‘Do they look as if they’re going to open?’ Charlie snapped. ‘They’re fucked like the rest of me.’
A rustling sound and the opening of a packet was followed by two cool compresses settling on his lids. Charlie blinked slowly until the face of the person who had saved his life came into focus. Their expression was impassive, as if waiting for his reaction before they said anything else.
‘It’s you!’ he said. ‘I thought you were dead?’
Chapter 80
EMILIA
Emilia processed Charlie’s reaction to her and tried to keep her response unemotional.
‘You recognise me?’ she challenged. A bloodied Charlie squinted at her through slits for eyelids. ‘Who told you I was dead?’
‘It’s in the data up here.’ He tapped the crown of his head. ‘So how and why are you bringing me back to them?’
Her body itched with anticipation. She desperately wanted to keep him believing that she knew what he was referring to. It might have been shock or adrenaline but Charlie’s thought processes were moving quickly, flip-flopping from one conversation to the next.
‘It was the burner phone that gave me away, wasn’t it?’ he continued. ‘You picked up on that crowd’s concentration of a mobile tower usage, used an IMSI Catcher to get everyone’s numbers and messages and through a process of elimination, you isolated mine.’
She nodded.
‘I bloody knew it. Then you sent a drone to see exactly where I was.’
Again, Emilia agreed. ‘Before we go any further, Charlie, I need you to tell me who you think I am and why you believed me to be dead,’ she said.
Charlie appeared aggrieved by the request. ‘Are you kidding? If it wasn’t for you people exposing me, I wouldn’t be in this clusterfuck.’
‘It’s just a precaution. I can get you to safety once you tell me what I need to know.’
Beneath both fresh and drying blood, Emilia thought she saw Charlie’s face pale, as if something was slowly awakening. ‘What make of car is this?’
‘Um, an Audi, I think.’
He looked out of the window to the bonnet. ‘A grey Audi,’ he said. ‘Because the people who called my phone said they were sending a Mercedes for me.’
Emilia swallowed hard. Someone had located him before her. It meant they probably weren’t far behind them.
‘You’re not working with the government, are you?’ he continued.
As Charlie scrambled to pull himself upright, Emilia only just dodged his foot when he aimed it at her ribs.
‘Charlie, no,’ she said firmly but as she moved to restrain him, he found a second wind. ‘No, listen to me.’
His fists flayed but in his battered and bruised state, his coordination was off-kilter and they were easy to dodge.
‘I didn’t expose you,’ Emilia replied, fending off his poor aim. ‘But I can help you. Tell me what I need to know and then I will help you to safety.’
This time, Emilia wasn’t fast enough to avoid a left hook that caught her clean in the cheek, pushing her head into the window. Charlie drew from a hidden strength to launch himself at her, his fists punching any part of her body he could connect with. But he was no match for Emilia’s agility and strength. She caught him clean in the remains of his broken nose before grabbing the gun from the waistband of her jeans and pointing it at his head. Finally, he gave up. And now their only fight was to regain their breath.
The screen of her phone illuminated – only Bianca and Adrian had her number. She hadn’t told them where shewas going but with a tracking device on the gadget and inside the car, it wouldn’t be long before they too descended, along with the government, and one of the rival parties whisked Charlie away before she got her answers.
‘We can help each other,’ panted Emilia. ‘I don’t remember who I was back then but you do. They’ll already be tracking us but I can get you to safety.’
Charlie hesitated, his eyes rapidly working his way around her face, searching for gestures that she was lying. But she was telling the truth. If she got what she wanted, she would let him live.
‘Why did you kill the other Minders?’ he asked.
‘I swear to you I didn’t.’
