Chapter Nine Vladimir
I leave Alexi to sleep and return to my cabin. Dom joins me. He pours us each two fingers of whiskey. I take the glass and sip the expensive liquor. The burn helps me focus.
“What do you think?” I ask him.
“I think he was set up and was supposed to die in Ukraine. He’s very lucky the Ukrainians are good people. The question is, does whoever set him up know that he escaped? If they know, they’re searching for him.”
“They won’t find him on this ship. We’ve covered the tracks too well.”
Dom nods. “I agree, we have men in Russia and Ukraine listening for rumors. If anyone suspects us, we’ll hear about it. Do you think one of the men Axexi identified betrayed him?”
I shrug. “Strong possibility. With Alexandr’s plan to replace his heir with one of these men, they had a motive. However, that’s quite a leap to think Alexandr would choose this path. I should have asked Alexi if anyone would suspect Alexandr would make this move.”
“I can check to see if he’s still awake,” Dom offers.
I shake my head. “No, don’t bother him. Let him sleep. We have time. I’m contacting Prescott to have him run these three names.”
I smirk at Dom’s growl. “Still don’t trust him?”
“He’s a nerd.”
“Which we sometimes need.”
I chuckle as Dom scowls at me. “What?”
“You just don’t like how close he is with Dina,” I tease him.
“I don’t get what she sees in him. He spends all his time on the computer and doesn’t pay her any attention. Yet, she’s always cooking for him and going over to his house to clean it. She acts like she’s his servant, or his wife.”
“Dina likes Prescott. He doesn’t make her do any of those things. I’m not even sure he notices. You know why she does it, right?”
“Yeah, I just don’t like it. Dina thinks Prescott doesn’t eat while he’s working and that he’d live in squalor if she didn’t go over there and clean up. I told her that I’d hire someone to clean his house and make him meals. But she said no.”
“Because she likes taking care of him. You know how Dina is. You took care of her when she was growing up; now she’s helping you by taking care of Prescott.”
Dom’s eyes widen. “Wait, what? You think that’s why she’s doing this. Because she thinks I want her to do it?”
I shake my head. “No, I think she’s doing it because she wants to do it.
She does like him. I think she knows he doesn’t return her feelings, but she’s okay with it for now.
Dina is shy around boys. Spending time with Prescott helps her get used to being around men without the situation getting intense.
I’ve watched them together. He talks to her, but he doesn’t hit on her.
Dina is a friend. It’s good for both of them. ”
“Whatever,” Dom grumbles as I open my laptop and place the call to Prescott.
Prescott answers on the first ring. “Vladimir. What can I do for you?” Prescott’s posh, public school accent flows out of the computer.
“I need you to run some names for me,” I say, watching the pale man on the other end of the call.
Prescott is a transplant from London. He got into Cambridge at thirteen and then Harvard at seventeen.
He wears thick glasses and would remind me of Harry Potter if he had darker hair.
However, Prescott has blonde hair and sea-green eyes.
They’re probably his best feature, except that the thick glasses make them look bigger than they are.
“Okay, shoot,” Prescott says, his hands poised over the keyboard.
I give him the names Alexi supplies. “I need to know if any of these men have ties to the military. I also want to know everything else you can find on them.”
“Bad guys?”
“I think so, but I won’t know until you dig.”
“Okay, who do you want to know about first?”
“You can just call me back when you’ve finished.”
“Why wait? I can tell you everything now.”
I glance over at Dominic, who was slouched on the bed and staying out of the camera view.
“Why do you already have their information?” I ask.
“Maxim requested it before he left for Russia. He never called back to get it, but I have it ready.”
“Okay, hit me with it.”
“Okay, I’ll start with Oleg, because he’s the one with the most military contacts.
He’s second-in-command of the security firm his father runs.
They employ several former military personnel.
His father, Yuri, maintains close ties with those in charge of the military.
There are rumors that Yuri and Oleg have been helping the military increase their recruits since the invasion of Ukraine. ”
“How?”
“Rumors of men going in for interviews, but not getting the job, only to disappear a day or two after. Some citizens have reported the disappearances, but you know how it is. The cops aren’t doing anything to locate the men. They claim the men left.”
“They likely know what’s going on,” I muse.
Prescott nods his head. “Likely. Yuri and Oleg are wealthy, as you can imagine. I’ve dug into their financials and found some hefty payments from the army, which pretty much confirms my suspicion.”
“Anything else about the type of man Oleg is? What about his relationship with women?”
“Maxim didn’t ask for that information, but I dug around just in case.
Oleg has had a few steady girlfriends and a few one-night stands.
The women never reported him for poor behavior on the dates, but they accused him of stalking after they broke up.
Women have reported seeing Oleg’s men following them, and they’ve discovered security cameras installed in their homes without their knowledge.
He’s never been arrested. The cops claimed they couldn’t find proof he was responsible.
But I honestly don’t think they tried very hard, either. ”
“Lovely. Anything else?”
“No, but I should probably tell you that I’ve contacted the women and offered my services to help them escape. Dina suggested it.”
I grin at Dom, who rolls his eyes. Of course, Dina would suggest that Prescott help these women. She has a soft heart.
“That’s fine. Just don’t leave a trail,” I bite back a chuckle at the affronted look Prescott sends me. “So we think Oleg is the most likely to have betrayed Alexi. What about the others?”
“Artem Sorokin and his father, Denis, own several art and antique galleries. They also run an auction house. They’re the wealthiest of the three, but I think it’s because of the products they move that they don’t have posted on their websites.
I haven’t finished digging on him yet, but I know he and his father come from a long line of smugglers.
They deal in everything: drugs, women, weapons, and stolen goods.
They provide safe passage out of or into Russia to anyone who can afford to pay their fee. ”
“He’s involved in human trafficking?” I ask, my tone going ice cold.
“Yeah. He has his hands in all things illegal. He’s had a series of girlfriends who have gone conveniently missing after he broke up with them.
Even though he dates women, there is a rumor that he’s gay.
As for the missing girlfriends, it’s the same deal with the cops.
Families have reported the missing women, but the cops push back and claim they couldn’t find evidence of foul play. ”
“You think Artem shipped them out of the country?”
“If I had to guess? Yeah, I do.”
“Shit. Okay, does he have any connections to the military?”
“Not like Oleg, but he does provide transportation of troops and aid into Ukraine.”
“So, it would have been easy for him to transport Alexi behind enemy lines?”
“It would.”
“Okay, how about Pavel Nazarov? What’s his story?”
“He has three nightclubs in Moscow, two in St. Petersburg, and another in Kyiv. They’re pretty popular, even though they have a bad reputation for not protecting the women who party there.
There are several police files about missing women who were last seen at his nightclubs.
There are even more reports from women claiming they were drugged and raped. ”
“Did any of the women blame Pavlov?”
“I didn’t see anything specific under his name.
However, several of the women reported they were partying in the VIP section.
Pavel often hangs out in the VIP section along with Oleg and Artem.
A nightclub is a great place to hunt for victims. It’s dark and chaotic.
Traffickers could easily snatch a woman or a man and have them out of the club and into a van pretty quickly.
These three men are often seen together, usually at one of Pavlov’s clubs.
They’re almost always in the company of several women.
Rumor is that they study the crowd and send their security guards to invite the women to join them.
I’ve checked the reviews on the place, and several women have reported that they didn’t feel they had much of a choice. ”
“Shit, that’s cold,” Dominic says.
“Dom?” Dina calls out before pressing her face against Prescott so she’s visible on the screen.
“What are you doing with him?” Dom asks.
“I was making us dinner. What do you think? Where are you?”
“I can’t tell you. We’re on a business trip.”
Dina pouts, but doesn’t press us further.
“Anything else on Pavel?”
“Yeah, he just posted to social media. The horrible threesome is hanging out at Pavel’s nightclub. They just invited two women to join them in the VIP section. One is Anya Stepanov. The other is Skylar Prince.”