Switched (15 page)

   “So you know who Victor is, you know
we are Russian, you are Laura Stanton,” the driver, Rory, said with a
triumphant tone.

   She sighed. “Can you please take the
bag off of my head? I can’t breathe under this thing.”

   “No,” came the reply from the driver.

   “Look, I know all about Victor and
Laura’s situation because she told me about it. Believe me, I’m not her.”

   There was no response from the front
seat.

   She tried again. “I am Laura’s friend
and I work for Mr. Hudak in his bookstore.”

   “Mr. Hudak owns The Black Lily. Nice
try though,” the guy in the passenger seat said.

   She groaned. “He owns both. My
boyfriend also owns part of The Black Lily and the bookstore. I’m really not
Laura.”

   But the guys weren’t buying it. After
what seemed a good half hour driving the car stopped and both men got out. They
led her along a concrete path for a few minutes and then the air changed, and
through her stocking feet she could tell she was walking on tiles, then carpet.
One of the men pushed her down into a plush chair. Possibly a sofa.

   She couldn’t help but wonder if Brad
and Kali had gotten home yet and if they knew she’d been kidnapped. Maybe there
were search parties out looking for her already.

   Then she heard someone say, “Alexi
will be here in fifteen minutes. Victor’s party should be meeting their escort
soon.”

   “Good,” another man said.

   She felt the cushion next to her cave
with the weight of someone as they sat down. No one said anything more.

   Wasn’t Alexi the rival Russian mafia
guy the FBI had been pretending was Kali’s new boyfriend? She wondered if the
FBI had a backup plan if something like this happened. What to do if Alexi
Amelin actually found out the FBI was using his name to nab Victor Kolknov. She
wondered if they tortured her she’d tell them everything she knew. Who was she
kidding? Of course she would. From her understanding Alexi and Victor weren’t
friends and it might behoove Alexi to cooperate with the Feds to put Victor
behind bars.

   She decided to try again. “I’m only
going to tell you one last time that I’m not Laura Stanton.”

   A deep sigh emerged from the person
sitting next to her. “You are in her boyfriend’s house alone, you know her
life, and you seem to know a lot about Victor.”

   She recognized the voice as that of
the driver, Rory. “When they find out you’ve got the wrong person…”

   “Can we shut her up? Do we have a gag
or something?” the guy asked.

   “Yeah, hold on, I’ll get one.”

   It seemed to take a few minutes, but
finally the hood was lifted and a ball gag was shoved in her mouth and firmly
fastened behind her head with a buckle strap.

   She tried to say something against
the cold plastic, but it was no use.

   “At least we know it works,” he said.

   There was a chuckle on the other side
of her.

   She saw a man’s hand slip up inside
the cloth bag, covering her eyes as the bag was removed. The cool air of the
room around her hit her face. It actually felt good, but then the man’s hand
was replaced with the blindfold. That second he removed his hand she saw the
large room she was in. It was nicely furnished and there were large
houseplants. But that was all she saw before the blindfold went on.

   Relaxing into her predicament, she
waited. What else could she do? Her hands were still bound behind her back, the
idiots who took her were too stupid to be reasoned with, and now she was both
gagged and blindfolded. It would have been almost comical if she wasn’t aware
of the acute danger she was in. The minutes almost felt like hours until
finally she heard the click of a door opening and voices coming into the room.

   “You have Laura?” the man with the
thick Russian accent asked.

   “She’s right here, sir,” said the man
called Rory.

   There was a long pause. “Remove the
blindfold and gag. I want to talk to her.”

   She felt a hand on the back of her
head fumbling with the buckle on the ball gag and the blindfold was simply
pulled off. Her hands immediately went to hear head to smooth her hair. She
looked to the chair across from her and saw a very attractive, lean man, maybe
mid-thirties, with brown hair and eyes looking back at her with inquisitive
curiosity.

   He spoke almost immediately. “I am
curious why Victor would be interested in you. You’re practically a girl. How
old are you?”

   “Like I told these guys, I’m not
Laura Stanton. I’m her friend.” She was hoping he was smarter than his
henchmen.

   “Do you know who I am?”

   She nodded. “Alexi Amelin or
something?”

   He nodded. “I am Alexi Amelin. And
you are?”

   “I’m Amy Meyers.”

   “Hmm.” He said. “So where is Laura?”

   “Probably at Brad’s house with the
FBI agents,” she said, hoping she’d pique his interest with the mention of the
FBI.

   It seemed to work. He lifted an
eyebrow and leaned forward. “Go on.”

   “Let me start from the beginning.
I’ll give you the short version of what I know,” she started. All eyes were on
her. “My friend Kali, well Laura, moved here to get away from this Victor guy
who used to beat her and abuse her. She took some money from him so she could
start over and so she could have some of his marks taken off her body. Her
boyfriend, Brad, my boss, wanted to know about her past and she wasn’t
forthcoming about it. So he sent a private investigator out to California to
snoop around. The investigator guy ran into Victor, alerting Victor to where
Laura was.”

   She stopped, making sure everyone was
following. No one said anything, but she did note a hint of amusement on
Alexi’s face. Taking that as a sign to continue, she did. “So according to the
FBI guys that showed up to talk to my boss and Laura, Victor killed the private
investigator though they can’t really prove it without witnesses, and they had
some guy inside Victor’s,” she paused to find the right word, “circle verify
this. This guy told them Victor was sending his men out here to get Laura.”

   Alexi sat back in his chair with a
full smile on his face.

   “The FBI wanted to catch Victor on
kidnapping so they decided to use Laura and your name as bait by making sure it
got back to Victor that you allegedly had Laura. I don’t think they counted on
you finding out they were using your name to con Victor,” she finished. Letting
out a heavy sigh she leaned back into the couch, painfully aware of how
uncomfortable having her hands bound behind her back was.

   “What if she’s FBI?” One of his men
asked.

   Alexi put up a hand. “I think she’s
telling the truth. Untie her hands.”

   Rory pushed her forward and removed
the rope binding her wrists together. “What’s the plan?”

   With narrowed eyes, Alexi smiled. “I
don’t think I’ll ever see my quarter of a million from Victor. On the way here
I seriously considered killing him, but that would be too messy. Then I thought
maybe we should have him and his men beaten severely, but that merely
facilitates war and further discontent. I could still make this work in my
favor. We help the FBI catch Victor like they want; they get their task forces
out of my business. I could almost see their interest if I was actually doing
something illegal, but I’m not.”

   Rory and several of the other guys
nodded, but they all seemed a little bit unsure.

   Alexi looked at Amy. “You see, my
associates and I, we run legitimate businesses. We keep everything above board
and on the books as they say. We’re not like Victor. We don’t kill people. If
we did, no one would ever know.”

   She had no reason not to believe him.
Alexi looked her straight in the eye when he spoke and didn’t flinch, look
away, or even blink.

   “However,” Alexi continued. “I want
assurance that Victor has no idea I’m involved in his downfall and I think I’ll
use you to that end.”

   Furrowing her brow, she decided to
ask the question she really didn’t want the answer to. “Isn’t holding me
against my will illegal?”

   “No, you agreed to come with my men
to come speak with me and you agreed to help put me in contact with the FBI.
After all, I’m a concerned citizen who just wants to help catch a criminal.”
Alexi gave her a brilliant smile, flashing perfect white teeth at her.

   Swallowing hard, she realized she had
fallen for Alexi’s charm. When he said he never did anything illegal, she was
pretty sure he meant that he had never been caught and everything on the
surface looked legal. Underneath there was probably a gray area. The comment
about if he killed someone no one would ever know didn’t go unnoticed either.
So while Victor was an outright criminal who was hard to catch, but sloppy
enough that the feds were on to him, Alexi was more subtle and worked harder at
not getting caught. Not to mention he was a smooth talker. Either way,
cooperation seemed like the best plan for her own sake. Amy didn’t want to seem
like a traitor, but she really didn’t have much of a choice, did she? After
all, Alexi could make her disappear if he wanted.

   “Rory, get me one of the cell
phones,” Alexi instructed.

   The tall, plainly dressed balding man
left the room and returned a few minutes later with a disposable cell phone
that he handed to Alexi. Alexi, in turn, stood up, walked over to her, and handed
her the phone. “Call Laura. Tell her we want to meet these FBI agents and we
will cooperate and help them with Victor. I have my men meeting Victor at the
airport and bringing him here tonight.”

   Amy nodded and began punching in the
number

   “And Amy,” Alexi said with a smile,
“Don’t do anything stupid. You agreed to come here, remember?”

   She nodded again and finished putting
in the number. The phone picked up on the second ring.

   There was a pause, a sure sign the
line was being recorded. The sound of Brad’s voice gave her a tinge a hope.
“Hello?” he said.

   Trying to sound nonchalant she
chimed, “Hi Brad, it’s Amy.”

   “Amy, where the fuck are you?” She’d
never heard him sound so panicked before. “When we got here there was a pissed
off pizza guy and the house was wide open. All your stuff is here…”

   “I’m fine; I didn’t realize I’d be
gone so long. See, Alexi Amelin’s friends stopped by and asked if I would swing
by here to talk to him, but then he was late getting here…” she tried to make it
sound good.

   Alexi was nodded affirmatively, so
evidently she was doing what he wanted.

   “What? Are you fucking serious? Ames
- wha…” Brad’s voice seemed to drift off as the phone changed hands.

   “Amy, are you okay?” It was Eric. He
sounded scared.

   “Eric, I’m fine,” she assured him.
“Look, who I really need to talk to is Agent Brocco.”

   She could hear Brad’s voice in the
background. Then Eric said, “What’s this about you going to see Alexi Amelin?
What possessed you to do that?”

   “Look, he wants to help out any way
he can,” she said. She gave Alexi a hopeful smile.

   “Is he there right now?” Eric asked.

   “Yes,” she said.

   “He’s Russian mafia, Amy. These
people are dangerous. They’re not people you just go to meet with on a whim. So
tell me the truth, did they kidnap you?” She could imagine Eric running his
hand through his hair.

   “That doesn’t matter. I need to talk
to Agent Brocco.” She let out an exasperated sigh. The last thing she needed
today was a lecture about Russian mafia. Of course she knew what kind of danger
she was in, but she didn’t have time to sit around talking about it. Alexi was
sitting right across from her.

   She heard Eric let out an audible
breath. “Okay, I’m giving the phone to the agent, but I want you to do
everything you can to be safe. Do you promise you’re okay?”

   “Yes. I promise.” She kept the answer
short because Alexi seemed to be getting a bit annoyed with the length of the
conversation.

   “Agent Brocco here,” said the gruff
voice on the other end of the line.

   “Hi. This is Amy Myers.”

   “Yes, Amy, I know. Are you okay?”
Brocco sounded concerned, too.

   “Yes, I’m fine. Look, I’m here with
Alexi Amelin and he wants to know if he and you can meet to talk about Victor.
He wants to help out.” She tried to keep her voice bright and cheery.

   “I see. He must have somehow heard we
were using his name.” Brocco paused for a second, then said, “Let me talk to
him.”

   She pulled the phone away from her
ear and held it out to Alexi. “He wants to talk to you.”

   “Agent Brocco?” Alexi asked.

   Nodding she handed him the phone.

   “Agent Brocco,” he said with that
same charm. “I got a call from Victor Kolknov earlier today saying he was angry
that I took his girl, Laura, away from him and he said I stole money and killed
one of his men. So I find out who to talk to about this and Amy here was nice
enough to come over to explain it to me. As a concerned citizen, I’m naturally
interested in doing my part. Now how can I help you?”