Losing Lila Read Online Free PDF Page B

smoke.
    ‘How long?’ Alex asked.
    ‘I assume you want express delivery – so let’s say twenty-four hours. You got photos? Names – you don’t get to choose. You get what we give you, what we got in stock, but they’ll be American passports. Real nice. You’ll have no trouble.’
    Alex reached into his back pocket and pulled out an envelope. It had passport photos of both of us in it, taken just a few hours ago down in a metro station. He counted out five thousand dollars in hundred dollar bills and placed them on the table. Carlos checked it was all there. Then he said something to one of his men, the one with the naked woman writhing with a snake tattooed on his chest, and he came and took the money and photographs and disappeared through the internal door.
    ‘Tomorrow, we deliver to you.’
    ‘Midnight, at the McDonalds near the cathedral,’ Alex said, standing and pushing back his chair. I followed suit, glancing nervously at the internal door – how did we know they’d actually do it and not just take the money? I really didn’t want to have to come back and ask them to return our five thousand dollars.
    ‘You not going to stay?’ Carlos asked me. ‘Have another drink.’
    ‘No, we’re good, thanks,’ I answered, taking Alex’s hand and edging back towards the door. ‘We should be going.’
    ‘OK, OK, I see that you two have a thing going on. You’re a lucky man, Mr American.’
    Alex didn’t say anything. I turned to the door. The man who looked like a giant pork joint was unbolting it – slowly. The other man said something to Carlos in Spanish and Alex’s grip on my hand tightened as he pulled me closer towards him, his eyes planted firmly on the door, which still hadn’t been opened.
    A harsh laugh burst in my ear and stinking breath lapped my face. I screamed as a strong hand grabbed hold of me from behind, fingers digging into my waist, trying to pry me free from Alex’s grip. Alex shouted something and distantly I heard the scrape of metal, but before anyone could make a move I’d spun the guy with the snake tattoo off me and launched him halfway across the room. He went crashing into the far wall head first, before slumping to the ground. He moaned and rolled onto his side, clutching his head in his hands, blood trickling between the gaps in his fingers. Uh-oh . I couldn’t meet Alex’s eye. I wasn’t sure if he’d agree that what had just happened had constituted absolutely necessary.
    Instead I turned to Carlos. He was staring at me, unblinking, his shot glass dangling precariously in his hand.
    ‘Please tell your friend to get out of the way,’ I said, indicating the enormous man behind us who was barring the door. ‘I don’t want to hurt him.’
    Carlos studied me for a moment and the room fell ominously silent. Even the guy on the floor stopped moaning. Then Carlos threw back his head and started laughing like a madman, his fists hammering the table.
    ‘You want a job?’ he asked me when he had finally pulled himself together and wiped the tears from his eyes.
    I weighed my response carefully. ‘No thanks.’
    He shifted his gaze to Alex. ‘I see why you brought her,’ he said, nodding approval. ‘She’s a good bodyguard.’
    ‘Yeah,’ Alex said, smiling tightly, ‘she’s pretty ninja. You don’t want to get on her bad side.’

4
    It took twelve hours, driving just under the speed limit, to make it to the coast – to a place so beautiful it looked like the setting for every suncream advert ever filmed. The white sand, topaz sea and blazing sun were such a contrast to Carlos’s drug den and to Mexico City that it took a while for me to absorb it. I stood with my toes buried in the sand, staring back at the three thatched cottages nestled under a grove of palms, waiting for Alex who’d gone to book us a room. Even through the fog of exhaustion I couldn’t help but look over my shoulder and stare down the deserted beach, convinced that at any moment the