Russian Next Door

by Flora Ferrari

  The only problem could arise with the head of her office. The guy seems like a straight shooter, but the question is will he really want to get involved in all of this? Then again how can an F.B.I. office head ever turn down the chance to locate and capture a mole in his organization? Impossible.

  And the impossible is what we’re trying to pull off today.

  Just as my mind almost wanders to Amanda and I sitting under palm trees sipping coconut juice in the Florida sun while I rub sunscreen all over her beautiful body, a man who looks like an extra from the movie Scarface comes walking straight towards me. He’s dressed like he could be in that famous movie, but underneath the hat he’s definitely Russian.

  He nods and I follow him, my hand on the two dummy USB devices in my right pocket. There are no names and no Bitcoins for whoever this is.

  I follow him for a solid minute and into the back stall of the men’s room.

  He holds out his hand and I hand him the two devices. He withdraws a device from his pocket that looks like a small mobile phone, but not quite. He plugs the Bitcoin device in first and stares at the screen. A red light appears and he reaches for his other pocket, but it’s too late.

  I tackle him into the door, our big bodies sending it flying off its hinges.

  “Freeze! F.B.I.” rings out inside the bathroom as undercover agents are seemingly everywhere now. Their outfits are just as bad as this guy’s, but at least they have the 70s style mustache to go with them.

  But apparently those mustaches aren’t just for show.

  One man rips his off and speaks into it, speaking in numeric police type codes as his partners pull out cuffs.

  I feel my face hit the tiles below as they spin me over onto my stomach. I want to make sure they got the message about what’s really happening, but no way am I mentioning Amanda’s name right now. I’d never endanger her.

  They rough us up for a second, and then one man leans in just an inch from my ear and insults me in…Russian.

  I feel my body cover with goosebumps hearing the man’s lack of an accent. It’s too perfect. He’s a native speaker and his insult was too personal. The mole!

  “We always find you and we always get you. You never turn your back on motherland,” he says again as he drags me outside.

  If he didn’t get caught in all this then it’s his word against mine and no way am I winning that.

  The realization that this all may have backfired suddenly hits me like a ton of bricks. The thought that I’m heading to prison means a lot of bad things, but only one that matters to me.

  Being separated from her.

  And speaking of separated, where are the other agents.

  He drags me around a corner and just stares down at me, laughing.

  “Before an accidental misfire I must know. Do you know who I am…Vasily?”

  I stare at him but I can’t place him. There’s something familiar about him, but maybe it’s just his Russian features standing out against all the American faces I’ve seen since I arrived.

  “I remember, you telling me we were just being used. You’d tell me not to listen to them. Well…I’m glad I didn’t listen to you.”

  His head tips back and he smiles and then I see it. The Bratva tattoo on the underside of his upper lip. The one he got for his fifth birthday.

  Number Five, from the orphanage. This piece of trash who took my brother’s name, is now about to take his brother’s life.

  He slowly raises his gun to my face and smiles.

  “Goodbye…traitor.”

  All I can think about is her. Just stay alive another second and something can happen. I can’t leave her here in this world by herself. She belongs with me, and I with her.

  Just as I roll to my side I hear the gun fire.

  They say when you get shot it’s like a hot bee sting and you don’t even notice it at first. It’s not the shot, it’s the rapid loss of blood that often kills you.

  I’m not sure if I’m in shock or not, but I don’t feel the sting.

  Did he miss?

  I roll back over and look at him, but he’s not there.

  My eyes quickly move down to the lump of what was a man, five feet away from where he was standing. But he’s not standing anymore, and the pool of blood he’s lying in tells me he’s not going to be anytime soon either.

  “I never liked that prick,” a tall man says and Amanda comes running from his side and basically tackles me in a hug.

  She’s got tears in her eyes as she kisses me all over my face, my mouth and even the top of my head.

  “Oh my, god. That was too close. I don’t ever want to see anything like that again.”

  “Good, because the only thing I want to see for the rest of my life…is you.”

  CHAPTER 20

  Amanda

  I slide my hand into my pocket, feeling the ring I found this morning on the beach. There was something about it that made me feel lucky and I picked it up and kept it.

  Now I know why.

  It’s only worth a few dollars at most. It didn’t fall off the hand of someone, that’s for sure. It fell from one of those guys that comes around with a bunch of them in a box, or even attached to a sheet of cardboard, hawking them for a few dollars.

  A week later, when tourists are back home, he’s still got your money, and you’ve got a green ring around your finger where you’re wearing the ring.

  But something about this one told me I had to have it. It was too big, but it made sense for someone with very big, thick, strong, masculine fingers.

  Vasily.

  And after what just happened and with the head of The Bureau’s F.B.I. office standing right next to me, I know now is the time.

  Special Agent in Charge Piro knows what Vasily and I have is real now. And just like I’m a witness to the life he just took when he files his report, he’ll be the witness to Vasily and I starting a life together, here…in America.

  There will be a whole lot of paperwork on so many levels, and a lot of time needed too. We’ll have to convince the government to allow him to stay and that he wasn’t really a spy but a defector all along...and one who came here specifically to share information with the U.S. government. He has so much information about the entire operation back in Moscow and I know my bosses want that dearly, as do the bosses of a whole lot of other government organizations.

  But I’ll worry about that later. After what just went down I’ve got people in high places that have my back, and most importantly I’ve got my man’s and he’s got mine. Vasily is going to be right by my side and this ring is the first step.

  I’m going to propose and make him mine, forever.

  Just as I go to pull it out, Vasily’s elbow gets tangled in my arm.

  “Anyway you can uncuff me?

  My boss leans in and does the honor and Vasily is free.

  “Finally. Now I can use my hands to do this,” he says, reaching into his front pocket and pulling out a small black velvet box.

  He pops the top open and my hand in my pocket freezes. My fingers let go of my ring and dart from my pocket and to his face.

  He beat me to it…barely.

  I cup his face with my hands and kiss him hard.

  “Yes!” I say with enough conviction to immediately stomp out any doubters, not that either of us have a single doubt about what we’re starting here today.

  “I didn’t even ask you yet.”

  “There’s no need. You had me from go.”

  “Annnnd it’s time for me to go. Take some time off, Andrews. I’ll be in touch.”

  I turn to thank Special Agent Piro but he’s already gone. I guess that’s how he got to the top. He’s good…a shadow.

  “Did ya here that?” I ask.

  “All I heard is you say yes. After that there was ringing in my ears and white lights in front of me. Baby, this is the best day of my life. And I’m going to make sure it’s the best day of yours too.”

  He scoops me up and carries
me right down to the cruise ship ticket office.

  “I have to return the rental car at the airport,” I plead.

  “We’ll need it in a week…when we get back.”

  “Where are you taking me?”

  “The same place you just took me…paradise.”

  “I love you, Vasily Vasiliev, my obsessed Russian Next Door.

  “And I love you, soon to be Amanda Vasiliev…my wife, my love, the mother of my children, my everything. Forever.”

  “Forever.”

  EPILOGUE

  Amanda

  The next day

  “I'm gonna take you by surprise and make you realize, Amanda.” Vasily sings softly as he approaches me from about ten feet as I relax in a hammock on Baby Beach in Aruba.

  “I’m gonna tell you right away, I can't wait another day, Amanda.”

  I turn my head back to look at him but I’m too slow as his lips find mine.

  “I’m gonna say it like a man and make you understand, Amanda. I love you.”

  “Awww, I love you too, my Russian Bear.”

  “I feel like today’s the day,” he continues with the song.

  “Did the souvenir shop have a CD of Boston’s Greatest Hits for sale?” I joke.

  “No, but they did have a phone.”

  “A phone? I thought we were in paradise. No more phone stuff after what happened yesterday.”

  “I didn’t use the phone. They did.”

  “For what?” He’s definitely piqued my interest.

  “To call him,” he says motioning with his head toward something that’s out of my line of sight. “I’d like to introduce you to my new friend, Jayme Bogaerts.”

  I turn to see a man in a priest outfit carrying a bible.

  “No!”

  “Yes…oh, yes,” Vasily says.

  I jerk up so quickly I get caught in the hammock and almost fall out and onto my face, but of course Vasily is there to catch me, just like I know he always will be when I fall.

  “Good morning, beautiful people!” Jayme says.

  “I’m only in my swimsuit,” I say.

  “Perfect. We can go for a dip as soon as we say our I do’s.”

  I just shake my head and smile.

  I lean in to kiss my man but he pulls his head back. “Ut uh uh. Save that for when we’re married.”

  “You mean in ten minutes,” I giggle.

  “I asked him to go as fast as he can, so I’m hoping for five. I don’t want another minute to pass without you as my wife.”

  Mr. Bogaerts delivers as promised, and before I even know what’s happening we’re saying our vows and running hand in hand into the Caribbean together.

  He kisses me just as we fall on our backs into the water like two kids in love. And that’s exactly what we are.

  We’ve got the rest of the week to stay here, or island hop in the Caribbean. The only thing that really matters is we have the whole week with each other.

  We’ll sort out all the paperwork later and see if the States even recognizes weddings from Aruba when we get home. Heck, if we “have to” get married again sign me up please! I’d gladly marry this amazing man every day of the week, and twice on Sunday. That’s how much I’m in love with him.

  And as I feel our bodies intertwine underwater and the thick poke coming from his groin, I can see why this place is called Baby Beach for a reason.

  He already promised me he’s not going to stop until we have a house full of laughter, love, and family. And he told me he’ll never stop loving me.

  And I hope these feelings will never stop either. I never thought the man of my dreams would come from a strange country so far away. But that’s how love works, right? It sneaks up on you when you’re least expecting it, often from the strangest of places.

  He stands up with my arms and legs wrapped around him, just my lower half in the water now as he claims my mouth.

  When our lips separate after a long, deep, kiss he brings one hand around and looks at the new ring on his finger…his half of the ones he must have bought here when I wasn’t looking.

  “Now you can throw away that one I found.” I say.

  “The one you gave me at PortMiami?”

  “Yes. That was just—“

  “Never, because that was just the beginning of all of this, of you being my wife, officially. And I’m going to keep it safe, just like you and all the children we’re going to have…forever.”

  “Forever,” I say. And as the last r in the word forever rolls off my tongue his lips are already back on mine, reminding me just how much he loves me…not that I’ll ever need reminding.

  Because forever, is just how long I know I’m going to be in love with him.

  Forever and always.

  EXTENDED EPILOGUE

  Vasily

  Twelve years later

  “Mommy, is daddy a spy?” our three-year-old Yaretzi asks. Yaretzi means “you will be loved” in Aztec…and her name may have something to do with a very romantic, and steamy, vacation we took to Mexico exactly nine months before her arrival.

  I laugh so hard and suddenly that I cough and so does Amanda.

  “I don’t know. Why don’t you ask him?” Amanda says.

  “Daddy, are you a spy?”

  “I spy my little girl!” I say, putting my hand in front of my face and slowly lowering it so only my eyes are above my row of horizontal fingers.

  She giggles uncontrollably and mimics my behavior. I love it when my kids do that.

  I pause, going back to what I was doing, being very careful as I drag my heel through the sand at Playa de los Muertos, in Andalucia, Spain.

  “That. Should. About. Do it,” I say under my breath. I breathe in deeply and then breathe out, proud of what I’ve done and now ready to show it off to my family.

  My mind drifts back to how this all happened and I can’t help but smile.

  First there was the first time we saw each other, which we joke about all the time now. Then there was our big spy adventure. Then there was everything we went through with the U.S. government to allow me to become an American citizen and all the protections that come with it, even though those protections ultimately led us out of the country. We’d always be looking over our shoulder if we stayed there.

  And then there was that...the idea that we didn’t have to look back anymore. Closure is a terrible word, but Amanda deserved answers about her parent’s death...and revenge in the way that she wanted it.

  When I gave the F.B.I. all the information they needed, they were able to fill in a lot of gaps in regards to key players at the Kremlin and some of the day-to-day workings. This ultimately led them, with my help, to figure out who had actually killed her parents.

  One thing about the Soviet system is that they like paperwork and records. And we were able to find the record that held that information. The F.B.I. told me I “did them more than a solid” with all the information I provided and I took the opportunity to ask them if there was something we could do about the killer...who was also using my same name at times, which pissed me off to no end.

  Being that he was wanted for numerous crimes, under a multitude of other aliases as well, I didn’t even have to ask. A SEAL team entered the villa where he was staying and of course the guy didn’t go quietly. Once he reached for a weapon that was all the authorization the SEAL team needed.

  I told Amanda about it and she cried, but she also told me the relief and calm it brought her. Of course she was still rightfully angry about the loss of her parents, but she was trying to put that hate she held inside of her in her past and focus on being happy now. She would remember her parents in a beautiful way and always honor their memory, with all the love they provided...not one terrible moment where they were taken from her.

  The SEAL team did what they did ten years ago. At that time we were already a family. She had love in her heart, as did I. Most importantly she said she was happy that man would never harm another soul. And that was the
last we spoke of it.

  “Okay kids. Time to climb the rock.”