Chapter Sixty-Seven
Dani
As I am sleeping, I am vaguely aware of how comfortable this bed is and how little my sleep is disturbed. I dream, but not the nightmares I usually have. I feel a slight weight on my fingers as I sleep, but there's nothing or no one there. I'm not scared though, which is unusual. I hear Eli's voice whisper, “I'm so sorry you had to go through this... I am so scared right now. I'm frightened I'm going to lose you. I need you to fight, Dani. I need you to be strong.......... I need you to have a chance at a good life. I can't imagine life without you.”
How is that possible? Eli isn't even here. Then his words sink in. He misses me? He can't imagine life without me? That can't be right. He hasn't known me long enough to not be able to live without me. He must just be scared and emotional right now. But Eli doesn't get scared or emotional, well, not really. He's good at controlling his emotions and working through things. He doesn't let his emotions consume him or take over his logical thinking. This isn't the Eli I've come to know. How am I supposed to make a decision now? If I stay with my parents, Eli will be sad. But if I leave my parents, they will be sad. I have missed them so much. Seeing them made me feel like my heart was going to explode out of sheer joy. But they don't know what I've done and what I've been through. To stay with them means I either have to tell them and deal with their shame or lie to them the whole time. There's no way I can live a lie forever, but I don't want to lose their favor or their pride. If I leave them I am going to miss them, like they've just died all over again. But can I live another lifetime without Eli like my poppa said?
I don't know what to do. I don't know which choice is best. Whichever choice I make, someone is going to get hurt; including myself. I suppose I have to decide which is going to hurt the least. I am going to have to live with that decision forever, so I need to think carefully about it. I need to speak to my poppa.
I fall into a dreamless sleep again and I wake to the smell of my momma's pancakes cooking. Cinnamon oatmeal pancakes, just like she used to make. I make my way downstairs slowly, and I hear my parents talking. It's my poppa's voice that stops me in my tracks, “Babochka,we can't make her stay. She has to decide for herself. She loves this man, even if she won't admit it. We can't tear her away from him. She has to choose where she wants to stay, not us.”
“But I missed her so much. Losing her will break my heart all over again...”
“I know, I know. How do you think this Eli is feeling right now? Do you think his heart isn't breaking as well? We have each other but who do they have? What if he never finds anyone else? No one can be as special as our Svetlyak. If she stays here, she will never find someone to make her happy. She will only be with us, and while that will make her pleased, it will never make her truly happy. Let her choose what she wants to do, without us influencing her decision.”
I wait a few minutes before walking into the kitchen. I don't want them to think I overheard. As soon as my poppa looks at me, he knows that I heard everything. However, he doesn't comment on it. He just says, “Let's eat breakfast and then I'll show you what I do with the horses, Danica.”
“Yes poppa.”
“I will collect the eggs and make a great lunch for us.”
I chuckle a little and whisper, “Chickens again, momma?”
“I love my chickens. The saddest thing I did in moving to the States was selling my chickens. They were good chickens...”
I chuckle again and my poppa joins in. My momma shoots us a mock annoyed look, but it's not long before she is laughing with us.
Ash
I don't get home until 2am. It's been nearly 24 hours since the Cap flashed me for the bomb scare, but it feels like a week has passed. I grab a quick shower and try to get a few hours sleep. As my head hits the pillow, the tears spill from my eyes. Tears for Eli and tears for Dani. That she had to go through everything and we weren't there to protect her. I also cry tears for myself, because the thought of losing Dani hurts. Despite not being very comfortable in my presence, she has wriggled her way into my heart. She has a special place set aside in my heart, but not just because of what she has been through. It's mainly because of who she is. She has a way of making you feel special without even trying and maybe that's because of what she's been through, but it has a way of making you want to be her friend. When my tears have dried, I fall asleep to grab a few hours before heading back to the precinct.
I'm awake again at 7am and the first thing I do is grab coffee before dialing Arrow's number.
“Scott? What's going on? I can't get LT. What's happening?”
I briefly update him, leaving out some specific details that he doesn't need to know.
I hear a deep sigh come from him and he says, “I feel awful. I should have known something wasn't right. I just thought they'd dropped a guy off or something...”
“It's not your fault. There's nothing you could have done. Your orders were to stay on Babkin and that's what you did.”
“How's Eli holding up?”
“Honestly? Not good. He's barely holding it together right now. If we lose Dani I don't even know what he's going to do. I can't think about that right now.”
“No. From what LT said, she's a fighter. She'll fight this. What do you need me to do now?”
“Stay on Babkin. I'm checking in with Greggson in a bit and I'll need you to make sure Babkin doesn't do a runner before Greggson's men can snatch him up.”
“Roger. I'm on it. I'm on him now. I'll check in with you later and keep me updated about LT & Dani.”
“Will do.”
I hang up and dial Greggson's number. This is a call I'm not looking forward to. I don't even know how I'm going to explain this without dropping Dani's history in there. I'll just have to do my best. It's up to Eli to make the decision to bring Dani's past into this. I'm not going to make that call.
As soon as Greggson picks up, I say, “Hi, Captain Greggson, I'm Sergeant Scott from the Midtown South SWAT team. I'm calling on behalf of Lieutenant Ramirez.”
“Hey, what can I do for you, son? Is Ramirez ok?”
“Not really. We've had an incident with one of our analysts and she's in a critical condition in Lenox Hospital...”
“What happened? Is this the analyst that helped with the Russian Bank case?”
“Yes sir. She was attacked by a group of men who we believe are Bratva. Babkin was seen going into and leaving her apartment around the time of the attack.”
“What?! By who?”
I sigh and decide I need to reveal some truth here, “We have a man on Babkin, have had for quite some time. Before we even knew you were involved in this. He saw Babkin arrive and leave the apartment in the time frame, but he didn't think anything of it because they were a man short when they left.”
“A man short?”
“Yes sir. We think our analyst shot one of them, so our guy tailing Babkin just assumed they'd dropped the man off. Our CSU team have an ID on the dead guy. He's been arrested before and has known ties to the Bratva. If you want to be read in on the investigation, you'll have to call Captain Michaels, I don't have all of the details yet because it only happened yesterday. I was at the hospital til nearly 2am.”
“And your man is still on Babkin?”
“Yes sir.”
“Right. I'll call your Captain now. Thank you for informing me, Sergeant. What's the word on your analyst?”
“It's not looking good, sir. We just have to wait and hope for the best.”
“I hope she pulls through.”
“Thanks.”
As soon as I hang up, I head to the precinct. I need to see what's going on with this investigation. When I step onto our floor, there's a flurry of activity but it's eerily quiet for a busy floor. It seems like everyone has heard that something has gone down and they aren't quite sure how to react. As far as they are concerned it's either a random attack or related to one of our investigations. When the Cap sees me, he sends me a stern look and grunts, “My office. Now.”
My heart does a little flutter, expecting bad news about Dani. I'm almost relieved when he says, “You've got a man on this Babkin guy?”
“Yes sir.”
“Do you know how stupid I felt when Captain Greggson called me and asked which one of my men is sitting on Babkin? I have no knowledge of this case and I'm being questioned by the Captain of another precinct. That doesn't look good, Ash. It looks like my guys are running their own investigations. What's going on? Who is this guy tailing Babkin?”
“He's an old Army buddy of mine and Eli's...”
The Cap's face changes, like he's just realized something.
“That son of a.... He should have told me! She's his CI?! Does he realize how much danger he put Dani in?!”
I sigh, “Yes sir, he knows. And it's not strictly his fault. He didn't really do this to her. They were already looking for her.”
I know Eli isn't going to be able to fill the Cap in anytime soon, so I decide to just tell him what I know.
“Read me in, Scott, and that's an order.”
I nod. “Basically, the Bratva had Dani. I don't know how long for, but I do know they did awful things to her. She managed to escape and scrape her life back together somewhat, but Babkin works with LT's brother, so he saw Dani at their parents' house one time. Since then we've had a tail on Babkin. Greggson has had him in for questioning a few times, but nothing has really come of it. I think he was hoping Babkin would lead him to some form of illegal activity so he could make something stick. Obviously, that hasn't happened. Our surveillance guy saw these guys going in to Dani's building, but didn't think anything of it, because they were a man down on the way out. He thought they'd just dropped him home or something. We know that Dani most likely shot him, which is why he didn't leave.”
“Obviously. Tom's finished processing the scene. He found her gun and early ballistics suggests it was Dani's gun that fired the shots. Rachael did test Dani's hands for gunshot residue, so from the early reports it would seem she did take the shots. I have to have full disclosure with Greggson on this. I'll try to keep the details of her history to a minimum, but I can't hinder his investigation.”
“From what I can tell, he doesn't have much of an investigation. Can I speak freely, sir?”
“Go on.”
“I think we should keep this in house. Greggson doesn't have enough to stick on Babkin, so if we can get something on him, then we should keep it here. Why should we give them our collar if we have the jurisdiction and the evidence? By all means, keep Greggson in the loop, but we should keep this here. That's providing we get incriminating evidence against Babkin...”
“I'm inclined to agree with you, but I need to run this by Greggson first. He'll be coming in soon. He wants to sit down and talk about the whole case. Ash, do you have the details on her time with the Bratva?”
“No sir. Eli wouldn't disclose that information, and I don't expect him to. At the end of the day, it's Dani's past and I have no reason to know. Whether or not he has to tell you or any other investigating officer, that I can't say. I'd like to think whoever it is will go a bit easy on him, seeing as the full details aren't really necessary in this investigation.”
The Cap nods and says, “I wish he'd told me. Maybe we could have prevented this.”
“Maybe, maybe not. She wouldn't have let anyone else in her house to help keep her safe and there's no way Eli could have missed this call out. If the bombs were a real threat, then we would have needed him. Thankfully, it was a hoax, but it could have been real just the same. Can I sit in with Greggson?”
“Not at first. I need to do some damage control. Will your surveillance guy come in to give us a statement?”
I shake my head, “Not a chance. Not until Babkin is brought in or LT calls him off. He won't obey anyone else's orders and he won't risk losing Babkin. You need to find evidence and get Babkin in before he'll even think about stepping down. Eli needs to make that call though. Arrow won't listen to anyone else's stand down command.”
“Loyal to a fault, huh?”
“You have no idea. Eli saved his life a few times, so he'll die for him if he has to.”
“Understood. Go brief the team and I'll speak to Greggson. I'll call you in later.”
As I leave the Cap's office, I find Cain and Ben at Dani's desk.”
Cain raises his eyebrows and asks, “Is it true?”
“Get the team and meet me in the briefing room.”
As Cain and Ben walk away, I hear Ben say, “It must be true. I heard some of the guys talking on the way in...”
I grab coffee and head to the briefing room, dreading this. Eli always deals with these kinds of meetings. I take a deep breath as the guys take seats and I ask Cam to shut the door.
“Right, Ramirez will be on leave until further notice, so I'll be running the team until he returns...”
Cain blurts out, “Is he ok?”
“I'm going to tell you guys this under the strictest confidence. The information I give you in here doesn't leave this room, understood?”
I get signals of agreement, so I continue, “Dani was attacked in her home yesterday while we were at Grand Central. The details are a bit sketchy at the moment, and we are trying to find out exactly what happened, but we have a feeling it's to do with the Russian bank case she assisted on a while ago.”
“Why would they go after her?”
“She translated for the Cap and she helped Organized Crime with some parts of the case. It doesn't really matter how or why they went after her. The fact remains that they did and she's in critical care at the moment. That's why Ramirez isn't here. He's dealing with that. I don't know when he'll be back, but until then I'm your CO. We've got a routine security detail this morning, and a raid this afternoon. The Cap wants us to run training as well, so we'll fit that in before the raid....”
I carry on briefing them about the security detail, handing out their orders. I'm just finishing up when the Cap calls for me. When I walk into his office, I assume the visitor sitting in front of his desk is Captain Greggson.
He shakes my hand and the Cap says, “Scott, this is Captain Greggson. Clint, this is Sergeant Ash Scott. You spoke with him earlier.”
“I wish we were meeting under better circumstances, Captain Greggson.”
“Me too, son. Any further news?”
“No sir. Just a waiting game. She must have made it through the night; we would have heard otherwise.”
“Your Captain has briefed me on what you have so far. I think you've got a better case than us to be honest. I'd love to get this guy, but it would seem like you have more to work with. I would like to be part of the arrest and interrogation though, if that works for you guys.”
I nod, silently thankful that we can deal with this ourselves. I turn to the Cap and ask, “Who's investigating?”
“Baker and Jones. They'll be heading to the hospital to take Eli's statement later on.”
“Right. I won't be able to get to the hospital until tonight. Are they arresting Babkin today?”
“No. We need to find evidence that he was actually in the house first. We can't risk turning him loose again. Just seeing him leaving the scene won't be enough for a slippery guy like him. I'll check in with Rachel and Tom later and see what they have. You ok to run point on the team?”
“Yes sir. I'm on it. Thank you Captain Greggson. We'll keep you in the loop.”
I leave both Captains to carry on talking as I prepare to start what feels like what will be a very long day.