Dangerous Allies (The Ruby Danger Series Book 1) (22 page)

D
imitri stood
under a hot shower until the pain eased. Then he toweled his hair dry, pulled on jeans and a heavy wool sweater, and sat in the waterfront condo’s lone armchair with his head back, pressing an ice pack against his eye as shadows grew across the floor.

When he finally stood up, the room was in darkness. He walked into the kitchen and snapped on the light, took a screwdriver from the toolbox and dropped to the floor. Once the kick boards were off, he emptied the first cavity and piled the contents on the floor beside him.

He sorted through them. Then he sorted through them again.

The leather box was gone.

Dimitri crawled along the floor to check the other cabinets. He yanked out the contents and checked each cavity with a flashlight. The box wasn’t there. Other things were missing, too.

Leaning against the cupboards, he kicked at the broken wood and swore in Russian. He’d been a fool. Now he had less than twenty-four hours to find Ruby and not a single idea where to look. She would be miles from Toronto by now, with the twenty million in bonds that he had to return to Viktor within twenty-four—he checked his watch—no, eighteen hours.

Dimitri paced through the apartment, wincing at the pain in his chest, trying to think. Maybe he didn’t know where Ruby was, but he knew where to find her husband. And if anyone had money, it was Antony Carver. Even twenty million.

“
D
o you need a taxi
, Mr. Carver?”

“No thanks, Terry. It’s a beautiful night. I think I’ll walk.” Antony smiled at the hotel doorman and stepped onto the street. He carried a leather weekender; not big enough to be noticeable, but large enough to hold a few cherished items. For his last night in Toronto, he had enjoyed a juicy Porterhouse steak at his favorite restaurant followed by a big Havana cigar.

Now he would meet Ruby and, after a quick exchange to tie up loose ends, he would be off. The water taxi he had chartered would collect him at Ontario Place, the closed and deserted amusement park on the lake, at eleven. The repainted and renamed
Capstone
would rendezvous with the taxi several miles offshore. In a few days’ time, the CEO of Carvon & Co. would land in the Gulf Islands, on his way to Caracas. It wouldn’t be Antony Carver who disembarked, however, but Harry Mortimer, a pharmaceuticals executive on a business trip.

Smiling, he strolled up the street. A man with a black woolen cap pulled over his forehead stepped from the shadows with a notebook in his hand.

“Mr. Carver,” he said. “CNBC. Can I talk to you?”

“Certainly not.” Antony scowled and swerved to walk around him. But as he passed the reporter, something jabbed his ribcage. He looked down.

“What the hell?”

“Say nothing,” the reporter hissed. Glancing back at the doorman, he added loudly, “A few questions, Mr. Carver. It won’t take long.”

Antony looked over his shoulder.

“Need any help, sir?” Terry called.

Antony shook his head. “We’re fine,” he called back.

The doorman nodded and returned to his station indoors. Antony twisted around so he could look at the reporter’s face.

“You’re that bartender from the ship. What do you want?”

“You know what I want. Twenty million.”

Antony gave a snort of derision.

“That’s preposterous.”

Dimitri stepped in front of him. Light from a streetlamp glinted off the gun barrel pointed at Antony’s gut.

Antony’s stomach clenched as he eyed the pistol. He held up a hand.

“Okay, okay. No need for that. Why don’t you take my wallet and leave?” Reaching under his coat, he pulled out his billfold. He held it up, but Dimitri made no move to grab it.

“I know about the bonds,” Dimitri said.

“What bonds?”

“Don’t lie to me.” He gestured with the gun. “I work with Viktor.”

Antony cast a sidelong glance at the hotel, but the doorman had stepped out of sight. He swallowed hard and turned back to Dimitri.

“I don’t have any bonds. And if you really worked with Viktor, you would know that. You need to find my wife if you want that twenty million in bonds.”

Dimitri closed the gap between them and rammed the gun into his gut. Antony gasped and doubled over.

“Did I say I wanted that twenty million?”

“I don’t understand.”

“I want twenty million. I don’t care whose.” Dimitri stepped back.

“You want …?” Antony did a double take. “Viktor doesn’t know you’re here, does he? Why should I give you anything?”

Dimitri leaned in.

“Because yesterday,” he hissed, “I killed your friend. And today, if I don’t get what I want, I will kill you.”

Antony looked at the gun and his chest tightened. Should he try to run? Yell for help?

Dimitri’s eyes were cold.

“If you think you can run, you should know your friend was dead before he hit the ground.”

Antony drew a ragged breath and straightened up. He had to play for time.

“I can’t get anything for you out here on the street. We have to go to my office.”

“Then we will go to your office.”

“Well, yes, we could do that. But there’s another way.”

“What way?”

“My wife has the original twenty million in bonds, right? So if you could find my wife, wouldn’t that be the same as getting twenty million from me?”

“Do you know where she is?”

“I’m meeting her right now. You’re welcome to come along. I’ll transact my business and then you can transact yours. Good enough?”

Dimitri said nothing for a moment and then tucked the gun under his jacket.

T
he streetlights’ glow
through the window cast the only light in the room while Ruby waited for her husband and wondered if she would have gone to South America after all.

Antony was prompt, as always. A few minutes after ten, a Town Car stopped across the street from the rooming house and he emerged, carrying a briefcase, his alpaca coat collar flipped up against the wind.

When the buzzer sounded a few moments later, Ruby pressed the button that unlocked the front door. The door opened and closed and the stairs creaked. Opening her own door, she looked out onto the landing. Blaring music, punctuated by screams and gunshots, from the landlady’s television swelled through the stairwell.

Antony paused when he saw her and then walked past her into the unit.

Ruby closed the door.

“Bring any friends?”

“It’s just me.” He looked around the shabby room. “Do you have electricity here? Or do we have to do this in the dark?”

She snapped on a metal lamp by the sofa. It provided a small pool of light but the edges of the room were in shadow.

Antony put his briefcase on the plastic coffee table next to the leather box. Without taking off his coat, he sat on the sofa, pulled a document from his briefcase, and handed it to her.

“Here’s the affidavit you wanted.” He shrugged. “For all the good it will do you.”

Ruby took the paper and examined it under the lamp. The notary’s signature looked fake.

“Looks okay,” she said, placing the paper on the table.

Antony took a small gold key from his jacket’s breast pocket and reached for the leather box.

“You won’t need that.” Ruby pointed to the jimmied lock. At his glare she added, with a shrug, “Well, I didn’t have the key.”

Flipping open the lid, he pulled out the three passports and put them in his pocket. Other than those, the box was empty. Antony held it upside down over the table and shook it.

“What the hell?” He tossed the box on the floor and glared at her. “What have you done with the bonds?”

“Calm down. Did you think I was walking around with twenty million dollars?”

Narrowing his eyes, he straightened up and glared at her.

“I can tell you where to find it, though,” she said.

With a sigh, Antony unbuttoned his coat and slumped back against the sofa. “Why do you have to make everything so difficult?”

“I cashed the bonds. It was the only sensible thing to do. I couldn’t keep carrying them around.”

“How the hell did you do that?”

“I saw that lawyer downtown. The one your lawyer in Boca recommended.”

“That was a stupid idea.”

“The police know I’m alive, Antony, they just don’t know where I am. There was no reason for the lawyer to refuse. Solicitor-client privilege, remember? I told him to cash the bonds and put the proceeds into my offshore bank account. You know, the one you said would be such a good idea?” She wrinkled her nose and made a face. “What was it for again? Income-splitting or some such nonsense?”

His eyes widened and he stared at her. Then he laughed.

“You waltzed into a law firm with twenty million dollars in bearer bonds drawn on a Cayman Islands bank and like that,” he snapped his fingers, “they cashed them for you?” He shook his head. “You never lacked guts, that’s for sure.”

“Thank you. I attribute it to years of watching you.”

The corners of his mouth lifted as Antony cocked his head to one side.

“You were never boring, Ruby.” He flashed that crooked grin of his and for an instant she wanted to forget what came next.

She pulled out her cellphone and placed it on the coffee table.

“You can retrieve the money from my account with my phone. See that icon on the main screen? It will open the bank site and take you to the login. Then you simply transfer the funds to your account. It’s the same bank as yours.”

“I’ll need your account number and password.” He picked up the phone and peered at it. “And what do you mean, the same bank? I don’t know anything about this bank.”

“Come on, Antony. I’ve seen the list of deposits, remember? I know you have an offshore account with five hundred million in it. It’s a bit late to deny it.” She retrieved the leather box from the floor, slipped the cellphone into it and placed it on the coffee table.

“You know nothing.” He glared at her.

“I know that your mob friends killed Hari and tried to kill me. I know that if they don’t get their twenty million, they’ll keep trying. I know you can’t leave the country without paying them. And finally, I know if you stay here much longer you’ll be arrested for securities fraud.” Her heart thudded as she tried to keep her expression neutral, hoping he wouldn’t see the flaw in her plan. And deep within her flickered a tiny hope that she was wrong about his intentions. Time to choose, Antony. She drew a deep breath.

“So here’s what you’re going to do. You’re going to put the girls’ money back into their trust account. And you’re going to contact Viktor and tell him you have the mob’s money and that you’ll give it to him at the marina one hour from now. Then I’ll give you the password.”

His expression was unreadable.

“You have no idea what you’re involved in. Give me the password and walk away.”

“No, Antony. I’m not turning my back. You could still make amends, you know. For some of what you’ve done, at least. Or you could show up at the shareholders’ meeting and take what’s coming to you. It’s not too late.” She paused. “No? I thought not.”

She slipped an index card from her pocket and dropped it into the leather box.

“My account number and password are on this card. I’m going with you to the dock and I’ll hang onto this box until we get there. When Viktor arrives, you pay him. That way, I’ll know he won’t send Dimitri after me again.”

“What’s to prevent me from taking that box right now?”

“Don’t you think you’ve done enough damage, Antony?”

They stared at each other. The front door buzzer sounded, then again, and then a third time without stopping. Someone was holding the buzzer down. Frowning, Ruby walked over and pressed the button to unlock the door. The front door opened and slammed shut.

Antony scowled, eying the leather box.

“What about the cash that was in there? Thirty thousand in small bills as I recall.”

She shrugged half-heartedly and spread her hands.

“I had expenses. Was that wrong?”

He glowered at her.

“Is it a deal or not?”

“It doesn’t appear I have much choice.”

Ruby snapped off the lamp, reached for her coat and put it on. Picking up the box, she slipped it under her arm.

“Let’s go, then.”

Antony walked to the door and reached for the handle. But before he could turn it, the door rammed into him, knocking him onto the floor.

“
Shit,
” he screamed, holding a hand to his nose. Blood gushed between his fingers and onto his coat. He looked up at the woman standing over him.

She pointed a gun at his head.

“
G
et up
.” The woman pointed her gun at the sofa. “And sit there.”

Antony struggled to his feet, holding both hands to his nose, and sat. Blinking, he stared at her and tried to catch his breath. What the hell was going on? His face burned and blood dripped through his fingers and onto his shirt.

The woman pointed the gun at Ruby, who stood with both hands in the air, the leather box forgotten at her feet, a look of terror on her face.

“And you, stay there.”

“For heaven’s sake, Mila, what are you doing?” Ruby said, her voice quavering.

Antony looked up in astonishment.

“You dow her?” he sputtered as he grabbed tissues from a box on the coffee table and tried to staunch the blood gushing from his nose.

“Shut up,” Mila said, without looking at him. “I warned you, Miss Delaney. I told you to stay away from my husband.”

Antony stood up. The tissue he had stuffed into both nostrils made it difficult to talk.

“Wad a minute. You’re that maid, from the boat. What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

Mila took a step toward him and swung the gun at his head. A red burst of pain exploded in his skull as the pistol connected. He fell back onto the sofa with a gasp and leaned over, cradling his head in his hands as the room whirled around him.

“Shit,” he whimpered, squinting up through splayed fingers at his attacker.

Mila pointed the gun at his head.

“I said to shut up. Are you listening now?”

He nodded and lowered his head again. The blow had dislodged the tissue and blood trickled from his nostrils. Antony glanced sideways at the window. Dimitri was still outside, in the car. Maybe he could signal him somehow.

Mila turned and aimed the gun at Ruby, whose raised hands trembled.

“Mila, I promise you, I haven’t seen Dimitri. Not even once. I don’t know where he is. I’ve had nothing to do with him. I swear it.”

“You lie. He’s outside right now.” Mila gestured at the window.

“Antony, what is she talking about?” Ruby said, without taking her eyes off the gun. “Why is Mila’s husband here?”

He shook his head without replying. What could he say?

“Mila, you’ve got to believe me,” Ruby said. “I haven’t seen your husband, I promise you. If he’s here now, it’s not because of me.”

Mila trained her gun on Ruby’s chest.

“Please, please listen to me,” Ruby said. “You don’t know what your husband is capable of. He killed Hari Bhatt. I saw him. Now he wants to kill me. I know Dimitri has threatened you, but this isn’t the answer.” She turned her head. “Antony, please. Tell us why Dimitri is here. Did he follow you?”

He pressed his hand to his nose and looked away. “I don’t know anything about that.”

Ruby’s jaw dropped as she stared at him. “Tell me he didn’t come here with you.”

“I had no choice,” Antony said, panic rising in his throat. This was
not
his fault. “I was on my way to meet you and he cornered me on the street. He had a gun. He wants the bonds. He wants them for himself, I mean. When he realized I didn’t have them, he threatened to shoot me if I didn’t hand them over.”

Ruby’s voice rose.

“And you brought him here?”

“Did you miss the part where I said he was going to shoot me?” Antony made a face. How was this his fault?

Mila’s gun hand shook.

“You’re both lying.” She turned to Antony. “Your wife slept with my husband. She doesn’t care about you. She only wants the money.”

“I didn’t do anything,” Ruby wailed. “Why won’t anyone believe me?”

Antony stared at Mila, shaking his head.

“No, you don’t get it. Your husband is trying to double-cross the mob. He wants the money for himself. Viktor will kill you both.” He reached for his inside breast pocket, but stopped as Mila motioned with the gun. The hair lifted on the nape of his neck.

“I only want to show you a business card.”

She stared for a moment and then nodded.

He pulled the water taxi’s card from his pocket, turned it over, and pointed to an address on the back.

“See? Viktor is going to be there. At eleven. Dimitri doesn’t know.”

Without lowering the gun, Mila snatched the card from him and slipped it into her coat pocket.

“You’re lying,” she said, her lip curling. She looked at Ruby. “Where are the bonds?”

Ruby pointed to the leather box on the floor at her feet.

“Put it there,” Mila said, pointing her gun at the coffee table.

Ruby bent to retrieve the box and placed it on the table. She stepped back, closer to the door. Mila eyed her cautiously, put the gun on the table and bent to open the box.

Ruby swiveled, bolted for the door and grabbed the handle. But as she wrenched it open a thunderous crack split the air.

Antony jumped at the sound, then watched in horror as Ruby was pitched against the door.

She slid to the floor, slumping onto the yellowed linoleum with one arm bent underneath her and her head twisted. Blood pooled on the floor beside her. Her eyes fluttered and closed.

“What have you done?” Antony yelled, leaping to his feet.

Mila pointed the gun at him.

“Shut up.”

Antony stared at Ruby’s crumpled body with a hand over his mouth. He felt sick.

“Is she dead?”

Mila nudged Ruby’s torso with her foot.

“Yes, I believe she is. But you are alive. So far.”

Blood oozed from Ruby’s chest and dripped onto the floor. Mila bent over for a closer look. Antony held his breath.

Wait ...

He heaved the coffee table at Mila.

She fell back, dropping the gun, and he darted for the door. As he wrenched it open, a loud crack exploded beside his ear. Racing headlong down the stairs, he burst onto the street and bolted to the Town Car. Antony yanked open the passenger door and sank into the seat with one hand pressed to his nose. With his other, he fumbled for the handle and pulled the door closed.

“Go,
go!
” he shrieked. He bent over with a groan, his head ringing.

Dimitri stared at him with his good eye, his hand on the key in the ignition.

“What happened to you? Where is briefcase?”

Antony groaned again, with his head in his hands. “We have to go.”

Dimitri raised his voice. “Where are bonds?”

“Dead,” Antony croaked, looking up at Dimitri. “She’s dead.”

“Who’s dead?” Dimitri peered at him. “What happened to your nose? Who’s dead?”

“Ruby. She … she shot her.”

“Who?”

“Your …” Antony waved his hands, “wife. She shot Ruby. And she took the leather box.”

Dimitri looked confused. “Mila?”

“I don’t remember her damned name. She said she was your wife.”

Dimitri stared at him.

“We have to go,” Antony said. “We have to go now. She’s got the address of the marina and I think she’s headed there.”

“Who?”

“Your wife, dammit. She’s got the box and the password I need to get the twenty million back. She’s going to get on my boat if we don’t stop her. And she just killed Ruby. Son of a bitch.” He pounded the dashboard in frustration.

Dimitri turned off the engine and pulled out the key.

“We must go back.”

Antony grabbed Dimitri’s hand and pushed it, with the key, to the ignition.

“No. Are you crazy? We have to go. She was shooting at me. The police will be here any minute.” His chest tightened and his breath burst from his lungs in ragged gusts.

“But where are the bonds?”

Antony drew several deep breaths, trying to calm his pounding heart. Must. Not. Panic. He resumed in a calmer voice.

“Ruby cashed the bonds. I can transfer the money, but I can’t get at it without her password. And that’s in the box. Which your wife—”

Dimitri interjected, “Mila.”

“—which your wife, Mila, took. Do you get it now?”

“How do you know she is meeting the boat?”

“Oh, good God. Because she took the address from me. Right before she tried to kill me.”

Dimitri looked puzzled. “Why did she shoot Ruby?”

Antony rolled his eyes.

“Well, let’s see. Your name was mentioned. I kinda thought she was jealous. Has she ever done anything like this before? I mean, has she always been that handy with a firearm?”

Dimitri looked at him, then put the car into gear and pulled away from the curb.