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I set my cup down too and kissed him gently. “You have no reason to apologize, baby.”
“God, they’re cute together,” one of Dmitri’s sisters said, and I glanced up to find we had the attention of everyone in the room.
Dmitri blushed and turned his back to his sisters as I said, “You might as well go with the body guard idea. It can’t hurt. And in the mean time, I’ll go to my department and get a search warrant issued. Hopefully we can find some evidence and get Sokolov put away.”
“Or we could just shoot him,” Darya said. When everyone in the room turned to stare at her, she exclaimed, “Kidding!” Then she added, “And like all of you weren’t thinking it, too.”
Note to self: keep an eye on Darya at all times.
Dmitri leaned against the kitchen counter, chewing his lower lip. After a moment, he said, “You can’t get a search warrant, Jamie.”
“Why not?”
“Because Gregor has a couple cops on his payroll,” he said, not meeting my eyes. “As soon as the paperwork is initiated for a search warrant, he’ll get a call. If there’s any evidence lying around, he’ll make sure it’s long gone before the police show up at his door.”
“Which cops? Do you know their names?” I demanded, disgusted by the idea of dirty cops on my force.
“I don’t.”
“How deep does it go?” I asked. “How involved are they in organized crime?”
“They’re not that involved, as far as I know. They just keep their ears open and tip Gregor off when needed. Oh, and remember me telling you I have a database with the name of every cop in the city in it? They provided my uncle with that list, and he forwarded it to me.” Dmitri studied the wood floor.
“Damn,” I muttered. I’d have to talk to Dmitri about this in depth when we were alone. For now though, I said, “Ok, so if we can’t tip Sokolov off with a search warrant, where does that leave us?”
Several sisters started talking at once, and Dmitri interrupted by saying, “I can try to get evidence on him. If I bring it to the police myself, you wouldn’t need a warrant.”
“But you said he’s really careful not to leave evidence where you can find it,” I pointed out.
“He’s careful, but not infallible,” Dmitri said.
“I’ll help you,” Catherine said. Dmitri glanced at her and she told him, “It’s both of our lives that he’s messing with.”
“But he’s your father, Cat,” he said. “If you work against him, you may regret it.”
“The only thing I regret is not telling him to shove his money and his threats up his ass a long time ago,” Catherine muttered.
“Not to be negative,” Irina or Nat said, “but it’s kind of naïve to think arresting Gregor would stop him from going after Jamie – and Jamie’s the most likely target here, after all, not us. Gregor would send someone else to do the job, even while behind bars. He’d have him killed just out of spite if he thought Dmitri set him up.”
“Nat’s right,” Irina said. Finally I had them straight. “All Gregor would have to do is make one phone call from prison, and Jamie’s a dead man.”
Dmitri sighed and said, “Really, what I need is evidence to blackmail Gregor: he touches a hair on Jamie’s head, and I go to the police.”
“Blackmail’s not the answer. He needs to be in jail, Dmitri,” I said.
“Ideally, yes. But keeping you safe is my main priority.”
“Baby,” I said, “You don’t have to worry about keeping me safe. I’ll keep myself safe.”
“No. I have to keep you safe. I love you so much, Jamie. If anything happens to you –” His voice broke at that last part, and he turned his back to the room.
That triggered an avalanche of sympathy from his family. They converged on him, all talking at once, offering support and advice and hugs. I stepped out of the way and let them do their thing for a few minutes, before wading back into the crowd and taking Dmitri in my arms and holding him to me.
Eventually Ani said, “Well, look, I’ve got to get to work. Girls, let’s give these two some space.” She crossed the room to her brother and squeezed his shoulder. “Dmitri, don’t worry about us. We’ll be fine. Just concentrate on keeping yourself and Jamie safe and we’ll take care of ourselves.”
Lena added, “And we’ll all help in any way we can with this whole Gregor situation, so call us if you need anything. We all love you, D.”
“I love you, too,” he said.
“Keep us in the loop,” said Irina as they filtered out. “No more secrets, even if you think you’re keeping stuff from us for our own good. We want to know what’s going on with both of you.”
