by Asher, Adele
I had always considered myself to be independent of needing to be with a man. The fantasy Roy had created was a mere entertainment in my life, an interesting square-jawed consort accessory to my perfect wardrobe and a useful support act in my social engagements. Nick however I loved. He was someone that had, in a very short space of time, transcended my material needs.
I had found that which I could not live without.
Nick was my soul-mate and with a few selfish words I had driven him away.I wiped the tears from my cheek. I had a simple choice, to trust him and trust in love and hope he would be a good custodian of my heart or to pursue my own selfish cause and risk never seeing him again. I decided there were some things my trust-fund couldn’t ever buy and the sense of belonging and companionship Nick brought would be just as satisfying if we were a pair of broke bums living on a beach.
I wiped my tears away and went after him.
I went outside but he was nowhere to be seen. I quickly sprinted back to the Aston but he wasn’t there either. I collapsed next to it and burst into tears, Nick after all was, despite my light-hearted banter to the contrary, an exceptionally well-trained clandestine operative. I would return to the hotel and he wouldn’t be there. No number I could call, no forwarding address. Nick Salinger probably wasn’t even his real name. I would never hear or see from him again if he wished it and given how we had just parted I had no reason to suspect he would.
I looked up across the lake. Pulling away from the pier in the darkness was a shadowy black figure piloting a small boat.
“Nick!” I yelled after him but he either didn’t hear over the noise of the engine or chose not to hear.
Abandoning my gun next to the Aston I got up and ran to the lake calling him. I reached the end of the pier but he still didn’t turn back. Without thinking I jumped off the end of the pier into the lake intent on swimming after him, a ridiculous notion given the size of Lake Geneva but seemed a good idea after consuming a third of a bottle of strong premium Vodka.
The alcohol took the initial edge off the freezing cold water. I had always been quite a good swimmer so made good progress into the lake after him. Having got more than one hundred and fifty metres from the shore I realised the hopelessness of the situation - there was simply no way I could keep pace with a motorboat.
“Nick!” I yelled after him. “Nick, please!” I pleaded as hard as I could.
Now shivering from the freezing cold water I struggled for air as I tried to tread water, I had swum too far and with the shock of the cold now taking its toll I started to go under swallowing the cold lake water.
In all probability it was the splashing and struggling that had caught his attention in the still lake water rather than my shouting. As I struggled to stay afloat I felt a pair of strong arms grab me and wrench me out of the freezing cold black lake. Nick pulled me into the boat as I coughed and spluttered water everywhere desperate for breath.
“What the hell are you doing!” he said grabbing a blanket from the boats store to wrap me in. “You’ll get pneumonia!”
He quickly wrapped the blanket around me and hugged me tightly, rubbing me to keep warm.
“I don’t care,” I told him shivering. “I love you.”
He was momentarily taken aback before the resentment and anger at my previous outburst dissipated. He held me tightly then kissed me.
“I love you too.” he smiled softly. “I don’t know why. You are nothing but trouble.”
“I’m sorry,” I told him. “I don’t care about the money. Just don’t leave.”
He kissed me again.
“We better get you back to the hotel.”
I nodded shaking. He quickly turned the boat around and headed at full power back to the Aston. He beached the boat on the shore then picked me up wrapped in the blanket and walked over to the car depositing me in the passenger seat and got in. He fired up the engine and put the heater on full before pulling off at full speed in the direction of the hotel.
“It’s just as well you drank that Vodka, it’s probably the only thing keeping you alive right now,” said Nick.
I no longer felt cold. The dull aching pain was replaced by a light feeling as I started to drift into sleep. Nick prodded me awake.
“Don’t go to sleep. You won’t wake up,” he told me sternly.
Nick sped the Aston at more than one hundred miles per hour down the single lane road around the lake.
“What the hell did you do that for?” he asked.
“It seemed like a good idea at the time.”
“Well it wasn’t.”
“Next time don’t leave by boat then,” I told him.
I realised it must have been serious when Nick threw all prior caution to the wind and abandoned the Aston at the front entrance for the valet to park. The valet opened my door and was surprised when instead of a debutante in a ball dress he found a freezing cold, soaked and bedraggled young woman in a rough blanket. Nick brushed him off with a large bribe, picked me up and carried me through the hotel lobby much to the surprise of the other hotel guests. Not really caring about appearances at this point I just buried my head into his chest for warmth.
We reached the hotel room and Nick took me straight through to the bathroom and discarded the blanket. He put me down in the shower before turning the water on rubbing me to try and get the circulation going again. Satisfied I wasn’t about to die of hypothermia he wrapped around me in an embrace under the hot water.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I should have…” he said then just shook his head.
I am not sure he really knew what he should have done. I was clearly a source of conflict between his work and his feelings for me and only my potential demise in the lake was enough to tip the balance in my favour. I squeezed his hand and nuzzled my head under his chin.
“I don’t know what I would do if something happened to you. I feel like I waited my whole life to meet you,” he whispered.
“Well you have to take better care of me then,” I told him
“I’m trying.”
“Try harder,” I said.
My lips found his and we exchanged a lengthy slow kiss. He caressed my cheek and gazed at me.
“You feeling warmer?”
I nodded before I was sick down his chest from a combination of the sudden shock and too much Vodka.
“Do you still love me now?” I said.
“What would I do without you?” he replied probably thankful he was in the shower to rinse the mess off.
After the shock of hypothermia I felt as weak as a day old kitten so Nick undressed me from my soaked clothes and dried me down with a large towel, dressed me in my pyjamas and put me to bed.
“Come to bed with me,” I said and he duly obliged so I cuddled up against him for warmth and comfort.
“I don’t mean to be difficult,” I told him softly “Sometimes that’s just the way I am.”
“I don’t want you to change,” he told me. “Just realise we are on the same side.”
“I’m finding it hard to trust you,” I told him honestly.
“That’s understandable given what just happened to you.”
“I just want you to answer me one question honestly, it’s all I ask.”
“Go on.”
“Am I work for you? Is this…Roy…Are you doing this because it’s your job or are you doing it for me? I am so afraid when this is over and you get whatever you wanted you will just leave.”
“I fell in love with you the first time I saw you,” Nick told me. “This isn’t work. Truthfully, nobody at MI6 really gives a shit about you or Roy. He’s just some petty thief who cons rich girls out of their trusts and is playing at being a gangster. Whatever he is involved with is more a job for Interpol not SIS.”
“So why are you involved?”
“For you. I told you it was work because I didn’t want you to feel obligated that I expected anything in return.”
“Why didn’t you tell me that?”<
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“I couldn’t figure you out.Until you nearly drowned yourself in the lake I couldn’t work out if I was just an amusement for you like he was or something more.”
“And now?”
“To help you I have to throw away my career and everything I was trained to believe in. I wouldn’t do that for just anyone, you risked your life to come after me…that makes you special.”
“I don’t care about the money any more.”
“I do. I’m going to be out of a job.”
I smiled at him.
“You see. You do need me.”
“I guess so.”
We kissed and I finally fell into a deep sleep.
The next two days went by in a blur. Nick told me I had a fever of over a hundred and five at one point, while his efforts had saved my life I still paid for my foolhardy actions with mild pneumonia. By all rights I should have been dead. Nick was a good nurse and kept me wrapped up in bed with hot soup and drinks. When I finally woke up feeling normal it was mid-afternoon. I pulled on a hotel bathrobe and found Nick dozing in a chair in the salon of the suite. I ruffled his hair to wake him up and sat down in his lap.
“Feeling better?” he asked.
“Much.”
“That was pretty rough huh?”
“I had a good nurse.” I smiled at him.
“Well no more night swimming for you.”
“Yes doctor.”
“You feel like eating now? I can order room service.”
“Let’s go out.” I told him.
“Are you sure? You haven’t been on your feet in three days.”
“Just down to the restaurant.”
“Ok.” Nick nodded and smiled.
I could tell he was hiding something.
“What is it?”
“Roy and Charlotte. After the break-in they left. They’ve gone to Monaco.”
“I fucked things up didn’t I?” I said apologetically.
“No…you were right. We should have just done it your way while we had the chance.”
“I know you were just trying to protect me from myself,” I told him.
“Well you do need it sometimes.”
“Are the Russians here?” I asked.
“Yes they are staying here,” Nick replied.
“Useful.” I nodded.
“So why is he in Monaco…of course.” Nick just nodded as he realised he already had the answer.
“They want paying in cash. He’s gone to Monaco to get the cash,” I said.
“Exactly,” nodded Nick in approval.
“So we need to hit him when he’s got the cash before he gives it to the Russians.”
“That would be the plan.”
“So what about the money in Zurich?” I asked.
“Charlotte,” replied Nick.
“What about her?”
“He’s not going to give the money up without a fight. Hold Charlotte to ransom.”
“Roy won’t give a shit about her.” I thought about it then smiled at the cunning of Nick’s plan. “But of course her father will, and if Roy upsets Charlotte’s Pa his membership to his little club will be revoked.”
“Permanently.”
“That’s a great plan Mister Salinger. Of course we are almost certain to balls it up.”
“We can but try.”
“I’ll get changed for lunch.”
“Don’t be long.I want to take a look at our Russian friends.”
“Why? Surely if we hit Roy before he gets back we can avoid them entirely.”
“Vladimir Kolokov.”
“What about him?”
“He worked for the gang Roy is buying the arms from.”
“So why did he want him dead?”
“I intend to ask him that when we catch him.”
“So what’s the problem?”
“The Russians have a contract out for Kolokov’s killer. That means they have a contract out on you.”
“But nobody knows I did it.”
“Roy knows, the question is who did he tell…”
“You think he told the Russians to cover his tracks?”
“Maybe. I want you to show your face. If they start shooting we know Roy has been telling tales. If they don’t you are in the clear.”
“And if I’m not?”
“Then we have to kill all the Russians.”
“How many?”
“A lot.”
“You better use a machine gun then.”
“I was thinking more like a sniper rifle.”
“Sounds like good sport. We should kill them anyway. Can’t beat offing a few Ivans for target practice.”
“You don’t learn do you?”
“I’m just teasing you, but you suggested it. I’m just being the supportive future wife.”
“Well try being supportive in ways that don’t end up with bodies in bags. The whole point of using sniper rifles is they don’t know it’s us. We need to pin it on Roy. The last thing we need is a bunch of Russians with a blood vendetta.”
“Whatever you say baby. I’m with you,” I said. Nick raised his eyebrows. “Don’t give me that look.”
“You’re very high maintenance.”
“Oh baby - You’d be bored if I wasn’t.”
I gave him a quick kiss and departed for my shower to get ready for lunch. I gave some thought to Nicks frank admission that he wasn’t on ‘company business’ so to speak and was doing this entirely for my benefit.
Despite my near death experience and act of self-sacrifice I still wasn’t one hundred percent sure I believed him, the problem with every coin it has two sides. If I wasn’t a cynical and somewhat skeptical person Nick’s plot to cover my tracks with the Russian gang could be played as him merely protecting my actions with some prudent housekeeping. Of course the flip-side of this was that I had never told Nick I had killed Vladimir. While they were able to trace the other deaths to my pistol through ballistics there was no way they could have connected me to Vlad’s death since they never had the shoe I killed him with. The fact Nick already had the intelligence linking Roy, Vladamir and the Russian gang meant there was clearly an ongoing surveillance operation by his mob that I had probably just stumbled into. What if Nick and his cohorts had Vladimir under surveillance and this was the reason he appeared as my knight in shining armour at Hackney’s cop shop? As much as I desperately wanted to believe him I still had a nagging doubt there was more going on than he was telling me.
Did I doubt Nick loved me?
Well no, I didn’t doubt it. Despite the brevity of our relationship the look of worry on his face when he dragged me out the water told its own story, that he cared for me deeply and he didn’t want anything bad to happen to me. So while he was certainly protecting me I still wasn’t sure if I was simply part of a much bigger plot that had yet to be revealed.
I wasn’t sure how much it mattered. If Nick really did love me - and I had no reason to think he didn’t then I’m sure he would have already figured out a way to keep me out of whatever trouble his real purpose would potentially cause. Be it from his own side, the Russians or unknown third parties.
As long as we were together in the end I am not sure the circumstances of the journey to get there would actually matter that much.
Perhaps he was telling the truth and had gone off reservation merely to help me, perhaps he was part of something before we met and was now trying to extract himself from it without putting either of us in harms way. Whatever his intentions my actions in the lake proved my heart was not prepared to let him go just yet and I had to trust in him even if there was some degree of deception involved. At least I did believe his overall intentions were honourable.
Chapter 13
IT WASN’T difficult to spot the Russians in the hotel restaurant. There is nothing generally subtle about Russians with money. Dressed in beige suits and too much gold, flanked by burly security guards and accompanied by a plethora of skinny Ukrainian mistresses plastered
in inch thick makeup and fake fur. They were loud and obnoxious. Nick was dressed impeccably in a black Hugo Boss Jacket, jeans and a Dior shirt. I went with Roberto Cavalli jeans and a thick black jersey knit jumper dress to keep warm.
The maître-de seated us at a table overlooking the lake and handed us the menu.
“Something to drink?” he asked.
“I would say a Dom Perignon 2000. What about you Darling?” Nick asked.
“I think that would be delightful my angel,” I replied.
“Very good. Dom Perignon 2000,” the waiter said approving.
He departed to retrieve our fizz from the cellar.
I looked across casually at the Russians before returning my gaze to the delightful Nick Salinger. I smiled at him and he smiled softly in return.
“You look better,” he told me.
“You were worried about me?”
“Of course,” he replied and took my hand.
The waiter brought over the Champagne and set the elaborate cast iron stand down for the silver ice bucket. The pop of the Champagne cork immediately drew the attention of the egotistical Russian crowd who hated being upstaged by anyone. The waiter showed the bottle to Nick for his approval before pouring a tasting glass.
“Yes. That’s Champagne.” Nick nodded before the waiter charged my glass then Nick’s.
“Hey Waiter! Boy!” yelled one of the Russians in a drunken slur.
The waiter did his best to ignore him.
“I’m talking to you!” he yelled again.
The waiter looked at us apologetically.
“I’m sorry Sir, Madame. Russians…” he said disdainfully.
“Who’d have guessed,” I said with a sarcastic politeness.
I toasted Nick’s flute brimming with French vintage happiness.
“To us,” said Nick.
“To our future,” I replied.
Annoyed by the wine waiters lack of attention the surly Russian gangster got up and pulled his trousers up over his large bulging gut. As his jacket fell open it revealed a ghastly gold-plated Colt automatic in a snakeskin holster. He strode across to the waiter and grabbed him by the shoulder.
