Chapter Twenty
Elle
Stephen stopped a couple of arm lengths away from the tables. ‘Excuse us for interrupting, would any of you gents happen to be Eric?’
The four of them stared at us. They were crowded around something dark on the table but I saw little blocks of white scattered around too, like large pills or teeth. One of the younger ones, with more brown in his beard than grey, tipped his chin up. ‘Not us. Never heard of him.’
Stephen threw a pointed look at me and then thanked them. I thought he was being a little hasty to relax and the comment growled at us as we walked away only made me more concerned: ‘You watch yourselves; do you hear?’
Looking back at them, Stephen gave a little respectful nod, even though I could feel that he’d tensed up beside me. ‘Perhaps we should cut our losses on this one,’ he murmured as we neared our seats at the bar again, pausing before we sat down.
I was about to answer when I noticed that he wasn’t paying attention to me anymore; he was looking over my head. As I turned to see what had caught his eye, he touched his free hand lightly to my waist, making me jerk in surprise, as he subtly guided me closer.
The young college guys who’d been playing pool were now lined up in a loose semi-circle around us and they’d brought their cues.
'You the British guy I spoke to on the phone?’ A kid with sandy hair and a red T-shirt stood in the centre and acted as their spokesperson. I say kid; they were young adults and made a significant human barrier between us and the exit.
‘If your name is Eric, I suppose so. You said you had some information about the man we’re looking for?’ Stephen kept his voice neutral.
‘What’s the information worth to you?’
‘How much do you think it’s worth?’ Stephen immediately countered.
The ringleader slid the cue from his shoulder and sized Stephen up. ‘A thousand.’
‘Ha. No chance,’ I couldn’t help but interject.
Stephen’s fingers tightened on my waist, like he was cautioning me to keep my mouth buttoned, but sadly, that wasn’t my style.
These chancers were after some kind of reward money?
But how would these boys know a fifty- to sixty-year-old man?
A teacher perhaps, or one of their dads?
This had been a wild goose chase and I knew Stephen wasn’t going to be impressed.
‘What if we take a thousand and give you no information?’ The group around us shifted, like their ring-leader’s suggestion signalled they needed to get themselves ready for what was to come. Suddenly my knees felt a little loose and I was glad Stephen was still holding on to me.
‘How do you propose to do that? I don’t carry that kind of cash on me.’ Stephen gave them a rueful smile as though this was a business deal that wasn’t working out.
‘Well, we could break all your teeth to convince you to tell us your PIN code,’ Eric sneered as he leaned forward. ‘Then we’ll help ourselves to your bank card. And that fancy cell phone you got.’
‘Hmm…’ He pretended to think about it. ‘Difficult to speak with broken teeth. Not sure that’d work for either of us.’
Eric went quiet, blinking rapidly like Stephen’s polite refusals were confusing him. He recovered soon enough. ‘You have a point. What about you go fetch us the money while your girlfriend keeps us company? She’s cute. Sure you’d be in a hurry to get back to her.’
One of the henchmen moved in closer, hand outstretched as though to touch me.
I don’t know where, because Stephen shifted his hold on me, pulling me against him decisively.
My breath whooshed out shakily and I realised I’d been holding it prior to having Stephen’s arm wrapped firmly around me, his body turned into mine.
‘There is not a chance in hell that’s happening.’ Pressed close to him, I could feel his voice rumble up from his chest and exit in a tone I’d never heard him use before, like it had been stripped of all its polish and social etiquette. It sent a shiver down my spine.
‘Want to bet?’ Eric, or I should say, the little dickwad, lifted his pool cue and pointed it right at Stephen’s throat. My heart thudded against my rib cage. Oh crap. This was bad. This was so bad.
The pool cue lowered from Stephen’s neck, and then wavered over towards me, moving close enough to hook the bottom hem of my shirt.
Stephen grabbed the end of it with his other hand, heedless of his suit jacket which dropped to the floor.
His grip on it was so tight, the veins in his hand raised as he stopped it from moving any further.
I sucked in my stomach, worried what would happen if Stephen tried to liberate the pool cue from its wielder.
Worried what was going to happen if he didn’t.
We heard chairs scraping behind us from over in the corner. Now the bikers were making their way over too. This setup was probably a training exercise for their young apprentices. We were so screwed.
I was eyeing up my drink to see if I could throw it in one of their faces and we could make a run for it, but we were so outnumbered, it was ridiculous.
‘Get out of here,’ a deep voice rumbled across the bar.
Everyone went quiet. The college boys looked at the bikers and us. We looked at the college kids and the bikers. The bikers glared at the college kids.
The tension in my chest released a little. They were on our side. Thank the Lord.
‘You heard him,’ said the bartender, hands splayed wide across the counter. ‘You little pissants need to leave and don’t think of showing your faces here again.’
‘Fine. This place is a dump, anyway.’ Eric yanked the cue out of Stephen’s grasp and threw it downwards and toward us. Stephen put out his foot to arrest its flight and trapped it against the floor with a clatter before it could hit our shins.
The rest of the group followed their leader, shuffling out, kicking chairs and trying to look big.
‘Stay and have another drink. They might be waiting for you outside. It’s on the house,’ the bartender said.
Stephen thanked the gang of bikers who’d come to our rescue and looked down at me. ‘Are you OK?’
I nodded, despite the shakiness coming over me.
‘Good.’ His arm began to slide away from my waist but when I inadvertently tightened the fingers I hadn’t even realised I had been grasping the sides of his shirt with, he paused.
His other arm came up around my back instead, surrounding me with his strength and warmth in a gentle hug.
I took a couple of deep breaths and eased back when I realised my jitters were becoming less to do with what had just happened and more to do with his proximity.
We stayed for two more drinks in the end. The bikers hadn’t been counting teeth, they’d been playing scrabble and we joined them. I helped Leon, the one with the scar that cut right across the left side of his face, win when we made ‘try’ into ‘quixotry’.
Stephen kept close to me as we walked out of the neighbourhood in the dark, only releasing my arm when we reached my apartment block, and frankly, I’d appreciated it.
‘Life’s certainly an adventure when I’m around you, Noelle,’ he commented. ‘Guess you were wrong about those bikers being the ones to worry about.’
The sodium light from the restaurant sign lit up a circle we were standing just outside the circumference of. I considered his shadowy figure and sighed. ‘Is this really the time for an I-told-you-so?’
‘No. It isn’t. I’m sorry.’ He shook his head and put his hands on his hips to breathe for a minute, like he hadn’t relaxed until this moment when we were at my doorstep.
After the abuse it took in the bar, the jacket he was holding now resembled more of a used muslin cloth, than a designer garment.
‘We’re only going to give the posters one more week and we’re not going to risk meeting anyone else.
Either they give us the information over the phone or not. Agreed?’
‘Fine.’ I didn’t suppose I was in a position to argue with him.
It wasn’t like I was naive. My dad had told us enough stories and was always in vigilance mode, wherever we were.
That kind of thing rubbed off on you, but I hadn’t considered anything further than the idea of the poster.
Sometimes schemes that worked in books and stories didn’t turn out quite that way in real life.
But now Stephen was going to doubt my ability to help him. I wasn’t going to let him walk away from me thinking I was an idiot and this had all been a waste of his precious time.
Even if it took me all night, I was going to come up with a list of Italian restaurants to visit tomorrow and we were going to get another lead.