‘I didn’t mean you!’ Nick pushed my leg with his hand.
I laughed and our gazes locked. His hand lingered on my thigh, its heat burning through my jeans. With enormous effort, I dragged my eyes away from his. ‘Um, I have to go to the loo. Can I get out?’
‘Sorry.’ He removed his hand from my leg with a lazy smile. I stood up and shuffled sideways past him, uncomfortably aware of how close my butt was to his face. My cheeks were pink in the bathroom mirror as I pulled my loose hair back into a ponytail. My heart was still beating at a hundred miles an hour.
The first thing I noticed about Amsterdam was not the concentric network of canals that fanned out from the central railway station, reflecting the rows of narrow buildings with their funnel-shaped gables. What I noticed was the sheer number of bicycles. Everywhere I turned, they whizzed up and down the narrow streets and filled the bike racks. And they all seemed to be solid, upright bikes—no lightweight racers with lycra-clad riders to be seen.
We found a hotel near the station, dumped our stuff, then met downstairs in the hotel lobby. I called Ford to set up a time and place to meet, but it went straight to voicemail, as predicted. I left a quick message, then called Adelita and arranged to meet her for dinner later so she could pass on what she’d found out.
‘Right, let’s go,’ I said as I hung up.
‘Where are we going?’ Nick sounded suspicious.
‘To find this warehouse.’
‘That’s a ridiculous idea, Burrowes. We shouldn’t be anywhere near that place until we’ve found out more from Ford.’
I groaned. ‘I know we shouldn’t, but I can’t just sit around waiting for something to happen. What else are we going to do?’
‘I’ve got a few ideas.’ He winked.
An involuntary wave of heat radiated through my body. For a second—just a second—I allowed my mind to follow through with his innuendo. But what was I thinking? I was a professional journo. Besides, I wasn’t going to be that easily manipulated.
‘We’ve got a job to do here, stop messing around,’ I said with more force than I’d intended.
‘We need to be alive to do the job, Burrowes.’
‘We can just find out where it is for now.’
‘We can also just find out where it is when we meet up with Ford.’
‘Nick, can you get on board with me here? I’m going to find it, with or without you.’
‘You’re bloody impossible. You’re going to get us both killed. We can’t just barge into a place like that.’
‘Who said anything about barging in? We’re just going to scope it out, that’s all.’
He shook his head. ‘Unbelievable.’
But he looked up the address Ford had written down for me, and we headed out. I was curious to see the famed ‘coffee shops’ as we walked the quiet, cobbled streets, but other than the distinctive scent of cannabis that wafted out onto the footpath, they looked very much like average cafes and bars. I don’t know what I’d expected, but I couldn’t help feeling a bit disappointed.
When we reached the street we were looking for, I was surprised to find it was a wide, conspicuous road that ran along one of the canals. I’d expected the warehouse to be hidden down a dark alley, but there it was, near the end of the street, its funnel-shaped gable rearing into the sky. The building itself was narrow, like those that surrounded it, and five storeys high, with a dark brown brick facade and a series of vertical, white-shuttered windows. At first glance it seemed like a normal building, but as we got closer I noticed there was cardboard taped over the windows from within, obstructing the view inside.
‘That’s it,’ I said to Nick in a low voice, nodding towards it.
‘Stop looking at it, you don’t know who’s watching. Now, can we go?’
‘I’d like to take a closer look.’
‘I knew you were going to say that.’
I crossed the road and tried to look as if I were casually strolling past the warehouse. Nick muttered under his breath as he followed. A pair of red double doors served as the main entrance to the building, and there was seemingly no other way in. I surreptitiously tried them as I wandered past, but they were, unsurprisingly, locked.
‘There’s got to be another way to get in,’ I murmured as we continued up the street.
‘You think?’ Nick said. ‘And here I was thinking the drug lords would deliver their loads of illicit drugs via the front entrance.’
‘Funny, Nick.’
‘Let’s go, Burrowes. This is a bad idea.’
‘I just want to go around the back and see if I can find another door.’
‘Really, I insist.’ He grabbed my arm and steered me across the street and back in the direction we’d come.
‘Let me go!’ I protested.
‘Not until you agree that we won’t go back there before we’ve spoken to Ford.’
‘Get your hands off me!’ I wrenched my arm free and shoved him in the chest.
He backed off reluctantly, but I could tell he was ready to grab me again if I tried to go back.
‘Sorry, Burrowes, but I’m not going to let you do something stupid,’ he said as we walked.
‘You’re not my protector, Nick. You’re not my boss either, so stop telling me what to do.’
‘What’s the big rush? You’ll get a better story with more facts.’
A wave of exhaustion washed over me and I stopped and leant back against the wall of a building. Nick turned to look at me.
‘I just want to get it over with,’ I said. ‘The anxiety about the whole thing is killing me.’
‘Let’s get a drink,’ Nick suggested.
‘Getting a drink is your solution to everything.’
‘C’mon Burrowes, lighten up. I need some lubrication before I meet this Adelita character.’
Without waiting for an answer, he ducked into a bar just up the road. I crossed my arms. Buggered if I was going to let him order me around. I was
