3 Bad Guys Get Caught (13 page)

Before the start of her next shift at
Panther, Janet had promised herself that she wouldn’t let things get weird
between her and Mila. After last night she had no doubt about Dennis’s
feelings. The fact that he made hot, passionate love to her after she had been
a total bitch to him proved that he desired her and only her. Not that it
excused her behavior last night; she was not proud of it in the least, and she
resolved never to repeat it again. Well, at least she resolved to do her best
never to repeat it again.

But when Janet walked through the doors
of Panther, she found her voice strained and her smile contrived replying to
Mila’s greeting. The night of mind-blowing sex with Dennis provided poor
consolation against Mila’s mile-long legs, killer rack, and luscious lips. The
girl was oozing sex. How could any man in his right mind find her resistible?
Dennis could and did, Janet assured herself, as she headed downstairs to change
into her uniform. He was only seeing her to get information, and if Janet
wanted him to stop seeing Mila, she’d better figure out a way to get the
information they were after, which meant that she had to stay close to Mila. Of
course this was easier said than done, and when Janet walked back upstairs, one
look at how sexy Mila looked bantering with customers was enough to send her
reeling. So she busied herself with work, keeping her head down as she hurried
from table to table, taking orders, explaining the degrees of gaminess in
broiled elk and the level of tartness in the duck plum sauce.

Janet must have looked particularly grim
when she was dropping off the drink order for one of her tables because Jason
pushed a shot glass her way and said, “Drink this while I fill your order.”

“Drinking on the job is against the
rules,” Janet retorted. It was bad enough that the only result of her working
at Panther consisted of swollen feet and wrecked nerves; she wasn’t going to
ruin her chances of getting a lead by breaking the rules.

“Do you always play by the rules?” Jason
asked in that charming brogue of his.

“Yes, I’m a good girl.”

“Well, Janet, you’ll find that sometimes
it’s all right to let your hair down and loosen up a bit. Now down that shot or
your customers will have to go without their drinks.”

“Jason!” Janet hissed. “I won’t let you
get me fired.”

Jason crossed his arms on his chest.
“Any time now. I’ve got all night.”

Janet looked over her shoulder for any
signs of Roman; the last thing she needed was to give him another chance to bug
her. He wasn’t anywhere near, so she picked up the shot and shutting her eyes, brought
it to her lips. She expected the liquid to scorch her throat, but instead it
went down smoothly, filling her mouth with a mixture of tanginess and
sweetness. “It’s delicious,” Janet said, feeling refreshed and forgetting to be
annoyed at Jason.

“Told you so.”

“What it is? One of Panther’s special
cocktails? I thought I knew them all by now.”

“This, my friend, is my own invention:
something that I make only for my friends and people who are special to me.”

“Thanks.” Janet willed herself not to
blush. Jason was one of those men who absolutely had to flirt with every woman
in sight.

“You’re welcome. You looked like you
needed one.”

“I did. This job is starting to get to
me.”

“Well, if you think it’s bad now, just
imagine what it will be like when the old man comes to visit.”

“The old man?”

“The owner—Petr Kovar. Don’t tell me
that you don’t know who owns this place.”

“Oh, yeah, but I didn’t know he’d be
coming in personally.”

“I overhead Anton and Roman talking;
they were saying that the old man is supposed to fly into town in the next few
days. Anton is going back to the old country to accompany the patriarch, and
Roman is going to be in charge while he’s gone and is supposed to keep a tight
ship.”

“Oh, brother,” Janet groaned to conceal
her excitement. Finally, all those hours of slaving away at Panther were going
to pay off.

“Here are your drinks.” Jason put two
martinis on the bar stand and signaled to one of the busboys. “Janet, any time
you need a pick me up, you stop by my shop here.”

“Thanks Jason, but my tolerance isn’t as
high as you think.”

“You silly girl, did you really think
I’d let you drink on the job? There was no alcohol in that drink: just some
elderflower water, thyme, rhubarb and grapefruit juice. A mix of electrolytes
and antioxidants to get one’s juices flowing again.”

“Thanks Jason.” This time Janet’s face
turned crimson red. Smooth, real smooth, she thought.

Janet got back to work and had been
successful at avoiding Mila until there was a lull.

“Come out with me for a cigarette,” Mila
whispered into Janet’s ear, grasping her elbow. Saying that she didn’t smoke
was not an option, so Janet accepted the invitation.

“You haven’t talked to me all day,” Mila
said, accusatory notes lacing her tone, as she lit her cigarette. “Things
aren’t going to get weird between us because I went out with Dennis, are they?”

Janet shrugged. “No. Why would things
get weird? Dennis is my cousin. As far as I’m concerned, he’s free to see
whomever he wants.”

“Are you sure? Because I’ve known some
cousins who were, you know, more than cousins.”

“Ew, gross!”

“Yeah, but people still do it. So, if
you don’t mind me seeing Dennis, can you tell me more about him?”

“I thought you were pretty serious with
Anton.”

“A girl’s got to keep her options open
if you get my drift.”

“I get it.”

“So, back to the subject of Dennis. Tell
me more about him.”

“I don’t see him that often; we’re not
really that close.”

Mila raised a doubtful eyebrow.

“I do know that he’s really good at his
job; he’s busy all the time, that’s why I don’t get to see him much,” Janet
added hurriedly, figuring that she had to give Mila something.

“That’s good to know. Can you tell me if
he likes women?”

“Sure he likes women. Why would you ask
that?”

“Because yesterday, when we went out, he
seemed to be totally uninterested.”

It took all of Janet’s willpower to keep
a happy grin off her face. Mila’s arrogance was beyond belief. Just because a
guy wasn’t interested in her in particular was supposed to imply that he wasn’t
interested in women period? “Well, there is one thing about Dennis that you
should know. It’s kind of embarrassing, so I didn’t want to bring it up, but
because we’re friends, I think it wouldn’t be fair of me not to tell you.”

“I knew there was something wrong with
him!”

“You see, he used to be something of a
womanizer … I believe the term used was sex addict. He even went to rehab for
it.”

“There’s a rehab for sex addicts?”

“Apparently. Look, please don’t tell him
that I told you this, but after he finished his stay at rehab, he decided to do
this sex abstinence thing. I guess it’s kind of like quitting smoking cold
turkey.”

Mila dragged on her cigarette and
smiled. “Cold turkey, huh? Thanks for telling me.”

“I hope this doesn’t get in the way of
things.”

“Oh, it won’t. I like a challenge. I’m
going to see him again tomorrow.”

“Great. I’m sure you’ll have a wonderful
time. He’s really a very nice guy. A real gentleman.”

“I bet. Come on, let’s get back before
Roman starts yapping at us.” Mila ground out her cigarette and went inside.

Janet lingered behind, taking a turn
around the building to clear her mind. She was experiencing an acute case of
remorse; despite her best intentions, she had put her foot in it again. Her
intention had been to keep Mila’s dirty paws off Dennis, but now it was
starting to look like she had only added oil to the fire. What if Mila were to
tell Dennis about the whole sex addict nonsense? The prospect was mortifying.

Janet was about to turn the corner to go
back inside when she saw Anton and Roman coming out from what looked like a
service entrance on the far corner of the building. She had never been to the
other side of the building, but was fairly certain that Panther’s premises did
not extend that far. What were the two brothers doing there? Luckily, the two
of them were so engrossed in conversation that they didn’t notice her. Janet
quickly ducked around the corner and slipped inside Panther.

***

The day dragged on endlessly as Mila
waited for the hour of Anton’s departure. His flight was not until six p.m. She
had feared that he would want to spend the day in some crazy sex marathon, but
to her relief, he had only wanted her once, in the morning, and had spent the
whole day cooped up inside his office. As usual, he didn’t tell her what he was
doing, but Mila guessed that Anton was preparing for the meeting with his
uncle. His demeanor visibly changed when he spoke of the old man, always with
great reverence, and Mila suspected that Petr Kovar kept his nephews on their
toes. While Anton was locked up in his office, Mila called up Dennis and
arranged to meet him at eight p.m. Anton had told her to take the night off, so
the timing had worked out perfectly.

Mila’s lips curled in a smile at Janet’s
ridiculous story; a recovering sex addict! Under a different set of
circumstances, she would’ve loved to see Dennis fall off the wagon, but that
was not the reason she wanted to see him tonight. She needed him for his
skills, and according to him and Janet, he was good at his job. Not that either
of those sources was much of a reference, but then it wasn’t as though Mila had
her pick of specialists to choose from. Anton watched her like a hawk, taking
almost every penny she earned for “safekeeping.” She managed to squirrel away a
little bit of money, but it was hardly enough to hire a top notch hacker. Not
that she knew where to go looking for one in the first place. Hence, her usual
manner of pay: sex, but Dennis wasn’t interested in sex. While she had at first
thought that it could be a hindrance, she now realized that it could be a very
favorable game changer. Up until now Mila had always used sex to get what she
wanted out of men. It had worked with David, until he went to jail, but it had
backfired terribly with Anton, turning her into his sex slave. Since Dennis
wasn’t interested in sex, perhaps she could appeal to his sense of ethical
conscience; be the damsel in distress and let the recovering sex addict redeem
himself by saving her.

Just then the door to Anton’s study opened,
and Mila heard his heavy footsteps in the corridor. She busied herself with
tending to the pots on the stove. She had taken the preemptive step of cooking
Anton’s favorite dishes: goulash and potato dumplings.

“Mmm, smells good!” Anton slapped Mila’s
behind as he staggered into the kitchen.

“I made goulash. Are you hungry?”

“Starving.” As usual, he sat down at the
table, waiting for her to serve him. God forbid the man ever carried his own
plate; his hands just might fall off.

Mila heaped Anton’s plate with food and
set it before him. She quickly eyed the clock on the wall: it was three p.m.
Anton would have to get going soon to make his flight.

“Come here and sit next to me. I don’t
want to eat alone.” Anton patted the seat next to him.

The thought of food turned her stomach,
but Mila put two dumplings and a bit of goulash on her plate and joined Anton
at the table.

Anton nodded approvingly. “Good, you
need to eat. You’ve been looking tired lately.”

Mila couldn’t help being surprised by
the change in Anton’s attitude. She had been losing weight steadily since she
started living with the man; he literally made her sick, but up until now Anton
only seemed to delight in her lack of appetite.

Anton ate greedily, shoving large chunks
of food in his mouth. Finally, he was finished and mopped up the remnants of
sauce from his plate with a piece of bread. “That really hit the spot. You’ve
become a wonderful cook, Milochka.”

“Thank you.” Mila smiled. In the hellish
months that she had been with Anton, she had turned from someone who had never
so much as held a soup ladle in her hands into a skilled cook. She knew how to
make dumpling batter from scratch, cook a variety of stews and soups, roast
pork, and even make her own sauerkraut and pickles; all the skills that her
mother had thought to be extremely valuable and had fruitlessly tried to
instill into her when she was a teenager. Mila thought of her mother who had
spent her whole life working a nine-to-five job and slaving away in the
kitchen— a life that Mila had been determined to avoid, but had ended up
falling right into. At least her mother had loved her husband, when they were
first married at any rate, but Mila couldn’t stand the sight of Anton.

Anton patted Mila’s hand, startling her
by the unexpected gesture since usually he chose other parts of her body to
express his affection. “I will miss you, Milochka,” he said gruffly, almost
choking. “When I come back, we’re going to have a talk. I want things to be
formalized between us. Maybe have a few kids running around.”