As he drove, Ryker tried his best to calm the fire in his mind. He knew it wouldn’t help for what was to come. Strong emotions seldom help in a time of crisis. The time alone in the car seemed to do the trick. The image in his mind of Miguel Ramos dropping to the ground, his body covered in bullet holes, was still fresh and vivid; it would be for a long time. But Ryker was back in control.
It was approaching midday when he arrived at the construction site on the outskirts of Marbella where three days previously he’d been attacked. His destination was once again the Kozlov mansion. He wasn’t about to announce himself by offering himself to the security guards at the main gates. Not this time.
As Ryker stepped from the car, the blast of hot air caught him off guard. The air was thick not just with heat but moisture too, and Ryker’s back and his brow was already covered in sweat by the time he’d moved a few yards.
The beach was again quiet, other than the occasional jogger and dog walker. Ryker approached the Kozlov house, and when he looked up at the mansion, he felt a wave of hatred for what the expensive pile of bricks, glass, and marble stood for. Ryker wasn’t sure who would be home – Eva, Andrei, Sergei? It didn’t matter, he’d soon find out. Ryker couldn’t pass this place by. The addresses in Algeciras and Cadiz were Ryker’s next stops. But Algeciras was fifty miles further west. One way or another, Kozlov was involved in the sorry mess that Ryker was uncovering, and Ryker wouldn’t let that slide. If Kozlov was home, Ryker would get answers.
And if Sergei was there...
Ryker kept his head low and his senses high as he moved off the beach and onto the mansion’s grounds. As with his previous trip from the beach, there wasn’t sign of a single person in the grounds as he crept toward the back of the house. But then, when Ryker was a few yards from the building, he heard the sound of a door opening and he slunk down behind a bush.
Eva came dashing out of the house, shouting to someone behind her as she moved. Ryker watched as she headed to the elaborate wooden summer house on the far corner of the plot. She went inside, out of view.
Ryker took the chance to move closer to the open patio door at the back of the main building.
Eva came out of the summer house less than a minute later. Ryker was able to again take cover behind foliage. Eva moved with purpose – she was rushing. Under one arm she carried what looked like a laptop; in her other hand she held a pair of oversized headphones. She spoke again to someone that Ryker couldn’t see. Her father perhaps? Ryker couldn’t be sure. He’d seen and heard nothing from inside the house. But he was determined to find out who was there.
When Eva was ten yards away, Ryker sprang into action. He jumped into the open and pulled the Colt up, the barrel aimed at Eva’s head.
‘Eva!’ Ryker shouted to her.
Eva stopped running, turned to face him and froze on the spot. Only then did Ryker notice her swollen right cheek. It was bright red, turning purple at the edges, and the inflamed flesh meant her eyelid was partially closed. A result of him shoving her to the ground in Ronda, he wondered. Or had someone beaten her?
Eva’s venom toward Ryker was clear when she spoke. ‘You’re a dead man, Ryker! Do you hear me? Dead!’ Eva turned her gaze back inside the house.
‘Who’s in there? Your dad?’
‘Behind you!’ Eva screamed to someone out of sight, her eyes springing wide in shock.
There was the sound of slicing – metal against flesh. Once, twice, three times. Eva jumped with each noise but didn’t make any attempt to move. Petrified at what she saw.
A blood-curdling scream came from inside the house. There was a pained gargle as a man – Ryker didn’t recognise him – stepped forward out of the open doorway. He held a gun in his hand but no shots had been fired. Blood gushed down from the gaping wound in his neck and intestines spilled from his gut. He collapsed to the ground. A large pool of blood spread out from his lifeless body.
Ryker sprang forward and pressed himself up against the wall of the house. Eva was still glued to the spot.
‘Eva,’ Ryker said.
She didn’t respond. She was now trembling with fear.
‘Eva,’ Ryker repeated. ‘What do you see?’
‘They’re dead. They’re both dead!’
‘Do you see her?’
‘Yes!’ Eva screamed, taking a step back, then another, a look of horror on her face.
Ryker dashed across the open doorway and took a split second to take in the scene inside before pulling up against the opposite wall. In the kitchen, another man was sprawled, a patch of thick red blood surrounding him on the white marble floor. Ryker hadn’t seen the man’s face clearly but he didn’t think it was Kozlov or Sergei.
After a few seconds of silence, Ryker moved back into the doorway, gun held out. He caught sight of a shadow moving quickly across the space beyond the kitchen doorway, out in the mansion’s grand hallway. The speed of movement of the shadowy figure in the interior darkness made it appear almost ghostlike, as though the air had suddenly taken shape and burst into life.
Ryker’s finger twitched on the trigger, but he held his nerve and didn’t fire. He wasn’t about to waste bullets on a target he couldn’t properly see. But the Red Cobra was there, no doubt about it. Ryker waited, watching and listening for any further sign of movement. Any sign of his enemy.
But there was nothing.
Then he heard a scream from outside. Ryker turned and saw Eva running toward him. He sprang to action again. Eva met him head-on a yard outside the house and burrowed into him, crying and shaking.
Ryker quickly surveilled the area outside. ‘Where?’ He didn’t move Eva away. She continued to nestle into him.
‘Over there.’ Eva pointed to the far corner of the house where a passageway led around to the front of the property.
Ryker stared over. There was no sign of anyone there. ‘You’re sure?’
His eyes darting, he stepped to the side, taking Eva with him, moving out of the line of fire from the open back door. Not that he expected the Red Cobra to shoot at him. Guns had never been her style.
Eva lifted her head from Ryker’s chest and looked around, back in the direction she’d pointed. Then she straightened up. ‘She’s gone.’
Ryker wasn’t sure if it was a question. ‘I don’t know. Are there any more men?’
Eva shook her head.
‘You sure? Don’t try to play me, Eva. If you lie to me I’m going to shoot you. Are there any more men?’
‘No!’
‘Okay. Where are the car keys?’
Eva pointed to the man on the ground. Ryker cautiously moved over, his eyes still twitching here, there, and everywhere. He felt around the man’s body and pockets. Not just looking for keys but for anything of use. The guy’s gun was swimming in blood. Ryker didn’t bother taking it. He found a wallet. Ryker took a quick look at the picture driving licence inside. A Russian name. Not one he recognised from Miguel Ramos’s digging. Then he found a remote clicker for a Mercedes.
Ryker held the key up.
‘That’s the one,’ Eva said.
Ryker got to his feet. He turned and moved toward Eva.
‘Keep your head down and your eyes peeled. You see anything you scream.’
Eva nodded.