Gun still poised, I stepped over the body on my stairs and the one in my hall and closed the front door from my neighbours’ prying eyes. I lived alone and owed my time and allegiance to no one – and I’d never been more grateful for that. I pulled first the woman’s body then the man’s into the downstairs toilet, piling one on top of the other. There! If anyone looked through the letterbox, their bodies wouldn’t be immediately obvious. I spared about two more seconds of thought to cleaning the hall and my stair carpet, but what was the point? After I found Libby and Troy, I’d be on a plane to somewhere lush and green, with no extradition treaty with Albion, less than twenty-four hours later. I was never going to come back to this house, so let it smell and let the bodies fester. Not that they would do for long with the plan I had in mind. There was one last task to take care of in my garage and then this place was history.

How on earth had Eva’s minions found me so quickly? There must’ve been a camera in the alleyway that I hadn’t spotted, which helped them to identify me. Honestly! You couldn’t walk anywhere in any city in Albion without some camera or other tracking and recording every move. So damned intrusive.

Once I had finished in my garage, I hopped into what had been my ex-wife’s old car and drove off into dawn’s early light, my mind racing. I had one more card to play, but it was a good one. If my plan panned out, I’d have Troy and Libby at my mercy before noon. Now was not the time to bolt or panic. If I kept it together, by this time tomorrow, I’ll be Mansa Musa rich – courtesy of Tobias Durbridge.

And it couldn’t happen to a nicer guy.

nineteen. Tobey

I stood at my tenth-floor bedroom window, looking out at all the mistakes I’d made and all the regrets to which they’d given birth from the time Callie and I first met.

It’d been a long night, but it was a longer list.