‘I don’t know. But until the situation changes, I’m not going to let you get to him.’
‘Which you’ve assumed is what I want to do.’
‘That’s my assumption, yes. But you haven’t been asked to do that yet, right?’
‘Right.’
‘So are you going to tell me who’s paying you?’
‘No.’
‘What happened to I tell you, you tell me?’
‘I never said you should trust me.’
Logan smiled again. A more flirtatious smile than last time. ‘No. You didn’t. I’ll have to find out another way.’
‘You can try.’
They both took a sip of their drinks.
‘Anything else to add?’ Logan said.
‘How do you mean?’
‘About this job? About you being in Berlin?’
‘Nothing.’
‘Great. Looks like we’ve got the night off then.’
‘A night off?’
‘I’m all done revealing my hand. So unless you’ve got anything to add.’
‘No. I don’t.’
Logan held up his martini glass and the Red Cobra picked up hers and chinked it against his.
‘Cheers,’ he said.
‘Zum wohl.’
Five martinis later, they were giddily walking along the corridor on the second floor toward her room. The Red Cobra glanced up at Logan as they idled along. He was a few inches taller than her, even with her heels. She could tell underneath his shirt he was lean – not bulked up, just fit and strong. She guessed given his height and frame that he weighed over two hundred pounds, almost twice as much as she did. Physically he was exactly the type of man she would have picked up that night anyway. The fact he claimed to be an intelligence agent, that he was a potential enemy of hers, only made the prospect of what was to come more thrilling.
She hadn’t yet decided what to do with him. She certainly couldn’t have killed him out in the open, in the bar. But in the bedroom, behind closed doors?
The Red Cobra opened the door to her room and stepped in, Logan a pace behind her. He gently pushed the door closed. She was still facing away from him as he reached out and grabbed her arm then swung her round. He pulled her towards him – not a hostile move. He had something else on his mind.
But as she was moving, the Red Cobra lifted her knee up, reached down and grabbed the handle of the pocket knife from her ankle strap. As Logan brought her close to him she pushed the blade upwards onto his neck.
They both froze, staring into each other’s eyes with intent. She was panting. Excited. And a little nervous, she had to admit. He was calm, a knowing look on his face.
‘I was wondering how long it would take,’ he said.
She said nothing. Did she really want to kill him?
Five seconds passed. The Red Cobra could feel her heart thudding. She was so close to Logan she could feel his heart too as it slowly and steadily beat against her.
After a few more seconds, her own heartbeat seemed to relax, falling in line with his.
The knife was still on his neck, pressing against his stubbly skin. He leaned forward an inch, pushing against the blade. She didn’t move. He pushed further forward. The knife nicked him. A dribble of blood ran down his neck, under the collar of his shirt. She moved the blade back, just a little. He followed it. Pursed his lips. Before she could stop herself, she did the same.
And then it happened. She didn’t even know how he did it. The move was too fast. The pain in her arm shot through her shoulder, into her neck. Her hand opened. It was a reflexive reaction. No matter how hard she’d been gripping the knife’s handle she wouldn’t have been able to hold on. He’d caught a pressure point on a nerve and there was nothing she could do.
With the knife still falling to the floor, Logan twisted her round. One of her arms was behind her back, a hammerlock. He wrapped his thick left arm around her body, pinning down her other hand and arm.
His size and strength meant she couldn’t move. At least not unless she wanted her arm broken.
Perhaps that was what it would take.
His face was pressed up against the back of her neck. She could hear him breathing, feel his warm breaths against her skin.
He whispered into her ear, ‘Try anything like that again, and I’ll kill you.’
Then after a few seconds passed, he lightly kissed her neck. It made the hairs on her neck and shoulders stand on end and sent a pleasant shiver down her spine.
She smiled. ‘Is that a promise?’
He relaxed his grip and she turned round to face him. She stared into his glowing eyes for just a moment. Then she reached up and pressed her soft lips onto his.
CHAPTER 35
The Red Cobra awoke the following morning to the sound of a phone vibrating. She opened her eyes and spotted the phone on the bedside table. She reached out, flipped the lid and pulled the device to her ear.
‘Check your inbox,’ the voice said. Then the call went dead.
She closed the phone and looked over at the other side of the bed. Empty.
Shit.
Feeling suddenly alert, the Red Cobra jumped up out of the bed. She was naked. She grimaced. Her head was pounding. She looked over at the clock by the TV. Nine a.m.
What the hell had happened? She could remember being in the room with Logan. Kissing him. Stripping off. Having sex with him on the floor. Then on the bed. Then... no, after that, she didn’t know. Her mind was a blank. She couldn’t remember if they’d lain in each other’s arms. She couldn’t remember him making a quick exit either. Had he stayed the night? She had no clue.
That was odd. She didn’t think she’d had that much alcohol, but maybe the combination of gin and exhaustion had taken its toll.
But she also wondered whether Carl Logan had drugged her.
Ignoring the daggers in her head, she raced over to the laptop. The almost invisible seal she’d put across the lid was still there. She opened the laptop, booted it up, and went straight into the computer’s metadata. There was no record of the machine having been used since the previous afternoon. So Logan hadn’t been snooping there. That was a relief.
Her phone. She went back to the bed and grabbed it. She was always so careful about using a mobile. She deleted call histories, messages, as soon as she could. This time she had a slight moment of panic that perhaps she’d left something on there. It only took her a few seconds to realise that wasn’t the case.
She breathed a sigh of relief then went to her backpack and searched through that, then the rest of her meagre belongings. Nothing was missing. Nothing seemed to have been moved or tampered with.
So what the hell was going on? Why had Logan upped and scarpered?
For once in her life, the Red Cobra felt embarrassed. Or was it ashamed? She felt like she’d been used. Even with the martinis sloshing around inside her, she’d felt like she’d been in control of the situation with Logan. Like she was the one playing him.
But was it really the other way round?