“The money is the best I can ever remember, at least for tending bar. But it isn’t the money that keeps me there. It’s the fear.”
“I’m still not following you,” I said, but with all the talk of her being afraid, I gave her a reassuring squeeze on her arm, anyway.
“I’m afraid that if I quit, they’ll get suspicious about what I might know and hurt me,” she said. “As long as I’m still there, I’m part of the group, so I’m safe. But if I leave…”
Then I understood. “And he’s your way out.”
“I thought so, yes. He has the respect of those people. They’d let me go without suspicion if I was with him. He was strong enough to make it happen.”
A rush of sudden jealousy exploded in my chest. They say jealousy is green, but that’s not how it felt to me. It felt black and red and full of hatred. “So you got your wish. All you had to do was fuck him a few times.”
She turned her head, staring up at me in stunned silence. Tears sprang to her eyes. I felt a hitch in her chest. “What do you think I am? Some kind of whore?”
“I never said that. I said you fucked him.”
She shook her head. “I haven’t.”
It was my turn to be stunned. “You haven’t?”
“No. I’ve put him off.”
I looked at her, uncertain. “I wouldn’t figure Jerzy to be sticking around a woman in that situation.”
“Maybe I’m not just any woman.”
“No argument here.”
She smiled slightly, then shrugged. “He pushes, but I told him I want to take things slow.” She gave me an earnest stare. “But I don’t want to take things anywhere with him. I just want out. And from what I heard, he would only be here a few days. Long enough to leave with him, but a short enough time to…”
“To lead him on and then cut and run once you’re clear.”
She nodded. A single tear rolled down her cheek. “I know that’s horrible, but it was a matter of survival. Patrik’s been looking at me in strange ways the last few weeks. And Andros, too.”
“Andros?”
“Patrik’s bodyguard. The big guy with a crew cut.”
“Oh.”
“I don’t know for sure what their intentions are, Mick, but I know they’re not good. So I took the opportunity when it came through the door.”
“So you’re clear,” I said.
“No. I don’t think so. In fact, I think I’m worse off than before.”
“Why?”
She let out a rueful laugh. “Why? He’s your brother, Mick. You know him. He’s more heartless than everyone in Ambrozy’s put together. He won’t keep taking it slow, no matter what I say. And now he’s told me things. Things about diamond earrings.”
I paused. So she knew about that.
Ania started crying in earnest. She didn’t make any noise, but her body hitched and jumped. Tears splashed onto my chest and rolled down my body. I held her close to me, my arms wrapped around her protectively.
When her tears dwindled, she spoke in the dim light of the room. “He’s going to kill me,” she said, her voice full of dread certainty. “As soon as he has the diamonds, he’ll realize I know too much. And when he figures out that I don’t really want to be with him, that’ll be the end. He’ll kill me.”
I tried to think about what she said, but I couldn’t. Or rather, it didn’t require thought. Her words rang true. Jerzy was a sociopath. If she kept refusing his sexual advances, he’d lose interest. Or simply take what she wouldn’t give. And if he thought she was a liability, he only knew one way to resolve that kind of problem.
I kissed the top of Ania’s head. “He won’t hurt you,” I told her. “I won’t let him.”
She started crying again, but this time it had a different tone to it. She squeezed me tight until her tears subsided. Then she slid up and kissed me gently on the neck.
“That is why I called you,” she whispered hotly into my ear. “I knew you were for real. And I knew there was something between us, something that could be for good.”
I swallowed. “Yeah,” I said. “I feel it.”
She put her head on my shoulder and ran her fingers across my chest, stroking it. “I don’t want to be afraid anymore. And I don’t want to be afraid of this. Of us.”
Us.
That word made my chest soar.
“I’m not afraid,” I told her.
“Good,” she said.
And it was.
TWENTY-THREE
Jerzy
For fifteen minutes I’ve been standing under a low tree, in the shadows and watching my car, the street, everything. Nothing going on, really. A few cars have rolled by but they knew where they were going. This street doesn’t get much traffic anyway.
My head is telling me to get going. I give each end of the street another look.
Fuck it. If you’re out here, come get me. I throw my cigarette away and walk to the car. My right hand is in my jacket pocket and the Beretta is there, too.
I start the car and pull out slow, heading down the block and out of the neighborhood. I leave the same way I came in; I turn onto Milwaukee Avenue and then get back on the Kennedy. I got no idea where I’m going, so I head north and take the first exit. There’s a stretch of fast food restaurants and chain hotels. I pull into a McDonald’s drive thru and get a coke, then I park in the back. I gotta think here for a minute.
I start going down a little checklist in my head.
This car will get made soon if it hasn’t been already when I got here earlier tonight. Tomorrow morning, before I meet Hero, I’ll turn it in and get another one.
But it ain’t tomorrow yet.
Need a place to stay and I guess I’ll use one of these hotels right around here. I still don’t want to stay at the O’Hare Hyatt. Showing myself around there too early and everything, you never know. Plus the diner and bank in the morning are so close from where I’m at I could piss on them from here.
On my left now. A car is sliding into the parking place beside me. I take a drink of my coke and then give the car a quick, casual glance. Just two little pukes. They hop out, all drunked up, slam their doors and laugh their way inside.
For a second, I think about calling Ania, sneaking over to her place. But shit, I know that won’t work. Her place, or even somewhere else, would be a mistake. I think it’s a pretty safe bet the Russians are tracking her and even Patrik is probably watching her now. I mean hey, me and her being hooked up ain’t exactly a secret. They’ll use her if they can. I’ll just have to wait to grab her when we make our jump.
Speaking of Patrik, I will get that fucker. Might take a long while, but it’ll happen. Oh yeah.
I take another sip of coke and look to my right at a tall green sign for a Holiday Inn Express about two blocks away.
As good as any other around here, I guess.
My cell phone is ringing. Fuck me.
I roll over and think it’s morning already but I can see through the curtains that it’s still pitch black outside.
Cell phone again, where the fuck is it?
The half bottle of Patrik’s Makers Mark that I drank, in like an hour, is not helping me here.
I’m stumbling my ass around the dark hotel room but then I see the cell light up as it rings. Over by the TV. I lunge at it just to shut it the fuck up.
The time on the phone says about three in the damn morning. The number calling is Ania’s.
I stare at that number for a second. A short second.
“Hey.” I sway to the left a little and put my hand on the desk to balance my drunk ass.
“You don’t know how good your voice sounds.” Her voice was soft but it has that edge to it again, that sex edge.
“You too, babe.”
“I know things are dangerous for you right now but I had to call.”
“I know. Believe me, I know.” My voice is slurred and my head is still swimming but I have a little more focus now. “Look, Ania, I want you, too. Real bad. Just another day or two and we’ll meet somewhere.”
“No.”
“What?”
“I mean no, it’s not that…it is, but…hold on.” There was some rustling around on her end.