Page 66 of Brooklyn Bratva

If any medical school in the country accepted me after being implicated in something like that, I’d be lucky to ever find a job after I qualified.

“Shit.”

“That’s right. And how d’you think that’d go down for your cop boyfriend, everyone knowing his girlfriend and his Mama doing all this. What d’you think Moscow will have to say about the pair of you helping the Ukranians, right under the Garbage Man’s nose?”

Instinctively I knew that he was using Ivan’s Bratva nickname. I felt sick at the thought of him thinking I’d been working against him.

He shoved the ripped bag into Mama’s hands again. “You take the money and you keep your mouth shut and carry on doing what we tell you, and he never has to know.”

Mama nodded and this time she didn’t push it back to him. Her hand closed around my forearm, holding me back before I even realized I’d taken a step forward, still itching to teach him a lesson.

“Let him go Becya,” she hissed over her teeth, low enough that only I could hear her. “We find another way.”

I didn’t take my eyes off the opportunistic creep until he was lost in the bustle of people on the sidewalk. This was not how I’d wanted my morning to go.

Mama slipped her arm into mine and patted my wrist gently, drawing my focus back to her.

“Come, we go now.”

“Mrs. K, what’s going on? What was all that about?”

“Ivan has done so many things for me. I made mistake with this man.”

“What kind of mistake?”

Mama threw her free hand up, swatting at the air as though trying to brush my question away. “Is not big deal. I not need all pills, and I not need Medicare number.”

“Oh my God. I heard about this kind of thing going on.”

“Is not big deal. I have money for pay doctor. Ivan make sure it is so. And he have many doctor friends because of Moscow.”

“Wait a minute. Why are they making you pick up the pills?”

Mama shrugged slowly. “Stupid Mama want new handbag. Hermes. Very nice. Just only I have to fill out form, join new clinic with new doctor.” Her lips pressed together tightly, the thin skin around them puckering up, making her lipstick crinkle. “Then, they realize I am Ivan’s Mama. My prescription, when I pick up, has many many pills not mine. I go to doctor, try to take back. They say, oh yes, mistake. And give me money.”

Mama shook her head bitterly. “I try not take it, but they say, no. Is my money. I trust them. I not think anything wrong. Until picture come, and letter – show me taking cash. Vanya is police. He can arrest all. They not want, so they make it so they arrest me. I am insurance. And then they ask me take my prescription to you. And other prescriptions not mine. I not understand why. They not do that before.”

My gut sank as understanding dawned. “To tie me in too. If Ivan makes a move against them, they get us both arrested.” Slowly, the pieces were coming together. “They must think you’ve told him. But he doesn’t even know! Ivan wouldn’t let them hurt us.”

“Ivan is one man. If he not be cop, he lose all. Everything. No use to Moscow. They cut him free.”

They had both of us over a barrel. One false move and all of the credentials Ivan had built up to enable him to run the operations he did without question, would mean nothing. He’d be hauled over the coals, his entire life taken apart through the investigation into corruption allegations, and most likely at the end of it, they’d find a reason to throw him in jail. Along with the both of us.

The thought filled me with horror. Ivan was right, suddenly those songs I listened to about couples being kept apart by long stretches of incarceration didn’t seem so romantic.

“We can’t just let them get away with this.”

“I don’t want to worry him, Becya. We not say anything. You do this for me. Is not so bad. I give them pills. Is all I do.” Mama’s eyes glinted with tears. “Please, Becya. Vanya, he does not have to know. He works so hard.”

I knew the truth of that. I could practically see the disappointment on his face at finding out that we’d both been so easily drawn in. It had taken less than ten minutes on my part to give them the ammunition to destroy all he’d been working for all these years.

“There’s no way we can just carry on doing whatever they say.” Sure, it was only pills now, and maybe that was all they wanted from her, but they had my whole career on the line, as well as the life of the man I loved. They could get me to do anything they wanted and I hated being so powerless.

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