Niko lay back on the mattress in the sleeping area and watched Roman’s eyes flicker, as he yawned widely for the last time. Tucked up comfortably in the makeshift bed Drago had set up, he looked cosy and warm, his arms tightly wrapped around the body of his teddy bear.
She had to give Roman credit for staying awake as long as he had. He’d missed his usual nap, and it was almost his normal bedtime, and there had been way more excitement than the little guy was used to.
His last few sentences before he drifted to sleep had been reduced to mumbled gibberish, but they were something to do with his newest pals, H and Ken. He obviously liked them a lot.
Niko stared at the curtain between the sleeping quarters and the driver’s seat and tried to make out what they were saying. It was almost impossible, as the loud humming of the engine drowned out all but the occasional word, leaving Niko none the wiser as to what they were talking about.
Occasionally she thought she heard them mention Ilya or Drago by name, but really, she didn’t care to hear their opinion on her brother and his side-kick. Niko was under no illusions concerning what people thought about Ilya, even ones who’d never met him before. After today’s performance by her brother, she doubted that the new guys had formed any positive opinions.
Ilya was not a nice man. It was as simple as that.
Would he have turned out any different if their parents hadn’t been killed? Probably not. Niko had long since concluded that Ilya’s illegal business activities had already been well-established long before their family had been killed. All that their deaths had done was relieved him of the burden of trying to hide it from their papa.
The tapping on the partition wall made her jump.
She sat forward and pulled the curtain back, to find Kellen crouching on the other side.
“Hi, umm, I was wondering if you wanted to trade places for a while?” He smiled sheepishly. “I can keep an eye on Roman for you. Or if you’d be more comfortable, we can both sit up front. I just need to get something out of my pack first.”
Niko looked at the guy strangely, surprised that he was acting so oddly.
“Comfortable?” She queried.
“Yeah, if you don’t want me sitting back there with Roman.” Kellen blushed. “I mean, I totally get that, since you don’t know us from Adam, and you certainly have no reason to trust us around him. I just need to get something out of my pack and then I’ll be out of your way.”
Niko looked at Hollywood and noticed he was grinning.
“Show him some mercy, would you?” He glanced back at Niko. “The asshole thinks he’s dying of starvation, when he’s really just looking for a sugar fix, and the nearest candy is in his pack.”
Niko looked at Kellen’s pleading face and took pity on him.
“It’s Ok, you can come back here.” She smiled. “There’s even a TV back here and an old DVD player. I brought a bunch of discs with me, but they’re all kids cartoons, I’m afraid. There are some other discs on the shelf, but they’re likely to be either in Russian, which probably won’t interest you, or porn films, which I’d rather you didn’t watch in front of my son, even if he is asleep.”
“I’ll save the porn for when I get a quiet night in with a few beers.” Kellen grinned. “Can I offer you some chocolate for giving up your space?”
Niko shook her head as she climbed into the passenger seat.
“Thanks, but I’ll pass.” She smiled. “I don’t have much of a tolerance for sugar.”
Kellen stared at her as if she was some kind of freak before he headed into the back. Sure enough, she watched him dip his hand into a pocket of his pack and pull out several chocolate bars. When he’d retrieved his phone and some earphones, he settled back where she could clearly see him, opening wrappers and munching away.
“Does he really have that much of a sweet tooth?” She asked, looking over at Hollywood.
Hollywood chuckled and shook his head.
“He does always carry a stack of candy with him wherever he goes.” He admitted. “But what I think he suffers from, is a very low boredom threshold. So, whenever he gets bored, he thinks he needs to eat something.”
“Then he must have a super-fast metabolism to be able to eat so much crap.” Niko shook her head. “He’s just eaten more than a thousand calories in less than two minutes, and he’s still got more in his hand.”
“We’ve always had very physical jobs.” Hollywood shrugged. “You burn off more than you can take in most of the time.”
“That was before you left the military, right?” Niko turned sideways so she could watch him carefully. “How long ago was that?”
At first, she thought he was going to clam up, but after a few seconds, he shrugged as though telling her wasn’t going to make a difference.
“We got out last year. I guess we’d both lost the appetite for putting our lives on the line, for causes we either didn’t understand or agree with.” He admitted. “We were offered jobs working for an independent crew, and the money was too good to turn down.”
“The people who are arranging the auction for my brother?” Niko clarified. “They’re the crew you work for?”
“Indirectly, yes.” Hollywood nodded. “They contract us out for the right price.”
“And how much did they tell you about what the job entails?” She asked, wondering exactly how much these men knew about Ilya’s business.
“You’re asking me whether I know what’s in the back of the truck, right?” He glanced across, waiting for her to nod her head in confirmation.
“We know what the cargo is.” He confirmed, and Niko could see the muscles in his cheek tighten as he said it.
Hollywood didn’t approve. Niko’s heart leapt at the thought.
“And that doesn’t bother you?” She tested her theory.
She watched him shrug, as if it was of no importance to him.
“It’s not really something I give much thought to.” He responded. “If I don’t do this job, someone else will do it. So, I might as well earn the cash as the next guy.”
You are one lying son-of-a-bitch! Niko just about kept the words in her head, despite every temptation to spit them at the American.
Not for one minute did she believe he was unaffected by what was in the back of the truck, but he obviously didn’t think it would be a good idea for him to openly admit to it.
For all he knew, she fully supported her brother’s business activities, and would go running back to Ilya if he said anything against what they were doing.
“What do your friends think?” She asked. “You’re not all from the same backgrounds, so I wouldn’t have thought you’d have the same mind-set.”
“Honey, we’re all of one mind when it comes to doing our job.” Hollywood glanced sideways at her. “We’re here to do what we’re told, get back home, and spend our wages. We don’t make waves, and we don’t ask too many questions.”
Niko didn’t believe him for one second but decided to let the subject drop. She couldn’t really keep pushing him on it without revealing her own distaste for her brother’s activities.
“So, where exactly is it you’re from?” She asked out of curiosity. “With that Southern drawl, I’m guessing you’re not going to say Chicago.”
Hollywood’s chuckle was instant.
“Nope, not Chicago.” He agreed. “My family is from just outside of Mobile, Alabama, which is totally to blame for that accent you referred to, although if I do say so myself, I think the accent has been diluted from spending so many years away from home in the military.”
Niko had heard of Alabama, naturally, but knew nothing about Mobile.
“Can you tell me an interesting fact about your home town?” She asked. “What’s the first thing that comes to mind?”
“Rain.” Hollywood said instantly and then grinned. “Humidity and warm temperatures pretty much all year round, but we get as much if not more rainfall than any city in America.”
“Really?” She was surprised. “I thought rain was something that Seattle was famous for, not the gulf coast states. You surprise me.”
“Folks in Seattle like to make out they get all the rain, because it makes them sound interesting.” He grinned. “I mean, what else do you associate with Seattle besides rain, coffee, and Amazon HQ? Not exactly exciting, is it?”
“Apparently people don’t get much sleep there.” Niko kept her face straight until he turned to her with a look of confusion. “Or was that just Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan?”
As he realised what she meant, Hollywood grinned.
“Hah! Good one.” He conceded.
“So, what has Mobile got that keeps you going back home?” She asked. “Apart from a lot of rain.”
“My mom, for starters.” Hollywood grinned. “More specifically, my mom’s cooking. It’s unbeatable.”
“Ok, so you’re a mommy’s boy.” She grinned. “Good to know.”
Hollywood shrugged but didn’t seem to have taken offence.
“Fishing.” He continued. “Taking a boat out just as the sun is coming over the horizon, and then casting a line while cracking a few beers with some good old boys, before heading back home for some of the best sea-food you ever tasted. It’s possibly the best thing ever.”
“Sea-food cooked by your mother, right?” She teased.
“Naturally.” Hollywood smiled. “But then there’s Mardi Gras, if you like carnivals, and a few museums and shit like that.”
“You’re not so much into the cultural side of your hometown?” Niko laughed.
“Only when I’m trying to impress a woman. Then you’d be surprised how cultured I can become” Hollywood grinned. “So, what about you? Where are you from?”
“Near Moscow, originally. A small place just on the outskirts.” Niko explained. “We left when I was a teenager, when my father moved with his job. But I went back there to university a few years ago, to study English.”
“It worked.” Hollywood smiled. “Your English is near perfect, and with very little accent.”
“We speak it almost all the time, to keep from being understood by Ilya’s men. Most of them hardly speak English at all.” She admitted. “Ilya lived in London for years, so it became second nature to him. When I came to live with him after my parents died, I was already pretty fluent, so we just adopted it as our first language.”
“Is that where you met Roman’s father?” Hollywood asked quietly. “At the university?”
Niko nodded.
“He was in my class all the time we were there.” She confirmed. “But he only plucked up the courage to ask me out during our final year.”
“Why?” Hollywood glanced across at her. “You’re not that scary looking.”
Niko was surprised at his teasing.
“I’m not scary at all.” She huffed. “But the same can’t be said for my brother. Ilya took great delight in taking me back to campus every term, making sure all the guys saw who they’d be dealing with if they so much as stood close to me. As contraception went, it was very effective.”
“Until Roman’s father.” Hollywood pointed out.
“Yeah, until Vasili.” She agreed. “Ilya still scared the pants off him, but Vasili said I was worth the risk. He was wrong.”
Hollywood glanced across at her, obviously picking up on the sadness in her tone.
“Where is he now?” He asked. “Did your brother scare him off?”
“If only!” Niko couldn’t keep the hint of bitterness from her voice. “Ilya’s men paid Vasili a little visit. He’s never been seen since.”
Hollywood’s head shot around.
“What? Your brother had him knocked off just for getting you pregnant?” He gasped.
“God, no! I didn’t even know I was pregnant when Vasili disappeared.” Niko shook her head. “I think Vasili was killed by Ilya’s men just for dating me. That would be a typical warning as far as my brother was concerned.”
“Shit!” Hollywood whistled. “That’s just fucked up.”
“Yeah, it is.” She agreed. “Welcome to my life.”
“At least you have Drago now, to run interference with your brother.” Hollywood observed. “I assume Ilya gave his blessing, seeing as Drago is his right-hand man.”
Niko turned and stared at the American.
“Blessing for what?” She asked. “What interference?”
Hollywood glanced over at her.
“I assumed that Ilya knew about you and Drago being an item.” He shook his head. “If he doesn’t, I swear he won’t hear about it from me.”
“Drago?” Why had Niko’s voice gone up an octave? “What in God’s name made you think that there was something between me and Drago?”
“At the airport, when we walked through the doors, you were standing with Drago and he had his arms around you.” Hollywood pointed out. “It was a fairly reasonable assumption to make. At least I thought so.”
Niko snorted a laugh.
“And two seconds later, I had my arms wrapped around you, and you were swinging me around in circles.” She pointed out. “Does that mean you and I are engaged?”
Hollywood shook his head.
“You mean that was for the benefit of the airport police?” The penny had finally dropped. “You were trying to blend in.”
“Give the guy a cigar!” Niko rolled her eyes. “And Drago is Ilya’s man, first and foremost. Yeah, he and I get along Ok, and he’s been known to have my back when I’m struggling to get Ilya’s asshole thugs to do what I want them to, but that’s it. I don’t trust him with anything I don’t want Ilya to know, and you’d do wise to follow my lead.”
Hollywood nodded, his eyes focussed on the road ahead as Niko turned to stare out of the side window.
She’d exchanged more information with Hollywood than she’d ever shared with anyone, and she’d only known the guy a few hours.
Niko guessed that just showed how empty, sad, and pathetic her life was, that she would talk to any stranger that showed her the smallest kindness.
Soon, she thought, she’d be doing something about that. Very, very soon.