Chapter 15
Amtrak Train Station
Downtown, Memphis, TN
After a short hike down Main Street from Dmitry’s Closet with a baseball cap covering her face and wearing a comfortable pair of jeans and white t-shirt with a light jacket wrapped around her waist, Lilly arrived at her destination.
Central Station was packed with people moving about preparing to board for the evening. It was a perfect place to hide out, a perfect environment to blend in. Most everyone was either cuddled up with a loved one or on their phones completely oblivious to the world, so it was easy to spot someone who was simply there on a look out.
She walked into the building and headed straight for the check-in to get the ticket that Royal had called in for her. Thank heavens for friends or at least budding relationships. Flushed with a roll of $100 bills compliments of the Medlov women and a secret plan that she had not shared with anyone, she pushed her identification across the table and gave her best fake smile to the older black woman behind the desk.
In all her years, Lilly had never been on a train. She had promised herself that she would take Dylan on a summer trip one day, but had never been able to afford it for the fear of being discovered. It was odd now that she found herself using such public transportation for such a clandestine mission.
Everything seemed surreal for the moment. This was the first time since she had given birth to her son that she’d been away from him for the purpose of a trip. For the last eight years, she had always been within 20 miles of him. And every moment since she had been away from him today, she had said a prayer for God to keep him safe.
Taking her ticket, she turned around and looked over the station. Even with all the people in the building, she had never felt more alone than at that moment.
She hoped her plan would work. It had to. She prayed that Vasily hadn’t arrived home early or that anyone had told him where she was going. She prayed that Vasily would forgive her once he did figure out that she had left. More than anything, she prayed that she would be able to return to her son and the hope of something more with the man she had fallen so deeply in love with.
Grabbing a seat on one of the old wooden benches, she pulled out a sandwich she had packed in her backpack and nibbled on it, hoping it would sate the rampant butterflies erupting violently in her empty stomach.
A few hours later, she loaded on with the rest of the passengers headed to Chicago with only her small backpack thrown over her shoulder.
Glad to be moving, she presented her ticket again to the attendant along with her identification and was pointed in the direction of her superliner roomette, per Royal’s suggestion. “You don’t want to be out in the elements considering your situation,” she had said. “Trust me, this is best.”
Lilly stepped inside the small compartment and threw down her bag, then took a seat in one of the spacious reclining seats by the window. Grateful to be out of the large crowd, she pulled off her baseball cap and scratched threw her sweaty head.
Reaching into her pocket, she pulled out the cell phone that Royal had given her and a number she had pulled off the Internet. She tried to dial the number, but her nervousness overtook her. Unfortunately, she had not stopped trembling since she had gotten the email about Leo earlier. Every time, she thought about that man getting a hold of her son, she nearly went into a panic attack mode. Still, she had to press on until this was done.
Taking a deep breath and closing her eyes, she listened to her heartbeat in her ears go from a thud to a simple beat. Then she tried again. Dialing the number slowly, she pressed it up against her ear and waited.
The phone rang for just a moment before a dispatcher picked up.
“Federal Bureau of Investigation – Manhattan office. How may I help you, sir or ma’am?”
Lilly almost hung up the phone, but a picture of Dylan’s face flashed through her mind.
“May I please speak to Agent Sheldon,” Lilly stuttered.
There was a pause on the phone. “Hold please for Special Agent in Charge,” the voice corrected before she was placed on a brief hold.
The voice came back. “Whom may I ask is calling?”
Lilly had not used her real name in so long until it sounded impossible to use. “Lilly Rasputin,” she said, voice trembling.
“Hold please,” the voice said, sounding a little more eager to help her.
Only a few seconds later, a familiar voice answered the phone.
“Lilly, is it really you?” Agent Sheldon asked.
“In the flesh,” Lilly laughed nervously.
“Where are you? How are you?” Agent Sheldon asked, pulling his seat out. He sat down and grabbed a pen.
“I’m in Memphis, headed to Chicago.” Heaving a sigh, she clasped her hands together. “How’s life been treating you?”
“Well,” he said, surprised that she would even ask. “Kids are gone to college and the wife and I are happy empty nesters.”
“I’m happy for you,” Lilly said sincerely. She looked out of the window as the train began to move. “I’m scared, Sheldon.”
“Why? Has Leo contacted you?”
“He came looking for me.” Lilly swallowed down her fear. “Before he was arrested, I hid $20 million in heisted diamonds for him. I used them as bargaining chips the night his right hand, Yakov, came to kill me. It was the same night that you came up and talked to me in my room. Do you remember that?”
“Of course, I do. You were shaking like a leaf. Wait,” he paused. “Yakov was there?”
“Yes, I didn’t realize it until after you had gone.”
A chill went down Sheldon’s spine.
“Leo wants the diamonds. He found me in Mississippi, but I was already gone.”
Sheldon was nearly lost for words. He had been looking for her for nearly a decade, and suddenly she just popped up. He had so many questions, but he settled for just asking the most important ones for the moment. “Where did you run to? Who do you know in Memphis?”
“No one,” Lilly lied. “I just went to the biggest city I could find. Memphis was the closest.”
Sheldon knew that she wasn’t telling the truth. “Why are you going to Chicago?”
“I think Yakov is going there. He has a place that maybe he’s going to. I need to get there and find out if he has the diamonds. I also need to flush Leo out. So, I need him to know where I’m going.”
“So, let me get this straight. You gave Yakov the diamonds?”
“Yes, but Leo thinks that I have them. Yakov must have lied and kept them for himself.”
“Leo must be flat broke then,” Sheldon said, strategizing as he talked. “Do you know who he heisted the diamonds from?”
“Florshiem’s Jewelers in Manhattan. He and Yakov set up the heist and carried it out with their men the week before he was arrested.”
Sheldon knew the case. The owner, his wife and two other men had been gunned down during the robbery; over $50 million worth of jewelry had been stolen from the safe.
“Those diamonds are traceable, Lilly. If we can put Yakov with the diamonds, then we can arrest him.”
“I know,” Lilly said, hoping he finally got why she was calling him. “Two birds…$20 million in stones.”
“Can I reach you at this number in 10 minutes? Are you safe?” Sheldon asked, knowing that this was a bust a career booster.
“I’m on a train headed from Memphis to Chicago. I’m not going anywhere for the next 10 hours,” she said, feeling a small relief to know that he’d be willing to help her.
“I’ll call you right back. I promise,” Sheldon said, hanging up the phone.
Chapter 16
If there was one thing that Anatoly knew, it was his wife. Renee would have never stuck her neck out for a woman that she didn’t know unless there was some serious, life-altering reason behind it. And he intended to find out why but in a more intimate setting than his kitchen.
However, like everything to do with Renee, it would
take finesse. A man just couldn’t walk in demanding things from her. Otherwise, he’d pull back a nub.
He had learned this the hard way on several occasions during his honeymoon phase where a slip of the tongue had been as fatal for him as feeding a hungry lion raw bloody meat with his bare hand. And even that was probably not as dangerous as provoking his young beautiful bride.
She was being groomed by his hellcat of a stepmother, Royal. And while Royal was only two-years older than him chronologically, she had an old woman’s mind about how to keep her home in order. Plus, Renee was three years older than him, a dynamic that only came to play when she wanted to be right.
The familial structure of the house was somewhat complicated. Everyone had a wing, a domain, a safe area where they were able to be at peace and spend time with their families alone. However, overall his father ran everything, followed by himself, then Gabriel and then Vasily.
Unofficially, it felt as though the women ran everything. The old saying happy wife, happy life had never been familiar to him until he married. Now, it was his day-to-day mantra.
Anatoly had asked his father once, did he think it was a problem – the women and their politics. But Dmitry found it comical and explained that while their wives could have the entire world, they had to try to enjoy it on a little island, completely isolated from everyone else because of the lifestyle of the Medlov men, and the dangers that surrounded them.
“If they want to run their house, let them. We’re barely here anyway and when we are, they spend all of their time catering to us and our children,” Dmitry had explained almost in the form of a guilt trip. “Besides, you’ll get used to it and believe it or not, start to depend upon it. There are other things that need your attention to detail. Leave the peas to the women and focus on the steak.”
As usual, his father made perfect sense, something else that he had become accustomed to, so Anatoly had digressed.
After the small meeting in the kitchen, the women had excused themselves back upstairs to their children, Renee rushing faster than anyone to get to their daughter, and the men had been left to talk.
There was, however, little to say. He along with Gabriel and Vasily would be going to Chicago within the hour and his father would stay to protect the house and their children.
Dragging his exhausted body up the stairs to his wing of the house, he felt the pull of his bed even from down the hall. He wanted to rest, but he’d have to do it on the private jet. He was sure that Renee would pack him a bag and Boris was busy packing munitions and getting in touch with the Chicago family and preparing for their arrival.
Now, he only had a short time, less than 60 minutes to see precious little princess one last time before he slipped out for the night in hopes that they’d wrap this up quickly and return within the next day or two.
He slipped into their dimly lit bedroom and found Renee in the adjoining nursery lingering over the white hand-carved, wooden cradle that he had ordered from Moscow. She was humming a lullaby to their daughter, Alexandria, who slept peacefully under a soft cotton pink sheet.
This was the part of his life that was so different from everything else. In this room filled with all things Alexandria, like the changing table, diaper disposal, high chair, rocking chairs, the umpteen toys, the pictures in frames on the walls, the pink curtains matching the pink and green walls, the bears, the books and the little bitty clothes – this was a different world from anything that he knew, and he held it dear. Here, he wasn’t a boss; he wasn’t a criminal, and he wasn’t second-in-charge of a multinational crime syndicate. Here he was daddy and husband. Nothing more, nothing less.
And in feeling that, how could he not understand why Vasily had to go after Lilly, why his father had gone after Royal, why he had gone after Renee, why they all had gone after Anya, and why it was of utmost importance to protect all five of the children who depended on them for safety from a world of men who would do them harm just for the pleasure of knowing what it would do to their fathers?
All they had in this world was each other. This island.
Wrapping his arms around Renee’s waist, Anatoly nuzzled his head into her hair and rubbed his hands against the small pooch of her stomach.
“Are you mad at me?” she whispered.
“No,” he said, kissing her neck. “It takes a little more than that to make me angry at you, but I think that you know that. That is why you did it.”
A smile crept across her lips at the sound of his deep, sexy baritone and the fact that he was telling the truth.
“You know, I never would have helped her if it meant putting you in harm’s way,” she said, turning toward him. Her face was sincere, regretful even. “I just assumed you’d let her go, or let Vasily go after her.”
Anatoly slipped his hand behind her small neck and pulled her face close. Her perfume tickled his nose and he inhaled greedily unable to get enough of her. “Are you doubting my mad skills all of a sudden,” he asked playfully, words laced with passion.
She looked up into his cobalt blue eyes and felt butterflies erupt in her stomach. Amazingly, even after being married for a year, she still had a crush on him. Maybe it was his bad boy swag or his dirty blonde hair or his infinite muscles or his tattoos, but the look of him still drove her mad.
“No, I’m not doubting your mad skills,” she whispered back. “I just don’t like to provoke you into using them.” The admiration in her eyes was unmistakable and the only thing that made Anatoly feel like a champion. It also made him want to dominate her physically.
Stepping into her, he dipped his head and kissed her full lips deep and long. His sweet, minty tongue cut like a hot knife on butter through her clever words and locked around her own as their mouths melted together.
In the darkness of the nursery while the mobile above the crib played a lullaby, Anatoly held her close and violated her senses with the promise of a sweet surrender on the horizon.
He kissed her so deeply until she literally forgot herself. She went limp in his warm and safe embrace. His large, roaming hands crushed into her and pulled her up against his growing erection.
Finally, when he released her after she was wet and disoriented; she realized that he was using yet another one of his skills against her.
“What do you want, Ana?” she asked, blinking hard.
Anatoly spoke softly, with her taste still upon his lips. “What don’t I know,” he asked, “about Vasily? What don’t I know?” His plead was intense on Renee’s heart. When they married, they made a covenant that required her loyalty to be first to him. Yet this was hard to repeat.
Renee heaved a breath and stepped around his large heaving frame. HWalking back into their bedroom to make sure that they didn’t wake the baby, she stood in front of the bed with her fingers knitted.
Anatoly followed after her. Closing the door quietly behind him, he waited. The hesitation in her eyes told him that she was going to tell him something that he truly did not want to hear, still Vasily was his brat. He had to know what they were walking into and why.
Renee put her hands on her shapely hips – a sign that she was defensive. “Lilly loves him, you know. She truly loves him. It’s the only reason why she went to do this alone. She couldn’t bear the idea that anything might happen to him.”
Anatoly didn’t have anything to argue with about that. “Well, Dylan is her son. I would imagine…”
“No,” Renee said, shaking her head. “She loves Vasily. She’s always loved him. That’s why she testified in court against the family. She thought Leo had killed him.”
“He nearly did,” Anatoly said, letting her know that he was aware of at least that part of the story. “But what doesn’t she want him to know. Is Dylan his?” Anatoly’s eye twitched.
Renee twisted up her lips. “She would have never made it to the witness stand if she hadn’t given Yakov the diamonds.”
Anatoly narrowed his eyes on his wife. “Still not enough of a reason to go at it
alone.”
Renee finally let it go. “She had to sweeten the deal.”
The silence in the room was deafening.
Anatoly chest began to swell in anger. His fists balled and a vein began to protrude out the side of his neck. “If you’re telling me that Dylan is Yakov’s son, I’m going to fucking throw up. Vasily’s been through enough hell…”
“No,” Renee said, halting his ramping fury in mid-escalation. “Well, I don’t know.” She shrugged, frustrated. “She didn’t say. I mean, she may know, I just don’t.”
“You’re rambling,” Anatoly reminded. His head snapped. “So he fucked her?”
Renee frowned. “I hate when you use a sewer mouth, Ana.”
“Well, it’s not like he made love to her, did he?” he asked sarcastically.
He had had a point. Renee rolled her eyes. “She just said it took a little more than diamonds to persuade him. She didn’t lay out the details.”
Anatoly scratched his head. That could have meant a laundry list of sexual favors all that would send his best friend off the deep end. “Vasily is going to fucking flip.”
“That’s why she didn’t tell him. She just left. She knew Dylan would be safe here with us.” Renee walked over and put her hand on Anatoly’s rock hard chest. Her physical contact with him began to calm him down. “Ana, you can’t let him find out yet. He might not help her.”
“Is that what you’re worried about?” Anatoly asked. Renee evidently didn’t know Vasily very well. He would follow Lilly to ends of the earth.
“Yes,” Renee answered. For good measure, she tried to relate. “You know, I would have done the same thing if I were her, in her exact situation. To protect your life you’ll do just about anything.”
Anatoly’s gaze was intense again. “Shit… and you wonder why I keep you under lock and key.”
Renee couldn’t tell if he was joking or not, but she knew not to push her husband on the matter. Anatoly had always been territorial. He didn’t like anyone even looking at her, so the conversation about her being with another man was inconceivable to him. Still, she had to make him see why Lilly wasn’t to blame.
Vasily's Revenge: The Complete Story (The Medlov Men Book 1) Page 14