As soon as the next train eased to a stop, Quinn wormed his way through the other travelers and entered the opposite end of the same car Nate and Liz had stepped onto. Again he caught his apprentice’s eye. He held two fingers against the support pole, indicating they were only going two stops. At Holborn, Quinn made his way to the westbound Central Line, making sure that Nate never lost sight of him. From there it was a one-stop ride to Tottenham Court Road, then back outside into the gloomy morning.
Quinn waited, tucked into a shallow recess, until Nate and Liz exited, then he moved beside them and said, “This way.”
“Jake?” Liz said.
“Let’s not talk here.”
“How did you know this was where we were going?”
“Liz, please. Just a few minutes more,” he said, then led them to the apartment Orlando had rented on Charlotte Street.
The moment they were inside and the door was closed, Liz said, “Can we talk here? Or am I still supposed to stay quiet?”
“I’m sorry,” Quinn said. “We had to be careful. We couldn’t risk anyone overhearing us.”
“What the hell is going on?” she asked.
“Everything’s all right now,” Nate said. He reached out to touch her on the arm, but this time she pulled away.
“All right? Are you kidding me?” She looked at her brother. “Have you gotten yourself into some kind of trouble? Is that what’s going on?”
“We don’t have time for this right now,” Quinn said. “I have to get back to Orlando.”
“Orlando? Florida?”
Quinn shook his head. “Not the city. Claire.”
“Claire?” Liz said, surprised. “Your girlfriend? She’s mixed up in this, too?”
“We work together.”
“So she’s not your girlfriend?”
“No, she is,” Quinn said. “But we also work — Never mind. That isn’t important.” He was being drawn into a conversation he neither had time for nor wanted. “I needed to make sure you were safe. And now that you are, I have to go make sure you stay that way.”
“Safe? I had men searching through my apartment building for me. Nate got shot at. Julien’s dead, for God’s sake. I even had to come here using a fake passport. Where’s the ‘safe’ in any of that?”
“Listen to me,” Quinn said. “No one can get to you here. No one knows about this place except the three of us and Orlando.”
“You mean Claire,” Liz said, defiant.
“She prefers ‘Orlando.’ ”
“ ‘Claire’ is actually kind of nice,” Nate said.
“Shut up, Nate,” Quinn said.
“Don’t tell him to shut up,” Liz said.
Quinn took a deep breath and tried to say calm. “Liz, please. We can talk about all this later.”
“So you can tell me another lie? No thanks, Jake. You can live in whatever kind of world you’ve created. I don’t care. I don’t care if we never talk again. I don’t need you. I’m getting out of here.”
She started to turn toward the door, but he grabbed her by the arms. She tried to pull away, but he held on.
“I’m trying to protect you.”
“Like you’ve protected me all these years since you left home?” she yelled, tears welling in her eyes. “I just want you to disappear. I don’t need you.”
Quinn closed his eyes for a second, then looked at her again. “Until I make sure the threat is over, you need to stay here. After that, I promise, you never have to deal with me again.”
She stared at him, her shoulders moving up and down with each breath. “Fine,” she said. She tried to pull away again, but he didn’t let go. “Do you mind?”
“You’ll stay in this apartment until I tell you you can go?” he asked.
“I already said I would.”
“Even if we have to leave you here alone sometimes?”
Her eyes darted away from his. “Sure.”
“Liz, I’m serious. I might need Nate, and that means you’ll be here by yourself. But if you think you can use it as an opportunity to sneak out, then our deal is off, and you’ll never be rid of me. You understand?”
They stared at each other for several seconds. “I understand,” she finally said. “I assume it’s okay if I use the bathroom, or is that off-limits, too?”
He let go of her arms. “Down the hallway,” he said, pointing behind him.
She brushed past him and disappeared into the hallway. Once he heard the bathroom door shut, he turned to Nate.
“Don’t you ever do that again,” he said.
“What?” Nate asked.
“Get between me and my sister.”
“I was just trying to lighten the mood. I thought you were going to rip each other apart.”
“I don’t care what you were trying to do. Your job is to make sure Liz is safe, and that’s all!”
Nate’s eyes narrowed, his face hardening. “That’s exactly what I’ve been doing!” Tension filled the space between them for another moment, then, in a calmer voice, Nate asked, “Do you want to know what happened this morning?”
“Yes. Of course,” Quinn said. “What happened?”
Nate told him about the failed meeting with Julien and the subsequent encounter with the men Julien had been pretending to work with.
“How much does Liz know?” Quinn asked, shooting a glance toward the hallway, expecting his sister to reappear at any second.
“Only that Julien is dead, and that there were some gunshots. She doesn’t know I killed them. Not for sure, anyway.”
“About me, I mean.”
“She knows you don’t work in banking. And that I work for you. She asked a lot of questions, but I told her she would have to get details from you.”
“Okay. Good,” Quinn said. It was the best he could hope for. “Any other problems after your encounter this morning?”
Nate shook his head.
“I need to get back to Orlando,” Quinn said. “You stay here for now.”
“Have you found out who sent the men to Paris?”
“Not yet. But we’ve got a pretty good idea who he is.” He looked around the room like he’d set something down and couldn’t remember where it was. “There’s no food in the kitchen. You’ll have to go out and get some. But only you. Liz isn’t to leave.”
“Got it.”
“I’ll check in later.”
“Okay.”
Quinn took a few steps toward the front door, then stopped and looked back in the direction of the bathroom. Liz still hadn’t come out.
He started to open his mouth, then paused, and turned back to the front door. “Call me if there’s a problem.”
He pulled the door open and left.
Chapter 40
“Where are you?” Orlando asked.
“I just got off the subway,” Quinn said into his phone. “I should be back to you in five.”
“All right. I’ll prop the door open. But knock once before you walk in.”
Quinn was instantly alert. “What’s going on?”
“You’ll see when you get here.”
He hesitated, then said, “Orlando. How are things?” It was their code phrase. If she didn’t answer correctly, he’d know she was not in control of her situation.
“Things are things,” she said.
The I’m-okay response. He relaxed.
“But …” She stopped. “Just hurry up.”
Quinn made it to the Silvain Hotel in two minutes and all but ran up the stairs to his room. The door was propped open by the deadbolt.
He knocked once.
“Come on in,” Orlando said.
The first thing he saw as he pushed the door open was Orlando standing in front of the television. She’d been armed only with a hairbrush when he’d left her, but now she was holding a gun in each hand, and was facing the bed.