I jump and swing around, just as Collins starts plummeting toward me. Confused as fuck, I hold out my arms, catching her. “What the fuck?” I ask, scanning the space behind her. I see Nolan at the door that leads to the offices, his gun still poised. “What the fucking hell?”
He frowns. Lowers his gun. “Who is she?”
I blink, recoil, and let Collins’s body drop to the floor. She lands on her back, eyes open, staring up. “She’s a dead cop,” I say, looking up at Brad, who’s just followed Nolan out.
“A cop?” Nolan comes over, standing over Collins body. “I thought she was with them.” He looks up at me. “Fuck!”
I lose my shit and swing at him, cracking him on a jaw and sending him sailing through the air. He lands on his back with a thud, and I march over to his startled, splayed form. “You,” I say, pointing a finger, “are afuckingliability.”
“She’s a cop?”
“Was, Nolan. Shewasa fucking cop, and now you have given me the biggest fucking headache!” He’s lucky I’m out of bullets or I’d shoot the fucker. Then I remember . . . I reach for his gun and snatch it, turning it on him.
“Danny, I’m sorry!” His hands come up, his body curling into a protective ball. “I thought I was helping.”
“Whoa,” Brad intercepts me, disarming me. “He fucked up.”
“Yeah, he fucked up.” I look down at the dead cop in our club. Anger. “We’re fucked!”
“Not necessarily.”
I scowl in the direction of the voice and find the bloodied result of my handiwork before Volodya showed up. Higham struggles to his feet. “What are you saying?” I ask.
“I’m saying you clearly don’t trust me. And I’m saying I can solve this.”
“How?”
“We get her across town. I’ll have someone call in a burglary. Make sure Collins’s radio answers the callout.”
“And what do you want in return?” I ask. Never have I thought I’d get Higham onside. Then again, I don’t suppose I’ve left him much choice after the shootout at Winstable with the Poles.
“You leave Natalia alone.”
“Oh fuck,” I breathe. “You really are in love with her.”
He looks away. “I’ll find out where she got the information from to print the article.”
“You do that. And while you’re at it, you can get rid of the footage Collins was talking about that shows Beau shooting The Shark.”
He nods. “I’m feeling a little worn out, Danny.”
I laugh. “You cops all say that around this point in your careers.”
“What, when they reach fifty-ish?”
“No, Higham.” I drop my gun and leave. “When they meet me.”
Three o’clock comes and goes. Four o’clock. Five o-fucking-clock. “Where the fuck is she?” I yell, calling Bud on the gate once again.
“Nothing,” he confirms.
“Check the street. Any cars knocking around? Cops?”Anythingthat’s going to have her running?
“Quiet.”
“Fuck it!” I hang up and look at James. He shrugs. “Fat lot of fucking help you are.” I look at my watch. They’ll be coming back from the spa soon, and if Amber shows up late when the girls are here, there will be nothing I can do to save her. My phone rings, and I practically dive across my office to my desk. And curse some more when I see it’s Luis calling. And I remember...
I glance at James. Is he thinking what I’m thinking? He knocks back a vodka, the earlier shootout having chased away his hangover. Funny how a minor dabble with death does that. “Cancel,” he says. Heisthinking what I’m thinking. We haven’t got time for an exchange right now. The club’s a graveyard, currently being cleaned up, Amber’s nowhere to be seen, and we have a dead cop on our hands.