Russian Law (Law Series ) (Volume 1) (6 page)

“Would
I be able to talk to him? See if he had noticed anything in the past, give me a
few leads. It couldn’t hurt.”

“No
it couldn’t,” she agreed. “I’ll get that name for you.” She turned back to her
computer and again her fingers flew across the keyboard. A moment later, a file
appeared on her screen and she scrolled down and her heart stopped.

Elena
swallowed hard at the lump in her throat.

“Nikolai
Nagregor,” she said barely above a whisper.

She
could barely go a day without thinking of Nikolai, to remember the life they
had had and how that life had ended so abruptly. He had been the love of her
life and now that love was gone and only memories were left. Good memories but
memories didn’t keep a woman warm at night.

She
thought back to just a little while ago and the thoughts she had had of Lucas
and her lying naked between heated sheets and suddenly felt guilty. It was like
cold water had just been poured over her head and she felt the urge to roll up
into a ball and cry. She knew it was an unreasonable emotion and that Nikolai himself
wouldn’t blame her, would in fact encourage her to move on with her life, to
find someone she could love with all her heart but in her mind she still felt
married. She could still remember the feel of Nikolai beside her, kissing her,
touching her. The smell of his skin and the sound of his voice.

Lucas
looked up at her face, something wasn’t right. Her face was pale and her body
stiff with tension. He wondered at the change in her.

“You
know him?”

Yes,
she knew him. Nikolai, her Nikolai. She remembered the first day she had met
him. He had been assigned as her supervisor when she had began working for SVR.
His dark hair had streaks of grey even at thirty. She had fallen for him, hard
and fast and completely. No other man had compared to him. And he had loved
her. God he had loved her and she him. She had never felt more loved by anyone
than she had by Nikolai. He had broken the rules for her, asking her out on a
date. Normally agents were discouraged to become familiar with one another. But
Nikolai hadn’t cared, never would she forget the way he had looked at her, heat
in his eyes as he had asked her to dinner.

“That
wouldn’t be such a good idea,” she had replied. “Isn’t dating within the agency
frowned upon?”

Nikolai
had shrugged. “I make my own rules and sooner or later Elena Ivanova I always
get what I want. Something you should know since I want you.”

It
hadn’t been a threat but a promise. Her whole body had shook with desire. He
had hounded her every time he saw her into complying until one day she had said
yes. He had taken her to a nice romantic restaurant before walking her home and
kissing her goodnight, the perfect gentleman. Within two years they had
married.

Now,
she nodded. “He was my husband,” she said simply.

Lucas
looked her in the eyes.

Husband?

His
eyes drifted to her left hand and for the first time noticed the ring adorned
with a diamond on her finger.

She
was married.

He
couldn’t believe it. He usually was more observant than that. He knew the
problem had been that he didn’t want to know. He had liked her, she was sassy
and beautiful and had the most gorgeous smile and he had wanted to take her to
bed. He felt something stir inside of him and knew it was disappointment.

Way
to focus Gates, he chastised himself.

Wait.

Was
it just optimism on his behalf or did he actually hear the word
was
?

“Was?”
he asked, a weird feeling settling his stomach. Something he had never felt
before that frightened the hell out of Lucas.

Elena
nodded stiffly. “He’s dead.”

Shot.
Murdered. Gone.

Elena
looked away from Lucas, out her office window. Small snowflakes continued to
fall. They were in for a cold front settling in over the city. A sharp pain
stabbed at her in the vicinity of her heart, a pain that never really went away
but was merely hidden, buried deep beneath her grief, her guilt at arriving too
late, at not being able to avenge him, in finding his killer.

Lucas
felt like an ass. “I’m sorry.”

Elena
looked back at him. “As am I but I thank you for your kind words.”

She
smiled and once again thought what a kind and sincere man he was and chided
herself for wandering into forbidden territory again. Guilt once more flooded
her body and she felt ashamed at her wayward thoughts. In her heart she was
still married and loathed her attraction to Lucas. It had only taken the
mention of her husband for her to feel disloyal and she wished with all her
heart she didn’t find Lucas appealing. Nikolai had only been gone six months,
but to Elena it felt like a lifetime and felt the pain of loss even more deeply
now than when she had discovered his body.

Torn,
she brought her mind back to the matter at hand.

“Nikolai
was a good Agent, hardworking, dedicated. He took on the worse of the worst. He
wanted to leave the world a little better than when he came into it.”

“Sounds
like a good man,” he commented and wondered what it would take for a woman to
hold a candle to him long after his own death. He felt an unexpected twinge of
jealously and envied the dead man.

“He
was.”

“When?”
he asked, feeling like an intruder or worse an interrogator.

“Six
months ago.”

Lucas
leaned back in his chair and contemplated. “It seems awful convenient for
Pochenchov, your husband’s death,” he noted.

Don’t
get her started, she thought. She had been down that road before. Pochenchov
was one of her top suspects in Nikolai’s murder.

“A
lot of people benefited from Nikolai’s death, a lot of bad people,” she said.
Elena looked away for a moment, tears threatening to spill as they always did
when she thought of Nikolai’s short life. When she felt composed she turned
back to face Lucas. “Nikolai kept scrupulous records. I doubt he could’ve told
you more than what is in this file. I’ll be happy to translate it for you.”

“I
appreciate that.” He looked about the room. “I think in the mean time, I might
do some recon. See if I can’t track this Pochenchov down.”

“And
what do you plan on doing if you happen to stumble across him?” Elena asked,
concerned.

“I
think I’ll ask him where Ducane is,” Lucas replied simply.

“And
what makes you think he’d tell you?”

“I’m
a very persuasive man Elena.”

She
smiled. “Of that I have no doubt. Be careful Special Agent Gates I hear
Pochenchov isn’t a very nice man,” she warned.

“That’s
okay,” he told her. “The same has been said about me from time to time.”

“This
isn’t the United States Lucas, good agents don’t seem to live long here. If you
need anything here is my card.”

She
produced a card from her pocket of her suit jacket and handed it to him, it was
still warm from her body. She must have had it there for him waiting until she
could give it to him.

“Thank
you and I promise you I will be careful.”

He
picked up his coat from the back of the visitors chair and walked out the door
leaving Elena to clean up the files. She couldn’t believe her luck, of the
thousands of agents in the building her case had to involve Nikolai.

Half
an hour later, Elena was filing away a folder into her file cabinet when there
was a knock on her door which was immediately opened by Agent Alexei
Dmitrovich. He was dressed in a black suit and a white dress shirt, of all the
years she had known him, Elena had never seen him in anything but. No jeans, no
polo’s just suit pants and dress shirts. His dark hair was combed and parted to
one side. He was a handsome man she supposed but she had never looked at him
that way. He had always been overshadowed by Nikolai in her eyes and after
Nikolai’s death he was too close a friend to consider him in that way. Not that
she had ever thought of pursuing him but she could see his allure to other
woman.

Alexei
had been Nikolai’s best friend. They had met at the Academy and bonded
instantly. He had also been the best man at her and Nikolai’s wedding and after
Nikolai had been murdered, had taken it upon himself to make sure she kept her
sanity. A tough job considering what a basket case she had been and was very
grateful to him for that. After all she wasn’t the only one who had lost
Nikolai.

“Elena,”
he greeted and looked about her office as if expecting the entire Red Army to
be camped behind her desk. “Am I interrupting anything?”

Elena
shook her head as she made her way to greet him. “No, I’m just cleaning up.”

Alexei
smiled and gave her a quick hug. She was always his friend first and a fellow
agent second. “How are you?”

His
dark eyes bored into hers daring her to lie to him. She had tried it once and
had suffered the consequences. Since then she always told him the truth. She
liked the fact that he cared enough to call her out on her lies when she had
wanted to be left alone with her pain.

“I’m
fine, Alexei really. Thank you.”

And
she was, she would never get over losing her husband. She would never stop
loving him and she still felt angry at the thought that he was taken from her
far too early. They had had so little time together.

Life
sucks and then you die.

Nikolai’s
favorite saying passed through her head. He had often said those six words to
her when life didn’t go their way. A hint of a smile moved her lips a fraction
at the memory.

“In
fact I’m doing better,” she continued, telling Alexei her good news. “Director
Mishkin has put me on a case this morning.”

“Yes,
I heard you drew the short straw with the American.”

Her
eyebrow rose. “You are well informed. Especially for someone who doesn’t work
for this Agency.”

Alexei
Dmitrovich shrugged. “It’s my job Elena.”

“Since
when have I been your job Alexei?”

He
watched her closely to the point where she was starting to feel uncomfortable
under his scrutiny. “Since the day Nikolai died, I know he would’ve wanted me
to look after you,” he said earnestly.

She
let out a deep breath. “And I appreciate that Alexei I do, but I don’t need
someone looking out for me. I really am doing better and I doubt he would want
you to look after me for the rest of your life Alexei. You need to move on as
well, get your own life away from me.”

Alexei
was one of the few people who had seen her at her worst. After Nikolai had been
murdered she had been a mess. Determined to prove his death was no coincidence.
She and Alexei had never been true friends, they had just put up with one another
because they had both cared about Nikolai. After his death they had mourned him
together.

“Yes
well, let’s not get into that now. It’s certainly good to see you back working
again, you were born for this job. Nikolai always said that and he was right.
You look happy.”

Elena
smiled, Alexei never said anything he didn’t mean so his observation was of the
highest praise. She looked about her office, at the pile of folders on her desk
she had yet to get to. “I’ve never stopped working.”

She
had been relegated to desk work though. Her denial about Nikolai’s death had
caused some ripples.

“Paperwork
doesn’t count Elena, so tell me about this American,” he suggested.

He
sat down in the chair Lucas had vacated. She noticed his voice sneered the word
American
. Elena sat down in her chair and regarded him from across her
desk.

“Well
for starters his name is Special Agent Lucas Gates not American, Alexei,” she
stated.

He
shrugged, it did not matter to him one way or the other. One American was the
same as another. “Why is he here?”

“So
you don’t know everything,” she smiled at him. “He’s just here to catch a
wanted man who has slipped into the country.”

She
kept her information sparse, it was not that she didn’t trust Alexei but rather
it was none of his business. If there was anything Nikolai had taught her was
to keep things close to the chest and everything was need to know. Alexei
didn’t need to know. She had always listened to Nikolai’s advice, his had
always been learnt from previous mistakes and she had no desire to experience
them first hand herself. If you expected to live you paid attention to what those
more knowledgeable had to say. You didn’t become a seasoned agent by walking
around with blinders on to the world. 

Alexei
nodded. “Well you be careful Elena, those American’s are loose cannons, so used
to making up their own laws. I’d hate for his actions to come back at you.” He
prepared to leave, “My advice to you - keep him on a short leash Elena.”

Elena
contained her urge to roll her eyes. Alexei had always been anti-American,
often spouting off insults at the country. Russia had always had a love-hate
relationship with the United States, often in competition. She escorted him to
the door.  “Thank you for your concern Alexei, but I can handle it.”