Relentless (Benson Security 2)

“Juan Pablo de Santos.”

“The mummy is in Bolivia?” Patricia was outraged.

The look Marcus shot her was smug and nasty. “If he still has it. You know how fast he likes to sell things on, especially seeing as it was wrapped in a priceless treasure map.” The idiot actually laughed.

“You plan to deal with this asshole?” Ed seemed to have lost all humour.

“Oh, yeah,” Joe said.

“Then we’ll be in the bar.” Ed hooked his arm around Patricia’s waist and steered her into the building as she struggled and shouted at Marcus.

Marcus shifted nervously, squirming in his seat. “Are we finished?”

Joe hung his head for a second. “Oh yeah, we’re done.” And in a move too fast for Julia to track, he punched Marcus on the jaw. He slumped in his seat, out cold.

From the doorway into the bar, Patricia clapped. “He is the best! I love him. You should definitely keep him.”

“I could have done that,” Ed grumbled.

Julia wasn’t paying attention. She was staring at Joe, who had propped Marcus up against the seat to make it look like was sleeping. Then he took Marcus’ wallet out of the inside pocket of his tweed jacket and pulled out his credit card. He replaced the wallet before grabbing Julia’s hand. Pulling her along behind him, he headed back into the bar. Julia was still staring at the unconscious man and wondering if she should do something. What, though, she didn’t know.

Joe tossed the stolen credit card onto the bar as they passed it. “I got some great news,” he announced to the room. “Food and drink are on me for the rest of the evening. Enjoy.”

There were cheers and a distinctly undistinguished stampede for the bar. As they pushed their way to the front door, one of the bartenders intercepted them. He was huge, muscled like a rugby player, with close-cropped hair.

“That card doesn’t belong to you.” He had an Australian accent.

Julia froze as Joe seemed to increase in size. “You got a problem with that?” His tone was low and mean.

A slow smile lit up the bartender’s face. “Hell no. But I thought you’d like to know that your friends caught some attention during their party last week.”

“What kind of attention?” Joe said.

“The kind you don’t want to attract. Know what I mean?”

Joe nodded. “I still need a name.”

The guy looked around before lowering his voice. “There was a dinner meeting going on. Bunch of lieutenants in Esteban’s army.”

Julia didn’t recognise the name, but Joe clearly did. Every muscle in his body grew tense. “Carlos Esteban.”

The guy nodded.

“They show any interest in the topic of conversation coming from the partiers?”

“A whole heap of interest.” The bartender took a step closer. He cocked his head at Patricia. “The MILF announced to the room that she’d cracked the Incan code on some mummy wrapping. She said it’d lead to a pot of gold. She announced that she’d be famous, rich and the best mummy hunter on the planet.” His lip quirked. “She planned to donate it all to a museum, but she wanted a statue in central London for her efforts. She wanted Michelangelo to carve it, which shows you how trashed she was. That dude died a long time ago.”

“She might as well have painted a target on her forehead.”

“Sorry, man, I would have stopped it if I’d known it was real. I thought she was a nutty tourist.” He looked down at the stolen credit card and then back at Joe. “Does the arsehole need a doctor?”

“Not this time. You might want to advise him to head stateside when he wakes up.”

“Will do. In the meantime, I’ll make sure this card gets a good workout.”

“Thanks, man.”

“Anytime.” The guy turned, then looked back over his shoulder. “You need help, call here and ask for Michael.”