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Presley and Don are nowhere to be found when I come in to work on the Monday of week four. I don’t hesitate. I walk right back out of my office and work the lock that hides my gun and badge in Presley’s desk. Wanting to look like I belong here, I put both on.
I take the elevator down to the records room. There’s no one guarding it the way I assumed there would be. I scan into the room.
It’s dusty as fuck down here. The files are in alphabetical order. I go to L for Levin. The first file is Milos and so thin it’s barely a file. This can’t be.Nothing of interestis written and signed by Raymond. The second file is Levin, Victor. Opening it, I read the dry, almost brittle paper.
No.No. There’s nothing. It says they investigated out of concern he’s bringing something into the country using the shipment to his grocery store, but nothing was found. I get to the end of the file, it’s Raymond’s signature.
I scramble to Raymond’s last name. Maybe there are other files…nothing.
Shaking my head, I fight back tears of frustration. How can there be nothing?
Diana said he was on their payroll. He was protecting them. Not just a little but a lot. This can’t be. Not a single thing? Therehasto be something. If he was getting paid, there had to be something he was being paid to hide.
All this time wasted…I walk out of the room in a daze. I bump into a man who looks at me like I don’t belong here. He’s right. I don’t belong here. Except as I leave the building I don’t know where to go. After coming here almost every day for the past few weeks, going home doesn’t feel right either.
I get on the first bus in front of the office without caring where it takes me. People get on and off, a guy jostles me, pulling me from my fog. I can’t believe it. I’m in front of Milos Levin’s restaurant. I call to the bus driver I need to get off and scramble up.
“Nah, you shoulda got off when you had the chance.” He shakes his head.
I have no idea where the idea comes from—too many episodes of the show I’m now on season four of. I flash the badge. “FBI, let me off the damn bus.”
Muttering under his breath, he opens the door.
I’m almost to the door of the restaurant when Aleksander Levin opens it. “Malyshka, come to kill me?” The words are a taunt.
The badge is still in my hand, I flash it at him. Making sure he gets a good look. “I’m going to make you pay. You’re going to wish I’d killed you instead when you’re standing in the ash of me burning down your world.”
Gold sizzles at me. “Where is this proof of what a bad, bad man I am?”
“It's not just you.” I back up from him. He’s too big, too much. His black suit and white shirt cut to perfection cling to him, outlining his large frame. “It's your brothers. Milos and Nikita—they'll wish they were dead too. I have more than enough proof.”
He stalks me, one step forward brings me two back, then again until my legs refuse to move. The entire time gold is roaming over me, causing my stomach to twist and mouth to go dry. “Ms. Raymond, you are a shitty liar. The only person you are going to wish was dead is yourself by the time I’m done with you. I changed my mind, I won’t make your death painless. I will kill you slowly and painfully. Your voice will give out from begging for it to end.”
The dark promise has me pulling my gun without thinking—I need to get him to back up, to give me room to breathe, to not go under in the current of Aleksander Levin. It’s barely cleared the holster before he rips it from my hand.
“Little girls should not play with such dangerous toys.” He grabs me by the arm and drags me into the restaurant.
Holy shit, the intense electricity wrenches a scream from me. A man is at my side. “Lady, you okay?”
Aleksander lets me go. “Lover’s quarrel. Go on, Phoenix love, go home. I’ll see you tonight.” He purrs down at me.
Then he goes back into the restaurant without a glance back at me. I freeze at the promise in his words. Oh shit, he’d said my name. Because I flashed my badge. He took my gun. Oh dear lord, what have I done?
CHAPTER7
Aleksander
I pull my phone the moment I’m through the door. As always Valdez answers within seconds of the call connecting. “She’s FBI, her name is Phoenix Raymond.” I reel off the badge number, wondering if it’s real. “I want her address and I want it now. How the fuck did you miss her being a Fed?” I demand as I walk into Milos’s office.
His head comes up, I nod at the question in his eyes. He shakes his head, stunned.
“Sir, there is no way she was a Fed when we ran her through the system. We searched every image we have access to.” Sonofabitch, I hit speaker so Milos can hear. “Our access is to not just the FBI database here in Chicago, we have access to every federal employee as well as state. We’re talking clerks from the Department of Motor Vehicles, to the secretary of every consulate and every branch of the military. Now that we have a name and badge number, I will get you everything including her blood type within the next four hours.” It’s a promise.
“We’ll be waiting.” I end the call.
“How the fuck did you find out she’s a Fed?” Milos asks.
“She was waiting for me downstairs. The idiot flashed me her badge. Told me she was going to make us pay, that we’ll have wished we were dead by the time she’s done.” I shake my head. “Before she can accomplish that I’m going to kill her.”
