Page 45 of Disguised as Love

My eyes traveled over the benches until I found the spiky hair I was looking for. I took out my burner phone, pretended to dial, and faked talking to someone on the other side while I moved to the bench that backed up to hers. I continued chatting into the phone as if the conversation I was having was with them and not her.

“If she spotted you, others did as well,” I said, keeping my voice as quiet as I could so it wouldn’t echo about in the high ceilings.

“It couldn’t be helped,” Ito-san replied. “I’ve followed some money to a buyer selling stolen M38 carrying cases with their loads still intact.” Her voice was barely a whisper as she talked into her coffee.

I turned slightly on the bench, stretching my arm along the back, keeping my stance nonchalant, while my insides screamed, Fuck! Those satchels were used by Navy SEALs and contained up to twenty pounds of C4 each, complete with detonators. They were ready-to-go bombs that could be easily set up with timing devices and placed just about anywhere.

“Satchels. As in plural?” I clarified.

“As in four were sold just this morning here in St. Petersburg.”

I barely held back the expletive I felt like screaming in the quiet calm of the mall. I’d have to put out more goddamn feelers and see if this had been an op by one of the other agencies trying to catch terrorists in the middle of a buy. It hardly seemed likely that four SEAL carrying cases had been stolen without any attempt to get them back.

“Which dickhead bought them?”

“Same account we’ve been monitoring. Unclear if it’s Yano or Leskov or shared money.”

“When’s delivery scheduled?”

“They caught my hack and switched communication methods before I could find out.” Her tone was frustrated. Ito-san rarely made mistakes like getting caught, but she’d been hunting Yano for so long that maybe she was starting to fray around the edges.

“I saw him,” I said. “In the flesh. He left the estate with Leskov this morning.”

Even though she hadn’t been moving, Ito-san’s entire body stilled in a way that told me she was fighting for control. “He wasn’t in Leskov’s vehicle.”

“Must have been hiding in the back because they left at the same time with suitcases in hand for the family’s apartment here in the Petrogradsky district.”

She inhaled sharply.

“You can’t bring him in yet,” I warned. “We need to find out what their plan is.”

“Get it from Leskov,” she groused quietly.

She started to rise, and I put my hand out to stop her, trying to conceal the movement from anyone watching, but it did its job of stopping her. She flipped through her phone as if she’d gotten a last-minute text.

“I need backup,” I told her truthfully.

“Get it from someone else. I had one job and that was Yano. If he’s here in the city, I can get to him,” she growled.

“Look at the goddamn bigger picture. This isn’t just about getting revenge for one man. We’ve got not only Leskov on the hook but Rurik Volkov, too. He asked me to help find an SD card Leskov was holding for him. If we screw up any one piece of this puzzle or move too soon, we could end up losing them all.”

“I don’t care about the Russians. I only care about making Yano pay for betraying Mori-sama.” Her voice was deadly.

Mori had been her father. She may have been his bastard child, but she’d still worked for him her entire life. She only cared about one thing now that he was gone?revenge. Nolan had reminded me of this over and over again, but I thought I’d been able to convince her there were better ways of getting justice than simply killing the man.

“Death is too easy an out for him,” I reminded her. “You want him to really suffer? Make him think of you every hour of every day as he pays the price in some max security prison, sitting in solitary with nothing to do but stare at brick walls. Maybe they’ll even send him to a black site and make him squeal on every contact he’s ever had while writhing in pain. Isn’t hell on earth better than some easy out?”

She growled quietly. “There will be pain when he dies.”

“I don’t doubt it. But that’ll last, what? A few moments? If you’re even lucky to get that much time with him. Meanwhile, I need to protect Raisa Leskov, who is likely going to change the course of history with her photovoltaic nano cells and bring down one of the largest bratva leaders on the planet. What would Mori want you to do?”

“Don’t you dare try to use him against me.” She shook with anger.

“He’d want you to save the girl whose only crime was being born into a mafiya family. Just like he wanted you to save your sister.”

“Raisa Leskov is not my sister.”

“She could be. She’s the same. She’s looking for an out just like Jada was.”

---