Vision Impossible (10 page)

He replied,
They’re from your good friend Victor.

Victor? Did he mean Viktor Kozahkov? The guy Dutch was meeting? If so, what the heck was he doing here instead of meeting Dutch at the bar?

My phone pinged again with an incoming text from Dutch:
A.C., please respond! Is she gone and have you gotten the flowers yet?

I texted Dutch immediately:
GF gone. Flowers on their way up. Where r u?

Before he could even respond, however, the elevator doors opened and a short guy with a pronounced gut and thick mop of salt-and-pepper hair stepped out to eye me with interest. He was flanked by two of the largest goons I had ever seen.

The short guy was like a midget next to these two, and both of them literally had to duck their heads to exit the elevator.

I gulped and typed quickly into my phone to both Dutch and Frost:
Flowers here. BIG bouquet!

The short guy stepped up to me, flapping the white key card that Daniel seemed to hand out like candy. I gripped my phone tightly and steadied my nerves. “Hello,” I said casually. “May I help you?”

“Who are you?” said Viktor.

“I’m Abigail, Mr. Des Vries’s assistant. Did you have an appointment with him?”

“Ver is he?” Kozahkov asked, pivoting his head around as if looking for Rick.

My smile widened and I held up my cell. “He just texted me that he’s on his way home. May I tell him who’s stopping by?”

Viktor didn’t appear to like me. Maybe it was the way his lip curled when I spoke, or the way his goons stepped closer together to completely block the exit. It was really hard to hold my ground, but somehow, I managed. “Tell him Viktor Kozahkov is here for za meeting,” he said a bit impatiently.

I eyed him quizzically. “Mr. Kozahkov, I believe Mr. Des Vries intended to meet you at another location,” I said carefully. “It was my understanding he was to meet you for drinks.”

Kozahkov looked thoroughly irritated. “I receive message we meet here!”

I offered him a slight bow. “I sincerely apologize for the mix-up, sir. He’s on his way back here and should be home shortly. May I invite you in to wait?”

I turned to lead the way into the living room when I felt a firm hand clamp down on my arm. Without warning, I was spun around to face the mean little man, whose eyes betrayed his intentions and sent all kinds of warning bells to sound in my head. “Maybe you should entertain me while your boss is avay, eh?”

My eyes flickered to the goons. They stood with their arms crossed and feet spread wide. If Kozahkov wanted to rape me, they weren’t about to stop him; in fact, I had little doubt they’d help hold me down.

Tamping down my fear, I plastered a smile on my face and managed to wink at the beady-eyed beast. “Of course,” I said easily. “After all, it’s part of my job description to entertain Mr. Des Vries’s guests.”

Kozahkov appeared disappointed. I could see that he liked to brutalize and strike fear into women. I eyed his goons again, knowing much of the danger I was presently in was caused by their close proximity. Switching my phone to silent, I tucked it into my blazer pocket and said, “I’ve got some toys in the back bedroom. Why don’t you and I head there and have a little fun?”

Kozahkov’s expression was wary. I could tell he didn’t completely trust me. Without letting him think about it for too long, I said to his goons, “If Mr. Des Vries arrives while we’re partying, tell him we’ll be out soon, okay, boys?”

They in turn looked to Kozahkov. With a sick smile he said something in Russian. The goons folded their arms over their massive chests and took up their post by the elevator doors.

Kozahkov then turned back to me and said, “After you.”

I led him to the spare bedroom at the back of the condo, thinking furiously of a plan. I didn’t believe for a second that Kozahkov would allow me to stop and send a text that I needed help with the flowers, so I kept my phone in my pocket.

I still had my gun tucked into my waistband, which was good, but if I shot Kozahkov, we’d lose the one contact we had to both the drone thief and Boklovich. Plus, the sound of a gun would definitely bring the goons running.

Still, I also had my stun gun tucked next to my pistol. Either way, I’d have to be quick and I’d have to be clever if I intended not to get raped.

The moment we made it through the door, Viktor turned into an octopus. His hands began to grope me from behind, and it took everything I had not to fight him off. “Hold on a second, baby,” I cooed, tasting the bile at the back of my throat as his fat hands felt me up.

“Take off your clothes,” he ordered.

I ran my hands over his, removing them from my chest, and worked my way over to the dresser, where I turned so that it was at my back. I then shrugged out of my jacket and tossed it at him with a playful laugh. He caught it and growled, attempting to show me his ferocious side. It was so pathetic and awful that I had a hard time keeping my nerves in check. “Oh, you big tiger, you!” I said, moving to the buttons on my shirt.

Viktor shrugged out of his tweed blazer and flung it on the floor. “Strip for me, baby,” he said, adding another growl.

Again I tasted bile at the back of my throat, but then I remembered something I’d read once about lion tamers and how they worked with big cats. The article suggested that it was all in the attitude. Wild animals would stand down to anyone they felt was dominant to them, so when tamers cracked their whips and yelled their commands, they were essentially saying, “I am the alpha and you will obey me!”

I thought I’d give that a try. I stopped fiddling with the buttons on my shirt and eyed Viktor sternly. “You first,” I said. “Take off your damn clothes, Viktor. Now.”

The ploy worked. He smiled hungrily and began to tear at his clothes, stripping away his dress shirt, exposing a dirty undershirt that didn’t quite cover his extended belly. “Keep going,” I demanded.

To my relief he did. He got all the way down to his tighty whities, when I held up my hand for him to stop. “Turn around,” I ordered.

“Why?” he said, a bit of wariness creeping into his voice.

I stepped up to him with my hands firmly on my hips. “Because,” I said, staring down my nose at him, “I think you’ve been a very naughty boy and you need a spanking.”

The repugnant man giggled and turned around, wiggling his big wide butt at me.

Quick as a flash I reached to the small of my back, pulled out my stun gun, and zapped him with enough volts to topple a gorilla.

Kozahkov made a rather loud, squeaky, strangled sound and I covered that by shouting, “Oh, Viktor! You animal! Do it to me, baby!”

He hit the floor with a muffled thud and I just continued to hold down the trigger until the stun gun ran out of juice.

Viktor quivered and jerked on the floor and I stepped over him carefully, retrieved my jacket, and moved over to the window.

I’d seen the fire escape earlier when I’d had a chance to explore the condo. With effort I got the window open and stepped out onto the landing. I was about to text Dutch to warn him about the goons when a peek back into the room revealed Viktor flailing his arms and legs, struggling to get to his knees. I decided to get my butt to safety first and wasted no time moving to the ladder and working my way down it.

Climbing down a fire escape is much more difficult than you’d expect—after all, I was in a pencil skirt and heels, and it was forty degrees and windy outside. By the time I reached the bottom, I was out of breath, and shivering uncontrollably. I also didn’t quite know where to go.

As I was pulling my phone out of my pocket, however, a black sedan with smoked windows pulled up next to me. Uh-oh.

The window rolled down and a voice inside said, “Nice thong.”

I glared hard at the car’s interior, even though I couldn’t see the driver in the darkness. I then reached for the handle, which was locked. “Let me in,” I said curtly.

The locks were released and I tucked inside. The window slid up and I nearly sighed with relief as the car’s warmth wrapped cozily around me.

“Where’s Dutch?” I asked Frost.

“He went in a minute ago.”

“He
what
?” I shouted. “Dude! I just Tased Viktor!”

Frost’s eyebrows rose appreciatively. “You did? Why?”

“The son of a toad wanted to rape me,” I told him. “He suggested that I had to
entertain
him until Rick got there, so I coaxed him into the back bedroom away from his goons and zapped him.”

Instead of being alarmed, Frost actually snickered before putting the car into drive and taking us around the block to a discreet corner location where we could watch the front of the condo without being detected.

Once he’d parked, he pulled out his phone and typed a message into it. He didn’t tell me what the message said, and I could only hope he was sending Dutch a warning. “You have to go in there,” I said when he made no further move to assist my fiancé. “Seriously, Frost, when that guy recovers, he’s gonna be hoppin’ mad.”

“Probably,” our handler agreed, eyeing the windows at the top of the building. “But Rivers is armed and he knows how to handle himself.”

My cell vibrated again. With relief I read Dutch’s text:
Where r u?
I texted him back that I was safe and in the car with Frost. I also added a note that the bouquet held one small rose, which was so “stunning” that I’d placed it in the back bedroom, but I’d left the two daisies by the elevator because they were big daisies. Big, BIG daisies. I could only hope that Dutch picked up on all my subtext before he got to the penthouse.

I waited anxiously for him to reply, but he didn’t. “Shouldn’t you go in there?” I asked again after about ten minutes.

“And blow his cover? No. I think we should sit tight and see what happens.”

I stared up at the third floor and could see the lights on, but all the shutters had been drawn and there was no way to see what was happening. “Why didn’t Kozahkov meet Dutch at the bar?” I asked when it occurred to me again that the plan had changed without either Dutch or me knowing it.

Frost didn’t look at me when he answered, but continued to stare right at the building. “Dunno. Kozahkov’s appearance here caught everybody off guard. We expected him to show up at the strip club where Rivers was waiting for him.”

“Strip club?” I asked, my eyebrows rising. “I thought it was a bar.” My fiancé was going to have some explaining to do.

Frost snickered. “Kozahkov likes his strippers,” he said. “I had Rivers suggest one of Viktor’s favorite hangouts to get him to show up. I have no idea why he switched the meeting place on us.” Frost then eyed me. “It might have had something to do with you, though.”

“Me?” I said defensively. “Why would I have anything to do with it?”

Frost shrugged. “He might’ve heard that Des Vries got a new girlfriend and he wanted to check her out.”

“I’m not the girlfriend anymore, remember?” I snapped, moody about being forced to sit with Agent Asshole.

Frost eyed me again. “Oh, right,” he said. “You’re the
assistant
now. And I saw that you added a few things to your wardrobe on the Company’s dime.”

I could feel my face flush. “The hooker clothes weren’t working for me.”

“Yeah, well, the iPad’s going back,” he said firmly.

I narrowed my eyes at him. I was really wishing I had that iPad with me. I’d use it to smack Frost over the head. “You must be a
blast
at parties,” I told him.

“This ain’t a party, Cooper.”

“Duh,” I told him. “What’s your issue with me anyway?”

Frost lifted a Styrofoam cup of coffee from the cup holder on his console without answering me; his eyes remained trained on the building.

By now at least twenty minutes had passed since Frostbite had picked me up and I was really starting to get nervous about Dutch. Waiting and watching weren’t getting us anywhere, so I used the only other tool at my disposal—my radar.

I closed my eyes and focused on my fiancé. I could feel him inside the building; his energy was tense and focused, but I didn’t sense any pain. I let go of the little breath I’d been holding. “He’s okay,” I whispered.

“Who’s okay?” Frost asked.

“Dutch.”

“Did he send you a text?”

“No.”

“Did you see him in one of the windows?”

“No.”

“Then how do you know he’s okay?” I couldn’t help but detect the slightly mocking edge to Frost’s tone when he finally turned away from the building to look at me.

“I can feel it,” I told him bluntly. “My radar says he’s unhurt and working his way through the situation.”

“Right,” Frost said, that mocking tone ratcheting up another notch.

“Don’t take my word for it,” I told him. “See for yourself.”

With that, I motioned to the front doors, where Viktor and his goons were just now emerging, and my pal Daniel was holding open the door for them. Kozahkov looked mad enough to kill someone, and I’ll give you three guesses as to whom he’d pick first for target practice.

His bodyguards were on either side of him, each one supporting him under the arms because he was definitely struggling to keep his legs under him.

My radar pinged suddenly and I sat forward, alert and focused. “Something’s not right,” I whispered.

Frost was watching Viktor and the goons. “You really did zap him, Cooper,” he said, ignoring what I’d just said. “Text Rivers and see if you can get him to respond.”

I put my arm on Frost’s shoulder, my radar insisting that there was some unseen danger approaching. In my head a warning sounded so loud I winced.
Duck and cover!
it commanded. My attention whipped to a car parked well down the street. Its lights came on and it maneuvered out of its parking place with a jerk. “Frost!” I yelled. “Something’s not right!”

“Shhhh!” he warned me. “Cooper, keep your voice dow—”