The Long Fix Forever by Anton Lindbak

Author:Anton Lindbak [Lindbak, Anton]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Cold Bird Books
Published: 2019-11-26T22:00:00+00:00

SEVENTEEN

I was on my feet and approaching the bar within seconds, with Petite closely following. Bruno was the first to see me and stopped at the bar to watch my approach. A small smirk emerged across his face, and he looked confident and ready. Tom, on the other hand, dropped from stressed to panic as his facial expression turned to fear. Pale faced, he started to back off, then turned and ran out of the bar. That was something Bruno hadn’t counted on, and his confident smirk quickly vanished.

“You fool, where're you going?” he barked after the panic-stricken, fleeing Tom.

In a deliberate move, I stepped right up to Bruno’s face just as he turned back round.

“Big man! You want to step back.” Bruno ordered: he was accustomed to people following his commands. A gust of rank breath hit me in the face – his mint wasn’t working. His eyes were alit with anger and ruthlessness. I wasn’t intimidated; my eyes too were alit with anger. There could be two to tango if necessary.

“What're you playing at Bruno?” I snarled between clenched teeth.

The smirk on his face had made me furious, and the temptation to dish out some hurt was overwhelming. Instead, I forced myself to let it slide, and without waiting for an answer I hurried past him, knocking him to the side with my shoulder. Bruno cursed me vividly as he fought to remain standing, having to grab the bar to do so. I ignored him. More than anything I wanted a word with Tom just now. His hasty retreat was interesting. They must have known there would be a good chance I'd be here. Yet they came. Maybe they had been told I was here and had come armed with a plan of some sort. Whatever it was, I bet Bruno hadn’t banked on Tom losing his bottle and fleeing with such speed. It looked like Bruno’s plan had fallen apart, which was good news for me if I could get hold of Tom. I would get back to Bruno.

I ran out of the front door and saw Tom legging it down the street with impressive speed. Just in the periphery of my vision I noticed a car parked by the kerb on the other side of the street. There was somebody in it, but it didn’t move, so I chose to ignore it. I gave chase after Tom, and rather quickly realised that he was faster and fitter than me.

It was Sunday afternoon, Edinburgh festival time, and even though the streets were thick with people, that didn’t slow Tom down much. He slalomed through the slow-moving mass of Edinburgh humanity – natives, visitors and tourists in equal measure – with surprising agility. I ran as fast as I could, but the gap was getting bigger. Soon my lungs felt as if they were going to pop out through my mouth. My heart was beating so fast it felt as if it was about to explode. Being injured, and the subsequent time in prison hadn’t done my cardio stamina any favours.

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