by Chris Ryan
Soon, the tips became a lot more valuable than the job. Harry was paying a thousand dollars a day to protect him, but Matt was making five or ten times that just by trading shares. At the end of the job he had made enough to buy him his share in the Last Trumpet, to invest in a flat in London, to get a new silver Porsche Boxster, and to leave over enough to keep trading. The restaurant gave him a stake in a real business, something he could work at, and be proud of.
But by the time Matt stopped working for Harry he was addicted to trading. And he made the biggest mistake of all. He thought he was clever. He carried on trading shares, but without Harry to tell him what to buy and sell, every share he bought went down instead of up. The money quickly evaporated, and then the debts started to mount up.
It wasn't greed. I was just trying to make the money for you, Gill. To give us a decent life together.
Matt looked at the computer screen, where the shares in his portfolio were displayed in neat tables. Ten different stocks, all of them purchased in the last six months. All of them with borrowed money. And all of them trading heavily down.
At a rough calculation, Matt reckoned he owed a half-million. And the people he owed it to didn't just charge interest. They didn't just downgrade your credit rating. They killed you.
TWO
Matt glanced towards Alison once, looked away, then found his eyes moving back towards her. A seven, maybe. No, make that an eight. Borderline nine, even.
Bad thought, Matt. You've got enough problems without eying up other women.
She was tall, with blonde hair that tumbled down the back of her neck, and a strong athletic build: a woman, Matt judged, who knew her way around the gym as well as the bedroom. She was wearing tight leather trousers and a pink silk blouse with the top two buttons undone. A single string of pearls was wrapped round her neck, there was a one-diamond earring glittering on either side of her face, and just enough cleavage on display to hook your interest.
What's a girl like that doing in a bar known locally as the Last Strumpet?
'A British minister killed in Saudi Arabia,' said Keith, holding up a newspaper. 'They must have had some inside help from the rag-heads. Otherwise I don't see how they could have got to the man. Not with the security he would have had around him.'
Matt stole another glance at Alison. Definitely a nine. She had a way of growing on you. 'Not necessarily,' he said, looking back towards Keith. 'There's always a way of getting to a man.'
She was standing by herself, he noticed, but didn't seem lost or nervous or insecure, the way a lot of women might when stranded by themselves in a bar. They either looked too eager, as if they were almost inviting one of the guys to come and try their luck, or they looked too sour, as if they were warning all the men in the bar to keep well away. But this one looked as if she was just enjoying the gin and lime in her glass, the night air, and the breeze blowing in from the sea, the same way a man would if he was having a drink by himself.
'You reckon?' said Keith. 'How then?' Keith claimed to be a former policeman, but Matt wasn't sure he believed him. He had neither the strength nor the character Matt would expect from someone professionally trained. He was too loud, too cocky: his muscles were strong, but his mind was flabby. The closest Matt reckoned he'd been to any real danger was a late-night brawl in a pub or a ruckus at a football match. Men who had seen real action didn't joke about it and didn't talk tough: they knew it was ugly, raw and violent, and that even the strongest men were frightened in the face of death. A traffic cop, maybe – or a parking warden. If it wasn't for the fact that he spent most of the little money he earned at the bar of the Last Trumpet, Matt wouldn't have taken the time to talk to him.
That's the trouble with life after the Regiment. You have to talk to wankers all the time.
'I'm not telling you, mate,' said Matt. 'I might want to kill you one of these days. No point in telling you in advance how I'm going to do it.'
'If you were going to kill me,' said the woman, 'how would you do that?'
Matt turned round to see Alison standing just a few inches behind him. Her eyes were looking straight at his, her glass held slightly to one side, her lips were poised on the cusp of a smile. Classy, he reflected, having noted her voice's pure, round vowel sounds. A lot classier than most of the women who hang around at the Last Trumpet.
'Meticulous preparation, that would be the key,' said Matt. 'I'd have to get to know everything about you.'
'And where would you start?'
Matt saw the way her finger was curling around the edge of her glass. There were no rings, he noticed. She was acting tough, but she still seemed slightly nervous. Her skin looked soft and was lightly tanned, but had none of the wrinkles women quickly collect when they move to the Spanish sun. On holiday, he decided. Maybe she was just divorced and looking to catch up on some lost time. Or maybe she was one of those London career harpies who suddenly find all their girlfriends have got married and had kids and they don't have anyone to go on holiday with except themselves. Either way it didn't matter. She was definitely interested.
'I'd start by finding out all about you, where you five and what you do, then I'd want to find out what interests you and excites you. I'd want to know what your passions are.'
'My passions?'
'Sure,' said Matt. 'A woman's passions are her main weakness.'
'I reckon the only killing you know about,' Alison said, her lips drawing back into a smile, 'is lady-killing.'
'That's probably the most dangerous sort,' said Matt, laughing.
Deciding to get rid of Keith, Matt took a bottle of Moet & Chandon from behind the bar – one of the privileges of being a shareholder – and cracked it open. The beach, he suggested to the woman, was the perfect place to drink champagne on a warm evening. Somewhere they could hear the waves in their ears and feel the sand beneath their feet.
One of the best things about basing yourself in Spain, Matt reflected as he took her arm and guided her gently down the steep metal staircase that led from the terrace to the beach, was the constant parade of girls on holiday with tight skirts and loose morals. Easyjetters, some of the guys at the bar called them. They came in by jet. They were easy. They were cheap. And after a couple of days by the pool some of them were even orange as well.
But this woman wasn't like that. She might be easy – he would find out soon – but there was nothing cheap about her.
'I don't even know your name,' said Matt, sitting down on one of the rocks that jutted out from the sand.
'Alison.'
'I heard you let that little friend of mine take off your party dress.'
'I know the song, thanks.'
Matt fell silent. It was only two days since he had split up with Gill. The pain was still there, weighing on his mind. Her parting words were still echoing through his thoughts, and the image of her tears still burned his memory. A hundred times he had thought about calling her: a thousand times he had told himself he mustn't. He had made his choice, he must learn to live with it.
Maybe I need something to help me get over Gill. Maybe I'll never sort out the mess I'm in and just need to move on. Forget about the past, and everything in it.
'You're quiet.'
'Just thinking.'
'Oh.'
Alison leant forward and brushed her lips against his. Matt moved his face towards her and their lips collided, the kiss turning into a long, passionate embrace. She tasted different, and felt different. It was two years since Matt had slept with any woman other than Gill, and he had started to forget how each had her own unique flavour, her own way of touching you, her own noises and movements. Gill and he had got together when he'd left the Regiment, and they'd gone back to the crowd of people they'd known before he'd become a soldier. There had always been plenty of temptation at the bar, but he'd never so much as looked at another woman.
Alison's hands were moving quickly over his chest and shoulders, her fingers pressing through his blue denim shirt. Through h
er bra and her blouse he could feel her nipples starting to harden. 'Not here,' she whispered into his ear. 'I want to fuck you all night, and we can't do that on the beach.'
He stood up, holding her hand, and they started walking. It was ten minutes to his apartment, a one-bedroom place overlooking the sea, just down from the main coastal road.
Matt pushed open the door of the flat, hoping it wasn't too much of a mess. It was a standard guy's place – a few pieces of furniture, none of them bought with any great thought. A big hi-fi, and a row of CDs filed away on the bookshelf in alphabetical order. A wide-screen TV, with a PlayStation 2 underneath it and a collection of games. A small kitchen, with a big fridge containing beer, some orange juice and six frozen double pepperoni and sausage pizzas. The only individual touch was the framed pictures on top of the hi-fi, one of his mum, the rest of himself in uniform with some of his mates from the Regiment.
Matt picked a CD from the shelf – Sonny Rollins, in his opinion the greatest jazz saxophone player of the 1950s. He fed the disc into the player then turned around to look at her, noticing the way the light caught her hair, emphasising the fact that she was a near platinum blonde. A sad, soulful tune slowly filled the room, the lines of the melody straying in different directions, and Matt gripped Alison around the waist, feeling the tight leather of her trousers firm against his hand. Already he was wondering how she would look naked, what would be the contours of her body, how her shape would fit against his. She wasn't saying anything, but it suited him that way. He kissed her lips, his mouth moving quickly down the length of her neck, his hands wrestling with her belt buckle. 'Undress,' he said. 'Undress for me now.'
She took off her clothes with the same relaxed grace she'd displayed in the bar, like a woman who was perfectly comfortable with herself and her surroundings. She unpeeled her trousers first, uncovering slender, finely sculpted legs. Then she dropped her blouse to the floor, revealing slim, elegant shoulders and breasts that seemed larger than they'd looked when she was clothed. Her bra and knickers were red lace La Perla, designed more to provoke than to protect. She must have known she was going home with a guy tonight, decided Matt. A woman doesn't wear underwear like that unless she is on the prowl. I just happened to be standing in the right place.
Alison dropped to her knees before him, unbuttoned the fly of his jeans. Her tongue moved slowly, teasingly against his groin, and Matt could feel his muscles relaxing as the pleasure flooded through his body. He ran his fingers slowly through her long hair, admiring the skill with which she seemed to be working every nerve-ending in his body. He waited until he could stand it no more, then scooped her up in his arms and carried her towards the bedroom. Her hair broke free, trailing across his shoulder. He rolled her on to the bed and lay on top of her, his movements swift, urgent and uncontrolled. He could feel her yielding beneath him, and could feel her excitement mounting as he pushed into her. Within minutes, her screams were ringing in his ears.
Forty minutes later Matt leant back on the bed. Every muscle in his body felt stretched, each nerve taut. At his side, Alison rolled over, reaching out for her bag and retrieving a packet of Dunhill. She lit one, blowing a plume of smoke high into the air. Then she lit one for him and moved to place it between his lips, but Matt shook his head.
'I've given up,' he said, breathing in the smoky air. 'Did I approach you in the bar, or did you approach me?' he continued.
The trace of a smile flashed across Alison's lips. 'You mean, are you the hunter or are you the prey?'
'Exactly,' said Matt.
She reached across the bed to rest her head on his chest, her tongue flicking across his nipple.
Matt reached out across the bed to find her. His hand moved through the sheet. Nothing. Drowsily he opened his eyes, looking around the tiny room. Nothing. Light was streaming in through the window and the sky was bright blue. He stood up, walking towards the bathroom. 'Alison,' he shouted. He could hear his voice bouncing off the walls. Then silence. Nothing. She was gone.
Matt shrugged and walked towards the kitchen. He threw some coffee into the percolator, and took a flask of orange juice from the fridge, drinking it straight from the bottle. The smell of her still lingered on his body. Strange, he reflected. Last night she was all over me, this morning she wakes up and buggers off without so much as saying goodbye.
That's a guy's job, isn't it?
Matt glanced at his watch. It was already half past nine. He needed a shower, and he needed to get on with his life. Last night was fun, but that was all. She was right to take off.
'You're a stupid boy, Matt Browning.'
The sound of the voice rattled through his ears, catching him off-guard. Matt looked up. The man sitting on the sofa was called Harry Pointer. Matt had met him a couple of times before. A fat, ugly brute of an Englishman with a nasty rash on the top of his balding head, Harry ran errands for Gennady Kazanov, local landlord and an investor in the Last Trumpet. Harry wasn't the heavy muscle, although he knew how to throw a punch and fire a gun when he had to. But mainly he did the talking and the translating: the muscle that travelled with Kazanov spoke Russian or Ukrainian or Georgian, not English.
'How the fuck did you get in?' demanded Matt.
'Mr Kazanov owns the block, remember,' said Harry. 'He has keys to all the apartments.'
'And that gives you the right to barge in here whenever you like?'
Pointer shook his head. 'No,' he replied slowly. 'The fact you owe us half a million gives us the right.'
'I've told you,' said Matt, 'I'm doing everything I can think of to get you your money back.'
'Thinking isn't what you do best.'
Pointer stood up. He was wearing cream chinos and a bright blue shirt, and the tattoos were visible all the way up his arm.
'Tell Kazanov he's just going to have to wait,' said Matt.
'He's waited already, Matt. He's tired of waiting. Mr Kazanov is a patient man; he knows that sometimes it takes time to make money, but even his patience will be exhausted eventually. You know what troubles him: he doesn't see you working. He watches, and he sees some guy too busy knocking off the tourist honeys in the bar to spend his time worrying about how he's going to pay Mr Kazanov back.' Harry paused, moving closer to Matt. 'And Mr Kazanov doesn't like that.'
Matt shrugged, walking towards the balcony. He looked to the beach below. A pair of girls were sunning themselves, one in a pink bikini, the other in blue. He looked more closely. No, neither of them was Alison.
'We know where she works, Matt. We know all her movements.'
'That's more than I do.'
'No.' Pointer laughed. 'We know where Gill works, Matt. The Dandelion Playschool, Puerto Banus. The kids get out at two-thirty every afternoon. She walks home to her apartment. Takes her about fifteen minutes. Plenty of good spots along the way where a couple of men could pick her up, take her away to somewhere quiet.'
Matt turned slowly away from the window. His eyes narrowed and he could feel the muscles in his chest tightening. He had few expectations of Kazanov. He knew better than to believe the man had made his money in the Russian oil business. He knew he was a hard, ruthless thug who had worked for the KGB before looting a fortune when the system in his country started to come apart. And he knew that if he didn't get his money back to him sometime, he was likely to come after him. But Gill. . .
'Don't even think about it,' Matt snapped.
A thin smile started to spread over Pointer's lips. 'A primary school teacher. I reckon she uses her hands a lot,' he said, drawing out each word. 'All that painting and building things with the kids. If some guys snatched her and chopped off her right hand, I reckon that would be pretty bad for her.'
Matt squared up to Pointer, close enough to smell the coffee on his breath. 'I'd kill any man who laid a finger on her,' he said, his voice rising. 'I'd kill the man, then I'd kill Kazanov. Then I'd kill you. Slowly.'