Wanda looked at me.
Squeezing my eyes shut, I took a breath. “We’re only talking terms, now, Catherine.”
“These are the terms of our mother’s imprisonment, Jessie,” she protested. “If your mother was alive—”
I winced.
“Wouldn’t you want to know her condition?”
“Wanda,” I said, “are you in charge of their mother’s captivity?”
“No,” she whispered, leaning forward, her eyes slightly wider than normal. She read the contempt in Cat’s glowing eyes, and I knew that in a moment Wanda might go for her gun.
“Then, Catherine, you cannot—can not—hold the terms of your mother’s captivity against Wanda. Do you understand?” I paused, praying it sank in. “No matter how she’s being held … Wanda’s not responsible. Tel me you understand, Cat.”
“I understand.” She bit off the words. It was something.
“Wanda.”
“She is in a twenty-by-twenty-by-ten cubicle in a secure facility. Nearby. She is provided with al the essentials and some of the comforts high-ranking political prisoners are granted.” She looked at me again. “That’s al I’m at liberty to say.”
Cat sighed. “Does she ever get to go outside? Can she see the moon or stars?”
“That’s al I’m at liberty to say,” Wanda repeated, Cat’s frustration shared.
“Can she be released?” Pietr. Asking the hard question.
“I do not have sufficient rank to warrant her release at this time.”
“Then why the hel are we al here?” Max snarled, baring his teeth. “She’s committed no crime, and she’s probably never seen a courtroom except on TV. She should be here. With her family.”
“I wish it was that easy.” Wanda stared at her fingers. “Technical y your family defected from the USSR
decades ago. You are U.S. citizens because you were born here, but she’s an il egal. If I push too hard, they could deport.”
“They’l be waiting for her in Russia,” Catherine said. Her head tilted, and she faced the room’s open door. “Da, Alexi?”
He stepped into the room, his dark hair disheveled, shirt buttoned wrong. I wondered how long he’d stood outside, uninvited but certainly not uninvolved. There were hol ows beneath his eyes where shadows nestled. Being labeled a traitor by his family wasn’t working wel for him. “Da. They’l be waiting to take any of us.” He tapped off his cigarette, letting the ash and embers fal into his open hand. He didn’t seem to notice the singeing of his flesh. “Better a jail in America than a hole in Siberia.”
“Okay.” I threw my hands into the air. “Then let’s leave it like this—visitation on Wanda’s terms.
Samples given the day of visitation, except for marrow and fur. That can be after a successful first visit.
Release can be discussed later.”
Alexi nodded. “Wonderful. Except we can’t stay.”
“What?” Wanda and I asked in unison.
“We wil shortly be out of money. The Mafia no longer supports us, and my skil s are—negligible
—anywhere but in a black-market economy.” He grinned like a ghost smiling up from a grave. “If we stay, we’l be on the street in under a month. What can your people do to keep us?”
we’l be on the street in under a month. What can your people do to keep us?”
Wanda flopped back onto the love seat and yanked on her ponytail. “Take five.” Cel phone in hand, she stepped out of the sitting room. The door to the porch opened and shut.
“Jessie,” Alexi muttered, sitting in the spot Wanda vacated. “You’re doing a good job, but why did Cat bring you into this?”
“We needed a mediator,” Cat said.
The strain in Alexi’s voice spil ed across his face. “You could have asked me,” he said.
“You would have sold us out al over again!” Max roared.
Alexi leaped up. “When did I first sel you out, brother? Tel me!” he demanded. “I stood beside you on the field of battle. I bled as you bled and when you face down the Devil you don’t even invite me to help?”
“I’m facing down the Devil right now,” Max snapped, eyes glowing, nose to nose with Alexi.
“Stop it!” Catherine shouted. “Both of you. Sit!”
Something in her tone brought them both down.
She rested her head in her hands, elbows on her knees. “This is precisely what I hoped to avoid by not inviting you, Alexi. By having Jessie take your place.”
I rose, crossing the room to stand beside Cat. Reaching over I gave her shoulder a squeeze.
“Our family is broken. Why must you boys rip it further apart?” Her head against my hip, she looked up at them, eyes damp and imploring.
Max grumbled and shoved his hands into his pockets. But Alexi stared at Cat as if seeing her for the first time.
“Eezvehneetyeh, Ekaterina,” he lowered his gaze. “I am so sorry … sorry for any part I played that hurt this family.”
And then he was gone.
Wanda reappeared in the doorway. “Why do I get the feeling I missed something big?”
“It was nothing,” Max growled. “Absolutely nothing.”
“Uh-huh.” She pocketed her cel phone. “Wel . The good news is we can see our way clear to grant you a stipend and, uhmm, specialized health care as government employees. The bad news is there’s no way it’l do everything the Mafia money did.”
“We’l take it,” Catherine said. “Jessie, thank you. Spahseebuh. I think you two had better go.” She grabbed my hand, yanking me down so we were eye to eye. “Things wil get better between you two,” she promised.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
When Wanda showed up announcing a spectacular sale on purses at the mal , I knew something was up.
Dad smiled, gave me cash like money didn’t matter, and wished us luck purse hunting. Annabel e Lee stayed curled on the couch, reading All the Pretty Horses as if she hadn’t been overlooked again.
I felt a twinge of sympathy for her. No one wanted to be forgotten, but I had a job to do.
“What’s going on?” I asked, climbing into the car.
“We have a delivery.”