Page 54 of Scorned Beauty

“Then what?”

“We’re going to outfit you with a camera.”

“Oh, hell no!” I snapped. “You’re going to get me killed. Anton is going to be there, and he scrutinizes every inch of me, waiting for me to fuck up.”

“Put it on me,” Billy offered. “They tend to bypass me, thinking I’m dumb as fuck and wouldn’t try anything like this.” My brother winked at me.

“We’re not sure what we’re looking for, but our informant hinted about a thumb drive that could win the case for us.” Phil looked at my brother. “He’ll fill you in on the rest. You gotta go.”

It took all of ten minutes to give us instructions. It wasn’t hard to follow. They wanted me to be less than thorough with my cleanup. Plus, the primary objective was to know who was there, and that all important thumb drive.

When we were back on the road, and when I’d calmed down some and gotten oxygen back into my lungs, I asked Billy, “Fill me in.”

“I didn’t want to involve you, but you know you have that picture of De Lucci and their informant on your phone.”

“The woman is a fed informant?”

“Or would-be whistleblower. They’re trying to build a corruption case against a politician. I’m not clear about the details. But they want me to feed them information about Grigori’s sex-trafficking ring, but it was leading nowhere because I got sent to Florida.”

“So all these fuckups…” I whispered.

Billy exhaled heavily. “Some of them were my stupidity, but I found out Grigori became less guarded around me when he thinks I’m just a dumb henchman who did as he commanded, no questions asked. Phil approached me early last year after he’d moved to Harriet’s apartment. The feds had been looking for the weakest link in the bratva.” He gave a brief self-deprecating laugh. “Apparently that’s me.”

“So you’re okay getting out?”

“Yeah.”

I wasn’t touchy-feely with Billy, but at that moment, I wanted to hug my brother. I settled for reaching for his hand and giving it a squeeze instead.

“I wish you’d kept me in the loop! We could have made plans.”

“No, Sloane. You had enough to think about with school, with keeping Harriet in that nursing home…listen. Let’s get through tonight…all right? Then see if we can get Phil and his boss what they want.”

“They’re just after Grigori?”

“The New York Russian bratva is too big to take down. They’ll settle for the brigadier running the sex-trafficking operation, so yes, just Grigori.”

“What did they promise you?”

“New identities for you, me, and Harriet. A fresh start somewhere.”

I chewed on the chain of events. I thought back to the man who died in the ER, Wade Stephenson. His name was etched in my heart. I wondered if he was connected to all this, but if the feds were involved, then it would be a district attorney issue, not a corporate lawyer from New Jersey.

When we arrived at the Venezia Tower, we were directed to the rear entrance where we took the service elevator to the fifth floor. Anton admitted us into the apartment. He had scratches across his face and arms. He was wearing a shower cap same as I was because the cleanup job location wasn’t owned by the Russians.

My eyes drifted to the room. The place was completely ransacked.

“Scope?” I asked because if they expected me to put the stuffing back into the throw pillows, they were dreaming.

“Blood and hair.”

“Where’s Kolya?” I asked.Please say he isn’t here because I don’t want him double-checking my work.

“He’s out of town.”

“The package?”

“Grigori has someone else taking care of it.”