“Val, where the hell have you been all night?” Alice didn’t quite shout but almost. “Were you getting a manicure?”
“Calm down or I won’t cut you free,” Valentina said.
Before Gabby cleared anything else up, she had a bigger problem to solve. For the entire party, she’d managed to focus on what needed to be done, and now all she could think of was that asshole parked at the end of her driveway. How she’d managed to carry the crushing fear and keep going was beyond her. Finally, she could set it down, or at least hot potato it to someone else for the last leg of the journey.
She knelt next to Markus while cutting him free. “I still have a problem.”
“What is it?” He didn’t look mad at her, only concerned.
As calmly as she could manage, Gabby explained, “There’s still a car of Smirnov’s men at the end of my driveway.” She paused to get control of her breathing so she could talk. “They’re going to kill my family if Smirnov doesn’t call them off.”
Valentina, who had overheard, looked at Smirnov. “Is that true?”
He shrugged but didn’t say a word, clearly not wanting to incriminate himself any further.
Gabby wanted to punch his smug face. Instead, she refocused on Markus, and then Alice, talking to both of them now.
“There’s been a guy, sometimes two, in a gray sedan at the end of the driveway for a couple of days. Can you send someone to make an arrest?”
“Are they out there right now?”
Gabby nodded. “I’m sure of it.”
The railroad tracks between Valentina’s eyebrows deepened as she made a phone call to HQ. “This is Agent 442 Monroe. I’m currently at Velvet’s Drag Bar on Hollywood Boulevard. I need a team of agents at 113 Avocado Ave. stat. There is at least one known hit man in a gray sedan parked outside the house with a contract on people in the home, some of whom are children.”
When Valentina hung up, she announced, “Agents on their way.”
For the first time that week, Gabby took a breath and felt the air fill all of her lungs. She hadn’t even realized how tight she’d been before, how she’d been panic-breathing for over a week.
Gabby looked at Smirnov and narrowed her eyes. She’d been willing to fight Fran, but she hadn’t wanted to. Every cell in her body wanted to reach out and smack the shit out of Smirnov. “Kids and an old lady—what is the matter with you?!”
Markus reached out and placed his hand on her back. “We’re going to get them, Gabby. And Smirnov is going to jail.”
Smirnov leaned back and said, “You two are cute. A little office romance, huh?”
Markus didn’t move his hand. Gabby realized that he wasn’t going to be scared away by some asshole. He wasn’t going to leave.
“Mischa, the young man who is probably parked outside—” She shook her head. “He just seemed troubled.” It was hard to see young people making choices like that. Yesterday, she would have thought that more committed parenting would help, but Fran had almost killed her fifteen minutes ago for school tuition. There were a couple of hard truths: 1) no one lies to you more than yourself, and 2) there are an infinite number of paths to joining the Russian Mafia. Hell, she had briefly been a member.
“Mischa can probably get a lesser sentence after he turns on Smirnov,” Valentina said. “We’ve been working on Smirnov for a while.”
Markus wasn’t so easily placated. “I can’t believe you didn’t say anything to me. I could have helped. That’s my entire job.”
“I couldn’t. He threatened my kids, my grandma, even my ex.” While they were talking, a couple of other agents came in to arrest Kramer, Fran, Orlov, and Smirnov.
Valentina interjected. “You did fine, Gabby. We have two Russian mob bosses in custody, not to mention Kramer. This is worth celebrating.”
A moment later, Valentina took another call. She looked perplexed, but in an official voice, she announced, “Gabby, your family is safe, and Smirnov’s men are in custody.” It sounded like she was holding something back.
“Did something else happen?”
“When they arrived, they found two men passed out in a car at the end of your driveway with a half-eaten plate of food betweenthem. They appear to have been drugged.” She shook her head. “Our agents say it looks like Rohypnol.”
Granny. Gabby couldn’t hold the smile in. Granny wasn’t feeding them home-cooked meals from the motherland; she was drugging them. Gabby rubbed the necklace Granny had given her to remind her where she came from, and pride swelled in her chest. How had she forgotten what a badass her grandmother was?
Valentina still looked troubled.
“Is there more?”
