Page 59 of Pistols and Plush Toys

Nikolai was roused from sleep by the sound of his phone blaring.

Fuck. Nikolai kept his personal phone on do not disturb at night, which meant that this was a business call. His father’s business.

Groggily he turned over to reach for his burner phone on the bedside table, squinting at the screen to see it was Gerard calling. Fuck.

“What is matter?” He grunted, voice sleep-rough

“Problem with the new shipment,” Gerard clipped.

Nikolai needed to be sitting up for this. He did so, shuffling up to lean back against his headboard. “Fuck. What?”

“Half of what I looked at was fake,” Gerard spat. “Mixed in with the real gems. Someone’s trying to pull one over on us, thinking that we’re fucking stupid.”

Nikolai groaned, rubbing his temple. He could feel a headache coming on. “Which supplier this is?”

“Eisen, who’s been good for years,” Gerard said. “I think this happened later down the line. I don’t think he’s dumb enough to risk his business like this.”

Gerard had a better handle of their import relations, so Nikolai trusted him. “Alright. We put people on it, track down rat. Is this ship of rats now?”

Nikolai did not like all the things that had been going wrong recently. They’d operated this area of his father’s business smoothly for years. All of these disruptions—

If this wasn’t related to Vitale, if someone else was trying to put their hands in his business while they thought he was distracted…

“I sure as fuck hope not,” Gerard said. “But we’ll have to make an example of them. I don’t want this happening again.”

Nikolai couldn’t see him, but he could easily picture Gerard with one of his butterfly knives in hand, flicking it out and back in.

“Yes. An example,” Nikolai agreed.

“How should we negotiate payment?” Gerard asked, lowering his voice into the phone. “I’m not paying full price for cubic zirconia.”

Nikolai hummed. “Who bring shipment in?”

“Couple of guys I don’t know,” Gerard said. “We haven’t worked with them before.”

That… wasn’t promising. “Is usual?” Nikolai asked, because he wasn’t sure.

“Sometimes. There’s some turnover,” Gerard said. “But I think it’s real damn suspicious that two new guys brought in this shipment.”

“Fuck.” Nikolai growled. Now he was getting out of bed, reaching for his robe. “Do not let them leave. I will call Eisen, see what is going on.”

“Alright,” Gerard said. “Just let me know what you want to do, yeah?”

“Ten minutes,” Nikolai promised. “Someone is with you?”

“Pyotr is with me,” Gerard said. “Nadia is outside.”

Good. Nikolai didn’t want him alone if shit was about to go down.

“Ten minutes,” Nikolai said again, and hung up.

Nikolai went downstairs and got himself a glass of water while the phone rang. On the fifth ring, he got Eisen fresh out of bed.

Nikolai explained the situation and was met with swearing in Polish, German, and Hungarian, which he honestly found to be a promising sign that Eisen wasn’t the issue here.

Especially because while Eisen was old and quick to temper, just as Gerard said, he’d always been a solid supplier.

His family had been in the gemstone business for generations.

“I will find who is skimming my stones,” Eisen promised when he got over his initial anger. “Don’t pay for the shipment, I’ll call it back.”

Nikolai thanked him and they hung up. He texted Gerard on the trip back to his room, then finished his glass of water and climbed back into bed. His adrenaline was still high, but he tried to begin calming himself down.

His phone pinged several minutes later, and it was Gerard again, sending a thumbs up emoji and the message that he was leaving with Pyotr and Nadia. Nikolai made a mental note to loop Meredith in when it was a more reasonable hour.

For now, it was almost three in the morning. Nikolai needed to go back to sleep, otherwise he’d be useless the rest of the day.

He set the phone back on the bedside table and closed his eyes. He could still hear it ringing, could feel his heart thumping harder than it should.

It was fine. The issue would be handled. They’d find the rat and take care of it. Everyone was still on high alert, so it wasn’t like they were short staffed on security right now. Everyone was safe, for the moment.

Eventually, he slipped back into sleep.

***

When Nikolai woke next, he had the sinking suspicion that it was later than it should be. It hadn’t been his alarm that had woken him—the light in his room was too bright.

He groaned, reaching for his phone, and found that he should’ve been up to two hours ago.

The biggest alert on the screen was for a meeting he was supposed to currently be in, pushing down a stack of calls and texts.

His phone, which was on do not disturb still.

Fuck.

Nikolai stumbled out of bed. He didn’t immediately go through the messages, but instead headed for the bathroom.

If anything had been an emergency, Meredith or Gerard would have just called his burner.

So no one was dead and nothing was blown up.

Everything else could wait until he was at least dressed and decent.

He rushed through his morning routine, pulling on smart clothes to make him look more put together than he felt.

As he did so, he wondered if Eisen had gotten back to him on the rat, and if anything had been done to send a message about it.

He still needed to talk to Meredith and give her a heads up—Gerard would be asleep right now, after his night shift.

Once upon a time Nikolai had been able to pull all nighters or wake up in the middle of the night for emergencies and not have it affect his next day. But not anymore, not in his forties.

He needed coffee, but first he pulled out his phone on the walk to the home office, skimming through the messages. An update from Gerard when he’d gone to bed that everything was good, regular updates from stores and staff, and–

There was a text from Meredith in the secured group chat. It was a hidden message. He clicked the message to reveal it and to start the timer that would delete it.

Meredith: Apparently Katyana had an interesting conversation while picking up my morning coffee.

Nikolai stared at it. It had been sent twenty minutes ago. Gerard was on last night, so he was dead to the world right now. Nikolai was the one who was supposed to be up.

Nikolai: What NOW?

Meredith’s typing bubbles showed up immediately, and Nikolai closed the door to his office, throwing himself into his chair as he waited.

Another hidden, timed message popped up. He clicked it.

Meredith: She got approached while waiting to pick up my order by a young woman who introduced herself as a friend of Vicki’s. Handed her a sealed envelope, which ended up containing these:

What followed was a batch of hidden timed picture messages. Nikolai clicked them one at a time so that he could look at each closely. They were all shots of Mattia Vitale and some other guy, bent over an open case. They were half blurry, taken from a distance, and time stamped for yesterday.

Meredith: Pretty sure this means the plan is working. Mattia plans on coming home soon.

Nikolai agreed. There were no other reasons for Vitale to be shopping for weapons.

Nikolai: With ammunition.

Meredith: Looks like it.

Well then. That answered a few questions. It seemed like Vicki was worth her word after all. Nikolai would keep that in mind going forward.

Nikolai: Okay, good. Set up surveillance on his penthouse and see if we can get eyes on incoming private flights.

Then he tried to think, pushing aside the fuzziness from the four am phone call and oversleeping. If Vitale was coming back, what else needed to be done? They needed surveillance, sure. They needed to know what they were going to do when he landed.

And Nikolai needed to be ready to finish it. Finish him.

Nikolai: And book me at the range for this afternoon.

It had been too long since he’d gone anyway. Some practice would do him good.

Meredith: Will do.

Then his thoughts turned to the other order of business.

Nikolai: Did Gerard text you about the shipment last night?

Nikolai went and checked his burner phone for messages quickly, but it didn’t look like he had anything from Eisen yet.

Meredith: Yeah, something about rats in the new stock? Did we treat for vermin?

Nikolai: Not yet, but I called supplier last night. He’s going to handle it. He’s thinking his side might have the infestation.

Three dots typing, then:

Meredith: Do we think it’s connected?

She was no doubt asking about Vitale.

Nikolai: I think is possible.

Meredith: Me too. Okay, keep me updated.

Followed immediately by:

Meredith: Also don’t worry about the meeting you’re already missing, I made excuses for you.

Nikolai let out a long breath. He’d just hit the button to turn on his computer.

Nikolai: Thank you. You are best.

Nikolai scrolled through the rest of the messages he had on his personal phone and was just pulling up his email when a knock came at the door. It was Elliot’s knock, soft and almost hesitant.

“Come in,” Nikolai called, and the door opened.

Elliot smiled shyly as he poked his head in. “You weren’t up for breakfast, so I wanted to make sure you ate? I made apple tarts.” He had a plate in hand that smelled delicious. Nikolai felt his stomach rumble, and pleasure suffused his whole body at the thoughtful gesture.

“Thank you,” he said warmly. “I have… late morning.”

Elliot crossed the room to the desk and handed the plate over. “I also—I mean, I thought you might also like some coffee,” he said next, offering a sealed thermos.

“Coffee, yes, good,” Nikolai said with feeling, immediately opening the top to take a sip. It was just how he liked it, and even the first sip had him groaning. Fuck, he’d needed coffee this morning. “This is very good. Thank you, Elliot.”

He met Elliot’s eyes when he said it, and could see that pretty blush as it bloomed on his cheeks.