Paradise Road

by C. J. Duggan

  ‘I like you, Lexie, and I don’t care if you don’t like it, I think sexy Lexie suits you just fine.’

  ‘Thanks, but I really don’t want to dance anymore,’ I said, my hands pushing on his upper arms, trying to pry myself away, but he only laughed and held me tighter.

  ‘Relax, Lexie, just go with it.’ I felt his breath on my neck and I started to panic. We were among a crush of bodies on the dance floor, all too preoccupied to see the panicked look in my eyes, the music too loud for them to hear my scream. My heart was racing, my efforts to fight against him were failing. I tried to knee him but he was too clicked on for that and my struggle only seemed to encourage him.

  ‘Let me go,’ I gritted.

  ‘Is that how you repay someone for buying you a drink?’

  ‘Shove your fucking drink,’ I snapped.

  ‘Oooh, kitty got claws,’ he crooned as he slid his hands lower, grabbing my butt. The shock of it instinctively drew my hand back before slapping him so hard across the face it almost dislodged my arm from its socket.

  He finally let go of me as he grabbed the side of his face, his mouth gaping as he winced. ‘Son of a bitch, what the fuck?’ he yelled. His face was like thunder as his eyes bored into me. My palm stung so badly I could literally feel it throbbing, my hands shaking as I moved to back away, but it was too late. He caught me by the wrist, his grip so crushing I thought it might break the bone.

  ‘You little bitch,’ he spat, dragging me towards him.

  I went to scream, but before I could brace myself for what was to come, Dan went flying, crashing into the upright table, sending drinks and glasses smashing everywhere. People screamed and dived out of the way.

  My mouth was agape, looking at this huge bloke blinking, dazed and confused at what had just happened. I was doing the same until I turned to see Dean beside me, his chest heaving with a silent rage.

  Chapter Thirteen

  ‘You all right?’ he asked.

  ‘Um, yeah, I –’

  He didn’t wait for the answer; instead, Dean strode forward, grabbing Dan by the back of the hair and dragging him out towards the exit as a sea of people parted to let them through.

  Dan was pleading. ‘Okay, okay, I’m going …’

  Dean stopped short of the doorway, slamming Dan against the wall, glowering at him. ‘If you ever darken my doorstep again, you won’t make it out next time, you understand?’

  Dan was bright red, fighting for air, a smear of blood across his cheek.

  ‘Do. You. Understand?’ Dean repeated.

  ‘Yes,’ Dan croaked, his eyes watering, a vein pulsing in his temple.

  ‘Good. Now get the fuck out of here.’ Dean grabbed him with both hands and tossed him out the door.

  Dan stumbled and fell on the street outside, gasping for breath, clasping at his throat. ‘You’re a dead man,’ he said in a raspy voice, struggling to find his feet. ‘You hear me? Dead!’

  Dean smiled. ‘Run along now.’ He turned to the big, burly security guard near the door. ‘Think you can remember that face?’

  The guard didn’t answer, he simply tapped his temple as if it were in the vault.

  Dean nodded, pleased, until he turned and saw me standing there, wringing my hands together. He stormed a determined line towards me, his expression dark. He grabbed me by my upper arm and marched me back into the room and up the stairs.

  ‘Dean!’ I yelped as he dragged me up the steps so quickly I pretty much tripped the entire way.

  We burst through the door of his office, Dean letting go of my arm so as to slam the door behind us.

  I stumbled against his desk, using it as a means to gain my balance as I turned towards him, catching my breath and taking in his fiery eyes. They were heated with such anger I wanted to move further away from him but the desk stopped me from doing so.

  ‘What the fuck are you playing at, Lexie?’ he shouted.

  I blinked, shocked at his outburst. ‘I … just came to …’

  He closed the distance between us, standing before me and glowering down at me. ‘This is not a playground. You’re not giggling with school boys in the canteen line here. Men come here to drink and they pick up, and they fuck in alleyways and they don’t offer friendship rings or promises of forever. You want to have some fun, save it for your girlfriends’ slumber parties.’

  I could feel my cheeks burning, my chest rising and falling heavily. I should have looked away from him. He was dressing me down, putting me back in my place and trying to intimidate me into being the little girl he pegged me for, so when I breathed out a laugh and shook my head, a new level of anger flashed across his face.

  ‘You are such a hypocrite,’ I said. ‘Don’t act like you’re some kind of saviour, because you’re not. Remember your last words to me when I left? “Let me know when you’re tired of playing with school boys.” Well, maybe I am tired – tired of being treated like a stupid little sheltered farm girl, tired of not being taken seriously or given a bloody chance to prove myself, tired of being set up to fail and never being given the benefit of the doubt. Maybe you don’t get anywhere in this city unless you’re an Amanda or a Lucy, treating people like shit. So excuse me for wanting to be in the real world, for going about it any way I can because as far as anyone else is concerned, everyone has been nothing but a fucking hindrance to me, especially you.’

  Dean’s eyes ticked over my face as he crossed his arms across his chest. ‘You finished?’ he asked.

  I stepped forward, lifting my chin defiantly up at him, looking straight into his eyes. ‘Not yet.’

  Dean smiled a slow wolfish smile, inching closer to me. ‘Do you really want to be in the real world, do you really want to know what it’s like?’ he asked quietly, his voice warm and hypnotic. I could feel my uneven breathing and a new heat was burning across my skin.

  ‘Yes,’ I breathed, feeling his breaths burning my cheek.

  ‘Do you think you could handle it?’ he whispered in my ear.

  I could feel myself quivering as I swallowed, closing my eyes and running my tongue along my bottom lip. ‘Yes.’

  What was he doing? Was he going to kiss me? Oh God.

  I fought for breath. He was trying to push me into being afraid, but instead he was doing the complete opposite, which was frightening me. I straightened, feeling his heat burn against me standing so close as I lifted my gaze to him, looking him directly in the eyes. ‘I can handle it.’

  Dean’s expression grew darker, and just as I thought I might hold my breath for what was to come, Dean stepped away from me.

  ‘You better go,’ he said.

  My legs felt shaky, and I panicked for a new reason. ‘Go?’

  Dean looked surprised by the disappointment in my voice. It was something that surprised me as much as it did him. I felt cold now, and exposed and embarrassed.

  ‘It’s late, I’ll call you a taxi,’ he said, moving towards his desk, making sure to give me a wide berth. He passed the long row of monitors that were flickering with moving images from below. This is where he would have been sitting, watching on, guarding his manor with a watchful eye, and the realisation of what he had done hit me as I turned to him finishing up his phone call and setting down the receiver.

  ‘Thank you,’ I said. ‘Thanks for saving me before.’

  ‘Yeah, well, I don’t want anyone to sue me,’ he said. He was trying to lighten the mood, but it didn’t really work.

  I gave him a small smile. ‘Well, thanks anyway,’ I said, moving towards the door.

  I heard him sigh wearily. ‘Lexie, wait.’

  I paused with my hand on the door handle.

  Dean moved from behind his desk to stand next to me, taking his wallet out and thumbing out some cash. ‘For the taxi,’ he said.

  Something broke inside me: more disappointment, and thinking maybe he had called me to stop for another reason – not sure what I wanted it to be, but a taxi fare sure wasn’t one of the possibilities. ‘It’s all right
, I have a little money.’

  ‘Yeah, well, a little is not going to be enough.’ He picked up my hand and placed a fifty in my palm then closed my fingers to envelop it. Great, all this night had produced was me owing both Boon and Dean money now. I should have just stayed home and saved myself a hundred bucks. ‘I’ll pay you back.’

  Dean breathed out a laugh. ‘Consider it a birthday gift.’

  ‘Goodbye, Dean,’ I said, stepping through the door and trying to pull it closed behind me. But it wouldn’t give. I turned to see Dean holding it open.

  ‘Goodbye? I didn’t bar you for life, just maybe for twenty-four hours,’ he joked.

  I canted my head, not sharing the joke. ‘I’m going home tomorrow.’

  ‘Home?’

  ‘Home to Red Hill.’

  Dean frowned, confused.

  I sighed. ‘I had two weeks to get a job and find a place to live before my parents took me home again,’ I said.

  Dean’s eyes studied my face.

  I smiled thinly. ‘That’s why I needed a job.’ Shrugging, I started down the steps.

  ‘Hey, Lexie, wait …’ Dean called after me.

  ‘I’ll send the money to you,’ I said without looking back. I just couldn’t. Saying what I just had made it real. This was it. I was eighteen and had failed my agreement. Tomorrow I was going home.

  Chapter Fourteen

  I closed my eyes behind my sunnies, willing the breeze to blow over my skin on the warm summer’s morning. The hum of the pool pump soothed me in an odd way as I tried to settle myself into a semi-coma, hoping the painkillers would kick in any second. I inhaled deeply. Mum and Dad would be here tonight and there would be a reunion slash farewell dinner and then we would be gone, away from Paradise.

  Don’t think about that, Lexie. Just close your eyes and wait for the pain to subside.

  My stillness and lack of thoughts were working a treat: calming breaths, the trickling of water and silence, beautiful, blissful, sile–

  ‘Where the hell were you last night?’

  Ugh.

  I flicked up my sunglasses to squint up at Amanda standing there with her hands on her hips, blocking my sun,

  ‘Why, whatever do you mean?’ I asked innocently.

  ‘I mean, you accidentally elbowed me in the head when you crept into bed smelling like passive smoke and stale alcohol, and there’s sand ALL through my bed.’

  I smirked.

  ‘Look, Lexie, I don’t know what’s going on with you right now but you are not going to win any friends behaving like this.’

  My eyes snapped up. ‘What? Win friends like Lucy? No, thanks.’

  ‘Shhh!’ Amanda glanced towards the house. ‘Lucy’s just inside.’

  ‘Of course she is. Does she ever bloody go home?’

  ‘Yeah, well, I doubt you will run into her living with Principal Fitzgibbon’s family.’ Amanda looked smug. I wanted to punch her in the face.

  ‘Over my dead body,’ I said.

  ‘Well, I’m sure that can be arranged.’

  ‘What can be arranged?’ asked Lucy, coming to stand beside Amanda, looking at me as though I was something to be disposed of.

  I was ready to shout the fact that no thanks to Amanda and her parents upping and leaving to give their precious daughter a new start, I had to go back home and suffer a fate worse than death … home schooling.

  But just as Amanda was about to open her mouth, Aunty Karen’s heels clicked along the concrete.

  ‘Lexie?’ she called.

  We all turned to see Aunty Karen approaching cautiously. ‘Honey, there’s someone here to see you,’ she said quietly, her gaze flicking back towards the house.

  I peeked over my shades, following my aunty’s eyeline, and slid off my recliner to stand, rather inelegantly, in seconds.

  Dean Saville, wearing Ray Bans, skimmed his way through the sliding glass doors. He never once turned his attention away from me as he came to stop before us.

  ‘Lexie,’ he said, nodding his head with a smirk.

  I don’t know what he found so amusing – maybe it was my gaping expression, or maybe it was because I looked like death warmed up and he was delighting in my pain. Maybe he just wanted his money back? Whatever the reason, I failed to voice the obvious.

  What the hell was he doing here?

  I shifted nervously, hoping Dean wasn’t here to unveil my whereabouts last night, or to share my awkward account of how he saved me from sleazy Dan. But anything that brought Dean Saville to my door could never be a good thing.

  ‘Hi, Dean,’ chirped Lucy, blinking once, twice.

  Dean turned as if seeing her for the first time. ‘Lucy,’ he said with another head nod.

  Ignoring Amanda altogether, he turned his attention to Aunty Karen. ‘It’s a lovely home you have here, Mrs Burnsteen.’

  ‘Oh, please, call me Karen.’ Aunty Karen laughed.

  Oh my God, was she blushing? Gross.

  Dean smiled. ‘Well, Karen, if you don’t mind, I just need to steal Lexie for a bit. If that’s all right by you?’

  All eyes turned to me.

  ‘Oh, um, I have no problem with that, I mean, if that’s … and you and her want to umm …’ Aunty Karen was flailing, dancing between the awkwardness of being asked permission and granting approval. Jesus, it wasn’t like he asked for my hand in marriage or anything.

  ‘Lexie, do you want to go for a drive?’ Dean asked.

  My hangover seemed to miraculously melt away. Or maybe it paled in comparison to my confusion and the utter shock of Dean being here and above all wanting me to, what did he just say? Go for a drive? I could see in my peripheral vision the stunned looks on Amanda’s and Lucy’s faces.

  Even my Aunty Karen’s surprise was evident. After all, what would some hot boy be doing on her doorstep seeking my attention? The whole vibe rubbed me the wrong way and regardless of whatever Dean really wanted, it didn’t matter. I suddenly felt powerful, thinking about what it would be like for me to walk out of here with Dean Saville.

  ‘Sure,’ I said, placing my sunnies on top of my head, looking directly up at him.

  I don’t know what your game is, Dean Saville, but what you are about to do for me in front of these two idiots is more than I could hope for.

  ‘Back soon,’ I said, kissing my aunty on the cheek and managing a last-minute fuck-you glance at Amanda and Lucy, who were still staring at me in disbelief. I put on my sunnies and Dean stepped aside as I glided past.

  •

  Dean drove a sexy, immaculate-looking dark blue Holden Kingswood with tan leather seats and not a speck of dust on the shiny, oiled dashboard. It even had that new car smell even though it was a model from the ’70s. Dean’s apartment had been immaculate too. Maybe he was a bit OCD? Seemed plausible.

  We travelled in silence along a winding coastal road I had never been down before. It had me wondering how well I actually knew Dean. By all accounts he could have my body buried in a shallow grave before the day was out, but as we petered off from the desolate stretch of road and travelled to an intersection, Dean turned left and his Kingswood thundered down the road where I started to see familiar landmarks. And once we’d veered off the busy main drag and into the narrow alley’s back entrance that led into a car park, it was clear that it was the very same one Boon had dropped me off in last night at the back of the Wipe Out Bar.

  Without a word, Dean plunged the gear stick into park, turned the thumping motor off and slid out of the car, whistling like he didn’t have a care in the world. I watched on through the windshield, genuinely perplexed as to what he was doing. I opened the car door and slowly stepped out from the passenger seat, pushing my sunnies upwards to divide the folds of my hair. I didn’t need them so much here in the concrete jungle. The back of the Wipe Out Bar looked so different in the daytime. It was tagged with graffiti, the skip bins overflowing with rubbish. There was a small alleyway that led down the side towards the front of the building, and an entrance ou
t the back that led down to the basement, which brought back memories of my first time here. Ballantine had led me here, introduced me to that very basement, which turned out to be the pool hall for lost youths and delinquents. I felt a pang of nostalgia hit me. I would give anything to go back to that night, to be led by Ballantine into the dark again. Ballantine. Now was not the time to think about him. Coward.

  My eyes shifted to where Dean was making his way up the back fire escape to the second storey. Once he got there, he inserted a key into a thick army-grey fireproof door. Assuming that he wanted me to follow, I made my way towards the fire escape, rickety and rusted at best. Like most of this building, it left a lot to be desired. It was something I had even thought about in regards to its owner. I came to stand beside him, watching on as he jiggled and twisted the dodgy lock, until the magical click sounded.

  ‘Seems like you need a new lock,’ I mused.

  Dean looked at me, his eyes unshielded by his sunnies that were now hooked into the pocket of his shirt. ‘Why?’ he asked, frowning.

  ‘Well, seems a bit dodgy, that’s all,’ I said with a shrug. I’m convinced he would argue any point. If the sky were blue he would swear it was green.

  ‘There’s nothing wrong with it,’ he said, stepping back and tilting his head at the flaky gunmetal grey door with its wonky, hard-to-open lock.

  He yanked it open, the heaviness of it straining the muscles of his inked biceps, muscles that I averted my eyes from because, well, it seemed wrong to stare.

  I stepped into a hall, long, narrow and dark, suddenly feeling enclosed and hot until Dean started making his way down it. I couldn’t see much except the outline of his tall frame as he led me along where it became lighter. Then we turned a corner and passed a familiar door to Dean’s apartment. At the end, in the opposite direction, I could see the door to Dean’s office and just as I thought that was our intended destination, double stepping to follow, Dean stopped, causing me to slam into his back.

  ‘Ow, Jesus, what are you doing?’ he hissed, turning around to look daggers at me.