Dark Trade Read online

“Say something, Andrea,” Sophia pleaded. “Where are we going?”

  “I’m taking you home and then you’re going to tell me everything. And we’ll figure it out, Soph. We’ll figure it out.”

  “You don’t hate me?” Sophia said.

  Andrea turned into Sophia’s condominium complex. “Of course I don’t hate you. I think you suffered an enormous trauma, and you’re not thinking straight.” She pulled into a spot in front of Sophia’s building. “I think you need help,” she said, her voice gentle.

  “You’re right,” Sophia whispered.

  Andrea cocked one eyebrow at her easy admission, but said nothing else as they climbed the stairs to Sophia’s door. Sophia pushed the key in the lock and opened the door to the darkened condo. She flipped on the interior light, eyes resting on the picture of Landon and Josh. Ouch. She’d let him down. She’d let them down.

  Andrea pushed her to get her moving again. “Sit. I’ll get some wine.”

  Sophia obeyed, kicking off her heels and sinking into her puffy, comfortable couch. Andrea noisily dug through the cabinets until she found Sophia’s wine stash. “Cab sav okay?” she called from the kitchen.

  “Sure,” she said. She didn’t care what she drank though. Her mind was still reeling. The image of Dmitri being handcuffed was burned into her head. The reality of the swarm of federal agents still hadn’t hit her.

  Andrea pushed the full glass of wine into Sophia’s hand and then sat in the armchair across from her.

  “Spill it. How the hell did you meet him? When did this start?”

  Sophia took a long sip of her wine before she answered. “I met him at a meeting at EBCasp National with Red Bluff. I got pulled into it because I speak Russian. Dmitri was…there.” She paused. She couldn’t bring herself to tell Andrea he’d pointed a gun at her in the meeting. “I...um...slept with him a few days later like the dumb girl that I am. That’s how it all started.”

  Andrea tucked a strand of hair back into her loose pony-tail. “You slept with him that fast?” She shook her head. “That doesn’t sound like you, Soph. You’ve refused to date since Josh died and then all of the sudden you’re intimate with a guy? This guy of all guys?”

  “I know. I don’t know what came over me.”

  Andrea sighed. “Okay. So you’ve been sleeping with him. Please tell me you haven’t screwed here?”

  Sophia pushed her lips together.

  Andrea put her wine glass down on the coffee table. “Oh, damn. He knows where you live? His people know where you live?”

  Sophia nodded, tears threatening to spill. “I’m so embarrassed.”

  Andrea paced the living room. “You shouldn’t be. He’s a bad man. He probably saw your vulnerability and went after it.”

  Sophia kneaded her hands on her lap. She felt the need to defend him, but pushed it back. “I pursued him initially.”

  Andrea paused her pacing. “What?” She sat down on the couch, taking Sophia’s hand in hers. “You did?”

  “Yes,” Sophia said. The tears were spilling again. A sad display of self-pity that she shouldn’t be making. She’d made the mistakes, and it was time to own up to them.

  “Did you…” Andrea released her hands. “Oh, never mind.”

  “What?” Sophia said.

  “Did you realize how bad he was? Did you know when you slept with him?”

  Sophia stood and paced over to the sliding glass doors of her balcony. The green and dark bayou spread out under the crescent moon that painted a pretty picture in the sky. She looked at those things because she didn’t want to think about what Andrea was really asking her.

  She finally turned to her friend. “If you’re asking if I’m a bad person, the answer is yes. I knew what he was when I slept with him. I knew and I kept seeing him. And I like him. Liked him.”

  Andrea didn’t answer, but picked up her wineglass and swished it absently in her hand. She stared into the wine. Sophia had known her long enough to know she was carefully organizing her thoughts. She finally raised her head to gaze at Sophia. “Was it a sex thing only?”

  “It started out that way, but…” Sophia stopped because she couldn’t answer the question. She didn’t want to confront her feelings for Dmitri, whatever they were. It didn’t matter anymore, because it was done. She crossed her arms over her chest.

  Andrea was by her side in an instant. She wrapped her in a hug. “It’s okay, Soph. I’m not judging you. I’m trying to figure out what’s going on in your head.”

  “Me too,” Sophia said.

  Andrea dropped her arms, but didn’t move away. “Are you still seeing your therapist?”

  Sophia shook her head no.

  “Why not?” Andrea said. “When did you stop?”

  “A long time ago. Maybe five months.” Sophia returned to the couch, picking up her wine. Andrea followed her.

  “Why?”

  “I got tired of it all. I just sat there and relived Josh and Landon’s death. We talked about it over and over. It was in my head all the time.” She put her feet up. “I couldn’t do it anymore.”

  “Maybe you should go back,” Andrea said. She took one of Sophia’s decorative pillows and hugged it to her chest. “I think you need help. I do. This is all very unlike you.”

  “What if this is like me, now?” Sophia said. “When they died, it broke me. What if I’m ruined forever? What if I can never function like a normal human again?” She pulled her hands through her hair, trying to come up with the right words. “Parts of me just shriveled up and died with them. I don’t know if my good parts can come back. I don’t know if they should. I do know that for whatever reason, Dmitri felt good. I know it’s wrong, and I know it’s bad, but it felt…good.”

  Andrea dropped her pillow and reached for her. “You’re not broken.” She squeezed her shoulders. “Maybe it felt good because Dmitri, as dangerous as he is, is safe to care for.”

  “What do you mean?” Sophia asked.

  “I mean, he’s not really available. He’s like the most unavailable guy in the world because he’s a fucking gunrunning criminal. So it’s safe for you to care for him, because it won’t go anywhere—ever—it can’t.”

  Sophia stared at the glass-topped coffee table while she considered Andrea’s words. “That’s actually really insightful,” she said. “Really.”

  “I know,” she cracked a small smile, “but I’m not a shrink. Which is why you should see one.”

  “I can’t,” Sophia said. “I can’t talk to a shrink. I don’t know what I can say to the shrink without getting myself in trouble. I fucked a gunrunner. I lied to a federal agent. What if my shrink got subpoenaed? What if he thought he had intel that he had to pass on to the FBI or something, or he was compelled to do it if he thought people’s lives were in danger?”

  “I hadn’t thought of that,” Andrea said. “You could edit some parts out. Maybe just say he’s a bad man.”

  “No,” Sophia said. She finished her wine and walked to the kitchen to pour another glass.

  “Think about it. Please. I’m worried.”

  Sophia poured the wine, just a quarter of the glass for now. “Okay. I’ll think about it.”

  That seemed to satisfy Andrea. “Good. Now, when do you start your secondment?”

  “Monday.”

  “Damn. Can you get out of it?” She held her empty wineglass towards Sophia so she could fill it.

  “I don’t think so. It’s Monday through Thursday. Friday I will still be at Red Bluff International.”

  “Great. So Monday through Thursday you work for criminals, and Friday you work for Satan,” Andrea said.

  Sophia smiled, almost laughed, and it felt good. “Precisely.”

  Andrea smiled too, but it faded quickly. “Seriously though? You need to get out of there. I’m not screwing around. It’s time. Your health depends on it.”

  “All right. I’ll send you my resume tomorrow.”

  “Really?” Andrea’s face brightened.
/>   “Yes. I think Red Bluff International is doing some shady shit with EBCasp National.”

  Andrea nodded. “That’s why I’m double worried for you. Have you heard anything?”

  “I dug around on the hard drives. I found a bunch of Limited Liability Corporations. Tons and tons of them. It looks like they were used to get tax ID numbers, but not filed with the state.” She shook her head. “I don’t really know what I’m looking at though, could be normal for a company to have a bunch of LLCs like that. I found other docs, too. I wasn’t sure what they were. All right there.”

  “Did you save them somewhere?”

  “I printed them out,” Sophia said.

  “Where are they?” Andrea said. “Can I look at them?”

  “Sure,” Sophia said. She was grateful to have something to do with her hands. She retrieved the stack of papers from her briefcase. “Here.”

  Andrea flipped through them. “Mind if I take these? I can look over them. It’s been many years since law school, but I know my way around corporate entities.”

  “Sure. I mean, they’re confidential so I can’t legally let you see them, but I’m so jacked at this point it doesn’t matter,” Sophia said. She took the papers from Andrea, put them back in the briefcase and then handed it to Andrea.

  “I’ll be careful, hon,” Andrea said.

  “All right. I think I’m going to go to bed. I have work in the morning, and so do you.”

  “I’ll sleep on the couch. I don’t think you should be alone,” Andrea said.

  “No, it’s okay. I’m fine, Sophia.”

  “Nonsense.” Andrea pulled a thick folded quilt off the edge of the couch and draped it over herself. “I’m already in my jammies anyways. Night.” She smiled and turned off the living room light.

  Sophia stared at her for a minute as she settled into the couch, but she knew better than to argue with her. “Goodnight, Andrea. Thank you.”

  “Love your face!” Andrea called from the couch. She had the remote in her hand and was already surfing the channels at a low volume.

  Sophia put the wineglasses in the sink, locked the door, and went to her bedroom. It was comforting to have another soul in the house. Andrea always knew just what to do. She used her cell phone to Google EUC’s that the agent had found. It seemed like a stack of papers was enough for Dmitri to get arrested.

  End User Certificates. To certify that arms and weapons purchased were not being used for nefarious purposes.

  She closed the browser. She didn’t want to look anymore, didn’t want to think about it anymore.

  Eventually, her heart rate slowed down and her whirling mind gave way to sleep.

  Chapter 13

  Sophia’s extension rang for the ten millionth time at work that day. She’d dragged herself out of bed in time to say goodbye to Andrea as she was dashing out the front door, coffee in hand.

  She’d taken her time getting ready for work: curling her hair, putting on make-up, and carefully selecting the right pencil skirt to match her favorite deep red blouse. She didn’t really give two craps about how she looked on that day more than she would any other, but at least it had given her more time to avoid going to work.

  She’d forced herself to go through the requisitions and check over the new hires. She’d avoided looking at her cell phone, which had no missed calls or texts. Of course, he couldn’t call her if he was being held somewhere.

  More importantly, she didn’t really want to hear from him again.

  Her line was still ringing. Marsha’s voice came over the intercom. “Sophia, Andrea’s on the line. She says it’s urgent.”

  “Thanks, Marsha. I’ll pick it up.”

  She snapped it up. “Hey.” She tried to sound perky and awake.

  “You sound like crap. Have you had enough coffee?” Andrea’s voice came over the line. She sounded great, like she’d slept for ten hours instead of four.

  “No. There’s not enough coffee in the world for today.”

  “Pour yourself a big cup of something and sit down. I went through your papers.”

  Sophia leaned forward in her chair. “And?”

  “And I did some research on these special purpose entities. They’re little corporations made for one specific purpose.” She sighed.

  “Okay, and that matters…”

  “Because corporations like these can be used for very bad purposes. Very specific items are being transferred to them. It almost looks like they’re trying to hide...where stuff is from. What nation it’s from. I think they’re trying to go around some import and export regulations.”

  “Whoa,” Sophia whispered.

  “There’s more. I think they’re hiding financial assets. And it looks like some of them have silent partners with very convoluted structures. I found a few where the owners of the parent corporation overlapped with the special purpose corporation. In sum, very illegal shit. It’s hard to tell, though. I need more information. More documents. I need to see if they are filed with the secretary of state. An investigator should look at these.”

  “Oh, my God. What do I do?” Sophia wrapped the phone cord around her finger.

  Andrea exhaled loudly. “Look, technically, you should research until you find more evidence, then whistle blow. I can only imagine that they are running afoul of the securities and international trade regulations. I’m not an expert at this stuff.”

  Sophia dropped her head to her desk. “My whole career. Ever since I was an intern in college. All here. All in these hallways.”

  “I know. Which is why I want you to get out,” Andrea said. “I want to shred these papers and I want you to get out. I want you to hand in your notice right now and leave. You’ll find a new job. I’ve already submitted your resume to ten companies. Please, Sophia. Get away from there.”

  Sophia stared at her office, silence filling her ear. She stared around her large plush office, big enough for a desk and two couches. She’d worked her way up from a low-level HR rep all the way to the head of HR and Benefits for the entire, multi-billion dollar publicly held company.

  But she was already in too deep. She’d already not reported it when guns were pulled on her and the executives. She’d let them sweep it under the rug, her silence bought with a hefty pay raise. Then she’d rifled around the hard drives, looking at things she shouldn’t have, finding things that she shouldn’t have. And Dmitri, she’d knowingly…

  “No,” she said out loud. “I can’t run. I’m in too deep.”

  “What? No you’re not. Please.”

  “I’ll look for a new job, but I’m not going to leave right now. I’m going to see this through. Do this right. Give proper notice.”

  “Ugh. Ugh. Ugh. This is a mess,” Andrea said. “I wish we could un-see all this crap.”

  “Give the papers back to me; you never saw them. I don’t want you to get tangled up in all this mess,” Sophia said.

  “I’ll give them back, and don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine,” Andrea said.

  “Okay. We’ll figure this out,” Sophia said. She untangled the phone wire she’d twisted around all her fingers. “Thank you for looking at this. It’s good to know what kind of stuff this company is really into.”

  “That’s the thing,” Andrea said. “This is probably just the tip of the iceberg. These are bad people. And they’re doing very bad things. You might be in danger, especially if they know you know.”

  “No,” Sophia said. “No one here would hurt me. Fire me, yes. Destroy my career? In a heartbeat. But not hurt me.”

  “Are you sure?” Andrea said.

  “Yes. I’m fine. Don’t worry.”

  “Okay. My four o’clock is waiting in the lobby. I gotta go. I’ll drop off the papers later.”

  Sophia said goodbye and hung up. She stared at the phone long after it was back in the cradle. Emptiness filled her, and she was already empty. She’d been gutted from the inside out when she’d lost Joshua and Landon. She’d turned to her career after
, burying herself in her work while she mourned for the lives she’d lost and the future she would never have.

  No matter what was going on, she’d always had Red Bluff International. She’d been there for so long it had become tangled up in her identity.

  And now it was torn to shreds. She’d been blind. She’d heard the rumblings. She’d seen the SEC investigators in the office a couple years ago, but she’d turned a blind eye. She didn’t look. And damn, if she could find it that easily, then…

  Then she hadn’t wanted to know the truth.

  She was angry. She squeezed her hands into fists so hard her fingernails dug into her palms. Screw them. They’d brought Dmitri into her life. They’d lied to her.

  She wasn’t going to run. She was going to fight.

  She unclenched her fists. Little white crescents were on the insides of her hands from where her nails had dug into the skin.

  She pushed the intercom. “Yes, Sophia?” Marsha’s voice came over the line. Always professional. Always good. What Sophia used to be like.

  “Hold my calls and don’t let anyone in my office.”

  “Sure,” Marsha said. “Everything okay?”

  “Yes, Marsha. Everything is fine,” she said in an even tone.

  Sophia turned off the intercom and slammed her files shut. She opened the network drive on her computer and began digging around the special purpose corporations. She hit the print button over and over and over until she’d burned through six reams of paper and filled three USB drives.

  She found the customs folders and printed those, too. She had no idea what she was printing, but it was a lot.

  She left at six, logging off her computer, putting all the documents in a big box. The longer she worked, the angrier she got. She couldn’t believe they were doing this shady stuff. She couldn’t believe how easy it had been for her to find. Granted, she had access to the drive that only a handful people in the company did, but still. How stupid could they be?

  She carried the box and her purse out to the elevators and to the parking garage. It weighed heavily in her arms. She felt the weight of all the secrets she had to carry. The worst ones were in her own mind, not her hands.