The woman had stopped at a compact hatchback, parked in the next row over. The car was a few years old, but looked to be in decent condition. The number plate caught my eye, 847–ISV. I had a memory for stuff like that.
She was putting the boy in the car when my peripheral vision tagged a guy getting out of a blacked out Mercedes two cars down. Immediately he started moving purposefully towards the woman who had her attention on her kid.
Two things screamed through my head. One, this bloke was too interested in the woman, and secondly, a car like that was unusual in a carpark in a Logan shopping centre. Logan wasn’t exactly the most affluent area; the high end sedan stood out like a sore thumb—well to me anyway. Couple that with how nervous she looked and something was about to go down.
“Got to go, Mum. See you tonight.” I ended the call and slid the phone into my pocket. My eyes didn’t leave the guy. There was a look on his face that I didn’t like one bit—something was off about everything I was seeing.
His voice was thick with some sort of foreign accent and it came clear across the distance and through my open window. “Hello Annie, you’re looking beautiful as always and how’s the retard?”
I watched her slowly straighten, her body rigid with fear. She started to look around with wild eyes and before I knew it, I was opening the door and moving.
For a split second my brain asked the obvious question. “Why was I getting involved?” and I hesitated for just a moment at the door.
“Marcel, what are you doing here? I have a restraining order against you. You aren’t allowed to approach us!” Her voice was clear and pitched with the intent that others in the vicinity could hear. At the moment, she was standing her ground, but there was no doubt in my mind she was terrified and trying to figure out how to get out of this situation. Basically, she was looking for someone to help her. That’s why she was projecting her voice. I started to move closer.
“I’m here to talk to my wife.” Once again I briefly hesitated. Was this some sort of strange marriage spat?
“Ex-Wife Marcel. Very ex and for the millionth time your son has Asperger’s—he’s not a retard. We’ve had no contact for over a year. I have full custody of Isaac, why are you here?”
Smart girl. She was giving lots of information, making her situation very plain to anyone that might hear—perhaps could help.
Now she just needed a rescuer and I decided that was going to have to be me. The other few people that had looked up, just as quickly looked back down and hurried on.
So typical.
No one wanted to get involved. Well that wasn’t how I rolled. This woman was asking for help and I was going to give it. She hadn’t reverted to screaming yet—probably trying to keep the situation stable with her child in the car.
I sized the guy up a little more as I approached. He was a smidge under 6 foot but the wiry type. If he had any skills, my guess was he’d be fast. My brain raced trying to decide the best approach. I was confident I could take him out if it got to that. But I didn’t want it to escalate if I could avoid it—particularly when there was a woman and a child so closely involved.
“Annie, I don’t understand all this anger…” He noticed me just as I came level with the front of her car. His eyes shot to mine and I gave him a grin. I needed to get myself between the woman and him first, before I did anything further.
The woman’s head spun around and I could see the relief on her face. I gave her my biggest, friendliest smile. My mum and sisters always told me it made women melt. Whatever the hell that meant. I hope it didn’t fail me now.
“Hey gorgeous, sorry I’m late,” I said moving in beside her and putting an arm around her. I dropped a kiss on top of her head for good measure—trying to act familiar. “Who’s this?”
I watched the other man’s eyes narrow and work at summing me up.
“This is my ex-husband, Marcel. The one I told you about. The one that I have a restraining order against for beating me half to death.” I glanced down at her, she had her face turned toward me and I could see the pleading look in her eyes.
Then I did what any boyfriend or partner would do when his woman was threatened, I squared my shoulders and prepared for battle. I relaxed my arm from around her shoulders.
“We got a problem here Mar…” Fuck, before I could get the word out he’d lunged forward at me. My immediate reaction was to step in front of the woman and I pushed her behind me with my right arm while I blocked the punch, Marcel threw to my head, with my left.
I slipped the arm I blocked with, over and under his and brought my hand up on the inside near his armpit, locking up his arm. Then I pounded a punch directly into his nose, and he staggered back with me still holding him in the lock up.
A shrill scream split the air, so loud and high pitched my ears rung with the assault.
Was it the woman?
My focus was momentarily divided between the scream behind me and Marcel. The sound was so high pitched and gut wrenching that I almost wanted to crumple from the pitch of the ear splitting sound.
It was enough to give Marcel the opportunity to pull away. The scream seemed to go on and on, then I realised it wasn’t the woman but the child.
“Fuck,” I muttered and was about to take off after Marcel—kicking myself for getting distracted and letting him go.
“Leave it.” The woman’s voice cut through the fog in my brain, before she turned back to the child in the car.
“It’s okay baby. I’m here. Everything’s okay.” She took off his seat belt and was pulling him into her arms. “Shhh baby.” The din the kid was making was slowly dropping decibel by decibel and my ears were rejoicing at the reduction in the assault.
“It’s okay Isaac. Everything’s okay. Nothing happened.” I heard a car door slam, an engine roar and the squeal of tyres. I glanced up as the black sedan sped out of the carpark, but not before I caught the plate. 032-TOK
When I glanced back to the woman and child, she was rocking him back and forth trying to comfort him. I squatted down beside the car, balancing on the balls of my feet. “Is there anything I can do?”
She looked up from hugging her son and gave me an apologetic smile that was filled with sadness and I swore my heart just about broke. Her eyes were so unusual that I’d say they looked more navy than the normal blue and her face; it was what I think people called heart shaped.
There was only one thing Marcel had been right about, and that was this woman Annie was beautiful. It wasn’t in a flashy kind of way. It was a quiet and classy beauty. A look that left you with no doubt she was a lady.
“He’ll be fine in a minute.”
As if to confirm her words, the child’s screams were now more like a whimper than the high pitched squeal of before. She glanced down at her son before looking back up at me, then she let out a huge breath and slumped back against the seat a little. It was the coming down after what had just happened. The adrenalin was leaving her system.
“I can’t thank you enough. That was some seriously quick thinking on your part.”
I nodded. “I just ran with the clues you were throwing out. I’m glad I could help out.”
“Me too!” There was no mistaking the relief in her voice or in her eyes.
There was an awkward silence between us and she looked back to her son.
I shifted slightly to relieve the strain on my legs from the kneeling position and felt my foot brush something. That’s when I realised that the contents of her handbag were strewn across the carpark.
Not quite sure what else to do, I started to gather the items together and put them back inside the large leather tote type bag she’d been carrying. The bag looked stylish although sure on the big side. Touching stuff in women’s handbags was not something I felt entirely comfortable doing. It always seemed a very private and almost intimate thing.
“Mummy, I want ice-cream,” the child managed between sobs.
“Sure you do baby. We’ll go get some very s
oon,” she cooed to him while brushing the hair back from his forehead.
I opened the front driver side door and reached over to put the bag on the seat.
“Thanks.” She nodded to me.
“No problem.” It was awkward. I wanted to say so much more and ask all the obvious questions, but I didn’t know this woman at all. However, I didn’t need to be Einstein to know she had her hands full with the challenges in her life. Her douchebag ex-husband was at the top of that list right now it seemed to me.
I shifted my weight from side to side. “Um look, are you two going to be okay?”
She stiffened, “Oh yes, of course. I’m sorry to put you to that trouble. Thank you so much, we’ll be just fine now. Please don’t let us keep you from what you need to do.” Her words came out in a flood. There was no question at all about the sincerity of her thanks, however I doubted very much, she would be fine now. She was probably still in shock.
“That wasn’t what I meant. I don’t have anything pressing I need to do.” It was a lie but making sure this woman and child were okay, kind of trumped whatever was on my list I decided.
“No, no. I understand.” She moved to get out of the car and strap the child in who now seemed to be a little more settled. I moved back a little to help her do so, not before I noticed how incredibly good her backside looked as she bent over. Those dark jeans did amazing things to showcase what I was sure was a spectacular arse. Immediately I felt like a creep for even thinking that. This woman had just been scared out of her wits and I was checking out her backside! My mum would have my guts for garters if she knew. Still didn’t negate the fact it was a mighty fine backside.
“Who are you?” The boy asked, brushing away what was hopefully the last of his tears with the back of his hand. He had the same dark inky hair as his mother, but his eyes were more of a brown shade than hers. I guessed him to be around seven or eight.
“My name’s Dane. What’s yours, little mate?”
His big tear filled eyes seemed to come alive before pulling into a frown. “I’m not allowed to tell strangers—mummy said so.”
I grinned down at him over his mother’s shoulders. She turned slightly, looking a little embarrassed by his words.
“And that’s a very sensible thing to do,” I added trying to ease the discomfort.
“I’m sorry…” She started to look at me. “That was very rude of me. I’m Arianne Le Flegg and this is my son Isaac.”
“Dane Roberts.” I offered my big mitt and she put her delicate hand in mine. Her hand was ice cold and fragile feeling—very feminine. I wondered if that was the shock.
“Mummy—you told him!” There was confusion and outrage on his elfin face.
“Its okay Isaac. Mr Roberts was kind enough to help us out.”
Arianne let my hand go and I offered it to Isaac this time. Isaac glanced between his mother and me before he hesitantly put his hand in mine. “Very pleased to meet you, Isaac, and it’s awesome that you remember to do what your mum tells you. Not many kids do.” I gave him my best kid smile. It wasn’t difficult for me. In fact, I really liked kids; they were so open and honest. I loved that they felt free enough to just blurt out whatever they were thinking.
In a lot of ways it was a pity, social conditioning knocked that out of us by the time we were adults. The kids I taught at Onigashima often had me in stitches. Sometimes it was really difficult to maintain the mask of authority.
“Castle Neuschwanstein is in Germany. Bavaria actually, and was commissioned in 1868 by King Ludwig the second. He went mad, you know and only lived in the Castle for 172 days. It’s also known colloquially as the Disney Castle.”
Arianne looked at me as if trying to silently communicate about her son. I’d spotted it when he walked over to the car and Arianne had corrected Marcel’s comment.
“Wow Isaac, you know a lot about castles. I didn’t know any of that. Now that you mention about it being the Disney Castle, I know the one you mean. It’s really cool.”
“They have over 1.4 million visitors there and over 6000 people each day in summer.”
I nodded. The kid knew his stats.
“That’s a lot of people,” I agreed.
“One day I’m going to go there. But I’m going to go home and draw the plans for Neuschwanstein. I’m going to build it in Lego. You want to see it?” His eyes gazed everywhere but at me and his speech was kind of sing-song.
I glanced to his mother, not knowing how she wanted this to be handled.
“Isaac, I’m sure Mr Roberts has lots of things to do.” I glanced at my watch. Yeah I did have stuff I needed to get done, but then why did I feel reluctant to leave them?
“Maybe some other time, Isaac.” I said trying to be non-committal.
I stepped back from the car.
“But you want to see my castle don’t you? I need to tell you all about how they used to have operas there and about why they called it the ‘castle of the fairy king’.”
“Isaac, Mr Roberts has to go,” Arianne said firmly and shut the door, then looked at me apologetically. “I’m sorry, he means well but…” She raised her hands in way of explanation.
“Don’t worry about it. I’ve taught kids similar to him before.” The words tumbled out without me even thinking about it. I was trying to reassure her. I didn’t want her to be embarrassed or feel that she had to apologise for having a child that was a little left of centre.
“You’re a school teacher? What grade do you teach?” She looked surprised and I chuckled.
“Not, school. Martial arts. I teach a few kids and other classes over at Onigashima Fighters.”
She nodded and said more to herself than me, “That explains why you dealt with Marcel so easily.”
“I screwed that up. I should have restrained him and called the cops.” That was the truth. I’d let her down. When I’d heard Isaac scream I lost my focus, like some rank amateur, rather than a third dan black belt. It was embarrassing to me how badly I’d screwed that up.
“I’m actually glad you didn’t. Marcel is bad news and you don’t want or need to be involved anymore. Take it from me, I’ve spent the last four years trying to get him out of my life. I’d thought I’d managed to, but obviously not.” Her eyes took on a faraway look and I could see her body start to shake a little.
I reached my hand out and took her around the arm to steady her. She stiffened for a second before she pushed herself to relax. Arianne’s reaction was telling.
“Are you okay?” I asked drawing her attention back to me.
She pulled away. “…I’m fine. Look thanks so much for helping us out. You have no idea how grateful I am, but I really need to let you go and I need to get Isaac his ice-cream.” Her voice had taken on a brusque tone and suddenly she seemed desperate to get out of here. I stepped back, not sure what else to do.
“Drive safely,” was all I managed to get out before she was in the car and had the door closed. She started the car and pulled out before I really got the opportunity to think or say anything else. What would I have said? What should I have said? She didn’t know me from Adam. I was just some guy in a carpark that happened by—could have been anyone. She was smart to head off.
I glanced back at my watch and decided to give my errands a miss. If I didn’t head to Onigashima now I’d be late. I turned to head back to my truck and something purple and shiny caught my eye, against the concrete gutter. It was a wallet and I was almost positive I knew who that wallet belonged to.
Chapter 2
Arianne
Shit! I dug through my handbag looking for my wallet. I needed my credit card to pay the electricity bill online. It wasn’t the first time I cursed at my decision to buy a bag that could really only be described as a tote. The main reason I’d selected this bag was because more often than not I was always carrying things for Isaac.
Eventually I gave in and tipped the contents onto the kitchen table out of frustration. One quick glance and my worst fears
were clawing at my belly. The purple wallet was missing. The matching coin purse I kept loose change and a few notes in, was there. I clearly remembered using that yesterday to buy our ice creams.
Then it all came rushing back. He had picked up all of my things from the ground. Dane. The man that had come to our rescue yesterday. Our saviour. I still had no idea what Marcel wanted, nor did I want to know. But Dane—he was a whole different story.
He’d seemed so self-assured and capable. I hadn’t even seen him approach and then almost as if he was an apparition, he appeared. All six feet plus of sexy hazel green eyes, broad shoulders, thick dark hair and a mouth that was just the perfect bow. It was the piece de resistance in his very handsome face. That full puffy lower lip and a sculptured top lip which had a very defined “v”—just screamed, “I hold the key to female pleasure.”
And then he’d gone and ruined it all…martial arts.
Violence—there was no bigger turn off for me.
There was no way I could be interested in another violent man—even in my fantasies. The next man I had anything to do with, would be kind and gentle. Someone that would never raise a hand to me or Isaac in anger. Marcel had made sure I would carry the scars physically and emotionally from the beatings I took at his hands, for the rest of my life.
I snapped back to reality. My wallet wasn’t here. The only other place was the car. Otherwise I’d better start cancelling my credit cards. Shit, shit shit. I didn’t need this today.
“I’m just going out to the car Isaac,” I called to my son who was sitting on the sofa watching a Lego review on his iPad. He didn’t even look up.
I stepped out the front door and was surprised how cool the morning was. It was already ten so I expected the day to be a little warmer. Spring obviously hadn’t got the message yet. The grass was still wet with dew and the car still had a few moisture blisters on it.
Five minutes and a thorough search later, I dreaded the job I had to do. It only seemed like yesterday that I’d changed my licence and all credit, health care and other cards to my maiden name of Le Flegg. In reality it had been closer to two years when our divorce was finalised, still it felt like yesterday in so many ways.
Believe Page 2