The Shepherd's Crook Pt. 01

They moved to the front seats when they saw the coast was clear and she drove them back into the city. As they approached the bank, Liliya hissed between her teeth in frustration. The police were parked before the building. She turned off onto a side street and pulled over.

"What do we do now?"

Ben's stomach rumbled. "We eat," he said with a small smile.

-=-

It was late afternoon when Trish slipped into the dining area of the restaurant from the kitchen. Ben surged out of his chair and pulled her into his arms. Once he'd hugged her, his lips found hers, and he fed his passion and relief into the kiss.

Trish moaned in pleasure and a little discomfort. After surrendering to his kiss, she pulled back gently. "Easy big guy! Don't squeeze too hard; I'm pretty bruised." Her eyes moved to the side to see Liliya sitting at Ben's table. She immediately bristled. "What the FUCK is she doing here?!?"

Ben gently touched her chin to tilt her face back to look at him. "It's complicated. She's not the enemy, but we still have one. Did you bring my cell?"

She handed him his phone then sat down opposite the blonde who looked back at her calmly with just a hint of a smile at the corners of her lips.

Trish addressed Ben. "I didn't tell the police about the safe deposit box as the lead detective inspired no fucking confidence. He seemed the shoot first, check for hostages second kind of asshole. I told them I'd been kidnapped to get to you, but I'd freed myself when Darius decided to get a little rough. I said I wasn't sure if he'd contacted you before I took him out."

"What happened to Milonas?" Liliya asked quietly.

"After you two left, his male ego was offended by Ben's warning, so he decided to prove what a man he was by beating me up."

"Oh my god! I'm so sorry, Trish!" Ben gasped.

She held up her hand with a grin. "No, it was perfect. You made it possible for me to go one on one with Darius. The arrogant prick couldn't conceive of losing to me. Sent the guard away to prove he didn't need any protection and we went hand to hand." She glanced over at the Russian blonde whose smug little smile had slipped away.

"You fought him barehanded? I saw him fight. Brutal! I would not do it," Liliya leaned forward to say to the woman across from her.

"Yeah, he connected a few times and fuck, did he hit hard! I've got the bruises to prove it." Then she grinned wickedly. "But the idiot let me guide him over to where I could get my hands on a wooden broom handle. Once I had that, I took him apart."

Ben grinned at the readhead's vicious glee. She'd gotten her revenge.

"You killed him?" Liliya asked quietly.

Trish shook her head. "No, I think the fall down the elevator shaft did that."

Liliya snorted explosively in surprise and lifted a napkin to cover her face in embarrassment. Trish grinned at her.

"What about the guard?" Ben asked.

Trish's smile dimmed a little. "Yeah..." She took a deep breath as she paused. "I had to shoot him with Darius' gun." She shook her head. "I dropped his body over the railing, so he hit the ground near the remaining guards. I waved the machine gun to them, and they booked."

"Booked?" Liliya asked.

"Ran away like the little bitches they are," she said with a smile.

Ben shook his head in amazement at Trish and kissed her hand, getting a loving smile for that. He returned to a search on his cell and found the man. "Yuri Gruzinsky," he mumbled then clicked on the images search so he could show Trish an image of the man who was potentially a threat to him and his family.

"This is the face of our new enemy," he said to Trish as he showed her the image.

There were some pictures of the man at his factories and refineries. There were also some images of him at charity functions. One caught his eye, and he zoomed in. Yuri was standing next to a man who Ben recognized, Nikolai Noskov. His lovely wife Galena stood at his side. He turned the cell's screen to Liliya who looked at it with interest.

"Yuri and Nikolai Noskov know each other?" Ben asked her.

Liliya nodded. "Rivals. Fierce. Much hated." She paused then looked into Ben's eyes. "Yuri arranged Noskov twins kidnapping."

"WHAT?!?" Ben roared, and both women grabbed an arm to calm him and pull him back down in his chair. The other customers were looking at them in interest. "Sorry," he grumbled once he got control back. He looked to the blonde and saw her nodding.

"Nikolai beat Yuri for a big contract. Mining gold. For revenge, Yuri stole children and sold to a slaver. He said, will sell Rose too if I disobey."

"Who's Rose?" Trish asked.

Liliya looked at Trish. "My daughter."

"Shit," Trish growled then glanced at Ben. They shared a look.

"According to Liliya, since we picked up a very sensitive item from the safe deposit box that Yuri wants, he'll put the ones I love in danger until he gets it. Not sure if that threat goes away once he does." He stood up. "I have to make a quick call."

As he walked off, Trish turned to look at Liliya. Her expression hardened. "I want you to know, if you're playing on Ben's white knight syndrome, I will personally kick your ass twice as hard as I did Darius'. And you fucking better have a daughter named Rose who needs rescuing!"

Liliya blinked at the fierce creature sitting across from her. She pulled out her cell and opened her photo album to search until she got to the selfie she took holding her daughter in her arms. She handed the cell to Trish who looked at it cautiously. Once she saw the young girl, Trish could no longer maintain her scowl, and her expression softened. "Damn... she's so beautiful. What a sweetie," she said gently.

Silent tears ran down Liliya's cheek as she nodded. Trish handed the phone back and held her hand.

Ben returned and saw Liliya's tears. He glanced to the image on the phone, and his heart lurched in his chest. He shared another look with Trish then collected himself.

"Nikolai's secretary informed me that he's at a family gathering but will call me first thing in the morning," he said.

Liliya's eyes widened when a light came on behind them. "You rescued his daughters!"

He shifted uncomfortably. "Yes, but I'm not calling in a favor. He needs to know who put his daughters in that horrific situation and he may have advice on how to deal with the threat Yuri represents. They travel in the same circles. This is way outside my experience. I'm just a simple mechanical engineer."

Liliya snorted in amusement again, and Trish grinned with her. The redhead shared a look with the amused and skeptical blonde.

"Ben has a cockeyed perception of his impact on those around him. He actually thinks it's small," Trish said to the woman.

"Trish!" Ben yelped then looked at her in confusion as he replayed her words in his mind.

She laughed as she saw him struggling to separate what she'd actually said from what he'd heard.

"What? I wasn't talking about the impact your cock has on us!" She leaned towards Liliya and spoke with a conspiratorial tone. "Which is by no means small!"

"Trish! Stop!" Ben exclaimed once more, and both ladies laughed at his look of embarrassment though Trish held up her hands in surrender. She reached out and rubbed his arm affectionately then winced as her bruised muscles protested.

Ben immediately sent her a look of concern, but she just smiled sweetly to him. "It's just the bruising."

He shivered at the thought of Trish being hurt. She reached up to smooth the worry lines on his forehead.

He sighed at her touch. "Nothing we can do until tomorrow morning. We'll give the bank another try. It must have been a coincidence that the police were at the bank today when we went back to it."

"Are you going to give me the diamonds?" Liliya asked hopefully.

Trish perked up. "Diamonds?"

Ben nodded to Liliya. "Show her the pictures," he suggested.

The Russian blonde found them on her cell and passed it across to Trish whose eyes widened with shock.

"Where the fuck- these were in the safe deposit box?" she hissed quietly to the two of them. Ben and Liliya nodded. She turned her eyes to Ben. "And you're giving them to her? She works for the bad guys!"

Ben leaned forward. "Half. She might be able to use them to get Rose to safety and keep her safe."

Trish leaned back, mouth open in surprise, flustered at the idea of Ben giving all of those diamonds to someone who worked with the bad guys! She saw Ben's mind was made up, so she threw her hands in the air. "Fuck it. Whatever."

Ben could see some of the tension leave Liliya's face when she saw Trish wasn't going to fight her on it. Trish looked exhausted. He needed to let her rest. "It's been a difficult day for all of us. I think we'll head back to our hotel. Where are you staying? Will you be ok tonight?"

Liliya smiled at Ben. "I will be fine. I have hotel room a few blocks from here," she said. "I see you tomorrow morning, yes?" Ben nodded. "The memory stick-"

"I'll hang on to that until tomorrow. If Yuri's going to threaten my family I'm going to see this through," Ben said grimly. "Take my cell number so you can reach me."

She still looked a little frustrated that he wouldn't give her the stick but entered his number into her cell and shared hers. With a final look into his eyes, she nodded to herself. "Until tomorrow." Ben stood as she did and with a nod to Trish she made her way to the entrance and stepped out into the street.

Trish frowned. "I love her Natasha Fatale impression-" Ben began to protest, but Trish held up her hand. "I'm trying to keep an open mind," she sighed then held Ben's eyes. "This could very well be a trap. She's playing the damsel in distress card pretty hard and bringing in the big guns of her daughter in the hands of the villain. I concede it might be true. The picture of the young girl did look like it could be hers." She sighed and shifted uncomfortably. "I need food, preferably room service, then a hot bath followed by a soft bed with my man beside me."

Ben smiled at her. "That can be arranged. Let's go."

She leaned against his side as they walked to the exit. "So... you're really giving her those diamonds?"

"Trish."

Chapter 4

Ben woke with a headache, so he got up and took a few painkillers. He ordered breakfast from room service then opened his laptop and did a little work in the living room. He started making notes on what had happened to date to bring them to this point, who the key players seemed to be and tried to work out how Rainor managed to create such a mess. It was a little disheartening.

He also did a little research on the properties be recalled from the deeds he now owned. That was enlightening, but he was left with more questions.

The math seemed off considering the value of the items in that safe deposit box. While he hadn't been told the actual dollar value of the investments Rainor had stolen from Milonas, it seemed unlikely to account for the commercial evaluation of the diamonds and the property. One or the other but both? It felt like a piece of the puzzle was missing.

Roughly forty-five minutes later Trish wandered out of the bedroom and Ben frowned when he saw the bruises on her arms and her stomach. He'd held her gently the night before, and the marks didn't look much better today. "Good morning."

There was a knock on the door. "Room service."

Trish pivoted on her heel and walked back into the bedroom as Ben let the waiter wheel the cart into the room. Ben signed for it as Trish returned, wrapped in a fluffy robe, plenty of cleavage on display. The young man's eyes threatened to pop out of his head until Ben's thank you broke his hypnosis, and he gushed his thanks as he left and Ben locked up.

He walked back to the living room and fixed the grinning redhead with a weary stare.

"What? You gave him a tip. Why can't I?" she said with a grin.

"Because yours makes them want to give you more than just the tip."

Trish burst into a loud laugh then she clutched her stomach muscles. "Oooo! Don't make me laugh! It hurts to laugh," she moaned through her chuckles.

They settled down to enjoy their breakfast and Ben filled her in on what he'd worked out so far.

"I don't know how it started but somehow Rainor was interacting with some extremely wealthy people, some of whom were less than squeaky clean. We know of Darius Milanos and now Yuri Gruzinsky. He somehow arranged for Yuri to have a sexual encounter in his condo and captured it on camera. Yuri had sex with a young man and murdered him afterward. There are pictures of this on the memory stick. Rainor must have been blackmailing Yuri or at least threatened to."

"Shit. That's fucked up," Trish said softly.

Ben nodded. "As we heard yesterday, Rainor was also working with Darius to launder his money. He was moving the cash through a series of accounts and kept a digital ledger of the accounts. There was no ledger in the safe deposit box, but there was a large number of diamonds- No!" he said to interrupt Trish's interjection as she leaned forward. She plunked herself back with a pout.

"There was also deeds to seven properties; seven large plots of real estate in seven different countries. Their value exceeds the diamonds. These are prime sections of property in some of the busiest cities in the world. We might be talking billions of dollars' worth of real estate. How Rainor got his hands on this is a mystery. He seemed arrogant enough to believe he could outmaneuver these underworld figures and stay ahead of them."

"Only to fall victim to another kind of shark," Trish grinned. Ben rolled his eyes.

Ben's cell began to ring. He got up and collected the phone from the coffee table. "Hello?"

"Am I speaking with Ben Shepherd?" a man's voice asked.

"Yes."

"This is Nikolai Noskov."

"Nikolai, thank you for calling back!"

"Nonsense. I'm glad you called. Are you in Russia? Can you visit?"

Ben smiled at the almost hopeful tone. He felt better about calling him away from his family. Speaking of which...

"I'm actually in Berlin now, but I was wondering if it would be possible for me to visit. I'm going to have to speak to the pilot of the jet service I'm using to see if we can land in Russia. I don't know how that works," Ben admitted.

"Give me the number for your pilot, and I will make the arrangements for you to fly into a private airport owned by a business partner of mine. Will this visit be for business or pleasure?" Nikolai asked, picking up a little tension in Ben's voice.

"I came across some information yesterday which I need to discuss with you. It pertains to the source of the issue I helped you with when we met in France. There's another similar situation that will happen if I don't present this source with something he wants, probably today."

Nikolai was quiet for a moment then he cleared his throat. "You must give me the number so I can make arrangements for your visit as soon as you can, yes?"

"I can be at the airport in... ninety minutes," Ben said to Nikolai as he looked to Trish who was watching him with concern. She wiped her mouth and dashed off to the bedroom to start getting ready.

Ben gave Nikolai the pilot's contact number. "I'll give him a call now and let him know to expect your call."

"My driver, Leo, will pick you up at the airport and bring you to my home. Thank you, Ben. See you soon," the man responded and hung up.

Ben called the pilot who was expecting them to fly home today and filled him in on the change of itinerary. As they spoke, Nikolai's call beeped on the line, so Ben said his goodbyes and rushed off to the bathroom to get ready himself. He tried not to ogle Trish as she squeezed into the form-fitting, long-sleeved red sweater and her black leather pants that squeezed her ass so nicely. Mmmm...

"Ben! I know that look, and as much as I'd love to ride you to exhaustion, we have a flight to catch!" she cautioned him.

"Right," he grumbled. He forced himself into the bathroom to take his shower. A cold one.

Once they were heading out the door, Ben tried calling Liliya but it went straight to voicemail. He shared a worried look with Trish, hoping that wasn't a bad sign.

Ben walked up to the reception desk to check out.

"Was everything to your satisfaction Mr. Shepherd?" the clerk said with a smile as he handed him the statement.

"Yes, you have a lovely hotel," Ben responded.

"You have a message. It came in during the night." The clerk handed him the paper.

Distracted, Ben nodded. "Thank you. Goodbye."

He walked back to Trish as he read and crumpled the note in his hand. "Yuri called her back to Russia. She asked for me to bring the memory stick, but not the diamonds. I'm not sure what that means. She no longer thinks she can buy her freedom from the man?"

"Sounds like her situation is going from bad to worse," Trish murmured. They rushed out of the hotel and flagged a taxi to get them to the airport.

"We never got a chance to do any shopping," Trish lamented as they drove through the posh shopping district.

"I'll make time for that when we get back home. We can visit any shopping district you want. New York, Los Angeles-"

"Ooo! Rodeo Drive! Fuck yeah!" she grinned. "Oh! Can we bring the twins? They'd kill to shop there!"

Ben chuckled. "If they're available."

They got to the airport in good time and met with the pilot in the terminal.

"Good morning, sir. The flight plan is registered, and we are good to go. You have friends in high places to be able to turn this around so quickly."

Ben nodded. "Very good friends!" he agreed with a smile.

"How long will we be there?" the pilot asked.

"Not more than a day or two I assume."

"Very good, sir. See you on the plane."

Ben and Trish went through security and made their way onto the Jet. Ben squirmed once more when he saw that big logo on its tail and ignored Trish's knowing smile.

-=-

The flight was smooth, and soon they were landing at the private airport. A limo was waiting for them at the hangar the plane stopped before. When they left the plane a broad-shouldered man with just the tiniest fringe of grey hair stepped away from the side of the car to stride forward.

"Hello. I am Leo. Please, let me take your bags." He hustled them over behind the car and put them in the trunk then opened the door for Trish and Ben.

He drove them off the airport grounds and headed for the city. They hadn't gone through the usual security process at all. Ben shared a look with Trish.

He gawked out the windows as he'd never expected to find himself in Russia.

Not too long after, they were driving through a gated community of the exceptionally wealthy and pulled through a second set of security gates and a long drive to stop before a grand mansion.

Nikolai was standing in the open doorway with Galena and their two daughters. All were smiling broadly. Once Ben was standing next to the car, the girls rushed forward and gave him hugs. Ben grinned and hugged them back. His eyebrows went up. "They're growing so fast!" he exclaimed to their parents who beamed broad and proud smiles back at them.

Trish stepped from the car, and the girls went wide-eyed as did their parents. Ben smiled back at Trish's shy smile.

"May I present my lovely girlfriend, Trish Campbell," he said with a flourish and grinned to see her blush. It felt good to be on the other side of that for once. Her eyes twinkled at him when she realized he was getting his revenge.

"She's also one of my neighbors back home." He nodded proudly, and her face just warmed up a little more. "Trish, this is Nikolai and Galena Noskov and their beautiful daughters..." he looked closely, trying to recognize them from when they were so much smaller. "Mika... and Roza?" he guessed as he pointed to them. From their delighted smiles, he'd guessed correctly.