Kitt was so tempted to drown this American in the Chao Phraya or kick his smug face in. But he wasn’t stupid enough to rush a guy pointing a gun to his head. He gave a few more exaggerated yanks of the handle, ensuring the audible thunk proved that he wasn’t screwing with him. It was just a marvel that the rough handling hadn’t set off any alarms from the car.
A crowd gathered in the distance behind Matthew as the auction house of dangerous men and women spilled out into the street. They were too far away and too obscured by other things in the alleyway to be of any help. And if Kitt had any hope of grabbing the antique hairpin without contest, he couldn’t rely on them.
‘With what, dumbass?’ Kitt bit his tongue again, wincing at his inability to look at Matthew without breaking character. ‘I mean, you have the gun. Why don’t you use the butt to smash the glass?’
If Kitt had been feeling generous, he might have made it easier. Cars like this had ways of opening without force. Electric central locking could always be worked around.
‘No, wait.’ Kitt’s shoulders dropped. He couldn’t believe he was going to do this. But if he didn’t want someone overhearing this and killing them both for the antique, he had to go against his instinct. ‘Hold on.’ He checked each door just in case before getting on his back and shimmying under the chassis. His pristine white suit was definitely ruined, now.
Every moment he lay there dragged on like an eternity. The crowd out front were beginning to disperse but it also meant that some stragglers were beginning to wander.
Kitt cursed as he tried and failed again. He was starting to think smashing the window would have been the right call until he heard the telltale thunk of the doors unlocking. ‘I didn’t think bartenders could afford customs like this,’ Kitt said, dragging himself out from under the car.
When he emerged, he stood face to face with a sneering, white-toothed man aiming his gun at the back of Matthew’s head. ‘Oh look, it’s the Tancharoen kid and his foreign boytoy.’
‘Fuck.’ Kitt smiled tightly at the white-toothed man and tried to remember his name. Top always liked to call him ‘Shark’, on account of looking like his mouth was crammed with too many teeth and his love of biting his victims.
‘Why didn’t you hear him?’ Kitt glared at Matthew. They really should have just smashed the window…