Vanity, Vengeance And A Weekend In Vegas (A Sophie Katz Novel) (19 page)

“Stalin and Hitler, John Gotti
and Paul Castellano, Darth Vader and the Emperor, when are evil people going to
learn to stop trusting each other?”

--Death Of The Party

This time I didn’t hesitate to
wake Dena up.
 
I had to call her
phone to get her to unlock her door and when she did I discovered she was fully
dressed. “I can’t go anywhere in a hurry,” she explained, holding up her cane,
“so I figured I’d sleep in my clothes to cut down on my prep time in case of an
emergency.”

“I’ve been thinking about it,” I
said as I breezed past her, “and I don’t think Alex would bug his own house.”

“Not even his guestrooms?” Dena
asked, yawning. “Does this mean you’re starting to trust him again?”

“He didn’t know we were coming,”
I pointed out. “He couldn’t have planned for it. And no, I don’t trust him at
all.” I held out the bone paperclip for her inspection.

She took it from my hand and held
it up to the light. “So?”

“So you put that on the strap of
my MacBook case, remember? I found it in Alex’s office.”

Dena stared at the paperclip.
“Son of a bitch.”

“Yeah, exactly.”

“Did you look to see if your
MacBook was in his office?”

I shook my head. “I had to get
out of there.
 
He’s awake…and
Margarita was here…maybe she still is.”

Dena looked up from the
paperclip.
 
“Do
we
need to
get out of
here
?”

“Are you kidding? We’re so close!”

“To what? Getting your stuff
back? Are we just going to find it, grab it and make a run for it? I think
we’re going to have to come up with a plan that’s a little more subtle.”

“No, no, we’re close to figuring
out what’s going on! Alex ordered someone to break into my hotel room. He had
my MacBook stolen and I’ll tell you something else, he knows I was at Red Rock
Canyon.”
 
I told her about his
little slip of the tongue.

“But he didn’t know who you were
there with? How is that possible?”

“I don’t--”

“And,” Dena interrupted, her
expression thoughtful, “how is it possible that he knew you were in Mary Ann’s
room this morning?”

I hadn’t thought of that. I sat
down on the bed next to her.
 
“He
knows where I am but not necessarily who I’m with…he’s tracking me.”

“With what? You don’t have a car
here to put a tracking device on and even if you did you didn’t drive up to
Mary Ann’s room.”

“No,” I said quietly, “the only
thing I brought up to that room was his gun, my purse and my phone…last time I
was here he insisted that I keep my phone in a different room so it couldn’t be
used as a recording device.”

“You can put tracking devices on
phones, Sophie.”

“Yes, you can.”

Dena and I stared into space for
a minute as we mulled this over.

“I think maybe we should leave,”
Dena said again. “And leave your phone here.”

“Check your iPad. Find out if
Leah sent you the information yet.”

Dena got up and went over to her
purse. She seemed a little shaky on her feet but I suspected that was due to
nerves rather than any physical disability.

She pulled out the iPad and
together we looked over her emails.

There was one from Leah.

She wrote a personal note
berating me for not telling her where I was going ahead of time and to tell me
that Marcus had a new friend named Bo whom she didn’t like the look of. Then
there were the files. I don’t know what I was expecting. Not records of airline
tickets to Mexico, that’s for sure. The tickets were all for men with various
Russian names and the tickets had been used seven years ago.

“So what?” Dena said aloud,
articulating my own thoughts.

“It has to mean something,” I
said as I stared at the files.
 
“Where in Mexico is Abraham González International Airport?”

Dena did a quick Google search.
“It’s in some little city called Ciudad Juarez.” she tapped a few more keys and
stopped. Carefully she put the iPad down on her lap. “It’s known for its drug
cartels and extreme violence. It says it’s considered the most dangerous city
in Mexico. Sophie, that’s like saying some chick has the most extreme boob job
of all the Playboy Bunnies.”

I stared at Dena.
 
I had asked Anatoly why the Russian
mafia was coming after him again after all these years. His answer had been “
It might not be
them…not entirely
.”
 

“It seems there’s been a war between
two cartels in the area for years now,” Dena went on. “Between a cartel known
as
Ángeles de
la Muerte
and another cartel known as
Los Tres Seises.

The pounding of my heart echoed in
my ears. “Tres Seises?” I repeated. Margarita’s three diamond circles linked
together on her pendant…each circle had six stones.

“It says that Los Tres Seises
is one of
the many cartels these days that’s run by a woman.”

Anatoly had said that revenge wasn’t
enough of a motive for Alex. There had to be more.

“Why are they fighting the
Ángeles de la Muerte?” I asked.

Dena typed some more words into
Google.
 
“That’s going to be hard
to figure out,” she admitted. “It’s not like these guys keep public records of
their conflicts…but I assume they’re fighting over the things drug cartels
usually fight about. Drugs and who gets to sell them where and to whom.”

“Uh-huh.” Natasha had said there
would be a war.
 
“This war between
the two cartels,” I said slowly, “when did it start, approximately.”

Dena spent another few minutes
searching Google. “Actually I can give you a definitive answer to that. The
first truly public and violent battle between the two crime organizations was
seven years ago on November 24
^th
. Five innocent people, including a
kid, were killed in the crossfire.”

“What’s the date of the return
plane tickets Anatoly has on file?”

Dena pulled up the file again.
“Not all of the guys who flew in have return tickets but the ones who did
return by plane left seven years ago…November 23
^rd
.”

“Dena, I think that file could
spark a war between the Russian mafia and Los Tres Seises Mexican cartel...and
I think the head of Los Tres Seises was just in this house and is working with
Alex.”

Dena looked down at her iPad.
“You know what I think?”

“What?”

“I think we need to get the hell
out of here.”

I took the iPad out of her hands
and put it back in her purse. “Get your things together and I’ll be back here
in two minutes.”

I went back to my room and
quickly traded my nightgown for my jeans and a long sleeved tee. I purposely
left my phone by the bedside. When I got back to Dena’s room she already had
the duffle bag packed back up. I took it from her and held the gun in my free
hand. “Come on,” I whispered.

As quietly as possible we made
our way to the stairs. As soon as we were about to descend I heard his voice.

“Sneaking out in the middle of
the night?” Both Dena and I turned toward him. He looked surprisingly composed
for a man who had been sobbing less than twenty minutes ago.

I sucked in a sharp breath.
“Look, I don’t know why I came here to begin with.” I glanced at Dena and she
nodded at me encouragingly. “I don’t want to find Anatoly anymore so I don’t
need your help with that. I can’t sleep and we’ve imposed on you enough.”

“It hasn’t been an imposition.”

“That’s sweet but really, we’re
just gonna head out. We’ll find a coffee shop or something to hang out in until
we’re ready to head to the airport.”

“Are you sure you don’t want to
find Anatoly?”

“I’m sure.” I gestured for Dena
to start down the stairs.

“Because I just found out where
he is.”

I froze in place, one foot
hovering over the descending step. This time Dena shook her head and mouthed
the word
no.
Staying
there an extra second would be exceedingly stupid. But…

“Where?” I asked softly.

“I just got the tip and mapped it
out. Here, I’ll show you.” He started back to his bedroom and held the door
open for us but we didn’t take a single step toward him.

“Bring it out here to me,” I said
warily.

“Come on, I’ve given you all the
information you’ve asked for. I’ve ‘fessed up to my role in things and I even
gave you that gun you’re holding.”

I looked down at the weapon in my
hand. “Is this the gun that killed Tanya?”

Alex laughed. “No, I think that was
done with Anatoly’s gun…maybe Natasha’s. But I swear on my brother’s grave that
gun was never used in a crime.”

“Sophie, we have to go,” Dena
reminded me.

“You’re armed and I’m not, what
are you afraid of?” Alex asked, clearly frustrated. Then he sighed and shrugged
his shoulders. “You know what? Suit yourself. You said you didn’t want to find
him anymore so I guess this information is more useful for me then it is for
you. Have a safe trip back to San Francisco.”

“Wait!” I called out, finally
taking a few steps toward his room.

Dena followed me and grabbed my
arm. “Please tell me you’re not this gullible.”

I looked at Alex’s hands. They
were empty. He was right, I was armed and he wasn’t. I didn’t think Margarita
had come back yet and he was holding open the door to his room…from what I
could see there was no one else in it.

And this was Anatoly we were
talking about.

“You have two minutes,” I said
striding into the room. Dena followed at my heels grumbling the whole way.
 

“Very well.” Alex went over to
his bedside table.

The same bedside table that I had
found the other gun in before. “Stop!” I yelled holding my gun up. I cocked it,
ready to shoot.

But he didn’t wait. Perhaps he
didn’t think I would do it? In a second he had that drawer open and the other
gun was in his hand but I didn’t give him time to turn around.

I pointed the gun at his back and
pulled the trigger.

There was a very brief flash that
came from the barrel followed by a touch of smoke…but very little sound. Alex
turned around, his own gun now pointing at Dena and me.

“It looks real, doesn’t it?” he
said with a smile. “It even feels real. I got it from a friend who works in
Hollywood. Usually you can only rent non-guns that are so realistic, you know,
for plays and film production purposes.
 
Now this gun,” he aimed to the right of me and shot a picture frame
right off his dresser. The sound was deafening. “This one’s real.”

“I just learned that chaos theory
has to do with physics and cosmology. I always assumed it was a metaphor for my
life.”

--Death Of The Party

I dropped my fake gun on the
ground. “But…you let me take that gun before. The real one…”

“And I suspected I could get it
back from you. I made a big show of taking the bullets out and proving to you
that I didn’t mean you any harm. After that display who could blame you for not
examining that…prop more carefully.”

“So you brought us in here to
kill us?” Dena sounded so calm I half wondered if she was in shock. She put
both hands on her cane and leaned her weight forward. “You could have done that
while we were on the stairs.”

“I don’t want to shoot you.
 
I want Anatoly.”

“Get in line,” I said quietly. “I
really don’t know where he is.”

“I believe you,” Alex said, his
voice deceptively kind. “I have an idea, why don’t you two sit down here,” he
waved toward the bed, “and I’ll tell you a…a bedtime story.”

Keeping my eyes firmly on his I
walked over to the bed and sat down putting the duffle bag at my feet. Dena sat
next to me.

“Seven years ago the…oh, let’s
call it the Ignatov
branch
of the Russian mafia, was doing business with the Mexican
Drug Cartel, Los Tres Seises. Los Tres Seises supplied and the Ignatovs sold.
But at some point some of the top members of the Ignatov family got themselves
in a personal financial pickle. They had spent some money that wasn’t theirs to
spend. See, the Ignatovs are only one syndicate of the Russian mafia. They
don’t run the whole show and they don’t get to do whatever the hell they want.
They have to work by the rules of our organization. The Ignatovs conveniently
forgot that. They decided to get back the considerable amount of money they had
lost by selling the drugs Los Tres Seises was going to supply without paying
out the wholesale price.”

“Stop being cute and get to the
point,” Dena growled. I turned toward her, truly impressed. But when I looked
at Dena’s face I didn’t see calmness I saw intense anger.

“The Ignatovs managed to
confiscate the drugs from Los Treis Seises,” Alex said with a smile, “and they
made it look like it was another cartel who stole them. While the cartels were
fighting each other the Ignatovs were selling the drugs without splitting the
costs. Los Treis Seises was never the wiser…until I told them about it.”

“When and why did you do that?” I
asked. I glanced down at his gun. “I did it after my brother was killed.”

“So this
is
all about revenge?” I asked and shook
my head.
Stupid,
stupid, stupid!

“No,” Alex sighed, “it’s about
power. Los Tres Seises will kill the top players in the Ignatov family, the
ones who orchestrated this whole thing. The rest of the Russian mafia will
quickly become aware of the Ignatov’s misuse of funds and I will step in and
engineer a peace between the mafia and Los Tres Seises again. Like I said, the
mafia is a business. They want to deal with profits not criminal rivalries and
they’re certainly not going to shed a lot of tears over some people who had
secretly managed to betray their trust. When I get Los Tres Seises to back down
and even reestablish a trade relationship with them I’ll be a hero to the mafia
bosses. The Ignatov territory will be given to me to run and Los Tres Seises
will work with me because they’ll know that I owe my position to them. They’ll
be able to trust me and count on my business.
 
A lot of drugs are sold through the Ignatov famiy’s
networks. We’re a good account to have. There are a few people who work with
the Ignatovs who I trusted enough to bring into my plan. Unfortunately, thanks
to Natasha’s meddling, two of them are dead.”

“Tanya and that guy Anatoly
killed.”

“Yes. Anatoly came back on
Natasha’s radar when I tried to convince everyone that he was the one to
introduce Daniil to Kenya. She’s been tracking his movements ever since and
when she found out he was in Vegas she went to see him. She screwed everything
up when she followed him to that room.”

Dena made a face of disgust. “So,
just to break this down, you don’t give a shit about your brother being
killed--”

“Of course I give a shit!” Alex
shouted and for the first time I saw the emotion that had elicited the previous
sobs.
 
“When I’m in control no one
will ever,
ever
hurt those I care for again! The decision of who gets to live and who gets
to die will be mine! I will have the power and the control and if you have that
you have
everything.
”

“Okay,” I held up my hands in a
plea for calm. “Why do you need Anatoly for any of this? Just have Los Tres
Seises kill those who they need to kill and be done with it.”

“Don’t you see?” Alex asked, a
hint of desperation creeping into his voice. “None of this works if the other
people in the mafia aren’t convinced the Ignatovs broke the rules. Not many
people know about the drug theft in Mexico and only Anatoly has anything that will
link them to it! If the mafia leaders believe that the cartel is just
indiscriminately killing their members there
will
be a full on war and no one will
get ahead, least of all me.”

“Ah.” I clasped my hands in my
lap. “You told the cartel about this before you realized you would need the
proof. And now Los Tres Seises is threatening to kill you just for wasting
their time, is that it?”

Alex flinched. “The situation
doesn’t need to be that dire. If Anatoly thinks I’m going to kill you he will
come forward with the evidence I need.”

“And then you’ll kill both of
us?” I took Dena’s hand. “You could have played that card a long time ago.”

“I could have,” Alex agreed. “But
I don’t
want
to.”
He went over to his closet and pulled out my MacBook. “If the information had
been on here everything would have been fine. The whole point of this was to
make sure those I care for remained safe. I care about you, Sophie. I shouldn’t
and I do.”

“You care about her?” Dena spat.
“You have a weird way of showing it. I mean this goes way beyond the whole
I’m-pulling-your-hair-because-I’m-crushing-on-you thing we all had to deal with
in grade school. You’re holding her and her best friend at gunpoint. You’re
setting up stupid, desperate traps at your hotel, traps that could have landed
Sophie in prison or worse--”

“I didn’t want to do this!” he
yelled. It was the kind of yell that is so violent it brings an immediate
silence.

“I told you,” Alex said, this
time quietly, “Anatoly is taking my choices away. He has to come forward with
the evidence.”

“But how is this going to get you
Anatoly?” I asked frantically. “None of us know where he is!”

“True,” Alex said. He shifted the
gun so it was directly pointing at Dena. “If one of your friends turns up dead
it’ll get back to him, wherever he is. He’ll show up.”

“No,” I chocked. “Come on, Alex,
please…don’t do this.”

“I know it’ll hurt you.” He
stepped back and the broken glass from the picture frame crunched under his
shoes. “Like I said, I’m running out of choices.”

Dena put a hand self-consciously
on her purse. “So if you had the information you would just let us go on our
merry ol’ way?”

Alex laughed ruefully. “Well we’d
have to work out an arrangement that would assure me that both of you would
remain quiet about all this…but there are ways of doing that which don’t
involve pain or death.”

Dena looked at me questioningly.
I knew what she was thinking. Give him the iPad. We wouldn’t be out of the
woods but maybe we would be buying ourselves time. I don’t know why, but I
believed Alex when he said he didn’t want to hurt me. Maybe that was stupid
too, but to use his words, I didn’t have a lot of choices.

“Alex,” I said slowly, “I have--”

The door to the bedroom was
thrown open and in walked Margarita with three men behind her. They all had tattoos
on their arms and guns in their hands.

“Well will you look at this,”
Margarita purred. “The gang’s all here!”

Her English was perfect.

“I have this under control,” Alex
said with gritted teeth.

“Do you?” Margarita asked. She
walked up to him. I noticed now that she was the only one who didn’t have a
gun…she had a knife with a gracefully curved blade. She lifted that blade to
his face as the men kept their guns trained on all of us and rubbed it against
his cheek without cutting him. “You told me you had it under control when you
got Anatoly to Vegas. You told me you had it under control when you lost him.
You even told me you had it under control when you suggested I pretend to be
your housekeeper. You know what I think?”

“That he doesn’t have it under
control?” Dena offered but quickly shut up when one of tattooed men took a step
closer to her.

“I think,” Margarita continued,
gently taking Alex’s gun from his hand and giving it to one of her companions,
“that you should never send a boy to do a woman’s job. I’m done playing your
games. It’s time to start cutting off a few of these ladies body parts and
sending them to people who care. Maybe that’ll get your Anatoly to step
forward,” she said, flashing me a smile. “If not, it’ll still be fun.”

“Margarita, if you would just let
me tell you my plan--”

“Alex darling, I think we’ve all
had enough of your plans.”

“Hear me out for five minutes.
It’ll get you the proof you need and everything else that you want. Five
minutes, Margarita.”

Alex’s expression was cool but I
could hear the tremor in his voice.

“You want to talk?” She took a
step back. “But I’m already bored.”

“Just--”

“Five minutes, I heard you the
first time.” She looked back at the tattooed men and barked out some orders in
Spanish.

Two of the men moved toward us,
each one of them grabbing one of our arms. Dena struggled to balance herself
and keep her injured back straight when one of the guys yanked her to her feet.
I wanted to kill them for not being careful with her but I worried that calling
more attention to her frailty would just egg on their cruelty.
 
She clung to her cane and I reached for
the duffle bag but they jerked me away from it causing my purse to fall to the
ground.

“Where are you taking us?” I
screamed as they pulled us away from our things. But the only answer they gave
was to rip Dena’s handbag from her arm and throw it toward the rest of our
stuff before dragging us down the hall.

I really wished I had taken
Spanish in school instead of French.

They pulled us back toward the guestroom
I had been staying in and threw us both in before they stepped out and slammed
the door closed.
   

I looked at the bedside table. My
phone was gone. They had thought of everything.

I felt sick. If they found the files
on Dena’s iPad Margarita would just kill us. She was in charge now, not
Alex…assuming Alex ever held any real authority at all. Margarita would torture
Dena and me until she got what she wanted and then we would die.

I looked toward the window.
 
Could we get out that way? Maybe if I
tied the sheets together? That’s how they always do it in the movies, right?

I struggled to open the window.
“Help me!” I insisted.

“Wait until we’re sure they’re
not coming back in right away!” Dena insisted in a whisper. “We’re not going to
have a lot of chances here, we can
not
 
fuck
them up!”

“Fine, I need to be patient.
 
I’ll just count to twenty and then I’ll
try the window, okay?” I crossed my arms over my chest. “One, two, three,
four…nope, can’t do it.” I rushed right back to the window and this time I
managed to pull it open. “I think we might be able to escape this way.”
 
I examined the moldings on the side of
the buildings…and that tree, could we reach that tree and climb down it? I
leaned out the window from my waist…

…and that’s when I saw one of the
men who had just thrown us in here walking out. He glanced up at the window I
was hanging out of.
 
Even in the
darkness I could clearly see his toothy grin as he waved his gun at me.

I pulled myself back in and closed
the window. No doubt the other one was guarding the door.

Dena was standing in the middle
of the room, as straight and unmoving as a Swiss soldier. “Dena, I’m so sorry I
did this. I don’t know how I’m going to protect you but I swear I’m going to do
it.”

She didn’t turn to look at me.
Instead she reached inside the back of her shirt and pulled out her iPad. “Did
you really think I was going to leave this in my purse?” She asked. “Obviously
it would be the first place anyone would look.”