I jumped up, running toward the door as I tossed some thanks over my shoulder to Olivia, who looked equal parts confused and pissed that I didn’t pause to explain. The drive to his location seemed unending, but after only twenty minutes, I was there. The building they had managed to save was a shopfront with several apartments over it in the heart of the city.
If the enemy attacking it had managed to set it on fire, it might have been disastrous. As it was, only the plate glass shop window was broken, and the shelves inside were overturned and smashed. It could go down as the work of an ordinary burglar if Dima wanted to claim insurance, and the most important thing was this guy, who couldn’t run fast enough, might actually have some valuable intel.
The man was wiry, with a scar intertwined with a barbed wire tattoo down the side of his face. He was clearly not high up on the food chain, and what little hope I had was dashed.
“How does someone like that know something so important?” I asked as Dima dragged the man to a car.
His steps were sluggish, and he was bent over. When he looked up, both his eyes were already blackened, and his nose slowly dripped blood. “I swear I know. I was part of it.”
He didn’t speak anymore, dozing from the beating he had already received. Dima drove, and I prodded the prisoner every time we had to make a turn, and he roused himself enough to give further directions, determined to stay useful until the bitter end.
A small army followed us, and that didn’t seem to bother the man, but it still could have been a trap, so my guard was up as high as it could go. After heading past the outskirts of town, we arrived at a decrepit house in a cul-de-sac of an even more decrepit neighborhood. The house to the right of it seemed deserted, with boarded-up windows and more graffiti than stucco, but the one we entered seemed fairly well cared for.
I told Dima and his men to stay outside and surround the place. Inside it was a typical safehouse, sparsely and cheaply furnished with the bare necessities.
“So where is he?” I asked, shaking the man. He pointed with his chin since his hands were cuffed behind his back.
“Last bedroom on the right. You’ll let me live now, right? I’ve got kids…”
I ignored his sniveling. What damn criminal didn’t have kids? We all had people we loved, but it didn’t mean we deservedto stay alive. I shoved open the last door, my gun drawn, still expecting the worst.
And I got it, just not in the form of an ambush. My oldest friend lay on a bare mattress in the middle of the floor, tied up and badly injured. His face made our guide look like he was ready for a magazine cover shoot, swollen, cut, and barely recognizable. His torn shirt was stained with blood, his hands that were clasped together and tied in front of him were scraped and caked with dried blood.
That was Grigor. He’d go down swinging and give as good as he got. I shoved down the old affection and nudged him with my foot.
“Wake up,” I said, kicking a little harder when the nudge didn’t wake him.
He slowly opened his eyes and then struggled to sit up. “Am I dreaming?” he asked, wincing when he rubbed his eyes with his bound hands.
“No, it’s really me,” I said. “And what the fuck are you doing dreaming about me, anyway, asshole?”
He laughed, then coughed, spitting blood. “I guess they got to you,” he said, managing to look mournful under all the swelling.
“You’re delirious from getting your head bashed in,” I said. “You’re the one tied up. I’m curious about that. All of it, really. Did you get what you deserved after trying to double-cross them with my enemies?”
He groaned, leaning up against the wall and staring at me through eyes that would barely open. “They had Klara,” he rasped.
His assistant, whom he cared deeply for. For a lot of years, I suspected they were secretly more than employee and boss. He would have done a lot to protect her. I nodded coldly for him to continue.
“The Yakuza were so pissed at you,” he said, laughing roughly, but shaking his head. “We took so much of their territory, and then you had that fling with the official’s woman. I just wanted Klara back, and figured we’d work together to get your money back once she was safe.”
“This is a really good story so far,” I said.
“Oh, it gets better,” he said, spitting out a glob of blood. “I could use some water, Kon.”
A surge of pity made me pause. This was Tati’s father, whom she’d been so desperate to find. Well, I found him, and he was as bad as I feared. And if he didn’t keep talking, I was going to finish him myself.
“Maybe when you’re done,” I said, shoving aside any feeling other than what had driven me before Tati wormed her way into my heart and reminded me I had one. “Or maybe not.”
He sighed. “She was in on it.” He looked at me, the heartbreak clear beneath the bruises. “She was sick of the life, thought the Yakuza was going to give her a payout, and cut her loose for turning on you. Right before they took her away, she told me she wanted to go to Fiji and live in a hut there, under the radar. No more crime. I didn’t think she was serious, and I laughed.”
“That sucks,” I said, knowing how he felt. “I always suspected you loved her.”
His choked laugh was bitter. “So then they had me. Klara was gone; it looked like I had disappeared with all that money.It was all manipulation to draw you out, all the way to LA. They were going to parade my dead body in front of your nephews if it came to it.” He laughed some more, spitting more blood. “Nobody’s ever been that pissed off at you. The Yakuza don’t get over stuff like some of the others.”
I was beginning to believe him, and as he explained that the Mexican cartel, which had been working with the Yakuza in LA, while simultaneously looking for any opportunity to double-cross them, was put in charge of watching Grigor. It turned out our prisoner was the one who’d gotten him away from Riku and brought him here, hoping to use him as a bribe or leverage.
Then he fell into Dima’s hands and decided his own life was worth more than keeping the secret any longer, so that was how I found myself going to the safehouse kitchen to get Grigor a bottle of water.