‘Alan, this is Samantha,’ Destiny said brightly, touching his shoulder.
At least she remembered the name this time. It was going to be okay.
He twisted round and said Hi.
It surprised him how thickly it came out, surprised Destiny too. She mouthed one word at him: Disgusting.
‘I hope you’re enjoying the show,’ Samantha said, in a voice so falsely sexy that he needn’t have worried about forgetting why they were here in the first place.
‘It’s great, thanks.’
‘Don’t worry, it gets better.’
He nodded like he couldn’t wait. The way she stared at him made him uncomfortable. He ran a hand through his hair, then picked up his glass and turned back to watch, glad of the excuse to look away. There was something in Samantha’s eyes he didn’t like—it was as if she was laughing at him. Maybe it was simply contempt for the guys who came here and paid her wages.
‘You need a top up, Alan?’ Destiny said from behind him, her voice tight and strained.
He realized with a jolt he was holding his glass, resting it in his lap. He hadn’t even noticed he’d picked it up. He imagined what was going through her mind behind the strain in her voice: Why are you making this more difficult than it already is? He turned, met her eyes, hoped she saw the apology in his. He couldn’t blame her for what he saw in hers. Idiot.
‘Please.’
Holding out his glass, he felt like a naughty schoolboy waiting for a dose of castor oil. He took a polite sip, placed the glass firmly on the table and turned away again, relieved to get out from under Destiny’s glare as much as Samantha’s.
He was aware of Destiny reaching under the table, picking up her bag and putting it on the table. He had to force himself to keep his eyes on the stage and not turn around. It was almost impossible, knowing what was going on behind his back. He felt Samantha still standing there next to Destiny, her presence making the hairs on the back of his neck bristle.
He twitched involuntarily as he heard Destiny let out a small gasp. What the hell was that about? It was driving him crazy. He hoped Samantha hadn’t noticed. He was meant to be engrossed in the show, not listening to what was going on behind him.
Destiny brushed his leg as she put her bag back on the floor—intentionally or not, he couldn’t tell—and he stiffened. He sensed Samantha’s eyes on the back of his head. It was the point of no return. Any minute now, when the girls finished their routine, he would turn around and knock back his drink.
Then he’d know for sure whose side Destiny was really on.
***
DESTINY DUMPED HER BAG on the table with as much of a thump as she dared so that Evan knew what was going on. Samantha was still standing next to her, watching her. She wished the old hag would just go. She looked up into her face and Samantha gave an almost imperceptible nod. Evan was doing a fantastic job of looking like he was totally engrossed by the show. It didn’t look like he had to pretend at all. A small pang of jealousy spiked her insides. Hopefully he’d do as good a job of pretending to be drugged.
She found the small brown envelope in her bag and carefully opened the flap with her hands still inside the bag. She looked up at Evan. He was still totally absorbed. If he hadn’t known how all the parts of a woman’s body fitted together before, he did now. It was as if he was expecting to be tested on what he’d learned before he was allowed to go home.
She took the packet out of her bag, concealing it in her palm. Her hands were trembling. Everything seemed to be in slow motion. The music had receded into the background. She stared at Evan’s glass sitting on the table, the bubbles slowly rising to the surface. Why was she so nervous? It wasn’t for real. He wasn’t going to turn around and catch her as she was doing it. It was only flour or baking powder or whatever Forrest had used. Was Forrest working for them? She’d only met him that once and he’d seemed a bit creepy, but everyone else thought he was okay ...
She jumped and let out an involuntary gasp as Samantha snatched the envelope out of her hand. She looked up into Samantha’s smiling face. Don’t worry dear, it seemed to say, we all get nervous some of the time. Samantha’s here to take care of it. She watched as Samantha reached over, as calm as calm can be, and tipped the contents into Evan’s drink. She was aware of every little detail. Samantha’s long, bony fingers, more like a workingman’s than a woman’s, the beginnings of liver spots on the backs of her hands, the strange tattoo on the inside of her wrist that looked like she’d done it herself, the pure white powder tumbling slowly out of the smooth brown envelope, sinking soundlessly into the straw-colored liquid, dissolving and disappearing like it had never existed in the first place, Samantha’s fingers closing now around the small packet and crumpling it into a little ball, all evidence of what they’d done gone.
The dance—not that dance was in any way adequate to describe what had been played out on stage—ended and Evan turned back to the table. He had what Destiny thought was a very realistic looking grin on his face. She wanted to slap it off. She made damn sure she didn’t let her eyes drop anywhere near his crotch, the disgusting pervert.
‘That was great,’ he said a little too enthusiastically for her liking, ‘just great.’
He picked up his glass, tipped it in her direction. She stared at it stupidly, all traces of the powder gone, as he held it out, rock steady in his hand. Samantha nudged her shoulder and she jumped, picked up her own drink, her hand shaking. They clinked glasses, his eyes never leaving hers, telling her it was going to be okay, and then he downed the contents in one.
She couldn’t speak. Something wasn’t right. Something awful was nagging at the back of her mind.
Samantha was still standing over them. She rested a cold hand on Destiny’s shoulder.
‘Do you mind if I join you?’
‘Please do.’ Evan pulled out a chair.
Tell her to piss off.
Samantha sat. She gave Evan her important customer smile, the one that almost made it to her eyes. Destiny wanted to wipe it off her face with a cheese grater.
‘Well Alan, it looked to me like you wanted to get up there with them,’ Samantha said, nodding her head towards the stage.
Evan grinned sheepishly and Samantha wagged a finger at him. Destiny wanted to throw up. And slap him. Twice.
‘I’m shy.’
Samantha’s false laugh set Destiny’s teeth on edge. She tuned out what they were saying. Her mind wouldn’t give her any peace. Something was terribly wrong. Evan and Samantha were getting on like a house on fire. Maybe she should leave them to it. She needed some fresh air. What on earth was it? Why couldn’t she remember?
Evan was doing a hell of a job.
Samantha was smiling and laughing at everything he was saying. She put a hand on his arm. His eyes looked like they were glazing over. How the hell did he manage to do that? He was slurring his words as well but he wasn’t overdoing it. He really looked like he was having trouble getting the words out. He looked at her and smiled a lazy, lopsided smile at her, rocking slowly from side to side, nodding his head gently.
Samantha’s hand rested gently on his arm but he didn’t seem to mind. Destiny watched with an awful feeling of dread building inside her as Samantha dug her long fingernails into Evan’s flesh. Her horrible, workingman’s knuckles turned white and the tendons stood out on the back of her hand as she dug her nails in as hard as she could. Evan didn’t flinch, he wasn’t even aware of it. He looked down at her hand on his arm as if it belonged to somebody else and then looked up at Samantha and smiled at her. Surely this wasn’t an act. That must hurt like hell. What on earth was going on?
He’d stopped trying to talk now. He turned towards her and looked into her eyes, that stupid smile still plastered on his face. She looked back into the emptiest eyes she’d ever seen and then it hit her.
The envelope.
She’d known something was wrong as she’d watched Samantha slip the powder into Evan’s drink. It was the envel
ope. She saw it now like it was sitting on the table in front of her. The smooth, uncreased brown envelope. She’d folded over the corner of the fake one so that she wouldn’t get them mixed up.
They’d switched them again.
She let out a small groan and felt sick to her stomach. Her blood became a steady pounding of fists against her ears. She’d been so stupid. All that ridiculous charade in the restroom had been for her benefit and she’d fallen for it. Played right into their hands. She’d run out to get Samantha and left her bag sitting on the shelf. She looked up at Samantha quickly, aware that she’d been watching her. Her smug smile told her all she needed to know. Evan was slumped back in his chair with his chin on his chest. He looked so peaceful, like a little boy who’d been allowed to stay up too late and had dozed off in front of the TV. All he needed was a teddy bear. She wanted to pick him up and carry him up to bed. Tuck him in and keep him safe and sound forever.
But she couldn’t, nobody could now.
Chapter 56
SAMANTHA RELEASED HER DEATH-LIKE grip on Evan’s arm. There were deep red indentations where her nails had been.
‘I think he’s safely out,’ she said with a grim smile.
Destiny stared at her, still unable to speak. What the hell was she going to do now? Should she carry on with the pretence and let them charge a fortune to Forrest’s card or should she get Angel and his men in here right now.
‘Come on, let’s take him for a little walk upstairs,’ Samantha said and stood up.
Destiny didn’t know what to think. Had she been wrong about the look she’d seen in Samantha’s eyes? The look that seemed to say Ha, thought you were so clever didn’t you. Not so clever now. Maybe she didn’t suspect her after all. But the drugs had definitely been switched again. Was Forrest in on it with them? Were the supposedly fake drugs real after all? Or had she made a terrible mistake and flushed the wrong ones? Her mind was spinning—she just didn’t know.
‘Come on, give me a hand,’ Samantha said again, looking down at Destiny. ‘What are you waiting for?’
Destiny finally found her voice. ‘I have to go to the bathroom first,’ she said. She willed an apologetic smile into her eyes, felt them widen in their sockets. ‘It’s the nerves. Sorry.’
‘Go on then,’ Samantha said, sitting back down. ‘Just don’t be too long. This stuff doesn’t last forever.’
Destiny grabbed her bag and walked casually towards the ladies’ room. Don’t run, don’t panic. She would call Angel and tell him what had happened. He was going to be mighty pissed but he’d know what to do.
She sat in the same stall where she’d flushed the drugs—real or fake, she didn’t know which now—down the toilet. She put her bag on her knees and rooted through it. Her pulse quickened as another bout of panic seized her. Where was her damn phone? She went through all the pockets and compartments but it wasn’t there. God, how she hated this stupid bag. It must be in here somewhere. She went through the whole thing again but it wasn’t. She tried to think back to when she’d last seen it. Had she left it at home? No, she’d called Samantha on it from the ladies’ room at the bar. Had she left it there? Surely not. She might be a bit dozy at times, but she wasn’t that bad.
Then it struck her with all the gut-wrenching force of a kick in the stomach, taking her breath away like it was never coming back. She groaned and clenched her jaw and looked up at the ceiling in utter frustration. She wanted to scream and pull her hair out. They’d taken it when they switched the drugs. It had to be. She got up and went to the sink and splashed cold water on her face. She’d been so, so stupid. She realized she was on her own now. Even if she got to another phone, she didn’t know Angel’s number. It was saved on her cell phone. Should she try to sneak out and alert him or should she carry on and fly by the seat of her pants?
Her decision was made for her as soon as she came out of the bathroom. Samantha was coming down the corridor towards her.
‘Come on,’ she said, grabbing hold of Destiny’s wrist and pulling her, ‘help me get him upstairs. Then you can come back and fix your makeup or whatever else you were doing in there.’
Destiny followed her back to their table. There was no chance of sneaking out now, and she wasn’t going to make a run for it, dodging in and out of the bouncers. Not in these heels, that was for damn sure.
Evan looked up as they got back to the table. He smiled at them like some village idiot. The lights were on, but nobody was at home, as they say. They got a hand under each armpit and helped him up. He was a bit wobbly but he was taking most of his own weight. She supposed he just looked like your average completely out-of-it drunk. Destiny looked up at the stage. Another girl was performing some very acrobatic moves and nobody paid them any attention as they helped Evan towards his fate.
***
THEY GOT HIM UPSTAIRS into one of the private rooms without any problem and dropped him onto one of the couches. He landed face down and just stayed there, his hand hanging off the side and resting on the floor, his mouth open.
Samantha put her hand on Destiny’s arm. The feel of it repulsed her. ‘You did really well,’ Samantha said,’ we’ll take it from here.’
Destiny opened her mouth to speak but Samantha interrupted her.
‘Don’t argue,’ she said, her tone suddenly a lot harsher. ‘Just go back downstairs. I’ll see you later.’
Her face made it clear there was no room for discussion.
Destiny wondered who the we were. There was nobody else around. She took one last look at Evan as he lay comatose on the couch. There wasn’t anything she could do for him anyway. He looked so peaceful. She almost wished it was her lying there. At least she wouldn’t have to try to decide what to do. They hadn’t planned for this.
She made her way slowly downstairs. By the time she got to the bottom she knew there was only one option—she would have to sneak out the back door and make her way round the block to where Angel was waiting. She was so engrossed that she turned left towards the corridor that led to the back door without looking and ran straight into the solid gut of a big guy coming the other way. There was another guy following close behind him who almost ran into his back like a shunt on the freeway. They were obviously in some kind of big hurry.
She let out a gasp of surprise as she bounced off him. ‘Sorry.’
He gave her what he no doubt thought was a smile, but was really a leer. His skin was the texture of orange peel and his eyes were as dull as his gray shirt. He was a good block and a half down from handsome and someone had played around with his nose too. She thought he looked vaguely familiar.
‘No problem,’ he said, smiling, showing her a mouthful of yellow teeth. ‘I can think of a lot worse things to get hit in the gut by.’
‘Me too,’ she said for no good reason that she could think of.
Her nerves must really be shot to hell.
Then they both stood back and did that silly dance you do where you both move one way and then both move the other way saying sorry each time. They both smiled and then he stood back against the wall to let her pass. His friend did the same. She felt their eyes crawling over her. She’d have thought working in a place like this they’d get bored staring at every piece of ass they came across. Clearly, she didn’t know men at all. She turned her head and looked back at them. The first guy winked at her and was going to say something—some really original line no doubt that he hoped would get him into her panties—when the other one gave him a push and said something about having work to do. Then they both headed up the stairs. Were they the we Samantha had talked about? If so, she had to get to Angel right now.
She quickened her pace and got to the back door without coming across anyone else. She didn’t know what she’d been so worried about. She let herself out and walked briskly across the parking lot. She had an uncomfortable feeling that somebody was watching her but she couldn’t see anyone. It made the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end and as soon as she got out of the lot
she bent down and took her shoes off and ran like her life depended on it.
Chapter 57
JESSE CHECKED HIS WATCH. He’d been hanging around for over an hour now and nothing much had happened apart from a couple of girls who’d come out and got into an old convertible Mercedes and driven away. They’d been joking about something. One of them had held her stomach and wailed ooh, it hurts so bad and they’d both cracked up. Maybe they’d made up some excuse to get off early. He’d pulled himself back into the shadows and waited for them to drive away. Then, just a couple of minutes ago, another girl had come out on her own and walked quickly across the parking lot and disappeared around the corner.
The smell coming from the dumpsters was just awful. It wasn’t as bad as being locked inside one of them, obviously, but there were still plenty of places he’d rather spend his evening. There didn’t seem to be much point staying where he was for any longer just watching the girls go off shift. It wouldn’t hurt to get a bit closer and see if anything was happening inside. He sure as hell wasn’t doing anything useful out here. He crept forward and had made it all the way to the back door when he heard a noise above him. He froze. The door at the top of the fire escape creaked and opened and a heavyset guy backed out. Jesse darted into the alcove where they’d hosed him down earlier and pressed his back to the wall. At least he had on a dark shirt tonight.
The guy was all the way out now. He had somebody’s legs clamped under his arms. The fire escape shook under their weight. His partner emerged from the doorway carrying the upper half of the body and they made their way down the fire escape. It was too dark for Jesse to get a look at the face of the person they were carrying. He was hanging limply between them but he didn’t look dead. Not that Jesse had any idea what a dead person looked like—he’d never seen one, not even his grandfather’s corpse—but the guy rolled his head to the side and moaned quietly. Jesse still couldn’t make out his features. It looked like he was some kind of pimp from the way he was dressed.
The Evan Buckley Thrillers: Books 1 - 4 (Evan Buckley Thrillers Boxsets) Page 47