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I had a lot to think about.
Had tonight been an ambush? They seemed extremely well prepared for a shootout rather than an exchange. I knew I had enemies out there. Any of them could have paid Anto to pretend to sell me drugs in order to kill me.
That would have had to be an elaborate plot, though.
So many moving parts to put together. Take advantage of Vladimir’s arrest or have him arrested. Anto would be the only other big supplier in town, but there was no guarantee that I would go to him.
Perhaps they’d have eliminated anyone else I tried to deal with?
I was beginning to feel like a paranoid bastard. Who were ‘they’ and why would they want me dead? I had nothing concrete, only theories and suspicions. The knot in my gut was telling me to pay attention though, and Ineverignored it.
Something was rotten in the water.
I gulped my whisky, looking up to make sure the door was locked. Nobody knew I was here. I could probably catch some shut-eye.
I closed my eyes with a sigh and willed myself to sleep.
CHAPTERSEVEN
NORA
Istartled awake with the echo of screaming in my mind, but I could not remember what my dream had been about. I couldn’t get out of bed fast enough, because I didn’t want to hang about dwelling on it. I went to stand in front of the mirror, and I stared into my dark brown eyes, trying to see into my soul.
What do you think you’re doing, Nora?
I really had no idea, no plan. Just the drive to find my sister. And if something awful had happened to her… to get justice.
Gotta get in that office.
I figured if there was any information on where to start looking for Celia, it was in Levin’s office. I stayed up late, googling ‘Alexei Levin’. There wasn’t much about him online, not a Facebook page or Twitter feed. The Pandemonium had a social media presence, but it was all just marketing. I looked through the stripper photos, trying to find Celia, but they were cleverly taken so that none of the girls’ features were apparent. The focus was on the assets on display.
Boobs and behinds galore.
The comments under the photos were pretty tame, all things considered. Nothing too unsettling. I wondered if they moderated them.
I googled ‘drug lords’ just to see what would come up. To my surprise, Alexei’s name didn’t, even though Celia had told me in one of our conversations that the club was run by the Russian Mafia. It was the cause of our last blow-up. I went off on her, asking her if she was crazy to work in such an environment. I bitterly regret it. I should have listened more, yelled less.
I got back to my search, trying to push away the memories. The Bratva did come up on my search, as did their operations in New York. But not Alexei.
“So, I guess this means he’s never been arrested or charged with anything…”
I dug deeper and found an obscure article on a gossip blog. His mother allegedly killed his father and then disappeared. Rumor had it, she was somewhere in Russia. That was all I could find. Nothing else.
“He has to be scrubbing his presence from the Internet. Is anyone this invisible?” I exclaimed in frustration. With a sigh, I gave up on that avenue of information and went to bed. If I couldn’t find the information online, then I had to do it old school.
I had the morning off from the hospital, and I figured it was the best time to snoop. Hopefully, the club would be empty, or at leastemptier, than in the evening. I could maybe sneak in and sneak out and nobody would be any the wiser.
It was a cold day out, so I had the perfect excuse for my black trench coat and beanie. I pulled it low over my forehead and walked with my head down.
As luck would have it, I approached the front door and it opened, three girls trickling out as they giggled and gossiped amongst themselves. I slipped past them and into the club, skulking into the shadows as I made my way to the lifts.
Unfortunately, I had to cross the open space between the wall and the lifts, and one of the guards saw me. “Hey, you!” he called, “Where are you going?”
I extracted my keys from my pocket. “Just gotta collect something from my locker. I work here,” I said.
He stared at me for a bit before ushering me on. With a sigh of relief, I stepped into the lift and pressed the button for the second floor in case he was still watching. I took the stairs to the third floor, peering down the corridor to see if anyone was there. It was reassuringly empty, quiet, and I crept up to Alexei’s office and tried the knob.
Locked.
