Lindsay forced her eyes away from the gun to look at Danny’s face. His expression was set, his jaw clenched so tight the muscles bunched under his ears. His creamy pale skin was flushed along the cheekbones, like two badly applied smears of a blusher designed for someone else’s skin tones. His eyes glinted in the evening light like dark sapphires, hard and terrifying as the gun barrel. They carried about the same promise of compassion. “It’s over, Danny,” Lindsay said.

“I don’t hear no fat lady singing,” he grated contemptuously, his veneer of cultured civilization stripped away to reveal a savage gangster bent on survival. “You’re the ones that are over.”

“Killing us doesn’t solve anything. It’s just two more bodies for the police to investigate. This racket of yours—how many lives is it worth? Sooner or later, the trail’s going to lead back to your door,” Lindsay said defiantly, praying her voice wouldn’t crack or her bladder give up.

Danny made a sound like a dog coughing. Lindsay translated it as a harsh laugh. “What fucking planet are you on? Do you have any idea of the people you’ve been messing with? This is not some cozy fucking TV series where the villain folds up in a heap and you get to be heroes. This is reality, and this is where you get to be dead.”

“There are people who know we were coming here tonight,” Sophie interjected, her voice low and calm. It didn’t stop the sweat of fear running down Lindsay’s armpits.

“I don’t give a monkey’s fuck if the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police knows you’re here,” Danny said, taking a couple of steps forward. “The people I deal with, I don’t have to give a toss about stuff like that. You don’t understand a fucking thing, do you? Just like your stupid fucking friend Penny. She thought she could threaten me and my operation with her Goody Two Shoes mentality. None of you have the faintest idea of how the world works.” He ran his free hand over his sweating forehead. But the gun didn’t even waver.

“How does the world work, Danny?” Sophie cut in, sounding as relaxed as a chat-show host asking him about his latest book.

“Money buys everything. Including love. And death. And it ain’t love I’m offering tonight.”

Chapter 22

Chapter 22

Danny took another couple of steps closer to them, his eyes moving calmly from one to the other, making sure they knew he was watching them. “So what happens now?” Lindsay demanded.