He shook his head. “But you stole two hundred grand from me did you not? And with those tools I assume I was not your first hit. So surely you can live somewhere safer?”
“Yes, no, and no. I said I’d answer your questions after, didn’t I? And just for the record you gave me the money so stop prodding.”
They turned the corner and they were confronted with a block of high rise flats. Sebastian was surprised. He’d heard they were either privatizing or pulling down these buildings. Property as well as finance was his thing and he’d even looked into acquiring on the Thames himself. This though was far from privatized. A huge, rearing monstrosity, it looked only about half full. He got that by the fact most of the windows were boarded up.
“Come on,” Penny urged.
As they approached the building, the smell or urine hit Sebastian hard and he almost gagged. “Dios,” he hissed. “You’re not serious. We’re not going in there!”
“Of course we are,” she said. “I need to get my papers.”
“You think it’ll be safe here?”
She nodded but looked around wearily. “Keep your voice down. And yes, I know it will.”
“And how do you know that exactly?”
“Well I live round here so and I spend a fair bit of time in these flats. But if you don’t want to come in you can wait here and I’ll come back in a little while.”
“You think I’d trust you to do that? Come back to me?”
She shrugged, hands in the pockets of his sweats. They were far too big for her even with the cord pulled tight. “Well I don’t know but you should. As I said I don’t break my promises. Besides you’d never find your way back to the car.”
“I’m coming with you.”
“Fine. Let’s go.”
He breathed in shallow breaths as she keyed in a code on the door. The smell was worse inside, but Penny did not seem to notice it. She headed straight for the stairs and he followed.
“The lifts don’t work,” she said. “And even if they did it’s too risky to use them. They break down half the time and no one will come out to fix them.”
He was appalled. Absolutely appalled. Eight flights of stairs they climbed and Penny seemed to relish the exercise. She wasn’t even out of breath when they reached the desired floor. But then neither was he, only he ran five miles a day so that was to be expected. He found himself wondering exactly what his thief did to stay in such shape.
The hallway was dim, most of the overhead lights blinking on and off, casting odd shadows. He counted the doors as they passed by until they reached the one with a number fifty on it. Somewhere close by a baby wailed, followed by a woman’s voice telling it to shut the fuck up. Dear God.
“What is this place?” he asked and Penny laughed.
“Home sweet home.”
And as she said the words Sebastian was certain of one thing. More certain than he’d been of anything before. Madness or not, once this job was done Penny was never coming back here ever again.
Chapter Seventeen
Just put your life in the hands of the man you robbed, Pen. Go right ahead and do that. But what other choice was there? As they stood outside her home Penny couldn’t for the life of her think of another solution. She needed her ID to verify the sale at the auction and she hadn’t taken it with her to Sebastian’s. That would have been beyond foolish. Instead her plan had been to return home with the cash and get everything she needed for the auction the next day—which was exactly what she was doing now. Of course she hadn’t expected to have cut it so fine.
But this? Showing him where she lived? It could cause all sorts of problems. He’d know more about her than she wanted. Her address. Her sisters’ address. But he’s not going to call the police, her mind reassured her. He promised. But you barely know him, the other side chanted, except in the biblical sense. It could all be lies. What to do?
“You’re unusually quiet,” Sebastian said as they stood outside.
“I’m wondering if this is such a good idea after all,” she replied, being honest for once.
“How so?”
“I’m showing you where I live. You’ll have an address to give the police when you let me go.”
He sighed. “The police are no longer in the picture, Kleftisa. I thought we’d already established that.”
She turned at her door and gave him a long, assessing look. “I stole from you, Sebastian. Two hundred grand and you’re just….” She waved a hand, unable to put her thoughts into words.
“Letting you off?” he asked. “Hardly. You know our deal. You stay with me from now on and we forget the theft ever happened.”