The Last Enemy(23)
‘No problem. We said we’d only show them the cover, and the first page. We fake one. We’ve seen the books before, we know what they look like. They’re not going to be able to examine it up close.’
‘They’ll want to once we’ve talked to Guy.’
‘So, we tell them we don’t have it.’
‘That we lied to them?’
Lauren shrugged again. ‘Pierce Randall make their living by lying. It’s what they do. This way they’ll be getting a taste of their own medicine.’
‘Lauren, Pierce Randall kill people who cheat them.’
Lauren scowled deeply.
‘That woman annoyed me! The way she treated me! I wanted to wipe that smug look off her face by giving her something to think about. Anyway, are you satisfied now?’
‘About the fact we could end up dead?’
‘About Guy,’ said Lauren. ‘She said she’d be able to fix up a meeting with him.’
‘From his “secure and protected environment”,’ quoted Jake. ‘That sounds like he’s a prisoner to me.’
‘Yes, but he’s in their hands, not anyone else’s.’
They headed towards the nearest underground station. They were just nearing the entrance when a man stepped in their path.
‘Stop,’ he said curtly.
Lauren saw the glint of metal in the man’s hand.
‘Jake, he’s got a knife!’ she whispered.
‘Where is Guy de Courcey?’ demanded the man, and now Jake could hear his accent, a very guttural Spanish.
‘Guy?’ he echoed.
‘Do not try to run!’ snapped the man. ‘My men are right behind you.’
Jake looked round, and saw a very tall, muscular man standing behind them. One of his hands was in his pocket, the other bunched into a fist.
Jake turned back.
‘Look, we don’t know where Guy de Courcey is . . .’ he began.
The man scowled.
‘I do not believe you!’ He gestured back along the road. ‘You have just been to Pierce Randall.’
‘Yes, but . . .’ began Jake.
The man glared at him.
‘Get in the van!’ he snapped.
‘Van?’
Parked on the kerb was a small van with ‘HO Rentals’ painted on the side. A third man was sitting behind the steering wheel.
‘Listen,’ Jake said, angrily. ‘I don’t know what you think . . .’
‘Get in the van!’ repeated the man, his voice angrier this time. He pointed the knife towards Lauren. ‘And no shouting or she die.’
‘Look, we don’t know where Guy de Courcey is . . .’ protested Jake.
The man moved towards Lauren and placed the blade of his knife near her stomach.
‘OK,’ said Jake quickly.
Jake and Lauren climbed into the back of the van. There were no seats inside, just the bare metal of the floor. The two men climbed in after them and pulled the van doors shut. The leader said something in Spanish to the driver, and the van pulled away.
‘Listen,’ Jake appealed again, ‘neither of us know where Guy de Courcey is. We’re guessing you know him, otherwise you wouldn’t be doing this. But we’d never met him, or even heard about him, until the other day.’
‘Jake Wells?’ asked the man suspiciously.
‘Yes,’ admitted Jake.
‘Guy said he coming to England to meet you.’
‘You’re from Mexico!’ said Lauren with a burst of sudden realisation. She turned to Jake. ‘Remember, Guy told you he was in Mexico when Pierce Randall contacted him.’
‘Shh!’ snapped the man. He turned back to Jake. ‘Guy said he come to England to see Jake Wells and Alex Munro. Now Munro dead and Guy vanish. What you do with him?’
‘I haven’t done anything with him!’ said Jake, exasperated. ‘I didn’t do anything with either of them! Like I told you, I’d never even heard of Guy de Courcey before we were both locked up in the same cell by the police.’ Then he added, in the hope it might worry the men, ‘Who might even be tailing us, for all we know.’
The man ignored this, and insisted, ‘You lie. You know Guy before.’
‘No!’ said Jake.
The man turned to Lauren.
‘You know him?’
‘No!’ said Lauren defensively.
The man scowled, and muttered something in Spanish to one of the others.
‘Sí,’ grunted the second man, and he took a vicious-looking metal knuckleduster from his pocket and slipped it on the fingers of his huge right fist.
‘My friend going to break the bones in your face until you tell us where Guy is.’ He gestured to Lauren. ‘He start with her. He hurt her real bad.’