by Carmen Reid
‘Yeah, well I asked her along to this art show.’
‘I kind of knew about that.’
Lana smiled at him and now it was Parker’s turn to look awkward. ‘That doesn’t look so good now,’ he admitted: ‘kind of like I was checking you out but I had her as a back-up plan.’
‘Yeah! That is exactly what it looks like, maybe because that’s what it is!’
Lana flicked a little piece of dumpling at him.
‘Rat!’ she added.
‘I’m sorry, really, it was kind of dumb of me.’
Lana flicked another crumb of dumpling in his direction.
‘In future maybe you should try and make your mind up. OK, to be honest, I came because I thought it would be fun,’ she began, ‘and – well, since we’re being totally honest, aren’t we? – this is fun. Friends is fun too. I’ve not been in town long, I need all the friends I can get.’
Parker grinned. Then he reached his hand across the narrow table and held it out, palm open, for Lana to shake.
‘Friends,’ he said: ‘friends who aren’t going to rat each other out. Agreed?’
Lana took his hand in hers and shook it, a big smile breaking over her face.
‘Agreed!’
‘OK, so now you just have to tell me everything I need to know to totally impress Gracie on Saturday.’
Chapter Thirty-Three
Vienna
The lookout:
Black leather jacket (via a contact in St Petersburg)
White T-shirt (Gap)
Blue jeans (Levi’s)
Red trainers (Adidas)
Fluffy white cotton socks (Aldi)
Collapsible switchblade (military supply store)
Total est. cost: £180
ANNIE NOSED THE Bentley into a narrow street of tall, elegant houses.
‘Number 22 … number 32 … there it is, number 36,’ Svetlana whispered. ‘Park in this space here so we can see the house. We must not take our eyes from the house.’
Annie pushed the gearstick into reverse and began to manoeuvre the Bentley into the tight space. The inevitable scrape of hubcap against viciously high Viennese kerb followed. Ouch.
‘You walk past the house, Annah,’ was Svetlana’s next instruction, ‘and see if any lights are on or if there is any sign of anyone. Also look for a very expensive car. Tell me everything about the cars you can see closest to the house.’
‘Why can’t you go and look?’ Annie whispered back.
Now that they were at the address Elena had given them, Annie wasn’t feeling quite so gung-ho about the whole snatch-the-boys-back plan. In fact, she was growing increasingly terrified about it.
‘Because they know me,’ Svetlana replied, ‘there might be someone on guard and they will see me.’
There was no denying she had a perfectly reasonable point there. So with a deep sigh, Annie stepped out of the Bentley and closed the heavy door as quietly as she could.
She tiptoed to the pavement, then pushed her hands into her jacket pockets and tried to walk slowly, but casually along the road.
Glancing left, she took in the huge four-storey house which was number 36. Up on the second floor, one of the windows was faintly lit, suggesting a light on in a room beyond it, the hallway maybe. Otherwise, the house was in darkness.
Directly outside was an impressively vast black four-by-four car. She didn’t know the model, but could see that it was a BMW and expensive. As she walked past, she clocked the creamy leather interior.
She kept on walking for 20 yards or so, then turned around, eyes peeled for a second swoop. This time she slowed down to take a look at the car’s registration plate. She had to bend down to see it properly. Her heart leapt when she saw the letters which formed the first part of the plate: GAS.
This had to be Igor! Wasn’t Igor’s billion pound fortune built on Russian gas fields? Wasn’t Svetlana always referring to him as the gas baron?
Annie straightened up and began to speed towards the Bentley, casting another long look at the house. What she saw in the garden made her heart beat even more quickly.
A man was standing there watching her.
The tall, heavy-set man, with short dark hair and a hip-length leather overcoat paused in the action of lighting a cigarette, his eyes fixed on her.
Annie gave him a brief flick of a smile and realized she would have to carry on walking, loudly, clip-clopping her heels all the way to the end of the street and beyond, to shake off any suspicions he might have. So she pulled her jacket tightly against her and walked on.
As she approached the Bentley, she desperately signalled to Svetlana that something was up. She tried all kinds of hand gestures meant to tell her: I’m walking on – you stay here.
But Svetlana just stared at her in utter confusion.
‘NO!’ Annie mouthed as it looked as if Svetlana was about to get out of the car. She signalled frantically for Svetlana to stay in her seat and finally she seemed to get the message and sank right down, pulling her jacket collar up over her face.
Annie walked to the end of the street, then turned the corner. She waited, listening to the thump, thump, thump of her heart.
What were they to do now?
How had they even begun to imagine that they could get the boys away from a group of Igor’s solid, muscular bodyguards? Those men were probably graduates of the military academy. Guys who could crush your skull with their bare hands … snap your neck like a carrot …
She peered back around the corner. The street was empty. The man hadn’t followed her. She waited for a few more minutes, just to be sure, then crossed the street and began to tiptoe back towards the Bentley.
When she was just across the road from it, she double-checked that no one was around, even risked a quick glance at the garden. The man had gone. She tiptoed to the car, opened the door quietly and got in.
‘What happen?!’ Svetlana demanded in a fierce whisper.
‘There was a man in the garden of the house … he was smoking … he looked at me … he was a huge, dark-haired man and I panicked. I thought he was going to chase after me,’ Annie blurted out.
‘You do the right thing.’
‘Do Igor’s number plates have GAS in the title?’
‘Ya,’ Svetlana nodded vigorously, ‘almost all. This is his favourite for plates. GAS 1, GAS 2 and so on.’
‘Just outside the house there’s a huge BMW with GAS in the number plate and it’s a British plate.’
‘This is it! This must be it! I also check against the map when you are gone. There is a square two streets away, a church and a street named Konigsweg.’
‘But what can we do?’ Annie asked. ‘There is only one light on, and there’s a huge man hanging around. How are we going to find out if they are in there? And how will we get them out?’
‘I don’t know yet,’ Svetlana admitted, ‘but I’m thinking. You must think too. We have to come up with an idea.’
Chapter Thirty-Four
New York
Gracie at home:
Vintage cotton embroidered nightdress (Marie’s Lost and Found Store)
Silky antique kimono (same)
Sponge toe separators (Duane Reade)
Sponge hair rollers (same)
Bright green nail polish (Mac)
Total est. cost: $78
‘HOW WS UR date? U hv to call me asap. G x’
Now that she was back in her apartment, Lana could make this call with a happy heart. In fact, she was going to love making this call. She settled down on the sofa, hit Gracie’s number and listened to the ringtone for only a moment. Gracie picked up almost immediately.
‘Lana, hi, so tell all!’
‘Gracie, you just so will not believe how it went tonight—’
‘Oh no!’ Gracie interrupted with a wail, ‘I don’t know if I can bear it. Please don’t tell me you’ve realized you’re long-lost soulmates who met before in a brief, but never forgotten encounter at a foreign airport when
you were seven.’
‘Very elaborate but totally wrong. Guess again,’ Lana said, almost enjoying this little bit of friend torture.
‘The only thing that’s going to be good for me to hear is if you actually discovered you’re his long-lost sister who was given away for adoption and therefore can never date.’
‘Yes, that would be good!’ Lana agreed, ‘but in fact, this is waaaaaaay better, because there’s no major family drama or personal crisis involved.’
‘So – well, just tell me. What?!!’ Gracie urged, desperate to know.
‘OK, we had a great evening, we went to all these amazing gallery places where scary girls with scary hair all seemed to know Parker. In fact, the entire world seems to know Parker. Then he insists on walking me home.’
‘Ohmigod,’ Gracie whispered.
‘And we’re standing at this gallery window beside this amazing multi-coloured cube—’
‘The Vronsky cube, I know it, oh that is just the perfect setting for what I know you’re about to tell me. Oh I can’t listen …’
‘Gracie, will you shut up and let me talk?! You know the cube? Oh you two are just perfect. Anyway, so we’re leaning in, we are just about to kiss …’
Gracie gave a little whimper.
‘When we realize, practically at the exact same second, that we just don’t like each other in that kind of way.’
‘Huh?!!’ Gracie gasped.
‘Yeah!’
‘But how? What do you mean? At the exact same moment? You both realized? What happened? You both had bad breath or something? Had you been eating garlic sausage? And did you kiss? Did you kiss and then realize? Or did you not kiss?’
‘No, we did not kiss and no, we had not been eating garlic sausage! I think it was maybe me first. I pulled away and then I told him that I just didn’t think this was going to work for me.’
‘What?! Excuse me, Parker Bain was about to kiss you and you backed out? Are you serious? You backed out? Are you sure you don’t mean you blacked out? Because I know that’s what I would have done.’
‘No, I did not black out. But after that happened, we went and got something to eat and then we got on great and we were much more relaxed than we had been for the whole evening. We are totally friends. There is nothing romantic or date-y between us: we are friends. I think we’ll be good friends. But that means the coast is clear – you can totally go for him.’
Gracie gave another dramatic gasp. Then there was silence for a moment before she blurted out in a voice close to tearful, ‘Really? Do you really mean that?’
‘Yeah, I really mean that. He’s not the one for me. But he is definitely the guy for you. I mean, the cube – no one but you two have heard of that cube.’
‘Oh. My. Goshhh!’
‘Yeah, and we talked about you and I promise, I didn’t say anything totally obvious. But I said you were looking forward to seeing him on Saturday and he was definitely asking a lot about you.’
‘Really?’
‘Really.’
‘Lana, I think you could be like my best friend ever.’
‘I’m honoured. Somehow I’ve managed to go from zero to hero in one evening.’
This made Gracie laugh.
‘I’m sorry about earlier.’ Gracie was the first to say it.
‘No, I’m sorry about earlier. Really, I am very, very sorry. You saw him first. I should never have gone there. And as for the clothes and the bangs—’
‘Oh, please don’t go there. I shouldn’t have said any of those things,’ Gracie interrupted her.
‘No, but I shouldn’t have copied you like that. I didn’t mean to, Gracie, I love the way you look and I was inspired by it and I wanted to try some vintage things and I swear I did not mean to turn into your evil twin.’
‘It’s OK. Really. Now that you’re not dating Parker Bain, you can wear everything in my closet, honestly, knock yourself out.’
‘Yeah, but … you know what, I’ve actually come to the conclusion that I don’t rock a floral-print dress the way you do. It’s time for me to hand my puffy skirts and sundresses over to you and find out what I do rock.’
‘You look much meaner in a pencil skirt or skinny jean than I ever will.’
‘Thanks.’
‘I still cannot believe you didn’t kiss Parker Bain, I mean didn’t you at least want to see what it was like?’
‘Gracie, I was looking at Parker’s lips and all I could think about was how furious you were going to be with me.’
‘I’ve been home all evening figuring out how I’d be able to talk to you in the office tomorrow,’ Gracie admitted.
‘You know, I think we would have worked it out.’
Lana looked across the small room and noticed for the first time that one corner was stacked all the way to the ceiling with big brown boxes.
‘There are so many parcels in this apartment. Elena must have the latest dresses and she’s obviously spent all evening packing them up to send to the boutiques.’
‘Every dress I’ve seen so far looks awesome,’ Gracie replied.
‘Oh man. I really, really hope they sell like crazy – or you can forget all about boyfriend troubles,’ Lana added. ‘If those dresses don’t sell, the only thing we’ll have to worry about is the Mothers, because they are going to KILL us.’
Chapter Thirty-Five
Austria
Petrov:
Grubby white tennis top (Babolat)
Grubby white tennis shorts (same)
Grubby white tennis shoes (Nike)
Man-sized anorak (borrowed from kidnapper)
Total est. cost: £67
THERE WAS TOTAL concentration in the Bentley. Svetlana drummed her fingernails on her clutch bag, deep in thought. Annie twisted and re-twisted a strand of hair, which had worked itself loose from her ponytail.
All sorts of crazy scenarios from films were running through Annie’s mind: she would go up to the house and ring the doorbell, then Svetlana would hit the man on the head with … with … a broom handle? A shovel? Whatever might happen to be lying around the garden?
It was just so implausible.
‘We do have an empty champagne bottle,’ she said out loud.
‘So what?’ Svetlana responded.
‘It could be a weapon.’
Svetlana shrugged and said, ‘They might have a gun. I did not want to say this, to make you frightened, but it is a possibility.’
‘A gun?!’
Annie shrank down in her seat. She didn’t want to be here any more. Helping Svetlana out was one thing, but Annie did not want to be shot in Vienna by the henchman of a billionaire while her beautiful children thought she was hundreds of miles away in Italy sipping vegetable cocktails and being massaged by a hunky Italian stallion in a vest.
How would they ever understand what had happened?
‘Maybe we should leave this all to Harry, and to the courts,’ Annie began: ‘we can’t take the law into our own hands. I mean – bodyguards! Guns? I’m not Angelina bloomin’ Jolie, you know.’
‘Annah, shut up,’ Svetlana ordered. ‘You are here and you are going to help me.’
Lights went on in the big front windows on the first floor of the house.
‘Something’s happening,’ Annie whispered.
The window on the ground floor lit up as well.
‘Maybe they are going to move … maybe the boys will come out of the house.’ Svetlana leaned forward and strained to see.
A movement on the other side of the road caught Annie’s attention.
‘A policeman!’ she said, with relief. Svetlana looked over too and they both saw a small middle-aged man with a peaked cap on his head and a notebook in his hand.
‘No … Postman, I think,’ Svetlana said.
All the relief that had built up in Annie’s chest vanished. Now she felt even more scared than she had a few minutes ago. She was about to be shot in a Viennese street in front of a postman.
The postman
crossed the road and knocked on the window of the car. Annie wound it down and wondered if she could cobble together the German for: ‘We’re about to be shot at by some Russian bodyguards.’
‘Guten Morgen,’ the postman said.
‘Guten Morgen,’ Annie replied, almost tearful at the thought of Owen and all the times she’d told him not to speak German round the house. She would do anything to be in her kitchen listening to Owen’s botched German right now.
‘Sie können hier nicht parken. Ich muss Sie eine Strafzettel geben,’ the postman said and began to scribble in his notepad.
‘What?’
Annie turned to Svetlana hoping she might have understood this.
‘This postman is a traffic warden and he is giving us a parking ticket.’
‘Small mercies,’ Annie muttered. ‘At least if we’re dead we won’t have to pay the parking ticket.’
The front door of the house opened.
‘I think they’re coming out!’ Svetlana said, reaching for the handle and flinging open the passenger door.
‘Svetlana!’ Annie warned, trying to catch hold of her and pull her back in. But too late.
‘Excuse me,’ she said as politely as she could to the traffic warden and opened her own door.
The warden protested, but stepped aside.
‘Oh God, oh God, oh God, oh God,’ Annie chanted, panicking properly now. She opened the back door and lunged for the champagne bottle: she couldn’t face guns with nothing in her hands.
The man in the leather jacket emerged from the house. Behind him, Annie could see Petrov and Michael! There they were, still in their adorable little tennis outfits, their faces pale and tense. Her heart went out to them. All thoughts of ducking down behind the car and hiding until this was over went out of her mind. Despite the size of a second man who was following the boys, Annie knew she had to help them.
With a roar of maternal rage, Svetlana charged down the pavement towards them and Annie began to run behind her.
