Free Killing You Softly by Lucy Carver Page B

of the trouble I had with my pronunciation when I first
talked to Jack. I lose vowels and run words together so I sound pissed – totally nerves related.
    ‘Yes. Bruno teaches me guitar and singing.’
    I snuck a look at Marco’s hands – his fingers were long, definitely a guitar player’s hands. ‘Oh. Eug’nie h’s s’nging l’ssons w’th h’m
too.’ Stop, stop before you make even more of a fool of yourself!
    ‘So, anyway, the football team,’ Jack broke in to save me more embarrassment.
    Marco ignored him and carried on holding a private conversation with me. ‘Yeah, I know Eugenie and Galina. We spent the summer together in Monte Carlo. Actually, I ran into Eugenie at
Christmas.’
    ‘She didn’t say.’
    ‘At a party. I was in London, staying at my cousin’s house. Then I came here to check out the school for myself. I thought, yeah, I can live here for a while, why not?’
    ‘And h’re y’are!’ I burbled.
    This could have gone on for ages – Marco chatting, me slurring, Jack impatient – if we hadn’t been rudely interrupted by Galina.
    She burst out of the Squinting Cat, leaving the door open and shouting over her shoulder.
    ‘My new roommate,’ I warned Jack. ‘Prepare for blast off.’
    ‘Leave me!’ Galina yelled at Mikhail, who was in hot pursuit. ‘I tell my father what you do!’ The rest was in Russian as she sprinted towards us.
    The bodyguard started off in a hurry, but he slowed down when he saw us, his eyes still trained on Galina when she veered off across the road towards the churchyard. It was dark, remember, but
the street lamps were on, casting pools of light on the snowy pavements.
    Something about the situation – beautiful girl running away from thickset man in suit and tie – kicked us into action. Even though the guy was employed by Galina’s dad, we felt
we couldn’t stand by and let it happen.
    ‘Back off, buddy.’ Jack stood in Mikhail’s way as Galina’s minder tried to cross the road.
    Mikhail sidestepped Jack and followed Galina.
    I quickly followed her under the lych gate. ‘Hold on,’ I said. ‘Tell me what’s happening.’
    Marco meanwhile took direct action. He ran right at Mikhail’ intercepting him outside the churchyard and barring his way.
    ‘Galina, come back!’ I shouted.
    Either she didn’t hear me or she did and chose to ignore me. She went on running, stumbling and staggering up the path towards the church porch. I followed and found her sobbing, sitting
on a stone bench, hiding her face in her hands.
    Out on the road, Marco took a swing at Mikhail who sidestepped again and blundered into Jack, the whole thing happening almost in slow motion in a pool of orange light.
    ‘Galina, look at me!’ I knelt beside her and eased her hands down. Then I gasped. There was a cut on her bottom lip and a trickle of blood down her chin. ‘How did that
happen?’
    ‘He did it,’ she sobbed. ‘Mikhail, he did this.’
    ‘In the cafe?’
    ‘No. Outside the village, on small road. I run away.’
    ‘And he came after you? OK, I get it. He caught up with you and tried to stop you – that’s his job. You stumbled, you got this cut, right?’
    Back on the street, Jack and Marco grappled with Mikhail. Eventually Jack wrestled him to the ground and Marco put a foot firmly on his chest.
    Galina shook her head. ‘Not an accident. He punches me.’ She touched the bleeding cut with trembling fingertips. ‘He tries to kidnap me.’
    ‘No, hang on, that can’t be right. What do you mean, he tried to kidnap you?’
    ‘I tell truth. I take walk in school grounds, by lake into woods and he follows me. He wants to snatch me and take me away.’
    ‘Are you sure?’ Was this drama queen Galina hatching a plot to get rid of her bodyguards, or was it for real?
    ‘I am scared, but I escape. I run to village and hide in cafe.’
    ‘But he followed you?’ Whether or not he was a kidnapper after a big ransom from the Radkins, it was clear that