Page 2 of Between the Lies

Right in front of her, a group of men – perhaps a stag party – moved on towards the gates, and thentheycame into view. Creep and Cabbie were standing in the corner with their hands folded across their chests, grins on their faces.

Nina considered legging it, shoes and her things clutched to her chest, like a lunatic escaping the asylum, but again, attention was as much an enemy as these men. Instead, she chose to slide her feet into her boots and tie up the laces in a perfect bow. Her eyes were still on Creep and Cabbie, though. When she’d stuffed the camera bag into her backpack, she grabbed the strap and began walking towards the gates.

The men watched her but made no move to follow. On a shaky breath, Nina dove behind a few more tourists. She blended in with another Indian family, but when they shot her suspicious glances, she doubled back to find the loos. She spotted the sign and?—

A hand clamped onto her arm, pinning her in place. ‘There you are, love,’ Creep whispered in her ear, his hot breath heating her cheek. ‘I’ve been waiting for you.’

CHAPTERTWO

Creep snatched Nina’s backpack.

‘Give it back,’ Nina growled.

‘No can do.’ He laid his arm around her shoulders, as if they were old pals, and dragged her to where Cabbie stood, grinning at them, a toothpick now stuck between his teeth.

‘I don’t know you.’ Nina tried pulling away. Creep stank of musk, the sort you smelled on a man after he’d run five miles under the hot sun.

He didn’t let her go. Instead, Cabbie walked up to them and plucked out the tickets she’d inserted into her passport. Before he made a grab for that too, Nina slid it into her pocket. Without a passport, it would be difficult for her escape. Not that being caught by two criminals wasn’t a pickle in itself.

‘One-way ticket to Mumbai, eh? Running home to mamma?’

‘It’s none of your business. Let me go or I’ll scream.’

Creep smirked, then tutted. ‘Come on, darling. You know what’ll be the result of that. You see those pricks in yellow vests carrying walkie-talkies? They’ll come over and separate us. That’ll get you away from me and straight into the arms of the people you’ve been running from. Do you want that?’

By the time he’d finished his little speech, they’d made it to a waiting area. A recycling bin and one with food waste – which reeked of fish – leaned against the last of the three vacant seats. Nina’s captor pushed her into the middle chair and took the seat next to her, farthest from the bins.

‘Seriously, Shah? I’ve to sit next to this cesspit?’ Cabbie barked.

Shah didn’t loosen his hand from around Nina’s shoulders. ‘Sit down, Pratt.’

Grumbling, Pratt sat his arse in the chair but turned his legs so he didn’t face the bins.

Shah caged Nina’s backpack between his feet. Trapped so tight, he would be working his inner thigh muscles extra hard. Nina considered making a grab for it but knew both men could easily overpower her. And Nina couldn’t leave her backpack behind. It held everything: her laptop, a change of clothes, the toiletries she’d managed to grab from her house and, oddly, her dead colleague’s camera.

The crowd increased, people reading the departure boards to check which gate their flight was boarding at. Five minutes later, the couple sitting opposite them stood up and left, dragging their eight-year-old, whose eyes were fixed on his iPad. A bottle on the boy’s lap tumbled to the floor and rolled towards Nina.

Nina groaned and shuffled in her chair.

‘Stop twitching,’ Shah spat, his spittle spraying on her forehead.

Nina winced. ‘I just… I’m a nervous flyer. I need to take my medicine.’

‘No, you don’t.’

‘But—’

‘No!’ he said with enough force for another spray to land on her head.

Nina intertwined her fingers, uncrossed them then joined them again. Then she fidgeted with her coat. Pratt had pulled his phone out and was stabbing at it with a sausage-like forefinger. Apparently, solitaire was more engaging than the danger of her being a flight risk. Nina’s tickets sat flapping in Shah’s coat pocket, stuffed with a couple of others. They had found her and were now taking her… where? To Mumbai? London? Somewhere completely different?

Shah settled back in his chair, surveying the airport as if the world were his oyster, like he’d lit the firewood on her corpse and was watching it burn. That’s exactly what it felt like – certain death.

Who were these men? Why the hell were they after her?

She wasn’t going to ask. If they asked her aboutthatnight, she had little to say to them.

She stared at her fingers. ‘Look, I have blood on my hands. It’s not mine. I need to clean it before someone finds it suspicious.’

---