Chapter 23
Nick
RENAT HAD ASKED TO meet me at this cafe at ten thirty for three reasons: good enough coffee, bad enough location that you didn’t risk running into anyone, and the breakfast crowd had already cleared out, but the lunch hadn’t started.
I walked in, making the bell ding, and Renat raised his eyes just long enough to clock me before going back to his laptop.
He looked the same as ever in his leather jacket and neck thick as a sewer pipe.
He looked more like a mobster than the guy locking them up, but that was what made him perfect for undercover work.
I set the manila envelope on the table and slid it over to him as I sat down.
“You’re early,” he said in a mild accent, giving away his good mood.
“I was in the area,” I said.
He smirked, which for him was more of a muscular tick than an actual smile. He flicked the envelope open with two fingers and scanned the first page. “You didn’t make a copy?”
I shrugged. “I did for myself. Figured you’d need the original for your case more than I would for mine.”
He flipped through the pages, lips pressed so hard they went white. His eyes stayed flat, but every now and again, the tendons in his hand would stand out, pale against the table edge. Yeah, I knew the feeling, and that was how I could tell Renat was one of the good guys.
When Renat finished reading, he set the papers down and looked up at me.
“This is thorough,” he said. “But you don’t have anything from her adoption?”
I had expected this question. “She was young. You want details, talk to Vera. She’s the oldest.”
He leaned back, taking my measure. The leather creaked, and he cracked his knuckles with a sound like breaking branches. “I’ll give her a call, but Nadya was old enough to remember something. Never know what she saw during the adoption that her sisters didn’t.”
Or she didn’t know anything, and it would only send her into another spiral.
“I already asked her. The only thing she remembers was that they didn’t go to the courthouse,” I answered instead of telling him to stay the fuck away from my girl.
“Protective,” he said, and let the word hang there.
“She has the most trauma out of all the sisters,” I said. “You want to get information, get it from someone less traumatized.”
With the same poker face he’d worn the entire meeting, he asked, “Are you fucking her?”
“No.” Not since that one night. The night I desperately wanted to repeat. Often.
He let a single eyebrow go up, then took out his phone and started typing. Probably adding a note to the file: Santana might be compromised. Proceed with caution.
Was I that obvious?
“I’m just asking to make sure it’s all good on your end. I mean, I looked her up. She’s hot,” he said without looking up from his phone. “I’d totally hit that.”
“Don’t.” My voice was a thread away from snapping.
Renat tilted his head, mocking. “Relax, Tuna. It’s called a test. You fail.”
I let out a long breath. Well, fuck. Maybe I was that obvious.
Renat picked up the statement, tucked it under his arm, and stood up. “I will not use her unless I have to. But if something comes up, you call me. Yes?”
“Yeah.”
He zipped the jacket and left without looking back.
I stayed a minute, staring at a crack in the ceiling and wondering how the hell I’d let a guy like Volkov get to me. Well, no helping it now. Time to go.
My old military buddies, who had cursed me with my nickname, owned a security company, and I needed to check what they could do to make Nadya’s apartment just a little safer.
The place wasn’t in the worst neighborhood in Brooklyn, but it wasn’t great either, and the locks were a joke.
Plus, it wasn’t that hard to get in through a window or the balcony.
I left the cafe and went for the bike I had rented as soon as we got back this morning. Public transportation out here was good, but I still liked having my own wheels, and there might be times I’d need to go somewhere with Nadya, so a motorcycle seemed like the easiest solution.
A surprisingly short and traffic-free ride later, I walked into the brand-spanking new office. They’d only opened a couple of years ago, so the shine hadn’t worn off.
The place smelled like lemon cleaner and new carpet, but the conference table in the lobby was already scuffed up with the rings of a hundred Starbucks cups. Typical.
My old friends, Dan, Sean, Ryan, and Chris were co-owners, but only Sean seemed to be in right now. He sat at his desk, shirt sleeves rolled up, tie already pulled loose.
“Look what the cat dragged in. Tuna!” He stood, grabbed my hand, pulled me in and slapped my back so hard it about collapsed a lung. “There goes the neighborhood.”
“Good to see you, too.” I kept it light even though I had just sent an FBI agent to interview Sean’s girl. Somehow, Sean had ended up with Nadya’s older sister.
From what little I’d seen of Vera, she looked like the exact opposite of Sean. Where he was all smiles and jokes, she just looked mean.
Sean gestured to the chair next to his, all business now. “Sit your ass down and tell me what you need.”
“A very long story I’m not at liberty to discuss with you, but Nadya Almaznaya needs better security for her apartment.”
Sean’s eyebrows went up, but he didn’t say anything. I could see the calculations behind his easygoing smile. The man had zero poker face.
“Is she in trouble?” he asked, voice lower now. “I thought all that was over.”
“Not exactly,” I said. “I can’t tell you most of it, but yeah. She might be in danger. And so might Vera, but she doesn’t know as much, and she lives with you. I assume your place is secure.”
Sean nodded slowly. “That’s all I need to know.” He flipped the pad on his desk, started scribbling notes. “Just a standard reinforced deadbolt, or do you want the whole panic-room treatment?”
“Just make it something a halfway decent pro would curse at. Maybe a new camera or two and an alarm on the balcony door.”
“I’ll get Ryan on it. He's training our new engineer, so between the two of them it’ll be done in no time,” Sean said, jotting down the details. “You want us to do it quietly, or be flashy about it?”
“Quietly.”
There were pros and cons with both options.
Under normal circumstances, being flashy could deter would-be robbers, but we weren’t dealing with that.
If anyone came after Nadya, they’d be determined, so if they couldn’t get her at home because they could see all the security stickers and cameras, then they’d do it somewhere else.
He grinned. “Wanna catch them in the act?”
I nodded, even though the idea turned my stomach.
Sean leaned back in his chair and gave me a long look. “Is this about the case, or are you being an overprotective boyfriend?”
“Fuck off.”
He drummed his fingers on the armrest, then added. “If you ever decide to quit your job and move closer to your girl, give me a ring. We’re hiring.”
“For fuck’s sake, she’s a witness. Even if I wanted there to be something between us, it’s not allowed.”
It wasn’t just about some morality bullshit. Being too close to the case and being viewed as compromised might hurt us in court. No way would I let those fuckers walk over some technicality about my relationship with Nadya.
“The case won’t stay open forever,” he reminded me.
Yeah, I might’ve thought about that, too.
“We barely know each other. You seriously expect me to move states?” Although I was located only a couple of hours’ drive and could visit on the weekends without a problem.
“You know, Vera and I got engaged the day we met,” he said.
I opened my mouth then closed it. What the hell?
The image of Vera’s scowling face popped. I tried to morph it into a picture of love at first sight, and it just wouldn’t. There was no way.
“You know what, I don’t even know you anymore,” I said instead of trying to puzzle their relationship out.