Chapter 11 Ember
EMBER
I’ve got no idea how long I’ve been here.
The walls are made of brick and covered in gray paint. The floor is carpeted, but there’s nothing about it that suggests that it was ever clean. I’m sitting at this cold metal table, my hands resting in front of me.
I knew I was being followed. I glance over at the two-way mirror and immediately, I’m reminded of Roman. This time, he’s not my eye in the sky.
The door opens and the red-haired woman returns with two cups of coffee. She’s already introduced herself as Agent Michelle Rastelli. Already, she’s asked me questions I can’t answer. I don’t know why I’m still here.
She sets the cup of coffee in front of me and sits down on the other side of the table. “Sorry, it’s not very good,” she says with a casual smile. “But it’s hot and it does the job.”
I know my rights. I told her I wanted a lawyer and it’s been hours. This is bullshit.
“So,” she says with a smile. “Where were we?”
“You were getting me a lawyer,” I say to her.
“Right. I’m sorry that’s taking so long. You know how these court appointed guys are. They like to drag their feet—”
“Am I under arrest?” I ask her. “Because if not, you’ve got no right to hold me.”
She smiles and it’s like a motherly smile. Gentle and caring. “You’re right. I don’t have any right to hold you. However, I can get a warrant to search the Kitten’s Paw.”
“So, get your warrant. What do I care?”
“You should. Especially with your boss being Roman Orlov.”
A chill runs up my spine. Shit, I knew it. I fucking knew that’s what all this was about. “What about him?” I say innocently.
“I was hoping you’d tell me.”
I cross my arms and glare at her.
“I’m guessing you don’t realize this, but Mr. Orlov is under criminal investigation. Want to guess for what?”
I don’t say anything. She’s good, though. A smart-assed answer is right on the tip of my tongue.
“Apparently,” she goes on, “your boss is pretty deep into organized crime. My sources have named him the boss of the Kostromo Bratva. It’s a section of the Russian Mob, as it happens.
We’ve been monitoring his movements for a while now and this new position as the proprietor of the same strip club you happen to work at has piqued our interest.” She pauses, waiting for my response. I don’t give her any.
“See, he owns a lot of clubs and businesses around town,” she says.
“All of them are thick with criminal element. Mostly, his own people, from what we can tell. The Kitten’s Paw is the only place where we have yet to observe any criminal element there.
Well, there’s some, but it is a strip club.
You’ll be happy to hear there isn’t anything happening that’s worse than a misdemeanor. ”
I’m biting my tongue hard now. She’s baiting me.
“When we found out that the manager is the daughter of a former cop… well, we got curious.”
“That’s why you picked me up? Because I’m running a legitimate business?”
“A legitimate business run by a known crime lord,” she says, a little smirk on her face. “Tell me, how does someone like you end up working for Roman Orlov?”
I swallow hard. “I was there before he was,” I tell her. “Not the other way around.”
“Why don’t you tell me about it?”
And there it is. I’ll bet she never even called an attorney for me. This is her way in to setting me up. We stare at one another for a few seconds, then she sighs.
“Let me be completely transparent here. Your father was a police officer for more than twenty years before he was killed during a traffic stop. With your mother having died of cancer some years before, that left you an orphan at fifteen. Still, you put yourself through school and managed to get good work as a business associate through Breck and Myers restaurants. You worked at one of their establishments? Schecky’s. Right?”
I suddenly feel very cold. The amount of information she has on me is staggering.
“Your boyfriend at the time,” she goes on, “causes you to be fired. In this economy, you probably had a hard time finding work, so you took the one job that would have you, where you’ve been manager ever since.”
“How… ?” I stop myself. I don’t think I really want to know how she knows all that. “What do you want from me? I haven’t done anything wrong.”
She frowns and shrugs nonchalantly. “Oh, I don’t know about that. I’m thinking we’ve at least got a conspiracy charge. That’s legalese for being guilty by association.”
“And yet, you haven’t charged me,” I say.
“Doesn’t mean we won’t,” she says, her smirk disappearing. “All we want is a little cooperation from you.”
“I already told you. I don’t know anything. I’ve got nothing to do—”
“Did you know that search warrants can include financial records?” she says, crossing her legs. “Orlov certainly has a lot of men with rap sheets meandering around the club. Some of them appear to be working in an unofficial security manner. Wonder how much that costs?”
Nausea rises within me to the point where I can taste the bile at the back of my throat. Those damned ‘security’ payments. Shit, shit, shit.
“Listen,” I say finally, “I really don’t know anything that would help you. I… I asked Roman to leave me and the club out of any of his… activities. He’s kept his word on that. There’s nothing going on at the club.”
She nods her head slowly. “Well, even if that’s true, I doubt it’ll be that way forever. You should keep an eye on him for us. Maybe if you see something that we can use, we might look the other way on any conspiracy charges that may come up when we take him in.”
I’m going to be sick. I know well enough what happens to people who snitch on big crime bosses. They end up in the bottom of a river or in pieces across different landfills.
“You want me to be a rat,” I say.
“That’s an ugly word.”
“But that’s what you want. You want me to rat on Roman Orlov.”
She uncrosses her legs and leans forward on the table, clasping her hands together like a school counselor. “All I want is for you to keep your eyes open and then report back to me with anything that you find out.”
Semantics. Bullshit. I look away from her as I try to keep the bile down.
“You’re in the prime position for it,” she goes on.
“As manager of the club, you can access all his financial documents, be in on any meetings he might have.” She looks me up and down.
“Maybe if you play your cards right, you can get close enough to him to give us more than just what’s at the club.
” Her eyes look me up and down briefly. “You’re fairly young.
What are you, about twenty-five or thirty?
These older Bratva younger women. And it could be nice for you in the meantime.
There are benefits to being a boss’s girlfriend.
I understand the older ones know their way around a bedroom. ”
I scoff. “Great. Whore myself out in the name of justice.”
“At least you’d be on the right side of all this,” she answers. “I think your father would approve, personally. You’ve got to be conflicted in all this. A cop’s daughter working for a criminal. About to be put in jail herself over it. At least this way, you don’t smear his memory.”
I don’t say anything. I can’t say anything. I feel like all the air is being sucked out of the room.
“I’ll give you a little more time to think it through while I look for your lawyer. There should be somebody available now, I think.”
She gets up and with that same strange motherly smile, she leaves me alone again.
“Given your situation,” he says, “it’s the right call. You do not want to get mixed up with these guys.”
My attorney has finally arrived and we’ve been left alone to talk it over. It took Rastelli an hour to ‘find’ him. I suspect he was probably standing outside the whole time, drinking coffee and waiting for his cue to come in.
He adjusts his wire-rimmed glasses as he looks back at the files in front of him. He’s just shown me surveillance photos of me going to the bank, going to get coffee, walking to Natasha’s after that day I thought I was being followed…
“You’re already on the FBI’s radar,” he goes on. “And so are Orlov and his crew. Anything illegal that they do, particularly on the premises, you will be pulled in with them.”
“But they haven’t done anything. Roman promised—”
“Orlov is a criminal, Ms. Lorenzo,” he says patiently.
“Whatever he promised or didn’t promise will only last for as long as it serves him.
” He sighs and sits back in his chair. “I can tell you this. They don’t have enough to arrest you today, but it’s only a matter of time before they do.
I think working with them is a smart choice…
and probably the only way you’ll be safe if anything goes ass up with these people.
They can give you protection in exchange for helping to put them behind bars. ”
He’s right. Dammit, I hate that he is, but he’s absolutely right. However nice he’s been to me or the employees, however good of a fuck he is or whatever feelings I may or may not have for him, Roman Orlov is a crime boss. No good can come from ignoring that.
I take a deep breath and say, “Okay. I’ll give them whatever they need.”