The Cleaner (Born Bratva Book 4) Page 17

  Natasha starts writing furiously in the little notebook she somehow manages to bring with her wherever she goes. She keeps it in her pocket, in her boot, in her bra; I never know when it’s going to come tumbling off her person. I don’t worry about her leaving a paper trail; she developed a secret code when we were kids so we could communicate and our teachers had no idea what we were talking about. It worked like a charm then and she still uses the code to keep track of important details that need to be kept under strict control.

  “Up until a year or so ago, they were a unified force. Rumor has it one of the insiders, Gina Edwards, stole a shitload of money and drugs from the ring. She tried to cover it up, but she should have known that one cop can’t fool another cop.”

  “So what were they doing, dividing the money up like community property?”

  “Pretty much. They’ve use a house in town, near that huge Methodist church. They meet there to skim money and drugs from the busts they make. I’m sure that’s probably where they divide up what they’ve stolen.”

  “They sound like an organized outfit. If what you’re saying is true, it’s only a matter of time before they go after her for stealing from them. Sounds like we need to be looking for Gina Edwards.”

  “We?” Jasmine says skeptically, as if she’s shocked I’m including her.

  “Where are you staying?” I ask without giving her too much hope. I’m not even sure she can be helped—even by the Glazov family.

  “I don’t have anywhere to stay, actually, now your Russian mafia muscle ran me off. What was up with that shit, anyway? They didn’t look particularly interested in helping me, and yet here you are. Let’s cut to the chase here, I don’t have time for games. Are you trying to help me or kill me?”

  Chapter Fifty Seven

  Nikita

  We get Jasmine settled in a hotel that’s run by a man on our payroll. She has strict instructions to stay put until I get in touch with her. Here’s hoping she knows how to obey orders.

  “Real nice, Natasha,” I say as we pull away from the curb and head for home. Time to give my father another update. But first, I need to deal with the mind fuck Natasha just laid on our ‘guest’.

  “What did I do?” she asks innocently.

  “Telling her to ‘sit tight until we decide what to do with you’? Seriously?!”

  “Well, I was afraid you were gonna go in for a group hug and a chorus of ‘Kumbaya’, with the way you were fussing over her and reassuring her. You heard your father, she’s our responsibility now, and you also heard your father give me carte blanche over her…welfare. Whether or not I put a bullet between her eyes is up to me now.”

  “So I had to have a guard posted at her door like she’s a fucking prisoner because you undid every bit of progress I’d made with her and got her all paranoid again. Not. Helpful. At. All.”

  I gun the engine, blowing by slower vehicles as I weave in and out of traffic. I’m blowing off steam, yes, but I’m also trying to get face time with my father as soon as possible. But it’s hard to drive with Natasha going all napalm on my ass from the passenger seat.

  “Let me tell you something,” she hisses indignantly and I go white-knuckles on the steering wheel, trying to keep my cool. “I’m sorry life dealt her a shitty hand, but I’ll kill her before I let her pull my family into the mayhem she’s created. The only mercy I’ll show is to make it quick. Maybe you need to tell your father to inform the governor that we won’t participate in this game he’s playing to save the day and wipe out police corruption--”

  “I don’t tell Glazov what to do. No one does.”

  “Yeah, well, I don’t trust the governor’s motives. He’s up for re-election, you know, no surprise there. What better way to get votes than make a show of cleaning up law enforcement? I don’t like politics, and I damn sure don’t like being a pawn for that man’s personal ambitions.”

  “Natasha, if you don’t calm down, I swear….” I mutter as I pull into the driveway for the Glazov compound and clear the security gate. “While you may have a point…”

  “Oh, thanks for that, I’m touched.”

  I take perhaps the deepest breath of my life before I continue, speaking slowly as if I’m talking to a child. “I’m trying to be patient here because I know you’re motivated by your love for me, but you’re really pushing it. Yes, I agree it would be wise to take a closer look at the governor and his motives. But, ultimately, that’s a relationship my father handles and I won’t interfere.”

  “Fine,” she sighs, leaning her back against the headrest and closing her eyes. “Your father’s probably a million miles ahead of us on this anyway, you know how that goes. I think our first order of business needs to be finding this Gina Edwards woman. She might be backed into a corner enough that she’s willing to give up information.”

  “In due time,” I say as I open my car door and step out. “Before we do anything else, we will inform my father that the killer is holed up in one of his hotels. God help us if he finds out from someone else and thinks I’m hiding her against his wishes.”

  “Novak’s going to be so pissed,” she says with a grin.

  “When is he not pissed?”

  “Good point.”

  “He’ll get over it. When it concerns my father’s orders, he doesn’t have a choice.”

  “Well, if those two ever get in the boxing ring, I want a front row seat. Now that would be one hell of a fight.”

  “Yeah, they can beat the shit out of each other and then hug it out.”

  “Isn’t that what family does? It’s fine for us to give each other shit, but let an outsider do it and we’re ready to kill for the same person we were ready to beat down only moments earlier.”

  “Dad and Novak will be fine, they’ve been doing this shit to each other since they were kids.”

  “Do you think he’ll bring Novak in on the diamond business?”

  “You know Dad’s going to include family on any of his business pursuits. No outsiders.”

  I’m hoping to catch Novak here so I can witness my father telling him that Jasmine is under Bratva protection. After all, we’ll need her to help us locate the missing thief before the crooked cops get their hands on her, if they haven’t already.

  Once again, we’re standing outside my father’s office, knocking. Dad wastes no time telling us to come in. As I round the desk to kiss his cheek in greeting, Novak looks on from his usual seat with an inscrutable look on his face. I begin to question my earlier desire to have him in the room for this conversation.

  “I’m sure you’re here to fill me in on this woman who seems so intent on disrupting all our lives,” my father says with more than a hint of sarcasm in his voice. He isn’t a patient man and I can tell he wants this matter settled sooner rather than later.

  “I’ve got the perfect remedy for that shit,” Novak growls insolently.

  Great, we’re already starting off on the wrong foot. Where my brother Kodiak and my sister Roksana would probably make a smart ass comeback, that’s not my style. I’m accustomed to thinking through my approach to win over an opponent. Novak may not be an opponent exactly, but he’s on the defensive because our hotel guest eluded him. I need to tread carefully.

  “Novak, I get that you’re pissed she got away, but this can work in our favor,” I suggest.

  “How?” Glazov cuts in to ask imperiously, “How can this woman who has caused nothing but trouble possibly be an asset to me?”

  “She’s made me aware of a situation that’s causing considerable instability within the ranks of the dirty cops. Obviously, they’re more nervous now than ever. I think we could turn it to our advantage.”

  “Well, we all know strife from within can destroy an organization and police corruption is certainly running rampant. Now, on principle, I wouldn’t be overly concerned about these things. But their foray into the sale of illegal drugs encourages the kind of street thuggery that gives crime a bad name. Our ‘Jasmine’ may have gon
e about this the wrong way, but I don’t altogether condemn her efforts. In fact, I appreciate the purity of spirit that motivates her. It is nearly impossible to find anymore.”

  “Exactly,” I concur.

  “So where is she now?” he asks abruptly.

  I explain about her hotel accommodations and my directive that she wait there for further instructions. Then I tell him the new information we have, courtesy of Jasmine. “There’s a woman in the circle of corrupt cops who’s been skimming money and drugs that were supposed to be split up between the members.”

  “Ahh,” Glazov chuckles and shakes his head as he leans back in his chair. You’d think he was discussing the misadventures of a precocious child – and he knows all about those. “Greed and opportunity, the perfect accelerants for infernos of all kinds. Perhaps you have a point, son. If we handle this right, we’ll get what we want and the governor will end up looking like the second coming of Christ for ridding our fair streets of police corruption. Everybody wins.”

  “That still leaves some loose ends,” Novak says with all the bitterness of a man holding a grudge. “Namely, a woman who’s made a hobby out of killing cops.”

  My father doesn’t miss a beat as he replies, “We both know how I feel about loose ends, cousin. Leave Jasmine alone while we get the information on this greedy woman who tried to pull one over on her greedier colleagues. What’s her name?”

  “Gina Edwards,” I reply.

  My father nods and jots the name down on a Post-it note. No matter how hard we all try to get him to keep notes in an encrypted tablet, he insists on using paper and Post-It notes.

  I know he’s going to be doing some research of his own on this latest twist in the case, now that it’s all out in the open. I’m past the point of being able to conceal any information or protect Jasmine. It will be interesting to see how all this plays out.

  I wait for Dad’s signal that we’re dismissed, but it seems that Novak still has an axe to grind.

  “So what happens to this ‘Jasmine’ after we get the information we want?”

  The sinister gleam in my father’s eyes puts my nerves on edge.

  “We do what we always do, Novak. We tie up the loose ends.”

  Chapter Fifty Eight

  Cop Killer

  I’m going stir crazy in this damned hotel room. I’ve flipped through every TV channel, taken a shower, raided the snack bar and spent an embarrassing number of hours engrossed in a CSI marathon. I feel good about my alliance with Nikita Glazov, though. I don’t think his fiancé and I will be besties, but I’m not here to make friends so that doesn’t bother me.

  All things considered, my prospects are much improved, not only because I’ve got a lawyer if I survive long enough to need one, but because I may have dodged a bullet named Alexander Glazov.

  Nikita doesn’t strike me as the kind of man to set me up, although I know you can’t grow up around gangsters and not carry some of their traits. I’m hoping he will use that street knowledge he’s been privy to in the courtroom. If you have business knowledge and street smarts, you are a force to be reckoned with. This also gives me a chance to find Gina Edwards without having to look over my shoulder.

  Suddenly the thought hits me that I need to call Mrs. Harris so she doesn’t worry. She answers on the first ring. The conversation is bittersweet since I don’t know if I’ll ever see her again. Hopefully, she’ll never realize she had a murderer for a neighbor. I end the call and boot up my computer.

  It’s not going to be hard to find who I’m looking for because Gina hasn’t had time to go underground. It takes a lot of preparation to get an alias and all that goes with it. I have all the makings of a computer hacker, if I ever need another line of work. I get into the police department’s employee website with no problem, type in her name and get the standard information on file like her most recent address and phone number. I send a link of her police bio to Nikita so they’ll know what she looks like and where to start their search – and as a gesture of good faith.

  I mentally toss around the idea of setting Gina up to take the fall for the crimes I’ve committed. I wait for my moral compass to weigh in and object vociferously to my train of thought, but it remains silent. Huh. I marvel at how the most unconscionable thoughts and actions are far more palatable to me these days as I move forward on this path I’ve chosen.

  Gina could be a viable option for my plan. It wouldn’t be hard for people to believe that she’d not only been stealing but killing off her team. I can’t expect Nikita and Natasha to read my mind though. I’ll need to discuss this with them.

  I don’t kill for sport. I’m a vigilante and there’s a big damn difference. If I make it through this in one piece, I’m going to go somewhere far away and start over with a new identity. And if I don’t make it out alive, I’ll be beyond caring anyway.

  Most people don’t get do-overs in life, but I will -- one way or another.

  Chapter Fifty Nine

  Nikita

  I’m surprised to see my partner in crime still engrossed in those journals as if they’re the latest bestseller. I can only assume the journal entries and assorted short stories are making for some good reading. It looks like she’ll be at it for a while yet.

  I use the time to sort through the mountain of e-mails I’ve received over the last few days. I’m looking forward to things getting back to normal. I’d much rather be filing motions and discussing legal strategy than fighting for a stranger’s life in my father’s office. I’m deleting e-mails that are of no importance when I notice the one from an unknown address and realize it’s from Jasmine.

  “We got an e-mail from Jasmine already.”

  That gets Natasha’s attention and she jumps up, charging over to stand behind my office chair.

  “She sent a link.” I click on it and it takes me to Gina Edwards’ police profile. It isn’t going to tell me much about her but it does give us the PD’s most recent contact information on file. Most cops have unpublished addresses and phone numbers for obvious reasons. We would have gotten there eventually, but this saves us a hell of a lot of valuable time.

  “Oh, hell yeah,” Natasha exclaims. “That’s all we need to take this bitch down,” she says before she moves toward the bedroom door.

  “Hey, wait a minute, where are you going?”

  “To add this to your dad’s Post-it notes,” she laughs as she waves her newfound intel in the air and heads to my father’s office – without me. Being left out rankles but I know from experience that there are some tactical discussions that have to happen without me.

  I can only imagine what she and my father are going to come up with. This is the first time she’s left me out of the loop so whatever it is she has in mind, it isn’t legal.

  Chapter Sixty

  Natasha

  I’m excited to see what Glazov is going to come up with now that we have more information to go on. I’ve got some ideas I want to run past him but not with Nikita around. I know how much this woman’s vindication means to him and if the Pakhan allows me to go through with what I have in mind, I’ll be doing it for my lover, and not for Jasmine.

  Glazov’s office door is still open from the meeting we had just moments ago.

  “Well, that was fast.” One raised eyebrow lets me know he’s curious about what I was able to find out so quickly. I figure it’s as good a time as any to put in a good word for his son.

  “I’m not the one who found it—your son did. Jasmine e-mailed him a link to information about the cop who’s skimming off the top.”

  “That’s a good sign.”

  “What?” I ask, confused.

  A slow smile spreads across his face. “My dear, she’s answering to me already and doesn’t even realize it.”

  I take a seat in front of his desk, in the chair next to Novak, and breathe in, readying myself for what I’m getting ready to ask him. No matter how long I’ve been an unofficial member of this family, Glazov will always scare
the shit out of me. I clear my throat and dive in.

  “Sir…I think I might have a way to take care of this, something that will work to everyone’s benefit. With something like this, you have to go big or go home. If we don’t take action to annihilate every person involved it’s only going to be a matter of time before someone connected to all this raises their ugly head and starts this shit all over again.”

  “Now you’re talking,” Novak practically purrs. “I say blow every one of those fuckers off the map.”

  “That’s exactly what I’m thinking. If we can round these guys up and have everyone in one place, we can kill them all at one time. I’m thinking a fire or explosives. Of course, we’ll need some information from Gina Edwards to make it happen. If she’s willing to talk, that is.”

  “I’m sure she will, with the right incentive,” Glazov says with a smile. “I don’t want to call in any outsiders. The last time we blew something up we used Dauntless MC to do it. It’s fine to use outsiders we trust like Dauntless and the Ramirez brothers, but when I can close the ranks, I’m going to. Blood is always thicker than water.”

  I can’t help but wince slightly at his words. He immediately levels his steady glance my way. “My blessing is as good as blood, zvezda moya. You know this. Kodiak knows this. Do not read into my words that which is not there.”

  I nod briefly, grateful for his reassurance. He’s deep in thought as he rubs his thumb over his full bottom lip. I begin filling in the blanks with details before he can mull over the idea too long and have second thoughts.

  “The way I see it, Oleg loves burning shit up and it would give Roksana a chance to work with him. With them getting married, they need to get their flow synced.”

  A sinister chuckle escapes Glazov as he eyes me. “In other words they need to learn to work together rather than arguing so vehemently?”