Jail Bird

Oli shook her head.

‘A bloody good hairdresser,’ said Lily. ‘And another coffee.’

26

You’ll never see it coming. But it is.

Lily remembered Freddy’s mouthed words to her outside Askham. They drifted through her brain at the weirdest times, like now, when she had left Oli at the table with all their bags, and asked the waiter where the loo was. He directed her into the back of the coffee shop, and she went down a corridor and turned right at the bottom, and all at once she had a feeling that someone was behind her, walking steadily in her footsteps, and then she could hear a heavier tread behind her, a man’s footfalls.

You’ll never see it coming. But it is.

Terror rocketed up from her heart to her brain, and all the time she was thinking, Don’t be stupid, it’s just one of the staff, and she tried to chide herself, to make herself look round, but she couldn’t, she was too afraid that it would be Freddy, huge, shaven-headed, pug-nosed, cleft-chinned Freddy with the cruel laughing eyes, and he would catch her and kill her, all the while saying, You see, Lily? You see it now, don’t you? Now it’s coming. Now it’s here.

She quickened her step and she was at the loo door now, reaching a trembling hand for it. There was a little thing on the cheap brown wood-effect door–a white stick-on plaque depicting a dumpy little skirted cherub peeing into a pot. What a tacky, ridiculous thing to become your last memory of life on earth.

She was turning the handle, moving quickly, but she knew she would never be quick enough. It was Freddy, he’d come for her, this was it. A big hand clamped down on hers and she was spun round. Another hand went over her mouth, stifling the scream that was starting there.

Jesus. Oh God, help me.

‘Lily King,’ said Nick O’Rourke, his black-on-black eyes glinting with fury, ‘what the fuck you playing at, girl?’

Lily sagged back against the loo door. Nick took his hand away.

‘What the fuck am I doing? What the fuck are you doing, you arsehole?’ she snapped, feeling giddy, her heart beating crazily with the fright he’d just given her. ‘Jesus! You nearly gave me a sodding seizure!’

Nick looked mad enough to spit. He leaned back against the wall and stared at her like he was debating whether to wring her neck or jump her bones. Lily found to her annoyance that she was still finding him fiercely attractive, with his dark hair and his intense face and his good height, shown off really nicely by a slick suit that looked like Hugo Boss if she was any judge.

All right, enough, she thought. She’d been banged up for too long and it had made her bloody rampant. But did she really want to start down that road again, lusting after high-powered bad boys and ending up in the sort of trouble she couldn’t hope to deal with?

‘You ain’t got a clue, have you?’ He was staring at her in wonderment.

‘A clue about what?’

‘You’re being stalked, you silly cow.’

‘What?’

‘You’ve got Tiger Wu tracking you up and down Bond Street–didn’t you even fucking well notice?’

‘Tiger…Tiger who?’ Lily stammered. What the hell was he talking about?

‘He’s a removal man, Lily. Oriental in appearance, with a ponytail. And what he removes is people.’

Oriental in appearance with a ponytail. Jesus! She’d seen the man out there, crossing the road in front of her and Oli.

For God’s sake, what the hell was happening here? Nick was saying she had some git on her tail, and therefore on Oli’s tail too.

‘What the hell are you thinking of?’ Nick demanded. ‘Don’t you think you should have told me where you were going when you decided to check out of the safe flat, so I didn’t think some damned thing had happened to you–like Freddy King going off on one and whacking you, or getting some other cunt to do it for him?’

Lily cleared her throat. Her mouth was suddenly dust-dry. Good God, first Si had a pop at her, and now it looked as if Freddy was having a go. None of this was good news.

‘Is he still out there?’ asked Lily, thinking of Oli, her precious Oli, sitting alone in the coffee shop.

One of the waiters was coming down the corridor. Nick gave him a glare. ‘It’s out of order, pal,’ he said with a face like thunder.

The waiter looked at Nick’s expression and backed quickly up.

‘No, he’s not still out there,’ said Nick, turning back to Lily. ‘Good job I had someone keeping an eye on you. My boys have taken him for a little trip.’

Lily let out a heavy breath of relief.

‘Word on the street is you’re back at Leo’s place,’ said Nick.

Now Lily’s eyes flashed. ‘It’s my home, Nick.’

‘You think they’re going to stand for that?’

‘Don’t look like it–does it?’ sniffed Lily. He’d scared the crap out of her. And for fuck’s sake, what made him think he could pile in here and start playing the big I-am? She was her own woman. Oh, she never used to be. She used to be quiet mousy little wife Lily King, ruled and practically bloody owned by Leo–and look where that had landed her. Now she was going to stand on her own two feet. Fuck men.

‘I don’t know what the hell you’re playing at, Lily,’ said Nick. ‘But I don’t like it.’

‘And who died and made you God, Nick O’Rourke?’ she demanded. ‘I don’t have to answer to the King brothers, and I certainly ain’t going to start answering to you.’

Nick straightened. She could see he was royally pissed off with her now, but she didn’t give that. Fuck the lot of them, what had they ever done for her?

Had she been in a calmer state of mind she would have admitted–if only to herself–that in fact Nick had done things for her, quite a few things really. Got her into the safe flat. And now, he had–apparently, but she only had his word for that–saved her from a contract killer.

But she was too angry to be grateful. Because gratitude was what they always wanted from you, wasn’t it, these men? Be grateful and then do as you’re bloody told, wasn’t that always the way they wanted to play it?

Well, not now. Not with this girl. She’d been there and done that–and got caned for it.

Nick stared at her with those cold, cruel dark eyes. He shrugged. ‘If that’s the way you want it to be, fine. You go ahead. Only don’t come crying to me next time the King brothers cut up rough.’

‘Don’t worry,’ said Lily, and she brushed past him and walked off, back up the corridor to the coffee shop, even though she’d been dying for a pee. Her pride wouldn’t let her take one, not with Nick O’Rourke loitering outside the door. ‘I won’t,’ she threw back over her shoulder.

27

Oli went out that afternoon. ‘You going to be all right?’ she asked Lily worriedly before she left.

‘Sure,’ said Lily, but she felt jumpy. She hadn’t told Oli about Tiger Wu, or Nick’s intervention–fortunately the coffee shop was large and it had been packed with punters, so Oli hadn’t seen Nick passing through. But soon it would be evening, and she knew that Si could get in here any time he damned well pleased–and so could Freddy, too.

‘You phoned the security company to get the entry codes changed, and the locks, everything?’ asked Lily.

‘Yeah, it’s done. They’re coming tomorrow morning.’

It couldn’t come soon enough as far as Lily was concerned. For tonight she was going to sleep with Leo’s Magnum under her pillow and fuck the Firearms Act. Which reminded her. ‘Hey, Oli, is there a VHS recorder in the