Relentless (Benson Security 2)

“No I’m not!” And she was seriously getting annoyed that no one would listen to her. “I know what I’m talking about. He’ll get fed up with my weird personality and he’ll hurt me. Why am I the only one who sees that?”

Ryan, Elle, Alice and Patricia shared a look before they all said at the same time, “Because you’re talking rubbish, dear.”

Ryan burst into laughter and Julia threw up her hands in disgust. There was no talking to any of them. They were all as pig-headed as Joe.

Alice smiled at Elle. “I can’t thank you enough for coming for me.”

“Anytime,” Elle said with a smile that was quickly replaced by horror. “I mean…”

“I know what you mean.” Alice smiled back. “And I will definitely call Benson Security next time I need rescuing.”

“There won’t be a next time,” Patricia said. “We’re going home to live staid lives, like two old biddies should do.”

Alice gaped at her friend. “What about the treasure?”

“To hell with it! Look at the trouble it’s caused.”

“Exactly,” Alice said. “I lost a finger over it.” She held up her bandaged hand. “The least I should get in return is some Incan gold.”

“What happened to giving away the treasure and publishing a paper on reading Incan textiles?” Julia asked.

Alice waved her undamaged hand. “That was before I was butchered. I liked that finger. It was thinner than the rest and it had a nice nail. Now I have a gap in my hand where it used to be and I’ll never be able to look at garden shears again. In fact”—she turned to Patricia—“when I get home, I’m putting the house on the market and buying a flat on the Thames. One that doesn’t have a garden. But that’s beside the point. I need the treasure money to buy a new finger. I want one of those bionic ones I saw on TV.”

“You saw bionic fingers on TV?” Ryan could barely keep the laughter out of his voice.

“It’s a computerised prosthetic,” Alice told him, managing to look haughty even in her bedraggled state. “It connects with the nerves and takes messages from the brain. And it comes in an assortment of colours.” She looked back at Patricia. “I want blue, like Elle’s hair.”

“Now that sounds like a fun replacement for your missing digit,” Patricia said, with her eyes on Callum as he whispered with Joe in the corner of the room. She turned back to Alice. “How about we talk this over after you’ve had a shower? You smell like the city dump.”

She got to her feet and helped Alice up with her.

“You’d smell too if you’d been living in a cell for about a million years. I had to pee in a bucket. Do you know how easy it is to miss the damn thing? My knees aren’t up to squatting all the time. There were days when I got into position and thought I’d never get out. Don’t even get me started on my bowels. I think I have hysterical constipation. You know, like hysterical blindness, where people go blind due to stress. Well, my bowels stopped working for the same reason.”

“I really don’t need to hear ab

out your bowels,” Patricia said as she held open the door to the room she was sharing with Alice.

“You’ll be hearing all about it in the middle of the night if we don’t get it sorted now.” Alice looked over her shoulder at Julia. “Julia, pet, can you order some prunes? And laxatives. And papaya juice.”

“Papaya juice is for an upset stomach,” Patricia said.

“You think my stomach isn’t upset?” Alice said as the door closed on the two of them.

There was a moment of silence before Ryan said, “I need to get them together with my granddad and his brother. All they talk about is their bad hips and their toilet problems.”

“If that’s me in forty years,” Elle said, “shoot me.”

Once Patricia and Alice had disappeared into their room, Joe and Callum joined the rest of them. Joe’s look was a challenge. A dare for Julia to take him seriously. To take a chance on them. Julia looked away. She ached, torn as she was between trusting him and taking a chance, and the fear of being devastated all over again. Because she knew that getting over Joe Barone would be impossible. If he hurt her, she would remain broken for the rest of her life. How could he expect her to take a chance on that?

Callum positioned his chair in the middle of the room. He was wearing a muscle shirt that flashed biceps, the likes of which should be illegal. But there was still a blanket covering his legs.

“The member of the Lima team who took the copter back to Cusco for us, also took a message to our pilots. They’re going to bring the plane to an old military airfield outside Lima. It’s too risky to fly out of the international airport. Esteban is sure to be watching it. We’ve got about five hours until we need to be at the airport.”

“I checked the surveillance cameras in Cusco,” Elle said. “Esteban and his mini army are still there.”

“That doesn’t mean we should relax,” Callum said. “Esteban has people everywhere.” He looked at his team. “You did a good job—now get some sleep while you can.”

“And showers,” Elle said.