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“How can you presume she’s alive when you don’t know what happened to her or where she is?”
“I—“ Justin looked to Fly
“In cases like this, a variety of information is culled from numerous sources,” Justin explained, “once we start matching the info we start to get a picture. Right now the info would strongly suggest she’s alive, likely still in the US, but we don’t know where.”
“Or, as Fly
Justin smiled. “I would never shoot you, but for your own protection and to maintain the integrity of the case, I can’t divulge any information.”
“Then I won’t help you tonight.”
Fly
“You have to,” Maddox said, looking at Fly
“Tell me how you know my sister’s alive and I’ll do it.”
Maddox shook his head and stepped back, handing this complication over to his boss.
“Miss Fuentes,” Justin started. “I need for you to try and consider the gravity of this case. It goes beyond Sorlov and Bushnik. They’re just the tip of the iceberg. When we get them, and we will with your cooperation, we gain access to their labyrinth of criminal activity that runs through the state and over its borders. I ca
“I don’t care about your iceberg, I care about my sister!”
Justin shook his head. “Unfortunately, in this case, one leads to the other.”
Grudgingly, Fly
Looking down into her trusting eyes, Fly
She nodded, and turning in his arms, she said, “What exactly can you tell me about tonight?”
“Pink,” Fly
“I hope you don’t mind that I borrowed your shirt and shorts.”
Clearing his throat, Fly
“I can take my bag up,” Pink said. Before she did, she took her phone off his charger. Fly
Eyebrows creased, Pink scrolled through her texts. “Crazy ass Russian,” she said shaking her head.
“What is it?” Fly
“Andre. Screaming and yelling at me, but also begging me to come to work tonight.”
Justin held out his hand. “May I?”
Pink shrugged and handed him the phone. His face broke out into a smile as he scrolled through the numerous texts. “Perfect.” He looked at Pink and said, “I’d like to hear the voice mails he said he left.”
Pink took the phone and tapped the voice mail icon, put her phone on speaker and hit Play. “Vilde Style in big trouble with Andre. Call back, now,” he shouted.
The second one: “You don’t call me back now, I come find you.” His voice had lowered considerably. To menacing.
The third message: “Okay, little girl, forget last night. Mr. Bushnik come back tonight and you dance for him. Private. Please, little girl. You dance. We live.”
His texts were more of the same.
Fly
“Talk amongst yourselves, gentlemen, while I get dressed,” Pink said, then twinkled out of the room.
Once she was gone, Fly
“Fly
Jamming his fingers through his hair again, Fly
Justin looked at Maddox who nodded, then back to Fly
“Good, because that’s all you’re going to get. That goes without saying that the place will be crammed inside and out with UCs.”
“Of course,” Maddox said. “I’ll be inside and close.”
Justin smiled like the cat that just swallowed the canary. “When she calls Andre, she tells him you roughed her up and that she’s afraid to come to work. He’ll promise extra security. She agrees. Face-to-face with Sorlov, she tells him that in exchange for the video, he has to tell her what happened to her sister. Of course he’ll agree. She hands over the drive; he watches it with her there to be sure he has something. Thinking he has a gold mine, he’ll feed Miss Fuentes a line of bullshit. She’ll act appeased, then offer to make another video of one of your friends for some serious cash. If we can get him to agree, we’ll have him on intent alone, but it’ll be weak. Regardless, she makes her exit. Then we wait for him to make the call to you, Fly
“We wire her up to keep tabs on her in case something goes awry,” Fly
“Done,” Justin said.
“What if none of it goes according to plan?” Fly
“We’ll punt.”
“Not with her as the football you won’t.”
“He’s not going to hurt her. If anything, he’ll arrange to hand her off like he most likely did the sister, but we’ll be one step ahead of him.”
“If he does, I want to go with it,” Pink said striding back into the kitchen. “I want to ride this out all of the way to the end.”
Clamping his jaw, Fly
God help them all.
Chapter Thirty-seven
“Hello, Andre,” Izzy chirped.
“Oh, little girl, so happy you call!” Andre said, relief heavy in his voice.
“I wasn’t going to call you. I still haven’t decided if I’m coming back to work.”
“Please, you must!”
“I want a raise.”
“How much raise?”
“Twenty an hour and seventy percent of my tips.”
“Seventy percent! I ca
Izzy hit the end icon.
Maddox and Justin jumped out of their chairs. Fly
Her phone rang. “My percentage just went up five percent, Andre. Tell me no again and it goes up another five.”
“You are bitch.”
“And you hurt me, Andre! How could you do that?”
He sighed. “Under much pressure. I apologize. I won’t hurt again.”
“Promise?”
“Yes, little girl, I promise. Now, you come to work tonight. Important mens coming.”
“Do you agree to my pay increases?”