But to get the
ultimate joy he had to know more, his conscience troubling him.
Julia could be in danger. 'So, did you run off with the band?' he
croaked.
'Hmm... what?'
It was as if she was blind and deaf to anything other than the
sensations pouring through her body. 'Oh, yes, I left all right,
after a monumental showdown with Vincent. I'd never realised how
tyrannical and ruthless he was. In the end I had to run away,
literally, fearing for my freedom. He was quite capable of holding
me by force. Fortunately the band was booked for a tour of the
States, so I was well out of his reach, though not entirely safe.
He has contacts all over the world.'
'But you're
safe from him now?'
'I'm rich and
famous. My manager arranges security. There are always bodyguards
about.'
'Even now?'
Will glanced around uncomfortably, but his fingers did not stop
their slippery massage on her bud.
'There's one
outside the door and another on the balcony,' she said with a
chuckle, rocking her hips against him. 'Vincent knows this and he's
being friendly, at the moment. He thinks I'm no threat to him, and
I'm not, unless he bugs me.'
Plucking and
teasing, he worked her sex-lips between his fingers, and then
gripped her and rolled on the bed till she was beneath him, his
cock still buried within her. There was more information to be
gained from her, but Will's need was overriding all else. They
could talk after they'd orgasmed, when his dick no longer
controlled his brain. He moved out of her and fastened his mouth to
hers, kissing her passionately, then he nibbled at her throat, her
breasts and nipples, moving steadily lower, pausing at her navel,
then down to her sex. He raised her to his mouth, lapping at her
succulent flesh. He felt the pulse between her legs and nipped
gently at her clit. She started to convulse, and gave a cry as she
came. He replaced his tongue with a finger, and poised himself
between her thighs, entering her with one sure stroke.
Everything was
wiped from his mind. Like a thing possessed he felt her tight wet
walls gripping him and he spiralled over the edge in frenzy. He
erupted into her, and then collapsed onto her body.
'Cigarette?'
he said, a little later when, recovered, they sat propped up by
satin pillows, side by side like a couple of longstanding.
'Please.'
He lit up for
her. 'How cliché,' he said, smiling.
'Cliché or no,
there's nothing quite like a nicotine hit after bonking,' she said,
holding the cigarette he'd lit for her, then drawing deeply on it.
'Now, let's get back to Julia. Is she still a virgin?'
'No,' Will
said, an arm about her satin-smooth shoulders.
'Who took it
from her? Was it Vincent?'
'Uhuh,' he
replied, and scowled at the thought.
'I see. And
now what? You'd better tell me the whole story, Will. I'd like to
help her if she's in any kind of trouble.'
Oh, what the
hell, he thought, and gave her an outline of events. When he'd
finished, she didn't answer at once, but eventually said, 'That
sounds like Vincent. And as for Marty, he's nothing more than a
conceited jerk. Clever in his own way, but utterly amoral. You want
to find out more? I can get you into Vincent's office, and Marty's
atelier.'
'You can?
How?'
'I have the
password to Abbey Reach. Don't forget, Vincent trusted me once.
And, when I left him, he was stupid enough to overlook my knowledge
of his ventures. He's corrupt, and would sell his own grandmother
for sixpence. I'd like to see him brought to justice. You should
get Julia out of there before any real harm is done to her. I
expect she's infatuated with him, which is how it usually starts,
but then it can turn nasty, as I know to my cost.'
'Thank you,
Theona,' Will said, and lifting her hand in his, raised it to his
lips. 'You're okay, you know that?'
'I try,' she
said, and smiled.
If he hadn't
known her to be a tough lady who gave the press a hard time and was
reputed to drive a very hard bargain, Will could have sworn that
she blushed.
The pub was
seedy, a meeting place for down-and-outs, shady dealers and
informers. Will wondered how Theona came to know of such a dive,
but it wasn't prudent to ask questions.
They had left the
Majestic
Hotel
after she'd made a phone call. 'Don't
bring your camera,' she had advised, and changed into jeans and a
sweater, a denim jacket slung round her shoulders. Dark glasses
obscured her eyes, and her giveaway hair was stuffed into a
baseball cap.
They'd jumped into a taxi, accompanied by one person only, the
bodyguard called Roy. He looked villainous enough to pass without
notice where they were heading. Once they'd entered the dingy
portals of the
Hat and
Feather
, he melded into the background, but
Will was aware of him and glad of his presence. Unlike the
Flying Goose
, this place
lacked any suggestion of bonhomie. The landlord stood behind the
bar, a massive individual with fists like sledgehammers. He eyed
the strangers suspiciously.
'Two pints of
bitter,' Will said, at Theona's prompting.
'Ain't seen
you around before,' the landlord rumbled, deep in his beer belly.
'New to the district, are you?' He hauled on the china headed pump,
and soon the glasses of frothy brew stood on the bar.
'We're looking
for Pete,' Theona said frankly, and even the landlord wilted under
her authoritarian mien. 'Tell him we're here.'
'Who shall I
say is asking?'
'Never mind
who. Just do it.'
'He's in the
back bar.' The landlord obviously thought better of pursuing it
further, and jerked his broad thumb towards the rear.
Will carried
the drinks. The inner bar was even more sleazy, situated near the
toilets. Every time the door opened a smell of stale urine and damp
wafted through. A jukebox thumped out sixties tunes, and Theona
made straight for a table in a dingy corner. 'Hello, Pete,' she
said, and sat down.
A pair of
watery blue eyes looked across at her, and then slid to Will.
'Who's this geezer?' Pete asked, his voice gritty.
'A friend,'
Theona replied, and then added, 'What are you drinking?'
'A pint will
do,' he said ungraciously.
Will went back
to get one, but he didn't delay, keen to know what Theona was
saying to this unprepossessing character. He was skinny and gaunt
and dirty. The bloated flesh of an alcoholic had obscured good
facial bone structure. Where in hell's name had Theona come across
him?
He found out as he put the pint on the table. 'How're you
doing now?' Theona was saying. 'Are you drumming anywhere?
Jesus
, what a waste of
talent! You've lost the plot, man. Too many joints, too much
Charlie up the nose, too much smack and booze.'
She was
scolding Pete like a concerned mother, and he stared down
sheepishly at the drink-ringed table surface. 'I know, sorry,
Theona,' he mumbled feebly. 'Couldn't keep it together. And once
you'd replaced me with Johnny Carr, that was it.'
'Don't try and
shift the blame. It's you who're the addict. No one else. I even
paid for you to go to that rehab centre, but you ran away after a
week.'
'I know, I
know,' he sighed, reaching for the beer. 'I'm a hopeless ungrateful
shit.'
'A waste of
space, more like,' she said severely. 'Johnny's good, but no one
can drum like you. You could have been up there with the boys and
me. But no, you'd rather stick a needle in your arm. I could say
you're an arsehole, but even arseholes are useful. You're good for
nothing.'
'I'm right
down there, Theona. I've no money, no proper place to live, in a
squat with others like me.'
'And you're
willing to do anything for a fix? I won't enable you to do that,
but I will help you any other way I can. But I do expect something
in return.'
'Like what?'
he asked cautiously, hovering between defiance and hope.
'Here's the
deal. You've worked for Vincent Gabor since you split from the
band, haven't you?'
Over the rim
of his beer glass Pete's eyes shifted to Will and then back to
Theona. Then he lowered it to the table and gazed at it for a few
moments. 'Yes,' he said shiftily. He had emptied his glass and was
sitting there sniffing and rubbing his nose with his hand.
'What sort of
work?' Theona pressed.
'Oh, this and
that,' he said vaguely.
'He's into
drug smuggling, isn't he?'
Again, those
bloodshot eyes darted around, looking anywhere but at her. 'He
might be,' he vouchsafed.
'Oh, come on,
don't give me that crap,' she hissed, careful that no one should
overhear their conversation. 'He's got deals going in South
America, hasn't he? He's in league with the cocaine barons. He was
when I was with him, and I don't imagine he's changed his
ways.'
'I can't tell
you anything.' Pete was sweating and looking very agitated. 'I
daren't. He'll have me killed stone dead.'
'Stoned dead,
more like it,' she commented dryly. 'Okay, so I give you enough
money to split, and to make sure you leave the country. I'll buy
you a one-way ticket. Go to LA. I've got mates there who'll sort
you out.'
'What kind of
mates?' In his paranoid state, he distrusted everyone.
'Friends who
care. They'll help you to kick the drug habit, including booze. Do
it, Pete. It's your last chance. If you carry on this way you're
going to end up dead in a gutter somewhere.'
'I need money
now,' he said ungraciously. 'I'm meeting my dealer in half an
hour.'
'Talk first,'
she said, and drew a wad of bank notes from her breast pocket,
waving it in front of him.
'Vincent will
do me in,' he quavered.
'He won't find
out. You can get out of England now, tonight. I'll get one of my
heavies to escort you to Heathrow.'
Will, sitting
in silence and listening to her, felt nothing but admiration. She
was strong and dominating. His balls clenched and his cock lifted.
He'd had her two hours ago, yet lusted to do it again.
'I need
another drink first,' grunted Pete.
At the bar
Will rubbed shoulders with Roy. They didn't speak. Ye gods, Will
thought, was he taking part in a James Bond movie, or what?
'It's not only
cocaine, there's the Middle East connection as well,' he heard Pete
saying when he got back.
'Guns?' Arlene
responded crisply. 'I can believe it.'
'And he
launders the money through his interests in the fashion
industry.'
'You're sure
of this? I suspected it when I was with him, but proof is
needed.'
'Get into his
office. It'll be on the computer.'
'With a
password no one knows.'
'I know it,'
Pete sniggered, showing stained teeth as for once he looked pleased
with himself. 'I'm into computer hacking.'
She threw him
a questioning look, and Will shared her disbelief that a junkie
like Pete could possibly keep it together long enough to get into
complicated systems.
'Right,' she
said. 'You give me the password and that'll be worth a further
thousand pounds.'
His eyes
narrowed in that wreck of a face. 'Two grand,' he said.
'Fifteen
hundred pounds,' she haggled.
'Make it
seventeen and we've got a deal.'
They shook
hands across the beer puddles on the table. 'My bloke will stay
with you and see that you catch the plane,' she said. 'Now, what's
the password?'
He leaned
nearer and whispered in her ear. Then, on the pretence of going to
the toilet, she paused and had a quick and quiet word with Roy.
'Ring for Ken,' she whispered.
They left the
pub separately and met up in a back alley. Will was more and more
convinced that he was taking part in a spy film. Ken duly arrived
and Theona handed him the money.
'But it's
mine,' Pete protested, looking grieved. 'What about my dealer?'
'He or she
will make a fruitless journey,' Theona snapped. 'D'you think I'm
going to part with my hard-earned cash and have you give it to scum
like that? Oh no. Ken will hand it over when he's seen you safely
to the departure gate.'
'But that
means I'll have to be straight.' Pete was almost weeping. He made a
pathetic, slouching, squalid sight. 'You've no idea what it's like.
I'll never survive it.'
'There's
plenty of duty-free booze on the flight,' Theona tried to reassure
him, understanding his fears. 'You'll be just fine. And I'll phone
and make sure there's someone to meet you at the other end.'
As she climbed
into the back of a taxi with Will, she murmured to him, 'My friends
are Buddhists. He couldn't be in better hands. They'll straighten
him out. Poor old Pete, he was an ace drummer. Maybe he'll be so
again, one day.'
'And the
password is?' Will asked, more concerned about getting Julia out of
the clutches of Gabor than for the welfare of a washed-up
musician.
'Wouldn't you
like to know?' she teased.
As soon as Roy
had shut the car door on them and taken his place in front beside
the driver, Theona, under the cover of the darkness in the back of
the cab, unzipped her jeans, grabbed Will's hand and pressed it
into the gap, and his fingers encountered the soft damp silk of her
panties. He didn't need to be asked twice, pushing the gusset aside
and finding her swollen sex-lips and clit. The cab purred through
late night London, Roy and the taxi driver separated from them by a
perspex panel. Theona wriggled down a little, working her pelvis
against Will's middle digit, then reaching out and tracing his
thickened penis through his trousers.