‘You see that?’ asked the man in the black van.
‘What?’ said his companion, a squat little guy with a squint and a pair of headphones more or less permanently attached to his bald head. He was thinking about lunch. His stomach was growling. He was bored to hell with this gig.
‘That guy carrying Annie Carter out the front door,’ said the one who’d been looking out of the black-tinted windows at the street. He was bored too, and the scene he’d just witnessed had enlivened his day.
‘You’re joking, right?’ The man with the headphones knew his colleague for an inveterate practical joker. He’d been on the receiving end of a few of his pranks. He hated practical jokes.
‘I’m not joking. Brought her down the steps over his shoulder. Big man, red hair. Light cord jacket, jeans. You know what’s even weirder? No one tried to stop him.’
The little man took off his headphones. ‘Serious?’
His colleague nodded.
‘Better phone it in then.’
They were in the back of the car, Sandor at the wheel. Heading to Holland Park.
‘Alberto,’ said Layla.
‘Hm?’
‘You keep saying that you can’t start anything now, and then what do you do? You start something.’
He looked at her. ‘Are you sorry?’
‘No. Of course not,’ she said, the memory of the past few hours bringing heat to her face.
‘I shouldn’t have done it,’ he said, shaking his head almost sadly. ‘But… I wanted to.’
‘Well, it’s too late for all that now. So will you please tell me what’s happening?’
‘Things might be catching up with me.’
‘What things?’
Alberto stared at her. ‘Layla. You know what I am.’
‘You mean… the police?’
‘I mean the FBI.’
Layla went pale. ‘Oh.’ She sank back against the upholstery, anxiety clamping her chest. She swallowed hard. ‘How long…?’
He shrugged. ‘I don’t know. Soon.’
Layla sucked in a panicky breath. They’d only just found each other. And here he was, telling her that he could be snatched from her?
‘Then we have to get away. Go somewhere. Anywhere.’
‘I’m not leaving yet, not with you and your mom in a fix.’
Layla stared at the face she loved so much. Strong, tanned, sometimes fierce, sometimes gentle. She couldn’t lose him. Not now.
‘Look, Layla, when I go, I go alone,’ he said.
Layla opened her mouth to speak, then closed it again. She felt a wave of hurt hit her, snatching her breath away. He didn’t want her with him. She would go to the ends of the earth for him, but he didn’t want that. She shrank from him. He’d used her. And now he was telling her this.
‘But…’ she started, then stuttered to a halt. She was shocked, bewildered. ‘Didn’t that… didn’t that mean anything to you, this afternoon?’