Keeping Thyme (Thyme Trilogy)

by TJ Hamilton

  “It’s all good, Toni.” I shrug my coat off. “I can deal with Joe.” I pick up my handbag and make my way to the bathroom.

  I find Tench pacing around the bedroom. I drop my handbag and coat down on the bed and grab onto Tench on his return pace.

  “I’m okay. See?” I hold his face between my hands so that he has to look at me. “You found out before anything happened, so your guys are doing their job.” I try to calm him. “I can do this, Joe. I know what life you live. We’ve known each other for a long time now.”

  “Ten years,” he answers and grips onto me. “I never want you out of my sight.”

  “I don’t want to leave you for the remainder of the trip.” I test his statement.

  “Well, I still have some work to do, but you will always be with one of my cousins,” he assures me.

  “Good idea.” I nod.

  Little does Tench realise that I want to stay close to his cousins, too, especially Dima. I need to know every move he has planned for me, and Dima won’t realise his conversations in Russian are being recorded.

  The thought of Liz makes me wonder if my brother is okay. I need to get in contact with her, but I still can’t say anything out loud, and it’s not like she can read my thoughts with this earpiece. I sigh. Tench looks down at me and I look up when I feel his body move around me.

  “Are you okay in here by yourself for a moment, gorgeous? I need to go and speak with Toni.”

  I nod. “Of course. Go. I’ll freshen up.” I encourage him that I’m fine.

  I race into the bathroom and press my finger against the helix of my ear and whisper into the mic under my watch, “Liz. Simon. Are you there? We’ve got a rat amongst the ranks. The job is off.” I stand in the doorway of the bathroom to anticipate Tench coming back into the room.

  “Secondly, get someone onto Tench’s conversation immediately. I need to know whether they’re onto me or not. I still have a job to do,” I yell-whisper.

  “Miranda. It’s Mei-Mei … Simon and Liz are still out. I thought they’d be with you?” Her voice sounds puffed.

  “You’re breathing heavy. Where have you been?”

  I hear her chuckle once. “I just ran to the communications room as soon as I heard your voice.”

  That makes sense.

  “Is someone monitoring the conversation in the room next door to me at the hotel suite?” I quickly ask Mei-Mei.

  “Yes we have agents monitoring it now, why?”

  “Does Tench suspect anything?” I whisper.

  “We will get back to you. I have to cut the signal now before it gets intercepted. I will get Liz to make contact as soon as she gets in, Miranda.”

  The call cuts short and there’s something telling me that there’s something not right about that whole conversation with Mei-Mei.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  Tench comes back into the bedroom just as I come out of the bathroom.

  “I’ve got to go for a few hours, but Luka is bringing Tatiana past to get you and take you to the safe house where Dima is. That way I know you’ll be safe.”

  I force a smile out, but little does he know that the safe house with Dima is probably the least safe place for me to be. I flex my calf muscle and feel my firearm against it inside the boot. I need to be prepared to act quickly if I notice a threat presenting itself. Within minutes Toni comes into the room,

  “They’re here, boss.” Toni tilts his head to ask again if I’m okay. I nod my reply that I am, and he smiles. “Come on, let’s get you down into the car, Miss Miranda.”

  “But what if they come after you?” I ask Tench, knowing that there is no threat to him at all—apart from me.

  “Don’t worry about me.” He shakes his head and puts his arm around me once I’ve collected my bag and coat. “I’ve got Toni and the other guys.” He squeezes me into his hard body.

  Tatiana beams her iridescent smile the moment I step into the back of the Mercedes van. I wonder how much she knows. I scan across to Luka sitting next to her and try to read his face, but get nothing. I hug Tatiana and sit down on the seat in front of them.

  “Are you okay, Miranda?” she asks.

  My eyes flick to Luka again.

  Luka smiles and speaks. “This is Russia.” He shrugs. “Kidnappings are a little too common. It’s such a shame you had to see this side of our beautiful country.”

  “I’ve had a few abduction attempts on me too, but these guys have always taken care of it.” Tatiana smiles.

  Her lips are perfectly coated with a bright red lipstick that matches her porcelain skin perfectly. I want to tell her everything the moment I get an opportunity. But what if she’s the rat? What if Tatiana is the one feeding information back to Luka and the rest of the Bratva gang? My head swamps itself with theory after theory about who the traitor is. Whoever it is, they are close to my brother, Liz and I, and also the gang. Mei-Mei and Tatiana have both been around us, but only Tatiana has that kind of access to the Bratva. There’s no stronger explanation than that.

  We arrive at another old building that’s covered in scaffolding, the scaffolding wrapped in a fibrous cloth to hide the renovations happening within. Luka steps out of the van first and checks the street before reaching in for me to take his hand. Tatiana takes his hand after me and steps up beside me.

  We all walk together into a hollowed out building. There is rubble and building materials everywhere. Guards dressed in black carry fully automatic machine guns and wander between the empty rooms of the building.

  We take the workers elevator all the way up to the tenth floor and Luka takes us past another set of dilapidated rooms. Finally he slows his pace when we get to a thick reinforced door at the end of a long hallway. The huge Russian Boris stands beside a door there. He opens the door and steps aside while we all enter the room.

  Dima watches out the huge floor-to-ceiling window on the far side and turns to us the moment we step in. He holds his arms out to greet us.

  Luka hugs him and pats him on the back. “Dima how many times have we told you to stay away from the window?”

  Dima smiles and shakes his head at Luka before he turns his attention to me.

  “Miranda. How can I begin to apologise for this terrible situation we’ve put you in?”

  I want to punch him in his grubby face, but instead I smile. Tatiana doesn’t give him the same courtesy. She ignores him completely and carefully sits on the old couch in the corner of the room. I feel far from safe right now, and my eyes bounce between Dima, the man who wants me dead, and Tatiana, my friend and potential infiltrator. I focus on feeling my pistol in my boot, just to reassure me. Dima and Luka speak to one another in Russian. I regulate my breathing to try and steady my nerves. From the corner of my eye I see Tatiana trying to get my attention so I go and sit next to her on the old couch. Three other men come into the room just as I take a seat. They look down at Tatiana and I and start talking to one another.

  “Do you have your gun on you?” Tatiana whispers.

  I consider my answer for a moment. What are her motives for wanting to know that? She looks over at me.

  “Please don’t tell me you didn’t bring it?” Her furrowing brow quivers.

  She looks down at her hands and I see her bottom lip trembling.

  “What’s going on?” I whisper back to her.

  “There’s something not right about Dima, and he wants Luka and the others out of here. Luka keeps trying to convince him that he needs to stay, but Dima won’t have it. I think he’s going to kill both of us.” She shoots me a glance.

  Her tear-soaked eyes are full of fear. The men stop talking to one another. Tatiana starts shuddering. I put my arm around her.

  “I won’t let anything happen to you. Don’t worry.”

  Luka notices my arm around Tatiana and he comes over and kneels down. He rubs her chin between his thumb and index finger and sooths her with some words in Russia.

  “You’re both safe here now.” He smiles at me.


  I nod. “Thank you, Luka.”

  “There are four men right outside the door and Dima is staying here. You’re both completely safe, okay? Just stay away from the window in case of any snipers.” He smiles at Tatiana but she is having none of it.

  I pray that she pulls herself together soon. Luka says something to her again in Russian and kisses the top of her head as he gets up. He’s so tender with her and seems completely oblivious to Dima’s true intentions. She looks across to me and I tap my boot with the pistol inside it twice and wink at her. She nods and smiles and I feel her body relax a little.

  As the men all leave the room, I whisper to Tatiana, “Get it together, Tia. I’ve got this. Dima isn’t going to do anything to us, okay?” She nods again and wipes her tears with her finger.

  Dima shuts the door behind the men as they leave and locks it. He pauses for a moment at the door before he turns. I feel my heart pick up pace. My hand slithers down my leg and feels the firearm inside my boot. Once I have it in my grip, I command it to engage. The familiar high-pitched hum of the pistol signals that it’s ready, and so am I.

  I watch Dima. He doesn’t turn to us as he walks towards the kitchenette. I tug the gun out of my boot and stand up with it behind me. I motion for Tatiana to get up and stand behind me. I feel her hold onto my arm.

  “I know my cousin is very fond of you, Miranda. He’s what you would call a fool for love.” His thick accent makes his words sound even more menacing. He leans on the bench and opens up a drawer and takes out a shiny pistol. “So I did a bit of searching around. It seems you have a big secret, Miranda. Or should I call you by your real name: Mia?” He casually strolls over to the unglazed window, his gun gripped in his hand.

  I push back from Tatiana and point my gun towards her but Dima still remains facing away from us. “It was you, wasn’t it?” I sneer at Tatiana.

  She shakes her head frantically. “Mi, I wouldn’t do that. I don’t know how he knows this.”

  Dima laughs from the opening in the building. “Ah, how quickly you stupid women turn on each other.”

  Tatiana hold her hands up to me. “I promise you, Mia, you have it wrong. I don’t know what he’s talking about.” I narrow at her words.

  Can I trust her? I point to her to get down beside the couch and manoeuvre myself around with my gun pointed straight at him. Two in the chest and one in the head in case he’s armoured, I say to myself.

  “Tell me where you keep the girls and I’ll spare your life, Dmitri,” I say with a low voice.

  He laughs again. “You really think I would tell you that? My cousin may be stupid but I am not, Mia. I’ve thought about the things I want to do to you. Ask Tatiana how I like to treat my women.”

  Tatiana trembles in the corner. She looks across to me before she gets up and stands beside me. She fires off Russian to him and it sounds nasty, whatever she said.

  “Kill him, Mia. He is nothing but a filthy dog. I’ve seen what he does to women. He has slaves at his house. I can show you. He kept me there for months once. He threatened to break my legs so that I would never dance again if I didn’t do as he said.” What if Tatiana’s telling the truth? Why should I ever trust Dima? If it wasn’t Tatiana, then who was it … Mei-Mei! “Mia, please do it. I can’t sleep because of the things he’s done to me, and continues to do to other girls, too.”

  He spits at the ground. “Nothing but a bunch of filthy animals. They’re not even worth the money we paid for them. They’re just the whores not suitable for sale. I keep them for me and my men; that’s all.”

  The hairs all over my body send a prickly heat out across my body. How dare he call them whores? They’ve had no choice in this. They’re slaves.

  “Drop your gun and turn around, Dmitri … or I can just shoot you in the back. It’s your choice.”

  His head turns to the side. “The men outside will be in here the second you fire that gun,” he says as he holds his hands out. He’s still holding a gun in his right hand.

  “Turn around now, you piece of shit coward,” I yell.

  Dima turns around slowly with his hands still in the air. I see the evil in his eyes, begging to be drawn out of him. He will kill me within a second from this distance, facing each other. My ears ring with the coursing adrenaline running through my body.

  “Keep your hands in the air. I will shoot you straight between the eyes the moment you move.”

  His mouth contorts into a snarling smirk.

  “You know your time’s up, Dmitri. There are two things I’m good at … one of them you will never know, and the other you’re about to find out. Tatiana, scream!”

  I hold my breath and slowly squeeze the trigger as I tell FLOS to fire. The first shot hits him straight in the left side of the chest. The impact of the bullet makes him stumble backwards. His eyes do not react. I fire two more rounds into his chest and he’s pushed back to the edge of the open, unglazed window. His eyes now widen. I bring the firearm up and line up his forehead behind the two sights on top of the slide. I smirk and fire.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  As my senses finally come back to me, I hear Tatiana piercing the air with a blood-curdling scream. I grab her and pull her over to the couch, throw my gun into my handbag and start screaming with her. Boris bowls through the door, followed by four other men, guns drawn as they scan the room. Tatiana and I hold onto each other and begin wailing. Luka comes through the door after running back to us. He looks straight down to Tatiana and I.

  “What’s happened? Are you okay? Are you hurt? Where’s Dima?”

  Tatiana sobs into me. I force the tears out and look to Luka. Is he part of Dima’s plan? Who else knows about me?

  I force my voice to tremble. “We were just talking to Dima and then he looked like he was exploding. I didn’t know what was happening, then Tatiana grabbed me and pulled me here. That’s what I realised he’d been shot. Then he … he …?” I don’t finish the sentence and cry back into Tatiana.

  I cry for all the girls he’s hurt in his evil existence. I cry for what he may have done to Tatiana, and I cry the hardest because I could’ve killed my old friend thinking she was a traitor. Luka rushes over to the open window and looks down at the ground below. He stomps his foot and curses some harsh Russian words. I can still smell the distinct residue of gunpowder in the air. I pray on our lives that they don’t smell it too. Luka yells something out to all the men in Russian and they all leave out the door with their guns still drawn.

  “I’ll be right back. Stay clear of that window.” Luka rushes out of the door too.

  I turn to Tatiana the moment they leave, “Are you okay?”

  She wipes her face and nods. I quickly go over and lock the door. Grabbing my firearm from my handbag again, I throw it in the freezer in the kitchenette.

  “You can’t hide it in there,” Tatiana finally speaks.

  “I’m not,” I whisper. “I need to cool the barrel down so they don’t know it’s been fired if they search us.”

  “How are you going to explain even having a gun, Mi?” Tatiana looks more composed, but I can tell she still has so much doubt about how to trust me. She looks every part the scared little girl that hides inside her tough exterior as she shakes in a ball on the couch.

  “Haven’t I told you that you need to trust me enough times already?”

  She slowly smiles. “I can’t believe we got him, Mi!” She whispers. Her green eyes broaden as her body allows her to bask in the victory.

  I take the firearm out of the freezer and throw it back into my handbag, and then sit on the couch next to Tatiana. I take a deep breath and go over the next plan of attack. I need to warn my brother and Liz that there is a rat in the agency who also worked for Dima. There’s only one other person that it can be.

  “You need to show me to these girls at Dima’s house. We need to get them out. Then we need to stop the shipment of girls leaving for Australia. They’ll be at the port. That’s where Tench was going.�
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  Tatiana nods at me. “Okay,” she whispers.

  I smile and we hug again. “I’m so sorry I doubted you,” I whisper.

  I hear the lock being twisted on the door just before Luka bursts through. “Are you girls okay?” He sounds genuinely concerned. “Joe is on his way, Miranda.” He nods.

  Luka gives his attention to Tatiana over his dead cousin. Boris comes rumbling in and bellows out some angry Russian. Misha, Dima’s brother, comes into the room looking pale.

  “Was it one of you?” Misha yells.

  Luka gets up and towers over Misha and yells something back to him in Russian. Misha continues to yell and points to us. Here we go. I look to Tatiana and put my arm around her again. I can pretty much predict what they’re saying to each other.

  “Check our bags if you think we did it,” I say.

  I feel Tatiana stiffen under my arm. Misha stalks over to us and holds his hands out.

  “Give me your bags, now,” He demands.

  We hand out our handbags and Micha snatches them and throws them on the table. He tips them up and empties them both out, snatching up the gun like a prize the moment he sees it. He points it straight at Tatiana and I. She cries out and grips onto me, burying her face into me.

  “Misha, it’s not a real gun. I got it from the street vendor down near the Bronze Horseman. I thought it might come in handy if someone tried to mug us when we were out.”

  He stares me dead in the eye. Knowing that the same gun just killed Dima half an hour ago, Tatiana continues to quiver next to me.

  “Pull the trigger if you don’t believe me,” I say already knowing that nothing will happen. Luka’s eyes search between Tatiana, Misha and I.

  “Misha, no,” Luka says and stands in front of us.

  I hear Misha try and pull the trigger, but it doesn’t work.

  “Now I see whose side you’re really on, cousin,” Misha spits out at Luka and throws my gun to the ground, then storms back out the door again.