Vision Impossible (27 page)

“What?” I asked her.

“Well,
I
don’t have any cash!”

I inhaled a very deep breath and let it out slowly. Grumbling, I dug into my bag and produced the CIA’s company credit card. If Frost wanted to insist that I personally babysit Mandy, then the CIA could pay for her nails.

I handed it over to the clerk, who took it and asked if I wanted my nails done too. “No, thank you,” I said, noticing that Mandy had already moved to one of the pedicure baths and was dipping her feet into the water. She looked absolutely relaxed and happy, especially when her nail tech offered her a magazine and a soft drink. “Listen,” I said, leaning over to the woman behind the counter. “Can you just keep the card and put whatever services she wants on it? I have a quick errand to run and I’ll be right back to sign for it.”

“Yeah, okay,” said the clerk.

I hustled back to the department store and over to the sunglasses counter. The moment I got there, my cell rang again and it was a number I didn’t recognize. “Hello?”

“Ms. Carter,” said a silky male voice.

“Mr. Grinkov,” I replied, a tiny smile forming automatically on my lips. I wasn’t sure what it was that made me hold a small soft spot for this dangerous Russian mobster, but something about him caused me to like him, even against all my better judgment.

“I would like to share a meal with you again. Are you free for lunch?”

I looked at my watch. It was eleven thirty. “Actually, Maks, I’m a little busy right now.”

“Where are you?” he asked, probably hearing the background music from the department store.

“I’m at Eaton Centre making a purchase.”

“Lingerie?” he asked playfully.

I couldn’t help it—I smiled. “Not this time,” I told him. “I’m just picking up a few new things for the auction.”

“Very well,” he said. “A rain check for later?”

“Sure,” I said easily. I mean, what were the odds that he’d get to collect on it?

“Excellent,” he said. “Enjoy yourself.” And with that, he hung up.

I stared at my phone for a moment. “That was weird.”

“May I help you?” asked a woman’s voice. Startled, I looked up to see a salesclerk looking expectantly at me.

“Yes,” I told her, sneaking a peek over to the entrance of the salon. I couldn’t see Mandy, but I could see the tech filing her toenails, so I relaxed and got down to the business of finding the right sunglasses for Dutch. I went through several pairs of shades until I felt I’d found the right ones. While I was purchasing them with my own card, I sent a quick text message to both my fiancé and Frost that we’d be on our way back the minute Mandy’s nails were dry; then I took my small package and threaded my way through the crowd to the nail salon, which was now quite crowded. There was a line at the counter and I decided to just wait out in front of the entrance for Mandy to come out.

After forty-five minutes I was growing impatient. I’d done all the people watching I’d cared to do for the day and swung around into the salon to coax Mandy along. I searched the crowd of faces lining the walls and didn’t see her anywhere. My heart began to pound in my chest and I hustled over to the woman I thought had been her nail tech. “Where did my friend go?” I asked her. She looked at me like she had no idea what I was talking about. “The skinny chick with the long blond hair and big boobs?” I asked. “With the short denim skirt and high heels?”

The tech shook her head at me. “She left like an hour ago.”

My jaw dropped. “No,” I insisted. “No, she didn’t. I left her here an hour ago and she was getting a manicure and a pedicure. The deluxe package.” I was willing this woman to remember Mandy and where she was. “Maybe she’s in the restroom?”

The woman shook her head again. “Nuh-uh,” she told me again. “I started to give her the deluxe, and she said she’d changed her mind and left almost as soon as she’d sat down.”

Which had been right after I’d turned my back on her and gotten the call from Grinkov. My heart
really
started to pound then, and I had an awful feeling. Angry as all get-out, I marched up to the clerk at the front and demanded she give me the credit card back. “I don’t have it,” she said, thoroughly confused. “Your friend took it with her when she left.”

Breaking my no-swearing rule with a colorful string of expletives, I dashed out of the salon and ran back through the department store while I tried to hold my phone steady so I could call Dutch. His phone went straight to voice mail. “Call me!” I told him, winding and ducking my way through the crowd while my eyes scanned the area, in hopes of finding any sign of Mandy.

When I got to the parking garage, I dashed down the concrete runway in the direction of the car, now in almost a complete state of panic. I held my phone up as I went, looking to make sure Dutch hadn’t called. At one point I paused long enough to call his cell again, but being underground cut off the reception and the call wouldn’t go through. “Son of a beast!” I swore, changing directions, and nearly getting hit by a sleek luxury car as I headed back up to the corner of the garage where I thought I could get the call to go through.

I found a corner where two bars lit up on the cell phone display, and I tried Dutch impatiently. It went straight to voice mail again. “What the freak!” I nearly shouted, before bringing up Frost’s info and calling him.

“Frost,” he said abruptly.

“It’s Abby,” I told him. “Mandy’s miss—”

That’s as far as I got before I felt the most god-awful pain on the back of my head, and out went the lights.

“O
w.w.ww.w.ww.w.w!” I heard myself say as I climbed out of the dizzying dark depths of unconsciousness.

“Lie still,” said a silky voice I recognized.

“What the freak hit me?” I squawked, paying no attention to the command and trying to sit up. My head was ringing like the Liberty Bell.

“We’ve sent for the paramedics,” said the voice. “You’ll want to go to the hospital.”

I opened my eyes to squint at Maks Grinkov, who was crouched down and holding me in his arms. Behind him stood his butler, talking rapidly on the phone. “No ambulance!” I told him sharply, then quickly regretted it.

Grinkov appeared surprised. “But you fainted,” he said.

I felt the back of my head where a good-sized lump was forming. “I didn’t faint,” I told him. “Someone hit me.”

Grinkov’s expression turned grim and he looked up at his butler, who was talking urgently into the phone. Seeing that his boss wanted him, Eddington asked the person to hold the line and said, “Yes, sir?”

“Did you see anyone strike Ms. Carter before you reached her?”

Eddington appeared shocked. “No, sir! She was lying on the ground and I assumed she’d fainted.”

“Nope,” I said, really wishing the world would stop spinning and the sharp pain in my head would abate. “Someone hit me in the back of the head.”

“Who?”

I closed my eyes again. “I’ve no idea.”

“The paramedics will be here shortly,” I heard Eddington say. Gripping Maks’s arm tightly, I begged him, “Please, don’t let them take me.”

“Why not?” he asked.

And for a moment I was at a loss to explain to him why I wouldn’t want to go to the hospital. “Hospitals freak me out,” I said, making up something quick. “I mean, people
die
in there, you know?”

Grinkov laughed lightly. “I hardly think you will die from your injuries,” he told me.

I swallowed hard and pulled my feet up; using him as a brace, I got unsteadily to my feet. Eddington looked at me warily and said, “I really think you should lie still, ma’am.”

I nodded. I thought that too, but now that he’d called for an ambulance, I needed to get the heck out of there before any records were created or the police were called in, but I knew I was too shaky to drive. “Would you take me back to Rick’s place?” I asked Maks.

Again he looked surprised. “You don’t want to go back to your apartment?”

I made a show of glancing down at my watch and even though I couldn’t quite get my eyes to focus on the dial, I said, “He’s expecting me, and you know how Rick’s temper is. I don’t want to be late.”

Grinkov frowned, and in his eyes I knew he didn’t care one lick for Rick’s tempestuous nature. “We’ll take you,” he said, and helped me to his car, which I realized was the very one that had nearly hit me when I’d spun on my heel and hurried back up the ramp.

After we were inside and the driver was told where to go, I asked Maks, “What are you doing here, anyway?”

He smiled. “Looking for you.”

It was my turn to look surprised. “Why?”

“I wanted to see you,” he admitted, his eyes smoldering with interest. “And I wanted to perhaps help you pick out something appropriate for the auction.”

Uh-oh.

“Ah,” I said.

An awkward silence followed until Grinkov pointed to my purse and said, “Perhaps you should check to see if your attacker took anything.”

I looked down and blinked. I hadn’t even thought of that. Digging through my purse, I saw that my wallet and my stun gun were both missing. “Great,” I grumbled. “I’ve been mugged.”

The moment we cleared the parking garage, my phone, which was still clutched in my hand, blew up with incoming calls from both Dutch and Frost. I tried to answer Dutch’s first but got Frost instead. “What’s happening?” he demanded.

“Hey, Rick,” I said, trying to make my voice sound easy and relaxed. “I’m on my way to your condo. I had a little misstep when I was out shopping, but I should be there in about, what, Maks, ten minutes or so?”

“Yes,” he told me. “About that long.”

“Are you okay?”

“Oh, yeah, no problem. And hey, if you see your girlfriend, tell her I saw those shoes she likes at Neiman’s. They were on sale, and she
really
has to go there
now
to grab them before they
run off
with someone else.”

“Mandy took off?” Frost hissed, putting the coded message together.

“Yep.”

“Shit!” he said, and hung up.

Subtly I switched the phone to silent, even though I could see that Dutch was still trying to reach me. I couldn’t risk answering another call in the car with Grinkov.

My head was still pounding really hard by the time we got to Des Vries’s condo. I so wanted to get out of the car and make it through the garage and over to the elevator on my own, but the sides of my vision kept clouding in and I couldn’t seem to focus or keep my balance.

Maks helped me from the car, making repeated requests to take me to the hospital, and I kept insisting that all I needed to do was lie down and have a little rest. I didn’t know what to make of the fact that he was so genuinely concerned for me, and my head hurt way too much to think it through.

So I allowed him to help me over to the elevator, and he stood there, waiting patiently while I buzzed the intercom, because the doors would open only if you had a key card, and mine had been safely tucked inside my now-missing wallet. After a moment I heard Dutch’s voice say, “Yeah?”

“Hey, Rick. It’s me, Abigail. I lost my key card, so could you send down the elevator? Oh, and Maks is here. He’d like to come up to say hi.”

There was a lengthy pause before the light at the top of the elevator pinged, and a few moments later the doors opened. Once we got inside, I noticed that in the slot was Dutch’s key card. I pressed the button for the penthouse while Maks held me up the whole ride, which was good because I would have most definitely keeled over if he hadn’t.

When the elevator doors parted again, Dutch stood in the foyer, looking tall and imposing, wearing his brown contacts and an angry look. “Where you been, Carter?” he demanded, in full Rick Des Vries–impersonation mode.

I smiled tightly. “Sorry. Maks was kind enough to escort me here. I got mugged.”

“Mugged?”

“Yes. Someone hit me on the back of the head while I was in the parking garage at Eaton Centre, and the mugger stole my wallet, which had the key card in it.”

A small vein near Dutch’s left temple began to throb, a sure sign that he was upset, but otherwise, nothing about his expression or manner indicated he was at all alarmed. “Did you call the police?”

“Not yet. I was worried about making our meeting.”

Grinkov stepped forward, getting into Dutch’s personal space, and I could tell he didn’t care for the way Dutch was interrogating me. “Abigail sustained a serious injury to the back of her head,” he told Dutch icily. “I think she needs some ice and a chance to lie down.”

Dutch’s brown eyes swiveled from Maks to me and back again, the vein at his temple pulsing intensely now. I knew he was having a hard time staying in character, and so I did my level best to stay on my feet and not give in to the waves of dizziness washing over me. I was certain that if he showed any uncharacteristic concern for me, it would tip Grinkov off. “Yeah, okay,” he said as if he didn’t really care, and he stepped to the side and allowed us to come in.