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I haven’t spoken to Lom in a couple of days since he said he was going to Boston, but I imagine he’s doing everything he can to find Anzor. I’m not the only one who’s angered with Anzor’s decisions. Lom wasn’t on board in the beginning because I think he felt as though I was attacking our mother. In a way, I was, yes, but I wasn’t blaming her for her husband’s actions. Do I feel like she could’ve stood up for what she believed in more? Yes, I do. But I’m forced to remember the time. Only very recently did women in criminal organizations begin speaking up.
Within the last twenty years, a woman took over the Russian Bratva, and a woman took over the Romanian Clans. As far as the Clans go, it isn’t so new. Mariana Petran was the only daughter of the Petran family, who’d been head of the Romanian organization for many, many years. Her eldest child happened to be a daughter, and Mariana made it so that Bianca could rightfully be the one in charge. Bianca was a child conceived in rape, and Mariana ended up marrying Ion Petran after she was rescued from her captor. The captor fathered her child, but Ion didn’t care about it. He raised that little girl, and if anyone asked him when he was alive, Ion would say Bianca was his. He would’ve shot down anyone who deemed otherwise as well.
When it comes to my mother, I think there will always be a small part of me that’s upset with her. I don’t mean to hold onto that anger, but it’s not so simple to let it go.
I’m sitting on the couch in the living room, texting with Eset, when my phone begins to ring. It’s the identity theft firm I hired a couple weeks ago to look into Amelia’s case. I immediately tap the green button and bring the phone to my ear. “Hello.”
“Hello. Is this Ruslan?”
“Yes, it is,” I tell the woman on the other side of the phone.
“Hi Ruslan, this is Maggie from Identity Theft Alliance. How are you doing today?” It might be late, but I gave the firm explicit instructions to contact me as soon as they could with any sort of updates. The time of day didn’t matter. I wanted answers as soon as they became available.
“I’m doing all right. Thank you. How about yourself?” I don’t want to waste time with idle chit-chat, but I know the sooner I get this over with, the sooner I’ll have an update on Amelia’s case.
“I’m just dandy, thank you for asking. So the reason I’m calling is that we’ve made an update on your case for Amelia. It’s very rare that we get something so quickly, and I figured you’d be pleased to get the update.”
“Yes, I am. What’s the update? I’m a bit eager to hear about it.”
“Yes, of course. So there are many factors we look into when it comes to identity theft cases. You specifically requested we do everything we could to try and track down these criminals, and that’s what we’ve done for you here, Ruslan. Now, the biggest break, in this case, is also a bit concerning, so I need to make you aware of that. You gave us an address for Amelia, and I want to verify that with you.”
“Okay.”
Maggie proceeds to verify Amelia’s address for her apartment, and I’m not sure why she’s even verifying it with me, to be honest. I’ve already done this.
She sighs on the other end but clears her throat. “We traced the IP address back to the address where Amelia resides. Now, that’s not to say she’s the one responsible for it. Does she have any roommates, parents, exes, or anything of that sort? They would’ve had to have been there within the last year.”
Emily just moved in with Amelia not too long ago, and before Amelia, there was only one other person—Carter.
I hate this for Amelia, but it’s nice to finally get confirmation. I suspected he had something to do with her identity theft. Deep in my bones, I knew he was trouble, and I was right. “What does this mean for the case?”
“It means we’ve gone pretty far. The only other thing we can do is figure out the owner of that computer. Right now, we have the IP address, which is helpful… but do you have any idea who was living with Amelia at the time of her identity theft?”
“I’m not aware of who was living with her at that time. I’ll have to check with her and get back to you guys.” I lie to this woman because I don’t want there to be any recording that could incriminate me. Yes, we know exactly who’s responsible for this. I’ll be damned if I give anyone else the pleasure of dealing with him except me. Amelia is my woman, and this is my responsibility. Not to mention my privilege.
“Certainly! Just give me a call on this line when you have that information for me. Okay?” Maggie tells me, and I agree before we say a quick goodbye.
As soon as the call ends with Maggie, I call up Nal. He was with me last night at the house Carter’s renting. Within a few moments, he answers. “Boss, what’s up?”
“I got an update on Amelia’s identity theft case. I need you and Danill on board to help. Carter’s responsible for it all. An IP address was tracked back to Amelia’s apartment, and I know she didn’t steal her own identity.”
“Fuck, that’s intense. Want me to call Danill and notify him?” Nal asks.
“Yes, actually. I need to make a call to Amelia’s boss in the meantime. Go back to Carter’s house. We’ll be lucky if he hasn’t packed up his shit and run. If I had confirmation that he did this last night, I wouldn’t have ever let him go.”
“Yes, sir. I’ll get in contact with Danill and head straight there.”
“Good, but do not go on that property alone, Nal. I’m living proof of what happens to people when they go in without at least one other person.” I’ve learned so much from the gas station. The last thing I want to do is put my men in a similar situation.
“Understood. I’ll call or text you with an update when I have one,” Nal says as he ends the phone call.
I call Illusion, and a woman answers. I tell her I need to speak to Gregor, and within a few moments, I have him on the phone. I tell him who I am, and he recognizes my voice. I don’t give him too much information, but I ask him to keep an eye on Amelia until the end of her shift because Danill will be stepping away to handle something.
Gregor tells me the club’s been unusually slow tonight and that he was going to cut a couple of the women early. He says he’ll cut Amelia early, and I tell him that I’ll be there in twenty minutes to pick her up. This way, I don’t have to worry about her being at the club at all. I can simply go there, get her in the car and bring her home. Maybe then I can properly make up for how I treated her last night and give her the same update I received tonight.
I wait a few minutes and then head over to Illusion. When I get there, she’s surprised to see me, but I don’t think it’s a bad surprise. Amelia gets in the passenger side of the SUV. We don’t talk too much, but once we get back to the parking garage of the hotel, she finally begins to speak.
“Are you going to tell me why Danill left and you picked me up? Gregor was cutting people since it was slow, so I don’t think you had anything to do with that.”
