Naked Truth

by Jamie K. Schmidt

  “I don’t want this,” Pam said, clenching her fists.

  “You think I do?” Drake roared.

  “I don’t know what you want,” she snapped back.

  “Oh, great,” Mark said. “I’ve always wanted to be in the middle of a lovers’ spat.”

  “Shut up,” Drake said. “You’re in enough trouble.”

  “Where’s my brother?” Pam said.

  “I don’t know.”

  “Why did he have your phone?”

  “I gave it to him,” Drake said.

  “Why would you do that?”

  The detectives looked at each other again, but this time, Pam was ready for the argument, spoiling for it.

  “Darren loves you very much,” Drake said.

  Pam snorted. “We just met again after many years.”

  “He went to jail for you. He worked on the inside, gave up his childhood and most of his adult life, all to keep you safe.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “Pam, your brother is a mole in the FBI. He was recruited just out of high school to be planted into the vor to help stop them from gaining a bigger foothold on the East Coast.”

  “What?” she said.

  “He’s a cop,” Drake said.

  “You arrested him,” Pam said.

  “Yeah, well, he’s a good undercover agent, and his cover is pretty much blown now.”

  “Why?”

  The detectives exchanged a look again.

  “Will you two stop that?”

  “Pam, when you ran, Vadim got away,” Mark said gently. “Darren was coming to arrest him and save you. If you had just waited—”

  “Stop,” Drake said. “She’s not to blame. This whole thing is a clusterfuck.”

  Their radio crackled. “Logan, you there?”

  “Yeah, go ahead.”

  “We spotted Vadim by her apartment.”

  “Get him,” Drake said, then turned to Pam. “You’re the only witness to a double homicide. The only witness who he told what happened to Nikolai.” Drake turned to Mark. “And that’s why she was right to run. He would have killed her before letting Darren take him.” He looked back at her. “You’re going to the safe house, and you’re staying there. Vy ponimayete menya?”

  “I understand,” she said. She understood that her life was never going to be the same.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Mark left them alone at the safe house and said he’d call if he heard anything new.

  “Hey, at least we’ve got cable,” Drake said, trying for a lame joke, but Pam had her arms crossed, and she was pacing the floor. “Look, why don’t you go take a bath? The bedroom already has some clothes and stuff for you.”

  “How?” Pam turned to look at him.

  “When I couldn’t get you on your cell phone, and your receptionist said you went to lunch with your uncle and Oksana, we thought the worst.”

  “That I was taking off with my partners in crime? I don’t see how that warrants my bags being packed by the Harding Police Department.”

  “We thought you were dead,” Drake said, and the anguish in his voice took the wind out of her sails. “Dmitry went ballistic.”

  “Is that where you got the fat lip?”

  “Yeah.”

  “You deserved it.”

  Drake nodded. “I did deserve that and more. The reason Dmitry was in your office this morning is he was going to try to get Oksana to incriminate herself and give him information about Nikolai’s death.”

  “It was Stefan,” Pam said. “I still can’t believe it.”

  “I can. Stefan had been walking a fine line for years. From what your brother told us, Stefan was chafing at being under his mother’s thumb. His father had been vor, and he wanted his birthright, but his mother wouldn’t let him. Although, she allowed him to associate with Vadim. Dmitry actually was introduced to Vadim by Stefan.”

  “They never suspected him?”

  Drake shook his head. “His cover was too good, too deep. Because he was bilingual, he got the attention of a local FBI recruiter while he was still in high school. He’s been theirs ever since.”

  “He never told me. Never tried to contact me before now.”

  “He did it to protect you. He saw you getting entangled with Stefan and Oksana, and he didn’t want to see you get involved with them—like your father had been.”

  “How was getting tossed in jail supposed to help me?”

  “He was able to start in on the ground level and erode their power base. If it weren’t for your brother and men like him, the vor would have a stronger presence in America. And it made your parents wake up, didn’t it?”

  Pam considered it. “Yeah, better late than never.”

  “What happened after he got arrested?”

  “They moved down South, and I finished high school there. Then I took out a ton of student loans and never looked back.” Pam blew out a large sigh. “And I was so mad at him. Mad at everyone. Where is he?”

  “He’s hunting Vadim.”

  “Is it safe?”

  Drake’s eyes slid away. “It’s possible that his cover is blown, but he’s our best chance of getting close to Vadim. When you called me, we were all in the conference room trying to figure out what to do next. I put the call on speaker phone, just in case, and when Vadim came on, Dmitry took over.”

  “Did I really blow it by running away?”

  Drake shook his head. “You did the right thing. You’re safe.”

  He held out his hands as if he was going to hug her, but Pam stepped back. “I’m going to get changed. How did my suitcase get here?”

  Drake dropped his hands and put them in his pockets. “We sent a car to the hospital and a car to your apartment. I had a female cop pack you a week’s worth of clothes.”

  “Why a week?”

  “Doesn’t matter,” he said, not telling her about his vacation plans to the Caribbean. She wouldn’t go to McDonald’s with him right now. “Go take your bath and try to relax. I’ll be here if you need me. You’re safe. No one knows where we are but me and Mark.”

  “Do you trust him?”

  Drake nodded. “Yeah. He just was not being smart about who he was sleeping with.”

  “There’s a lot of that going around.”

  Drake winced. “I deserved that too. I’m sorry for being an ass and accusing you of being involved in all this.”

  Pam nodded. “Whatever.” She walked into the other room, leaving him running his hand through his hair.

  THERE WAS A DECENT-size tub, and she filled it up with the hottest water she could stand. She put her clothes in the garbage can and sank into the water, hissing a little at the sting from the cuts and scrapes. She had to remember to ask Drake to let her know the name of the officer who had packed for her. She’d like to send her a thank-you note. Just having her special bath gel made the tightness in her spine relax.

  She heard Drake’s phone ring, and in the next instant, he was bounding into the bathroom.

  “Get out of here!” she said, covering herself up.

  “It’s the same number Vadim called on last time. It can’t go to my voice mail. You take it.”

  Pam nearly dropped the phone in the tub, juggling it to answer the call.

  “Dmitry, your sister is a dead woman.”

  “Actually, I’m fine. How are you?”

  “Where’s Dmitry?”

  “He’s collecting Nikolai’s paintings and artifacts from the storage area. Then we’re going to go away for a while,” Pam ad-libbed. She looked at Drake, and he gave her a gesture that she took to mean keep him talking. He went into the other room, and she could hear hushed, frantic tones.

  Luckily, Vadim was cursing at her in Russian. “You will be hunted all the days of your life, shluha.”

  “If I’m a shluha, then you’re a petuh for letting me get away. Isn’t that what your boss is going to think? Maybe Dmitry decided to skip the middleman—that would be you—and tal
k to your boss. Then he gets your job, and you’re hunted all the days of your life, petuh.” She spat the last word at him.

  Drake rounded the corner, eyes wide. Normally, she wouldn’t call anyone a rooster—the worst male insult in their language—but Vadim was really working her last nerve. And she was tired of him calling her a whore.

  She could hear Vadim breathing heavily, as if to control his rage. “There is no need to go to Andrej with this.”

  It was Pam’s turn to be stunned silent. But she forced herself to recover. “I was wondering. Does Andrej know Stefan killed his father?”

  Drake cocked his head at her. She blinked tears away. This was going to destroy him.

  “Da, he was the one who told me to kill him and Oksana once they were no longer of use. You, he wanted alive. He thought Drago would be too sad at your death.”

  “What’s in it for me, if I can convince Dmitry not to go to Andrej directly and keep using you as a middleman?” she asked Vadim, but she was looking at Drake to make sure he understood what she was saying.

  Drake’s eyes were shocked, unbelieving, and when he left the room, she wondered if he was going to blame her for this piece of news.

  “I let you live,” Vadim said.

  “I’m still alive, Vadim. And if I’m on Andrej’s side, you won’t be able to hurt me.”

  “I’ll give you money.”

  “How much money?”

  “Ten thousand dollars in small bills.”

  “Ten grand and your vow that you will not harm my brother or me?”

  “You have my word as a vor.”

  “Give me a half hour to flag Dmitry down.” Pam scrambled out of the tub to go searching for a pen.

  “I’ll call you back on this number. And Pavla?”

  “Yes?”

  “If you’re playing me, I will kill you slow.”

  “If you don’t have the money, I’ll ask Andrej to feed your khuy to his dogs.”

  “Too bad you’re a woman. I think you’d make a good vor.” And he hung up on her.

  “I can’t believe what I just heard,” Drake said. He was sitting on the bed, eyes locked on her breasts.

  Pam covered herself up with the towel, before realizing it wasn’t anything he hadn’t seen before.

  “I’m assuming you’re talking about Andrej and not my potty mouth?” She took her time rubbing herself dry.

  “Could he have meant another Andrej? It’s a common name.” Drake tore his gaze from hers and put his face in his hands. His body language drooped with despair.

  “I’m sorry,” she said, feeling petty about teasing him. “Vadim said that Andrej specifically didn’t want me killed because it would make you sad.”

  “Please tell me that, at least, he didn’t order a hit on his father?”

  “I don’t know,” she said, pulling on jeans and a sweater. She sat down on the bed next to him and laid her cheek on his shoulder. “He ordered Vadim to kill Stefan and Oksana.”

  Drake turned around. Gathering her in his arms, he buried his face in her hair while she told him the rest of the conversation she’d had with Vadim.

  “I’m so sorry for doubting you,” he said, easing them back so they were lying on the bed in each other’s arms. “I’m sorry I fucked everything up.”

  “I’m pissed as hell at you.”

  “I deserve it. What can I do to make it up to you?”

  If he had tried to cop a feel, she could have stayed mad. But instead he just stroked her back as he held her close.

  “I’m trying to forgive you. It would help if I knew why it was so easy to blame me?”

  Drake raised his head, and she lost herself in his expressive green eyes. He ran his thumb over her mouth. “It was easier to believe you were playing me for a fool than that I fell in love with you the same day I met you.”

  “Drake,” she said, kissing his thumb. Her heart thudded, and she hooked her leg over his. Gah, she was so easy when it came to him. But she didn’t care. He was the magic that was missing from her life. He was a tornado into her ordered existence, and she loved the havoc he wreaked on her senses.

  “When I thought I lost you...when I thought what my last words were to you...” He shook his head. “I’m so glad I had an opportunity to tell you what was in my heart. I understand if you never want to see me again, but now you know. You are beautiful and smart, and I am such an ass for ever doubting what I felt for you.”

  “You forgot one thing,” she said.

  “What?”

  “I’m also yours.” She kissed him, and it was better than relaxing in the bath, better than eating dark chocolate—heck, even better than that two-hundred-dollar bottle of vodka they’d shared.

  “I don’t deserve you,” he said when she let him catch her breath.

  “You really don’t. I’m rethinking that blowjob.”

  “You don’t get off that easy.”

  “Actually, all you have to do is kiss me.”

  He brushed his lips against hers before slanting his mouth and pressing her close to him.

  The phone rang.

  “Fuck.” Drake slammed his head back on the bed.

  “Oh no,” she said. “That’s Vadim.”

  Drake looked at the phone and shook his head. “Not yet. It’s Mark. I’ve got to take this. Yeah?” He flipped up her sweater to press a quick kiss on her stomach and smiled when she swatted him.

  Hurrying to put on her socks and sneakers, she wiggled her toes, grateful not to be barefoot again. Feeling needy, she burrowed into Drake’s arms and held him while he talked to his partner. Drake filled him in on Andrej being the vor boss, and she heard him working out a plan to capture Vadim.

  “He’s letting Dmitry and the FBI handle Andrej. Dmitry is going in wearing a wire. With Vadim eager to make a deal to keep Andrej from finding out that he doesn’t have the artifacts yet, it’s a good chance that Andrej doesn’t know Dmitry is really just Darren’s cover ID—and always has been.”

  “Do you think they’ll be all right?”

  “He’s a tough guy, your brother. Packs a mean punch.”

  “What are we going to do about Vadim?”

  “He’s the dangerous one. We’re not going to do anything.”

  “I am not sitting in this safe house while you go head-to-head with that psychopath.”

  “I’m trained for this. You’re trained for whiffie smellie therapy and classical music.”

  “I will break up with you again if you don’t stop picking on my profession.”

  “So we’re going out?”

  “You just said you loved me,” Pam said.

  “Yeah, but I didn’t hear it back.” Drake grinned, but there was something vulnerable in his expression.

  She told him what was in her heart, had been there since they made love. “I love you.”

  He kissed her again but cut it short. “When he calls again, you tell him that Dmitry wants to unload the stolen artifacts at Prix Fixe storage units, down on Westchester Boulevard. Tell him to meet you at unit 355. We’ll take it from there.”

  “And then what happens?”

  “He goes. We arrest him. You and I go away to the Caribbean for a few weeks while everyone is processed. You testify at both Andrej’s and Vadim’s trials.”

  “What about repercussions?”

  “I’ll stay close to the case for a few years, just to make sure no one else is going to come looking for you. But Dmitry demanded that your involvement ends with Vadim and that Vadim is so discredited that no one would help him or believe him. The vor can be very unforgiving once you’re labeled a petuh. And once it’s made known that he killed Stefan and Oksana, their friends will be taking an interest in him as well. I’d bet he won’t live to see trial.”

  “Couldn’t happen to a nicer guy,” she said and kissed him until his phone rang.

  Chapter Sixteen

  It was a good plan, Pam thought, and it should have worked. But they hadn’t counted on Vadim having a c
ontact in the Harding Police. When they walked out the door of the safe house, Drake was grabbed and wrestled to the ground by Vadim. Mark held a gun on Pam.

  “I told you she was playing you, Drake,” Mark said. “All along, she’s been in on this. Pretending to be innocent. She seduced Nikolai, and now she’s seducing you.”

  “Coming from someone who was with Oksana, that’s a little like the pot calling the kettle black,” Pam said, flinching as he pointed the gun in her face.

  Drake and Vadim were still struggling. Vadim couldn’t hold Drake one-handed to pull his own gun, because Drake was using every dirty trick in the book to keep from being pinned down.

  “Why are you doing this, Mark?” Pam asked, raising her hands.

  “Shoot her in the knee so she doesn’t run,” Vadim snarled.

  Drake caught him across the jaw in a vicious elbow that rocked his head to the side. Vadim responded by squeezing his arm tighter across Drake’s throat, trying also to dig his knee into the center of his back.

  “Where is the storage area?” Mark asked, watching the fight with one eye and Pam with the other.

  She couldn’t believe his stupidity. He had to know that was all a ruse to capture Vadim. But if he didn’t, she didn’t know what to say. If she confirmed that it was all a big fat lie, what was stopping him from shooting them?

  “Run,” Drake wheezed as Vadim choked him. He raked his fingers across Vadim’s face, but it only made Vadim mad, and he slammed Drake’s head into the ground. Drake reached toward his back holster, but Vadim’s knee was in the way.

  “Darren knows where it is,” she finally said.

  “You hear that, Vadim? I told you that Dmitry was in on it also. He was pulling a fast one on the FBI.”

  “Kill her, then,” Vadim grunted as Drake flung them both up and Vadim landed on his back with Drake on top. Vadim still had his arm around Drake’s windpipe, but Drake’s back was pressing Vadim into the ground, and he was using his free arm to slam his elbow into Vadim’s solar plexus to loosen the grip around his neck.

  “No, Vadim,” Mark said. “We’re not going to kill anyone. Drake, we just want the artifacts so we can leave town and make new lives for ourselves.”