“We’ve taken it away as a precaution. The same way keeping you here overnight is a precaution.” He leans forward to top up his glass, offering me another refill which I gratefully accept. The warm buzz isn’t quite enough to wipe away the horrors of the evening but it’s nicer than confronting them head-on. “Why are you so eager to leave now when you accepted it before?”
“Before, I hadn’t heard your name.”
The answer causes a smile to spread across his lips, making it all the way to the creases at the sides of his eyes. “It appears you saved my daughter tonight, Ms Chappel, and if that is the case, I’m very grateful and I will repay my gratitude in any way you request. But it’ll take my men time to investigate and confirm that’s what happened. Until they do, you’ll stay here.”
The smile changes, dropping away from his eyes, which turn darker. “If there is anything you wish to add or subtract from your story, I suggest you do that now.”
The heat from the alcohol turns up a notch until my face feels like it’s a hundred degrees. I set my glass on the table, then pick it up again. It won’t make a great weapon but compared to my bare hands, I’ll take it.
He’s waiting for an answer, and I don’t know what to say. What did I tell him already? A rush of guilt floods through me even though I don’t think I’m responsible for anything tonight.
Apart from the murder.
My memory cracks open again, spilling out the image of blood spurting into the sky. The man sags forward, reaching up his hand to stem the arterial spray, but he misses. His fingers divert the pulsating rain of blood so more hits me. It’s warm after the chilly night air. The girl struggles in my arms.
I need to get away.
My muscles tense and I spring upwards, running. Something hits against the side of my body. The whole side. Did someone hit me with a wall? A floor?
My head spins.
“No,” I shout as someone puts a hand near my collarbone, pushing me down. I sound like Sophia. “No.”
Then the fog dissipates, reality peeking back through.
I’m on my back. A monstrous crime boss leans over me, pressing my shoulders against the floor so hard my back is screaming.
No, not my back.
I’m screaming.
Oh, God, I’m screaming.
“Let me go,” I shout, stifling my ragged cries for a command that’s just as fractured.
The smell of scotch is strong in the air. My glass is a metre away, on its side. Damn. I really could have used that inside me.
“What’s going on?” I ask in a sob since he didn’t obey my order. “Can you get off me? You’re hurting me.”
His weight lessens but his hands still grip me tightly as he pulls me into a sitting position. There’s a wary tilt to his eyes. A man stands farther in the shadows. Brick Wall.
“We’re all right,” Balabanov calls over his shoulder. “Go see if the doctor’s finished.”
“I’m fine,” I say, pushing against him until he lets me struggle to my feet. “Don’t… You shouldn’t… Can you call him back? Your daughter won’t want him in the room when she’s… if she’s…”
His eyes widen with alarm as he stands beside me. “Yuri,” he calls out and Brick Wall returns. “Just stay outside here, okay.” Once the door is closed, Balabanov turns his attention back to me. Eyes razor sharp. “What do you know? What did they do to her?”
“Oh, no. I don’t—” My words break off, as I try not to say the wrong thing. “I didn’t see anything like that happen, I just…” I gesture vaguely towards the guard. “He’s big and scary.”
“Yes. Bodyguards are. He also sips from a pink princess cup when my daughter pretends to pour him tea.”
My lips twitch at the image and I close my eyes, then open them wide as I find the dead man waiting there, ready to douse me with his warm blood.
I’m hugging Balabanov. I don’t know how or why.
And he’s letting me. My arms squeeze him so tightly they ache, but he just stands there, letting me. No, more than that. He’s hugging me back.
“I’m sorry.” I try to spring away but he holds me in place, rubbing a comforting hand over my back, the palm so large it barely has to move to stroke all of it.
