A Love to Kill For

by Conor Corderoy

  A kick like that would have killed most men, but as I stood and started cutting at Maria’s bonds, I saw him struggling to his hands and knees. The knife was razor sharp. I slashed once, twice. Then I was at her ankles and she was sitting up, looking about her wildly. I slashed again and again, and she was jumping down off the stone, screaming something at me and pointing. A hand on my shoulder, gripping. I spun. A black shape in a black mask. I rammed the blade into its chest, twisted then pulled. There was a horrific, inhuman scream and the body staggered back. I turned and grabbed for Maria’s hand. She wasn’t there.

  I looked around frantically. The burning goats and the owl scowled at me as flames and shadows danced around them, consuming them. Two acolytes were helping del Roble to his feet. There was an overwhelming roaring sound everywhere. The dome was on fire and sparks and flaming shards were raining down all around us. Five bodies lay jerking and twitching in flames on the ground. Three more were running, beating and tearing at their burning shrouds. People were scrambling and colliding in confusion. Then I saw her. Two black-robed figures were griping her arms as she was kicking a third in the balls. He went down, and she kicked him in the head, screaming at him as she did it. He went over as they dragged her away. I moved toward them as she slammed her heel into one of their insteps then wrenched her arm free. Quickly she was on one knee, ramming her fist into the other’s balls. I saw her grab and twist and heard another scream. Then I was next to her. The third was still hopping, grabbing at his foot when I cut his throat.

  I grabbed her arm and she turned on me. Her face was a mask of rage. I shouted, “Easy!” She snatched her arm away. I shouted, “Let’s go!”

  “Where’s the fucking colonel?”

  “Leave it! Let’s go!”

  Then I saw him behind her. He’d got rid of his robe and he was running for the avenue. There was a small group of them—maybe four—and they were supporting del Roble as they ran. I grabbed Maria by the shoulders, shook her once then said, “Look at me! Look at me!” She swallowed and met my eye. “The place is burning. We have to get out of here. Now! Do. You. Understand?”

  She took a breath. “Yes.”

  I pointed to the trees where I’d come in. It was the farthest point from the fire, but the flames were spreading fast. I said, “That way!”

  I could hear car doors slamming ahead as we ran through the gloom. Head lamps were coming on and tires were squealing as the cars pulled away from the abbey. I thought I could hear shouts. Maybe the colonel’s voice. I stopped. Tried to think. I turned to Maria and pointed to where I’d left the Land Rover. “I have the car over there. Go and wait for me. Don’t do anything. Just wait.”

  She didn’t answer. There was still rage in her face. She turned and started to move into the shadows. I sprinted toward the abbey where there were still a couple of cars silhouetted. They looked like Jeeps and maybe an SUV. I slowed and moved forward at a crouch. There were half a dozen guardia. The colonel was pointing and snapping orders. He wanted a search party, but he didn’t have enough men. They hadn’t expected this tonight. They were going to be spread thin. He ordered one off toward the Land Rover and I slipped behind the SUV to wait for him. The others fanned out in different directions and the colonel stayed guarding the entrance to the abbey. I figured del Roble had gone inside.

  I flattened myself against the back of the SUV as I heard the crunch of heels on gravel. I let him take three steps past me before I stepped up and slipped the blade between the vertebrae in his neck, severing the spinal cord. He was instantly paralyzed from the neck down and died in total silence. I gently lowered his body to the ground and took his automatic from his holster.

  I could see the colonel standing on the terrace, smoking. I slipped from the shadow of the SUV to the shadow of the building then slid along the wall until he was just five paces from me. I could hear the crackling of the burning grove in the distance and smell the burning wood smoke on the air. I stepped up to him quickly and quietly and placed the muzzle of the automatic on the base of his skull. He froze. I took his gun from his holster and slipped it into my waistband. I said, “Get on your knees.”

  He did it, stammering, “Señor Murdoch…you are making a mistake. There is no way you can…”

  I said, “Shut up. If anyone has made any mistakes, Colonel, it’s you. You made a mistake when you shot that boy. You made a mistake when you hit me. But your biggest mistake—the biggest mistake you ever made in your life—was hurting Maria, hurting the woman I love. Tonight you pay for all those mistakes.”

  I pulled the trigger. His head jerked and he sprayed what little brains nature had endowed him with all over the terrace of the Abbey of Thelema. It was somehow fitting. Then I was aware I was being watched. I turned. She was standing, frozen, staring at me. Behind her, the night sky was glowing and trails of incandescent sparks were drifting among the stars. I said, “How long have you been there?”

  “Long enough.”

  “I’m sorry. I’m sorry you had to see that.”

  She shook her head. “Don’t be. Thank you. I would have done it myself if you hadn’t.”

  I threw her the keys to one of the army Jeeps. She caught them and looked at them. I said, “Go home. Wait for me there.”

  “And leave you here? Alone? After what you’ve done?” She shook her head. “That’s not who I am.”

  “It’s dangerous here. There are still armed guardia out there.”

  “We’ll do this together.”

  I shook my head. “I need you alive and safe. I’ll finish this here. You pack a bag. Get ready to leave. We’re going tonight. This is no place for you, Maria.”

  “Liam, I…”

  “I know. But not now. Not here.” She looked down at the keys again, then at me. I said, “Go. Go now.”

  She turned and ran into the night. Soon she had disappeared from sight, and I turned toward the abbey. It was time to talk to the Seraph.

  Chapter Fourteen

  The jet-black door where I’d found del Roble earlier was ajar. I walked up to it and kicked it all the way open. It slammed, loud and jarring, against the wall. I saw del Roble look up. He was seated at the same table as before, but this time instead of caviar, he had a bowl of steaming water and he was dabbing at his injuries with a towel.

  He watched me walk up to him with no expression on his face at all. I stood over him a moment, then I crashed the colonel’s body onto the table, sending the bowl spinning and spilling his bloodstained water all over him and the floor.

  He didn’t react, just sat there looking at me. I said, “You are a very stupid man, del Roble. All in all you’ve had a pretty bad day. So far your stupidity has cost a lot of men their lives tonight. You planning on stopping any time soon? Or are you going to steam right on being stupid until you get us all killed, or somebody kills you?” He still didn’t say anything, so I carried on. “I told you I had the box. You shouldn’t have tried to play me. This time you got lucky, and only your apes paid the price. If I hadn’t been on her tail, sweet Mary-Jane would have turned around and gone back, and she’d have finished the job. And you wouldn’t be here nursing your headache, and the world wouldn’t have to put up with your next act of cosmic stupidity.”

  He stared at me a while longer before he spoke. “She was right in what she said about you. She said you embodied the most hateful and dangerous elements of your species. She said you were a dangerous man and you would kill me given half the chance.” He picked the wet towel off the floor and pressed it to his bloodied head again. “She said you would cause problems and you wouldn’t stop until you had the money and the box, and me dead.”

  I watched him a while, wondering at Mary-Jane. She’d been driving me and del Roble into a deadly conflict from the beginning, but how far from the truth had she been with her lies? Maybe she had seen me more clearly than I had seen myself. But the mystery was still, how? How had she seen that?

  I said, “She may be closer to the truth than either
of you thought. No more smart play. No more maneuvering or negotiating. From now on we do it the way I say or there is no box, no exchange, no way back. Are we clear?” He nodded just once, without looking at me. I said, “And one more thing, because of your stupidity, the price just went up.”

  He looked at me along his eyes. He said, “Really? How much now?”

  I could feel a craziness welling up in my belly and in my head. My heart was pounding and my breath was hot. I heard myself say, “Ten million. Sterling. In a numbered account in Belize.”

  He blinked real slow. “Agreed.”

  “How far can I push you, Serafino?”

  “That is for you to wonder.”

  “What the hell is in that box?”

  He looked at me sidelong again, but he said nothing. After a moment I went on. “We make the exchange in London. I need passage out of here for four people.”

  He stood slowly and turned to face me. “Who are these people?”

  “That’s none of your damn business.”

  “I will double your fee, but you leave me Mary-Jane.”

  “No dice. Mary-Jane has safe passage with me or you get nothing.”

  After a long moment he said, “You hold all the cards, Murdoch. I have no choice but to agree. When?”

  “The day after tomorrow, at my place in London. Six p.m. sharp. You have the safe passages drawn up now and delivered to the Continental Hotel in Competa. In my name. Tonight. Do it now. Make the call.” I walked back to the open door. Then I turned and fixed him with my eye. “And, del Roble? Make no mistake. If you pull one more stunt like tonight, I will send that box where nobody will ever find it again. Then I will kill you with my bare hands.”

  What I wanted was to go back to Maria’s, hold her tight and tell her everything was going to be all right, have two large whiskeys and make love to her for twelve hours straight, holding her close and kissing every inch of her sweet body and face. But there was one more piece of business I had to take care of. After I had taken a shirt from one of the dead guardias, I climbed into the Land Rover and headed back down the mountain, toward Competa.

  * * * *

  When I got to the hotel, I could see from the parking lot that her lights were out. I looked at my watch and saw it was four a.m. There was no one at the reception desk so I leaned on the bell till a sleepy-eyed woman came out. She didn’t seem too fazed at the state I was in, but then, this was a country at war. I said, “There will be an envelope delivered here for me, Liam Murdoch.” I made her write it down. “It’s important—real important. Comprende?” She said she did and I told here if there was no one on reception to receive it, I would burn the hotel down. Then I gave her my totally humorless laugh so she’d know I meant it.

  “Is Señorita Howard in?”

  She nodded. “Sí, is eslipin’.”

  When I opened the door, the light from the landing leaned into the darkness, cutting across the floor with my black shadow straddling the light. It didn’t quite reach her where she was sitting, but I could make out part of her silhouette against the pale window behind her. We stayed like that for a moment, two shadows watching each other. After a moment I heard her voice, barely a whisper. “Liam? Is that you?”

  I closed the door and said, “Yeah, it’s me.”

  I heard the box and my .45 clatter to the floor and she was rushing across the room to me. I saw she was wearing just a silk bathrobe, then next she was clinging to me like her life depended on it. I didn’t respond. She pulled back and looked up at me with searching eyes, then took my face in her hands and her lips were hot and swollen on mine. In my mind, all I could see was Maria’s eyes looking up into mine, trusting, believing in me. I gently pushed Catherine back.

  We stood looking at each other in the half-light. The robe slipped from her shoulders to the floor, revealing her perfect body and her smooth, silky skin. She whispered, “Take me, Liam. I want you so badly.”

  My voice was harsh in my throat. “Stop it, Catherine. That’s not going to happen.”

  She moved her hands to her breasts in half modesty and shame, half fondling. I could feel my heart pounding and every instinct in me told me to take her. But I knew I didn’t want her. Her voice was small, ashamed. “What’s wrong, Liam? Don’t you like me?”

  I growled, “Stop it!”

  She lowered her eyes and took a few steps away, with her back to me, slightly luminous in the darkened room. She said, “I was so worried about you.”

  I closed the door, found the bottle of whiskey and poured myself a glass. I said, “I was worried about you too.”

  Behind me I sensed her picking up her robe. I pulled a Camel from the pack and went to sit on the windowsill, watching her dress. The light from the streetlamps outside made her look like a ghost—a shamed, humiliated ghost. I lit the cigarette and inhaled deeply. As I let out the smoke, I started speaking.

  “That was real stupid what you did, Catherine.” She didn’t say anything, but I could see her eyes darting about my face. “A lot of men died tonight because of you and del Roble and your stupidity. I could have been one of them.”

  Her eyes shifted, looking at the floor, moving left to right, then back again. I said, “It has to stop. I told you. I’m not going to be your hit man—not for you and not for Mary-Jane.”

  After a while she looked at her hands—first the backs, then her palms—like she was looking for blood there. Then she said, “Who—?”

  “Not del Roble.”

  She froze, but after a minute she said, “Not del Roble?”

  We were silent for a while. Eventually I asked her, “Is that what she told you? That del Roble bought it in a car crash near Torrox?” I could see her wet eyes watching me. “He didn’t. He was hurt, but he’s alive. What did you hope to do? Kill him with my gun? Make it look like I did it? How stupid do you think I am? It has to stop. Do you understand that, Catherine? Are you beginning to understand that?”

  Her eyes were fixed on me, and an occasional tear caught the light from the car park. I heard her voice, just a whisper, “Yes.”

  I said, “We’re leaving in the morning. I have a safe passage for you and Mary-Jane and two more. We’re going back to London and we are going to resolve this mess there, my way and on my terms. Don’t mess up again, Catherine, or it will be the last time.” She nodded, small, childlike nods. “I mean it. Mess up one more time and I am out, with the box.” I saw her straighten and heard the quick hiss of breath. So I added, for good measure, “You got away with it till now because you’re cute. But don’t get the idea you can manipulate me. Push me too far and I’ll drop you like a plateful of horseshit. Am I getting through to you?”

  This time her yes wasn’t so childlike. But she followed it quickly with, “You wouldn’t do that.”

  “What makes you think so?”

  “Liam, I know you’ve felt something. I know you feel—”

  Outside, the horizon was turning pale and the dawn chorus was rising on the cool air. I heard a moped whine round the corner and pull up outside the hotel. The rider got off but left the motor running. I stood and walked across the room to where my .45 and the box had fallen. I picked them up and slipped the .45 into my waistband. Then I held up the box for her to see it. I spat the words at her with a savagery that surprised even me.

  “Whatever I may have felt one time, now I feel nothing!” Then, “Downstairs, in reception, you have two safe passages, one for you and one for Mary-Jane. The day after tomorrow, you and Mary-Jane come to my place in London. You don’t show? You try to play it smart? You pull one more stunt and you never see this box again as long as you live.”

  I was halfway to the door, but I had to stop and come back. I said, “It was never blackmail, was it? Not you, not him.”

  She closed her eyes and whispered, “Liam, don’t.”

  “It was del Roble, wasn’t it?”

  “Yes.”

  “Rupert had something del Roble wanted.” I held up the box. “This. An
d sweet Mary-Jane was dispatched from del Roble’s team of angels to get hold of it.” She nodded. “She recruited Pete, a professional yegg, and set it up for him at Rupert’s house so it would be a cinch for him to steal. Then once she had it, she thought, if she could keep it—”

  “It wasn’t just that.”

  “No? What was it?”

  “I told you. It wasn’t a lie. For the first time in her life, she felt like somebody. It wasn’t the money or the house or even the respect that she got wherever she went with him.” She shrugged. “He loved her. For the first time in her life, somebody loved her. Do you know what that is, when you have never felt, to feel love for the first time?” She spread her hands. It was a gesture of helplessness. “It was different for me. I’d grown up with nice people in a warm home. I was used to being loved and cared for and cherished every day. But Mary-Jane? All she had ever known was exploitation. The only thing of value she had was her body, and that was a thing to be exploited, used, sold.” Her eyes drifted. “Then Rupert turned up. It’s a cliché, but he was her knight in shining armor. He loved her. He made her realize that what was inside her was also valuable.”

  She laughed, and it was a sudden, startling sound in the dawn. She looked at me, incredulous. “Have you any idea what that meant to someone like Mary-Jane?”

  I said, “If that’s true, why did she steal from him and dump him?”

  She was quiet for a long time. Finally, she said, “Because it was too unbelievable. It was a dream, and she knew that in the end he would be like all the rest.” She sat down on the arm of the chair. The luminous window behind her made her a stark black silhouette. “But you see, Liam, I knew who she was, and I didn’t care. We were family—sisters—and with that”—she pointed at the box in my hand—“with that, we could get away, go somewhere safe, away from…” She never finished the sentence.