Page 131 of Hold On

He sidled down the side of the house. There were three wheelie bins close to a door. The flat-roofed extension was just beyond. Ren could hear the TV. The lights were on, shining out into the garden, but there was a section of wall that he could scale where he wouldn’t be seen. He lifted one of the wheelie bins and moved it closer. He wished it had been harder to move. Nothing in it meant it was less stable, but he had no choice and he had to be fast.

And silent.

Getting onto the flat roof was easy, the next stage wouldn’t be. If anyone in the room below looked up through the skylight, they might spot him. He moved carefully along the back wall, ducking down under the bedroom windows until he reached the far end where there was a drainpipe. He’d rather risk that than try to climb onto a windowsill then reach up for the guttering.

The bolt that held the top of the drainpipe to the wall came away as he climbed and for one terrifying moment, he thought the entire pipe would swing free of the building and he’d fall. But the other fastenings held and Ren managed to scramble up onto the tiles. He lay sprawled on the roof with his heart racing. That had been noisier than he’d wanted. There was no sign of him having been heard but it was a while before he could bring himself to move.

He was the opposite side of the roof to the window he’d exited from, so he had to make his way back over. The window was ajar as he’d left it and as he slid back inside, he breathed a sigh of relief which turned to a groan when he spotted the cable ties. How was he going to explain those?

Ren thought it through. He could admit to the blade in his wallet. Say that Dominic had escaped and… So why didn’t he escape too? Maybe he could make it look as if he was just about to go through the window when they came up to the room. But then why had it taken so long? They could both have slipped away hours ago. So maybenotadmit to the blade. Pretend they’d chewed through them. Ren sighed, picked up the plastic and started to chew.Yuk.

He wondered whether to tell Dominic that he was back. There were pros and cons but he decided he wanted him to know that help was coming. Ren opened the door and whispered, “It’s me.”

“What the fuck?” came Dominic’s reply.

“I had to come back. Stay where you are. No matter what you hear happening, don’t make a sound. Help’s on the way. I’m going to pretend you escaped and I was just about to, okay?”

“Okay. Be careful. I’ll be really pissed off with you if you get killed.”

Ren smiled. He closed the door and went over to the window. The cable ties looked authentic. If anyone counted them, he’d just say one had snagged on Dominic’s sock and was still around his ankle. Now it was a matter of waiting and hoping that he’d delayed Levan long enough to give Foster time to get a team here. Otherwise…

Well, he wasn’t going to think aboutotherwise.

Chapter Nineteen

Ren had gone through every permutation of the situation he could think of but when he heard the sound of a car pulling up and then stopping, he felt physically sick. A door slammed, men were talking, then there were footsteps on the stairs.Oh Christ.Ren opened the window, pulled himself up and began to wriggle out backwards. He wanted to time this just right and as he was out as far as his shoulders, the door opened and Levan walked in.

“What the fuck!” Levan yelled in Georgian.

Ren had intended to let himself be dragged into the room but he changed his mind and slipped down until he was sprawled on the roof. Any amount of delay was useful.

“Get back in here!” Levan yelled.

Ren let himself slide a little further.

“Where’s the other one?” Levan demanded.

“Not here,” someone said.

“Then go and find him. Now. He can’t have got far.” Levan turned back to Ren. “Get back in here now or I’ll shoot you.” He pointed a gun at him.

Not that he’d shoot to kill. Levan wanted his death to be more painful than that, but Ren started to claw his way back up the roof, only to genuinely slip back. He cried out as he just managed to get his fingers wedged at the edge of a tile.

“Stop fucking around.”

Ren moved as slowly as he could. He could hear voices in the garden as they searched for Dominic.Please let this work.As soon as he could be reached, he was roughly hauled back into the room and shoved down at Levan’s feet.

“Well, what a surprise,” Levan said.

“A nice surprise?”

The guy laughed. “That mouth of yours. Where’s your friend?”

“He got away.”

“How?” Levan kicked at the remains of the cable ties.

“We chewed them off each other.”

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