kick her. Hard. The first blow sent her across the room.
Then he asked her a question, received hazily through the pain, that made no sense to her at all. ‘Where is the woman called Mila?’
31
Morris County, New Jersey
I saw the rental Prius, nosed into a grove of trees. I turned in and climbed a wall and headed down a long, paved road. A sign read PRIVATE DRIVE. NO TRESPASSING. Ahead was a long, curving driveway and a house that looked like it might once have been a grand home or summer retreat from the start of the twentieth century. She’d tried to sneak in, but I was expected. Zero point in anything except walking straight into the house.
My phone rang again. ‘Come to the front door. Nothing funny or the redhead dies and you get to watch.’ Short and sweet.
I made my way to the front door, across a grand porch. I opened the door and stepped into a large foyer.
‘Here,’ a voice called.
I headed back from the front of the house and went to my left and entered what might once have been a library or study. The limo driver must have been a Boy Scout. He was extremely well prepared. He aimed a gun at me, and held another pressed against Leonie’s temple. He had a Taser tucked into the side of his pants. Leonie’s face was bruised along the jawline.
‘Hi,’ he said. ‘You heal fast, bumper boy.’
‘Vitamins and milk.’
‘But those are not brain food,’ he said. He tapped Leonie’s head with the gun for emphasis. ‘I’m thinking you know the drill.’
‘I’m not armed,’ I said.
‘Liar. If I check you and you have a gun, I’m going to shoot off this bitch’s thumbs.’
I produced the security guard’s gun from the back of my pants and dropped it on the floor.
‘Kick it over,’ he said.
I did as he said.
‘Who are you with?’ he asked me.
‘Me, myself and I,’ I said.
He switched the gun over to Mrs Ming’s head and she began to wail. ‘I don’t believe you. I’m not sure who you’re more interested in – your partner here or your target.’
‘I don’t want anyone hurt.’
‘Then who are you with?’
‘I’m with nobody,’ I said. ‘We’re looking for Mrs Ming’s son.’
‘And you thought I was bringing her to him?’
‘I did. Not now.’
He gave a twisted little laugh. Now that I was unarmed he put a gun up against each of their heads. Toying with me.
‘I’m not sure which one you want alive the most,’ he said.
‘Both of them.’ Ten feet separated us, plenty of time for him to shoot me if I made a move.
I knew at least that with Mrs Ming he was bluffing. He’d brought her here to hold her or to question her, on someone’s orders.
‘Are you with Novem Soles? Because we’re on the same side, then, and this is a misunderstanding.’ The thought that Anna could have opened up a bounty on Jack Ming occurred to me. They just wanted him dead; they wouldn’t care if it was by my hand.
‘Novem what?’
‘Nine Suns.’
‘Sounds like a slant restaurant.’ He seemed to be taking my measure with his gaze. Mrs Ming stared at him with hate in her eyes. ‘You’re the one answering questions, not me, who’s your friend?’
‘Her name is Leonie.’
‘And where would I find Mila? I gave your friend a roughing up and she didn’t know.’
Not a question I was expecting at all. What the hell just happened? ‘I have no idea.’
He eased the gun over toward Leonie’s eye. ‘I want you to tell me how to find Mila.’
‘Mila contacts me when it suits her,’ I said.
‘You’re going to tell me how I can find Mila, or I’m going to kill one of them.’ He shoved the guns hard against their skulls; Mrs Ming let out a twisted moan; Leonie bit her lip and her gaze locked with mine. ‘Not sure which. Guess we’ll know when I pull the trigger. On five. One. Two. Three.’
‘She sometimes meets me at a bar,’ I said in a rush. ‘She calls, she picks the bar.’
‘And define sometimes.’
‘Once a week, when I’m in New York,’ I lied. ‘But it’s on her schedule, not mine.’
He studied my face. ‘Sit down on the floor. Keep your hands behind your back.’
I obeyed. He took the gun off Sandra Ming and holstered it, and then he produced a cell phone from his pocket. He tapped buttons. And in Russian he said: ‘Yes, sir. I have him now. He says the woman will meet him at a bar every week, but she calls him.’ He listened for thirty seconds. ‘Yes. All right.’ He closed the phone.
It’s hard to keep three prisoners when one is unsecured. Right now he wanted me talking. But he hadn’t secured me; he’d used the women as hostages, but he was keeping his distance from me. The women were my bonds.
But his bonds were that he wasn’t master of his own fate. He had to call someone. Someone he called sir. He had to take orders from someone, and, speaking Russian into the phone, he hadn’t wanted me to know that. He hadn’t wanted me to know he was, well, not the top of the totem pole.
But he didn’t draw the second gun again. He felt very much in control. I watched him. He watched me. A minute ticked by. Then another. He didn’t shoot any of us or ask any questions or say what was going to happen next.
‘I find silences awkward,’ I said.
He clearly didn’t.
‘Let me guess. Your boss said not to ask us any questions.’
He looked at me.
‘I’m sure he doesn’t want you to know what the information we have is worth. You might cut a slice for yourself.’
‘Shut up,’ he said. ‘You bore me. You didn’t even try to fight. Coward.’
‘Did he tell you how much the bounty on Mila is?’
‘Shut up,’ he said again, but after a pause.
‘I presume once he gets here, all you do is dig the graves,’ I said. ‘I bet he doesn’t even give you one per cent of the cut on Mila. What are you, paid by the hour? I’m sure that was why you came to the land of opportunity, to dust grave dirt off your hands while your boss collects an insane amount of money he wouldn’t get without your help.’
He stared at me. His mouth opened and I could see a little strand of spit bridge his lips.
‘He told you to sit on us, he’d be out here soon. Or she.’ I was quiet for a minute. ‘He didn’t tell you how much Mrs Ming’s son is worth, either?’
He stared at me, but he swallowed at the same time.
I had a noose around his neck now, so to speak, so I gave it a hard tug. ‘Mila presently has the highest price on her head in the world, for someone who isn’t a head of state or terrorist. And I know how to get her, and you’re just going to hand over that information to your bosses and let them score the profit. But that’s okay, I guess you get to wash the limo at the end of the day.’
‘I would like to know who the hell Mila is,’ Leonie said.
