotherly, but you didn’t let me finish. You’re aces, Nik. Anything else we need to know before we sign off and start planning?”
Nik looked a little dazed for a couple more moments. She jolted, shook herself, narrowed her eyes at the screen. “No, I don’t think so. If you go in tonight, try to find their computer terminal, server farm, anything. We need a direct link—Ryker specified the dongle to the German crew—to skim their info about anything regarding Amara.”
I nodded.
“I’ve got that. That’s my secondary, according to Momma and Mas. All covered,” Striker said as he leaned forward into the camera’s frame.”
Nik nodded. “Wonderful. Striker, I’ll link up with you on a dedicated line. I’m sending you the line right now. Reach me on that once you find the setup.”
“10-4, Grasshopper.” He leaned back out of frame as he pulled his phone from his pocket.
“Anything else?” I asked again.
My side of the connection was quiet. I nodded. “Looks like we’re good to go then.”
Nik nodded. I saw her arm move. A high pitched voice came over the call. “Derzhite poroshok sukhim, tovarishch. Otvedi yeye domoy.” Keep your powder dry, comrade. Bring her home.
I burst into laughter. “I’ll do that, Nik.”
“What did she say?” Mas asked.
I told them. “I think she watches way too many spy movies.”
Chapter 29 – Talia
Sitting on the bed was nice. Quiet. Almost peaceful. If I weren’t the guest of the crazy Kuznetsov brothers, I might have found it nice.
“How long have you been here?” I asked Svetlana.
She shrugged, turned to me. “It feels like forever.”
I nodded. “I get that. I know I haven’t been here that long, but it freaking feels like it.”
She smiled. Went back to studying her nails. “Why did they bring you here? And why were you down in the cells?”
I heaved a sigh. “A blood debt, I guess. Apparently, someone in my family killed someone in theirs.”
Her eyes widened slightly. “Have they been…mean?” Her face blanched slightly.
I bumped a shoulder into the air. “I wasn’t expecting the Ritz and free HBO. I’m still alive. That’s all that matters to me.”
A sad smile pulled at the elegant lines of her face. “They can be quite vicious when they want.” She rubbed a hand over her arm as if in reflex or long habit.
“Have they been mean to you?” I asked. I pushed at the heavy blanket of my hair. It was starting to get a little stuffy in here.
She nodded, then immediately shook her head.
“Yeah. I understand that as well.” Poor thing. I couldn’t imagine being stuck in a place like this for very long. The time I’d spent here did feel like a lifetime. I was just glad it was a feeling and not reality. “Do you have any friends or allies?”
As if I were a threat, she seemed to curl in on herself. Shook her head, but she wouldn’t meet my eyes.
“Hey, hey. No worries. I’m not going to tell anyone anything.” I reached out to her. As if I was separated from my body, I saw my hand tremble.
I let it drop to the bed. Looking around the room for some water, I spied some sitting over on a hideous vanity. Careful of my new heights in the heels I wore, I got to my feet. Fumbled my way over to the low dresser.
“Do you want some water?” I called over my shoulder as I f
inally made it to my destination.
“Net.”
Just me, then. Shrugging, I picked up the pitcher of water. Smelled it. When the scent came back as normal, I tipped it towards one of the cups.
The world narrowed down to a single tunnel of vision right before it expanded rapidly. I hurried and put the pitcher back down. Spilling water all over this poor kid’s dresser wasn’t how I wanted to give her my thanks.
Tipping to the side slightly, I leaned against the wall. Brushed a hand over my forehead. Something was wrong.
Very wrong.
I picked up the cup of water I’d just poured. Glugged it down. Laid the glass against my cheek. I sighed in pleasure as the cool glass countered the heat of my cheeks.
“Talia, are you okay?” Svetlana asked. “You look flushed.”
I nodded, waved away her concern. She didn’t need to worry about me. She had enough going on in her life to deal with my issues.
I stayed that way for long minutes. Finally felt the heat wash away. Pouring another glass of water, I tossed that back. Maybe I was just dehydrated. Sipping on water like Jessa demanded just wasn’t enough to keep me going. I prayed that slugging the water wasn’t going to screw up the kidney bruise I had rocking.
Speaking of the bruise. I went back into the bathroom, turned my back to the mirror to try to see it.
See it!
I wanted to slam my head against the wall. I’d had a freaking phone! Why hadn’t I just had Arkady take a picture of it? Send it to Jessa. Let her see with her own eyes.
Rolling my eyes at my stupidity, I angled my head to see in the mirror. Felt my eyes widen at the bruise over my lower rib cage. Arkady hadn’t been lying. The main bruise was almost the size of a softball. The mottled network of bruising over my ribs looked like some kind of grotesque Tic-Tac-Toe game gone awry.
Put it out of your mind, T. You’ve got bigger things to worry about. What’s done is done, a voice in my head said.
Turning back to look at myself in the mirror, I saw that my face had a slight sheen on it. Plucking up a couple tissues, I dabbed at my face. Nodded when it was dry again.