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“Do you always do that?”
“Nope. But I have a bad feeling about this meeting.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know. I just do.” He powers on the laptop. “Can you take Mimi out to do her business? I have to set up the connection.”
“Sure.”
The moment I take the leash off the wall hanger, Mimi rushes to my side and starts nudging my hand. I clasp the lead on her collar, knowing that it wouldn’t do much if she decided to take off. She outweighs me by at least forty pounds. Good thing she’swell-behaved, unless there are flowers around. I’ll have to make sure to keep away from old Meggie’s garden.
I initially planned on taking a short walk, but it’s a beautiful night. Instead of staying close to home, I take Mimi toward a thicket of trees a few blocks away. We’re almost to the edge when I notice a woman walking down the sidewalk and looking our way. She seems vaguely familiar, probably a neighbor we may have passed before. I lift my hand in a casual wave. The woman watches me for a second, looks at Mimi, then waves back and continues down the path.
I take a step toward the trees, but Mimi stays rooted to the spot, observing the surroundings, and letting out a strange low-key growl. She doesn’t move, even when I pull on the leash, until the woman disappears around the corner.
“Not a fan of redheads, huh?” I mumble.
* * *
I spend almost an hour strolling around the neighborhood with Mimi. By the time I walk up the steps to the front door of Sergei’s house, I’m ready to crash. The moment I open the door, however, Felix’s raised voice wakes me up immediately. He’s sitting at his laptop, talking with someone over the phone, but when he sees me, his head snaps up.
“Come here!” He motions with his hand and continues talking into the phone. “Try to approach him from behind and put the phone to his ear. Be careful, Yuri. He might not recognize you.”
I rush into the kitchen and round the table so I am standing next to Felix. I open my mouth to ask what’s going on, but when my eyes fall to the laptop screen, the words die on my lips. The video feed shows Sergei standing next to a man sprawled on the hood of a car. Sergei’s right hand is around the man’s throat as he bangs the guy’s head against the vehicle. To the right of him,two more men are lying on the ground, neither of them moving. The one closest to Sergei has his head turned at an unnatural angle, while the other is facedown, with a pool of blood on either side of him. As I watch, a dark-haired man in a white shirt approaches Sergei from behind, holding a phone in his extended hand.
“Talk to him.” Felix thrusts the phone into my hand.
I press the cell to my ear, but it takes me a few moments to collect myself enough to form the words.
“Sergei?” I choke out, not moving my eyes off the screen. He doesn’t react. “Sergei!” I yell into the phone.
Sergei’s head snaps to the side. He stares at the phone being held by Yuri for a heartbeat or two, then reaches out and presses it to his ear.
“Lisichka?” he asks, his voice perfectly calm, as if I caught him while he was drinking his morning coffee. “Is something wrong?”
I look at Felix, who nods and motions for me to continue. I just stare at him. What does he expect me to talk about?
“I... I was walking Mimi and she ate something. I didn’t see what. She started coughing and then vomited.”
Felix closes his eyes and nods.
“Maybe we should take her to the vet,” I continue. “Can you come home?”
“Is she still vomiting?”
I look over at Mimi, who is sprawled over the sofa in the living room, snoring, then move my eyes back to the screen. Sergei still has his left hand wrapped around the guy’s throat. “Yes. Can you please come?”
“I’ll be there in half an hour.” He lets go of the man and starts walking toward the other end of the warehouse where his car is parked. “Go get Albert so he can help until I get there, just in case. The old bat is probably asleep, wake him up.”
He throws the phone to Yuri, gets into his car, and a few moments later leaves the warehouse. I lower the phone to the table and turn to Felix, who is slumped in his seat, shaking his head.
“What happened?” I ask and drop down onto the chair across from him.
“Diego Rivera sent his men to deliver the message that he’ll be raising prices by twenty percent.”
“Sergei went ballistic over that?”
“No. He just informed them that we won’t be getting any more product from them.” He sighs. “But when they told him Diego now holds a major market share after killing Manny Sandoval and taking his daughter, Sergei snapped.”
