Trey sat huddled in the corner of the passenger seat furthest away from me, his eyes wide and blank with shock. I knew I should do something to reassure him, but for the life of me I couldn’t think what.
“Put your seatbelt on,” I said instead, calmly. He threw me a disbelieving glance, but buckled up without demur. Shit, he really is frightened.
I followed the signs for the freeway doing my best not to exceed the posted speed limit. No cars seemed to be making an effort to get close to us. Still, I didn’t start to breathe again until we were on I-95 heading away from Fort Pierce, south towards Fort Lauderdale.
It was only then, as my heartbeat finally began to settle and my brain started to come out of survival mode, that the question returned of where I’d seen Oakley man before. It lurked brooding at the back of my mind, an itch I couldn’t scratch.
I pulled the mobile phone they’d given me out of my pocket, noticing for the first time the blood on my bare forearms, and I remembered again the woman who’d been shot in front of us. I glanced down and saw that her blood was all over the front of my pale fawn polo shirt as well, a livid splash of colour already turning dark as it dried. Trey had a few flecks, but I’d caught the brunt of it and looked like an extra from a Tarantino flick. No wonder he’d been unnaturally co-operative.
I hit the speed-dial for the house. Whitmarsh was in charge of house security and he was going to go ape-shit. But that was nothing to what my boss, Sean was going to do when he found out my low-risk babysitting job had ended in a full-scale assault. The fact that, technically, Whitmarsh had authority over Sean would make very little difference.
The Pelzners’ home number rang without reply, the endless long burr of the US phone system. I let it ring until it clicked off, then tried it again, checking carefully that I’d punched in the right number. I steered with one hand, flicking my eyes from the phone to the road. There was no mistake.
I tried Sean’s own personal mobile, but all I got was a recorded message telling me the number I was calling was switched off. I knew that the house was never empty and my boss never had his phone off without leaving it on divert or answering machine.
Right there, in a big car on a big stretch of open road in a big country, I suddenly began to feel very small, and very lonely.
And then, because I’d pushed it to some peripheral part of my brain, my mental retrieval system finally connected and spat out the information I’d been searching for. I remembered exactly where I’d seen Oakley man before and I wished to God that I hadn’t.
It was just about this time I realised how much trouble we were really in.
ROAD KILL
Charlie Fox book five
by Zoë Sharp
“If you stay involved with Sean Meyer you will end up killing again,” my father said. “And next time, Charlotte, you might not get away with it.”
Still bearing the emotional scars from her traumatic first bodyguarding job in the States, Charlie Fox returns to her former home to try and work out both her personal and professional future.
Instead of the peace for which she's been hoping, Charlie is immediately caught up in the aftermath of a fatal bike crash involving one of her closest friends. The more she probes, the more she suspects that the accident was far from accidental – and the more she finds herself relying on the support of her troubled boss, Sean Meyer, despite her misgivings over the wisdom of resuming their relationship.
And Charlie's got enough on her plate trying to work out who suddenly wants her dead. The only way to find out is to infiltrate a group of illegal road racers who appear hell-bent on living fast and dying young.
Taking risks is something that ex-Special Forces soldier Charlie knows all about, but doing it just for kicks seems like asking for trouble. By the time she finds out what's really at stake, she might be too late to stop them all becoming road kill . . .
‘After the traumatic events that took place in First Drop, Charlie Fox is back in England to recuperate. But then an old friend is seriously injured after a motorbike accident (that kills the driver) and Charlie's lethal instincts kick in to find out what the real story is, and who the true target was. It's really quite impossible to put this book down, but what really makes this (and the whole series) shine is how Charlie's kickass skills are rooted in her own femininity and character. So why might this not be published in the US? "Too British." More like too bad if it proves to be the case.’ Sarah Weinman, Confessions of an Idiosyncratic Mind
SECOND SHOT
Charlie Fox book six
by Zoë Sharp
'Take it from me, getting yourself shot hurts like hell.'
When the latest assignment of ex-Special Forces soldier turned bodyguard, Charlie Fox, ends in a bloody shoot-out in a frozen forest in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, she's left fighting for her life, with her client dead.
Simone had just become a lottery millionairess but she never lived long enough to enjoy her newfound riches. Charlie was supposed to be keeping Simone's troublesome ex-boyfriend at bay and accompanying her on a trip to New England to track down the father Simone had never really known. A relatively low-risk job.
But Simone's former SAS father has secrets in his past that are about to come back and haunt him, and the arrival of his long-lost daughter may be the catalyst that blows his whole world apart. Was the prospect of getting hold of Simone's money tempting enough to make him engineer her death? And what happens now to Simone's baby daughter, Ella?
With Simone gone, Ella's safety becomes Charlie's main concern. She's determined, despite her injuries, not to let anything happen to the child. But the closer Charlie gets to the truth, the bigger threat she becomes. Only, this time she's in no fit state to protect anyone, least of all herself . . .
‘James Bond, watch your back. There’s a tough new breed of British muscle on the block, and her name is Fox, Charlie Fox. A former British Army soldier (and survivor of a brutal gang rape), Charlie now earns her living guarding others, a duty that has a nasty habit of putting her in harm’s way. Her latest assignment is no exception. She’s protecting beautiful British engineer (and recent lottery winner) Simone and her four-year-old daughter from an obsessed ex-boyfriend. She’s also helping Simone search for her long-lost father. The trio travels to New England to follow leads on Simone’s dad. (Charlie also figures they’ll be safer there, a good distance from the ex-boyfriend.) Trouble ensues soon after arrival, when charismatic Greg Lucas claims he’s Simone’s father. (Is Lucas really her flesh and blood, or does he just want her money to bail himself out of a precarious financial situation?) Two bullets add wounds to Charlie’s scar repertoire, but even in a weakened condition, the gutsy twenty something is undeterred. British novelist Sharp’s second thriller to appear in the US (after First Drop, in 2005) crackles with suspense, showcasing crisp prose, plenty of plot twists, and a heroine who adds new meaning to the term femme fatale.’ Booklist starred review
THIRD STRIKE