Faith called for the bill but Tara insisted on paying. Which was fair enough; she was married to a billionaire.
Outside it was still daylight and they walked along the embankment together. She presumed Tara and Roz were heading back to CR and wherever it was that Roz lived.
“Do you live in the CR building as well?” she asked.
“No. I live with Piers about a mile away,” she replied.
Faith was heading to the nearest tube station. She’d been spoiled getting a lift home each evening.
The skin down her back prickled. Her detective senses were tingling. She peered at the two women walking beside her, but they appeared relaxed, murmuring softly to each other. On their left, there was just the barrier and then the river. A tourist boat was drifting by but she could see nothing out of place.
“Faith?”
Roz had asked her a question, and she hadn’t heard a word. “Sorry.”
To the right was the road. The traffic moved slowly. A red double-decker bus went past, a couple of black cabs. Everything nice and normal, but she couldn’t shake the feeling that someone was watching them, focusing on their little group.
Finally, she glanced over her shoulder and spotted them immediately. They were hard to miss.
“Keep walking,” she said in a soft voice. “But there are two men following us.”
“They’re our bodyguards,” Roz replied.
“Bodyguards?”
“Christian and Piers insist we don’t go anywhere without them. It can be a real drag, but it puts their minds at rest.” Roz raised her hand and waggled her fingers at the two men. One waved back.
Both were tall, dressed in black, and moving with the easy grace of men used to action.
“That’s Saul and Calvin. They work for the security branch of CR.”
“Oh. So they’ve been doing what, while we were in the bar?”
“Watching the doors, watching us.” Roz shrugged. “You get used to it.”
Faith didn’t think she would ever get used to it. So it was lucky she wasn’t thinking about dating a billionaire. At least Ash only worked at CR, he didn’t own it.
Walking on, she tried to ignore the uncomfortable sensation. She exhaled slowly and relaxed her tense muscles. She was getting paranoid. Again.
They’d only gone a few feet when a vehicle pulled up in front of them. A white van. The windows were tinted and she couldn’t see the driver. Yup, she was definitely paranoid. They were passing it when a screech from behind made her stop and swing around.
A second identical white van had mounted the curb and pulled to a halt.
In a flash, she realized that it had cut them off from the two bodyguards. After that, everything happened fast. She whirled back around, reaching for the pistol at her waist as two men leaped from the front of the first van.
“Get Roz away,” Tara shouted. “They’re after Roz.”
Faith turned to where Roz stood, then glanced back and saw the two bodyguards were down, but she hadn’t heard any shots. She reached for Roz meaning to put her behind her. Just as the other woman collapsed to the pavement.
A scream. She swung around again. The two men had Tara gripped between them and were hustling her toward the open back of the van.
Faith raised her pistol. “Let her go.”
Out of the corner of her eye, she caught a movement. The front window of the van lowered, but she couldn’t take her eye of the group in front of her.
Her finger tightened on the trigger, but before she could fire, a shot came from the van. Something slammed into her shoulder, knocking her to the hard ground. For a moment, everything went black.
“Come on,” she muttered. “Get up.” She pushed herself on to her elbow as the van pulled away. All around her, people were screaming. She tried to stand but couldn’t. Instead, she rolled over and dragged herself across to where Roz lay unmoving. For a second, she thought she was dead, but then she saw the small dart embedded in Roz’s shoulder. Reaching out she rested a finger against her throat and felt the slow steady throb of her pulse.
Only then did she heave a sigh. At that point, pain hit her like a sledgehammer.
She’d been fucking shot.
She glanced up and caught people in the crowd staring at her. Clenching her teeth against the pain, she peered down. Her left arm was drenched. While it hardly showed against the black of her suit jacket, her left hand was stained crimson. The thick, cloying, sickly sweet stench of blood filled her nostrils dragging her back to that long ago time. Her mother’s body had also been daubed in crimson. So much blood.
“Hold on, love, we’ve called the ambulance—they’ll be here in a moment.” A man couched down beside her. He reached out a hand and then pulled back. “Lie still.” Something pressed against her shoulder.
The pain was coming in waves now, rolling over her, sucking her under. In the distance, an ambulance siren whined and as the next wave rose to a crescendo, she let the pain take her and drag her down.
Chapter Ten