From his hiding place Rickard watched two men in baggy jeans, training shoes and white vests push in on either side of her. Both men were fit and lithe and their muscular arms were covered in gang tattoos. One of them had a handgun jammed down the front of his jeans. The other held a pistol in his hand and he pushed it into Alisha’s stomach. Rickard wasn’t worried that the man was going to shoot; it was all just part of the macho bullshit these idiots enjoyed. He saw Alisha’s chin come up and she must have said something harsh, because the gunman stepped away, raising his arms. The second man stopped pawing her at much the same instant. Rickard nodded to himself.

Rickard knew now why she’d come here. The return of the prodigal girlfriend.

Although he did not like to think that other men had been with her before him, he’d once made her tell him about her past boyfriends. She had resisted, but only until he’d twisted her hair and demanded to know the truth. She’d listed a couple of high-school boys who he had no interest in, then a guy who’d been more into computer games than he was into her. She’d mentioned in passing a man who’d picked her up in a bar who she dumped very quickly when it turned out he was a local cocaine supplier. Rickard had watched her as she’d talked about the young thug and she couldn’t disguise the lie. Then she’d moved on to more recent men, one-night stands who were up for having a hot girl on their arm but not for a meaningful relationship. The one who had stuck in his head was the only other person who could be described in the same bad-boy mold as he; the cocaine dealer from Liberty City. Rickard had considered paying this man a visit—putting him out of Alisha’s thoughts for good—but hadn’t got around to it yet.

Now it looked like he was going to get his chance.

The front door of the house opened and a tall, slim man appraised Alisha with a nonplussed expression. He studied her clothing, the body beneath it, and then an eyebrow lifted as he saw her bare and dusty feet. He nodded, then jerked his head, directing her inside. As Alisha moved past him, the man stepped forward onto the porch and said something to the two guards. All three of them took a long look around. Rickard hunkered down in the seat of his car. The tall man then went inside.

Rickard started the car and drove away.