Chapter 17
Chapter Seventeen
“I’m not a liar. I’m not.” A fresh river of tears streamed down Alyona’s face, and there was nothing Kyle could do to stop the bloodbath. The government’s case was going down the crapper at light speed.
He swore inwardly as Boris Kolbayev sat there smirking at Alyona, one hand fisted, the other rubbing his knuckles. To anyone else it would appear as a harmless gesture. To Alyona, it was his way of letting her know that if she told the truth, he’d beat the hell out of her.
Lazovsky, the Bratva’s well-known snake of an attorney, got in Alyona’s face, doing his best to lean over the witness but not quite tall enough to accomplish it. “But you are a liar, aren’t you?” He held up both documents.
Alyona shook her head, staring at her clasped hands.
The courtroom was packed, standing room only.
Kyle’s team was peppered strategically throughout.
Reporters from every news outlet were there, along with Kolbayev’s supporters—low-level Bratva who worked for him and Nikolai Lebedev.
Kyle recognized one of Lebedev’s men from Chicago, Ivan Asimov, the prick who’d once tried to shoot him.
Some in the gallery started whispering. Kolbayev’s buddies were the only ones smiling. The jurors watched silently, some of them shaking their heads.
He caught Greg Washington’s eye. Why wasn’t the prosecutor doing something to end the carnage? If he didn’t, it would all be over fast. Instead of being the evidence to lock Kolbayev away for good, Alyona’s testimony would be his get-out-of-jail-free card.
That would mean Kolbyev and Lebedev would get away with murder. Again.
“These statements can’t both be true,” Lazovsky repeated. “Can they?”
Without looking at Lazovsky, she shook her head.
The judge sighed. “Answer the question, Mrs. Kolbayev.”
“No,” she said, still staring at her hands.
“Mrs. Kolbayev,” Lazovsky said, huffing as he shook his head, then indicating the jury, “how are we to believe anything you say, when you just admitted lying to the FBI? That’s a criminal offense, by the way.”
The AUSA rose. “Your Honor, I’d like a brief recess to speak privately with the witness.”
“I object, Your Honor,” Lazovsky said. “All I want is for the witness to answer my questions.”
“I agree.” Judge Whittaker nodded. “Request denied.” He turned to Alyona. “The witness will answer defense counsel’s questions.”
Shit. Could this possibly get worse?
One of the doors in the back of the courtroom behind the gallery opened. A uniformed FPS officer—the same one he’d left guarding the holding room where Victoria was—came into the courtroom. Followed by—
Victoria.
Kyle ground his jaw so hard his teeth squeaked. She’d disobeyed his direct order not to be here. Now, here she was, floating in a sea of Bratva. Her change of hair color might be enough to fool some of them but not all.
She walked briskly to the bar, clutching her briefcase under one arm and resting her hand on the gate but not pushing through. She stared at Alyona, eventually catching her attention and patting her hand over her heart, nodding encouragingly and mouthing the words: You can do this. I know you can.
“Your Honor, who is this woman?” Lazovsky swung his arm in Victoria’s direction.
“Young lady,” the judge said, “please find a seat or go stand in the back of the courtroom.”
The door in the back of the courtroom opened again. For half a second, Kyle froze.
That something bad he’d been worried about…it was here.
“You see him?” Jack asked in Kyle’s ear.
He lifted his arm and clicked the mic at his sleeve, whispering, “Yeah. I got him.”
Yuri Petrov sauntered into the courtroom and leaned against the back wall. This was the first time Kyle had seen him since beating the crap out of him in Sasha’s. The beard was new, plus a few more pounds of muscle, but Kyle would know that asshole anywhere. What was he doing outside of Chicago?
Why was he here?
Kyle clicked the mic again. “Stay vigilant. Something’s up.” He could feel it in the air.
He knew the way Yuri’s mind worked. He’d have to have gone through a magnetometer like everyone else, so he couldn’t have smuggled a weapon into the courthouse. Shooting Alyona in the middle of a courtroom wasn’t his plan.
The man was plotting something else.
Absolute terror raced through Kyle’s bloodstream.
Please, Victoria. Don’t. Turn. Around.
Yuri hadn’t seen her yet. She turned to walk back down the aisle between the gallery benches. He knew the moment Yuri saw her. The man’s eyes went as big as dinner plates.
Kyle fisted his hands at his sides. If Yuri took so much as one step toward Victoria, he’d take his ass to the floor.
Victoria halted in mid-stride and put a hand to her mouth. Then Yuri did something that made no sense. He pivoted and left the courtroom.
Kyle’s scalp tingled with unease. After the failed assassination attempt on the New Jersey Turnpike, he’d assumed there’d be a backup plan in place to get to Alyona. Now he speculated Yuri was the backup plan. So why had he left?
He clicked his mic. “Jack, follow Yuri. Report back what he does.”
“Copy that.” Jack left out the same door.
Victoria looked over her shoulder at Kyle.
Her eyes were also wide. Someone at the end of one bench rose to offer her his seat.
Kyle was torn between his heart and his duty.
He wanted to haul her pretty ass back down to the safety of the holding room, but he couldn’t leave his witness.
Since he hadn’t told his brothers who Victoria was, they were unaware of the danger her presence here put her in.
Taking a deep breath, Alyona spoke, her voice stronger. “I did lie the first time I spoke to the FBI. That was because I was scared. Now, I’m not.”
“No further questions, Your Honor.”
Greg Washington stood. “Mrs. Kolbayev, why were you scared the first time you spoke to the FBI?”
She lifted her chin. “Because Boris said that if I didn’t lie for him about where he’d been that night, he’d kill me.”
“So, your second statement that Boris never came home until the morning after October 25 was the truthful statement?”
She nodded. “Yes.”
“And did he have blood on his shirt, as you wrote in that same statement?”
“Yes.”
“He left the courthouse,” Jack said in Kyle’s ear. “He met with another guy waiting for him a block away. He just handed Yuri a cell phone. He’s making a call now.”
AUSA Washington continued with a few more questions, ending with, “Nothing further.”
As much as he wanted to throttle Victoria for breaking her promise to him, Kyle had to admit she’d saved the day. Hell, she’d saved the entire trial. The woman had more guts, more courage than—
“Kyle,” Jack said. “I’m still outside, watching Yuri. Something’s happening. The marshals are shutting down the courthouse. They’re not letting anyone else inside.”
“Agent Gates,” came a voice Kyle didn’t recognize. Several other U.S. Marshals on the team were also monitoring the same frequency. “We just received a bomb threat called in to the courthouse. We’re about to announce the evacuation on the public address system.”
A uniformed deputy marshal rushed into the courtroom, speed-walking down the aisle, through the swinging gate and directly to the bench. “Your Honor,” he said, “we’ve had a bomb threat. We’re evacuating.”
The judge pounded his gavel. “Court is adjourned. We’ve had a bomb threat. Everyone, leave the building in a calm, orderly fashion.”
Naturally, that orderly fashion turned into panic as media personnel and the rest of the gallery rushed down the aisle.
“Victoria!” he shouted, waving her over to where he stood. “Over here! Let’s go!”
Alyona stood next to him as he held open the door. Victoria wasn’t making headway. She was like a fish swimming upstream against everyone else going downstream.
“Wait here,” he ordered Alyona.
“Victoria!” he shouted again, but his voice was drowned out by the alarms and the public address system announcing a building-wide evacuation alert.
He pushed open the swinging gate, forged a path through the escaping throng to where Victoria stood, and picked her up in his arms, not caring that one of her shoes whacked into a reporter’s head.
At the side door by the witness box, he set her back on her feet, clicking his mic as he ushered both women into the private passageway. Deke and another marshal shoved their way through the crowd to join them.
“Let’s go.” He clasped Victoria’s hand, dragging her through the narrow hallway toward the elevator that would take them to the parking level. Behind him, Deke and the marshal took charge of Alyona. At the elevator he pushed the down arrow.
“You think Yuri called in the bomb threat?” Deke asked.
“Yeah, but it doesn’t make any sense. Why did he wait until after Alyona was done testifying? If he’d wanted to prevent her from testifying, he would have done it before she talked.”
The elevator door opened, and they got in. Kyle pushed the button for the level where their G-rides were parked. He clicked the mic. “John, Malik, Ernie, meet us at the parking level. We’re getting out of here. Jack,” he added, “is there any countersurveillance out there?”
“Probably. But I can’t see them.”
“Get as many officers as you can to get into their vehicles and be ready to drive out when I give the signal.” They could have multiple vehicles stationed in the area to follow them. “I want as many government-issued vehicles that look like ours to be decoys.”
“Copy that. I’m on it.”
“I don’t get it,” Deke said. “Yuri was in the courtroom when Aly gave up the goods on Kolbayev, so what’s the point of forcing her from the building now? The damage has already been done.”
“I agree,” Kyle said, ushering the women from the elevator toward his Explorer where the other agents waited. “This has to be about something else.”
He looked into Victoria’s worried eyes. Considering what a psycho Yuri was, this could all be about something he hadn’t considered.
Her.
“Wait.” He prevented the women from getting into the Explorer.
If this was about Yuri’s obsession with Victoria, there was no need to put Alyona in danger again.
“We’re splitting them up. Deke, you and Malik take Aly to the new safehouse.
The rest of you, drive out when we do. I’ll take Victoria.
” Her life might not be at stake physically, but her life was in jeopardy because Yuri had seen her.
And he wanted her back.