Chapter 13

THIRTEEN

Hollis

The following day, I woke to a soft knocking on the door. Groggy, I opened it to find Dimitri holding a tray with coffee and breakfast.

"I thought you might need this," he said, a hint of a smile on his lips.

"Thank you," I replied, setting the tray on the small table by the window. "Did you sleep at all?" He didn't look like he had; his eyes were shadowed with purple circles. It didn't detract from his good looks; it just made him look more badass, if possible, offsetting his other tattoos .

"No, actually," he admitted, pouring himself a cup of coffee. "Luka tracked Makarovich yesterday to where he's staying, so I wanted to go and get a good look. Check the place out, see what the busy little beaver has been up to."

He approached me, holding out the cell phone I used yesterday. "Did you want to call Olive this morning?" he asked. We are two hours ahead of California, so the timing should be right."

"Thank you for thinking of it, Dimitri," I said gratefully. "I definitely want to call."

"Dima, you can call me Dima," he replied with a cautious smile.

I watched him while I took his phone. He'd dressed down in worn Levi's that looked so faded they had to be at least ten years old, black boots, and a black t-shirt. The short sleeves allowed me to see the full-sleeve tattoos on his arms for the first time, and it was mouth-watering. I appreciated the suits, but the casual look? That was everything.

Focusing, I dialed quickly. "Momma?" Olive answered immediately.

"Yes, baby. How are you, sweetpea? Did you fix your hair this morning? Brush your teeth?" Tears fell as I scrunched my feet toward my chest. Trying hard not to sniffle loud enough for Olive to hear, I concentrated on her voice.

She babbled on the other end of the line, telling me about her evening with Mrs. Hooper, who would get the ‘Best Neighbor Award' if such a thing existed. Mrs. Hooper had stayed over and made dinner, and then she helped her this morning with her hair. I could hear her in the background as she fussed over Olive, packing her lunch.

"What about your plant project, Olive? How's that going?" I asked. I felt like I had missed so much already. I'd never not been home a single night in her life, and now I'd missed a whole week of it .

"They already started to grow momma. I'll be able to bring one home soon. They're in our little greenhouse at school right now," she said knowledgeably. "They sprouted and everything."

"That's good, baby. I can't wait to see. What are you looking forward to learning today?"

"Monday, momma, you know we have History Trivia on Monday," Olivia teased. You didn't forget. You never forget." The issue was that I had forgotten; my days had slid together like penguins on ice.

My eyes were still locked on Dimitri, who was focused on my conversation. I couldn't believe he'd find it very interesting.

"History Trivia is the best. I wish I had been able to practice with you. Next week for sure," I promised, raising an eyebrow at Dimitri, but he nodded, and my heartbeat evened out. "I promise Olive. "

"Okay, momma. I love you," she chirped, in a surprisingly good mood since I was missing. Of course, I thought moodily, that's what I wanted — for her to be okay.

"I love you more, sweetheart. Have a good day at school." Hanging up the phone was hard. Swiping the back of my nose with one hand, I pushed the cell back across the bed to Dimitri.

"It's strange for me," he started, then stopped, staring at his feet as if considering something. How he'd shorn his hair made it so I could view every nuance of his expressions. It seemed like he was thinking hard about something.

"What's strange?" I asked.

"To listen to a parent that loves like that."

Taking a sip of my coffee, I tried hard not to think about what he'd given away. What must his childhood have been like not having a parent who loved him like he should have been loved and talked to him about his day? Been curious about what he was learning?

"From the first time I held Olive, I loved everything about her. She was so tiny, and I had no idea what I was doing." I laughed, thinking back to how out of my depth I had been. "The nurse at the hospital had to show me how to do her diapers, but when I went home, I had so much trouble doing it myself," I confessed.

"Didn't your mother help you?" Dimitri had turned back to me, studying me closely. "If you love her like that, you must have had someone to show you how to do it."

"No, she had wanted me to give her up to another family. She didn't want me to stay in town if I wasn't willing to do that. So," I gulped momentarily, remembering how out of my depth I had been. "I left. She was mine ." I remembered how fiercely I'd felt that but how unsure I'd been. It would have been nice if my mother had supported me—even a little .

"What about the father?" Dimitri pressed, fixated on my face. I studied him, thinking hard about what I'd shared so far.

Apparently, he wanted the whole story. I shrugged. "He didn't want anything to do with me being pregnant," I scoffed. "Which was more than fine. I didn't need him. I didn't even name him on the birth certificate." If I had put his name on the birth certificate, I could have used that to go after him for some child support legally, but I decided that I'd rather go it alone than have Chad attached to Olive any more than he already was. I'd been sorry a few times, but the stories I'd heard from single moms everywhere who had gone after reluctant fathers hadn't given me any indication that I would have been successful. It's hard to get blood from a stone.

"So you were alone during that time. Are alone now," Dimitri was somber as he looked at me, his hands clasped before him. Intent in a way he hadn't been before.

"No, Dimitri. I wasn't alone anymore. I had my daughter. We were together. She was perfect and tiny. It was difficult," I laughed as I looked at his face. He was skeptical. "Ok, very difficult. I've always had to juggle more than one job. Even now, I have more than one," I paused. "I probably lost them, I suppose." Biting my lip, I considered those jobs. Fuck. That worried me a lot that I'd lost the jobs I had worked hard to get. Maybe they would let me explain? Being on my own taught me that things like rent and utility bills didn't wait for me to figure my life out. Jobs and bosses moved on. They didn't care about me, my daughter, or my power being shut off.

"I guess you weren't alone after all," he said understandingly. "Don't worry about the jobs right now, Hollis. Take one step at a time. Let me take care of things, alright? We're close. And you can get back to Olive." Setting down his coffee cup, he moved around the room, which suddenly didn't seem as big as I thought it was.

"What did you figure out last night, anything?" I asked, trying to move the conversation away from my personal life and back to finishing this task so I could go home to my little girl.

"We're close," he said, turning back to me, his expression serious. "I know where Makarovich lives. Luka stayed here last night, but I went and double-checked on Makarovich," his eyes were almost darker now. I wanted to ask if he could have ended it, killed him, but I was afraid of the answer. "But I want to know about this clinic … this bounty system, before we return home. Don't you?"

I nodded, "Yes." There was still revenge on my mind, and I had someone in front of me who could deliver it. That was wrong, right? Still, looking at Dimitri, his scarred knuckles, the tattoos dark against his skin. Vengeance was heavy on my mind. They deserved to die for what they did to me, for what I'm sure they have done to countless others.

Dimitri continued as if I wasn't wrestling with my morality."Rodriguez is cautious, but Makarovich is the key. He's the one with the real power and the one we need to focus on."

"How do we get to him?"

"Tonight, Rodriguez is hosting a private party," Dimitri explained with a grimace, running a hand over his jeans. It's an opportunity for prospective buyers to see some of the merchandise," he sent me an apologetic look. "Up closer, to be … tantalized," he paused. Makarovich is the man making the deals with Gregor and this doctor. We can gather more information. But it's also riskier. I could just torture it out of him," he suggested.

"Would that work?" I asked. It didn't seem like he thought it would. The thought of another one of those parties didn't appeal to me, let alone where there were; what did he say? Prospective buyers?

"Yes," he said with absolute certainty in his voice. "He'd give me the information if he had it, but it could take longer and lead to suspicion. Delay our exit from the country, cause blowback."

"Then we'll go to the party." I took a deep breath, steeling myself for what lay ahead. "I'm ready. Whatever it takes." There were two parts to taking out the clinic. If Dimitri killed Gregor and the doctor, that would be satisfying in a personal way for me, but it might take out a lynchpin of their entire operation of trafficking women. No Makarovich, no clinic, no doctor, no Gregor. Wouldn't that delay everything? Maybe I would have helped in some small way. Kept somebody else's mother home."What about Rodgriguez?"

"I haven't decided." Dimitri's eyes softened again, a rare glimpse of vulnerability. "Unfortunately, I can't take him out and get us out safely. I need us to slip out of the country."