“Well, not a hundred percent, but that’s what I saw on a document lying on the kitchen counter as I passed.”
“Uh … but he’s never mentioned his surname before?”
I sighed. “You were there too. Do you remember him giving anything away?”
“You have a point there. He was always more than a bit mysterious. Well, if Ivankov really is his surname, then I don’t know what to say.”
I sat up. “Why?”
“Well, his family is one of the most successful Russian Mafia families, if not the most successful.”
“What? He said his father lived in Spain.”
“That’s not exactly a lie. His father does live there, half the year. He’s the billionaire head of a conglomerate that seems to have all the politicians in America on speed dial. He has more photos with Putin than I have with my mom.”
“Putin?”
“Yup, the President of Russia.”
“I know that. I was expressing surprise.”
“By the way his brother, Maxim is … umm … fierce.”
“What do you mean?”
“Anatoly showed me a picture of him online. By God I’d pay him to take me hostage.”
“Aldie …”
“Sorry, sorry. What can I do? I’m just a hot-blooded woman. Anyway, to get back to the story, I called up Anatoly, and you know he’s a know-it-all when it comes to the Russian community. The Ivankovs basically run New York when it comes to the Russian Mafia. They seem to have been accused of everything under the sun except none of them have ever been caught. They say his father is named The Ghost because even when he is there you don’t see him. They say he also has the American judicial system in his pocket.”
“Wow,” I whispered.
“There’s quite a lot of info about him and his older brother, but Anatoly says he doesn’t know much about Levan. However, he does think Levan might be in training and have recently been left in charge of their business activities while Maxim is out of town. Mind you, that’s just him guessing because there doesn’t seem too much known about any of them. Most people don’t even know what Levan looks like. I think he must hire someone to scrub the net for him. I had to go to page six of Google to find one grainy photo of him when he was in his teens.”
“What kind of—”
I was interrupted by a sudden knock to the door. I thought it would be my clothes, so I quickly ended the call with Aldie and was about to rise and answer it when the door was rudely pushed open. It startled me, especially as Levan loomed in the doorway.
I instantly shot to my feet, only to realize I was semi-naked, so I plopped back down and tried to achieve some level of dignity. “Why can’t you wait until you’re invited in?” I said haughtily.
I thought he would turn away for courtesy’s sake, instead his eyes ran over me in a way that made my heart seize. My lips parted to sound another complaint but no words left my mouth.
“I need my phone,” he said into the strange, thick silence.
I looked at the device in my hand as if it had suddenly turned into a dead rat. Ah yes, his phone. Of course, he needed it, but I couldn’t let it go … I needed to be in touch with Aldie in case she heard from my dad. “I can’t get up,” I said stupidly. I swear, I must have suffered brain injury in the crash, because I was saying the stupidest things.
He began to head towards me.
At his approach, my stomach did a double flip. “Don’t come here,” I warned. “I’m not dressed.”
“Just throw it to the bed,” he said, his tone somewhat bored.
This aggravated me and gave my lob extra oomph as I did as I was told. The phone bounced off the bed and landed on the floor.
My breath hitched at my unintentional brattiness.
He narrowed his gaze at me.
I couldn’t bring myself to apologize. After all, he had caused me far, far more pain and suffering than having to bend to retrieve a phone.
He picked up the phone and without even a glance my way, he turned around to exit the room.
“I know your family is huge with the mafia,” I heard myself saying.
He stopped in his tracks and turned to face me. “My family is the Mafia,” he corrected softly.
It took me a few moments to get my mouth to work again. “Does that mean you’ll be able to help me? To handle Bogdan, I mean?”
“What sort of help are you looking for?”
I had grown up with a very good idea of the Mafia and their dealings in Bridgeport were constant headlines, so it wasn’t too difficult to surmise that the only help that would be good enough to keep Bogdan from exacting revenge on me and my dad would either be his own death, or a super long prison sentence. And I wasn’t even sure about the prison sentence. Still, I wanted to know what Levan would say. Perhaps he would be able to shine some light on an option that I may have missed. “What kind of help will get him off my back?”
“Are you ready to take his life?” he asked so casually he could have as well been asking if I liked a certain brand of cereal.
I definitely did not have a response to that.
He turned and exited the room.
7
Levan
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSM3w1v-A_Y
“I’m leaving,” she stated from the doorway.
I’d had a bad night and I was seated in the sun room and on my third cup of strong coffee.
The rays of morning sun turned her hair to spun gold. Bianca Russet was beautiful first thing in the morning.
I put the cup down on the table. “Where are you going?” I asked gently.
“I don’t know. I just know I can’t stay here forever.”
“It’s been a night,” I pointed out.
“I can’t keep hiding here. I have to find a way to resolve this mess. Somehow.”
I leaned back against the chair and gazed at her. She would never know how much pleasure I got from simply looking at her. Her youth, her beauty, her innocence. “And how are you planning on doing that?”
She pressed her hands together, her face full of determination. “I don’t know, but I’ll figure it out. I’ll find my dad and we’ll go away, far away. Somewhere he can’t find us.”
“You don’t know the kind of resources Bogdan has.”
“I have to risk it. You said it yourself that beyond killing him, you won’t be able to help me. I don’t want anyone’s blood, not even his on my hands, so I have to figure it out somehow.”
“It’s already too late for that sentiment,” I said.
Her gorgeous, ocean-blue eyes widened. “W-what do you mean?”
“He’s already gunned down two of his own men. They’ve still been unable to find you, so they’ll keep falling victim to his … annoyance until he does.”
Her body visibly trembled.
I was instantly sorry I’d been so brutal. I was trying to make her understand the gravity of the situation, but I didn’t take into consideration her innocence. She wasn’t used to the ruthlessness of my world. I shot to my feet. “Bianca?”