The Fugitive's Secret Child. Geri Krotow
new charges of human trafficking coming out of Wilmington, Delaware, this morning.
Vasin was Russian, five feet eleven inches, one hundred and eighty-five pounds. He definitely was not an approximately ten-pound caramel-latte-colored fuzz ball with big brown eyes and large paws on a too-skinny body. As the puppy stumbled along toward her, tail wagging tentatively, its whines turned to yips.
“Shhh!” She had to stop its noise. Bending down, she hoisted the little guy up and went to gently muzzle his puppy snout with her hand. He wriggled his face out of her grasp and licked her chin, his tiny body quivering with excitement. Or maybe relief?
Vasin couldn’t be that bad, not if he had a new puppy. Although he needed to feed the pup more—this little guy was skinny. She looked around, making sure she was still alone. There weren’t any visible cameras on the outside of the building. It looked abandoned, in fact.
Except for fresh tire tracks that ran from where the front door was to the surrounding grasslands. She saw the tracks emerge from the fields, and as she turned the corner with the puppy in her arms, she found the three ATVs that had made the tracks parked alongside the corrugated metal building.
The flips in her stomach turned to alarm bells.
Vasin wasn’t alone.
* * *
Rob lay on the concrete floor of the warehouse and willed his aching limbs to stay still as he listened to Vasin and his men. His labored breathing made it difficult to ascertain the colloquial Russian, but he understood enough of their conversation to know two things.
First, they said they were hiding out in the Poconos to protect Dima Ivanov who was in his “bunker.” That meant that Ivanov was nearby. This was new intelligence that the Trail Hikers didn’t have—they knew he was close but didn’t realize he had a full-on shelter. No one had suspected Ivanov would risk remaining so close to New York City and his usual operation area, not while the heat on him from all federal agencies was so heavy. But most importantly, Rob hadn’t heard the all-too-familiar sneer of Dima Ivanov’s voice, however. Which meant Vasin was running this current op, whatever it entailed. Rob could handle Vasin. Ivanov’s voice was one he dreaded, because he knew if he heard the heavy, smoke-addled voice, Rob would be dead.
The last time he’d come face-to-face with Vasin and his immediate circle, Rob had had the upper hand. He’d been deep undercover and had helped blow the headquarters of a drug and money-laundering operation out of the water, literally. Ivanov had been operating his command center from a yacht in the Atlantic, just off the Jersey shore. Vasin ran the op on land, and Rob’s CIA team took it all down, working hand in hand with FBI, ATF, DHS and local LEAs. Rob had escaped with his life and that of his team’s—except for Jazz.
Goddamn it, he still saw her eyes right before the bullet blew her apart. The shock of losing a teammate never left him. Their memory never faded. But Jazz’s loss had been the impetus for him to try to find closure for the other part of his life, a relationship he could have put to rest three years ago if he’d only had the courage to cross the damned street. To face for the last time the woman he’d loved when he’d still been named Justin.
A shuffle of chairs and rapid-fire Russian conversation filled his ears. No more thoughts of the woman he’d lost to distract him from the pain. He had to interpret their dialogue. His language skills weren’t what they used to be, but they were good enough.
Hell and damnation. They were going to kill him sometime before tomorrow morning. Something about him being in the way of their “most important mission.”
Robert opened his left eye a slit, since their voices came from his right side. He took in racks of weapons, ammo, explosives. Dang, they were loaded for bear. Just who were they expecting, the national guard? He wouldn’t mind a unit to show up and rescue him right about now.
He knew no one was scheduled to come in here until after he’d secured Vasin—the risks were too great. Vasin and his boss Ivanov were known for retribution; last month six ATF agents had been slaughtered in an ambush in Newark, New Jersey. ROC didn’t get its hands dirty, of course, but intelligence had proven it was clearly done on Ivanov’s orders.
The powers that be had decided that taking out Ivanov alone was best to allow them to begin to dismantle the entire North American ROC from the inside out. It was going to take months, even years. Rob couldn’t worry about that—he still had to complete his mission to neutralize Vasin. Somehow, someway, despite all these men around him.
He tested his binds. They’d used plastic zip ties on his wrists, which remained painfully strapped behind him and forced his back into an excruciating arch. His ankles were shackled, probably by chains, judging from the weight holding him down. The victims he’d witnessed captured by the ROC in New Jersey had been similarly restrained. It was signature Vasin. The man was a sadistic sociopath.
Vasin asked for something, then the sound of pounding on a table—a bottle, maybe?
Liquid pouring, a toast. Then another. Then a third. Keep drinking, you son of a bitch.
Fortunately for Rob, Vasin liked his vodka. Judging from the larger size of Vasin’s nose, the obvious veins mapped over it, Vasin’s alcoholism had progressed over the last two years even as his physicality didn’t appear weaker. And it sounded like he wanted to celebrate tonight, before the big party tomorrow—Rob’s murder party.
Steps shuffled on the floor, toward Rob. A solid hit to his chest forced his eyes to fly open.
Vasin laughed and spoke in a flurry of Russian. His spit hit his face with obvious satisfaction. Rob considered it a win that he felt it on his swollen skin. No extensive nerve damage. Yet.
“I didn’t come here for you.” It hurt so much to speak, damn it. Flashes of a previous time at the mercy of captors. He ignored them, fought off thinking about the one sure thing that got him through that torture.
“No, of course you didn’t. You want my boss, no? But you’ll never get him. No one touches Dima Ivanov.”
“Maybe not, but I know who’s coming to get him and all of you, and when.” Another sign Vasin was losing it; he’d said his boss’s name, blatantly unafraid of Rob. Yeah, Rob was a goner—they were going to kill him. Maybe sooner than tomorrow.
Vasin’s eyes narrowed at Rob’s dig, his breathing hitched. Bait. He’d believed the overblown statement.
“Everything you say is a lie. Who do you work for—the same people?”
“Yes.” Let Vasin think he was still CIA or FBI. Vasin had accused Robert of being CIA when they’d blown apart the New Jersey op. There was no reason to correct him. The Trail Hikers were far more clandestine than the CIA, and Rob was certain Vasin and in fact the ROC had no idea who the Trail Hikers were.
“And who are they, your employers?”
Robert stayed silent. He’d never tell Vasin whom he really worked for. Or that he’d been a SEAL. Vasin was smart enough to know that no agent worth his or her training would ever give up their employer.
“Tell me.” Vasin’s meaty fist hit his temple, and an explosion of lights floated over his vision. The blackness threatened, but he hung on.
“Never.”
“Of course you won’t. So tell me, who’s on their way to get us? The bogeyman?”
Hook.
“Two thousand agents. National Guard, DEA, local teams.” The lie came easily even through his aching jaw. Vasin’s breathing increased.
“When?”
“Tomorrow. Before sunup.”
Vasin straightened and turned toward his men, but not before Rob saw the frown drawn on his face. He watched them squirm in their seats as Vasin asked his team if anyone knew about the LEAs. Then he asked how many of the ROC men were expected to arrive over the next day. Rob let go a small, painful sigh when the men stated they only expected