I leaned against the wall of the small closed room, waiting for my lawyer. When he was finally ushered in, I asked, “How’s Olivia?”
“They released her after questioning.”
“What is she doing?”
He gave me a steady look. “What I advised her to do. She’s not speaking to the police, and she’s withdrawn her statement against Bunko.”
I breathed a sigh of relief. Those had been my instructions. “Thank you.”
“She wants to see you.”
I shook my head. “Absolutely not.” I couldn’t stand for her to see me in here, locked like an animal in a cage. I didn’t want her last memory of me to be of a man who was about to lose all his freedom.
He looked grim. “What do I tell her?”
“Tell her it’s not possible to see me at this time.”
“This situation is not good, Andrusha. Her testimony would actually help you.”
“Leave her alone,” I warned him.
“I’m doing what you asked.”
“What are they charging me with?”
“They are charging you with Vlad’s murder, and assault with a deadly weapon against Bunko.”
“Where is that bastard?”
“They have him in the infirmary of a high-security prison. He’s telling everyone you lured him out there as a trap.”
I sat down on the chair. So this was it. Atonement day was here. “Did you give Viktor my message?”
“He disappeared as soon as I told him, and then he showed up at my house at four this morning.” He reached into his briefcase and slid a large envelope across the table. “He gave me this.”
After Olivia had left on the snowmobile, I had searched Bunko’s person and found a memory stick. On a hunch, I hid it in the cabin, away from the police, and asked for Viktor to retrieve it for me. Judging by the sample financial sheets Viktor had printed off for me, it appeared the memory stick contained a wealth of information on Bunko and his illegal businesses. “This is my bargaining chip.”
“Viktor said that this is the tip of the iceberg.”
That news made me smile. “What now?”
He grimaced. “The detective wants to speak to you before they officially charge you.”
I bet she does. “Bring her in.”
He hesitated. “My legal counsel is not to speak to law enforcement too freely.”
“Consider me advised.”
He got up and knocked on the door.
A few moments later, the detective walked in. She smiled as she took the chair across from me. “Orange looks good on you.” She looked at my lawyer. “I want to talk to him alone.”
My lawyer tried to protest, but I held up my hand. “It’s okay.”
He knew me well enough to know that I wouldn’t change my mind. “Remember my advice.”
“How the mighty have fallen,” she said once we were alone.
“I thought you were dirty.”
She shrugged. “That’s what we wanted everyone to think.”
I raised my eyebrows. “You were undercover?”
“I was until Bunko caught on. Then I had to disappear for a bit.”
I thought about how she had buried evidence, banned Olivia from talking to the prosecution, and handed her over to corrupt cops. The line between undercover cop and a dirty cop got blurred quick. I didn’t care what they called it—in my mind, she was as dirty as they got.
I didn’t blink. “What do you want?”
“We’ve got evidence that ties you to Vlad’s murder, and we also have the assault charges against Bunko.”
I shrugged. “I thought you wanted Bunko off the street.”
Her smile was evil. “Consider this two for the price of one.”
“What do you want from me?”
She crossed her arms and looked thoughtful. “Tell me what happened up at the cabin the day Bunko got shot.”
“He introduced himself by trying to put an ax through my skull. We fought. I got a hold of the shotgun and managed to shoot him in the arm.”
She opened a file in front of her. “It says one shotgun bullet shattered his right humerus and tore apart a major vein in his arm. According to the doctors, if someone hadn’t used a tourniquet on his arm, he would have bled out in minutes.”
“What do you want me to tell you?”
“Your medical records indicate that you had a recent bullet injury to your arm which required extensive”—she lifted up the file to read closer—“vascular surgery.” She lifted her head. “Funny, but we checked with all hospitals and surgeons, and there is no record of you getting any kind of medical treatment in the last five years.”
I shrugged.
“We did, however, find a Dr. Turgenev, who is on your payroll. You know, if we find out he is practicing medicine in Canada without a medical license, we can send him back to the motherland. Immigration doesn’t look kindly on these sorts of things.”
I crossed my arms. “Why don’t you cut to the chase and tell me what you really want?”
She leaned forward. “We have enough evidence to put you away for twenty years or more. I can advise the department to reduce your sentence to fifteen years if you help me get your little girlfriend to testify against Bunko.”
“She’s not cooperating?” I asked, knowing full well she wasn’t.
The detective looked at her fingernails. “We are thinking of charging her with obstruction of justice.”
I narrowed my eyes on her face. “I want you to drop the murder charge, leave Oliva alone, and give my employees immunity from any criminal culpability in my business.”
She laughed. “Okay. I’ll bite. You obviously think you have something that would be of value to me.”
I pushed the envelope towards her. I leaned back and enjoyed watching her face as she looked over the sheets.
“Where did you get this?” she demanded, instantly recognizing the value of the information.
I shrugged. “I have enough evidence to put Bunko and his entire crew away for decades, but unfortunately for you, this isn’t two for the price of one. You have to decide if you want me or Bunko behind bars. If you don’t give me what I want, that disk, and all the information on Bunko, will disappear.”
She pushed herself to stand up and picked up the file. “Hang tight.”
It took her and her superiors exactly five minutes before she returned to the room with my lawyer in tow. “If the disk proves to be as useful as you suggest, we can give immunity to Olivia and your men, but we can’t let you walk out of here.”
I never thought they would. “The charge for Vlad’s murder is bogus.”
“We will drop all charges of murder.”
“What will you charge me with?”
She licked her bottom lip. “Racketeering.”
“How much time?”
“We’ll recommend three years, but you’ll probably serve fifteen months.”
“And Bunko?”
“If we get our hands on those files, he’s looking at multiple charges that will keep him in prison indefinitely.”
“You will leave Olivia alone?”
She raised her hand. “Scout’s honor.”
We stared at each other. “What aren’t you telling me?”
She actually looked contrite. “Under Section 16 of the Public Works and Government Service Act, we will perform a financial investigation of all property and assets in connection with your designated criminal offenses of racketeering.”
I crossed my arms. “You’re bankrupting me.”
“All cash, equities, real estate, and property that prove to be related to your racketeering will be taken over by the government.” She looked between us. “Whatever we find, we take.”
I looked at my lawyer. He leaned close to me and whispered in my ear, “Take the fucking deal.”
Three months later, I sat in the common area for prison visitors and watched as Victor wove his way around the bolted-down tables and chairs towards me. It was the first time I had seen him since he left the cabin.
He sat down across from me, looking me over in my white T-shirt and blue prison pants. “You’re jacking up.”
I shrugged. “Not much to do in here except work out.”
“You doing okay?”
I shrugged. My reputation had both prisoners and guards treating me with respect, even reverence. “It’s fine.”
He cleared his throat. “The men couldn’t believe you took the fall for them. If you want to know, they were upset when they found out.”
“Police wanted me. They didn’t want anyone else.”
He looked around the room. “Well, you now have thirty brothers who will do anything for you for until the end of time.” He cleared his throat. “Myself included.”
I wanted to ask about Olivia so badly that I ached. “You retrieved the memory stick. That gave me the leverage to get everyone off and reduce my sentence.” I met his eyes. “I’m sorry I exposed your cabin to the world.”
He shrugged. “Not a big deal. Thanks to you, I no longer need a backup plan.”
I couldn’t take it. I needed to ask about Olivia, the woman who haunted my dreams and filled my every thought. “How is she?”
“She’s pissed you won’t see her.”
I worked to keep my expression blank. I didn’t want her anywhere near this place. I didn’t want to show her that I was exactly who her mom thought I was. “This isn’t a place for her. What else?”
He crossed his arms. “She knows we are keeping light surveillance on her and keeping her safe.”
“And?”
His eyes met mine. “She’s doing well. She’s working at a dance studio in Kitsilano. The owner seems to be a savvy businesswoman.”
This was what I had wanted for her.
“She is living in a small apartment. Security is good. She keeps to herself and is taking more business classes.”
I couldn’t even look at Viktor. That she was free of it all and living the life she had been born to live made all of this worth it.
Viktor’s voice was low. “She calls me once a week, every week. Always the same questions about you. She wants to know if you’re okay and if she can talk to you, or if she can write or send you a message.”
My guilty eyes met his. “It’s not fair to put you in the middle of this.”
He leaned forward. “I tell her the same thing: that I’m not in contact with you, and no one knows where you are serving your sentence.”
I looked down and rubbed my thumb over the scratch that someone had gouged in the table. What had her mom said to her that day in her trailer? Prison isn’t sexy. She got that right.
Viktor spoke again. “I get it, and I don’t mind, but I needed to tell you that your girl is persistent. She hasn’t given up on you. I thought you’d want to know that.”
I crossed my arms on the table and looked at all the men sitting around, trying to spend quality time with their kids. In a fucking prison visitor room. “My goal was to set her free of all of this shit.”
Viktor cleared his throat. “You want me to stop answering her calls?”
It gave me comfort to know that someone like Viktor was watching over Olivia for me. That she called him each week meant she trusted him. And I couldn’t ask for a better man to have her back. “No. Just don’t let her near me.”
“Mica sent me a message to give to you. Amelia has been in contact with him. She was reaching out to make you a business offer.”
I made a sound that was almost like amusement except I wasn’t amused. “What offer would that be?”
“She said she’d come by on Wednesday morning at ten, and she would like you and your legal team present.”
This threw me. “You have any clue what this is about?”
He shrugged. “We did some digging. Came up with nothing.”
What the hell. It wasn’t like I had anything better to do with my time. “Sure. I’ll meet with her.”
“Want me to call your lawyer and have him show up?”
“That’d be appreciated.”
He leaned forward. “You’ve got a lot of men who want to remain in your employment.”
I studied him. “Is this your version of a pep talk?”
He grinned one of those huge grins that I rarely saw. “Is it working?”
“Yeah, it was life changing.”
He shook his head, the smile still on his face. “You want us to bust you out of here?”
He would, too. “Thanks for asking, but I’m good.”
The buzzer sounded, and we both stood up. How could I even start to thank my friend for taking care of Olivia? “I owe you.”
He shook his head. “That’s how everyone feels. We owe you. No one will forget what you’ve done.”
On Wednesday morning, Amelia sat waiting, wrapped in a fur coat. She and her three lawyers watched as I was escorted in.
Amelia spoke. “What are your plans for when you get out of here?”
“Why?”
She lifted a hand, and a lawyer placed a folder in it. Without looking at it, she handed it to me. “That is my business proposal.”
I opened the folder and scanned the documents before handing them to my lawyer. “You want me to start a security firm?”
She lifted her chin. “I recently bought a company, and I work with a lot of extremely wealthy clients.”
I shrugged. “Still not following.”
“They come to me for certain, shall I say, peculiar interests and adventures. My company coordinates these events with extreme discretion.”
I narrowed my eyes. “What kind of events?”
“One man wanted to propose to his girlfriend at the top of a glacier. In Finland. We made that happen. A woman wants to surprise her husband with a snorkeling holiday on a yacht in a remote part of the world. That kind of thing.”
“Okay.”
“We’ve gone through four international security teams. All of them are more trouble than they are worth. They cause more issues with my clients than they solve.”
I leaned forward on the table. “What do you want, Amelia?”
She motioned for her lawyers to leave. With one look from me, my lawyer followed them out. She folded her hands on the table. “I have a new boyfriend. He’s a Zurich businessman, and his wife just passed away.”
I waited.
She gave a little indifferent shrug. “He’s still old enough to be my father, but this time I’m not with him for the money. I have enough of my own. I guess I like old men after all.”
“Why are you coming to me?”
She gave me a smile. “Because everyone feels safe in your presence.” I couldn’t hold back my snort at that admission. “And my clients pay a lot of money to feel safe. Besides, it would help my business tremendously.”
“Have you looked around? I’m the one in handcuffs.”
“I thought I’d give you the heads-up, so you can start putting things into place for when you get out.”
“Why are you doing this?”
“Wilfred suggested that I might stop feeling guilty about you if I helped you.”
“Who’s Wilfred?”
“My boyfriend.”
“What do you feel guilty about?”
Her eyes widened. “For leaving you at the altar. For marrying someone else.”
Oh, that. Those days were a lifetime ago. I had much bigger regrets now. “Don’t feel guilty about that. I was a dick about stuff before, but in the big picture, it doesn’t matter, right?”
She narrowed her eyes. “What’s changed?”
I lifted one hand. “Look around. I have lots of time to lie around and think about all my life choices. When push comes to shove, you can’t change the past. You can just make better choices in the future.”
She stared at me with wide eyes. “You know, I think Wilfred would really like you. Would you ever care to meet him for drinks?”
I ignored her invitation. I was months away from meeting anyone for drinks. “I don’t want you to feel like you owe me anything. We’re even. The score is even. We can both walk away, guilt-free, from our youth.”
“You’d be helping me.” She stood up. “Read over the proposal and get back to me.”
I shrugged. This plan is insane. “Amelia.”
She paused and looked over her shoulder.
I cleared my throat and spoke the truth. “I’m glad to hear about you and Wilfred. You deserve to be happy.”
She gave me a pointed look. “Basic client protection starts at fifty thousand a week, but you could probably charge more if you provided the extra touches like I do.”
Well, shit. “I’ll take a look.”
