Part 28 (1/2)
I nodded.
”And he was explicit.”
”Couldn't have been clearer-give them the cross and a a baby, and they forget all about you.” baby, and they forget all about you.”
She'd pulled into herself, her knees up to her chest, bare feet clutching the couch cus.h.i.+on. Pulling the hair off her face should have made her features sharper and less vulnerable, but it managed to have the opposite effect. She looked like a child again. A petrified child.
”Did you believe him?”
I said, ”I believe he believed it. Whether he can float it past Kirill and his wife, that's another issue.”
”This all started because Kirill saw a picture of Sophie. That's one of the”-she looked down the couch-”services Dre provides, the pictures. Kirill and Violeta saw Sophie, and I guess she looked like Violeta's younger sister or something and, from that point, they wanted Sophie's baby, no one else's.”
”So it might be more complicated than Yefim lets on.”
”It's always more complicated,” she said. ”How old are you you?”
I gave that a small smile.
Amanda looked down the couch at Dre, who sat there like a dog waiting for her to say ”park” or ”supper.”
”Even if he could supply another baby, wouldn't we be doing the same thing-giving a child over to two psychopaths?”
I nodded.
”Can you live with that?”
I said, ”I came here to find you and get Sophie out of their hands. That's as far as I've thought.”
”How nice for you.”
”Hey, Amanda? People who live in gla.s.s houses with kidnapped babies shouldn't throw stones.”
”I know, it's just that it sounds so much like the kind of logic that sent me back to Helene twelve years ago.”
”I'm not playing this record right now. You want to hash all that s.h.i.+t out at some quieter time, I'll be your Huckleberry. But right now we need to get them this Belarus Cross and, if possible, convince them we'll get them another baby.”
”And if we can't?”
”Get them another baby?”
She nodded.
”I don't have a clue, but I do know the cross will buy us time. It's supposed to be on display in Kirill's house by Sat.u.r.day night. If it's not there, I have no doubt they'll kill all of us, my family included. We get it to them, though, it'll buy us another couple of days on the baby issue.”
Angie's eyes had widened and she glared at me.
”Sounds good to me,” Dre said.
”I'm sure it does,” Amanda said. She turned back to me. ”What if they renege? All Yefim has to do is figure out where I am, and there's not too many places for me to hide. You found us in one morning. What's to stop him from getting the cross and then coming right up the road for the baby?”
”His word that he wouldn't is all I got to go on.”
”And you'd take it-the word of an a.s.sa.s.sin who goes all the way back to the Solntsevskaya Bratva in Moscow?”
”I don't even know what that is,” I said.
”A gang,” she said, ”a brotherhood. Think the Crips or the Bloods with military discipline and connections going all the way to the top of the Russian oil conglomerates.”
”Oh.”
”Yeah. That's where Yefim got his start. And you'll take his word?”
”No,” I said. ”I won't. But what's our alternative?”
After a couple of tentative yelps, the baby started crying full-force. We could hear her on the monitor and we could hear her through the door. Amanda slid off the couch and slipped on her flats. She took the monitor with her into the bedroom.
Dre took another drink from his flask. ”f.u.c.k-ing Russians.”
”Why don't you slow down?” I said.
”You were right.” He took another drink. ”Earlier.”
”About what?”
He ground the back of his head into the couch, his eyes rolling back toward the bedroom door. ”Her. She doesn't like me very much, I don't think.”
”Why's she with you, then?” Angie asked.
He exhaled up toward his own eyes. ”Even Amanda, cool as she is, needs help with a newborn. Those first couple weeks? You're going to the supermarket every five minutes-diapers, formula, more diapers, more formula. The kid's up every ninety minutes, wailing. Ain't much in the way of sleep or freedom.”
”You're saying she needed a gofer.”
He nodded. ”But she's got the hang of it now.” He let loose a soft and bitter chuckle. ”I thought when we first met, you know, here's my shot-an innocent girl, untouched, uncorrupted, of blazing blazing intelligence. I mean, she can quote Shaw, she can quote Stephen Hawking, she's so cool she can quote intelligence. I mean, she can quote Shaw, she can quote Stephen Hawking, she's so cool she can quote Young Frankenstein, Young Frankenstein, get into a debate with you on quantum physics and the lyrics to 'Monkey Man' on the same night. She likes Rimbaud and Axl Rose, Lucinda Williams and-” get into a debate with you on quantum physics and the lyrics to 'Monkey Man' on the same night. She likes Rimbaud and Axl Rose, Lucinda Williams and-”
”This going to go on for a while?” Angie said.
”Huh?”
I said, ”It sounds like you thought you could mold Amanda into your very own Nexus 6 model of every chick who dumped on you in high school.”
”No, it wasn't like that.”
”It was exactly like that. This version wouldn't take a s.h.i.+t on you, she'd adore you. And you could sit up all night and give her your rap about Sigur Ros or the metaphorical significance of the rabbit in Donnie Darko Donnie Darko. And she'd just bat her eyes and ask where you'd been all her life.”
He looked down at his lap. ”Hey, f.u.c.k you,” he whispered.