‘Hair extensions,’ she told him.
‘Why didn’t you just keep them? And how did you get them out yourself?’
‘They were an irritation I didn’t need any more. I hacked them off late last night.’
‘With what?’
‘With your kitchen scissors.’
Nick tried and failed to imagine any woman of his acquaintance hacking away happily at their hair with kitchen scissors and shrugging it off dismissively the next day. They stood facing each other for a long moment, Nick shifting from foot to foot, Goodie and Salem both staying so still it was almost unnatural.
‘Right,’ he said, breaking the uncomfortable silence. ‘I’ll be going then … I guess you’ll be coming with me?’ Goodie nodded. ‘Does my car have to endure another doggy assault?’
‘I have to come with you in your vehicle for the moment,sir. The far guard will follow behind but you need cover in close proximity in case you’re separated from the other vehicle. Salem can go with the far guard … if he has to.’ As if understanding her words, and obviously wanting to stick close to Goodie, Salem dropped his head and looked up at Nick with wide, dejected eyes. Nick almost smiled: when it came to putting on an act, the dog was almost as good as his mistress.
Shrugging and telling himself that it was to keep on the good side of a potentially dangerous animal rather than because he was letting Salem’s downtrodden expression get to him, he muttered: ‘Don’t worry about it. He can come with us.’ Goodie signalled for Salem to follow, and the dog’s head shot back up as he started wagging his tail. Nick spun on his heel and strode off down the corridor to the lift.
‘You don’t have to keep lurking behind me you know,’ he said with irritation as he stabbed at the lift button. He was answered by silence.
One thing he did notice on that descent in the lift with Goodie and Salem was how Salem pressed himself into Goodie’s leg when the doors closed and remained there until they opened again. Initially, Nick had thought it was the dog that was terrified of enclosed spaces, but after watching Goodie for the last two weeks he realized that there was more to it than that. Goodie never gave much away, she wore her neutral expression like a mask, but the enclosed space of the lift was the one place he sensed her vulnerability.
Nick was good at spotting people’s weaknesses; nearly as good as he was at spotting innovative, potentially profitable ideas – he’d had to be, in order to turn the business he inherited from his father around and make it into the massive corporation it was now. He noticed how her jaw would flex as if she was gritting her teeth, how her eyes would stare straight ahead and her hand would grip Salem’s fur so tightly her knuckles turned white. Goodie so rarely let anything show that he was guessing the level of fear she experienced in enclosed spaces must have been intense and he wanted to know why.
In fact, over the last two weeks, he had realized that Goodie intrigued him to an unhealthy extent. Maybe it was to do with the fact that she was always with him but somehow managed to remain separate. She no longer slept in front of the door of his flat, having been set up next door along with a boatload of surveillance equipment. The ‘far guard’, Sam, was installed in a flat on the ground floor. But she was there every morning waiting for him when he left, and she either followed or walked in front of him (according to how she had coordinated things with Sam) wherever he went. The few times he’d tried to extract information out of her had not been successful; if she could, she would limit her answers to one word, the fewer syllables the better. He’d even taken to calling her Kevin or Kev to see if he could get a reaction, but … nothing.
Salem was a different matter; Nick was quite proud to have largely won the dog over. This was due in large part to the doggie biscuits he’d taken to carrying round in his trouser pockets and to which Salem was very partial. He’d slipped Salem one last week when Goodie was checking the street outside Clive’s office, and since then he’d found the dog to be a lot more friendly. In fact four days ago Salem had snuck into Nick’s office whilst Goodie was doing her standard interrogation routine with a couple of Nick’s clients (Clive was right – she was literally the least welcoming receptionist in the history of hospitality-based jobs). Nick had seized the opportunity to ply Salem with his beef sandwich, and over the last few days, the dog had taken to spending a large part of the day lying contentedly over Nick’s feet.
This behaviour did afford Nick a glimpse behind Goodie’s cool façade. The first time she’d found Salem in his office, she’d stormed in looking sick with worry, which in itself was a first – facial expression-wise. When Nick had pointed to his feet she’d come round behind the desk and glared down at Salem with her hands on her hips. She then proceeded to admonish him in Russian, at which point Salem had given her his Dejected Doggie routine. Instead of the anger, Nick would have expected, she’d rolled her eyes and smiled down at the dog, saying something much softer in Russian and giving him a quick rub behind the ears. Nick did not know what she’d said; all he knew was that with her guard down and real, genuine expression in voice and features she was a different person; so beautiful it almost hurt to look at her. He saw the exact moment that she realized where she was, and when the blank mask fell back into place he bizarrely felt the most acute sense of loss.
Yes, it was fair to say that for Nick, Goodie was fast becoming a very strange obsession. He shook his head as if to clear it. Clive was right: if Nick wanted to conduct his meeting in a male-only environment then that was his business – Goodie could just suck it up.
‘Okay, I’ll get my shit together and we’ll go,’ Nick told Clive whilst he started shuffling the papers he needed and disconnecting his laptop.
‘No problem,’ Clive said through a self-satisfied smile. ‘I’ll just pop out and get better acquainted with GI Jane out there.’
For some reason the idea of Clive attempting his brand of charm on Goodie made Nick’s head start pounding, and once he had everything he needed he practically ran to the door. He tried to tell himself that it was just because the bastard was supposed to be dating his sister; but he knew there was more to it than that.
* * *
‘Where is she?’Nick hissed at Sam. Clive and the two contractors they were meeting had given up all pretence of small talk and were instead watching the exchange with interest.
Sam folded his huge arms across his chest and stared at Nick. Thankfully, with Nick’s height, they were very nearly eye-to-eye, but when it came to sheer menace there was no competing with this guy. ‘She’s outside the building,sir.’
Nick gritted his teeth; now was not the time to start up the whole name battle again. ‘Why isn’t she bloody wellinside the building? I thoughtyouwere the far guard.’
Sam studied him for a moment. ‘This is a men’s club, sir. For obvious reasons she wouldn’t be admitted.’
Nick threw up his hands. ‘There’s an area for women, for Christ’s sake. Why can’t she just wait in there?’
‘We need eyes on you. This seemed an easy way to achieve that.’
‘Well, why isn’t Salem with her?’
‘It appears, sir, that this establishment will admit dogs but not women to some of its areas. Salem is part of your protection team, therefore he stays as close to you as possible.’
‘But what about Goodie?’ Nick almost shouted, and Sam raised a thick eyebrow.
‘What about her?’
