Ben woke with a headache, so he got up and took a few painkillers. He ordered breakfast from room service then opened his laptop and did a little work in the living room. He started making notes on what had happened to date to bring them to this point, who the key players seemed to be and tried to work out how Rainor managed to create such a mess. It was a little disheartening.
He also did a little research on the properties be recalled from the deeds he now owned. That was enlightening, but he was left with more questions.
The math seemed off considering the value of the items in that safe deposit box. While he hadn’t been told the actual dollar value of the investments Rainor had stolen from Milonas, it seemed unlikely to account for the commercial evaluation of the diamonds and the property. One or the other but both? It felt like a piece of the puzzle was missing.
Roughly forty-five minutes later Trish wandered out of the bedroom and Ben frowned when he saw the bruises on her arms and her stomach. He’d held her gently the night before, and the marks didn’t look much better today. “Good morning.”
There was a knock on the door. “Room service.”
Trish pivoted on her heel and walked back into the bedroom as Ben let the waiter wheel the cart into the room. Ben signed for it as Trish returned, wrapped in a fluffy robe, plenty of cleavage on display. The young man’s eyes threatened to pop out of his head until Ben’s thank you broke his hypnosis, and he gushed his thanks as he left and Ben locked up.
He walked back to the living room and fixed the grinning redhead with a weary stare.
“What? You gave him a tip. Why can’t I?” she said with a grin.
“Because yours makes them want to give you more than just the tip.”
Trish burst into a loud laugh then she clutched her stomach muscles. “Oooo! Don’t make me laugh! It hurts to laugh,” she moaned through her chuckles.
They settled down to enjoy their breakfast and Ben filled her in on what he’d worked out so far.
“I don’t know how it started but somehow Rainor was interacting with some extremely wealthy people, some of whom were less than squeaky clean. We know of Darius Milanos and now Yuri Gruzinsky. He somehow arranged for Yuri to have a sexual encounter in his condo and captured it on camera. Yuri had sex with a young man and murdered him afterward. There are pictures of this on the memory stick. Rainor must have been blackmailing Yuri or at least threatened to.”
“Shit. That’s fucked up,” Trish said softly.
Ben nodded. “As we heard yesterday, Rainor was also working with Darius to launder his money. He was moving the cash through a series of accounts and kept a digital ledger of the accounts. There was no ledger in the safe deposit box, but there was a large number of diamonds- No!” he said to interrupt Trish’s interjection as she leaned forward. She plunked herself back with a pout.
“There was also deeds to seven properties; seven large plots of real estate in seven different countries. Their value exceeds the diamonds. These are prime sections of property in some of the busiest cities in the world. We might be talking billions of dollars’ worth of real estate. How Rainor got his hands on this is a mystery. He seemed arrogant enough to believe he could outmaneuver these underworld figures and stay ahead of them.”
“Only to fall victim to another kind of shark,” Trish grinned. Ben rolled his eyes.
Ben’s cell began to ring. He got up and collected the phone from the coffee table. “Hello?”
“Am I speaking with Ben Shepherd?” a man’s voice asked.
“Yes.”
“This is Nikolai Noskov.”
“Nikolai, thank you for calling back!”
“Nonsense. I’m glad you called. Are you in Russia? Can you visit?”
Ben smiled at the almost hopeful tone. He felt better about calling him away from his family. Speaking of which…
“I’m actually in Berlin now, but I was wondering if it would be possible for me to visit. I’m going to have to speak to the pilot of the jet service I’m using to see if we can land in Russia. I don’t know how that works,” Ben admitted.
“Give me the number for your pilot, and I will make the arrangements for you to fly into a private airport owned by a business partner of mine. Will this visit be for business or pleasure?” Nikolai asked, picking up a little tension in Ben’s voice.
“I came across some information yesterday which I need to discuss with you. It pertains to the source of the issue I helped you with when we met in France. There’s another similar situation that will happen if I don’t present this source with something he wants, probably today.”
Nikolai was quiet for a moment then he cleared his throat. “You must give me the number so I can make arrangements for your visit as soon as you can, yes?”
“I can be at the airport in… ninety minutes,” Ben said to Nikolai as he looked to Trish who was watching him with concern. She wiped her mouth and dashed off to the bedroom to start getting ready.
Ben gave Nikolai the pilot’s contact number. “I’ll give him a call now and let him know to expect your call.”
“My driver, Leo, will pick you up at the airport and bring you to my home. Thank you, Ben. See you soon,” the man responded and hung up.
Ben called the pilot who was expecting them to fly home today and filled him in on the change of itinerary. As they spoke, Nikolai’s call beeped on the line, so Ben said his goodbyes and rushed off to the bathroom to get ready himself. He tried not to ogle Trish as she squeezed into the form-fitting, long-sleeved red sweater and her black leather pants that squeezed her ass so nicely. Mmmm…
“Ben! I know that look, and as much as I’d love to ride you to exhaustion, we have a flight to catch!” she cautioned him.
“Right,” he grumbled. He forced himself into the bathroom to take his shower. A cold one.
Once they were heading out the door, Ben tried calling Liliya but it went straight to voicemail. He shared a worried look with Trish, hoping that wasn’t a bad sign.
Ben walked up to the reception desk to check out.
“Was everything to your satisfaction Mr. Shepherd?” the clerk said with a smile as he handed him the statement.
“Yes, you have a lovely hotel,” Ben responded.
“You have a message. It came in during the night.” The clerk handed him the paper.
Distracted, Ben nodded. “Thank you. Goodbye.”
He walked back to Trish as he read and crumpled the note in his hand. “Yuri called her back to Russia. She asked for me to bring the memory stick, but not the diamonds. I’m not sure what that means. She no longer thinks she can buy her freedom from the man?”
“Sounds like her situation is going from bad to worse,” Trish murmured. They rushed out of the hotel and flagged a taxi to get them to the airport.
“We never got a chance to do any shopping,” Trish lamented as they drove through the posh shopping district.
“I’ll make time for that when we get back home. We can visit any shopping district you want. New York, Los Angeles-”
“Ooo! Rodeo Drive! Fuck yeah!” she grinned. “Oh! Can we bring the twins? They’d kill to shop there!”
Ben chuckled. “If they’re available.”
They got to the airport in good time and met with the pilot in the terminal.
“Good morning, sir. The flight plan is registered, and we are good to go. You have friends in high places to be able to turn this around so quickly.”
Ben nodded. “Very good friends!” he agreed with a smile.
“How long will we be there?” the pilot asked.
“Not more than a day or two I assume.”
“Very good, sir. See you on the plane.”
Ben and Trish went through security and made their way onto the Jet. Ben squirmed once more when he saw that big logo on its tail and ignored Trish’s knowing smile.
-=-
The flight was smooth, and soon they were landing at the private airport. A limo was waiting for them at the hangar the plane stopped before. When they left the plane a broad-shouldered man with just the tiniest fringe of grey hair stepped away from the side of the car to stride forward.
“Hello. I am Leo. Please, let me take your bags.” He hustled them over behind the car and put them in the trunk then opened the door for Trish and Ben.
He drove them off the airport grounds and headed for the city. They hadn’t gone through the usual security process at all. Ben shared a look with Trish.
He gawked out the windows as he’d never expected to find himself in Russia.
Not too long after, they were driving through a gated community of the exceptionally wealthy and pulled through a second set of security gates and a long drive to stop before a grand mansion.
Nikolai was standing in the open doorway with Galena and their two daughters. All were smiling broadly. Once Ben was standing next to the car, the girls rushed forward and gave him hugs. Ben grinned and hugged them back. His eyebrows went up. “They’re growing so fast!” he exclaimed to their parents who beamed broad and proud smiles back at them.
Trish stepped from the car, and the girls went wide-eyed as did their parents. Ben smiled back at Trish’s shy smile.
“May I present my lovely girlfriend, Trish Campbell,” he said with a flourish and grinned to see her blush. It felt good to be on the other side of that for once. Her eyes twinkled at him when she realized he was getting his revenge.
“She’s also one of my neighbors back home.” He nodded proudly, and her face just warmed up a little more. “Trish, this is Nikolai and Galena Noskov and their beautiful daughters…” he looked closely, trying to recognize them from when they were so much smaller. “Mika… and Roza?” he guessed as he pointed to them. From their delighted smiles, he’d guessed correctly.