by Rob Sinclair
A second later, the van was out of sight and Ryker realised he was pulling the trigger on a now-empty gun. Frustration and anger gripping him, Ryker hurled the weapon and looked down at the sorry form of Miguel. He rolled the boy onto his back. His eyes were ghostly. Ryker got down on his knees and felt for a pulse. Then he leaned down further and placed his ear close to Miguel’s mouth, looking downwards across the boy’s chest.
It only took Ryker a few seconds to confirm what he’d already feared.
Ryker rolled away, but stayed on the ground. He felt numb. A harrowing scream from behind Ryker sent a shock of emotion through him. Ryker didn't move as Miguel’s mother, blood streaming from her nose, slid to a stop on the ground and clutched at the body of her dead son. Ryker stared into the distance, trying to bring his mind back into focus, trying to remove himself from the horror of the situation in front of him.
It was no good. He couldn’t. He’d barely known Miguel Ramos, but he was just a kid. A kid who was lost. A kid who’d been used. He didn’t deserve to die. Not like that. And the mother... Ryker couldn't even imagine her pain.
Miguel’s mother let go of her son and she flung herself at Ryker, screaming hysterically. She bashed him in his chest with her fists. She slapped him in the face. Punched him. Shoved him. He barely registered her.
Forcing himself back to reality, Ryker brushed her off and got to his feet. He didn’t say a word to her as he walked away. Just filled his head with thoughts of bloody revenge.
51
Ryker made a cursory call to Green as he sped back along the motorway away from Malaga. He only wanted to make sure there had been no further incidents at Casa de las Rosas – no further sightings of the Red Cobra. Green said all was quiet. He’d been making progress in organising a safe location for Walker, but it would likely take hours, possibly days, more to finalise. Until then, Walker would remain at home with his armed guard.
Ryker ended the call without saying a word of what he’d been doing, what he’d found, or of the fight that ended with a young boy being gunned down. And he certainly hadn’t breathed a word of what he was now planning.
As he drove, Ryker tried his best to calm the fire in his mind. He knew it wouldn’t help for what was to come. Strong emotions seldom help in a time of crisis. The time alone in the car seemed to do the trick. The image in his mind of Miguel Ramos dropping to the ground, his body covered in bullet holes, was still fresh and vivid; it would be for a long time. But Ryker was back in control.
It was approaching midday when he arrived at the construction site on the outskirts of Marbella where three days previously he’d been attacked. His destination was once again the Kozlov mansion. He wasn’t about to announce himself by offering himself to the security guards at the main gates. Not this time.
As Ryker stepped from the car, the blast of hot air caught him off guard. The air was thick not just with heat but moisture too, and Ryker’s back and his brow was already covered in sweat by the time he’d moved a few yards.
The beach was again quiet, other than the occasional jogger and dog walker. Ryker approached the Kozlov house, and when he looked up at the mansion, he felt a wave of hatred for what the expensive pile of bricks, glass, and marble stood for. Ryker wasn’t sure who would be home – Eva, Andrei, Sergei? It didn’t matter, he’d soon find out. Ryker couldn’t pass this place by. The addresses in Algeciras and Cadiz were Ryker’s next stops. But Algeciras was fifty miles further west. One way or another, Kozlov was involved in the sorry mess that Ryker was uncovering, and Ryker wouldn’t let that slide. If Kozlov was home, Ryker would get answers.
And if Sergei was there...
Ryker kept his head low and his senses high as he moved off the beach and onto the mansion’s grounds. As with his previous trip from the beach, there wasn’t sign of a single person in the grounds as he crept toward the back of the house. But then, when Ryker was a few yards from the building, he heard the sound of a door opening and he slunk down behind a bush.
Eva came dashing out of the house, shouting to someone behind her as she moved. Ryker watched as she headed to the elaborate wooden summer house on the far corner of the plot. She went inside, out of view.
Ryker took the chance to move closer to the open patio door at the back of the main building.
Eva came out of the summer house less than a minute later. Ryker was able to again take cover behind foliage. Eva moved with purpose – she was rushing. Under one arm she carried what looked like a laptop; in her other hand she held a pair of oversized headphones. She spoke again to someone that Ryker couldn’t see. Her father perhaps? Ryker couldn’t be sure. He’d seen and heard nothing from inside the house. But he was determined to find out who was there.
When Eva was ten yards away, Ryker sprang into action. He jumped into the open and pulled the Colt up, the barrel aimed at Eva’s head.
‘Eva!’ Ryker shouted to her.
Eva stopped running, turned to face him and froze on the spot. Only then did Ryker notice her swollen right cheek. It was bright red, turning purple at the edges, and the inflamed flesh meant her eyelid was partially closed. A result of him shoving her to the ground in Ronda, he wondered. Or had someone beaten her?
Eva’s venom toward Ryker was clear when she spoke. ‘You’re a dead man, Ryker! Do you hear me? Dead!’ Eva turned her gaze back inside the house.
‘Who’s in there? Your dad?’
‘Behind you!’ Eva screamed to someone out of sight, her eyes springing wide in shock.
There was the sound of slicing – metal against flesh. Once, twice, three times. Eva jumped with each noise but didn’t make any attempt to move. Petrified at what she saw.
A blood-curdling scream came from inside the house. There was a pained gargle as a man – Ryker didn’t recognise him – stepped forward out of the open doorway. He held a gun in his hand but no shots had been fired. Blood gushed down from the gaping wound in his neck and intestines spilled from his gut. He collapsed to the ground. A large pool of blood spread out from his lifeless body.
Ryker sprang forward and pressed himself up against the wall of the house. Eva was still glued to the spot.
‘Eva,’ Ryker said.
She didn’t respond. She was now trembling with fear.
‘Eva,’ Ryker repeated. ‘What do you see?’
‘They’re dead. They’re both dead!’
‘Do you see her?’
‘Yes!’ Eva screamed, taking a step back, then another, a look of horror on her face.
Ryker dashed across the open doorway and took a split second to take in the scene inside before pulling up against the opposite wall. In the kitchen, another man was sprawled, a patch of thick red blood surrounding him on the white marble floor. Ryker hadn’t seen the man’s face clearly but he didn’t think it was Kozlov or Sergei.
After a few seconds of silence, Ryker moved back into the doorway, gun held out. He caught sight of a shadow moving quickly across the space beyond the kitchen doorway, out in the mansion’s grand hallway. The speed of movement of the shadowy figure in the interior darkness made it appear almost ghostlike, as though the air had suddenly taken shape and burst into life.
Ryker’s finger twitched on the trigger, but he held his nerve and didn’t fire. He wasn’t about to waste bullets on a target he couldn’t properly see. But the Red Cobra was there, no doubt about it. Ryker waited, watching and listening for any further sign of movement. Any sign of his enemy.
But there was nothing.
Then he heard a scream from outside. Ryker turned and saw Eva running toward him. He sprang to action again. Eva met him head-on a yard outside the house and burrowed into him, crying and shaking.
Ryker quickly surveilled the area outside. ‘Where?’ He didn’t move Eva away. She continued to nestle into him.
‘Over there.’ Eva pointed to the far corner of the house where a passageway led around to the front of the property.
Ryker stared over. There was no sign of anyone t
here. ‘You’re sure?’
His eyes darting, he stepped to the side, taking Eva with him, moving out of the line of fire from the open back door. Not that he expected the Red Cobra to shoot at him. Guns had never been her style.
Eva lifted her head from Ryker’s chest and looked around, back in the direction she’d pointed. Then she straightened up. ‘She’s gone.’
Ryker wasn’t sure if it was a question. ‘I don’t know. Are there any more men?’
Eva shook her head.
‘You sure? Don’t try to play me, Eva. If you lie to me I’m going to shoot you. Are there any more men?’
‘No!’
‘Okay. Where are the car keys?’
Eva pointed to the man on the ground. Ryker cautiously moved over, his eyes still twitching here, there, and everywhere. He felt around the man’s body and pockets. Not just looking for keys but for anything of use. The guy’s gun was swimming in blood. Ryker didn’t bother taking it. He found a wallet. Ryker took a quick look at the picture driving licence inside. A Russian name. Not one he recognised from Miguel Ramos’s digging. Then he found a remote clicker for a Mercedes.
Ryker held the key up.
‘That’s the one,’ Eva said.
Ryker got to his feet. He turned and moved toward Eva.
‘Keep your head down and your eyes peeled. You see anything you scream.’
Eva nodded.
‘We move around the side of the house,’ Ryker said. ‘To the car. Slowly.’
Eva nodded again. Ryker held his hand out to her, his feeling of hostility toward her thawing, given the immediate threat of a common enemy. She took his hand.
‘Come on,’ he said. ‘Let’s get out of here.’
52
Either the Red Cobra was hiding or she’d already scarpered – Ryker didn't see any sign of her as he and Eva cautiously worked their way around the mansion to the front. Ryker hopped onto the driver’s seat of the executive Mercedes, and Eva tentatively followed onto the front passenger seat.
As Ryker edged the car along the driveway and onto the road, he wondered what kind of response he was about to receive from the security guards at the outer gates. Had the Red Cobra already killed them on her way in or out? If not, then would they be springing to alert because of the gunshots from the Kozlov residence?
It turned out to be neither. As they approached the exit, Ryker spotted one guard sat inside a patrol Jeep, on the inside of the gates. He was casually reading a newspaper. A second guard was tootling along by his hut on the outside. They barely paid any attention as the Mercedes approached. Ryker could only think that the distance between the gates and the Kozlov house meant neither of the guards had heard any of the commotion and didn't yet suspect a thing.
Ryker slowed the car to a crawl. ‘How do we open the gates?’
He looked over at Eva. He could see the doubt in her eyes. He’d rescued her from the clutches of the Red Cobra but did she really want to be driving around with Ryker? She could scream out and get the guards’ attention, he realised. But if she did that she’d be putting not just her life at risk but the guards’ too. Ryker gave her the chance. In the end she made the right call.
‘Here.’ She reached into a small compartment within the central armrest and pulled out a key fob. She pressed the button and the gates swung open. The guards both looked up. The windows of the Mercedes were tinted and Ryker doubted the guards would have a good view of who was inside. Eva lowered her window a few inches and casually waved to the men. Ryker could only guess that was normal protocol as the men’s only response was to give a cursory smile and wave in return.
‘Who was that?’ Eva asked a couple of minutes later as Ryker steadily weaved the car through the thickening traffic onto the country roads that led back up into the mountains.
‘Someone who wants you dead.’
‘Me? What did I do?’ Eva sounded angry as much as she was surprised or upset.
‘You tell me.’
‘Where are we going?’
‘To get you safe.’
‘But... why are you even helping me?’
Ryker thought about that for a moment. ‘Because it’s the right thing to do.’
And that was the only explanation Ryker could give. He’d never trust Eva. There was a good chance she’d tried to set him up at the bullring, and minutes earlier, she’d screamed that he was a dead man. But then he had been pointing a gun barrel at her skull.
The fact was Ryker didn’t know why the Red Cobra would want Eva dead. The only thing Ryker was sure Eva had done wrong was to have an affair with a married man. Hardly an offence punishable by death. Yes, her father was a crook, and she knew far more about what had been happening in Andalusia then she’d let on, but you don’t get to choose your parents. For all Ryker so far knew, Eva was nothing more than an observer. Until proven otherwise he would treat her as such.
Ryker took out his mobile phone and made a call to Green. He kept the conversation brief, simply saying that he had someone Green needed to look after and to meet at the hotel where Inspector Cardo had taken a dive.
‘You saved my life,’ Eva said. Ryker looked over and saw the emotion in her face. She was in shock he knew. For all of her usual confidence and bravado, what she’d witnessed – two men being so savagely killed in front of her – had taken its toll.
‘Where’s your father?’ Ryker asked.
‘I don’t know,’ Eva said looking down.
‘You’re lying.’
‘I’m not! He’s... somewhere safe.’
‘Why?’
‘Because of that mad woman! I told you at the bullring, everyone is on edge, looking over their shoulders – ever since Cardo was attacked. My father has chosen to keep out of sight. He knows he’s a target, though he doesn’t know why.’
‘So why were you in the house still then? Why aren’t you somewhere safe like your father?’
‘I was supposed to be. That’s what we were doing. I had to get my things. We were only there a few minutes. Why is she doing this to us?’
‘You really have to ask that question?’
‘Yes. I do. I’ve never hurt anybody.’
‘Kim Walker? You were sleeping with her husband. I’d say that would hurt.’
‘I didn’t mean hurt like that. I mean like stabbing people. Spilling their guts on the floor!’
‘And what about Sergei? Where is he?’
‘Sergei? I haven’t a clue. Why would I know that?’
‘In Ronda yesterday and then in Malaga this morning, I suddenly found myself staring down gun barrels. And I don’t believe in coincidences. Someone wants me dead.’
It was a thought that had struck him as soon as he’d laid eyes on Sergei in Miguel Ramos’s home. They’d known Ryker was there. But how?
‘That’s nothing to do with me! I told you yesterday I didn’t set you up. But then you went ahead and attacked me anyway.’
Ryker glanced at Eva’s swollen face. He didn’t feel even slightly bad for what he’d done.
‘Not long ago, I watched Sergei gun down a fifteen-year-old boy. Some great company you’ve been keeping there.’
‘What are you talking about?’ Eva was shaking her head. Genuine confusion and shock, Ryker believed.
‘If you know where Sergei is, you tell me. Because I’m going to find him, and I’m going to kill him – and anyone who gets in my way.’
Ryker looked over again. Eva stared back.
After that, the journey carried on in silence. They reached the hotel and Ryker pulled the Mercedes into the car park. He parked up and then stepped out from the air-conditioned car into the baking heat. Eva followed and Ryker studied the look in her eyes. ‘You know this place.’
‘What?’
‘How? Why’d you come here?’
‘It’s somewhere I’ve been to. The food’s good. You should try it.’
‘You can’t get good food in Marbella?’
‘Yes. You can. But that doesn’t m
ean I have to eat there and only there.’
Ryker knew with confidence that there was more to the story than that, but Eva wasn’t going to tell him. He’d questioned why Cardo would be staying there. Ryker’s guess was the hotel was a hangout for the mob. Good middle ground for them to travel to. Perhaps they held meetings there, or stopped when passing through.
The flippancy in Eva’s words, the sudden breakthrough of that natural confidence and charm, even if it was only there for a second, reminded Ryker of exactly whom he was dealing with. Ryker knew he’d never truly be able to read a woman like Eva. As good as he was at spotting an untruth, she was too used to telling lies, to spinning a situation to her advantage. The signs of deceit were too hit and miss. The problem was she lived in a world where she fully believed her own lies.
They walked toward the metal barrier and looked out over the view to the coast.
‘Who is your father working for, Eva? I know it’s the mafia. Georgians. But give me some names. Do the decent thing. It could save him if I find him first.’
Eva didn’t answer the question immediately. Ryker waited.
‘It’s not like that,’ Eva eventually said. ‘He’s not one of them.’
‘Maybe. Maybe not.’
‘Please don’t hurt him.’
‘If he leaves me no choice.’
‘He’s a good man. Sometimes bad things happen to good people. You must know that?’
‘Why was Kim Walker killed?’
Eva looked down at her feet.
‘Because of you? The affair?’
‘No!’ Eva said. ‘Not because of that. I didn’t do anything.’
‘Then what? Did she find out about what Walker and your father were doing?’
‘I really don’t know.’
‘You told me in Ronda that you did. You were about to tell me the reason when your two friends showed up with guns.’
‘They aren’t my friends.’
‘I couldn’t give a shit if they are or aren’t. Tell me why Kim Walker was killed.’
‘Because they found out who she really was.’