The Dirt on Ninth Grave - Darynda Jones Page 0,108
up fighting on the streets of Russia and was addicted to the life.
So when the US ignored Russia’s application for extradition, they set up a sting operation involving an illegal street-fighting organization that had been going on for a few months. The metal that the Vandenbergs’ captors were going to plasma-cut through was a panic room, but one set up to keep someone in instead of vice versa, if they should ever catch him. He had a lot of muscle around him. They needed to keep him both hidden and unattainable.
“Is called extraordinary rendition,” Klava said. “Is to kidnap and force transfer of a criminal to another country for prosecution.”
“Ve are like Dog,” Ilya said.
“Dogs?” I didn’t get it. “Like bulldogs?”
“No, Dog the Bounty Hunter. Only I have better hair, yes?” He smoothed a hand over his bald head and laughed again. It was growing on me.
“Is Dog even a thing anymore?”
He pounded his chest. “He is big thing inside me.”
I could have gone so many places with that.
“Ilya is good fighter,” Klava said. “He vin much of money.”
I didn’t doubt it. “You’ve been after this guy for two years? Is he in the area?”
“Da. Ve grab him last veek, but have to keep him in box until papervork is coming through.”
Considering the guy’s illicit hobbies, I shouldn’t have been alarmed, but I was. “You’ve been keeping him in a metal room for a week? He’ll freeze to death.”
“Ve are Russian. Ve can handle ten of your vinters. Also, is heated and cooled and have little toilet.”
This was the craziest story. One that I wouldn’t have pictured if it had been a paint-by-numbers.
“But how do these guys fit in?” I nodded toward the cabin, or, more pointedly, toward the body bags on the ground by said cabin, and shuddered.
“They vere his best customers. Al Qaeda. They vant him back. Mostly, they vant his money and veapons cache.”
“Sucks to be him.”
“Yes!” Ilya slapped me on the back. “Totally.”
I resisted the urge to call him a Valley Girl. Mostly because I used that word way too often myself. And I was afraid of what he’d do to me if I called him a girl.
“Janey?”
I turned to see Mr. V standing there and straightened my shoulders. “Mr. Vandenberg, I thought you were with your family.” They had been taken to the hospital immediately. I’d wanted to see them so bad, but the children were suffering from dehydration and a massive need for therapy for the rest of their natural-born lives.
“I’m on my way,” he said, his voice cracking. “I just —” He stopped and shook his head. “They told me… I don’t know how to thank you.”
I walked up to him and put a hand on his arm. “You could thank me by not pressing charges.” I still had a crapload of antiques to pay for, but if he’d just hold off on the breaking-and-entering snafu…
His brows slid together. “I don’t —”
“It doesn’t matter right now. I’m just glad your family is okay.”
He wrapped long, thin arms around me. I motioned Angel over. I wanted him to be a part of this. Without him, I could never have done what I did. I took Angel’s hand, pulled it to my mouth, and kissed it. He lowered his head, suddenly bashful.
“My daughter was right,” Mr. V whispered into my ear. “You’re an angel.” He set me at arm’s length. “She saw you outside the window. Said you were an angel and you had come to save us. And she was right.”
I shook my head. “She must have me confused with someone else.”
He shook his, too. “Seriously, where do you keep your wings?”
Bobert and Cookie followed me all the way back to Sleepy Hollow. Like right-on-my-tail followed. Like they expected me to do something crazy. Like they didn’t trust me. So weird. I drove straight to the café, and they followed me there, too. It was becoming an issue.
They’d told me Cookie ran out of the café, screaming like a banshee, with no explanation and no forwarding address when Bobert called her. She needed to explain to Dixie what happened. I needed to explain why I missed lunch with Reyes. And to see if he wanted to have sex with me again later. I could pencil him in.
We stormed into the place as if we worked there, and even though it was well past Cookie’s scheduled shift, Dixie put her to work. She was apparently short-handed.