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.Mac folded his arms.‘Go on,’ he taunted Calum.‘Why don’t you tell Reuben all about our intimate past,’ he added, shovelling the shit of the whole situation into Calum’s lap.But the other man only smiled in that cool-customer fashion that had once made him so popular with the women in the Force.‘I wouldn’t call it intimate.Not with Mac, anyway.We used to be real tight.’ He shrugged.‘That was until Mac found out I was balling his missus.’Mac’s face tumbled.Calum and and his ex wife Donna? Was Calum the guy she’d been screwing after Stevie died? Calum just lifted his eyebrow and sent him a smug smile.Reuben snorted in disgust, breaking through the tension, relaxing his hands.‘Don’t let some whore get in the way of brotherhood.Only one way to deal with a woman who opens her legs for any man – shove a stick wrapped with barbed wire up her cunt and keep twisting and turning it until she isn’t screaming any more.I made Sergei watch me do that to his first girlfriend who was fucking some meth addict on the side.He had to learn that a man never lets a woman come between business and friendship.’Mac felt his stomach turn, but Calum appeared untouched by the sickening revelation.‘I was just telling Calum about Sergei,’ Reuben continued, his voice dropping low.‘His girlfriend has gone missing.I don’t know who the slut is and I don’t want to know.I suspect she was one of those Club Zee bitches.’ He made a sound deep in the back of his throat like he was about to spit.‘So if my brother gets out of hand today, just keep him in line.’Club Zee.The name registered with Mac.The card he had in his pocket that he’d found at Elena’s.‘Mac, I’ll need you to have a clean place ready for me,’ Reuben said, taking Mac’s thoughts away from the card he’d found.‘A place that no one can connect to my organisation, where I can unload the delivery after we move it,’ Reuben continued, switching the subject of the conversation.Mac almost asked Calum how long he’d known about the delivery, but he didn’t.No, he’d be talking to Calum all right.Soon.Real soon.Instead he whispered to Reuben, ‘I thought something big was happening so I took the precaution of getting a different phone.Here’s the number.’After he’d passed on the details to the Russian, Reuben abruptly raised his arms and shouted, ‘Everyone, it’s time to gather round.’People started moving from the house into the garden.Some of the children ran, others held on to the hands of the adults they’d arrived with.Milos cuddled into his father’s side.A table had been set centrally, with what looked like an enormous pie-cum-cake in the middle.There was a solitary candle and words iced on it: Live long and free.Reuben gently pushed his son towards his birthday pie.‘Close your eyes.Make a wish,’ Reuben whispered.But Mac was long gone by the time Milos reopened his eyes.He was back on the street.The Luger and bullets were where he’d left them under the wheelie bin.Once he had them, Mac doubled back and hid in a front garden from where he could observe the gates to Reuben’s house.Now all he had to do was to wait for that back-stabbing slime ball Calum to come out.thirty-four‘I didn’t come over for a shag,’ Rio said, as she finished doing up the last button on her blouse while Phil buckled his belt.They’d met at some tedious police conference, a weekender, where they’d spent their free time getting to know each other within the four walls of Rio’s hotel room.Phil didn’t feel guilty that he was betraying his wife; if he’d had a guilt complex, he’d never have gone into undercover work.And Rio – well, she wasn’t looking for a long-term anything except for her career.‘We’ve talked about Mac.’She took a step towards him.‘I’m working on this case.A murder in a hotel.A female found with her face shot off her in a bath.Not a pretty scene.But I’m working some DNA that was found there, not the victim’s.The problem is there’s a match on the computer, but I can’t get access to it.’‘Now why do I feel that the remainder of your sentence has got something to do with me?’ Phil moved away from her and sat down at his desk.He kept his gaze on her.‘The reason I can’t get access is because there’s a code.The one used for one of ours undercover.’Phil’s body tightened.‘And you want me to turn the code into a face? You know it’s a general code, so I’d never be able to do that anyway – not that I would.’‘But there’s something different about this.It’s the usual 1402 code,’ Rio hit back.‘But this one ends with a C.’Phil went rigid and, for just a few seconds, emotion stood stark on his face.Shock? Confusion? Rio couldn’t tell what it was, but he soon covered it over with the calm shadows that he usually wore.He leaned back in the chair and laced his fingers in his lap.‘Even if I did know who it was—’‘Don’t shit me around, Phil.’ Her face glowed a hot brown with her fury.‘A young woman’s time on this earth was brutally severed today.Tell me who it is.’His tone remained calm.‘I don’t know who every undercover cop is.There are other undercover teams, as you well know.We use the same 1402 code like all the other units.We don’t put letters, love hearts or smiley faces at the end of it.’‘Well, someone put a C there for a reason.So, who can I talk to and find out?’Phil stood up again.Moved round the table.Took the few steps towards her.Ended up back in her space.‘No one’s going to give you that information.If there was – and that’s a big “if” – an operative in that hotel room, it will be case sensitive.My advice to you –’ his hand touched her wrist near her pulse – ‘is to leave it alone [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]