“Do what he wants. Wear what he wants. Share his bed. Swim in the pool.”
“Just one guy?”
Norbury nodded.
Tag pretended to think about it. Then took a risk. “The Russian?”
“If it was, would you say yes?”
Tag sighed. “As long as he doesn’t share me.” Then he put a worried look on his face. “He’s probably pissed off that I ran away. I might have picked his pocket only there’s no point him asking for the money back because I got robbed.”
“Maybe he’d enjoy fucking the hell out of you as a punishment.”
Tag’s mouth twitched.
“I thought you might like the sound of that.”
“Only him, right?”
Norbury nodded.
“Okay then. But this time put the money in my bank account.”
“I’ll give it to you in cash the moment we land.”
“Land?”
“We’ll go up by helicopter.”
Tag frowned. “Why didn’t you just tell me that?”
Norbury laughed.
A few days later, Tag, Kareem and Norbury were in a helicopter heading north. Tag was wearing his military jacket and he hoped he got the chance to wear it again. Despite what he was heading into, he was entranced by the flight. The view was amazing. He’d never been on a plane before, let alone a helicopter. Kareem sat next to him, playing games on his phone, and didn’t even look out of the window. Norbury sat facing them, working on his laptop and the only time he looked up, he stared at Tag who made sure to beam at him before he turned back to the window.
They refuelled once and Kareem went with Tag to the bathroom. Tag was fairly sure that he’d have been making this trip whether he’d agreed to come or not. He wasn’t going to give Kareem any trouble. Delaney was at the end of this journey.
He hoped.
The long trip gave Tag plenty of time to think about what lay ahead. He was going to have to run. He couldn’t see how that could be avoided. He wished he and Delaney had had a chance to work out a plan. But then Delaney had been clear he didn’t want Tag involved. Too late now.
The helicopter landed on a rectangle of concrete at the side of a stretch of choppy water. Over the last fifteen minutes of flying, Tag had seen no dwellings, not even a shepherd’s hut. Below them were valleys and moorland smothered with brown and purple heather, occasional ribbons of water and rugged mountains in the distance. The pilot turned off the power and they were able to remove their headphones.
By the time Tag was allowed out, the blades had almost stopped turning. He spotted someone pushing a wheeled contraption out of a hangar, and he guessed they were going to move the helicopter under cover. It wasn’t until Tag turned to face the water that he saw the castle.
“Cairnluith,” Norbury told him.
“Is it yours?” Tag asked.
Norbury laughed. “Yes.”
Tag wondered if it had a dungeon.Or a dragon.He smiled until he remembered why he was there.
“Want to use the golf cart, sir?” the pilot asked.
“No, we’ll walk,” Norbury said.
Tag slung his backpack on his shoulder and went with Kareem and Norbury, taking in as much as he could of the surroundings. The hunt wouldn’t necessarily take place around here, though he suspected it would happen on Norbury’s land where he could control everything.
