Alexsey is in my kitchen, pouring himself a cup of coffee. "I'm assuming that you have convinced her to take the option of working under Mother's supervision? With, perhaps, a combination of subtle threats and intimidation?"
"You wound me, Alexsey," I say. "There was also the significance of my persuasive charm."
"Uh-huh," he says, unconvinced. "Well, while she heads over to get started with Mother, you and I are needed at Gordi's."
"What are the odds that she had first contact at one of our key locations?" I take his cup, since he drank the last of my coffee. "Has anyone gone through the footage yet?"
"Yes," Alexsey says. "Since Ava was able to narrow it down to the very day of first contact for us, Kolya was able to get a fairly clear shot of the woman posing as Cynthia Watkins." He holds up the phone and I look at the image, frowning.
"I don't recognize her, but most of the rings we've dealt with have comforting older women who are used to lure victims in. Why don't you circulate the image through some of our trackers and see if they recognize her?"
"Will do. It's already being run through Kolya's facial recognition software." Alexsey puts his phone away. "Hello Ava," he says with a huge grin. "You're looking lovely today. You really must let me paint a portrait of you at some point." He's doing this to piss me off, the smarmy little shit. "I'd love to show you my studio. It has wonderful light."
Really? First Roman, now Alexey, flirting with Ava?I grab him by the back of the neck. "If you keep this up, I will dislocate your shoulder, which will make paintingverydifficult," I whisper.
She looks mildly surprised by his excessive warmth. "Oh, that's very nice of you. I'm sure you're too busy for something like that."
"Ava, meet Rurik and Matvey," I interrupt, gesturing toward the two men in dark suits, standing in the entryway.
Rurik could easily fit a casting call for "gigantic bodyguard type." He's enormous, roughly the same size and shape of a mountain.A mountain, if you added some mobility. Matvey is shorter, slimmer, but possesses a lethal speed that's unmatched. He can cut the throats of six men before anyone is aware that he's in the room. They're the perfect combination of off-putting and unsettling.
"A pleasure to meet you both," Ava says politely, offering her hand to shake theirs, which seems to surprise them. "I'm pretty sure I'm going to be the most boring assignment you've ever had."
"Let's hope so, ma'am," Matvey says. Rurik grunts.
Once I've seen Ava safely off in my armored Maserati SUV, Alexsey and I head over to Gordi's. "I've been waiting for this," I say, cracking my neck one direction and then the other.
"Yeah, you don't get much action anymore, do you?" Alexsey says sympathetically.
"The life of aPakhanis much more meetings than murders," I say sourly.
Gordi's Sandwich Paradise is just a block away from Bellevue Hospital. It's an old-fashioned shop on a bustling street, but go through the back entrance and there's a grim looking set of concrete steps that takes you down to the basement. It's been retrofitted to hold more than slabs of meat. Gordi is there, leaning against the wall of a concrete room that's well soundproofed. While his customers are upstairs, consuming ham on rye and club sandwiches, they're blissfully unaware of the blood and tortured screams happening below.
"Shouldn't you be upstairs?" I ask, and he shrugs.
"It's not time for the lunch rush yet, Mr. Morozov." He leans closer. "I know Ava," he says in a low voice. "She comes in everyTuesday, Thursday and Saturday with her friend. She always orders the same thing, a bacon, lettuce, and tomato sandwich, the most polite girl you've ever met. She always stuffs a ten in the tip jar. While you get what you need from this man, I want him tosuffer."
"I like you more every time we talk," I say, slapping him on the shoulder. "You have my word."
The poor bastard in question does look rough, hanging from a hook fixed in the ceiling, his head drooping down, with steady droplets of blood splashing on the floor from his mouth and ears. Roman is lounging in a chair, watching something on his phone.
"Is that a nature documentary?" Alexsey asks incredulously.
Roman watches as a bald eagle soars from its nest, swooping down to catch a salmon from a sparkling river. "It's relaxing," he says with a shrug. "And who doesn't like bald eagles?"
While they're discussing the benefits of the Nature Channel versus National Geographic documentaries, I walk in a circle around the man. He manages to lift his head just enough for his one good eye to follow me.
The other one is gone.
"You've been busy, brother," I say. "What do we know?"
"Well, first…" Roman says, standing up and stretching. "This guy is a fucking asshole. He cried and blubbered all night and now, I've got a headache. Secondly, he's just hired muscle. He didn't come from the people who took Ava in the first place."
"What do you mean?"
"He's freelance," Roman says. "They brought him in yesterday. Apparently, the one you shot was the guy in charge of the abduction attempt."
"Fuuuck!"I hiss under my breath.
