Better Off Dead: (Victor the Assassin 4) Read online

  ‘Okay,’ Victor said. ‘You’re in danger because your stepfather has enemies. We don’t yet know who they are, but they’re targeting you by virtue of your relationship to him.’

  ‘I have no relationship with him. I’ve never had a relationship with him.’

  ‘That doesn’t matter to them. What matters is your stepfather loves you and they can get to him by getting to you. He believes they’ll try and use you as leverage against him. I’m here to stop them doing that.’

  ‘What do you mean: use me as leverage?’

  ‘They’ll kidnap you first and use you to draw out your stepfather.’

  ‘And then?’ Gisele said, a challenge in her voice.

  There was no point in lying. Hiding the truth wasn’t going to convince her to trust him. He said, ‘They’ll kill you.’

  He saw the defiance falter in her expression as whatever anger towards Norimov and distrust of Victor she had was replaced by fear. He didn’t like scaring her, but there was no other way of making her understand the danger she was in. He saw that she believed him.

  Yvette said, ‘Gisele, we must call DCI Crawley. He has to know about this.’

  ‘No,’ Gisele said while still looking at Victor. ‘Not yet. Not until I know more.’

  ‘But you need —’

  ‘I don’t need to do anything, Yvette. I don’t want anyone knowing about Alex and his bullshit. It’s taken a long time to distance myself from all that. The moment it gets out that I’m the stepdaughter of a Russian mob boss my career is over before it’s even begun. I’m not letting that happen until I absolutely have to. God, I fucking hate him for putting me through this shit again.’ She exhaled to calm herself down, then to Victor she said, ‘How am I supposed to trust you? Why are you here to protect me and not those juicers he hangs around with?’

  ‘I don’t expect you to. You shouldn’t trust me. You shouldn’t trust anyone you’ve just met, even me. But I am here to help and I suppose we can say your stepfather trusts me to protect you more than he does his men.’

  ‘So, what? You’re like a professional bodyguard or something?’

  ‘Let’s say that I understand how an enemy might come after you and how to stop them.’

  She rolled her eyes. ‘This is such bullshit.’

  ‘I’m not going to argue. The point is there are dangerous people who want to do you harm. And they will, unless I stop them. I can’t do that unless you agree to do as I say. Okay?’

  ‘No, it’s not okay. I don’t know who you are. All I have to go on is what you’re telling me. Which isn’t a lot. For all I know you’re one of Alex’s enemies trying to trick me.’

  ‘How can I prove myself to you?’

  She considered for a moment. ‘Are you carrying a gun?’

  He nodded.

  ‘Oh my God,’ Yvette breathed. ‘You brought a gun into my home? How dare you.’

  Gisele said, ‘Give it to me.’

  It was a stupid mistake to have made, to ask her how he could prove himself. She had her mother’s power to make him trip over his words and fail to think before speaking.

  ‘I can’t do that,’ he said.

  Gisele wasn’t surprised by his answer. ‘Then get lost. Go back to Alex and tell him that I wouldn’t go with you. While you’re at it, tell him I said I hate him.’

  ‘Please,’ Victor said. ‘If I worked out that you’re here, then it’s only a matter of time until your stepfather’s enemies do the same. They won’t ask you to come with them. They’ll just take you. I might not be around to stop them.’

  ‘Holy shit. You killed those three guys in my flat?’

  He didn’t react but he was surprised how well she could read him. Maybe it was a family trait.

  ‘Gisele, please. We don’t have time for this.’

  ‘I’m calling the police,’ Yvette announced and strode into the lounge where Victor remembered a landline sat.

  He didn’t try and stop her. He could render her unconscious in seconds, but then Gisele would never trust him. He had to leave Yvette alone. He had to convince Gisele to come with him before the call connected and local units were dispatched. But there was no time left.

  He drew the handgun. Gisele gasped and Yvette turned in response and screamed.

  Victor racked the slide to eject the chambered round, caught it in his other hand, and released the magazine. He held out the weapon by the muzzle.

  ‘Okay,’ he said. ‘You win. Take the gun.’

  She stared at it. ‘It’s real, isn’t it? I know. I’ve shot a few.’

  ‘You have?’ Yvette asked, repelled.

  Gisele shrugged. ‘Back in Russia. Alex’s idea of quality time with me. No wonder I’m so fucked up.’ She snatched it out of his hand. ‘Please, put the phone down. Everything’s cool.’

  Her voice was quiet and soft but carried enormous strength and persuasiveness. Yvette paused, then nodded. She replaced the handset.

  ‘I still want him out of this flat.’

  ‘Me too,’ Gisele said. ‘He’ll be gone in a minute. Won’t you?’

  ‘Only if you’re with me.’

  She turned the gun over in her hands. She was examining it, maybe comparing it to those she had fired in the past. He could tell she was equally fascinated and appalled by it. ‘Why are you so keen to be my bodyguard?’ You don’t know me. I’ve never even set eyes on you before today.’

  ‘I know your father.’

  ‘But you said you’re not his friend. So why are you helping him?’

  ‘Okay,’ Victor said. ‘Your father asked me to help you, but I didn’t say yes because I used to work with him. I agreed because I used to know your mother when I worked with your father. She was a nice woman.’

  Gisele swallowed. ‘She’s been dead for years.’

  He nodded. ‘I know. It was a long time ago when we knew each other. I liked her. She was always nice to me. If she needed my help, I would help.’

  Gisele studied him, her eyes searching his for the truth – for something to believe in. She was still staring when she said, ‘What colour were her eyes?’

  He didn’t blink. ‘Blue, just like yours.’

  ‘Easy enough to find out. How tall was she?’

  ‘Taller than you are. Five eight and a half. You must have your biological father’s height.’

  ‘Left or right handed?’

  ‘Left. But right-eye dominant.’

  ‘I didn’t know that part.’ She paused, frowning. ‘You could be lying and I wouldn’t know.’

  ‘I’m not lying. I couldn’t have known that you didn’t know that information.’

  ‘Then you know more about my dead mother than I do. Thanks for pointing that out.’

  ‘I taught her how to use a bow and arrow. That’s how I know.’

  He watched Gisele’s eyes angle to look again at the gun in her hand. She said, ‘You told me if she wanted your help you would say yes, but she’s dead. She’s not asking you to help me.’

  Victor nodded. ‘If she were alive now and she asked me to protect you, I wouldn’t hesitate. She isn’t alive to ask me, but that doesn’t change my answer.’

  Gisele took a deep breath and exhaled through her nose. She held his gaze with her blue eyes full of strength and intelligence. He felt as if he was looking back in time.

  ‘Okay,’ she said, eventually. ‘I’ll come with you.’

  ‘Don’t do it,’ Yvette said. ‘You can’t possibly believe him.’ Her own eyes were large and accusing, gaze flicking between Victor and Gisele.

  Gisele’s eyes never left Victor’s. ‘I grew up surrounded by liars. Now, I work in a profession defined by lies. I know liars. He doesn’t sound like one to me.’

  ‘Don’t be so naive, dear,’ Yvette added. ‘This one is bad news.’

  Gisele said, ‘Maybe. But I have my phone. I’ll call you later and let you know I’m okay.’

  Yvette was aghast. She frowned. ‘If he hasn’t murdered you by then.’

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nbsp; Gisele ignored her. She held the gun out to Victor. He took it.

  ‘You’ve made the right choice,’ he said. ‘Let’s go.’

  TWENTY-EIGHT

  Gisele sat in the passenger seat of the man’s car and tried to stop herself becoming overwhelmed by what was happening. She was voluntarily in a car with a strange man who claimed to have been sent by her father because his enemies were after her. Enemies who had tried to kidnap her a week ago. It was crazy. It was madness. This kind of thing didn’t happen to people like her.

  ‘Holy fucking shit,’ she thought aloud following a big exhale.

  She saw the man who clearly wasn’t named Vasily frown. He didn’t speak, however. His gaze never left the road ahead. She didn’t like the silence. It gave her too much time to think about how stupid she was being. He had a gun.

  A deep breath calmed her down a little. She had believed him before. There was no reason to reverse her opinions just yet.

  When it became obvious he wasn’t going to speak for the entire journey unless spoken to, she said, ‘I guess we should get to know one another.’

  He didn’t look at her. ‘That’s not necessary.’

  ‘Not necessary? Are you joking?’

  ‘I don’t make jokes.’

  ‘Good to know, Mr Serious, but I’m going to go ahead and disagree with you on that whole “necessary” thing. If you’re going to be my bodyguard then it makes sense to know you better, and vice versa.’

  The lights changed and he accelerated. ‘I’m not a bodyguard.’

  ‘Okay,’ she said. ‘But, whatever, you asked me to trust you and I’ve taken a huge risk getting into a car with you. You don’t want me to regret my actions already, do you?’

  He didn’t respond.

  She said, ‘Let me put it another way: if you want me to come with you and stay with you then I need to feel comfortable with you, and right now you’re not making me feel very comfortable. I’m about thirty seconds away from digging my nails into your eyeballs and calling the police.’

  That made him look at her. She saw that he understood she was not joking. He hesitated, not sure how to respond.

  ‘I’m down to about twenty-three seconds,’ she said.

  ‘Fine,’ he said. ‘Let’s get to know one another, if you like.’

  ‘I’d like you to want to too.’

  ‘Fine,’ he said again. ‘I do. Tell me about yourself.’

  ‘That’s better. That’s much better. Not so hard to be friendly, is it?’ She didn’t wait for an answer because she knew she would probably be waiting a while. Whoever this guy was, he wasn’t a talker. ‘You know a bit about me already, yeah? But did you know I can touch the end of my nose with the tip of my tongue?’

  That made him look at her, eyebrow raised. She laughed at his reaction.

  ‘Not even a hint of a smile? Man, you’re cold. I can’t really,’ she admitted. ‘Just trying to take the edge off what is an extremely stressful situation.’

  ‘This is not exactly the time for humour, Gisele.’

  ‘So you’re saying there is a time for humour?’

  He glanced at her. She took this as his way of saying yes. She said, ‘Are you married?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘Kids?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘Girlfriend?’

  ‘No,’ he said for the third time.

  She exhaled. ‘Loving the one-word answers. Really getting to know you. Let me try changing tactic. How old are you?’

  ‘I’ll keep that to myself.’

  ‘Ah, like that, is it? Youth fading, old age creeping up on you? You’re over thirty, right? What are you, nearly forty?’

  He looked at her.

  She smiled. ‘Just joking. A bit. Where do you live?’

  ‘I move around a lot.’

  ‘So do I. I walk, run, ride a bike, take the bus. That’s not an answer. Where are you from? I don’t think you’re Russian, but your accent is hard to place.’

  ‘That’s the idea.’

  ‘So, where were you born?’

  ‘I don’t know.’

  ‘What do you mean, you don’t know?’

  ‘Exactly what I said. I don’t know where I was born.’

  ‘What does it say on your birth certificate?’

  ‘I didn’t have one.’

  ‘What does it say on your passport?’

  ‘I have lots of passports.’

  ‘Okay, fine. What does it say on your very first passport?’

  ‘Like my age, I’ll keep that to myself.’

  She rolled her eyes. ‘I knew you were going to say that.’

  ‘Then why ask?’

  She shrugged. ‘It doesn’t matter, does it? If you don’t want to tell me anything about yourself there’s nothing I can do about it.’

  ‘It’s not a case of want but necessity. The less you know about me, the better.’

  ‘The better for you, you mean.’

  ‘For both of us,’ he said.

  She saw an honesty in his eyes despite his evasiveness. He refused to open up about himself but made no effort to lie or pretend. It would have been easy enough to lie to her. She wouldn’t know what was true and what was not. She liked that he didn’t do that.

  ‘Okay, I’ll give up getting to know you for the moment. But only because by saying so little about yourself you’ve actually told me quite a lot.’

  ‘I have?’

  ‘Oh yeah, bud. But now it’s your turn to ask me something. And before you say you don’t need to, I’m telling you that you do. Remember what I said about these here nails and your eyeballs.’

  After a moment, he said, ‘What happened a week ago?’

  Gisele took a deep breath. ‘I knew you were going to ask me that. And I don’t exactly want to relive it.’

  ‘It’s important.’

  ‘Fine. I guess I have to sometime, right? Might as well be now. I was working late at the office. There was lots to be done as my boss wasn’t in that day. I was the last to leave. I barely made the tube home. When I got out at my station I noticed there was this guy hanging around. He looked at me. You know, stared. I thought he was going to ask me for money or a light or something, but then he looked away and started playing on his phone. I didn’t think anything more about it, but I was walking fast, just in case. Which was pretty dumb because all I could hear was my own footsteps. I couldn’t hear his behind me.’ She took another breath. ‘I guess I was lucky because his phone went off and I didn’t look back but I knew it was him. So a minute later when this car pulls up next to me I’m already alert and I start running. What I didn’t know was that the man behind me had tried to grab me at that exact moment. But I was already running so he only caught a handful of hair and yanked it out.’ She rubbed the back of her head.

  ‘Did he chase you?’

  She nodded. ‘I guess. I think so. I didn’t look back and I’m quite quick. As well as self-defence, I jog and take a spin class. I like keeping fit. Even if I could still lose a couple of kilos.’

  ‘Where did you go when you ran away?’

  ‘Not far. I ran into the first place I could find: an Irish pub. Soon as I was inside, I called the police. No one followed me in.’

  ‘That was smart. You forced them to back off. They might have gone straight to your flat to wait for you there.’

  ‘The detective said the same thing.’

  ‘Did you see the driver of the car?’

  She shook her head.

  ‘What was the car like?’

  She shook her head again. ‘I have no idea. I’m sorry.’

  ‘There’s nothing to be sorry for. Was there anyone else in the car beside the driver?’

  ‘I don’t think so.’

  ‘What did the police say?’

  ‘That I was very lucky.’

  ‘Did they have any idea who the two men were?’

  ‘No. They asked me lots of questions, of course. Do I have any enemies? Do I owe anyone money? Th
at kind of thing. They said they might have been looking to rape me. Fuck, can you imagine? It’s a cliché, but you never think it will happen to you. Well, you don’t want to believe it could. Otherwise you’d never leave your house, would you?’

  ‘Did you tell them about your father?’

  ‘Why would I? I haven’t seen Alex for years. I haven’t had anything to do with him since I’ve lived here. I say that, but I still take his money. And yes, I know that makes me a hypocrite. But you know what they say: not everyone can afford to have principles.’

  ‘Did the cops tell you to stay with your neighbour?’

  ‘The police said they would have a patrol car drive by to keep an eye on me, which they did. Exactly one time. When I realised that they weren’t going to do anything else until after I was raped or murdered, I decided I would take the week off work and stay with Yvette. She offered. Well, insisted. She’s nice. A bit paranoid though. She wouldn’t open the curtains in case they came back looking for me. That’s why I hid when you knocked on the door. I hope you didn’t scare her too much.’

  ‘Please apologise on my behalf when you see her next.’

  ‘So the guys who tried to grab me are enemies of Alex?’

  Victor nodded. ‘He believes another outfit is seeking to wipe him out.’

  ‘Good. He deserves it.’

  ‘You don’t mean that.’

  She shrugged.

  Victor said, ‘Regardless, you don’t deserve this.’

  ‘How do you know I’m not exactly like him?’

  ‘I can tell. You’re a good person. Like your mother.’

  ‘How good could she have been if she married him?’

  ‘Norimov kept her in the dark as much as possible. She knew he was a criminal, but she didn’t know what that meant.’

  ‘Then she should have found out.’

  ‘She loved him long before she knew he was a criminal.’

  ‘That’s not a very good excuse.’

  She saw him consider this for a moment. ‘Maybe not.’

  He slowed to a stop at a junction. Gisele saw his eyes never stopped moving while they waited for the light to change. Not just at the roads ahead and to the left and right but also to the road behind. She saw it for what it was – vigilance – and felt comforted by it. She knew next to nothing about this man, but somehow trusted he would keep his word to protect her.