“Only partially.” He sighs. “She directed me to you.”
“To me? Does it pertain to one of my cases?”
“Apparently. Her grandfather. According to Natasha, you deported him and thereby ruined his life. I’m trying to learn more about it and I have a private investigator on the trail now. I just wondered if you had any recall…”
“Do you perchance know the name?”
“No. Not yet. Her name is Yenin but I highly doubt they kept the same name if they shared one. She told me there were people back in the mother country who were only too glad to welcome him home. She claims now, after they seriously injured him, he’s left in a persistent vegetative state.”
“Well, I had a multitude of cases involving some nasty pieces of work from the Russian mob element, I can tell you. It could be any one of them. Can you get me the name and I’ll do a bit of research?”
“Sure. I’ll have my investigator poke around and see what he can come up with. Then I’ll get back to you. Did they ever catch the guy who ran your car off the road?”
“No. One would think with all the camera surveillance everywhere one goes these days, it would be easy to find anyone. The price we pay for safety is not buying us all that much of it. The police continually inform me they have leads but I don’t believe them. Why? Do you think it could be connected to your Natasha?”
The possibility strikes him like a left hook, a sudden revelation that causes his guts to seize up. “God, Grandpa, it didn’t even cross my mind. I truly hope not.” Silence drops over the phone line on both ends as each man contemplates the possibility. Ian is the first to speak again. “Just to err on the side of safety, you should be extra cautious at least until I get more information.”
“I’m always cautious, Ian, but I will bear it in mind. Please get me the name as soon as you have it.”
“I will, Grandpa. Please take care of yourself and Sarah.”
After the conversation with his grandfather, Ian understands his dire necessity for more information—and lightning fast. He also needs Ella to remain safe. Knowing how stubborn she can be, he realizes that he must impress upon her the gravity of the situation: the Russian mob is not something with which to tangle and walk away whole. He’ll have to be truthful with her… again. This candor rests uneasily with a man used to keeping things extremely close to the vest but he’ll just have to breathe through the discomfort. He laughs to himself as he recalls telling his sexual partners the very same every time he’d deliver erotic pain to them during the course of their play. Breathe through it. Well, he’d do well to take his own advice.
He picks up the phone. “Scott, Blackmon. I’ll need the plane for a trip to New York. We leave in the morning for two days. Any problems? Very good; I’ll see you in the a.m.” He buzzes his assistant next. “Claudia, I want you to pull the report we ran on Lucien Phillips. Copy it and leave the original in the file. Bring me the copy as soon as you have it. Thank you.” He doesn’t wait for a reply before he disconnects.
“Ella,” he snuggles up to her back, sweeping her long hair away from her neck so he could nuzzle it.
“Mmm. Stop that,” she mutters into her pillow, “or I’m not going to let you go to work on time.”
He coos, as he relentlessly kisses and sucks the sensitive areas of her neck and throat. “Promise?”
She whips around, encircling his neck with both arms and hitches one leg around his waist. “Promise. Now what?”
Reluctant to share his news, he distracts her by leaning in closer to kiss her. He’d rather stay in bed with Ella all day, only getting up for necessities. But Scott was already at the hangar, readying the plane for the trip. “I have to make a quick trip to New York.”
Ella unravels herself from him and sits up in a flash, a thousand questions flashing across her face in milliseconds. “Why?”
Frowning, he internally debates the wisdom of telling her too much truth. She’ll worry herself sick and she may try to accompany him. Wouldn’t it be better to prevaricate this one time? Or perhaps lie by omission? “I have to meet with someone, Ella. I’ll be back by no later than tomorrow evening.”
“With whom are you meeting, if I may be so bold to ask?”
His eyes flare with amusement. “Tsk, tsk, so suspicious, aren’t we? It’s not a woman, I assure you. Now…what about that delaying tactic you promised?” He yanks her back down; she lands with a thud onto his chest and his fast hands begin to roam.
“Oh, no you don’t, Blackmon. First tell me whom you’re meeting with and then you can distract me.”