Saving Anya (24 page)

“
Not well,” she said, looking into the computer. “He hit the girl
basically
over nothing. And he constantly reminds me of his role in all of this like I don’t remember. He’s a handful.”

“
Who cares about that?” Vladimir asked, nose up in the air. “She probably needs a good spanking anyway. I’m sure that Dmitry has spoiled her beyond control. Do what you must to keep her under control.” Running his manicured hand over the white table cloth, he pulled off his shades and looked at Manon’s face over the screen. “Soon, we’ll be together in South America on the beach making love with half a
billion
dollars and this will just be a memory.”

She smiled at the thought and put her hand on the computer to touch his face. “Being away from you is driving me crazy. I want this to be over already.
Je veux juste
que nous soyons ensemble.
I know it was partly my idea, but I know that things would be easier if you had been here with me instead of him.”

“
I know my love,” he said, crooning to her in a soothing tone. “But if you can keep everything together there, we’ll be back in each other’s arms soon. Plus, would you really trust Balthazar with our money? He’d run off with his boyfriend and we’d never see him again.” Sitting back in the chair, he changed the subject quickly. “Is he prepared to make the call and give Dmitry the account number?”

“
Yes,” she said sneering. “But he’s such a diva. I hardly believe that he’s worth a third of our money.” Her brow rose insinuating her thoughts.

Vladimir scratched the stubble of his beard on his chin and cracked a naughty grin. “Well, we’ll consider
renegotiating
when the time is right. For now, just keep him on a tight leash. What about the girl? We’re good on the drop? Once Dmitry makes the second payment, he can have the little brat back.”

“
She’s seen my face,
Vlad
. I’m not sure that’s wise, anymore.” Manon looked behind her. “What if she gives a description of us?”

“
If we keep her or
kill
her, Dmitry Medlov will never stop looking for us. What’s $500 million to a man who has billions? He’ll happily pay and then be sent on a wild goose chase. It’s already been arranged. Trust me. He’ll never know what hit him. As long as they think I’m dead, and he has no idea that you exist, he’ll never find us. He won’t know where to look first.” Vladimir was so sure of himself that he could barely repress his chuckle. “Finally someone fucks him over. It’s about time.”

“
What about your father?” Manon reminded. “He’s the only one left who knows that you’re still alive. If he puts two and two together, he might tell Dmitry.”

Patiently, he explained. “Well, I’ve made arrangements to take care of him as well. The entire council is on high alert and if we make a play for one it will just draw attention. After we get the money and things go back to normal, then they’ll check the account and trace it back to my father’s name. He’ll never know what hit him either, neither will Dmitry. It will be a cluster fuck. Plus, now that Corliss is dead, we’re safe. I sent a team to kill him last night. He was one of Dmitry’s most hated competitors and while he was helpful to us for many years, he was too much of a liability.”

“
If you ask me, we should have left him alive. Dmitry would have thought of him first.”

“
Dmitry Medlov has very persuasive torture tactics. If he had caught him, he would have not only killed him, he would have pulled every ounce of information about
us
out of him. Trust me. It was a good call.”

Manon threw her hands behind her back and rested her head on the chair. “Then there is nothing to worry about,” she said calmly.

“
Nothing at all. Just make the call and give him the account information. By the time that he makes the deposit, I’ll quickly make the withdrawal and head to the second drop point in Croatia. Dmitry won’t have time to trace it. Then, we’ll meet up, split the money and get gone.”

“
And leave the girl here?” Manon asked worried. “I just don’t like it.”

“
She’ll be Balthazar’s problem after that. He’ll give Dmitry the location and when he gets there, we’ll all be long gone.” He could see the struggle in her eyes. Pushing up the computer, he pleaded with her. “Manon, this will work.” His eyes were serious now. Tightening his thin lips, he narrowed his eyes on her. “You have to trust me.”

“
I
do
trust you,” she said finally giving in. “It just is so simple until it seems
too
easy.”

“
Well, it’s only when you make things complicated that things gets out of control. If everyone sticks to the plan as promised, then we all get what we want, and Dmitry is just a little lighter in the pocket book. Trust me, the fucker can afford it.”

Looking at his watch, Vladimir cut the conversation short. “You know how much I love you. Just do this, and I’ll see you
very soon
. The only thing keeping us apart right now is your brother and his money.” Touching the computer one last time as he outlined her face with his finger, he logged off.

Manon sat looking at the computer blankly after Vladimir was gone. Her reflection stared back at her in the large screen and for the first time she wondered if she was making a big mistake with her long-time lover.

Inside, she wanted to trust Vladimir,
she loved him
, but there was something about this situation that just seemed wrong. It bothered her day in and day out. She barely slept and when she did, she dreamt of deception. The thoughts startled her awake in a cold sweat every night and with the addition of Balthazar, Vladimir’s friend from Oxford, the entire situation seemed unstable at most. Still, she tried to remember their pact, remember their goal. They had been in love with only each other for years. He had sworn to her that she could trust him, and they had nothing else – no one else. If she walked away now, she would be alone with barely anything at all and hunted by Dmitry himself.

Manon Smirnov met Vladimir over 15 years ago in Paris when his father was supposed to have put a hit on him for crossing the MPLA – an outfit out of Angola. The deal had cost Dmitry dearly and shamed Khalid Sidorov to the point of no repair. Vladimir had been working with Dmitry’s brother Ivan on the deal as well, but Ivan had managed to hide his hand and put all the blame squarely on her lover.

Khalid made Dmitry a promise that he would kill his son himself, because the pain of having someone else do it was too great. And Dmitry trusted him based upon the finger he brought back as proof of the deed and the melancholy that the old man displayed for years after.

However, Khalid reneged on his promise and hid him in Paris, right under Dmitry’s nose with a few of Vladimir’s Oxford friends that he had done business with prior to meeting Dmitry. These same friends were also very familiar with Evgeny Smirnov and introduced the two of them because of the one man that they had in common – Dmitry.

For years the two wanted to get back at him for the hellacious pain that he had caused. Vladimir hated him for taking away his father and making him his own and Manon hated him for killing hers for his riches. However in the past, coming out of hiding was too risky, especially when Dmitry was Czar. With the billions he had and the soldiers who worked for him, including Vladimir’s own father, Dmitry Medlov was untouchable. He was as enigmatic as his father had been, moving behind the shadows as an impenetrable force. Getting to him required money and connections, and while the money was the easy part, there were few who had the balls to go up against the man.

It was a rule with Khalid that when he checked on his son, he never talked about Dmitry. The old man was smart and knew that any Intel was too much. But in his old age, he had gotten relaxed. Because Vladimir had appeared self-absorbed, only interested in living the fine life and having a healthy allowance, he began to share a little of what was going on with the council and what was going on with Dmitry. He even shared that the bastard had a little girl who looked just like Ivan that went to a day school in Prague. It was also then when his father revealed - a year ago- that he was dying of cancer and would not be able to maintain Vladimir’s lifestyle once had had passed.

Quietly, his son went crazy. Khalid planned to leave all the money he had amassed over the years to Dmitry instead of the agreed upon half as was customary of all board members. Khalid felt that he had taken care of the boy long enough and even in his death did not want Dmitry to know that he had betrayed him. It was then that Vladimir started to devise a plan with Manon to get his own inheritance and for her to get hers. The exact amount was the 500 million dollars that Dmitry had taken from his father when he killed him. There had been more – villas in exotic locales, commercial real estate like the Red Square Hotel in Prague and the many clubs all over the world -but there had been liquid assets that he took without a second thought and Khalid had been the key to accessing it, because he was Evgeny’s right hand man.

The two of them – Dmitry and Khalid – had sucked Manon’s father dry right before he was murdered by Ivan’s girlfriend at the time, Arie. A deal had been hatched that would later cause a serious shift in power in two organizations that then led to Vladimir and Ivan turning on Khalid and Dmitry and thus the exile of Vladimir and Manon. Life had come full circle, and they would finally get their revenge.

Tapping her hand on the desk, she stood up and went downstairs to see the girl.

Anya was a curious child. Smart beyond her years and twice as beautiful, Manon wondered what it would have been like to have a normal relationship with her as her aunt. In a different world, one where her family had not been murdered, she would have loved to spend time with her, spoil her even. But in reality that could never be.

Vladimir had spoken against it, but she honestly just wanted to take the girl and run, and if she had not already been so old and able to remember, she would have.

Relieving the guards from the door of the broom closet that had been turned into a small holding chamber, she opened the door to the dark space and clicked on the light.

Anya squinted blindly and put her small hands over her blue eyes that were blood red from crying.

“Daddy,” she said, waking up from her sleep.

“No. It’s me,” Manon said, approaching the small bed.

Balthazar had given her a small twin sized mattress that had been thrown on the floor in the corner with a raggedy blanket. Manon kneeled and picked up the blanket to put over the girl’s shivering arms.

“Why are you doing this to me?” Anya asked, sitting up in the bed. Her innocent eyes met her aunts with strong conviction.

Manon was lost for words. “There is so much that you just are too young to understand.”

“Well, if I’m too young to understand it, then why am I here?”

“Because your father owes us something?”

“What?”

“He took my life from me many years ago.”

“But you’re still alive. How did he take your life away from you and what does it have to do with me.”

Manon could see why Balthazar was often overwhelmed by the girl. It was clear that her mother and father spent a great deal of time talking to her and teaching her to reason. Manon sat beside her on the bed and pursed her lips in thought.

Anya wiped another tear and scooted her little body in the corner away from Manon. “I want to go home,” she pouted. “I miss my family and my puppy and my brother.”

“Soon.”

“How soon?”

“Very soon, if your father gives us what we want.”

“Money?”

“Yes.”

Anya sank down in her thoughts. “Daddy will give you whatever you want…so will Mommy.”

“I’m counting on it,” Manon said, looking over at her. “Would you like something to eat?”

“That
man
with the glasses said that I couldn’t have anything today for making him angry.”

Manon bit her tongue before she said something that the little girl might interpret as a shift in sides. But inwardly, she grew angrier and angrier with Balthazar and his antics. She had never authorized food deprivation or anything else for that matter.

“How about I fix you some soup and get you a better comforter?” she said, hoping to cheer Anya up slightly.

“Why are you being so nice to me?” Anya asked.

“Because this isn’t your fault,” Manon said, standing up. She honestly believed what she was saying and hoped Anya believed her as well.

Anya and Manon locked eyes on each other for a long moment and then Anya pulled tattered covers over her and laid back down with her back to her.

With that Manon left the room with the lights on to comfort the child and went to fetch food and better linens for Anya to sleep on. They, were after all, living in this sprawling seaside mansion in the lap of luxury and just the thought of treating the small child like an animal would make it impossible for her to sleep at night. However, she was certain that she couldn’t say the same for Balthazar.

Never in her life had she seen a man who behaved so immaturely and had such a disregard for children.