Vanity, Vengeance And A Weekend In Vegas Part 26

Frustrated, I turned away from him. And there was Margarita again, being forced into a police car. "So she's going to prison?" I asked, putting my frustration momentarily aside. "You won't strike up some kind of plea deal in exchange for information on her cartel?"

"She doesn't have that much to bargain with. It is, as you said, her cartel. She's the biggest fish we're gonna get out of this." He shrugged. "Maybe we'll spare her the death sentence for a list of names or somethin'. That's the best offer she'll get."

I nodded and glanced over at the ambulance where Dena was being evaluated. "Is she going to be okay?"

"She looks okay from here."

"I have to get to Anatoly."

"Sophie, you really could be in a lot of trouble here. You've done a lot of things wrong--"

"Under rather extreme circ.u.mstances," I pointed out.

"Look, if you cooperate, give a complete testimony and if..." Bo-Bo's voice faded and he leaned down and whispered in my ear, "if you say that you agreed to let me bug your purse, we'll give you a free pa.s.s."

I narrowed my eyes. "You didn't get a warrant to place it."

"I got it...but the problem is it didn't actually come through until after I did the placing." He smiled apologetically, but I could see the desperate plea in his eyes. "We really need the conversation we got between you, Alex and Margarita to be admissible."

"Ah." Tonight I had seen a handful of men die, one set himself on fire and a house come very close to burning down...and now I was smiling.

"I'll testify, although I don't really have anything on the mafia, just Alex and Margarita."

"That's enough."

Yes, it certainly was. I didn't really need to be the lead witness against an entire mafia. However I could probably deal with testifying against an individual who had betrayed the mafia and the head of a drug cartel that might now become defunct.

Bo-Bo looked down at my arms. "Gooseb.u.mps. You're in shock."

"I want to see Anatoly. Now."

He nodded. "I'll drive you."

"Dena's coming too."

"She probably should go to the hospital anyway. I'll drive both of you unless the EMTs think she needs to go in the ambulance."

He unlocked the pa.s.senger side door and I got inside. Before he closed it for me he leaned in again. "I need to ask you one more question, just between us."

"OK."

He looked around to ensure no one was within hearing distance before leaning in a little further. "Is Marcus single?"

Dena was well enough to ride in Bo-Bo's car with me and by the time we got to the hospital Anatoly was already st.i.tched up and doped up. The bullet had gone straight through without hitting anything vital. Given time he was going to be okay. When Dena heard this she allowed a nurse to take her from my side so she could get a more thorough exam. I waited until she was out of sight and then just burst into tears. I sat in the waiting room sobbing like I had just been given the news that someone I loved had died. It had been too much. I was still hazy on what exactly had happened and I couldn't believe how many times I had come this close to death within the last forty-eight hours. And then...when Anatoly was shot I had thought...

Even in my mind I couldn't complete the sentence. I just cried harder still. The other people in the waiting room looked at me sympathetically at first and eventually they just averted their eyes. I thought about how I had sobbed after kicking Anatoly out. How could I have thought that was a catastrophe? I had been forced to deal with a million bigger catastrophes since then!

I was sobbing for at least ten minutes before I ran out of breath and energy. I gulped in some air and went to the bathroom to throw some water on my face before going to see Anatoly.

Lying in a white hospital bed in a white paper hospital gown he looked more vulnerable than I had ever seen him. I sat by his side and stared into his gla.s.sy eyes.

"You and Dena...you saved me," I said softly, taking his hand.

"Are you going to forgive me now?" he asked in slightly slurred speech.

"I'm sorry, I'm having a hard time understanding you. It's hard to talk when someone's drugged you, huh?"

"I take that as a no."

"Take it as a warning," I said with a little smile. "The way you handled this was seriously f.u.c.ked up. One more strike and you're out for real."

"I wasn't supposed to tell you," he muttered. "They said not to tell anybody."

I repressed a giggle. I had never seen Anatoly stoned before. "I'm not going to ask if they represent the mafia or our government, because as far as I can tell they're both do-as-I-say-not-as-I-do kind of organizations. I, on the other hand, promise you that I will put you and the friends, family and cat I love most before everyone else. I need you to promise me you'll do the same. If someone asks you not to tell me something you have to tell me anyway. That's what love and loyalty are all about. No secrets."

"Ok."

I wasn't sure if I believed him but decided it would be more effective to push the issue when he wasn't high. However there was one thing that couldn't wait.

"Anatoly, I also need you to divorce your wife."

Through the glaze of pain medicine I could see a spark of cognizance. He understood the importance of what I was saying and when he squeezed my hand I knew he was aware of how much he had hurt me.

"As soon as I'm out of here we can go to the courthouse to file the papers."

I tilted my head and studied his complexion under the fluorescent light. Even here in this sterilized room in that stupid gown he had a certain...radiance. Maybe he had started to use the Aveeno after all. We had such a unique relations.h.i.+p. Here he was asking me to go to city hall with him, not to get married but to witness him file for divorce.

"Will Natasha try to drag this out?"

Anatoly sighed. "I think Natasha's going to disappear."

"What makes you say that?"

"She made a major mistake and the mafia's going to find out about it. They're not going to cut her any breaks on this no matter whose daughter she is. She'll have to go on the lam."

"What kind of mistake?"

"I told you I needed to be with her in order to make this whole thing go away. What I didn't tell you is that one of the men working with her is an FBI agent. He's the one I was trying to stay close to. I knew he was our only chance of getting out of this. Either I would help him make the arrests necessary to get the pressure taken off of both of us or I would tell Natasha that she had hired an FBI agent into her protection service and would expose her mistake to the higher ups in the family if she didn't find a way to ensure your safety.

"That would have put Bo-Bo's life in danger."

"It would have but he's a professional capable of taking care of himself and my first and last concern was to keep you safe." He paused for a moment before adding, "Bo-Bo...that's what you and Marcus are calling him?"

"Yeah, turns out his real name is Agent Pearson. But to me he'll always be Bo-Bo the gay Russian thug."

Anatoly's mouth twitched at the corners and I giggled. Then he started to chuckle and soon we were both in hysterics. Perhaps the drugs were making him silly and I knew that I was at that point where almost anything could be silly, but hearing Anatoly laugh like that, here, safe, holding my hand...it just made me want to laugh more. Because it was funny and wonderful and everything I wanted...

Everything I wanted was right here, holding my hand.

When I left Anatoly's room Dena was sitting in the waiting room. For the first time I really saw the pain she was trying to hide. "How badly did you hurt yourself?" I asked, taking a seat beside her.

"It set me back a bit," she said casually, but you could hear the effort she was making to keep her voice from revealing the full extent of the truth. "They gave me some Vicodin but I'm not gonna take it. I'll be relying on my cane a little more for the next few months."

"Dena, I'm so sorry I got you into this."

Dena toyed with her cane, letting it roll back and forth over the diamond pattern on the carpet. "You know, when it comes to their take on things like ethics and morality I don't think there's a lot of daylight between Fawn and her brother."

"No, there isn't."

"In fact," Dena continued, "it's almost like he's the male version of Fawn. Alex is Fawn."

"Um, okay."

Dena's eyes had taken on a bit of a glaze as well, but I could tell this wasn't drug induced. She was reliving something, whether it was what had happened with Fawn or what had happened with Alex was unclear, but whatever it was, it wasn't exactly pleasant.

"When I threw that cognac on him, the cognac that temporarily blinded him, it was like I threw it on both of them. When it set on fire..." she faltered for a moment. There weren't many people in the waiting room now. A drunk in the corner had a magazine lying limply on his lap as he snored; a teenager by the wall bit her cuticles while watching some video on her phone. Dena's eyes drifted over them as she considered her next sentence. "I'm not some kind of medieval monster. It's not like I want to burn people at the stake."

"I know that."

"But...I'm glad I was there to fight him and...and what they represent. And I'm glad that we won. He was evil and I'm not sorry about what happened to him."

I nodded. Dena hadn't been helpless this time. That cane that was supposed to represent her disability had disarmed one man and knocked another unconscious. As brutal as the night had been I could see that this was a multilayered victory. I had meant it when I told Anatoly that he and Dena had saved me. I owed my life to them.

But the thing is, I also sort of owed my life to Alex. He had tackled Margarita even when his skin was burned and the pain must have been unbearable. Dena and Anatoly had saved me out of love and maybe even virtue. But Alex? I suspected he had saved me due to something that resembled obsession. So I couldn't exactly be grateful to him for that...and I didn't really feel sorry about his pain.

But I wasn't exactly happy about it either.

And there had been another loss too. I raised my fingers to my temples as I thought about my lost ma.n.u.script. Maybe my MacBook had survived the fire. Maybe it would be retrieved by the authorities...

And maybe they would hold it as evidence for months on end. That would take me way past my deadline. I squeezed my eyes closed and silently cursed at myself. Anatoly was back with me and he was safe. All my friends were safe.

If someone gives you the moon you can't complain because they didn't think to throw in the stars.

It was at that moment that Leah and Mary Ann burst in. "Oh my gosh, you're okay!" Mary Ann squealed and threw her arms around Dena who yelped in pain.

"Wait, you are okay, aren't you?" Mary Ann asked quickly stepping back.

"A little bruised and battered. Nothing that won't heal with time," Dena said with a dismissive wave that was completely contradicted by her wince.

"I thought you were going to call me when you needed my help!" Leah snapped.

"You did help. You sent me the information mama sent you. Why did she call you and not me, anyway?"

"Because she wanted me to tell her what was really going on!" Leah put both her hands on her hips, perfectly channeling the disapproving principle from any number of cartoons. Even the snoring drunk woke up and sat up a little straighter. "She trusts me. She knows that when things get a little crazy I'm the one who's going to stay sane!"

That wasn't quite true. Leah was never exactly sane. She just didn't take the same over the top risks that I did...but there were extreme sports enthusiasts who wouldn't take the same kind of risks that I did so that wasn't saying a lot.

"She called me because she expected me to be rational with an eye toward propriety, caution and prudence and you know what I was doing when she called me, Sophie?"

I shook my head.

"I was gambling! While you were burning down a house full of people I was playing blackjack!"

I repressed a smile and tried to give her a solemn stare. "Leah, I'm shocked."

Leah blinked and then immediately fell into the seat beside me and buried her face in her hands. "I have a problem."

"How much did you lose?" I asked.

"I won $39,000."

"What?"

Dena leaned forward, with effort, so she could see past me to Leah. "Did you say $39,000?"

"I kept thinking, this is it! I'm going to do something totally irresponsible and reckless! I'm going to lose a whole bunch of money and I was going to go home and tell everybody how crazy, irresponsible and out of control I was but then I won like, a whole bunch of hands of blackjack! And the worst part is that when the dealer pushed me to keep playing...you know, because the whole idea is to gamble away your winnings, that's what people do when they're being irresponsible... I couldn't do it! I cut my loses! I can't even gamble irresponsibly, Sophie! What is wrong with me?"

Dena leaned back in her chair. "Yeah, you've definitely got issues."

"How's Anatoly?" Mary Ann asked taking the seat next to Dena.

"He was shot and he's going to need a bit of healing time but he's going to be okay," I said.

"Oh wow, well at least he's going to be okay!" She smoothed the fabric of her skirt before adding, "How are you and Anatoly?"

I thought about that for a second. "We're going to need a bit of healing time but we're going to be okay."

Mary Ann clapped her hands together. "I knew you'd get back together! I knew it! True love always prevails! Ask Disney!"

Dena gritted her teeth. "You know, maybe I'll take that Vicodin after all."

I turned to Leah, who still had her head in her hands. "Where's Marcus?"

"On the way in here we ran into that man...um--"

"Bo-Bo," I supplied.

"I don't think that's his real name."

"I keep telling people, once a Bo-Bo, always a Bo-Bo." I got to my feet. "Come on, let's find him and get Dena back to the hotel."

Everyone got up and filed out, with Leah and me taking up the rear.

"I can't believe I couldn't get myself to gamble at least some of it away," she moaned.