by Mark Stone
“What?” she asked.
“You said ‘the way we grew up’. Who is ‘we’?” I replied.
“Oh, my brother and I,” Abby said. “He’s younger than me, and he wasn’t much more than a snot-nosed kid when our parents left. They just pulled away one day, saying they were going for milk. Does anyone ever actually go for milk and not leave their children behind? It’s so cliché that it’s maddening. Anyway, I took care of him after that, raised him up the best I could. Now, he’s all grown up.”
“And in parties like this?” I asked.
“Not anymore, thankfully,” she murmured, shuddering a little. She shrugged. “It’s okay for me, you know? To have to run in this circle and associate with these people in order to get ahead and do what needs to be done, but I want more for him than that. I want his life to mean something and for him to do better and have better. I don’t want him wasting his time on women who don’t deserve him.”
“You sound more like his mother than his sister,” I mused.
“That’s how it is when you grow up like we did,” she said. “You become more than family. You become each other’s lifeline and you’ll do anything to keep that intact.”
“That’s kinda beautiful,” I murmured.
“It’s hard to explain to someone who hasn’t lived it before,” she said. “That’s probably what cost me my marriage, if I’m being honest.”
“Well, he must have been an idiot because like I said, it’s beautiful, and that sort of makes you beautiful for thinking it, doesn’t it?”
“Thank you, Mr. Chase. I have been called beautiful before, but it’s usually not for my thoughts,” she answered. “You look pretty dashing yourself, if I may say so.”
“Thank my friend Riley for that, the one who came here with me. He gave me these shoes,” I said, motioning down to my feet.
“They’re nice,” Abby said, glancing down at the shoes for the briefest of instances. “He has good taste.”
“I didn’t have any,” I said, though honestly, I had no idea why I was telling her all of this. Maybe I was just more nervous about tonight than I wanted to admit. In any event, I wasn’t stopping. “I actually don’t think I have any shoes that are closed toe.”
“Well, that’s the life of a lifeguard, isn’t it?” Abby asked, looking me over as we continued to walk. “It’s a shame, though. You do dress up nicely.”
“I appreciate it,” I said as we walked out onto a balcony. The breeze coming off the ocean ran through us, as cool as it got this time of year in Florida. Down on the beach, I saw a small bonfire burning with two girls dancing around it. One, I quickly recognized to be Gina. The other, I had never seen before in my life.
“There she is, the troublemaker,” Abby said.
I scoffed. “This is what you wanted to show me?” I asked. “I get that you think she’s a handful, and she’s given you people a hard time, but dancing with a friend around a bonfire is hardly what I’d call troublesome.”
“This time, I wasn’t talking about Gina,” Abby said. “I meant the woman she’s with. Rachel McClear. She dated the mayor for a few years after Gina’s mother died. They broke up, but Gina never stopped seeing her as a sort of surrogate mother figure. The mayor says that it’s a relationship that has helped his daughter grow. He says he’s thankful for it.”
“Okay,” I said, looking at the still dancing woman. “Then I really don’t see how she’s troublesome.”
“That’s the thing,” Abby said. “Though he doesn’t believe me, I’m pretty sure that’s the woman who has been trying to have Gina killed.”
5
“Excuse me?” I asked, turning to Abby and giving her a glare that was meant to ask every question bubbling in my head with one look. “You think a woman you just said raised Gina is now trying to kill her? You have any evidence to back that up?”
Before she could answer that question, the door we just walked through swung open. Turning, I saw a short man with slicked back hair in a pinstriped blue suit and matching tie walk through. He had a much larger and burlier man on either side of him, bookcasing the shorter man and towering a few feet over him.
“Mayor Russell,” I said, recognizing the man in front of me from campaign posters scattered throughout the city and various segments on news programs. I had to admit that he looked a lot shorter in person than I anticipated, but then again, men like him don’t usually count their stature by things like height.
“This is him?” Mayor Russell asked, looking over at Abby and pointing to me. “This is the lifeguard guy who saved Gina?”
“It is,” Abby said. “I’d like you to officially meet Lieutenant Lifeguard Daniel Chase.”
“Danny,” I said, extending my hand for the mayor to shake. He did not oblige me. Instead, his eyes cut from Abby to me in an instant, searing me with their intensity.
“I have a question to ask you, Danny,” the mayor said, his lips curling up as though he’d just tasted a bad clam. “How many people does Hollywood Beach employ?”
I blinked hard, not only at the question but at the intensity of his words as he asked it. “I’d have to look at the roster to be sure, but I think it’s upward of fifty.”
“Fifty,” he answered, practically spitting the number back at me. “Fifty people on a single beach, and still, it doesn’t seem to be enough.”
My eyes narrowed at the man as I looked him over, trying to gauge exactly what he was getting at and what his intentions were by talking to me. They certainly didn’t seem to be grateful in nature.
“It’s quite a large beach, Mayor Russell, and one of the most populous in the area,” I said. “I think you’ll find that when going over incident reports, you’ll find that my beach more than holds its own in terms of safety.”
“If that were true, my daughter wouldn’t have gone through what she went through, would she?” Mayor Russell asked, shaking his head hard.
“I’m confused, Mr. Mayor. Your daughter was saved,” I said quickly. “Saved by me, in fact. I understand that something like that can be frightening, especially given what you guys have been going through lately, but your daughter was in good hands, sir. The fact that she’s still breathing should be enough to tell you that.” I thought about something Riley said earlier and continued. “Though, if you think we’re understaffed, you might be in a position to do something about it. A little bit of extra funds certainly would go a long way.”
“Funds?” Mayor Russell asked. “You’re asking me about funds right now?”
“I’m simply making a suggestion,” I replied. “You seemed to think things weren’t up to par on my beach, and I was just offering a solution to that. If you don’t think there are enough eyes on my beach, then maybe you should help us add a few more.”
“Why do you keep saying that, Mr. Chase?” Mayor Russell asked.
“Saying what, sir?” I asked, my muscles instinctively tensing up at the way the mayor sounded.
“You keep calling it your beach,” he said. “Are you under the impression that you somehow own it?”
“No. No,” I said, shaking my head hard. “I just meant it was my beach, just like a cop would say a certain area was his beat.”
“Good,” Mayor Russell said, taking a step toward me. “I’m glad you said that because this entire city is my beat, Mr. Chase. That beach? It’s mine, and I’ll do with it as I see fit. You seem to think more eyeballs are needed. I’m under the belief that some of those eyeballs just need to be different.”
I stared at the man for a long moment. Suddenly, I realized what Miller had been dealing with. My boss wasn’t trying to grab extras for us on the beach. He was just trying to keep what we had.
“My daughter was poisoned right under your noses,” the mayor said. “Someone came right onto the sand and spiked her drink, and not one of the fifty people that you say work on that beach saw it. Does that seem acceptable to you?”
“Mr. Mayor,” I said, my hands balling into tense fists at my
side, “I understand why you might be upset. You’ve been through a traumatic experience. So has your daughter.” I looked down at Gina, still dancing around that fire with the other woman, the one Abby said might be responsible for all of this. “Given the situation, maybe she shouldn’t be alone with that Rachel woman right now.”
“Danny!” Abby whispered to me, and one look at her face told me that the mayor either wasn’t on board with her line of thinking or didn’t know about it at all.
“My daughter couldn’t be in safer hands than that woman’s,” Mayor Russell said. “Unlike the people who work under you, she knows how to keep an eye on her.” He scoffed loudly. “The fact that Gina insists on having you around boggles my mind. I’d forbid it, but she’s been through enough recently, and I feel guilty about it.”
“I’m sorry she’s been having a rough time, sir, but trust me, I don’t want to ruffle any feathers. If you don’t want me here, then I’ll—”
“What I want you to do is follow me, Mr. Chase,” the mayor said. “I need to show you something, and I’m afraid it can’t wait.”
“Okay,” I said apprehensively as the mayor and his men turned and walked back into the room. Walking quicker, I kept pace with the man.
“You’re not the only lifeguard here tonight, Mr. Chase,” he said.
“I know that,” I muttered. “And if Riley is giving you trouble, I’m sorry about that. He gets excited around rich folk, and he can be a lot sometimes.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, and I’m sure I’m better off without the knowledge,” the mayor said. “Whoever Riley is has nothing to do with what I’d like to tell you.” He cleared his throat and then continued. “This incident isn’t the first bit of trouble I’ve had with Hollywood Beach. Though it’s a profitable enterprise, it pales in comparison to the sort of income that the beaches in Miami and Key West bring in.”
“Well, of course it does,” I said. “Those cities are three times the size of ours. They’re meccas. How would you expect us to compete with them?”
“That is not the kind of attitude I want to see here,” the mayor said. “Have you even thought that the reason we can’t compete is because people like you think we can’t?”
“No,” I replied honestly. “No, I really haven’t.”
“What we need is a draw,” he said. “We need something or someone who could convince people to bypass Key West and Miami in favor of us.”
“That's a pretty tall order,” I said.
“Luckily, I have a pretty tall solution,” he said. “The tallest to ever bring home the gold, actually.”
“What did you just say?” I asked, all the warmth leaving my face. The tallest to ever bring home the gold. He couldn’t have been talking about him. Surely, the mayor would have known better than to—
“I’m bringing on new management to Hollywood Beach, Mr. Chase, and I think he’ll be just what’s needed to whip that sorry beach you’re so proud of into shape.”
The mayor kept walking, weaving through the crowd until he made it to the baby grand piano at the end of the room. Anger and pride swam side by side inside me. That beach he was talking about, the one he so carelessly insulted, was my home. It wasn’t ‘sorry’, as he mentioned. In fact, it was one of the most beautiful and well protected places on the planet. It was a paradise sitting inside an even larger paradise, and I didn’t need some mayor who had probably never spent more than a few hours at a time on the water to pass his opinion about it. I knew beaches, and I knew mine was top-notch.
“With all due respect, Mr. Mayor, there’s nothing wrong with Hollywood Beach. If you’d like to compete with Miami and Key West, I suggest you look to other parts of the city for improvement because our beaches are every bit as fantastic as theirs.”
“I’m glad you said that, Mr. Chase. Now I know that I can disregard your opinion entirely,” the mayor said. “Now, if you don’t mind, let me introduce you to our savior and hometown hero.”
An excruciatingly tall man stood with his back toward me. I didn’t need to see his face to know who he was. That tree of a human being could only be one person, the last person in the world I ever wanted to see.
“He brought home the gold for us in Rio and was just named one of People Magazine’s Sexiest Men in the World,” the mayor said as the man turned around as I was greeted with a face I couldn’t stand. The last time I saw that face was on the worst night of my life, and that was the last time I ever wanted to see it. “I think you know him, actually. His name is—”
“Cameron James,” I said, anger rising up in me like a tide. Before I could stop myself, my hand pulled back and I clocked the sonofabitch right across the face, sending him falling to the floor below like the tree he was. “Yeah,” I said breathlessly. “I know him.”
6
One punch bought me the experience of being tackled inside the mayor’s mansion. It also afforded my being thrown into handcuffs and got me three hours sitting on my ass in a jail cell while guards and officers asked me why on earth I thought it was necessary to punch an Olympic gold medalist in the face.
I didn’t answer that question, of course. It wasn’t any of their business, and even if it was, I didn’t feel like reliving one of the worst experiences of my life. Nope. I’d rather sit here until this time next month than have to talk about my relationship with Cameron James.
“You are such an idiot,” a familiar voice said from in front of me. With my head in my hands and my mind racing, I looked up to find Jules walking toward me, her dark eyes blazing at me with the sort of fury that was usually only reserved for women I didn’t call back.
“Good to see you too,” I said, sighing loudly and standing up. In the three hours I had been in this holding cell, I’d seen more than a few people move through. There was a short guy with long hair who said he was in for ‘just trying to enjoy myself, man’, as well as a stout guy who slept from the moment he fell into the cell to the second he was released. The cell was thankfully empty right now, which meant there was no one around to hear this sprite of a woman read me the riot act.
“I mean it, Danny,” she said, placing her hands on the bars so that her nails, painted aqua blue, tapped against the dark steel. “Cameron James? I thought we were past this.”
I blinked hard at the woman, balking at her use of the word ‘we’. Don’t get me wrong. Jules was amazing. She always had been. Even when we were kids and she was a pigtailed little brat hanging off her brother’s ankles, I never thought she was anything other than cool. But she didn’t get to use the word ‘we’ when talking about this. She didn’t go through what I went through that night. She didn’t stand by and watch Cameron James take everything she worked for. She didn’t have to re-evaluate her entire life because of that bastard’s selfishness and stupidity. She didn’t have to do any of those things. That was just me. I did them alone. So, no, there was no ‘we’ here.
“I’m really not in the mood to talk about this, Jules,” I said, running hands through my hair and letting my shoulders slump.
“You know me better than to think I give a damn about whether or not you want to talk about something,” she answered, jumping onto her tiptoes just a little. “You’re stuck in a cage and can’t get away. So, you’re gonna have to listen to me, Danny.”
“Lord,” I muttered, looking at the woman defeatedly.
“You weren’t even drunk, were you?” Jules asked.
“Of course not. This was basically work.” I shrugged. “I had a sip or two of champagne, and that was basically under protest. You sound disappointed.”
“Oh, I am,” Jules said. “Because if you were drunk, I could have at least blamed all of this on the alcohol. What am I supposed to say about any of it now?”
“Nothing, Jules. You say nothing about it because it doesn’t have anything to do with you,” I replied.
“Tell that to my bank account,” Jules said.
“What does that mean?” I asked.
“I paid your bail,” she said, shrugging.
“Jules, why would you—”
“Stop,” she said, cutting me off. “It’s honestly not that big of a deal. I couldn’t let you just rot in here.”
“I’ll pay you back,” I said quickly.
“You don’t have to,” she said. “I still owe you for helping me move last month.”
“Shut up. I’m paying you back,” I said. I knew how much money Jules made at her job. While she wasn’t starving, she couldn’t just go around tossing cash at other people’s problems. Even if she could, I wouldn’t allow it. A man takes care of his own problems. My father taught me that.
“Whatever you want. I just wish you weren’t in here to begin with,” she said. “Did you know that you made the eleven o’clock news?”
“Seriously?” I asked. “Nobody got killed today or anything?”
“Apparently not,” Jules said. “Or if they did, they weren’t enough to bump you from the top spot.” She shuffled a little, and I could tell she was uncomfortable about what she was about to say. “They’re saying that you’re an embittered former rival. They’re digging into your past with Cameron, splashing it all over the news.”
“Lord,” I murmured. “Are they even getting it right?”
“Some of it,” she said. “Like I said, they’re calling you bitter and a former opponent. As far as I know, only one of those things is true.”
“You know what he did to me, Jules,” I said, my mind traveling back to that moment. Suddenly, I found it very hard to breathe. I found my face getting hotter and hotter.
“All right, come on, you two,” a voice from behind Jules chimed. Jules turned, and I saw a guard walking forward. He slid a key into the cell door and said, “All the papers are processed. You can go now. You just make sure he comes back for his court date. Otherwise, your bank account is gonna be in a lot of trouble.”
“I know how bail bondsmen work,” Jules muttered, stepping aside as I walked through the door and out of the cell.