Leverage (The Mistaken Series)

by Nancy S Thompson

  “Alrighty,” Greg said as he folded his hands and finally looked up at me. “First things first—your wife and child. You said you wanted proof they were free and safe, did you not?”

  I stared at him, rather stunned. “Um…yeah…yes, proof…please. I…I want to know they’re home…away from all of…this. Safe.”

  Greg chuckled at my inarticulate jabbering. “Of course. You are ever the gallant husband and father.” He pecked out a few more keystrokes and watched his monitor for a brief moment before turning the laptop around toward me. “Violà!” he said.

  I broke eye contact and slid the device closer. There was no sound, but it appeared to be cell phone video. The person holding the camera was sitting in the back seat of a vehicle, Greg’s Escalade from what I could tell. Next to him, on his right, was a backwards-facing infant car seat, and on the other side sat Hannah. She had her left arm slung across the car seat with her hand resting protectively between the cameraman and Nicole, who lay sleeping peacefully, cocooned in a pink fleece blanket.

  As Hannah fidgeted with the beanie covering Nicole’s head, she glanced up and looked straight into the camera. She smiled, though it appeared forced, like she’d been ordered to, but her eyes were calm, if a bit sad, as she mouthed, “I love you, Ty,” and gave me a thumbs-up.

  The camera focused down on Nicole for a minute then swung around to capture the area outside the car windows. I recognized the street our home was located on just before the vehicle pulled into our driveway and came to a stop near the side door at the kitchen. While the cameraman kept recording, the man in the front passenger seat got out and opened Hannah’s door as my wife struggled with Nicole’s car seat. Greg’s man stepped in when she couldn’t disengage it herself. He popped the lock and pulled the seat clear of its base then walked Nicole up to the stoop with Hannah dead on his heels. He set my daughter down on the concrete stoop before he stepped back and gave Hannah a slight nod.

  The camera stayed on Hannah as the man returned to the car and the driver reversed back down the driveway. But before the SUV turned about and left, the door to the kitchen opened, and Conner burst through. Hopping over his new baby sister, he careened into his mother and threw his arms around her. His face was buried in her hair at her neck, but I could tell he was crying as his shoulders quaked in relief. Then Greg’s SUV hurried back up the street, and the video faded to black.

  Tears stung my eyes. I covered my mouth with one hand as I closed Greg’s laptop and sat back in my chair. It was done. Hannah and Nicole were free, and Conner was home to watch over them. I’d done it. I’d saved my family. Relief washed over me, and I could no longer keep from weeping in bittersweet joy.

  “Ah, a happy ending then?” Greg purred, his tone strangely heartfelt.

  “Yes. Thank you,” I replied as I nodded. For once, I was genuinely grateful to him, but that didn’t stop me from asking for his guarantee. “Promise me you’ll leave them alone from now on, and I’ll swear to be whatever it is you want me to be—your dog, your servant, your killer, I don’t care—as long as you leave my family in peace. I want your word.”

  Greg pressed his lips together and peered at me. “Of course. You have it. I give you my word; I will not touch your family.” He stood up and leaned over his desk with his hand out.

  I stared at it for a moment then caught his eye for another before I reached in and accepted his hand. Greg smiled—that same sad smile he gave me the other night before he let me see Hannah one last time. I found myself looking deeper into his eyes, and he didn’t try to hide from me either. There was pain there, a vulnerability I’d rejected previously, interpreting it instead as pure greed and selfish ambition, not that greed and ambition weren’t there, because they were. It just seemed, at that moment, that the greed and ambition were the result rather than the motivating factors.

  I was reminded of the first time I’d laid eyes on Greg, when he was hardly more than a boy fighting in his daddy’s arena of gladiators nearly five years earlier. I remembered the look in his eyes when he’d beaten his opponent and, with his arms raised in victory, looked up at his father for approval, probably realizing that approval had been at the expense of his soul. What kind of father would do that to his own child, barter his soul as part of a lesson?

  That’s the pain I saw in Greg’s eyes, that betrayal, and it caught me completely off guard. I didn’t know what kind of man he was before all this, but I did know what it felt like to be good once, and to have thrown it all away and later realize I could never truly get it back. No matter the reason, that sense of utter hopelessness was the darkest, bleakest feeling any human could ever possibly feel.

  Greg dropped my gaze and gently pulled his hand from mine. “You and I aren’t as dissimilar as you might think,” he explained. “I understand your dedication to your family, and I applaud your commitment, your willingness to sacrifice on their behalf. You’re a lucky man, and they’re obviously worth it.”

  He slipped back into his chair and cast his eyes downward. “I’ve searched for many years for someone to believe in, who believes in me in return. My men—they’re paid to be here, so their loyalty only goes so far, you know? I wasn’t fortunate enough myself, but…I always wanted a brother, that one person who’d have my back without question. You were lucky to have had that, as well. And, while I know it’s not the same and never will be, I hope, someday, we can come to think of each other as…well…as family.”

  He peeked back up at me then, just for a moment, but that’s all it took. I saw what he was doing. He was reaching for a lifeline. Greg was human, after all. He obviously wanted to connect with someone, quite desperately, in fact. But, while I understood the depth and pain of his loneliness, while I believed he deserved to be touched by someone he loved just as much as I or anyone else did, after everything he’d put me and my family through, all I could muster for Greg was pity.

  I knew what that was like, to see that in someone’s eyes. I’d seen it in Hannah’s right before I said goodbye, and it destroyed me, because it meant I was that much more vulnerable. No man wants to feel that—least of all Greg—and in an instant, that shield he usually wore over his eyes came slamming back down into place. Seems he was right; we weren’t that dissimilar. He straightened his back and started to pick through the papers covering his desk.

  “Okay,” he said and cleared his voice, “now that we have all that out of the way, let’s get down to business, shall we?” He found what he was looking for and laid it out in front of me. “Your first assignment, Aleksander Lebedev, also known as The Swan. Did you study up on him?” he asked, all business and tightly controlled. He was in such a rush to get past the awkwardness of the last moment, he didn’t even give me time to answer before he rehashed his speech about who was who among the Vory.

  I glanced at the photograph Greg had given me then looked over the paperwork with Lebedev’s itinerary. I wondered if it was correct.

  “Are you sure about this, that he’ll be here?” I asked. “I mean, a funeral? How could you know about this so far in advance?”

  Greg smiled, but this one was different from the last. It was more like all the others he’d given me—malevolent and conspiratorial—and it twisted like a knife in my gut, reminding me what this discussion was all about. Me killing someone for Greg’s gain.

  “Yes, well,” he said, “I have worker bees in the Lebedev hive. We kind of had to make that one happen.”

  “Make it happen? What does that mean?”

  “The Swan doesn’t go to just anyone’s funeral. He’s very discriminating. So we chose someone close to him.”

  “You chose? You mean you killed someone just to get this bloke to attend his funeral? Are you fucking mad?”

  “Well, not just anyone. It’s someone very special, someone he loves very much.”

  “I thought you said you couldn’t personally touch anyone in the Vory? If you killed this poor fool, what do you need me for? Kill Lebedev y
ourself.”

  Greg leaned back in his seat and crossed his arms over his chest. “See, that’s where you’re wrong. First, he was actually a she, and she was not part of the Vory. She was Lebedev’s daughter, and I wasn’t technically responsible for her death. You were, I’m afraid, when you allowed Katy Holender to be waterboarded. The poor girl, drowning like that, and they say it isn’t possible.” He shivered animatedly then started straightening up the mess of papers on his desk.

  I sat there staring with my mouth open. “You…” I began but choked on the single word. “You killed Katy?”

  “Don’t act like you didn’t know. Your wife admitted telling you, did she not?”

  “Yes…Hannah told me it was Katy and not her, but…she died? You killed her?”

  “No, that would be you, for being too slow on the draw, as they say.”

  “I shot that man! I shot him so you’d stop! And you killed her anyway? Why?”

  He shrugged. “It was the perfect way in. I couldn’t pass it up.”

  “She was pregnant!”

  “Yes, well, Nova, my queen, was none too pleased with that development, but she found it inspiring. It was her idea, and it all worked out for the best. Now I have the perfect opportunity to get The Swan where I need him, or, I should say, where you need him…

  “Tomorrow at one, River View Cemetery in Portland. The river makes for an easy escape, there are lots of large monuments, trees, it’s hilly. Should be an easy shot, and Lebedev is a hulk of a man. Now, if we’re really lucky—and I strongly believe we will be—Eduard Meier will be there to pay his respects as Lebedev’s Councilor and right-hand man. That will give you the opportunity to kill two birds with one shot, almost literally.”

  I was still in shock over Katy and hardly heard what Greg was saying. I’d assumed they’d been working together, yet, when I factored in Leo’s death, I couldn’t quite connect all the dots. But Katy’s death proved one thing absolutely clear. No matter what, I could not trust Greg, even with him giving me his word, shaking hands over it, or reaching out as family. Greg was out for one person only.

  Greg.

  I was merely his mercenary, and tomorrow, with the sword of Damocles once again hanging over my head, I would cement that position forever and lose what little humanity I’d struggled for so long to hold on to.

  CHAPTER 58

  Hannah

  I squealed when I saw Conner bound out of the house. He hurdled over Nicole’s car seat and enveloped me into a tight embrace right there on the driveway. His entire body shook as he cried into my neck. It wasn’t the welcome I was expecting. In fact, I wasn’t expecting any welcome at all. I’d been shocked then relieved when Greg—without any preamble or speech about his gracious generosity—announced he was releasing me and Nicole. Even more surprising, he provided a car seat for Nicole, as well as a ride home.

  Home.

  It seemed an obscure memory, intangible and surreal, something I never truly thought I’d see again, especially after witnessing Katy’s torture. But for whatever reason, Greg had let us go. I knew down deep that Ty was responsible, that he’d swung a deal and agreed to do something, anything, in trade for our freedom. My heart broke knowing how far Greg would likely push him, how far he already had. I knew Tyler well, and, after being forced to kill, he probably thought he had nothing else to lose, that his soul was a lost cause, and if killing again was the price he had to pay to secure our freedom, then why the hell not?

  While I was relieved beyond words to be free, I hated that it was at Ty’s expense. But at the very least, Conner was also free and relatively safe, though not exactly sound. I’d noticed the taped-up cast on his right arm and could feel it pressing into my back as he squeezed me tight. I released my grip around his waist and pushed against his shoulders. He finally loosened his hold and pulled back.

  My fingers grazed over the bruises beneath both his eyes, the tiny stitched-up cracks above his now-crooked nose and along his chin, and the thin, scabbed-over cut that ran the length of his cheek. With a sigh, I gently lifted his casted arm in my hands.

  I looked up. “Oh, honey, I’m so sorry.”

  Tears pooled in his bright green eyes, but he shook them away, and his expression turned hard. “You’ve nothing to apologize for, Mom. You’re not to blame.”

  “I didn’t mean to bring this into our home, into our family.”

  He stepped back, but held onto my hands. “Mom, stop, please. None of this is your fault. I know everything now. You don’t have to pretend or protect me from the truth anymore. I know who’s responsible for all this, what happened down in California, how you got there, and even what happened at home before he took you.”

  I snatched my hands away and stepped back. The look in his eyes was cold and angry, and I felt instantly exposed, naked and vulnerable. I hugged my arms around my body.

  “You don’t know anything, Conner. What happened back then…it was—”

  “Ty’s fault,” he interrupted. “Everything was Ty’s fault—is his fault.”

  “No, Conner, please—”

  “Greg told me everything, and Maks Sidorov confirmed it. Even Tyler had enough sense not to deny it and the good grace to look ashamed, but that doesn’t absolve him.”

  “Conner, I’m the only one who has the right to judge or absolve Ty, and I have. I’ve forgiven him. You might think you know what happened, what he did, but you don’t know why. You don’t know his heart, not like I do.”

  “It doesn’t matter why, Mom, and I don’t give a shit about his black heart. It sucks what happened to his wife, but what he did afterwards to free his brother…” He shook his head. “That’s sick, Mom, and highly illegal. Ty belongs in prison.”

  With a gasp, I threw him an outraged look then stomped back over to Nicole. I heaved her carrier up and stormed into the house. The living room was a wreck with stuff strewn all over. I saw the deep well where Roman had punched my head into the far wall. I realized then it wasn’t safe for us here, not with Greg still on the loose.

  I turned to Conner when he walked in behind me. “We’re leaving,” I announced. “Gather whatever you want, but I’m calling a cab and we’re getting out of here. Now.”

  With Nicole’s car seat still in hand, I moved down the hall into her not-quite-finished nursery. I put her down, released her from the restraints, and pulled her from the carrier before kicking it back out into the hall. Then I charged around the room.

  “What are you doing?” Conner demanded from the doorway.

  “I’m changing your sister then packing her things. I told you, we’re leaving.” I placed Nicole down onto the changing table and redressed her, casting the clothes Greg had supplied into the trashcan. After laying her safely in her crib, I began to gather her things.

  Conner grabbed my arm. “And then what? We leave, go to a hotel? What then, Mom?”

  I glared up at him, unable to respond, because I honestly had no idea what I should do. All I knew was, before I did anything else, I had to make us safe. After that, I figured I should contact the authorities. “I’ll call Maks. He’ll know what to do. He’ll help me get Ty back.”

  “No, Mom, the only thing Maks is gonna do is arrest that sonofabitch.”

  “What?” I shrieked. “Why? Ty hasn’t done anything except what he had to, to protect us, including you and your girlfriend.”

  “Then where is she?” he voiced in concern. “Why hasn’t Greg released Katy?”

  I pressed my mouth tight, unsure if I should arm my son with even more ammunition in his quest to see Ty incarcerated.

  “Mom,” he pleaded. “What is it? Where’s Katy? Tell me!”

  I glanced at Nicole. She’d fallen asleep in her crib. I motioned for Conner to follow me into my bedroom then sat him down next to me along the edge of my bed.

  “Conner, honey, there’re things you don’t know. Katy is…involved somehow…with Greg. She even told him her child might be
his.”

  Conner jumped up. “What? No way. That’s a lie. You’re lying. Why would you say that?” He began to pace around the room.

  I closed the bedroom door to a crack then turned back to my son. “I’m sorry, Conner, but Katy helped Greg kidnap me, and I was forced to deliver your sister without the benefit of a hospital. We both could’ve died, and she helped put me there. When I tried to escape, I caught her with Greg. He called her Katya, not Katy, berated her for getting pregnant. He forced her to watch over me, but she couldn’t handle it when I went into labor. That was the last time I saw her…until…” I stopped, unable to go on.

  Truth was, I didn’t know what had happened to Katy. But Conner stood stock still in front of me, waiting, his eyes pleading with me to share what I knew. Her child could be his. I didn’t have the right to deny him. Good or bad, he deserved to know, and sugarcoating it wouldn’t make it any easier to swallow.

  “Conner, you know what this whole thing is all about, don’t you?”

  He nodded. “It’s about Greg forcing Ty to kill for him. I’ve seen his plan.”

  “Yes, but Greg needed us to pull it off. Ty will do anything to protect us, including you. But he’d do just about anything not to have to kill again, like he was forced to do to save me back in San Francisco. Greg knew this and wanted Ty to prove he would do as commanded when commanded. So he tested Tyler, made him choose to kill the man who murdered his brother to save me from being tortured, waterboarded. Greg forced Ty to watch as his men poured water down my throat. Only thing is, it wasn’t me; it was Katy, but Ty didn’t know that, because Greg had her head covered with a wet towel, and I was nearby screaming for him to stop. Greg told Ty it was me, and Ty heard me screaming. He killed a man to save me, Conner. He didn’t want to, but in the end, he did it. He saved Katy, and possibly your child, and sacrificed his own soul, not to mention his freedom, to do it.”

  Conner stared at me, stunned into silence. He settled back along the edge of the bed and gaped off into the distance. I sat beside him, took his hand in mine, called out his name, but he didn’t seem to hear me. I feared I’d gone too far, said too much. After all, he cared for Katy, even if he didn’t trust her. But more than anything, he’d fallen in love with the idea of his own child, of becoming a father, even though it scared the daylights out of him. He’d already come to love that baby. And now, not only had I taken that possibility away from him, he had to wonder what had happened to Katy, and I couldn’t tell him, because I had no clue.