Chapter 5

Raven nodded at him. “We can’t afford any mistakes and lifting Yuri’s wallet was a mistake. We both need to stay under the radar. If we watch ourselves, we can make it. We changed our last name, now we just have to fit in.” She gripped his hands tighter. “Nicky, we can make it together if we can just stay out of trouble.”

He flopped back in the chair. “I get it, I get it. No more stealing,” he grumbled.

“I didn’t mean to come across like that.” Raven closed her eyes. “I just don’t want anything to happen to you. I don’t know if I would survive without you.”

“It’s been you and me against the world since we were kids,” Nicky noted the obvious. “I don’t know what I would do without you either. I guess you’ve been watching out for me since I was born.”

Raven grinned. “Yeah, that’s true, but I’d do it all again, if I had to.”

Nicky glanced at the clock. “You’d better get some rest. It’s late and you have to get up for work soon.”

“Yeah…” She yawned. “I have the early shift at the restaurant.”

Nicky watched her move to her bedroom and when she closed the door, he reached inside his pocket and took out a small brass key. It had fallen out of Yuri’s wallet and for some reason, he’d stuck it in his pocket. He should probably have returned it but he didn’t. He shrugged his shoulders…It probably wasn’t that important anyway.

Meanwhile, across town…

Yuri growled when the wallet didn’t show any prints, not even his own. His money was gone too. Someone had taken it from his pocket and then returned it. Even if it had been returned, he wanted to know who and why. When his cell rang, he was distracted enough not to check the ID before he answered, “Hello.”

“Yuri, this is Nikoli. I’m coming to see you in a couple of days.”

Yuri straightened his shoulders a bit. “Of course, Nikoli. Has it been almost a year already?”

“Da, it has been. Has anything changed at all?”

“No but we’ll review it again, maybe there is something we missed. We’ll get word out on the street and see what pops up. She has to be out there somewhere.”

“But where?” Nikoli growled. “We’ve been searching for the bitch for almost twenty years now and we haven’t found any trace of her. Every single lead we do get, never pans out. Not one single sighting of her or the boy. Makes me wonder if either of them are still alive.”

“You can’t think like that,” Yuri hurried to assure him. “They’re out there somewhere and we will find them both.”

Nikoli sighed. “Perhaps, perhaps not. We haven’t found them yet and it’s been too long. I fear we’ll never find either of them, not alive anyway.”

“We’ll find them,” Yuri assured his boss. “Both of them and if she’s hurt the boy, she will pay.” He hesitated then reminded the other man, “We did find her mother a few years ago.”

Nikoli scoffed, “Da, I remember and look how that turned out.”

Yuri closed his eyes. “I know that we weren’t expecting her heart problems but she did tell us she hadn’t seen her daughter in a number of years.”

“Yet another dead end.” Nikoli growled. “That’s all we have is dead ends. I’m tired of not knowing whether my son is dead or still alive.” He growled again. “I want that bitch found and turned over to me. I guarantee she’ll talk to me.”

“When the time is right, we’ll find her. I honestly believe that.” Yuri tried to calm him down a bit.

“After twenty years, I doubt that very much. It’s been too long already,” Nikoli told him. “I’ll be there in two days.”

“I’ll be ready.” Yuri ended the call and glanced over at his security guys. “Go through the tapes for today. I want to know when and who lifted my wallet and I want to know who broke into my home. I want answers and I want them before the sun comes up.” He looked over to his bodyguards, Kosta and Stephanou, then nodded at the door. 

When they joined him outside, he told them, “Nikoli is on his way here. We need to update our files on Andria Waterson. Check through everything and run the programs to search for her.”

“I cannot believe we will find her, not after this long.” Kosta shook his head.

“It does seem unlikely,"Yuri agreed. “What ever happened to the baby? Is he still alive or did he die all those years ago? Nikoli just wants to know what happened and to find that, we must find the woman.”

“After almost twenty years, it will take a miracle to find her,” Stephanou cautioned.

Yuri nodded. “Then let’s pray for a miracle.”

Kosta nodded. “I’m not sure I would have handled it this well. Anyone who messes with my family would be hunted down right away.”

“As did Nikoli but Andria had a plan in motion from the moment she took that baby,” Yuri explained. Nikoli was heartbroken when his wife died and he didn’t receive word about his son for several hours after he was taken. The night his son was born, several other women had babies as well, so everyone was too busy to notice a woman had come into the neonatal part of the hospital and simply walked away with one of the newborns. She was dressed as a nurse so no one paid her any mind. It was only by reviewing the security tapes that we found her. We have been searching for her since that time.”

“That’s insane.” Kosta shook his head.