“We must go to the passport office to get Nonna’s passport,” Nadia said. “It’s late and they are holding it open for you.”
“OK,” Nick said. “Do you have enough to show our, um, gratitude?”
Nadia shrugged. “I think not. They are staying there very late tonight.”
“No problem,” Nick replied. “I have more gratitude.” At this point, he didn’t care about the money. It was time to go home.
“I’ll get the car,” Nadia said. “Meet me outside in five minutes.”
After she left, Nick turned to Alenka. “I can’t thank you enough for taking care of Nonna. If you don’t mind me asking, how did she end up with you?”
“One of Dmitri’s men brought her here,” Alenka said. “Gave her to Ludmilla. I know who Nonna must be, though, because they talk about a bad American, an American who hurts many of them. I felt happy when I heard that. Very happy.” She made a face. “Ludmilla no kind of mother. I, how you say, convinced her to let me take Nonna.”
“That was very kind of you,” Nick said. “I wish there was some way to say thank you.”
“No, no,” Alenka waved her hand. “I do it for Galina. You were a good man to her. I’m happy to help you.”
Nonna giggled at the hand wave, a soft and excited sound. Alenka did it again and was rewarded with another giggle.
“Wow, that’s great!” Nick said. “I don’t think I’ve heard her laugh before.”
“She just started,” Alenka said. “Many girls playing with her. She loved it.”
Nick smiled. “I’m sorry I have to take her away from you all.”
Alenka waved again, eliciting another giggle from Nonna. “Of course that’s OK,” she said, then abruptly turned serious. “I do worry about us now, though. We don’t have somebody to watch out for us.”
“Yes, you do,” Anya said. “Now that Alexander and so many of his men are gone, my father will take over his activities. In fact, he has spent the last hour talking to the people who report up to Alexander, and they are all pledging their support for him.”
“That’s good,” Alenka said, although she looked doubtful. “I hope he will find somebody good who can help us. Maybe better, maybe not. But even a little better is better.”
“He already has found somebody, actually,” Anya said. She started to blush. “I talked to him on the way over here. I told him I’d be interested in taking on more responsibility in his organization—“
“Good timing,” Nick broke in, “Bringing that up after you saved his ass.”
She smiled. “That’s what I thought. I’d like to work with you here, Alenka. I hope I can make things nicer for the girls.”
Now Alenka did smile, faintly. “That would be good, Anya. Spasiva.”
Nick hoisted Nonna higher on his shoulder. The little squirt was getting heavy. “I think you’d be great here, Anya. But I thought you said you didn’t want to get into papa’s business?”
She made a face. “That was before I saw how bad my men can screw things up.”
There was a loud honk from outside.
Nick groaned. “Guess that’s my ride.” He gave Alenka a hug and whispered “thank you” in her ear. Alenka wiped tears from her eyes and waved goodbye to Nick and Nonna as they left the brothel.
Nadia was in a car at the curb, looking impatient. But Nick turned to Anya. “I’ll be leaving tomorrow, assuming everything goes OK with the passport.”
Anya smiled as tears brimmed in her eyes. “It’d better go OK. If not, you send them to me. I’ll take care of it.”
She quickly reached up and snaked her hand behind Nick’s neck. Getting up on her toes, she pulled his head towards her and kissed him deeply, firmly. Nick felt himself responding to the kiss, even though he knew it was a goodbye kiss. Perhaps because it was a goodbye kiss.
After several seconds she pulled back and looked at him with shining eyes. “That was nice,” she said. “We would’ve made an awesome couple.”
Nick smiled. “You’re feeling pretty good about yourself, aren’t you?”
She nodded. “I’m hurting, but I’m kind of feeling the power. I like it.”
“Just don’t let it go to your head, young lady,” Nick said.
“No way. I’ve seen what that can do. It cost me my cousin.”
Nick sobered, thinking about Andrei. “Anya,” he said. “I’m so sorry about Andrei. He was a good man, just a little…misguided.”
“He was a fool,” Anya countered. A single tear coursed down her cheek. “But he was my cousin. I only hope some good comes out of this.”
“It already has,” Nick said. “Maxsim is gone. Sergei is gone. And Dmitri, and Alexander. Lots of bad people are dead.”
“Thanks to you,” Anya said. “I just wish I hadn’t tried to deceive you.”
“Anya, it’s OK,” Nick said. “It’s over. Time to move on. I’m going to. I plan to consider this our version of labor.”
She smiled at that. Nick looked at her closely. “You know, though, sometimes I wondered if you were helping me…or maybe helping yourself.”
He wasn’t sure how she’d take the comment, but she just shrugged. “What can I say, I’m a…how do you say it, an opportunist.” She bit her lip. “You know I care for you, and I’m so happy that you and Nonna are together.” She reached over and tussled Nonna’s hair. “But I can’t deny that I saw an opening. Things were going to change. I wanted them to change in my favor.”
“You’re a smart woman,” Nick said. He paused. “I think Pyotr thinks so, too.”
She laughed. “You’re trying to ask me something.”
“Well…yeah. When you were talking to Pyotr in your apartment, were you planning a…partnership?”
“Hmmm,” she said, “At first I was just trying to stop him from arresting you. But I guess you could say I brought it up somewhere in there. And he seemed interested.”
“So when he went to the warehouse, it wasn’t just to save my ass.”
Anya smiled. “That was part of it, of course, but I think Mikhail and I were on his list of asses to save, too.”
Nick nodded. And they were probably higher up the list than he. The three of them would make a good team. The last he saw of Mikhail, the man was off with Gennady to personally talk to several key players. They certainly weren’t wasting any time. Nick had shaken hands with the two men quickly, then they were gone.
It was all good.
Maybe not all good. Anya wiped away tears. “Thank you for trying to help Andrei. I know you risked yourself to save him. My father and I appreciate that. He didn’t deserve to die in the Don.”
Nick nodded. “He didn’t deserve to die in the Don.”
They stood, silent, alone together. He felt elated and miserable at the same time. He didn’t want to leave Anya, but he knew he had to. His life would continue thousands of miles away, and hers would continue here.
She put a hand on his arm, stood on her toes, and gave him a kiss on his cheek. “You aren’t nearly as tough and ruthless as you pretend to be.”
Nick smiled. “Not any more, I’m not.”
“But you must be smart, Nick. You’ll die trying to save somebody if you aren’t careful.”
Nick shook his head. “I’m done with the People Saving business. Now my rescues are going to be on the playground or in the back yard.”
She smiled. “Good.” Her hand was still on his arm. She removed it reluctantly, tears brimming in her eyes again. She gave an embarrassed laugh. “And you have my email, so I want updates!”
Nick smiled. “Of course. You’re Nonna’s special Russian aunt, so you’ll get lots of updates. Maybe she’ll even want to come see you some day. You’ll probably be running the town by then.”
Anya nodded in mock seriousness. “Yeah, I probably will. So she’ll eat the finest steaks and stay in the nicest hotels.”
Nadia honked again and gave Nick a “hurry up” gesture when he glanced at her. He turned back to Anya. “You take c
are of yourself,” he said. “You do have power now. I know you’ll use it wisely.”
“Sheesh, you sound like papa,” she said, and they hugged again, squishing Nonna happily between them.
Nick hopped in the car and placed the seat belt around Nonna, who cuddled in his lap. Nadia glared at him in the rearview mirror and said, “I think the price of your gratitude just went up.”
Nick turned his head as much as he could and watched Anya grow smaller as they drove away. She kept waving until they turned a corner and was lost from sight.
He settled back into his seat, arm around his daughter, feeling good. He knew Anya would take good care of Alenka and the others, and he, Kelli, Danny, and Nonna were about to start their new life together. The roaring in his ears was gone. Life was good.
“Whatever it is, it’s worth it,” he told Nadia.
Chapter 44
Room 402 of the Rostov hotel hadn’t changed, but it had never looked so good, either. Nick placed Nonna gently on the old, threadbare couch. He thought about how Scott had spent one of his last nights on that couch. Tears started to well in Nick’s eyes. He quickly brushed him away.
He made his way around the hotel room, picking up several items he had left behind when he last rushed out. He checked and double-checked the drawers and under the bed. Whatever stayed behind was staying behind forever. He had no plans to return to Rostov any time soon.
Nonna watched him as he moved around, a stoic expression on her face.
He piled everything by the door, and triple-checked Nonna’s passport. It was Russian, with a little photo of her in the corner. Nick’s large hand covered her chest where he had held her for the photograph. Her black hair was matted on top of her head and she didn’t look happy. It had been hot in the passport office.
He scooped her up. “Come on, honey, I have somebody I want you to meet.”
He knocked on Tom and Michelle’s door and was relieved to hear movement in the wood. A chain was pulled back and the door opened to reveal Michelle’s puzzled face.
When she saw who it was she immediately started crying. She turned and yelled, “Tom!” Nick heard a banging from somewhere inside, and a second later Tom appeared behind his wife. His face broke into a huge grin when he saw Nonna.
Michelle put her arm around Nick’s side, the side that held Nonna, and squeezed hard. Nick gasped and said, “Not too much!” She immediately pulled back, just a bit.
“She’s beautiful!” Michelle said, looking at Nonna with red eyes. “Can I hold her?”
Nick handed her over. “Of course,” he said. Michelle took the baby and turned her back on the men, cooing at Nonna.
Nick and Tom stared at each for long seconds. Nick reached out his hand, but Tom knocked his hand away and embraced him.
“Thank you for everything,” Nick said once Tom had pulled back.
“I didn’t do all that much.”
“Pyotr said you called him for me. Sounds like you may have tipped him over the edge. I don’t think he was planning to come to the warehouse.” Nick suddenly stopped and squinted. “You heard about the warehouse?”
Tom nodded. “Pyotr called me after he left. He’s a good guy.”
“Yeah, he is. Andrei told me that Pyotr and Dmitri were in bed together. Glad that wasn’t true.”
“Why would he say that?”
Nick shrugged. “To mess with my head, keep me from talking to him. And it worked for a while, too.”
Tom shook his head.
“I’m guessing Pyotr and Anya will team up. I think that’s what Anya had been planning. At least she was smarter about him.”
Tom nodded. “She sounds like a smart one. He could do worse.”
“What did he tell you?”
“Not a lot of details, but he knew you were safe because Alexander’s men at the police station suddenly started talking nice about Gennedy. So he figured you must’ve gotten the bastard.”
Nick nodded. “Someday I’ll have to tell you about it.”
“Later,” Tom said. “Let’s get home first.”
“How are things with you and Alexei?”
“Good,” Tom said. “We pick him up in two days. So far so good.”
“He like you yet?”
Tom laughed. “No way. They hate guys, don’t they?”
“Yep. I guess they know what trouble we can get them in.”
Michelle wandered back with Nonna in her arms. Nonna looked completely comfortable, like she was going to fall asleep. Nick felt a bit jealous.
“Darn right you’re trouble,” she said. She kissed Nick on the cheek. “I’m so glad you’re safe.”
“Thanks,” Nick said. He hesitated. “How’s Katie?”
“Back in America now,” Michelle said. She sighed. “It’s gonna be tough for her. Her sister flew over to pick up her and Scott’s body.”
Nick nodded. Poor Katie, losing both her husband and her baby. It doesn’t get much worse than that.
Tom’s sigh matched his wife’s. “Did the police follow up with you?” he asked.
“They’re basically saying Scott and Katie were caught up in a mob war,” Nick said. “They’re sweeping it under the rug and leaving me out of it.”
“Nice of them,” Tom said.
Nick nodded. “Less work, too,” he said.
They were silent for a moment, until Michelle perked up. “Hey, use my phone to call Kelli.”
“That’s too expensive,” Nick protested.
“Nonsense,” Michelle said, and Tom nodded. “Consider it a baby present.”
She handed the phone to Nick. He dialed and stood, nervous, as the connection was made.
It was a good connection. Kelli’s voice came through loud and clear.
“Hi, honey,” Nick said. Tom and Michelle heard Kelli’s excited voice through the tinny phone speaker. “Yeah, I’m great, no problem. Piece of cake. Hey, listen to this!”
He pushed the speakerphone button and held the phone up to Nonna. She looked at it calmly, not moving.
He gave it a few seconds and then spoke into the phone. “Did you hear that?”
“Hear what?”
“That was your daughter, staring at the phone!”
Kelli’s laugh echoed out of the phone’s speakers and around the room.
Nick handed his room key to the fourth floor key lady. Not surprisingly, it was Olga. She still had her typical stern look, but she also avoided Nick’s eyes as he passed the key over.
The key was spotless. Nick had personally washed Alexander’s blood off of it in the Don River. He spent so much time scrubbing at it that Anya finally told him it was good enough.
“It’s never good enough for the key ladies,” Nick had replied as he dried the key on his shirt. “Those women scare me.”
The old lady put the key in the cubby marked 402 and started to write out a receipt. Nick stopped her. “Nyet, spasiva,” he said. She stopped writing, gazed at him for a long moment, and slowly put the receipt back on her stack.
Nick started to walk away with Nonna. Nadia was waiting downstairs, ready to take him to the airport. He turned back to the key lady. “Oh, and thanks for the key. It was very helpful.”
He could feel her glare on his back as he walked away.
Chapter 45
Nick saw Kelli standing in the gate area, a huge smile on her beautiful face. Next to her, looking taller than he remembered, was Danny. Kelli turned and said something to her son. Danny’s eyes lit up and he started jumping and flapping his arms, looking for Nick.
Kelli’s parents and sisters were there, next to Nick’s sister and brother-in-law. They all began to wave as Nick neared the end of the jetway. He lifted his daughter’s arm and waved back. Her new family cheered, and tears fell unashamed from Nick’s eyes.
The woman next to him turned and said with a smile, “The reception is for your daughter?”
“Yes,” he answered, and hugged his little girl tight.
“What a good little tr
aveler she’s been! What’s her name?”
“Maria,” he said. Maria rested her head on his shoulder and made a happy sound.
The End
Worth The Risk Page 31