Chapter 20
20
Natasha’s penciled-on brows sailed upward. “Of course, we can speak in private.” The woman said something in Russian to her henchmen that made their gazes dart quickly to Katie and then away.
Natasha snapped in English, “Let me out.”
The men and the girls jumped up and the madam slid out of the booth. Katie followed her into the bowels of the high roller’s area and was surprised when the Russian pulled out a key card and unlocked an unmarked door. Katie stepped into a small room with a poker table, a big sofa, and a wet bar. Hmm. Which saw more action? The table or the couch?
“We are someplace private. Talk.”
Boy, Natasha sure didn’t mess around. Katie said equally directly, “I need to get in touch with Alex.”
“I thought you were his friend.”
“I am. But there’s been a mix-up.” Katie could practically hear Alex shouting at her not to spill the details of their situation to Natasha. “I lost my cell phone. And we both know Alex wouldn’t randomly answer his phone for a stranger. I figured he would recognize your name and pick up a call from you, though.”
Natasha pursed her blood red lips. “Why should I do this for you?”
“Because then Alex and I would owe you a favor?” Katie tried hopefully.
Natasha laughed softly. Dangerously. “Oh, I like that idea very much. I have missed Alex. So…virile…he is. So dark in his tastes.” The woman shivered deliciously.
“How dark?” Katie asked curiously. To date, Alex had seemed interested in relatively vanilla sex with her. He’d alluded to his darker passions a few times but never gotten into specifics.
Natasha’s eyebrows shot up further than before. “You’re not his girlfriend, then?”
“I’m…not sure,” Katie admitted. “He’s difficult to read.”
“Now that is truth. Here is another truth for you. I have never had another customer who terrified my girls so much.”
Katie gaped. “Did he hurt them?”
“Yes. And no. He tortured them without pain.”
“Meaning what, exactly?” she blurted.
“He liked to take his pleasure while driving a women to the edge of great pleasure herself, but then he substituted deprivation, or even some sort of punishment, instead. He drove my girls crazy.”
Huh. He’d never held back like that with her. What did it mean?
“What can you do for me if I make this phone call for you?”
“I don’t know. But Alex and I will make it up to you.”
“Fair enough.” Natasha moved around behind Katie and shocked her by cupping her rear end intimately. Did the woman have a three-way in mind with her and Alex? Holy crap . Or was that grope purely a power play to throw the na?ve little American off balance?
“Do you have the number?” Katie asked, startled to hear her voice shaking slightly.
“Oh, I have his number. It’s yours I want at the moment.”
Katie did not give in to her urge to fill the ensuing silence. She knew that tactic from her father, the cop. It had worked like a charm on his perps and his kids.
“Show me the baby.”
Katie was surprised at the command, but unwrapped Dawn from her cocoon. Natasha leaned over the infant, murmuring something quiet and sweet to her in a Slavic tongue. She ran the back of her finger gently across Dawn’s cheek and then looked up at Katie. “A rare commodity, innocence. Yes?”
“Indeed.”
Natasha reached into a pocket somewhere on her slinky jumpsuit and pulled out a cell phone. She scrolled through her contact list and punched in a number. She listened for a moment and then spoke in rapid Russian. Katie vaguely heard a male answer in the same tongue. A brief argument ensued if Natasha’s angry tone of voice was any indication. Abruptly, the woman held the phone out to her.
Katie took it, startled. “Hello?” she said tentatively.
“Thank God, Katie. Are you and Dawn okay?”
“Alex!” she exclaimed. “We’re fine. I didn’t know where to go or what to do when?—“
He cut her off sharply. “Not over the phone.” His voice went so quiet she could barely hear him. “Listen carefully to me. Natasha is hooked up with the Russian mob, which is hooked up with the FSB. You need to get away from her the second we finish this call. You need to slip out without arousing any suspicions. Smile for me. Look natural. Are you doing that?”
“Yes.”
“Keep doing it. In about two minutes, Natasha’s thugs are going to be under orders to kill you and Dawn.”
It was a good thing he’d already instructed her to look happy, otherwise she would have gaped in shock at Natasha, who was watching her closely. Instead, she smiled a little at the woman.
“Get to the Cartwheel Casino. Ask for Dominic DeMecci. Tell him I’ll give him whatever he wants if he’ll protect you from the Russians and Chechens until I get there. Got that?”
“Yes.”
“Tell me aloud that you’ll check in to the hotel you’re at and you’ll see me tomorrow,” Alex instructed.
“Okay.” She replied. “I’ll grab a room here, tonight. I’ll see you when you get here, tomorrow.” She couldn’t resist adding, “I love you, too.”
Shocked silence echoed in her ear. “Bye!” she said brightly and hung up.
Smirking, Katie handed the phone back to Natasha. Crap. Mobsters were going to try to kill her. Terror washed over her all at once. She felt ice cold, then hot, then back to cold. She could do this. Dawn was depending on her.
“You’re a lifesaver, Natasha. Thank you so much for your help. Alex says he’ll come by and say hello to you tomorrow.”
The Russian woman nodded pleasantly. “I would love to hear more about Alex doing humanitarian work. Have dinner with me.”
“Gosh, I’d love to. But the baby’s about due for a feeding, and she gets colicky after she eats. Screams her head off until she burps. I think I’d better just see if I can get a room and get her out of your hair. The hotel security guys were pretty unhappy that I brought her in here in the first place. I’m surprised they haven’t already come looking for me to chase me out,” she confessed.
Natasha looked equal parts chagrined at Katie leaving and alarmed at the idea of her staying with a screaming baby. God bless Dawn .
Clearly, the woman was trying to stall Katie while her mob bosses reacted to the news of Alexei Koronov’s girlfriend being in the house. Although Alex had said they would try to kill Dawn, too. What was that all about?
“I’ll have one of my boys go with you. Make sure the hotel takes care of you.”
Crap. How was she going to slip away from one of those giant thugs?
“That would be great,” Katie said lightly. “That’s so nice of you.”
Katie followed the massive guy out of the private gambling area and into the main casino. Alex said two minutes. She needed to get away from this guy fast .
Thinking frantically, she searched for a hotel security person and, of course, couldn’t see a single dark-suited type with the signature earpiece anywhere on the expansive casino floor. She was on her own.
I can do this. I have to do this. Dawn needs me .
The lobby loomed. At its far end, the front door beckoned, taunting her with the promise of safe escape. Katie looked around and spotted a crowd of retirees heading toward the exit. Timing it carefully and with a mental apology to Dawn, she reached under the cloth sling and pinched the baby’s thigh. Hard.
Dawn jerked awake and let out a squawk that rapidly became a howl as Katie continued pinching her. She felt terrible about doing it, but figured that was better than Dawn being killed. She looked up at the Russian strongman in feigned panic. “Is there a changing room around here?”
“How should I know?” he muttered.
“Can you ask somebody? She won’t shut up until I take care of her. And she gets so mad she vomits on whoever’s in range. Curdled milk makes the worst stain, and the smell?—“
The guy hustled over toward the front desk and Katie ducked behind the crowd of tourists heading out toward a big bus parked out front. Soothing the angry baby frantically with a finger in Dawn’s mouth, she ran half-crouched for the open front doors. Whether the thug was behind her or not, she had no idea. She just ran.
She sprinted for the line of cabs and dived into the first one, lying flat in the back seat.
“What the hell?” the cabbie exclaimed.
“The Cartwheel Casino as fast as you can. My ex-husband is trying to kill me and he’s here and he’s drunk. Hurry . Please.”
Sweet man that he was, the driver pulled out of the hotel like the place was on fire. She had no idea how long a regular cab ride to the Cartwheel Casino took, but tonight it took under three minutes.
She threw a twenty-dollar bill at the driver with her profuse thanks and ran into the lobby straight to the concierge’s desk.
She panted, “I need to find a man named Dominic DeMecci right now. It’s a matter of life and death.”
The concierge, a polished looking fellow of middle age looked appropriately alarmed. He answered in an undertone, “We’re not allowed to discuss our patrons, but if I were looking for Mr. DeMecci, personally I’d head for the Blue Moon Saloon and ask the bartender where to find him. The saloon’s that way.” The fellow pointed off to his left.
A cab screeched up in front of the hotel with a squeal of tires and brakes, and she didn’t wait to see who got out. She turned and ran for all she was worth to the saloon. Dawn was an old pro at being hauled around at a dead run and quieted as if she sensed the danger. Lord knew, she had enough practice at it.
Katie raced across the huge gambling floor, weaving between rows of garish and noisy slot machines, and slipped into the bar.
The western theme in here was unrelenting, and she bellied up to a brass-topped bar, breathing hard. The bartender wore a bandanna around his neck and a cowboy hat. He looked nearly as disgusted as a cat would at being dressed up like that.
“Drink, Ma’am?” he drawled in an accent that was pure Bronx.
“I need to find Dominic DeMecci. It’s an emergency.”
The guy’s ennui evaporated. “Through the swinging doors. Last table on the right.”
She nodded her thanks and hurried through slatted wood doors that led into a second room. Fake lanterns along the walls cast questionable light on a dozen large, round tables covered in red-and-white checked cloth.
She started toward the last table on the right, but a man in a well-tailored suit stepped into her path. He politely, but definitely, stopped her. “Bathrooms are out front. To the left of the front door as you come in.”
She answered, “Not looking for a restroom. I’m looking for Dominic DeMecci. I have a message for him from Alex, uhh, Alexei Koronov.”
Every eye at that back table riveted on her abruptly. Even the guy standing in front of her stared openly. “You shittin’ me?” he muttered.
“No shit,” she answered firmly.
“What’s that in the sling thing?” he demanded suspiciously.
Sensing that weakness would not play well with these guys, she snapped, “A baby. You wanna frisk her?”
“Let her through, Sergio.”
The man in front of her stepped aside.
A gray-haired man in maybe his early sixties sat in the corner facing outward. He was smaller than she expected. Slight. Fatherly looking, even.
“Mr. DeMecci?” she asked.
He looked up at her assessingly, and sharp intelligence shone in the dark depths of his eyes. There was the cunning mob boss she’d expected. “My name is Katie McCloud. I’m a…an acquaintance of Alex’s.”
“Give the lady a seat,” DeMecci murmured gently. One of the younger men at the table leaped to his feet with alacrity. He must be the junior hood at the table.
Katie sank into it, and jumping up guy asked solicitously, “Can I get you anything, ma’am? Something to eat or drink?”
“A bottle of water would be nice. Dawn could seriously use a bottle to calm her nerves.” The baby was squirming a lot and still fussing after being pinched and then jostled all over the place while Katie fled the Russians.
In a matter of seconds, a bottle of water was placed in front of her. Katie pulled the box of powdered formula out of the baby bag that had managed to stay on her shoulder through the mad race over here. She made up a bottle for Dawn while the men at the table watched on in silence.
“Have the bartender heat that up for her in the microwave,” DeMecci instructed.
Jumping Guy nodded and hurried out, bottle in hand.
“You have children of your own?” Katie asked politely.
“Four girls and two boys. And nineteen grandchildren.”
“Holidays must be a lot of fun at your house.”
He smiled fondly. “Loud. Chaotic. Makes me crazy.”
Sensing that polite small talk was part of the ritual of talking to this man, she smiled back. “I have four brothers. That’s how it was at our house, too.”
“Where are you from, Miss McCloud? You don’t sound Russkie.”
“Pennsylvania.”
“How’d you get tangled up with someone like Koronov?”
“He works for a group of doctors who go to war zones around the world to treat victims. I was his nurse assistant on his last trip.”
“That his kid?”
“No, sir. We rescued this baby when her mother died delivering her.”
DeMecci crossed himself and touched his lips. “Tragic.”
The man reminded her a lot of her father. Used to being in charge. A family man and a career man. The type to have limited patience.
She leaned forward and got to the point. “I made the mistake of approaching Natasha Gudenov down the strip earlier this evening. Her people now want to kill me. Alex told me to find you and tell you he’ll give you anything you want if you’ll keep me and the baby safe until he can get here.”
“Anything I want?” DeMecci echoed.
“Those were his exact words.”
“That bastard’s got some nerve sending his girlfriend and some kid to me and asking for my protection!” DeMecci burst out.
Crapcrapcrapcrapcrap . If this were her father, she would give him a minute to calm himself before she tried to talk to him again. She busied herself taking the now warm bottle from Jumping Guy and getting Dawn out of the sling and settled in her arms, sucking at it. Besides, babies taking a bottle were pretty cute and hopefully pretty hard to resist helping.
“I want the money back. All of it,” DeMecci declared.
Katie shrugged. “He did say anything you wanted.”
DeMecci still looked too volatile for Katie’s protective motherly instincts. She added lightly, “If I were you, I’d ask for interest on the money, too.”
DeMecci snorted in surprise and studied Katie more closely. “You sure you’re his girlfriend?”
Katie snorted back. “I’m not sure of anything with that man.”
That made DeMecci laugh aloud. But then he went dead serious and leaned forward. “You do understand I’m going to have to take you somewhere and keep you there until your boy pays up.”
“Yes, sir,” she answered evenly. What the hell? This guy was going to hold her hostage, and Alex had handed her over to him?