I clear my throat, dragging my mind away from where it wants to linger. With my responsibilities and the current mayhem, I need to focus on my job, not a woman.
“Andrej also has family down here,” Micah says, tabbing through folders on his phone. “Eloise, his stepdaughter, and Piotr, the brother of his late wife. The latter runs a chain of bars that could easily be a front for different operations.”
“Connected?”
“Not to us. Not to the Serbs either.”
Teodor is suddenly agitated. “They’re not involved. Andrej washed his hands of the stepdaughter even before her mother’s cancer was diagnosed and Piotr might have some private clients using his business, but there’s no love lost with his former brother-in-law.”
“Know them well, do you?” Micah asks him with a hooked eyebrow before casting a puzzled frown around the rest of us.
Far too late to deny his interest, Teodor attempts a nonchalant shrug. “Just don’t want you to waste your time. There’s nothing there, believe me.”
Judging from Micah’s expression, he wouldn’t mind challenging the ‘just take my word’ attitude but that’s why these men are here.
I do trust them. I will take their word.
“We’ve got eyes on all the major routes in and out of the city,” Stefan continues once Teodor and Micah’s brief standoff relaxes. “Three of Andrej’s line crew were held but their story of heading down to Otago for a supply chain issue checked out. No other movements of interest so far.”
I wouldn’t expect movement. If it were me at the head of this failed operation, I’d stick in place, wait until the heat died.
Of course, that’s the opinion of someone with sense. Whoever tagged along on this doomed venture didn’t hold a jot of that.
The meeting winds down soon after. Since most of the intel is already flooding into my home via electronic means, I could have skipped the face to face. But there’s something different about looking a man in the eye than there is reading a carefully crafted piece of information.
Now I’m satisfied there are no chinks in my armour as far as my colleagues are concerned, I’m happy to let them run with it.
Stefan remains behind—it’s his club—as the others leave. “Pavle will back you if you need to take Andrej out,” he tells me, loosening another worry from my mind. “As long as the evidence stacks up, he doesn’t want an internal war. Not when we’re already scuffling with rival factions.”
The ‘rivals’ are more closely connected with Teodor’s family than any of us would like. His father’s branch of the Serbian Mafia has chaffed against the exposed edges of the syndicate for as many years as I’ve been part. Down here, there aren’t the same worries but Auckland’s always a powder keg for territorial disputes.
That’s also exactly why his loyalty to us is so important. Under his leadership—as far in the future as it takes Drago to retire or die—becoming allied is a certainty. The gap between there and now is still fraught with danger but as so-called enemies go, he’s one I don’t mind keeping close.
“D’you know why Piotr and Eloise rattled him?”
Stefan glowers at the floor, his thinking mode. “It’s nothing recent or we would have heard. Perhaps it’s a job he took before his brother died. I’ll send out a few feelers.”
“Good.” Spying on your friends isn’t the greatest situation in the world but it’s nice to have someone close willing to do so without question.
I leave soon after, closing the partition to the driver so I can concentrate on the new documentation hitting my inbox. Isabelle’s dossier holds my attention the longest.
The injury that ended her skating career looks like the same problem troubling her now. The weak ankle that she either is so accustomed to hurting that she doesn’t notice, or she pretends doesn’t cause pain. Perhaps a bit of both.
Pulling up a competition video, I watch a much younger version of Isabelle skate in beautiful harmony with a man I want to stab in the face. The painstakingly choreographed dips and spins display an incredible physical talent.
I wonder how she got from this, a contender on the world stage, to her current form. A low wage employee with no drive, no vision for the future.
Where did all that competitiveness go?
If she were mine, I would never have allowed her to drop out of the limelight so thoroughly. Even if her chosen field is barred by injury, the stamina and mental acuity to rise to such an exalted rank can be put to better use. My teeth grind together as I think of her talents being wasted in a dead-end job.
Sergio got what was coming to him for underestimating her abilities. For not seeing her guts and determination.
When the half dozen routines end, I restart them. My curiosity grows with every jump, twist, and turn. Even after I arrive home, I continue to sneak occasional views.
The more I see of her, the more this woman intrigues me. I remember the feel of her body last night, as her shocked mind threw up flashbacks until she collapsed. The way she clung to me like I was the only thing anchoring her to the world.
I enjoyed comforting her. Enjoyed her spirited company this morning, too.
