that they're friends, but I think the club is the best place for me to try to find them."
His mouth wrinkled in disgust. "It annoys me that they're living it up at the club while I'm trapped in here like an old man."
"You're getting better," she said, trying to infuse as much confidence into that statement as she could.
He gave her a wry look. "You're a lot of things, Maya, but you're not a good liar."
"Then don't make me be a liar. Do what the nurses tell you to do."
"I will."
"Good. And I'll report back on what I learn."
"All right. Be careful, Maya. I couldn't stand it if you got hurt because of me."
"Natasha's story is as much mine as it is yours, Grandpa. Her blood runs through my veins. I'm not doing this just for you; I'm doing it for her. Do you remember what she said in her very last entry?"
He shook his head. "No, I didn't read that far."
"She said she was in trouble, in danger, that she was more scared than she had ever been before. She was afraid to put the truth on paper, but she hoped one day she would be able to do that." Maya paused. "She never had the chance to tell that truth, but I do. Someone has to know what happened to her."
"If they do know, they've kept silent a long time."
"Maybe because everyone stopped asking questions." She got up to leave but before she did so, she leaned down to kiss her grandfather's cool cheek. "I'll let you know what I find out."
"Before you go, there's something you should know about Wallace."
"What's that?"
"He always had an intense need to know that Natasha loved him. There are passages in the journal where she talks about her love for him. If you want his help, you should remind him of that."
"I will. Anything else? What about Constantine?"
Her grandfather's eyes darkened. "Theirs was an angry, volatile relationship I never understood. But she had a connection to Constantine, to the Russian roots they shared. They often spoke in Russian, and I couldn't tell half the time if they were mad at each other or falling in love. I think it bothered Constantine that she would not marry him. Perhaps you can use that in some way."
"Good advice. I'll see you soon." As she walked out the door, she couldn't help thinking that Natasha had certainly had the ability to make men fall in love with her. And it was always a deep, intense, passionate, obsessive kind of love. Had that fierce love come with a murderous hate?
The Firebird Club was busy on Friday evening at seven, with an hour wait list for the restaurant. The main bar was also standing-room only. Jax had been working the bar since three p.m., with a short dinner break at six. He was beginning to appreciate the fact that being a bartender was not as easy a job as he'd imagined.
In the past three days, he'd mastered most drink orders, having learned a great deal about the fifteen brands of vodka that they carried as well as other specialty Russian drinks. He'd also gotten up to speed on a dozen blended concoctions, some with skinny versions, that were especially popular with the ladies.
There was definitely a mix of people who frequented the venue, from the sixty-five-and-up group of Russian men and women who had been members of the original Russia House, to the forty and fifty-somethings, who were often the kids of that first group, or had been brought in with a new wave of business success and money. And then there were the younger guests, who were constantly taking photos of their drinks and themselves. He wasn't interested in them at all.
No, his targets could mostly be found in the main bar or in the members-only rooms downstairs: the library and the cigar lounge. Eddie Bozic was a frequent visitor to both of those private rooms, but Jax had not been able to get close enough to him to get any information.
However, with the help of his team, he had learned that ten members had bought and received vehicles from Falcon over the course of the last six months: Mark Bellweather, CEO of an AI software startup; Lisa Hamilton, CEO of an event company; Dustin Paul, an A-list actor; Ivan Yastremska, a Russian venture capitalist; Ryland Jagger, the CEO of Jagger Media and his father Wallace Jagger, a retired Hollywood agent; Lindsay Bragin, CEO of a