by Nicola Rose
Mullet dangled there, clutching at the hand cutting off his airway. Spit flew from his mouth. His face went from red to blue. I couldn’t imagine how anyone could have enough strength in their one arm to lift a man a foot from the ground like that.
“If I see you on my island again, I won’t be so lenient. Understand?” Zac asked.
Mullet tried to say something and Zac dropped him back down, grabbing one of his arms and twisting it behind his back. He shoved him towards me and I took a step back.
“Say you’re sorry,” Zac said in his ear.
Mullet looked at me with unbridled hatred. Zac twisted his arm harder and I flinched at the sickening sound of bone crunching. Actually, no, even more sickening was the sound of the agonised yell that followed.
“Sorry, sorry, sorry,” Mullet wailed.
“Speak clearly, you fucking inbred, I can’t hear you,” Zac growled.
He screamed even louder. I don’t know what Zac did to him that time; I was too busy looking at the terror on Anna’s face.
“Sorry!” he yelled again, choking on his own vomit.
Zac walked a few paces, Mullet dangling like a ragdoll, and dropped him into the waves. He came up spluttering onto his knees and was swiftly kicked in the face. His nose splattered, blood streamed everywhere, his arm hung limply at an odd angle.
“Wait!” I shouted, snapping from my immobility. Through the inky fading darkness hundreds of people were still laughing, drinking and dancing not far away, unaware of the action unfolding. Had they noticed I should think they’d have formed a chanting circle and whooped the fight on.
“I thought you said you were being lenient? You’re going to kill him!”
“Maybe,” Zac mused, pausing his assault and finding my eyes. The hateful glare forced me to look away. I took Anna’s arm and helped her up. She stood silently, staring into space.
“That was a really dumb thing to do,” Zac said.
“What?” I asked, already knowing that he’d witnessed my sand display. He knew I was a freak of nature. He wouldn’t come anywhere near me now. What man would? Who would want to risk getting blown up or choked by Mother Nature if they piss me off?
“Your little strip display for him,” he said, nodding at Mullet who was still heaving into the ocean.
“Oh. So you did see that?” At least something good came from the night.
He was staring hard at my nose. Something tickled and I wiped it, finding blood on my hand. He fixated on it, looking from my nose to my hand and back again, grinding his teeth in anger. His shoulders hunched up and he grabbed hold of his hands in front of him, twisting them together and flexing his fingers. He didn’t like seeing a woman hurt by a man, that was for sure.
“It’s nothing,” I said, hastily wiping the blood on my jeans. “Probably looks worse than it is. I could have handled it you know.”
He took a huge intake of breath and released it slowly. Grabbing my wrist, he gripped me so tight that a searing pain burned through to the bone.
“So I saw. But you’re lucky they were the only guys that took a serious interest in what you have to offer. It could have been—” He trailed off, watching Mullet with narrowing eyes.
“You’re hurting me,” I pried at his fingers with my other hand, but he wouldn’t release.
His gaze settled back on my bloody nose and he leant in closer. His jaw clamped tight. Was he going to kiss me with that much anger on his face?
“Get out of here,” he ordered, letting go abruptly and turning away to follow the pitiful figures scrambling their sorry asses back along the beach.
6
Jess
The bruise on my wrist was fading, having gone from angry purple to a greeny-yellow. I was pretty sure it had been caused by Zac, not Mullet, which was confusing. But then, most things from that night were confusing.
Anna struggled for a couple of days; crying, shouting at everything. Then Danny gave her a pep-talk, told her he’d kill the next man that tried to hurt her, or me. Our vacation time was over and she had to return to work, back to the reception desk of a budget hotel. I think getting back to reality helped her though, because she sent me a cheery message this morning telling me she loved me, and wishing me luck on my induction day at the firehouse.
Ten minutes later and my cell pinged again.
Anna: What did the fireman say when the church caught fire? … Holy smoke!
I chuckled and made my way to the firehouse, relieved that she was feeling better.
Danny introduced me to the other guys and ran me through my paces on some training exercises. Twelve hours in and I knew this crew would feel like family in no time. They took the piss out of me without holding back, and I gave them as good as I got. I didn’t know whether Danny had told them about any of my problems at my old department but if he did, they didn’t let it show.
We sat down for food and Danny showed me his phone screen with a message from Anna.
Why doesn’t a fire chief look out the window in the morning? Because then he wouldn’t have anything to do in the afternoon.
“She knows me too well,” he laughed.
I was staring hard at his masculine face, the wide strong jaw, covered in that steel-grey stubble, when I noticed the missing persons posters pinned to a noticeboard behind him. Three different pictures; two young women and a guy.
“How long have they been missing?” I asked, nodding at the board.
He rubbed at that greying scruff on his chin, as if aware that I’d been admiring it. “A few weeks, I guess. The pictures change so often, it’s hard to keep track sometimes.”
“Seriously?”
“They usually turn up within two days, having passed out somewhere,” he shrugged. ‘The—”
“This place is riddled with problems, Jess. Keep your nose down, don’t make waves,” interrupted a firefighter nicknamed Meat, taking a seat opposite me with his tray. I hadn’t yet asked him where the name came from, I could already imagine his crotch-grabbing response.
“I don’t have a great track record with keeping my nose out of trouble,” I replied, giving him a devilish grin.
He returned the smirk and pressed his foot into mine under the table. Danny cleared his throat and stood up. “Come on, Firefighter Layton. I have a simulation for you.”
“Aye, I bet he does, Jess! Are we all invited to take part, Chief, or is this a special simulation?” Hoots and jeers went up around the table, the crew slapping their hands against the wood and making lewd faces.
“Settle down, idiots,” Danny said, just as the alarm went off, signalling an incoming emergency call.
We hurried off to assemble and a few moments later a firefighter called Clark appeared.
“It’s a distress call for a first responder at Emerald Beach,” he said. “A girl looks to be in a bad way. An ambulance has been dispatched from Port Isabel, but in the meantime the beach patrol unit are already dealing with another situation. Want me to go, Chief?”
“No, I’ll take Firefighter Layton,” Danny grabbed his jacket and had me rushing out the door with him.
We were at the beach in less than two minutes. A hotel worker waved us over and led us to a girl, sitting under a parasol, with her knees pressed into her chest. She was completely naked, her skin bleached of all colour, save the bruises on her arms and neck. Her eyes were wild, frantically darting from side to side as she muttered to herself.
“Elwood!” she screamed, her teeth chattering.
Danny heaved a breath.
“Alright, love, it’s okay,” he said, wrapping a blanket around her shoulders.
“What are these?” I asked, opening the blanket a fraction and pointing at the small pinprick scabs over her neck and arms, surrounded by bruising.
“Track marks. There’s a lot of junkies around here,” Danny said.
“No!” she screamed, fighting free of the blanket and launching herself at Danny. “No, Alex! Alex!”
“Hey!” I yelled, tryi
ng to get hold of her in a firm, but reassuring way. “You don’t like him? It’s okay, I’m here.” I stroked her hair and eased her down onto a lounger.
A crowd had gathered to watch the show. Danny yelled at them until they backed off. I placed the blanket back over her quivering naked form. I’d never seen anyone so skinny in my life. Paper-thin skin stretched tight over bones that poked out everywhere.
She looked up at me, goggle-eyed, the whites of her eyes wide and bloodshot.
My mouth flopped open for a moment before I could form the words, “Shit, Chief! She’s from that poster. She’s the missing girl.”
She looked different to the picture, having lost almost every bit of pumped-out flesh from her features, but it was definitely her. Her face followed my thoughts around for the rest of that night. So afraid, rambling on about trust and blood. That poor girl had been through something horrific.
“She was talking about Alex Elwood. Have the police arrested him yet?” I asked Danny as he took down the girl’s poster.
He heaved a sigh with his back to me, but didn’t answer.
“I bet he’s connected to the other missing people, too. This could be a massive case. I dread to think what else they might find when they raid him,” I continued, my stomach doing somersaults. If this was Alex’s doing, then what did that say about Zac? Was he connected?
Of course he was connected, look at the way he’d been stalking me. He wasn’t normal. I knew that. I knew the way he watched me was dangerous, that something lurked underneath, and yet I’d brushed it off because I wanted to fuck him. Like that was more important than listening to the alarm bells. Because, maybe, those alarm bells excited me. The unknown, the thrill.
Stupid, stupid girl. That could have been me that ended up a missing person. Hairs crept up along my arms and neck. The sooner they were arrested the better.
“She was a junkie, nothing more. Lots of kids run away to come here and get wasted on Carnage Island. He might have provided the drugs, but he’ll just get a slapped wrist,” Danny said.
“No way!” I shouted. “The police won’t buy that crap. That girl was terrified, he did something to her.”
Danny screwed the poster up into a ball and turned on me, his face full of anger.
“The police are there right now. I give it another twenty-four hours and it will go silent, as if nothing ever happened. The whole thing will be hushed up.”
“Why? How?” My face scrunched up as he shook his head at me.
“Because the Elwoods own the island and everyone in power. They’re untouchable. As much as I hate it and would never accept their bribes, they own my ass, too. I’m powerless to do anything. And so are you, so don’t go sniffing around.” He’d stepped so close to me that he took hold of my arms.
“You’re scared of them?”
He snorted and walked away. “I’m scared for you, if you push them. I mean it, Layton. Stay away from both of them.”
7
Jess
Telling me to stay away from danger and trouble was as good as handing it to me on a silver platter. I gravitate towards it with my scalp tingling and my crotch throbbing. As a result, I don’t imagine my life expectancy is particularly long, but at least I’ll go out buzzing. Probably.
The tension tore at me inside. I had an overriding need to seek out Alex and find out what the hell was going on around here. Still, a better plan would be to get close to his brother, since Zac had already shown such a keen interest in me. I’d lure him in further and work them out. They were surely working together, taking young girls and doing goodness knows what to them.
Danny had gone down in my estimations. He might have been prepared to sit around and ignore it, but I wasn’t.
In the meantime, I found myself at the island casino, since one of the best ways to let off steam and release the stress is to play. Poker had helped me through many rocky times, starting out a day feeling low and finishing up on a high. This would definitely be one of those times, I could feel it brewing already – the wave of anxiety. It scratched and tickled at me inside. These were the days when I got into trouble, when I’d follow the rush wherever it went, chasing it down.
The fact that Anna had once told me how Zac played poker was of course no bearing on my being here. I should go home. Before I did something crazy. Vacation was over, I was working now. New life, new rules. I was pretty sure that gambling at the casino, whilst looking out for the mysterious bad boy was not on Anna’s list of appropriate hobbies.
Nevertheless, I strolled out of the rest room dressed like some gold-digging bimbo and stashed my jeans and helmet into a locker. My low cut t-shirt was pulled as far down as it would go, with a push-up bra trying its best to give me some sort of cleavage. The clingy short skirt chafed my butt cheeks and my long, lean legs flowed elegantly beneath me on high heels. Oh alright, not elegantly, I’m awkward in heels, but you get the idea.
I tottered around aimlessly, making out I didn’t know where to go, whilst discretely taking in everything, looking for the most promising cash game.
I dismissed several tables with players who clearly knew what they were doing, especially the ones where the obvious pros were already seated, taking money from tourists and college kids that had blagged in on their false IDs. I guessed this time of year the casino management got sloppy, just like the bars did. All those young things eager to lose their cash would be hard to turn away.
That left two other tables and I settled on one with some British tourists. I pretended to be on ‘holiday’ like them and we bonded over talk of British cities and weather. I gave them the hustle routine, explaining how I didn’t know what I was doing and that they better go easy on me. Piece of piss. So easy to take their money.
I kept up the stream of nervous giggles, asking them “Was that hand good or bad?… What on earth is the flop?… It sounds funny!… Should I have folded then? Oooops, Silly me!”
I would accidentally win a few hands here and there so that I didn’t lose too many chips, then gradually win a few more, putting it down to beginner’s luck.
I was mid flow in a story about how I lost all my chips the one time I’d played before when my ears started burning. Someone else was watching me.
Zac had taken a seat at a table nearby and was giving me the usual stink eye. I didn’t dare look away in case he had gone when I looked back. Instead I braved the angry expression, took it on the chin, and used the opportunity to fully admire every inch of his face — the rich hazel eyes with a kind of darkness around them, like he wasn’t getting enough sleep. He didn’t seem tired or haggard, though.
Quite the opposite, his eyes were more alive than anything I could describe. Like an animal. His luscious, full lips pressed together, with 5 o’clock shadow covering a strong jaw. How I longed to feel that stubble on the inside of my thighs. If only he wasn’t a psycho.
His lips twitched ever so slightly, almost a smile. The guy sitting next to me gave me a nudge.
“Uh, sorry, I get so easily distracted, what was I saying?” I glanced down at my hand, a pair of tens. Placing the minimum bet, I hoped someone might try to bluff me with a raise. It wasn’t an exceptionally strong hand, but it might be enough if they tried to take advantage with a mediocre hand themselves.
Zac watched with quiet amusement on his face. At least some of the animosity had faded, but having him watching made me nervous. I would die of embarrassment if I stuffed this up.
Three guys folded except one called Max. He raised the pot considerably. Bingo. I hadn’t seen him raise with a decent hand all night, he preferred to slow play them. He’d been raising all night with nothing though, and this time I was ready to catch him out.
That left one other, Mr. Cowboy Hat, who called the bet. He’d been throwing chips away carelessly, I didn’t have much faith in him knowing what the hell he was doing, so that was good, unless the fish got lucky.
I paused with feigned distress, agreeing “what the hell” and throwing my
chips in. Another ten came down with the flop and I knew this was the one. I would cash the hell out on this and get over to Zac.
Max was oblivious to his tell, reaching instinctively for his drink, but I noticed it. Cowboy Hat was staring at the Ace on the table. He’d probably hit one, too. Great! If the fourth one in the deck came out, they’d each think they had the nuts, when actually it would seal my victory.
The rest of the cards came down in my favour and I made myself look weak with unsure calling and bets, until the final action when I threw everything I had into the middle. Max was excited, thinking he’d won. Cowboy Hat was confused.
“Really?” Max groaned too melodramatically, “I ought to fold this, I bet you’ve got me beat.” He sighed, but placed the chips in the middle. Idiot, I can act better than you.
He victoriously revealed his trip Aces and reached out to take the chips.
“Wow,” I beamed. “That’s a good hand, Max, but I think that my hand is better?”
I laid the cards down on the table and enjoyed their shocked expressions as they registered my full house. His face went from happiness, to confusion, to pain in an instant.
“Well, gentleman, it’s been a real pleasure doing business with you. Particularly you,” I blew a kiss at Max. “Some advice though, you really want to watch that tell of yours, it’s a dead giveaway. And you two—” I nodded to the young guys. “You need to do some reading up and start playing the odds better, stop chasing. And you Cowboy Hat, well, you just need to stop playing, there’s no hope.”
Their jaws dropped around the table as I finished grabbing the chips and hurried off to the cash-in counter before they could recover and say another word. Behind me I could hear Zac laughing, loud and free. Possibly the best noise my ears had ever been blessed with.
The second I had the money in my hands I marched straight over to Zac, ignoring the jeers from poor Max and his crew. He gazed up at me quizzically, a hint of a smirk remaining on those delectable lips. He’d already attracted a group of eager women. They bunched around the table, watching, waiting, hoping they’d get lucky with this inhumanly gorgeous man and his buckets of money. His stack was practically piled up to the roof.