“You want coffee?”
Dima stalled before nodding. “I drink mine black.”
“As a man should.” Jay walked to the small, makeshift kitchen to make the coffee. Without Dima looking, he spat into the mug for the hell of it.
“This place belongs to you?” Dima asked.
“It’s my brother’s, but we work here together.” They split the profit almost evenly. Stu didn’t need to be so generous, but he’d insisted that this was a family business through and through.
“Is your brother here?” Dima asked.
“Nope. Just us.” For a second, he worried he shouldn’t have said that, but this was to be a conversation, not a fight.
He brought the hot coffee to Dima, who sniffed it before sipping, seemingly immune to the boiling heat.
Jay resumed circling the car. The damage was mostly around the right side, likely due to a hammer or a big wrench. “Did you notice anyone following you on the way to the shooting range?”
“No.”
“So, if you weren’t followed, and you didn’t notice anyone in the parking lot—”
“I didn’t say we weren’t followed, just that I didn’t notice.”
“I stand corrected.” He circled the car again. “The brothers must be strong if they managed to take you down.Ibarely could, and I—”
“You didn’t take me down; you cheated.”
“I wouldn’t say I cheated.”
Anger flashed in Dima’s eyes. “One of you caught my attention from the balcony, and the other one kicked my head. This is not cheating?” Anger seemed to make his accent thicker.
Jay came to stand in front of him, on the border between close and too close. “Come on, you know I was seconds away from beating your ass.”
Dima’s nostrils flared. He placed the coffee mug on the car’s roof. “You are trying to push me like a little child.”
“Now why would I do that? It’s not like you’re lying about what happened when Chris was kidnapped.”
“I don’t lie.”
“No other car hit yours. The damage was done by something else.”
He shrugged. “Maybe. I didn’t see what happened when they escaped.”
“Why would people fleeing a scene of a crime spendeven one minute smashing your car? They couldn’t have been stupid enough to think that it would take it out of commission. It makes more sense to cut your tires.”
“I don’t know what they were thinking,” he said through gritted teeth.
I’m pushing too hard.
Jay forced a smile and added lightness to his tone. “Come on, let’s try to figure it out together. We’re on the same side here, right?”
Dima nodded stiffly.
“If they had parked elsewhere, there’s no reason for them to drive into the parking lot just to hit your car.”
“Maybe they did it as a warning.”
“Yeah, maybe.” He massaged his chin. “You know, I did a search on that shooting range and found some photos of the parking lot.”
