Chapter 4

Before they could even leave his store and head back to the apartment for the day, Kris was getting a call from a Blackguard phone. “Thorn here.”

The voice on the other end was deep and calm, but the words spoken sent adrenaline racing through Kris. “Thorn, you got problems.”

“Mac, what do you mean?” Kris moved over to his weapons stash and prepared to lift the table top for heavier weaponry

“I mean the name you gave us, Gregori Volkov, is the head of the local Russian mob, and that diner you want to meet at is one of their fronts.”

“What? No, it isn’t, its owned by a brother and sister.”

“That’s right, Stephan and Raisa Felfan. The diner launders money for the Syndicate, as the group is called. Spidey has the paper trail right here. What is the nature of your involvement?”

“Raisa is my next-door neighbor, Gregori came into the dinner and demanded her favors as part of a payment for a loan.”

“When was this loan supposedly given?”

Kris sighed. “Why don’t you meet me at my place in half an hour? I’ll introduce you to Raisa and we can talk there. Bring the files I asked for.”

Mac was silent on the phone for a moment, then said, “Make it an hour, and we have already sent the file to your secure email. Do nothing until we talk, Thorn.”

“I’m going to take Raisa to my place and get her to relax. Her brother just told her to sell herself to the man they owe to pay the loan. So if this is a situation like Cambodia, the players are pro and I don’t fall for pros, you know that.”

“Depends on how close to the situation you are. You said this was a personal contract. You’ve never had one of those before.”

“Not true. I did that one in Russia.”

He heard Mac sigh. “That wasn’t really personal, though, was it? I’m worried you’re being played.”

Kris gritted his teeth. “Come see for yourself then.”

“Roger, one hour.”

“Copy, Mac. We’ll be waiting.”

Raisa looked at him as he put his phone back in his pocket. He walked over to the girl and she smiled. “That didn’t sound like good news.”

He smiled at her. There was no way he was being scammed here. She had been pure and untouched, and he wouldn’t believe a girl would waste such a precious gift on trying to scam him. “It’s my boss at the security company. He has some information we need to see. He’s going to meet us at my place in an hour.”

He pulled her up and kissed her. She responded with a small moan in the back of her throat. Which made him almost lose control of his tightly held passion; but there was no reason to embarrass his staff by ravishing his new girlfriend on the worktable. “Are you ready to get out of here?”

Raisa nodded, and they walked out the back door with a wave to his manager, letting her know she was in charge. They reached Raisa’s parked car and stopped. There was a yellow folded note under her windshield wiper. Kris pulled it out and opened it. In simple block writing was the message. “If you don’t give me what I want, soon I may just have to cut my losses.”

The word cut was underlined four times and when they looked at the car, they realized that all four of her tires had been raggedly slashed open.

Raisa cried at the expense, and Kris pulled her into his arms. “Don’t worry about this, Raisa. I’ll get it taken care of. For now, you can ride home with me.”

“He’s not going to quit, Kris.”

“He will quit. I’ll make him quit and I’ll keep you safe.”

She shook her head. “You can’t say that. You don’t know who you’re dealing with.”

“Let’s go home and meet my friend and see what we can do. Because Raisa, you and they don’t know what I can do either. But I promise you, if I say I can make them leave you alone, you can take that to the bank. I. Will. Make. Them. Leave. You. Alone.”

He handed her a helmet, and the two of them climbed on his bike. He touched the Bluetooth in his helmet as they took off.

“Ratchet.”

“It’s Thorn. I need a retrieval.”

“You mess up that viper or the land tank?”

“Neither. Client’s wheels, all four tires slashed. It’s a pink Jetta parked behind my shop. Can you fix it up and do run-flats? She’s in trouble with the local mob.”

“This a personal favor, Thorn?”

“She’s my girl, Ratchet, and this slime bucket wants to force her into his bed.”

“Well, hell’s bells, buddy. I’ll make sure she’s flight ready.”

“Appreciate it; when it’s fixed, put it back where you got it.”

“Can do.”

They pulled into the garage and then went up in the elevator to Raisa’s place. “Honey, I want you to go get a few days’ clothes and put them in a bag, along with spare toiletries. Then I want you to grab two more days’ worth of clothes for my place. Until I get this settled, I want you to stay with me so you can get into the safe room easier.”

“What’s the other bag for?”

“We call it the bug out bag. It will go in my emergency vehicle, my bug out ride. In case we have to leave in a hurry for a while.”

“You said you’d get them to leave me alone,” Raisa said, biting her lip.

Kris pulled her into his arms and kissed her. “I will, but it always pays to be prepared.”

“Okay.” She kissed him and then went and did as he asked. He looked around her place and saw nothing out of place. When she came out with two bags, he took one leaving, his dominant hand free. Again, he made a quick check of his door and found the place unbothered. So, they went in. Kris went straight back to the spare bedroom and put her bags there. He’d take her extra bag down to the Land Rover next time they were heading to the garage level. He showed her where the restroom for that bedroom was and let her know he’d be in the safe room with the door open, working on something for his security job.

He opened the email package that Mac had Spidey send him and read. It really didn’t look good. The computer expert had gotten into the bank account for the diner and followed the money like he always did. Sure enough, he saw what was worrying Mac. It looked like the diner had been laundering money for the Syndicate for a long time. There was no deposit that could be considered the principle on the loan that Raisa said was creating the problem.

Kris was so involved in what he was reading, both about the Syndicate and the bank statements of the diner, that he didn’t hear Raisa until she was wrapping her arms around him from behind.

“What are you working on?”

“Reading the files my team sent me on Gregori and the Syndicate.”

She frowned when she saw what was on the screen. “How did you get the diner’s bank statements? I don’t understand. Is that how much money is in the account?” She pointed at the balance, which was over five figures.

“Yes. You haven’t seen these?”

She shook her head. “No, Papa took care of that before he passed, and Stephan has been doing it since. How can we have that kind of money and owe Gregori?”

“You don’t have that kind of money. Most of this belongs to the Syndicate. Your brother is using the diner to clean their money for them.”

“What??”

Kris turned to look at her and pointed to the other rolling chair in the space. She sat down and looked at him. “Raisa, how much was the loan that Stephan said he took?”

“Ten thousand dollars; why?”

“I can’t find a ten-thousand-dollar deposit six months ago. I found where the new grill and vent hood were purchased, but they cost was over ten thousand dollars. The loan your brother says you owe. I don’t think it exists.”

“Then what is going on?”

“I think your brother works for the Syndicate and the boss told him he wants his sister.”

Just then, there was a knock at the door. “Friday, identify who is at the door.”

“Mac is at the door, Thorn.”

“Thank you.” He turned to Raisa. “Come on, time to meet my friend and boss at Blackguard.”

They left the safe room and Kris closed it up before heading to the entrance of his apartment.