Danger Woman by Frederick Ramsay Page A

His shirttail hung out of his pants. He had a red mark under his eye that was an hour away from becoming a magnificent shiner, and his knuckles were raw.
    â€œJesus, Harry, what the hell were you doing?”
    â€œGreshenko,” he said, “Do you know a big guy, maybe had a mother who was a silverback ape or maybe a buffalo? Oh, and maybe this guy really doesn’t like you?”
    â€œI hate to admit it, but I know a lot of people like that. Why?”
    â€œWell, this one is duct-taped to one of your blackjack tables, Mr. Painter. Jesus, did he have a left hook.”
    â€œAre you going to tell us what happened, or what?”
    Harry sat and took the damp cloth Leo handed him. He dabbed at his eye, and told them that he’d remembered he’d left his profile papers and passport in his room. He’d retrieved them and was crossing the parking lot when the door of a van slid open and this goon tried to haul him in. Instead, he’s managed to drag the guy out and they’d had a scuffle.
    â€œBy the looks of that eye, I’d say it was more than a scuffle,” Leo said.
    â€œYeah, well…anyway, so before I slapped the tape over his mouth, I asked who he was. He says he was going to kill me the next time we meet and I says that will be never because he’s going to jail. He is, isn’t he? I hate to think he’d be roaming the streets. So, anyway, like I said, we danced a two-step and I had to tune him up some. When your cop shows up, he might want to have some face time with that dude. Where is the cop, by the way?”
    â€œLate. Yuri, you might want to have a word with the man taped to the table. Maybe he would be better used to send a message back to Lenka. Modise would love to have this guy, but if we hand him over, the connection between us and the cops will be blown.”
    â€œHe and I will have a chat. You got it right, Leo. If we give him to the cops, even if we make it look like the cops arrested him, not us, Lenka will know and we’re cooked. No, if we are going to be the people we pretend to be, this guy will have to go back to him in a Bratva way. We need to make sure Lenka knows that we mean business. He won’t be happy. Maybe it will make him move sooner than later, huh? You call Modise and tell him what we got here and what we’re doing. I’ll be having my talk with the man. Did he say what his name was?”
    â€œI asked and he just growled at me. Weird.”
    â€œGrowled?”
    â€œYeah, grrrr…Like that.”
    â€œYou know what you just did, Harry?”
    â€œGrowling?”
    â€œNo, to the man. If what you just said is what I think you said and I’m right about what that means, you just took out one of the most dangerous people in the whole Bratva nation. His name is Alexei Grelnikov but people know him as Gur, like grrrr. He is for hire and specializes in dismantling people on spec. Lenka has imported some very dangerous muscle.”
    â€œGood thing I didn’t know. He might have taken me, given that reputation. You know what they say, ‘ignorance is bliss,’ though, I don’t know, anybody who leads with a right in this day and age has to be less than current fighting-wise, you know.”
    Leo called Modise and asked where he was, and told him what had happened and what they planned to do. Then he listened and shook his head.
    â€œWon’t work, Modise. If you toss this guy in the clink, Lenka will figure it out. If we are going to act like bad guys, we have to play by their rules. Lenka would not call you if the situation were the reverse, if Yuri had sent the goon. He would have used him as a messenger or killed him on the spot. It’s going to be close as it is. A real Bratva cell would mess him up a lot worse. Cut out his tongue, broken most of his bones. Something like that, and dumped him near to death on our doorstep. No, we’ll do it our way.”
    He hung up. “Modise