Losing Lila Read Free Page A

crucifix.
    ‘I’m so going to hell,’ I said, looking around.
    ‘Well, I’m going with you,’ Alex replied.
    He pulled the sleeve of his T-shirt up once more and I watched in horror as he ran the blade quickly through a candle flame before pressing the tip of it into the skin of his arm.
    ‘Oh God.’ I leaned against the door, feeling suddenly woozy, but unable to take my eyes off the knife.
    Blood started to trickle down Alex’s arm. He grimaced, and I grabbed a long scarf thing hanging on a hook behind me and handed it to him. Alex held the knife out towards me. On its bloody tip was a tiny metal ball.
    ‘That’s it?’ I asked.
    ‘Yep,’ he said, flipping the knife and letting the ball fall to the flagstones at his feet. He crushed it underfoot before grabbing the cloth out of my hands and wrapping it round his arm, tying it in a knot.
    ‘Right, let’s go,’ he said when he was done.
    We ran again, through doorways, beneath arches and through empty rooms, until we reached a heavy wooden door that came out at the side of the cathedral. The sun was starting to go down and the shadows were lengthening, spiking the square with oblongs and pyramids of dark.
    We hung there, in the shadows, waiting. Alex pressed against me, sheltering me against the wall. After a minute he shifted position. ‘Here they come,’ he said under his breath.
    I peered out from under his arm, spotting the men from the Unit as they came running out of the cathedral, like spiders disgorged from a nest. They scanned the square, searching for us, people scattering in panic out of their path. The one holding the black device in his hand was frowning and shaking his head.
    We watched as they headed over to a black van that had pulled up on the far side of the square, and climbed inside. After another minute it drove off and disappeared into the flow of traffic.
    ‘Where to now?’ I asked Alex, feeling suddenly like I needed to lie down.
    ‘Back to the hotel. We need that bag. It’s got all our money in it.’
    Technically it wasn’t really our money. It was the money we’d got from selling Jack’s car back in California. But it was all we had and we were going to need every cent of what was left to get ourselves out of here to somewhere the Unit couldn’t find us.
    ‘Are you sure it’s a good idea to go back to the hotel? Won’t they look for us there?’
    He shook his head. ‘They’d assume we wouldn’t be that stupid. It’s probably the safest place to go right now.’
    I sighed. ‘OK. So we go back and get the bag and then what? Find somewhere else to sleep?’
    ‘No. No sleeping. We have one more thing to do tonight.’
    I studied his face. He looked grim. I was guessing the one more thing wasn’t a candlelit dinner and a movie.

2
    We’d retrieved the bag from the cleaning closet and broken into an empty room on the top floor of the hotel, with a view of the street below. Alex was now busy sorting through the bag, laying everything out on the bed next to me. I was watching him. There was about fifty thousand dollars, give or take a few thousand; three guns; several clips of bullets; our passports; and a change of clothes for both of us. Alex repacked everything, emptying a pile of dollars into his wallet. We’d fixed up his arm with some surgical tape and a bandage. I reached out a hand and stroked up his arm. He stopped what he was doing and looked down at me. Then he pushed the bag aside and lay down on the bed, putting his uninjured arm round me. I curled into him.
    ‘How are you doing?’
    I didn’t answer. How was I doing? I wasn’t sure. I tried prodding my brain like it was flesh and I could feel where the bruises were, but it didn’t work like that. It just shut down like a clam wherever I poked it. I was trying not to think about anything else other than Alex right here, next to me, holding me.
    ‘He’ll be OK, Lila.’
    Jack. He meant Jack.
    ‘Hey, don’t cry.’
    I hadn’t realised I was, but tears