by Mark Stone
“I suppose you could always quit then,” Cameron said, his voice holding the same unaffected lightness it had since our days in high school.
“No one’s quitting,” Miller said quickly. “This is my fault. I should have told Danny about this change weeks ago. That would have given him time to adjust to it.”
Adjust to it? The words rang off my ears like rain hitting rusted metal. They clanged and bounced around like they didn’t belong there, like I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I would never adjust to this. I didn’t have enemies in my life. I wasn’t Superman flying around and fighting Lex Luthor. I was a grownup who handled things in grownup ways. But if I would have had an enemy, if there were one person in my life who I could literally use the word ‘hate’ to describe, it would be the man standing in front of me.
“Don’t beat yourself up,” I said, looking over at Miller for the smallest of instants before turning back to Cameron. “A hundred years wouldn’t have been long enough for me to adjust to something like this.”
“Like I said,” Cameron started, walking toward me. “You’re always welcome to find another job. I’ve heard good things about your skills out here. It seems to me that a man like you shouldn’t have any trouble finding gainful employment.”
“I have gainful employment,” I reminded him. “What I don’t understand is why on earth you’d want any. Last time I had the misfortune of seeing your face, before I punched it out, was on the front of a Wheaties box. What the hell are you doing working the grind with us mere mortals?”
I hated talking to him. Every second spent with Cameron was wasted. Every word was one too many, and every time I looked at him, I wanted to gouge my own eyes out. Still, I knew this had to be done. If the mayor thought this piece of garbage was what the beach needed in order to recoup the losses brought about by his own failures, then I doubted I would be able to change his mind. What I needed to do was come at this from another angle, a weaker angle.
“Maybe I’m just not ready to call it a day,” Cameron said. He shrugged. “I aged out of Olympic-level competition, and it’s not like there are many traveling acts for over-the-hill swimmers.”
“So you figured you’d try your hand at—”
“The job of a ‘never was’ swimmer. Yeah,” he said, cutting me off.
“Hey!” Miller shouted so loudly that I thought the glass piece in his door would shatter. “I get that you think you’re big stuff because some reporter on ESPN probably treated you like you were the second coming of Michael Phelps, and that’s fine. I understand that you might think you’ve got the authority to prance around this beach like you own it because the mayor’s got your back and your email is filled with fan letters, but let’s get one thing straight. You might be over Danny Chase, but you sure as hell aren’t over me.”
“Didn’t say I was,” Cameron said. “I was talking to—”
“The best lifeguard on this beach right now, and bar none, the most selfless man I’ve ever seen,” Miller shouted, stopping him before he could finish. “I don’t know if you’ve noticed this about me or not, son, but I’m an old man. I’ve got twenty-five years on the both of you, and I’ll tell you, those twenty-five years teach you something.”
“Is that right?” Cameron asked, his voice tense.
“They teach you that we’ve all got a path in life. Each and every one of us has roads we have to travel down. You don’t get to choose what they look like. You don’t get to say how curvy they are or how many stop signs and red lights you’ll have to pause for along the way. The only thing you get to decide is whether or not you can make someone else’s road easier when you come into contact with them.” He pointed at me, though his eyes never left Cameron. “I’ve known that man for a very long time now, and I can tell you that he’s made it easier for every person he’s come across. What I’ve heard about you tells me that you’ve done the opposite.”
“Someone should tell that to the elementary school kids I’m slated to talk with this afternoon,” Cameron said, folding his arms over his chest.
“They’re just kids. They’ll learn soon enough, I’m sure,” Miller said. “I might not be able to fire your ass, given what the mayor wants with you, but I’ll be damned if I’m going to let you talk to the best man I’ve ever had work under me like that. You think everything is a competition, but that’s where you’re wrong. This isn’t the Olympics, son. It’s not a game. This beach, this place, it’s life and death. You’ll learn that soon enough, and when you do, you’d better hope to God that someone like Danny Chase has your back. Now get the hell out of my office.”
Cameron looked at him for a long moment. Then, looking at me, he silently turned and walked out of the room, closing the door behind him.
“I appreciate what you said, Miller, but I don’t need you to fight my battles for me.”
“That’s not the battle, son,” Miller said, looking at the closed door. “Judging by the way that man looks at you, I’d say that’s just the starting bell.”
11
Running my hands through my hair, I looked out at the beach in front of me. Though I sat up in this tower every day, looking out at the same stretch of sand and the same ocean line, I never took it for granted. You don’t forget that you live in Heaven, even after you’ve been there for a while. That was the way I always thought about that, and I thought about it again today, even if the scenery had changed just a bit.
Having Cameron on the beach would change everything. I knew that as clearly as I knew my own name. He was a gold medal Olympian, for God’s sake. His name and presence would attract attention, and while that might have been what the mayor needed, I wasn’t sure it was what the beach needed, and I knew damn well that it wasn’t anything I needed.
Hollywood Beach was about as close to perfect as a place got in this world. At least, that was my opinion, and I wanted to keep it that way. The mayor might have wanted this place to become the next Miami, but I wasn’t so sure. We had a good thing going here, a great thing, actually, and as far as I could tell, screwing with greatness never did anybody any good.
“Mr. Chase,” a voice called to me from the sand below. Looking down, I saw Brick Andrews looking up at me, his hands crossed over his chest and his red eyebrows furrowed with worry. “Could I maybe see you for a second?”
“Beach isn’t crowded yet, so you can have two seconds, maybe even three,” I said, walking down from my tower and meeting the kid on the beach proper. “And how many times have I told you to call me Danny?”
Brick was a good kid. About twenty years old and as eager as anyone I’d ever met, he was hungry to be a good lifeguard. I respected that about him. In this line of work, you come across too many teens looking to make a quick buck during the summer, thinking they can lather themselves up with sunscreen, hang out all day with their friends, and pick up a quick paycheck just for having a whistle around their necks. Brick wasn’t like that. He took this seriously. He knew firsthand how dangerous the water could be, and because of that, he treated it with the respect it deserved.
“A bunch of times. Sorry, Mr. Ch—Danny. I’m sorry, Danny,” he said, fidgeting and looking down at the sand his sandaled feet sank into.
“It’s all right,” I said, putting on a bright smile and letting him know that I wasn’t angry or anything. “There are worse things you could be accused of than being respectful. How’s the beach treating you, Brick? I haven’t talked to you in a week or so. Ever since you got moved to Tower 6, it’s like you’re in a different world.”
“It definitely feels like that,” Brick said, and I caught a hint of longing in his voice that struck me as odd.
“Everything okay?” I asked, folding my arms over my chest to match his.
“Yeah,” he said, shaking his head. “I love having my own tower, and being the youngest lifeguard in Hollywood Beach history to do that is icing on the cake. It’s just that sometimes, I think maybe I didn’t train under you for long enough.”
&n
bsp; Hearing Brick say that upset me a little, not because I thought he meant I wasn’t a good teacher. We all mesh with junior lifeguards in different ways, and I was pretty sure the way I meshed with them left something to be desired. No, I was upset because Brick was, bar none, the best student I’d ever had. To say I saw some of myself in him would be doing him a disservice. I never had what he had so quickly. When I was twenty, I was still licking my wounds and trying to work past the bitterness that came with a night that changed my life forever. Brock was clearheaded and focused. He had been since the day I met him. If something was screwing with him, it must have been pretty serious.
“I think you’re doing all right,” I said, taking a step closer to him, letting my arms fall and using one of my hands to pat the kid on the shoulder. “And six isn’t that far away from fifteen. If you ever feel like you need another lesson, you know where I am.”
“Right,” he muttered, still looking down at the sand.
“Brick, why don’t you just tell me what’s up?” I asked, watching the way he sighed as he spoke.
“Honestly? Because I’m not supposed to,” Brick said, finally looking up at me.
“What do you mean?” I replied, taking a step back to give the guy some space.
“It’s nothing. I’m sure it’s nothing,” he said. “It’s just that I saw some suspicious activity on the beach. No one was in clear or present danger. So, I did what you taught me to do. I brought the situation to one of my superiors, and I was told that he’d take care of it.”
“Okay,” I said. “So, what’s got you so worried?”
“That was two weeks ago, and nothing’s been done,” Brick said. “I went back to Miller, and he told me not to worry about it. He made a point to tell me not to bring this to anyone else. I needed to keep my mouth shut about it, but I don’t feel like I can do that, not in good conscience.”
“Miller told you not to worry about suspicious activity on his beach?” I asked, sure I had misheard what Brick told me.
“And not to tell anyone about it,” he repeated.
“Right,” I said, taking a deep breath. “Well, I know you were taught to do what your superior said—”
“Yeah, you taught me that,” Brick reminded me.
“In that case, let me teach you something else,” I said. “Sometimes, we need to follow our gut. You came to me because you wanted to do that, and I need you to go through with it. Tell me what you saw, Brick.”
“I don’t want to get you in trouble,” he said, glaring at me with wide eyes.
“Let me worry about that,” I said.
“I don’t want to get me in trouble either,” he added.
“Let me worry about that too,” I said. “Obviously, you think this is pretty important. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have come to me. So fess up, kid.”
He shuffled again, obviously uncomfortable, but then he started speaking. “For the last few weeks, I’ve noticed the same group of people on the beach every day.”
“That seems like a bit of overkill, but I don’t think it’s anything to be concerned about,” I said. “Maybe they’re on a long vacation.”
“They’re not on a vacation. It’s not like that,” he replied, shaking his head. “They’re not dressed for the beach at all, and all they ever do is stand under the pier, the one closest to me. They’re there for a few hours every day, and during that time, at least a dozen different people come see them and leave.”
“Yeah,” I murmured, instantly realizing what Brick was getting at. “You think they’re selling drugs on the beach.”
“I do,” he admitted. “The thing is, I know them. Or at least, I used to know them. We all went to high school together, and they pulled the same crap behind the gymnasium. I think that’s why they picked my section of the beach. I feel like maybe they think I’ll keep my mouth shut because we have history.”
“It mustn’t have been too much history,” I answered. “Anybody who knows you would know better than to think that.”
“I’m just not one hundred percent sure what to do about it,” Brick said. “I won’t have that on my piece of the beach. You know I can’t, not after what happened.”
“Look, it’s not about that,” I said, watching the kid blink hard as his face took on a look that was intimately familiar to me—the look that came with trying to push down a memory you didn’t want to have to relive. “And you don’t have to do anything except let me know when they’re back. I’m not sure why Miller wouldn’t take care of this himself, and I certainly don’t know why he’d want you to keep your mouth shut about it. I do understand why you’d want to follow orders and protocol, but Miller didn’t give me any orders. Hell, even if he had, he should know I wouldn’t follow them about this. It doesn’t matter, though. Just let me know when they’re there, and I’ll take a stroll that way. I’ll take care of it, and no one has to know you said anything.”
“I really appreciate that, Mr. Chase,” Brick said, running a hand through his hair.
“So you’re just never going to call me Danny then?” I asked, grinning at the guy.
“Probably not,” he admitted. “Thanks again,” he said before waving and turning around, walking down the beach and toward his tower.
“I’ll call you Danny if you want,” a voice said from behind me. Turning, I saw Gina standing there, bikini-clad, with one of the arms of her sunglasses between her lips and a smile on her face. “I’ll call you whatever you want, actually.”
“Oh, Lord,” I murmured, looking at the woman and knowing that without a doubt, this meant trouble.
12
“What are you doing here?” I asked, looking at the woman as she spread a beach towel across the sand right under my tower. To her credit, she didn’t seem bothered by the obvious irritation in my voice as she stretched out the corners and then pushed a cooler next to the yellow- and white-pinstriped towel. “Gina!” I said, almost shouting as I walked toward her. “I asked you a question. What are you doing here?”
She looked up at me as she sprawled herself across the towel, popping open the cooler and pulling a long bottle of sunscreen out of it. She tossed it to me, and instinctively, I caught it.
“Isn’t it obvious?” she asked, moving the sunglasses from her lips to their more standard position over her eyes. “Once the sun moves into position, I’m going to work on my tan. Assuming, that is, that you can get those hard to reach spots on my back.” She pulled the glasses down the bridge of her nose and shot me another smile. “What do you say, Danny?”
I stared at the woman, wrestling with a couple of competing emotions. The first one, the more primal one, would have to be tamped down. Gina was gorgeous. She was beautiful in that kind of refined way that you don’t see every day. Plus, she was practically naked and begging me to put my hands on her most hard to reach places. Any man would be hard pressed not to be tempted by something like that.
There was, of course, the rest of the story, the part of it that made giving in to those base instincts a really bad idea. I was going to have to listen to those, at least for now, regardless of how much it sucked.
“You shouldn’t be here,” I stated flatly, swallowing hard and averting my eyes from her barely covered skin.
“Really?” Gina asked, and though I wasn’t looking, I could hear the smirk in her voice. “Would you rather I just went into the tower with you? Would that make you more comfortable?”
“Be serious, Gina,” I said in a gruff voice.
“Do you think I’m not serious, Danny?” she cooed at me. “Maybe I should be more descriptive with my plans.”
“You almost died last night!” I said, looking back at her and seeing more than just a beautiful woman in a barely there bikini. She was an idiotic woman in a barely there bikini.
“You’re being dramatic,” she said, waving me off with painted nails and a chuckle.
“I am not. You were nearly run over,” I reminded her.
“So were you. I don’t see any
body on your ass about it,” Gina scoffed.
“Oh, they are. Just because you haven’t seen it doesn’t mean it didn’t happen. I assure you, Gina. People are all over my ass,” I said.
“Lucky people,” she murmured, biting her lip as she smiled at me again.
“Is that what all this is about?” I asked, narrowing my eyes at her. “You forced me to come to your party. Then you picked me up on the side of the road after ditching your security personnel, which I assume you’ve done again, and now you show up on my beach. Did you really do all this because you think I’m hot, because you want to hook up with me or something?” I shook my head. “There’s no way your father knows you’re here. After the message he left with Miller for me this morning, he’d have a SWAT team down here within a minute and cuffs around my wrists if he knew you were talking to me.”
“He’s dramatic too. Where do you think I got it from?” Gina asked. “And no, I didn’t do all this because I want to hook up with you or because you’re hot.” She shrugged. “Even though you are hot, and I wouldn’t say no if you wanted to lie next me on this blanket.” She took a deep breath. As she ran her hand through her hair, I saw the bright demeanor fall from her face, replaced by something much more sullen and serious. “The first time somebody tried to kill me, I was changing clothes, and that was what saved my life.” She shook her head, closing her eyes as if doing so would send her right back to that moment.
“What do you mean?” I asked, crinkling my forehead.
“I used to do this thing, when my mom was alive, where I would hide from her. I don’t know, but I used to love watching her look for me. I guess whenever I’d see the worry build up in her, when I saw her start to panic as she wondered where I was, it let me know that she actually cared about me. It’s stupid.”
“It doesn’t seem stupid,” I said. “It seems like something a kid would do, maybe a lonely kid, but a kid all the same.”