‘I can’t see any teeth marks.’
Then she reached out and touched it. Somebody set off a wave through the hairs on the back of his neck.
‘Or feel any.’
‘I trimmed it smooth with some nail scissors.’
‘Yuck.’ She pulled her hand away.
Damn, why did I say that?
‘I don’t believe you.’
He shrugged and held his thumb and index finger close together. ‘It was only little bits.’
‘What about this?’ She ran a fingernail slowly along the scar on his forearm. A shiver started up behind his ear and did a little dance down his back.
‘Some guy sliced it with a chisel.’
She pulled a face. ‘You don’t look like a piece of lumber. You must make a habit of annoying people.’
‘It’s an occupational hazard.’
‘What made you get into it?’ she said, smiling slyly. ‘As you said, you’re not a very good detective.’
There was no way he was going to spoil the evening by explaining the whole situation about Sarah. He didn’t want to talk about her at all. He suddenly realized he didn’t actually even want to think about her at the moment.
He shrugged again. ‘Somebody’s got to do it. It’s a job.’
But something had passed behind his eyes and she’d seen it.
‘What?’
He ran his hand through his hair and looked away. The restaurant was almost empty now, the staff were preparing to close up for the night. He pinched the skin between his eyes and the bridge of his nose.
‘I got into it for personal reasons and then just stuck with it.’
She leaned in and put her hand on his forearm. ‘I’m sorry. I don’t mean to pry.’
‘It’s no big deal,’ he lied. ‘I’ll tell you some other time.’
She nodded, going along with the obvious facade. But she didn’t take her hand away.
‘What about you? No boyfriend?’
He realized too late that he’d just told her more than he meant to. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to pick up on the implication that those personal reasons of his involved a girlfriend or wife. But if she did put it together she didn’t let it show.
‘Shouldn’t you have asked that before asking me out on a date?’
The impish grin was back on her face. He pretended to look surprised, did his best to keep his face dead-pan.
‘Is that what this is?’
She took her hand off his forearm and slapped the heel of her palm off her forehead. ‘Sorry, I forgot. You wanted a date with Destiny. I’m first reserve.’
He looked at her, a quizzical look on his face. ‘First?’ he said, as he leaned back out of the way quickly as she took a swipe at him. ‘You didn’t answer the question.’
‘No boyfriend. No time with college and the job. Men don’t like coming third.’
He thought most men would probably count themselves lucky if they made it that high. He’d have settled for third, for sure.
‘What about all those nice guys you meet in the club?’
She snorted and for a moment he thought he’d gone too far. ‘Maybe when I look like Samantha, when I need some plastic—’
She cupped the air with her hands under her breasts and he grabbed the chance to recover some ground.
‘You’ll never look like her,’ he said and waved at the waitress. ‘Come on, let’s get out of here.’
***
GINA LINKED HER ARM through his as they walked to the car. It felt good. More than good, it felt right. It wasn’t like a brother-sister sort of arm linking either. He wished it was a bigger parking lot. Maybe they’d do a couple of laps, it was a nice night after all.
‘Another lap?’ he said when they reached the car. ‘Walk off that huge meal you’ve just eaten.’
She cocked her head. ‘What a strange man you are.’
On the drive home, she rested her head on his shoulder. They didn’t talk much. He didn’t know if she’d dozed off or was lost in her thoughts. Maybe thinking about what she was going to do with him when she got him home. Hope springs eternal.
He pulled up outside her house and left the motor running. It was the chivalrous thing to do on a first date. She looked at him, her lips slightly parted, eyes bright. His blood was a steady pounding of fists against his ears, his heart trying to kick its way out through his mouth. He hoped he wouldn’t be required to speak.
She leaned over and gave his good ear a playful nip with her teeth.
‘Hey, careful, that’s my last one.’
‘Turn the motor off, dummy.’ Her voice was thick, catching in her throat. ‘Or are you expecting to make a quick getaway in the morning.’
She jumped out of the car and bounded towards her front door. He managed to stop himself from actually running after her.
‘Oh, yes, one more thing—you don’t mind a threesome, do you?’ She glanced over her shoulder, her eyes sparkling. ‘And if I catch you looking up and down the street for Destiny’s car ...’
***
‘POPPY,’ GINA CALLED AS she closed the front door behind them, but there was no response. ‘That’s strange. She’s normally waiting for me as soon as I get in, demanding food with menaces.’
‘I take it Poppy’s a ...’
‘She’s my cat.’
He nodded and did his best to not look disappointed. ‘That’s the threesome you were teasing, I mean talking about?’
‘Of course. Poppy always sleeps with me on the bed. What did you think I meant? Or should I say, who did you think I meant?’
He cocked his head. ‘Is that a big V8 engine I hear pulling up?’
She gave him a playful slap on the arm. ‘I thought I explained about that earlier.’
‘What if I’m allergic to cats?’
‘Then I’d have to say Thank you for a lovely evening, I’ll see you tomorrow.’
He gave a small shrug. ‘Why don’t you see if you can find Poppy. I don’t think you’ll be happy until you do. I’ll see if I can find anything more interesting than cat food in the fridge.’
‘Good luck with that.’
She headed up the stairs and Evan went into the kitchen and looked around, put his detective skills to work and found the fridge. A half empty bottle of white wine called to him from the bottom of the door. He got a couple of wine glasses and poured them both a drink. Above his head Gina was moving around, calling out Poppy’s name. Maybe the cat wasn’t interested in a threesome.
He wandered around the small room, leaned over the table to look at the photos pinned to a corkboard on the wall above it. Lots of pictures of Gina with people he didn’t know, one with Destiny and her gun, lots of Poppy the cat looking cute in various different poses.
He looked down at the table and froze. A sheet of paper torn from a legal pad lay in prime position, smack bang in the middle. Scrawled across it, a message that made his chest tight, as, above him, Gina’s calls became more urgent:
Remember Fatal Attraction? Bunnies aren’t the only thing you can boil.
He spun around, eyes desperately searching, his mind full of the horrific scene from the movie, the Gallaghers’ pet rabbit boiling in a pot on the stove. He saw it immediately, a large pot sitting on the front ring, its lid on tightly so he couldn’t see what was in it.
‘Poppy!’
The first hint of anxiety had crept into Gina’s voice, faint but plain to hear, even from upstairs.
He didn’t want to lift the lid, didn’t want to have to call out, ‘Gina, I’ve found her.’
He put his hand on the lid. Cold. But who knows how long ago they’d been here, turned off the gas before they left because they only wanted to boil a cat, didn’t want to risk burning down the house. Save that for another day.
‘Evan. Is she down there?’
‘No,’ he called back, ‘I haven’t seen her.’
Yet. Please God don’t make me a liar.
He couldn’t wait any longer. Any minute now she’d come b
ack down, start looking downstairs. He had to find out first, protect her from the worst part. He jerked the lid off as if to surprise an unseen opponent holding it down on the other side.
‘Poppy. You’re scaring me.’
Evan stared into the cook pot, feeling sick.
Sick with relief.
Empty.
No cat, nothing. Not even any water.
He let go the breath he hadn’t known he was holding, pulled out one of the chairs and dropped onto it. He swallowed a mouthful of cold wine, got back up and retrieved the bottle from the fridge, topped his glass off.
And it wasn’t even his cat.
Gina’s voice floated down from upstairs. ‘There you are! What are you doing under there, silly?’
There was a bump as the cat hit the floor above his head and a curse from Gina, then her footsteps as she started down the stairs. He snatched the note off the table, folded it quickly and stuffed it deep into his pocket. Now the cat had been found he couldn’t see how it could help if Gina saw it.
‘I don’t know what’s got into her,’ Gina said as she came into the kitchen, sucking her thumb. ‘She scratched me. She never does that.’
‘It must be me. Or the prospect of a threesome.’
She sat down opposite him. ‘I see you’ve found the wine. Which one’s mine? The big one I hope.’
He pushed the big one across the table with an of course nod of the head.
If only you knew how close you came to needing it.
She suddenly noticed the pot sitting on the stove and her brow creased. ‘What’s that doing there?’
‘What?’
He knew damn well what she meant. He’d never thought to hang it back on the hook.
‘That pot. Why’s it on the stove?’
‘Isn’t that where pots are meant to be? Makes it hard to cook otherwise.’
She suddenly shook her head.
‘Men!’
‘What?’ he said again, no idea what she meant this time.
‘Is that your idea of a subtle hint? You’ve already had your dinner. If you think I’m cooking you something else ...’
‘Well, it was worth a try.’ He jumped up and held out his hand towards her. ‘Here, let me suck that thumb for you instead. Did she scratch you anywhere else?’
***
SEPPE DABBED AT THE deep scratches on the back of his hand with a Kleenex as they sat in a dark Ford Transit van hidden in the shadows of some overhanging branches, fifty yards down from Gina’s house.
‘Can’t blame the cat,’ the guy beside him said and sniggered. ‘Didn’t anybody ever tell you not to pick a cat up by its tail?’
Seppe ignored him. They both watched Gina and Evan go inside.
‘Ain’t that sweet?’ the guy said.
Seppe grunted and sucked at the back of his hand. Damn animal had nicked a vein and now it wouldn’t stop bleeding. Wouldn’t have happened if he’d just shot it, but, no, Tony liked a bit of drama. He watched too many movies. Seppe had had enough of this. Samantha was right. Pretty soon they had to stop fooling around with her and do something.
‘Yeah, well, good luck to him. I was him, I’d make the most of it while I still can.’
His phone rang. Talk of the devil. It was D’Amato himself. Maybe now, when he told him how spectacularly unsuccessful his little game had been, he’d let them do what they should have done right from the beginning.
Chapter 43
GINA LEFT EVAN STILL asleep in her bed, snoring gently, with Poppy nestled up against him, all of last night’s fear long forgotten, when she left early the next morning. She crept out, careful not to wake him, because she knew he would insist on seeing her safely to college, the knight in shining armor in him aroused. She wasn’t about to let them get to her like that, make her feel like she needed someone to guard her and watch over her. If she did that, they’d won already. It was only a stupid photograph, as Destiny said. And she’d never liked the frame anyway.
She had a couple of classes and then she was meeting with them all in Evan’s hotel room—Angel, Destiny and a guy called Forrest. If only she was more involved, but there was no way after her fight with Samantha. Just thinking about her made her chest tighten and her fists clench, made her realize how desperate she was to quit.
She passed Evan’s rental and smiled to herself at the way he’d left the engine running the night before as if he wasn’t coming in—the perfect gentleman—when a dirty Ford Transit van screeched to a halt a few yards in front of her. The back doors were already open by the time the van came to a stop and two heavyset, dark-haired guys jumped out. One of them had a large burlap sack in his hand. She stared open-mouthed at them, not fully comprehending what was going on. Before she could move they’d covered the few paces that separated them. She looked desperately from one to the other and then all around her, but the street was deserted.
Why did I let Evan sleep in, for Christ’s sake?
Adrenalin kicked in and life surged back into her legs. She turned back towards the house.
Wake up, wake up, you lazy—
But it was too late. The two guys were on her. One of them stepped behind her and took hold of her arms above the elbow. He squeezed tightly forcing out a gasp of pain. It was like her arms had been caught between two cars as they backed into each other.
She looked into the eyes of the other one with the sack and saw something foul living in there that she didn’t want to look at. She didn’t have to for long.
He pulled the heavy burlap sack over her head and down around her arms, then the one behind her clamped her in a bear hug and lifted her clean off the ground. She kicked her legs uselessly until the guy in front bent down and got his arms round her knees and held them still. She threw her head backwards and tried to butt the guy behind but he’d done this before and brought one hand up and clamped it over her mouth and pulled her head into him. She smelled bacon on his breath and the stink of stale cigarettes on his fingers made her dry heave.
They carried her to the van and bundled her into the back, pushed her down onto the cold floor. Up front in the cab, Seppe felt the van rock as they all tumbled into the back. He put his foot on the gas and the van lurched away as the guys in the back slammed the doors shut behind them.
One of them crouched down in front of her with a roll of duct tape. He sat her up and wound it tightly round the sack and her arms, the coarse fabric scratching her bare flesh. This one had the same smell of stale cigarettes, but it was garlic on his breath, and an unpleasant, unwashed sort of odor coming off his body like he’d slept in his clothes. He finished with the tape, put one hand round her throat and his other hand between her legs and squeezed her sex. He pushed her head back against the side of the van and probed her with his middle finger through her jeans. She wanted to be sick.
‘Bet you like that, don’t you, you little whore,’ he said and sniggered.
She’d have spat in his face if it wasn’t for the sack. He squeezed again and she tried to squirm away but he held on tight and increased the pressure around her throat. It was obscene. She was choking and utterly helpless, a hot, pricking sensation behind her eyes. She knew if he carried on she’d wet herself soon. She wouldn’t give him the satisfaction.
‘Leave her alone, you pervert,’ the other guy said, although his tone of voice told her he didn’t give a damn if he did or he didn’t.
The guy groping her tried to unbutton her jeans. The van suddenly lurched to the left and the guy lost his grip on her neck. Without hesitating, she brought her leg up with all her strength into where she thought his crotch would be. Her aim was good and it doesn’t take much force to squash a guy’s balls. He let out a surprised shout and fell over backwards, banging his head on the side of the van.
‘You little bitch,’ he spat as he got up onto his knees.
He slapped her hard across the face with his open palm. It wasn’t a stinging slap because of the burlap, but it rocked her whole head to the side. She cried
out at the pain, her whole head ringing. Then he back-handed her the other way, knocking her onto her side.
‘Knock it off,’ the other guy said, pulling him away this time. ‘You’ll get plenty of opportunity for that when we get to the warehouse.’
The guy who’d hit her got to his feet. ‘Guys won’t pay two bits to watch you dance when we’ve finished with you,’ he hissed and kicked her hard on the ass.
Chapter 44
THEY ALL MET FOR the briefing at two thirty in Evan’s hotel room. Evan, Angel, Destiny, Forrest and a couple of Angel’s serious-faced men. It was a tight squeeze but Angel hadn’t wanted to risk them being seen entering the police station. Destiny was the last one to get there, the big V8 announcing her arrival a couple of minutes before she walked in.
‘Where’s Gina,’ Angel asked her as she sashayed into the room.
Destiny looked at Evan.
‘She’s got some classes,’ Evan answered. ‘She said she’d make her own way here.’
‘Okay,’ Angel said and gave him a questioning, how-comes-you-know-so-much look.
‘I spoke to her earlier,’ Evan said. He wasn’t sure why he lied or felt the need to justify himself, but he got a feeling Angel wouldn’t be too happy if he told the truth.
They decided to make a start without her anyway seeing as she wasn’t going to be playing an active part. Destiny took them through the standard practice of prospecting for rich guys in up-market bars and then taking them back to the club.
‘When we get there Samantha passes me a little packet of dope—’
‘How come you know all this?’ Angel said.
There was an uncomfortable silence for a few seconds before Evan came to her rescue. ‘Destiny’s been involved a couple of times. Before she said she wanted out. We need someone who’s been involved before or they’ll think it’s suspicious.’
Angel nodded but didn’t look convinced. Nor did his men.
‘When the guy’s had a few drinks they create a diversion and I slip it into his drink,’ Destiny carried on. ‘After the drug kicks in, we take him up to a private room. That’s when they charge all the money to his card. He’s so out of it he can’t see what he’s signing.’
The Evan Buckley Thrillers: Books 1 - 4 (Evan Buckley Thrillers Boxsets) Page 40