Undercover Lover, page 14
She heard Drake’s phone ring, and in the next instant, he was bounding into the bath tub.
“Get out of here!” she said, covering herself up.
“It’s the same number Vadim called on last time. It can’t go to my voice mail. You take it.”
Pam nearly dropped the phone in the tub, fumbling to get it open.
“Dmitry, your sister is a dead woman.”
“Actually, I’m fine. How are you?”
“Where’s Dmitry?”
“He’s collecting Nikolai’s paintings and artifacts from the storage area. Then we’re going to go away for a while,” Pam adlibbed. She looked at Drake, and he gave her a gesture that she took to mean keep him talking. He went into the other room, and she could hear him talking in hushed, frantic tones.
Luckily, Vadim was cursing at her in Russian. “You will be hunted all the days of your life, shluha.”
“If I’m a shluha then you’re a petuh for letting me get away. Isn’t that what your boss is going to think? Maybe Dmitry decided to skip the middle man—that would be you—and talk to your boss. Then he gets your job, and you’re hunted all the days of your life, petuh.” She spat the last word at him.
Drake rounded the corner, eyes wide. Normally, she wouldn’t call anyone a rooster—the worst male insult in their language—but Vadim was really working her last nerve. And she was tired of him calling her a whore.
She could hear Vadim breathing heavy, as if to control his rage. “There is no need to go to Andrej with this.”
It was Pam’s turn to be stunned silent. But she forced herself to recover. “I was wondering. Does Andrej know Stefan killed his father?”
Drake cocked his head at her. She blinked tears away. This was going to destroy him.
“Da, he was the one who told me to kill him and Oksana once they were no longer of use. You, he wanted alive. He thought Drago would be too sad at your death.”
“What’s in it for me, if I can convince Dmitry not to go to Andrej directly and keep using you as a middle man?” she asked Vadim, but she was looking at Drake to make sure he understood what she was saying.
Drake’s eyes were shocked, unbelieving, and when he left the room, she wondered if he was going to blame her for this piece of news.
“I let you live,” Vadim said.
“I’m still alive, Vadim. And if I’m on Andrej’s side, you won’t be able to hurt me.”
“I give you money.”
“How much money?”
“Ten thousand dollars in small bills.”
“Ten grand and your vow that you will not harm my brother or me?”
“You have my word as a vor.”
“Give me a half hour to flag Dmitry down. What’s your number?” Pam scrambled out of the tub to go searching for a pen.
“I’ll call you back on this number. And Pavla?”
“Yes?”
“If you’re playing me, I will kill you slow.”
“If you don’t have the money, I’ll ask Andrej to feed your khuy to his dogs.”
“Too bad you’re a woman. I think you’d make a good vor.” And he hung up on her.
“I can’t believe what I just heard,” Drake said. He was sitting on the bed, but politely turned his back so she could dry off and get dressed.
“I’m assuming you’re talking about Andrej and not my potty mouth?”
“Could he have meant another Andrej? It’s a common name.” Drake’s head was hung low, and his body language drooped with despair.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “Vadim said that Andrej specifically didn’t want me killed because it would make you sad.”
“Please tell me that, at least, he didn’t order a hit on his father?”
“No,” she said, pulling on jeans and a sweater. She sat down on the bed next to him and laid her cheek on his shoulder. “He ordered Vadim to kill Stefan and Oksana.”
Drake turned around, gathering her in his arms he buried his face in her hair while she told him the rest of the conversation she’d had with Vadim.
“I’m so sorry for doubting you,” he said, easing them back so they were lying on the bed in each other’s arms.
“I’m trying to forgive you. It would help if I knew why it was so easy to blame me?”
Drake raised his head, and she lost herself in his expressive green eyes. He ran his thumb over her mouth. “It was easier to believe you were playing me for a fool than that I fell in love with you the same day I met you.”
“Drake,” she said, kissing his thumb.
“When I thought I lost you…when I thought what my last words were to you…” He shook his head. “I’m so glad I had an opportunity to tell you what was in my heart. I understand if you never want to see me again, but now you know. You are beautiful and smart, and I am such an ass for ever doubting what I felt for you.”
“You forgot one thing,” she said.
“What?”
“I’m also yours.” She kissed him, and it was better than relaxing in the bath, better than eating dark chocolate—heck, even better than that two hundred dollar bottle of vodka they’d shared.
“I don’t deserve you,” he said when she let him catch her breath.
“You really don’t.”
The phone rang.
“Oh no,” she said. “That’s Vadim.”
Drake looked at the phone and shook his head. “Not yet. It’s Mark. I’ve got to take this. Yeah?” He flipped up her sweater to press a quick kiss on her stomach and smiled when she swatted him.
Hurrying to put on her socks and sneakers, she wiggled her toes, grateful not to be barefoot again. Feeling needy, she burrowed into Drake’s arms and held him while he talked to his partner. Drake filled him in on Andrej being the vor boss, and she heard him working out a plan to capture Vadim.
“He’s letting Dmitry and the FBI handle Andrej. Dmitry is going in wearing a wire. With Vadim eager to make a deal to keep Andrej from finding out that he doesn’t have the artifacts yet, it’s a good chance that Andrej doesn’t know Dmitry is really just Darren’s cover ID—and always has been.”
“Do you think they’ll be all right?”
“He’s a tough guy, your brother. Packs a mean punch.”
“What are we going to do about Vadim?”
“He’s the dangerous one. We’re not going to do anything.”
“I am not sitting in this safe house while you go head to head with that psychopath.”
“I’m trained for this. You’re trained for whiffie smellie therapy and classical music.”
“I will break up with you again if you don’t stop picking on my profession.”
“So we’re going out?”
“You just said you loved me,” Pam said.
“Yeah, but I didn’t hear it back.” Drake grinned, but there was something vulnerable in his expression.
She told him what was in her heart, had been there since they made love. “I love you.”
He kissed her again, but cut it short. “When he calls again, you tell him that Dmitry wants to unload the stolen artifacts at Prix Fixe storage units, down on Westchester Boulevard. Tell him to meet you at Unit 355. We’ll take it from there.”
“And then what happens?”
“He goes. We arrest him. You and I go away to the Caribbean for a few weeks while everyone is processed. You testify at both Andrej’s and Vadim’s trials.”
“What about repercussions?”
“I’ll have to stay close for a few years, just to make sure. But Darren is making sure that your involvement ends with Vadim and that Vadim is so discredited that no one would help him or believe him. The vor can be very unforgiving, once you’re labeled a petuh. And once it’s made known that he killed Stefan and Oksana, their friends will be taking an interest in him as well. I’d bet he won’t live to see trial.”
“Couldn’t happen to a nicer guy,” she said and kissed him until his phone rang.
Chapter Sixteen
It was a good plan, Pam thought, and it should have worked. But they hadn’t counted on Vadim having a contact in the Harding Police. When they walked out the door of the safe house, Drake was grabbed and wrestled to the ground by Vadim. Mark held a gun on Pam.
“I told you she was playing you, Drake,” Mark said. “All along, she’s been in on this. Pretending to be innocent. She seduced Nikolai, and now she’s seducing you.”
“Coming from someone who was with Oksana, that’s a little like the pot calling the kettle black,” Pam said, flinching as he pointed the gun in her face.
Drake and Vadim were still struggling. Vadim couldn’t hold Drake one-handed to pull his own gun, because Drake was using every dirty trick in the book to keep from being pinned down.
“Why are you doing this, Mark?” Pam asked, raising her hands.
“Shoot her in the knee so she doesn’t run,” Vadim grunted out.
Drake caught him across the jaw in a back elbow that rocked his head back. Vadim responded by squeezing his arm tighter across Drake’s throat, trying also to dig his knee into the center of his back.
“Where is the storage area?” Mark asked, watching the fight with one eye and Pam with the other.
She couldn’t believe his stupidity. He had to know that was all a ruse to capture Vadim. But if he didn’t, she didn’t know what to say. If she confirmed that it was all a big fat lie, what was stopping him from shooting them?
“Run,” Drake wheezed as Vadim choked him. He raked his fingers across Vadim’s face, but it only made Vadim mad, and he slammed Drake’s head into the ground. Drake reached toward his back holster, but Vadim’s knee was in the way.
“Darren knows where it is,” she finally said.
“You hear that, Vadim? I told you that Dmitry was in on it also. He was pulling a fast one on the FBI.”
“Kill her, then,” Vadim grunted as Drake flung them both up and Vadim landed on his back with Drake on top. Vadim still had his arm around Drake’s windpipe, but Drake’s back was pressing Vadim into the ground, and he was using his free arm to slam his elbow into Vadim’s solar plexus to loosen the grip around his neck.
“No, Vadim,” Mark said. “We’re not going to kill anyone. Drake, we just want the artifacts so we can get out of town and make a new life for ourselves.”
“Shoot him,” Vadim gritted out as Drake tried to wiggle out of his grip. “Shoot everyone, or I swear I’m going to kill you first once I’m free.”
While this was going on, Pam was inching back toward the house. She’d barely gotten a foot on the step when Mark’s arm shot out and grabbed her.
“Where do you think you’re going?” he asked.
Pam just reacted. She kicked out, catching him below the knee. His pistol fired harmlessly into the ground. His grip lessened, and he howled as his leg collapsed underneath him. Running over to where Drake and Vadim were wrestling for control, Pam swung back and kicked Vadim viciously in the head.
“Let him go, rooster,” she cursed at him, swinging her foot back for another kick.
Drake tore free from Vadim’s hold as Vadim grabbed her ankle and pulled. Pam fell hard on her backside. Drake’s pistol was out and under Vadim’s chin.
“Make a move,” Drake snarled.
“Get off him,” Mark said. He was down on his side, holding his knee. But his other hand had his service revolver pointed at Drake.
Drake looked over at Pam. “Get out of here.”
“I’ll shoot her first.”
Pam sprang to her feet and took off. Mark cursed and fired. Pam felt like a giant hand pushed her, and the pain from the bullet entering in her side took her down. Drake whirled and shot his partner. Vadim launched up, spilling Drake backwards. Pam tried to get up, but the pain was like a white hot fire, and she was starting to get dizzy. Vadim had his own pistol leveled at Drake, and the two them stared down the barrel of each other’s gun.
“I’m going to throw up,” she said.
“That won’t work this time, shluha. I’m going to kill him,” he said to her.
“You’ll die too,” Drake promised him. “You turn that gun on her, and I will blow your head off. I killed my own partner. Do you think I’d do any less for you?”
“You can save him, Pavla,” Vadim said. “All you have to do is tell me where the storage unit is. I don’t believe only your brother knows it. I don’t believe it’s in the Prix Fixe units. Mark told me it’s a set up. All I’ll find there are cops.”
“Andrej doesn’t want you to kill me.” Pam eased up to her knees, and a cry of pain jutted out of her.
“Pam,” Drake called.
“Just a graze. I think,” she murmured faintly.
“Andrej is a vet. I told that story to keep the pigs grunting in another pen while you and I finished our business. If Dmitry is a traitor, he dies. If he is just letting the FBI run around in circles, I’ll just hurt him a bit.”
“I’m not an idiot,” Pam said. “You’re going to kill us all, given half a chance.” She rose to her feet and whimpered as tears gushed from her eyes.
“You’re going to kick me again?” Vadim said.
“I’m going to get Mark’s gun and shoot you.”
He barked a laugh out.
Drake cursed. “Get the hell out of here.”
Pam staggered toward them. “Two against one, Vadim. Drake has you in his sights. The minute you aim for me, you’re dead.”
“And the minute you get the pistol, I’m dead, is that so? I sense a great Russian tragedy. Everyone is going to die. However, I think I’m the better shot. You’re going to watch me kill your lover, and then I’m going to make you tell me where Nikolai hid the artifacts.”
“Provided you survive Drake’s answering shot. Tell me, Vadim, wouldn’t you rather get up and walk away? Come after me another time?”
“I’m not going to allow that,” Drake barked.
“Shut up,” she told him. All his attention was on Vadim so he couldn’t see the look in her eye. She backed him when he was Ralphie and they were trying to get her old boss to stand down. Why wouldn’t he do the same for her? “You’ve got until I get to Mark’s gun to get up and walk out of here.” With blood soaking into her jeans and down to pool around her socks, Pam didn’t think she was going to make it back to Mark’s body. Each step was agony, and she had to pause to breathe through her pain after every one.
“I want Nikolai’s paintings, the medals, everything. I wish I’d never met you.” Vadim’s eyes also never left Drake. His gun never wavered when he sat up and slowly got to his feet. Drake mirrored his actions, both moving so slowly, it looked like they were underwater.
“Did you bring the ten thousand dollars?” she asked.
“It’s in the car,” he said.
“Leave the bag in the yard when you leave. I’ll call your cell phone in ten minutes with the location.”
“Why should I believe you?” Vadim was inching away from Drake, heading down the driveway.
“Trust has to start somewhere.”
“You call me in five minutes after I leave. Not ten. And if I sense a cop, I’m going to put a bounty on your pretty head.”
“Deal,” she said.
“I hate you.”
“The feeling is mutual.”
Vadim moved down the driveway.
“Get in the damn house,” Drake said, moving so his body was cutting off Vadim’s angle of shot on her.
“Not moving that fast,” she whispered, but managed to get her hands on the railing to the steps.
When Vadim slipped out of sight, Drake lifted her bodily up the stairs. Pam shrieked and passed out just as Drake slammed the door behind them.
Chapter Seventeen
“She’s going to be all right,” the doctor told Drake, who had two uniforms guarding her door.
“No visitors but me,” he told them as he walked into Pam’s hospital room.
“She’s lost a lot of blood, but the bullet didn’t do any permanent damage where it grazed her. She’s very lucky.”
Drake couldn’t speak. He flinched as he heard Mark’s shot in his head and saw her crumple. “She’s very brave,” he managed to get out.
“She should be coming around in a few hours. She’s on pain medication. She’s going to be very sore, but there’s no reason why she can’t leave as soon as she feels up to it.”
I can think of a few reasons. He forced the words out. “Thank you, Doctor.”
He eased into the chair next to the bed and held her cool, limp hand. Tears stung his eyes when he looked at her still face.
“This ends now,” he told her. He had already lost his grandfather. His best friend was no longer speaking to him. Although, he couldn’t really blame Andrej. He had sicced the FBI on him on the word of a murderer. And to top it all off, he’d killed his partner in self defense. Drake still couldn’t believe Mark had shot Pam and was really a working for the Russian mob.
The irony was almost painful. Mark had become what Drake had strove to do when he entered the academy: an inside man for the vor. Luckily for him, it was all in the FBI’s hands right now. But it didn’t ease the sting of grief he felt for the man he’d killed. How had he not known his partner was on the take?
Internal Affairs was going to have a field day with him when he got back from his administrative leave. Not to mention the department’s shrink.
But the only shrink he was interested in was hooked up to an IV, lying in a hospital bed because he hadn’t kept her safe. Drake kissed Pam’s hand and laid it back on the bed. He put his head into his hands and allowed himself one big sob before pulling himself back together.
