Dangerous Allies (The Ruby Danger Series Book 1) (24 page)

S
hit
. Shit. SHIT.

Ruby gasped as she waded into the freezing water and slogged to the end of the dock. The water rose higher and higher, tightening in icy bands around her chest. Her teeth chattered, her feet had gone numb, and her legs were growing heavy. As the water reached her neck, she swung her arms frantically through the waves and tried to connect with something. She drew a deep breath, ready to dive.

Mila broke through the surface a few feet away, gasping, water spurting from her mouth. Her head tilted back and she disappeared.

Ruby splashed over to the spot, sweeping her arms through the water. One hand closed on Mila’s heavy water-soaked coat and she struggled to pull her up. Frigid waves swamped Ruby’s face, but she held on.

Mila gasped as she broke the surface, eyes wide and arms flailing. Ruby dragged her to the shallow water. They staggered onto the rocky ground directly under the dock, weighed down by their wet clothes. Ruby couldn’t feel her fingers or her feet.

Mila bent over, wheezing and spitting. Slumping to the ground, she hugged her arms to her chest. “It hurts,” she whimpered.

Ruby held a finger to her lips and shook her head. Then she helped Mila to slide off her coat and the Kevlar vest underneath it. As Mila lowered her head between her knees, Ruby wrapped the wet coat around Mila’s shoulders and stepped back to massage her own deadened fingers.

“We have to leave,” she whispered. “It’s too cold.”

Mila nodded, clasping the edges of her coat, and started to get up.

Above their heads, a car crunched over the gravel beside the dock and came to a stop. Doors opened and slammed.

“Hello, Dimitri,” a voice said.

Shaking uncontrollably, Mila gaped at Ruby.
Victor,
she mouthed, pointing at the dock above them. Mila struggled to her feet and scooted for the edge.

Ruby pulled her back.

“No,” she hissed, “we have to stay here.”

Mila’s teeth chattered as she nodded, collapsing on the ground again. Her hands and lips were blue.

A
ntony turned
his head as a black sedan glided to a stop with its headlights off. Now what? He took several steps back, his muscles tensed.

Beside him, Dimitri raised his pistol and pointed it at the car.

The car’s back door opened and Viktor stepped out with a handgun aimed at Dimitri. Bogdan emerged from the driver’s door with an automatic rifle, also leveled at Dimitri.

Dimitri laid his Makarov pistol on the ground at his feet and rose with both hands in the air.

Antony stared at the M-16 in Bogdan’s hands, hair rising on the back of his neck. Bogdan could kill them all with a single burst. The cellphone shook in his hand. He tore his gaze from the weapon when Viktor’s feet crunched over the gravel toward them.

“Hello, Dimitri,” Viktor said in a monotone voice. His jaw tightened and he gave Bogdan a nod.

Slinging the strap of the M-16 over his shoulder, Bogdan walked over to Dimitri. He frisked him roughly from neck to ankles, pulling a sheathed knife from his waist. After bending to collect Dimitri’s pistol and tuck it into his own belt, he walked back to Viktor and deposited the knife on the ground.

“He’s clean.”

Viktor turned his head to Antony, who dropped the cellphone and raised his hands with his pulse racing. Viktor regarded him calmly, then studied the approaching light in the harbor before turning his gaze to Dimitri.

“I thought we talked about this, Dimitri. Where are you going?”

“Nowhere.”

“Then why are you here?”

“To get your money back.”

“Ah.” Viktor smiled, turning to Bogdan. “You see? He is retrieving my money, not trying to run away.” Viktor turned back to Dimitri. “So where is it?”

Dimitri nodded curtly at Antony.

“He has it.”

All three men turned to look at Antony, who still had his hands in the air. His knees had turned to water.

“I don’t have it here,” he said, swallowing, “but I can get it. No problem.”

Tapping the handgun against his thigh, Viktor sighed loudly and looked away.

“Everyone says they can get my money and yet, no one does.”

“It’s in my bank account,” Antony said, bending to pick up the phone with a shaking hand and a sidelong glance at Bogdan, “but I can transfer it wherever you want.” He held out the phone to Viktor.

“In a moment,” Viktor said with a flick of his hand. “But first,” he took a few paces closer to Dimitri, “where is my niece? Where is Mila?”

“I don’t know.”

“You don’t know? What kind of man does not know where his wife is?”

Dimitri crossed his arms with a shrug and turned his head away.

Viktor nodded again at Bogdan, who walked over and punched Dimitri savagely in the gut. Dimitri grimaced and bent over, wobbling slightly, but made no sound. Bogdan slipped Dimitri’s pistol from his own waist and smacked the gun against his cheekbone.

Dimitri crumpled to his knees, blood gushing from his mouth. He spit on the ground and rose shakily to his feet.

Bogdan backed off several steps, dropping the pistol on the ground next to the knife.

Antony stared at the blood dripping down Dimitri’s face, unable to look away, his breathing sharp and shallow.

Viktor slipped the cellphone from Antony’s limp hand and studied the screen. He pointed at the phone.

“Show. Me. The. Money.” Roaring with laughter, he looked at Dimitri. “Is good joke, no?”

Bogdan smirked, but Dimitri only scowled.

Antony’s heart pounded as he glanced at the approaching light on the water. So close. He had been so close. He closed his eyes for a moment and then reached for the phone in Viktor’s hand, trying to smile.

“See—” His voice cracked and he tried again. “See, that’s the bank icon,” he pointed at the screen, “and if I open it, I can access my account. Simple.” He tapped on the screen and held the phone up to Viktor. “See? That’s my account. Now I have to—”

Antony lowered the phone, tapped some more, and peered at the screen.

“No, that’s not—”

He tapped again and then shook the phone. He stared at it, his stomach sinking.

“That’s not … right.” He rechecked the numbers and tapped again. “No, no. That’s not … right.” Staring at the phone, he sank to his knees. “It’s gone.” He stared at the phone, unable to take it in. How could it be gone?

“Give me that.” Viktor snatched the phone and bent over the screen, handing his gun to Bogdan.

Antony jumped to his feet and lunged for the phone.

“It must be a mistake. I have to call the bank.”

Viktor shoved Antony away.

“Look at this,” he said, gesturing to Bogdan.

Bogdan pushed the m-16 around behind his back. Glancing briefly at Dimitri, he leaned over the phone with Viktor’s gun in his lowered hand. Antony grabbed for the phone again and Bogdan shoved him aside, scowling.

Dimitri gestured at the blood streaming from his nose, tilted his head and pointed at his pocket, where a handkerchief poked out. Bogdan glanced up at him and nodded curtly, then returned his gaze to the phone, holding Antony back with his other hand.

Dimitri tugged at the handkerchief. It was tangled around his wallet so he used both hands to wrench it free.

By the time Antony heard the shot and jerked his head around, Dimitri had hit the ground and rolled out of the way, a wallet-sized pistol in his hand.

Bogdan fell, screaming, to the ground and the handgun flew from his grip. He clutched his stomach with one hand, blood welling between his fingers. With his other arm, he tried to reach behind his back for the rifle.

Dimitri strolled over, bending to pick up Viktor’s handgun on the way. Smirking, he stopped in front of Bogdan and shot him in the face. Then he walked over to Viktor.

Scowling, Viktor spat on the ground between them.

“You were always a problem. Always a fuckup.”

Dimitri shot him in the head.

Antony sank to the ground with his mouth open, staring at their bodies, unable to speak or even breathe.

Dimitri turned to face him, the gun in his hand.

Antony scuttled backward, his chest heaving.

Dimitri opened his coat and shoved Viktor’s gun under his belt.

“You can get up now,” he said. “Is over.”

U
nder the dock
, the women stared at each other. Ruby pressed her hands against her face to stop her teeth from chattering and shook her head at Mila.

“Don’t move,” Ruby whispered. Creeping to the side of the dock, she peered over the edge.

Dimitri collected the weapons and dropped them in a heap near Viktor’s car. Antony slumped on the ground with his head in his hands.

“Get up,” Dimitri barked. “Help me.”

Antony shuffled to his feet. After they had dragged the bodies behind the nearest shrubs, Dimitri turned to look at him.

“Where is the money?”

Antony straightened his glasses with a trembling hand.

“I told you. It’s … gone.”

“Gone? This is not possible. You showed it to me. It was there.”

“I know. I don’t understand.” Antony shook his head. “My bank account shows a withdrawal. As if someone moved it. Or took it.” Scanning the ground, he found the phone in the grass where Viktor had dropped it. He tapped the screen and held it up to Dimitri, who looked at it and scowled.

“How can they do this? They need the password, no?”

“Well.” Antony looked at the lake. “Well, your wife took the box after she shot Ruby. And the password was in it.”

“Mila?” Frowning, Dimitri looked out at the lake. “But how—?” He swore in Russian and ran to the end of the dock, looked over the edge, and scanned the water on either side.

Under the dock, Ruby shoved Mila toward the Fairlane parked behind the storage huts.

“Run,” she hissed.

Mila clambered up the rocky incline, through the shrubs, and across the driveway.

Ruby followed, a few yards behind. As she scrambled up the bank, Dimitri jumped off the dock onto the rocks. Within seconds he had caught up to her. He grabbed her arm and swung her around. When he saw her face he swore loudly in Russian.

“
Suka blyad!”
His upper lip curled. “You bitch.”

R
uby shivered violently
as frigid water dripped from her matted hair and trailed down her neck and shoulders. The concrete dock had scraped her knees raw. Someone was talking, but she couldn’t make out the words. She tried to focus on the voice.

“… you are stupid, Antony. Not only is your wife alive, but I think she took your money. I think we should make her give it back.”

Ruby tried to talk, but her mouth wouldn’t open. She tried again.

“I can’t,” she whispered.

“I can’t hear you,” the voice replied. Dimitri’s voice.

Ruby’s chest tightened and she struggled to answer.

“I can’t … I can’t get it back. I put it into accounts that belong to other people. I don’t know their passwords. I’m sorry.” She looked up and her pulse raced at the sight of the gun in his hand.

Antony gave them both a bewildered stare.

“What the hell is happening here?” He looked at the rapidly approaching light, and then down at the phone in his hand. He turned his gaze to Ruby.

“What have you done?” Antony raised his voice. “What the hell is happening here?”

She ignored him and focused on Dimitri.

“Please, Dimitri. I can get the money back. I need time, that’s all.”

“You’re lying.” He raised the gun.

“Whoa,” Antony said, his arms flailing. “Is that necessary? Can’t we get on the boat and leave Ruby here?”

Dimitri swiveled to Antony and pointed the gun at him.

Antony held up both hands and backed away.

Ruby closed her eyes. Her heart pounded so loudly that it drowned out the waves slapping against the dock.

“Please, Dimitri. You don’t have to do this.” Her voice dropped to a whisper. “Don’t do this.”

Dimitri chuckled. “I am sorry, truly. But I have no choice.” He leveled the gun and his finger moved on the trigger Ruby screamed at the sound of the shot.

Seconds later, she opened her eyes and watched, mesmerized, as Dimitri slumped to his knees before her with a vacant look on his face. The gun slipped from his hand and he fell over, blood bubbling from his mouth.

Behind him, Mila held a pistol in her outstretched arm. She lowered it and smiled at Ruby.

“We women have to stick together, right?” Mila said.

Ruby stared at her, unable to speak.

A searchlight flooded the dock and the women winced against the sudden glare. On the approaching boat, a man raised a megaphone to his mouth.

“Lower your weapons,” he boomed. “This is the police.”

Mila placed the gun on the ground and raised her hands in the air.

Antony moaned and sank to his knees.

A
s the wind
whipped off the lake and flashing lights lit up the dock, Ruby and Mila shivered and tightened the blankets around their shoulders. They sat in an ambulance, their legs dangling off its back edge, and talked to Pete Osler while white-suited forensic teams unloaded gear from police vans.

Pete looked grim.

“You two had a narrow escape.” Shaking his head, he pointed a finger at Ruby. “What were you thinking, taking on the
vor v zakonye
by yourself?”

“It wasn’t like that,” she said for the umpteenth time. “Anyway, you were here, weren’t you? Saving our asses?” Ruby grinned and raised her eyebrows.

“I’m only here because you didn’t show up tonight as promised, and because the police put a trace on your cellphone while you were at the station. Which I’m sure you figured out.”

“Good idea, by the way.”

“Don’t try to curry favor with me, Ruby Delaney. It’s a miracle you’re not both dead. I still think there’s more going on here than you’re admitting to. The Toronto police say your husband’s telling a garbled tale about missing millions.”

Ruby exchanged glances with Mila, then tilted her head at Pete and tried to look earnest.

“I may have misled Antony a teeny bit. Was that wrong?”

“I’ll leave that up to the SEC.”

“Pete, there is one thing I’d like to know. When I was arrested—”

“You were never under arrest,” he said drily.

“When I was detained,” she said, pulling a face, “how did the police find me? It wasn’t Hari at all, was it?”

“Nope.”

“So, how …” She studied his face and then brightened. “It was my other phone. That’s how the police found me. I knew I should have thrown it away.”

“If you say so.” His lips twitched.

“Oh, come on, Pete. Tell me how you did it.”

“Nope. Sorry.”

A paramedic leaned over them from inside the ambulance.

“Are these two good to go?” he asked Pete.

“Absolutely. Try to take them someplace where they won’t get into any more trouble.”

Throwing off her blanket, Ruby hopped off the ambulance and flung her arms around Pete’s neck.

“Thanks for everything,” she whispered.

He patted her back. “Get out of here.”

Ruby stepped onto the ambulance and turned to face Pete.

“Give my best to Jillian.” She winked. “And tell those grandkids I know how they feel.”

The attendant closed the ambulance doors, and they pulled away.