Page 106 of Tell No One
“Too far for you to run to.”
Tag changed the subject. “What’s the routine?”
“Tell him, Sonny.”
“We wake at six. Then we shower and have breakfast. Training then playtime. We have lunch and then more training and playtime before it’s time for dinner and bath time and bed. But we can swim tomorrow.”
“Don’t you go outside?”
“Sometimes as a special treat if I’ve been good. But it’s cold here.”
Tag thought Ahsan sounded wrong, subdued and sort of child-like. Maybe that was what they wanted.
When they’d finished eating, they put their dirty plates on the trolley.
“Bath time,” Lincoln said. “Show Tag the way.”
Ahsan took Tag’s hand and tugged him from the room and up the stairs. He squeezed his hand hard and pressed his thumb into the centre of Tag’s palm a few times. If it was a message, Tag didn’t know what it meant.
His clothes and backpack had been put on a chair in the room and he guessed this was where he was going to sleep. It was a big bed with old-fashioned furniture and old paintings on the wall. Ahsan led him through another door into a large bathroom with stone walls but everything in there was modern, including the large tub. Lincoln started the water running. Ahsan picked two towels from the rack and dropped them down next to the bath, then cleaned his teeth.
Tag noticed his toilet bag was on a shelf next to the sink. Someone had been through his backpack. He cleaned his teeth too. He’d been a little kid the last time he’d had a bath, but when Lincoln told them to get in, Tag climbed in and sat down opposite Ahsan. There was enough room for them both to have their legs out straight. Tag felt sleepy and he wasn’t sure why. Could be the drop in adrenaline or maybe the food or orange drink had been spiked.
He watched as Lincoln washed Ahsan, carefully cleaning all of him.Reallyall of him. When he’d shampooed and rinsed Ahsan’s hair, he turned to Tag.
“Give me your arm.”
Tag sighed but did as he was told. He felt numb as Lincoln worked on him. He could see Lincoln was hard but Tag wasn’t. Ahsan hadn’t been either. It was impossible to relax. Tag was convinced the guy was going to rape him or force him to give him a blowjob, but he didn’t. Lincoln dried them both, then put them in bed together naked.
“No playing, pups. Straight to sleep.”
Tag hadn’t intended to fall straight to sleep, but he felt his eyes closing and there was nothing he could do.
16
Delaney was eating breakfast when his phone rang. He’d spent the night at a hotel close to London City Airport as a precaution, in case he was followed. His taxi was due in ten minutes.
“We’ve had a stroke of luck,” Henry said. “The tracker in Tag’s shoe is still active and we’ve been able to close in on his whereabouts. Inverness-shire. Cairnluith Castle is the only habitable dwelling within the triangulation. Owned by an offshore company but we’ve traced it back to a name that we’ve seen in the data you downloaded from Norbury’s computer. The team are on their way.”
Delaney was relieved that that tracker hadn’t been found. “You’re assuming it will all happen there. We might be whisked away by helicopter to some more remote location.”
“It’ll happen there. He owns eighty thousand acres and hunting rights. Not the sort of hunting he plans for the glorious twelfth, but I think that’s going to be the day it happens. An even number and a day when many will be out shooting.”
Delaney sighed.
“We’ll know the place for sure if flight plans are filed for Inverness. You might well be transported by helicopter from the airport. Do you have everything you need?”
“Yes.” He hoped. “Henry?”
“What is it? Something we’ve not thought of?”
“Barker isn’t going to fuck this up, is he?”
“He better not. What is it between the pair of you?”
“I think he sees himself as your successor and has some mistaken belief that you might have me in mind for that. I’m not interested, but Barker seems unable to believe that.”
“He would not be my choice. You would.”
