Acid on her tongue, Sophia opened the door. Eddie glanced through. The corridor was clear. ‘I came out of the experience rather worse off than he did.’
‘I broke a rib and punctured a lung!’ Eddie objected.
‘And I lost half my fucking hand!’ With a genuine flare of anger, she tugged off her left glove – revealing that a chunk the size of a large bite was missing from the edge of her palm, replaced, along with the two fingers above it, by a waxy prosthesis attached with an elastic strap. ‘It got torn off on a rock, and before I even had time to realise what had happened I hit another one – face-first.’ She turned the injured side of her face to them. Even after surgery to repair it, the scar was still ragged and deep. Despite her loathing for Sophia, Nina couldn’t help feeling a pang of sympathy.
But only a pang. The Englishwoman was a ruthless multiple murderer, killing without a qualm anyone who threatened to obstruct her goals. Both Nina and Eddie had been in her sights on more than one occasion. ‘Well, sorry to hear that,’ she said lamely. ‘Okay, let’s go.’
Eddie was tempted to make some tasteless hand-themed joke, but restrained himself. Like Nina he had found the sight shocking, though for different reasons. Sophia had been his wife, after all, and to see the face he had known so well ravaged by injury was unsettling.
Scar aside, though, it was not quite as he remembered. ‘Who arranged for the plastic surgery?’ he asked as Sophia put the glove back on and went through the door. He followed, keeping the gun fixed on her back; Nina cautiously took up the rear with the Glock at the ready. ‘Glas, I’m assuming.’
‘Yes,’ said Sophia, hands raised as she led them down the passage. ‘I knew him before I met you again in New York.’
‘When you say you “knew” him . . .’ said Nina suspiciously.
Sophia blew out an exasperated breath. ‘I seem to have acquired a reputation as a woman who sleeps with every wealthy and powerful man she meets.’
‘Oh, I wonder why?’ Eddie muttered.
‘But yes, I did.’
‘I might have bloody known!’
‘It was after my father died, and the jackals in the City stripped every last morsel of flesh from his company’s bones to leave me with nothing. I still had my title, so – to be bluntly mercenary about it – I was looking for a man with resources I could use to get my revenge. Harald was one potential suitor, as it were.’
Eddie made a disgusted sound. ‘Along with René Corvus, Richard Yuen, Victor Dalton . . .’
‘He wasn’t the best choice at the time, I’ll be frank. But he was still infatuated with me.’
‘What man wouldn’t be?’ Nina said sarcastically. ‘I mean, on average there’s only a fifty per cent chance that you’ll kill them.’
‘It’s not even close to fifty per cent,’ Sophia replied, irked at the accusation. ‘I didn’t kill Gabriel Ribbsley. Or Joe Komosa, or—’
‘Enough, Jesus!’ Eddie cut in. ‘I don’t need to hear the fucking list. The literal fucking list.’
She gave him a small cat-like smile, pleased to have needled him once more. ‘But anyway, I managed to drag myself out of the lake not far from the waterfall and broke into a nearby house. I didn’t know whom to call at first, but then I remembered that Harald had a residence in Switzerland for tax reasons. I had no idea whether or not he would actually be there, but as it turned out, he was.’
‘So he came and rescued you,’ said Nina. ‘Even knowing what you’d done – that you tried to nuke New York?’
‘The human heart is a very forgiving thing.’
‘Like you’d know,’ Eddie scoffed.
‘Cynicism is so unattractive in a man, Eddie. Up here.’ They reached a flight of stairs to the next deck. Eddie checked the passage and nearby doorways, but so far it appeared that Glas had been true to his word and ordered the crew to stay out of their way. They ascended. ‘But he got me medical treatment, without telling the authorities that I was still alive, and then for a while I was his . . .’ She hesitated, as if her mouth had suddenly gone dry. ‘His guest. But,’ she continued, brushing the odd pause aside, ‘you know me, I do dislike being out of the loop. So I persuaded Harald to let me get more involved in his work. Which is when I