Sasha, Not Aleks

five - dead or alive

slight CW for abusive father/son behavior

SASHA 

I have an in. An in in the form of a mechanic and an office worker, but an in. It's a weak link, a very weak one, maybe not worth my time, but it's something. Something more than what I have now.

And my weak link knows about motorcycles, so maybe a little more than a weak link.

So I serve them dinner, try to keep my family out of their business for the full hour, and then get the name of the girl's shop. Laurier's Mechanics.

It takes fifteen minutes of digging at most. Laurier's Mechanics in Cambridge. The mechanics in the shop are St James Laurier, the owner, Briar Laurier, his son, and Coraline Laurier, the girl from the restaurant.

Her bio is what sparks my interest.

I'm Cora Laurier, the youngest in the Laurier family at age 24. I have a degree in finance from University of Pennsylvania but much prefer working with my hands in the shop. My specialties are modifications and detailing, though I do a good job with service as well. In the shop, I'm both the DJ and the worst dancer, that award goes to Briar but don't tell him I put this in here. My hobbies on the side of working in the shop include running, picking up random arts and crafts, and beating my roommate Marie at card games.

University of Pennsylvania, finance. She might've run into Andrei.

It also means that she's smarter than the average person. Andrei isn't, but he bought his way into Penn. I didn't go to college and I have no plans to, but I know my way around American schools.

My phone goes off after a few minutes of looking through their website. Uncle Ilya.

"Hi," I pick up, "I have an in."

"You got an in? I was just about to call and tell you that I've got word of something over there."

"You do?"

"Yeah," he breathes in, "Avery distributed the money amongst his workers disguised as a bonus. You're not getting it back."

I choke.

"It's mostly gone."

"No, no, I can't- I was going to just get it back and hope that-"

Ilya cuts me off, "I know you wanted to end this without bloodshed, but I'm afraid that at this point, your father is without a doubt going to kill that man."

"And I'll be tied to it."

"Most likely."

"Um," I stand up, running a hand through my short hair. "So, I have, I have an in. I met an employee and I know Avery's mechanic now, at least I know a little about her."

"Her?"

"I, yeah, I know, I was expecting an old dude, she's my age."

Ilya takes that into consideration, "is she attractive?"

"Very," I mumble, "dark hair, intense eyes, looks somewhat east Asian, somewhat French. She's average height, average build, looks pretty athletic. She went to the University of Pennsylvania for finance, same place, same time, as Andrei Jr when he was in college here."

Ilya stays quiet, thinking, "there's one more thing I needed to tell you."

"Is everyone okay over there?"

"No, no, everyone's perfect over here. I needed to tell you that because of the bonuses, Laughlin Avery is throwing a party at his house, mansion, really, and all the upper executives are going. You need to be there. You need to be there and I think you need to bring the mechanic. The mechanic will distract from you if he wants to speak with the both of you. Was she talkative?"