Page 33 of The Redemption of Alex Cade
“Table’s booked for eight.” It was an easy way of headingoff any more talk of money. He didn’t know it yet, but I was going to make sure he had his best Christmas yet. Just as I was going to.
The bar was getting increasingly busy and we had to lean in closer to make ourselves heard. A couple of glasses of wine, and Kit was loose and relaxed. He drifted his fingers through his hair as he talked about his job, his plans for his garden, and the Great Crested Tit Warbler Duck, or whatever, that he’d seen when he’d gone out with his bird spotting group.
“Alex.”
The voice was nails down a blackboard. My body stiffened, my nerves on high alert.
“Mehmet.” Short and blunt, the signal for him to move on. He didn’t. Instead, he smiled, his round, almost doll-like eyes coming to rest, briefly, on Kit before flickering back to me. His greasy smile broadened. I had no doubt he’d taken the hint, but he wasn’t acting on it.
Behind him, I spotted a couple of his heavies hanging back. Christ. Mehmet Aksoy, and his crew, had pulled off the whole gangster vibe perfectly. Shiny black suits strained against the lumbering, heavy set men who both wore sun glasses. How the fuck could they see, in the low lit bar? I bit back on the derisive laugh that tickled at my throat. There was something cheaply theatrical about Aksoy and his brainless thugs. Cheap but very, very dangerous. My gut heaved. And Kelvin wanted us to go into business with this parasite?
Glancing over his shoulder, Aksoy said something in Turkish and the two bodyguards stepped away.
“Alex and I are business associates. Mehmet Aksoy.”
He stuck out a chubby hand. Flashy, jewelled rings were wedged on his stumpy fingers. Aksoy smiled down at Kit, and a gold tooth glinted; he was a man who liked his bling,adhering to the adage that more was more. He was an easy man to mock, if you fancied having your guts sliced up.
“I’m Kit. Nice to meet you.”
I doubted it, if the speed with which Kit pulled his hand away was any indication.
“Alex, I look forward to talking to you and Kelvin very soon. To our mutual advantage.”
Hell would freeze over before that happened. I looked at my watch and got up.
“We’re late,” I said to Kit, who stumbled up after me. I smiled down at Aksoy; I had a good six inches on him and I didn’t deny the bitchy satisfaction as I forced him to look up at me and return the smile that was as cold and bloodless as the one I gave him.
“I’ll contact Kelvin to arrange something very soon, to explore… possibilities. And I look forward to meeting you again, Kit. Very much so.”
Before I could stuff my fist so far down his throat he’d be smiling out of his arsehole, he was gone.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
KIT
I rubbed my hand over my coat sleeve. Mehmet’s palm had been damp and warm. I glanced at Alex as I struggled to keep pace with his long and increasingly fast stride. He radiated so much anger he was almost glowing. “For god’s sake, just slow down. My legs are at least a foot shorter than yours,” I snapped.
Alex puffed out a long, deep breath. He slowed down, exhaling away some of the tension that was gripping him.
“He was the last man I was expecting, or wanted to see. Look, we’re here.” He nodded to a small restaurant, tucked into the little side street in the heart of Hampstead.
I followed him in, my senses assailed by the rich and savoury aroma of olive oil and garlic. Immediately my mouth began to water and it was almost enough to wipe away the odd encounter in the bar. Almost, but not quite. I wanted toknow why Alex had all but bared his teeth and growled like a feral dog as soon as Mehmet had shown up.
Once we were settled at our corner table, drinks and food ordered, I asked Alex straight out. “Does he own clubs and bars, too? Are you going into some kind of partnership with him? It’s what it sounded like.”
The shift in Alex’s face, which I could have lied to myself was just a trick of the light, made his expression hard and his eyes ice cold. A shiver ran over my flesh, and I wished to god I’d never asked.
“Sorry,” I mumbled. “I’ve no right to question you about your business.” Yet… If what was between us was more than casual, didn’t I have the right to know more about the man who sat opposite me?
Our drinks arrived, and the interruption from the smiley young waitress should have cut through the weird tension that had settled over us. Instead, it only seemed to heighten it as Alex stared at me over the rim of his glass. His eyes had lost their cold blankness, and instead it felt like he was weighing me up and in all honesty I didn’t know which was worse. It would have been so easy to be intimidated, but instead a bubble of irritation burst in my chest.
“Forget I asked, okay? I really don’t care who your oily mate is.”
“Oily?” Alex snorted. “That’s one way of describing him. And I’m sorry.” His face softened. “I shouldn’t have taken Aksoy’s unwanted interruption out on you.”
No, you shouldn’t have.
“Am I forgiven?” Alex leant forward over the table and ran the tip of his tongue across his lower lip. I followed the movement, forgetting all about the oily man with the sweaty palm as my head filled with dirty thoughts about what I’d likethat tongue to do to me later. Yes, I suppose I could agree he was forgiven.
