Page 36 of Playing the Game

“Yeah, me too,” Udo replied. “And before you ask, no I don’t know anything concrete. He buzzes around you.”

They were driving past a country pub.

“Sod it,” Udo said. “Let’s have a shandy.”

He stopped in the car park.

“What should I do?” Adam asked.

“I think you ask him out. He doesn’t seem the type to use it against you if it goes wrong.”

Use it against me?

“Maybe I should leave it.”

Udo stopped.

“Come on. You’re buying.”

Adam got out of the car and shut the door. Suddenly the locks went.

He spun round as Udo opened the window.

“What are you doing?”

“No time like the present,” Udo said with a wicked grin. “Call him and say you’re stranded and in distress.”

“Udo!”

Slowly the window closed.

“Good luck,” Udo mouthed.

“Fucking idiot.”

Adam watched Udo reverse then speed away.

Of course, Adam could simply call a cab. Yet the challenge had registered.

It would make for an interesting proposition.

Did he have the courage?

EIGHT

JONAS

Jonas watched Adam and Udo hurry out of the briefing room. Gobsmacked wasn’t a strong enough word.

What the fuck did he mean by that?

Adam’s words had floored him.

“Hey,” Noah said. “Are you coming home?”

They had travelled together because it seemed ridiculous to leave separately. Tito had taken some convincing. His car stuck out like a sore thumb in Brockton. Something Jonas suspected had been the primary motivation for Tito buying it. He’d christened the vehicle theLopes Cock Magnet.

“Yeah,” Jonas said.