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They moved into the lobby of the bank and Yuri stepped up to speak to the manager. After a few minutes the manager came over to Jaden and asked her some questions. Then he led the way to the safety deposit boxes. He asked her to place her hand on a scanner and when it recorded the patterns of her hand and they got the green light he allowed her access to the box her mother left.
He wasn’t sure everyone had to be in the room but when Jaden okayed it, so he retrieved the box and left the room. As soon as he closed the door, Jaden lifted the lid of the box and everyone peered inside.
There was a file folder and as she picked it up she thumbed through it. Inside was her birth certificate. As she scan the certificate she noted her real name was Jaden Anja Gibbons. She was born on July 11th, 1997. As they hadn’t known her true date of birth they gave her the birthday of August 2 or the date they found her sitting next to her mother. They listed her mother’s name as Jazzy Gibbons but no father was listed at all.
There were several letters in the file as well but they were written in what looked like Russian so she couldn’t read them. Setting the file aside, she picked up a small box and opened it. Not knowing what it was she handed it to Nikoli.
He looked at the item in the box and gasped.
“What is it?” she asked.
“This is the second part to the necklace to the one have back in your room. Sergi will be happy to get it back whole.”
She picked up another bag and frowned when she opened it. Inside were stacks of money. She looked uneasy as she dropped it on the table and it spilled out all over the place. All the bills were hundred dollar bills and there must have been thousands there.
“I think we need to take all of this back to the hotel with us and go over it carefully,” Yuri suggested quietly. “This is a lot to take in all at once.” He’d taken note of the dazed expression on her face.
Iosif had noted it as well. Jaden looked positively shaken but all of this. He pulled her close. “Are you ok?” he whispered in her ear.
“I don’t think so,” she murmured. Her eyes were still dazed and she was beginning to feel a chill in the air.
Iosif looked over at his brother and asked, “Can you guys grab this stuff? I think Jaden needs some fresh air.”
Roman nodded and took stock of Jaden’s condition. “Of course.” He looked over at Kosta and nodded at the other man to go with them and keep them safe.
Iosif led her out of the tiny room and outside the bank.
Kosta followed and kept his eyes on the street, looking for any danger.
Iosif walked her around for a moment then noted her color returning. “Feeling better?”
“Not really,” she whispered. “But I’ll get by I guess.” Raising her fingers to her temples she rubbed them. “I think I’m getting a migraine.” She looked over at him and asked, “Is this for real?”
Iosif smiled slightly and nodded. “I think it is very real.”
“But what does it all mean?” she wondered out loud. “Where the bloody hell did she get all that money? There must have been thousands hidden in that box. Mrs. Bradley told me we lived in a high crime area and she had all that money all this time? That’s insane.”
“Not if she was hiding from her killer, it wouldn’t be,” Iosif reasoned. “She ran away for a reason. Maybe when we look at all the paperwork she left behind we’ll find out what that reason was. But first, we have to get you back to the hotel and have the time to look it over.”
Jaden nodded. “Ok let’s get everyone together and head back.” She turned and saw the men coming out of the bank.
Nikoli had a large bundle in his hands and as one, they moved over to the car and got in.
A few minutes later, the car pulled in to the underground parking lot.
Moments later they entered the apartment Iosif and Jaden were sharing.
Nikoli took his bundle over to the kitchen table and placed it carefully down on the wooden surface.
“Now what?” Jaden asked. “Where do we start?”
“I think we should find out if the two pieces of the necklace fit together,” Nikoli suggested. Opening the bundle, he plucked the small box holding the smaller piece out and held out his hand for the necklace part. When Iosif handed him the necklace he fit the second piece into the first part and it fit.
Jaden sat down hard and stared at the necklace. She had no idea of the enormity of what the necklace represented to her but suddenly she felt her whole life was a big fat lie. She had no idea what would happen when this Sergi character got here but she was stunned by what she’d found out about her mother today.
She took the file and began looking through the papers in there. This was little bits and pieces of her mother’s life and as each unfolded, she got to know her mother for the first time in her life.
Toward the back of the file was a confession of sorts. Her mother had written down what happened all those years ago when she had been snatched off the streets in a country far away.
Her eyes blurred with tears at the hand written words on the paper. She’d written how a stranger had grabbed her and put a towel over her face, how she smelled something sweet and it made her sleepy. The next thing she knew she was waking up on a plane over the Atlantic. He drugged her again and the next time she woke up she was in a small apartment in Baton Rouge.
The man who took her told her his name was Walter and that he owned her now. She was told he wouldn’t hurt her as long as she did everything he told her to do. She was there because her brother owed a debt to him and she was payment of that debt. She wrote about how Walter could be good to her and how evil he was at times.
Jaden’s heart broke as she read the hell her mother went through at Walter’s hands. The five page letter ended with the year before she was born.
How she worked in the strip club and how much she grew to hate him when he began pimping her out to his elite clientele including one man who came in under the guise of mask. She never knew who he was until the night Walter interrupted them with a gun in his hand. He argued with the other man then ended up shooting him. He made her take the gun so her fingerprints would be found on it, not his. Then he told her if she ever thought about leaving him he would use the gun against her with the police. They would believe anything he told them as he was paying them a lot of money for protection.
Her mother explained that she had no choice but to run when she found she was pregnant. Walter never would have allowed her to have her baby and she wanted her child. She only hoped and prayed she would be alive to watch her child grow up.
Jaden dropped the letter on the table, got up and walked down the hall to the bedroom. She couldn’t speak to anyone right now and she just needed time to absorb everything she had learned that day. She laid down on the bed and cried herself to sleep.
Iosif watched her leave and would have gone after her but Roman laid his hand on his shoulder. “Maybe she needs a moment.”
Iosif stared down the hall for a moment and decided maybe Roman was right. He turned to Nikoli and asked, “How long until Sergi gets here?”
Nikoli checked his watch and shrugged. “Maybe a couple of hours yet. They should be getting close to the American border by this time.” He looked down the hall at the closed bedroom door. “Is she going to be all right?”
“I’m not sure,” Iosif admitted. “I think all this is too much for her to take in.”
Nikoli scoffed. “Da. It would be a lot for anyone to take in. When Sergi reads everything his cousin went through, he is going to go after this Walter Franks with everything he’s got and it isn’t going to end well for Mr. Franks, I’m afraid.”
“Good but before he begins, he has to know all the players.” Iosif growled. “Everyone who helped this man get away with this murder needs to feel Sergi’s wrath. If Sergi can’t do it then I will.”
Nikoli laughed. “Do not underestimate how long Sergi’s arm is... even over here.”
Yuri nodded. “Especially, when he finds out Walter Franks is married to Helene Vogalan.”
Iosif’s eyes widened at his announcement. “Are you certain about that?”
Yuri nodded. “Oh yes, I’m sure. We’ve been watching her very carefully for the last several years. It’s been rumored that she runs a designer drug trade through her Baton Rouge business but we’ve never been able to track it to her. She is as vicious as her father and grandfather back home.”
Everyone back home knew the Ukraine head of state was a bastard of a man. He ruled with fear and intimidation at his hand and also, he wasn’t afraid to use either one. They had minded their way around him and had never given him a reason to pick a fight but they also hadn’t allowed him to run over them either. There was a certain respect among those in power. As well as an unwanted chance of fighting a war no one would win.
“So we have a kidnapper and possible killer married to a drug lord...” Iosif shook his head. “And Walter Franks is Jaden’s father and is willing to kill her simply because she exists. She’s his own kid for Christ’s sake and he almost killed her once. Now he’s back for a second chance.”
“Nyet...Sergi will never let that happen,” Yuri told him. “In fact, I’m pretty sure he’ll want to take her back to Russia with him. She is his family after all.”
Iosif felt dread settle in his belly. He wasn’t sure what this would mean for them both but he didn’t want to lose her now.
Walter slammed the phone down on the desk and let loose a string of curses. Victor opened the door to his office and quickly checked the room.
“Boss, are you all right?” Victor asked as he entered the room.
“That fucking little pile of shit just demanded a half a million dollars for the whereabouts of my daughter.” Walter growled through gritted teeth. “He found her and now he wants his payday before he’ll tell me where she is.”
Victor picked up his phone and dialed a number. When the call was answered he issued a common order and hung up. A moment later, his phone pinged and Victor checked the phone. He lifted his eyes and smiled. “Got him.”
Walter Franks reached out and snatched a cigar from his desk. Snipping the end, he placed the tobacco tube in his mouth and took his time in lighting it. A cloud of sweet smelling smoke surrounded his head as he peered through it to look at his security man. “Go find him, get the information I need and then put a bullet right between his fucking eyes. Oh, and make it hurt first. Let the little bastard learn what it’s like to feel the pain of an interrogation from the big boys.”
Victor’s smile grew wider and strangely, he licked his lips at the thought of putting a hurt on Billy Jo. This was one part of his job he really enjoyed. He looked down at his scarred hands and remembered the broken bones and torn flesh over the years that caused those same scars.
He loved the smell of blood in the air and he relished the scent of Billy Jo’s blood staining his hands.
Victor turned to leave the office when Walter issued one last order, “Bring me his tongue. I promised my dog a treat this week.”