, she thought that what she was looking at was
Precious.For a long moment Layla felt glued there, unable to move, unable to even think.
Precious was on the floor.
And now the man straightened, and looked up.
‘Jesus…’ said Layla faintly, shrinking back in the seat, her skin crawling as she saw that it was him. The big shock of lightish hair that she knew was red. The pale face, the cold eyes.
Layla felt her body dissolve in terror.
It was the man who’d pursued her through the park. The man who had almost – almost – caught her. He was in there, with Precious – and Precious was lying on the floor.
Layla stumbled to her feet, a thin cry of horror escaping her. She looked at the door, thinking help, someone help. Where the fuck was Kyle, shouldn’t he be coming back any minute now…? Shouldn’t someone be standing in for him during his break? Frantically she looked at the desk, the notepads, the pens, dirty cups, sweet wrappers, the buzzer. The buzzer to summon help to the private rooms from the front of the club.
‘Oh Christ,’ said Layla, and hit the buzzer hard, knocking cups over, cold tea spilling across her hand, the desk, the papers on it. She didn’t even notice, she just kept her hand on it, jamming it hard into the sodden desk.
Suddenly Junior was in the doorway. ‘What’s going on?’ he asked, then his eyes flicked to the monitors. He saw what was happening on the third screen, and went a sickly shade of grey. ‘Oh shit,’ he gulped.
Layla looked again at the screen. Forced herself to look.
The man was gone.
Now there was only Precious, lying on the floor.
Layla couldn’t remember running along the corridor, hurling herself down the stairs. The club was thrumming to a loud disco beat and she ran straight through the centre of it, grabbing Ellie as she went, trailing Junior behind her.
‘Precious!’ she screamed to make herself heard above the noise. Ellie looked at her in bewilderment, not knowing what the hell she was talking about. Punters were looking, half-smiling, they didn’t have a clue. ‘The man in with her, she’s on the floor, it’s him!’
Doormen from the front were already hurrying through, alerted by the buzzer. They raced through the main body of the club, Kyle among them, and went through the gold bead curtain and into the narrow corridor where the three private dancing rooms were located.
Chris was first through the door, Kyle piling in after him.
The red-haired man was gone.
There was only Precious, lying there, naked, bloodstained and groaning.
Layla hesitated at the doorway, in a state of shock. Then she saw the two men staring down at Precious and she felt something erupt in her head.