Tom Cain - Assassin

‘Thanks, love.’

He didn’t move, just stood there, looking at her.

‘Anything else?’ she asked. ‘ ’Cause my boyfriend’s just about to come back with our order, and you wouldn’t want to upset him.’

‘Strewth, is he a fighter? Glad you warned me, love. And listen, if he ever gets bored with you, the sloppy seconds’ll see me right.’

‘Get lost, jerkoff.’

‘Don’t spit the dummy, I’m going. Don’t want any aggro with that bastard boyfriend. Cheers!’

Then Damon Tyzack turned and strolled back to his car, barely able to keep the grin off his face.

‘What was that about?’ Carver asked, handing Maddy her dog.

‘Just some creep. Forget about it.’

Maddy took a bite out of her hot dog, floored the accelerator and swerved out of the parking lot with one hand on the wheel, racing away like a getaway driver leaving a bank-job, taking her anger out on the road. Carver couldn’t help but notice that as furious as she was, she remained in total control of the car. Maybe her dad had taught her that, along with the mechanics. Or maybe she’d learned from someone with a professional interest in developing her skills.

They were heading south out of town, back towards the ranch, when Maddy shouted at him over the roar of engine, tarmac and wind, ‘I thought we’d start the day nice and easy. You ready for some action now?’

They rafted the North Fork Payette River down from Cabarton Bridge to Smith’s Ferry, riding rapids that provided the perfect amount of heart-pumping, drenching excitement to put smiles back on both their faces. The wooded banks of the canyon ran with wild deer. Bald eagles and osprey wheeled in the sky above the near wilderness. By the time they got back to the car, they were mellow with the contented exhaustion induced by hard but pleasurable physical activity. Carver had a powerful urge for a cold beer and a big, fat cheeseburger. They pulled into the first roadside place they could find. It didn’t look fancy, just a windowless one-storey unit surrounded by a parking lot, but he wasn’t feeling choosy.

Maddy went to the ladies’ room while Carver went to the bar, ordered two beers, a burger and a chef’s salad, then took the drinks over to a quiet table in the corner. Maddy returned, they chinked their glasses together and sat for a while in what seemed to him like companionable silence till she asked him, ‘OK, what’s the matter?’

‘Nothing, I’m really happy.’

‘You don’t sound it.’

Carver gave a rueful chuckle. ‘Sorry. I’m just not used to it, you know, happiness. Don’t know what to do with it.’

‘How do you mean?’

He screwed up his face, had some more beer and said, ‘I was given away when I was a baby, by my mother. I was adopted. My new parents tried their best, but their hearts weren’t in it.’

She reached across and touched him: ‘I had no idea…’

‘How could you?’

He paused for a moment while the waitress brought their orders. As she left the table, Carver watched her for a second and then caught the eye of a massive lump of muscle sitting up by the bar dressed in jeans and a black leather biker’s waistcoat. He had razor-cut blond hair, a beefy, sunburned face and a neck so thick it seemed to flare out in a single diagonal line from his jawline to his shoulders. It was very possible, Carver thought, that the man’s collar-size was higher than his IQ, and the guy next to him didn’t look any smaller or more intelligent. The only thing different about the second man was that he didn’t wear a waistcoat, but he did have a close-cropped beard. Now he saw Carver too. Both men raised their shot-glasses mockingly, downed their drinks in one and then stared leeringly at Maddy.

‘Ignore them,’ she said. ‘Go on with what you were saying.’

‘Well, I left school and went into the Marines. Just as I was coming to the end of my time, I met this girl called Kate. We were going to get married. Only that never happened…’

Maddy said nothing, knowing the effort it was taking Carver to reveal himself, knowing also what it said about his feelings for her that he thought she was worth it.

He turned his head away. The guys at the bar had finished their second drinks and were ordering another round with the grim relentlessness of men aiming to get very drunk, very fast.

Carver turned back to Maddy. ‘She died,’ he said. ‘Well, she was killed, a hit-and-run driver. They never caught the bastard.’

‘So you were abandoned again,’ Maddy said. ‘And the night we met, same thing. Do you remember, I said I’d got you on the rebound? You went, “You got me sooner than that. I hadn’t finished hitting the wall.”’

Carver was grateful for the chance to laugh. ‘That sounds right. We got back together, you know, me and Alix.’

Maddy tried to make her voice sound casual as she asked, ‘What happened?’

‘It didn’t work out. We loved each other, but we’d never had a normal life together. It had always been crazy. And that was painful, a lot of it, but at the same time, it was exciting. It turned out we were fine with crazy. It was the everyday stuff we couldn’t handle.’

‘So do you still see her?’

‘No, the last I heard she’d gone back to Moscow – she’s Russian. Anyway, she’s very successful now. Very rich.’

‘Uh-oh, I can’t compete with that!’

‘You don’t have to. It’s the everyday stuff that I really like about you. That’s what’s making me happy.’

‘And making you happy is what’s getting you all messed up?’

‘Among other things.’ Carver frowned. ‘I think we’ve got company.’

The two gorillas lumbered across the room, their eyes fixed on Maddy, looking dumb, drunk, mean and horny. Maybe if they’d had any wits about them they’d have noticed that the guy sitting next to the sexy little lady didn’t seem too scared by the sight of them heading towards his table with nothing but trouble on their minds.

Carver got up and took a couple of paces towards the men, holding his hands up in front of him in the universal gesture of conciliation.

These boys didn’t do conciliation.

The one in the waistcoat jabbed out a meaty paw and shoved Carver aside with a grunt, barely sparing a glance as Carver staggered backwards into an unoccupied table.

There were menus on all the tables, just sheets of paper laminated in plastic. Carver picked up a menu and rolled it up nice and tight. Then he calmly stepped up behind the two men, who were too busy introducing themselves to Maddy to pay him any mind, and tapped his left hand on the back of the leather waistcoat.

Its owner turned round and managed to say, ‘What the f-’ before his speech was turned to a wordless, retching struggle for air as Carver’s right arm flashed forward holding the rolled-up menu and caught him right on the Adam’s apple. The man bent double, clutching his throat and that was when Carver kneed him in the face and laid him out on the floor.

That seemed to annoy his bearded pal. He pulled a knife, strode towards Carver and stabbed upwards, right at his guts.

Carver just bent his shoulders forward, sucking in his stomach muscles to avoid the blade, and stuck his arms out in front of him, one hand crossed over the other to block the stab. Then Carver grabbed the onrushing knife hand and twisted it round behind the other man’s back, following it round so that he was now behind his assailant. He lashed out with a foot into the back of the bearded man’s knee, causing his stance to crumple, then, still holding off the knife with one hand, he grabbed the back of the stubbly blond head with the other. Carver smashed it down, face-first into the table-top, knocking the man out cold.