I snuck over to where Sue had a pile of bottles of water hidden in the shade. “You know the best bit about helping out with the F1s?” I said with a devious smile.
“What?” Jo asked interestedly.
“When you rush out after a race and pour the water on and it all steams and hisses dramatically in huge clouds!” I declared. “Like this!” I ran round to the front of Quinn’s car and poured a bottle of water all over it, watching it collapse in a heap under the assault of the water rivulets.
“Oy!” Quinn yelled, leaping up.
I ran as fast as I could away towards the sea. He caught up with me at the water’s edge, snatched me up and threw me as far as he could into the deep. With massive self control I stayed under. And stayed under some more going floppy and allowing myself to float limply to the surface where the waves crashed and tumbled me. Finally he must have got sufficiently worried to come in after me because I saw his legs approaching and I suddenly grabbed them, tripped him and pulled him under.
“Fuck it!” He said crossly when he’d hauled himself out of the water and sloshed to the shore. “I’m such a muppet! Fancy falling for that old chestnut! I’m soaking now!”
I grinned at him, triumphant.
“And if I were you Eve, I wouldn’t walk back towards four men looking like that,” he advised me.
“Like what?” I frowned.
“Wet tee shirt competition,” he jerked his head at my vest top. “It’s gone completely see-through.”
“Oh crap, has it?” I said dismayed looking down. Seriously, my top might well have been made from clear cellophane. “Now what do I do?”
He grinned at me. “If you speak to me nicely I might lend you my sopping wet leather jacket that’s going to take bloody weeks to dry, as long as you don’t use the knife in the pocket to stab anyone this time.”
I smiled at him and accepted the jacket off him. “Thanks,” I said. He smiled back at me.
We walked slowly back to the others and found them all stretched out sunbathing, in various states of shut-eye. I jerked my head at Quinn and lured him a couple of metres away.
“I need to talk to you about something.”
“What’s that then Ginty?”
“I’m really worried Hussein’s back,” I said.
“Shit Ginty! What makes you think that?” At least Quinn took me seriously.
“You remember- ” I quoted the number plate.
“Yep.”
“Well every night when I ride home I divert to check out that street I spotted it on, and it’s there more often than not…and then when I went to pick up Nasim’s Mum the other day…”
“You’re never going to their house Ginty? That’s a huge risk isn’t it?”
“Not really, I go at lunchtime and use Jo’s car so no-one will recognise it and I cover my head. And now that Tariq’s in the slammer…”
“Tariq’s in prison?”
“Surely you knew that, Quinn?”
He looked blank.
“Me and Rajesh made sure he got put away. Seemed like the only way for Rajesh to be able to marry Nasim. Rajesh made me do it though, because he thought Nasim might never forgive him if she found out he’d got her older brother arrested.”
“What for though?”
I sighed. “Where have you been Quinn! That big cannabis farm they burned down last year. Tariq was running it and Sahmir and Jamie were secretly nicking plants from it and selling them at the school gates. Rajesh and I kidnapped Sahmir and made him take us there.”
“You kidnapped Sahmir?” Quinn echoed gobsmacked. “How?”
“Told Oz that we needed to borrow his Dad’s van and got Danny’s Dad to drive it. I told him we needed him to drive it so we could kidnap someone, and then I looked him straight in the eye and laughed, and he thought it was a joke…”
“And Rajesh joined in?” Quinn rolled a disbelieving eye at me.
“Well I’m not going to pretend that he didn’t bleat like a tethered goat at being made to do it but once I’d tied Sahmir up and got the tape around his mouth he got quite into the spirit of it, threatening the thumb screws and wrenches and what-not. Seemed to quite enjoy it!”
“Shit Ginty, has anyone ever told you you’re a psychopath?”
“It might have been mentioned once or twice…” I said dryly. “Anyway, Sahmir conveniently shits himself whenever he bumps into me and Rajesh which is quite a healthy situation from our point of view as he’s never going to squeal to his Dad about me fetching his Mum…”
“So – Hussein?” Quinn prompted me back on track.
“Saw that same car a couple of doors up from Nasim’s parents. You remember Tariq was thick with him – at school with him I think? Well I saw Hussein coming out of that house. He probably only had to do half his sentence…”
“I hope you didn’t let him see you Ginty – he’ll owe you big time for blowing up his bike!”
“Excuse me?” I said stiffly. “Who suggested I blew up his bike?”
Quinn looked sideways at me. “No-one Ginty, I just know you too well. You get out of hospital after they beat you up and three days later all three of their bikes get blown up one after the other within half an hour? I was just surprised Holty didn’t work it out.”
“Oh he did,” I assured him. “It’s just he couldn’t prove it. When he knocked on our door forty minutes later Jamie and I were innocently watching Top Gear in our pyjamas with wet hair and all my petrol splashed clothes were in the washing machine.”
Quinn laughed. “And while we’re at it Ginty. Trevelyn.”
“What about Trev?” I snapped, furiously angry at him bringing him up out of the blue.
“How come everyone’s convinced he’s a paedophile? As soon as I heard that I thought, that’s Ginty. No way would she not get even somehow…”
I was silent.
“So how did you manage it?” He pursued doggedly.
“Went early in the morning and shoved a note through every door in the street warning them that a paedophile had moved in,” I admitted. “Within a week he was getting dog shit shoved through his letter box every day, graffiti on his wall and hardly dared leave the house after dark. He had to move across town and then I think he had to move out of town as well…”
“Fuck it Ginty,” he said admiringly. “Remember Miss Shorney at school? She seemed to think you were an evil creative genius. I think she was right!”
“Anyhow, what I’m trying to tell you Quinn, if you’d only shut up for five minutes, is that you’re not listening to Daisy.”
“Aren’t I?” He said blankly. “How’d we suddenly get onto Daisy?”
“Daisy’s having to walk back home every night past all these bloody pimps and kerb crawlers and when she tries to tell you this you just laugh.”
“Do I?” He said blankly.
“Yes, you do,” I said impatiently. “She tries to tell you how unpleasant it is and how scared she is in that soft little voice of hers but you don’t take anything seriously unless it’s accompanied by a sharp kick to the head! I’m trying to tell you that bloody Hussein is back, there’s carloads of Asian lads turning up to some flat a few streets away that Daisy has to pass every night and someone round our way chained two girls to a bed in a basement. Do you really want Daisy to get tangled up with any of that lot?”
“Of course not,” Quinn was put out. He frowned. “But what do you suggest I do?”
“We need to sort out more lifts for her. Has she got a driving licence? Can’t you put her on your insurance? You’ve got two vehicles now…”
Quinn screwed up his face, thinking hard. “Maybe we can teach her to drive your bike Ginty. And you take over mine. One of these days they’re going to spot you and you’re gonna need some speed to get away and you can’t be pottering off at fifty miles an hour and expect to get ahead of them. I’ve already put you on both my insurances.”
“Have you?” I was surprised.
“Just in case really. But I
agree we need to get Daisy sorted with a vehicle of her own. And then I suggest we find somewhere else to live…”
“I thought you were given three months’ notice ages ago,” Jo interrupted. “What happened about that?”
I looked sharply round to find everyone was ear wigging something rotten. “How long have you lot been listening in?” I said crossly.
Tyler was lying propped up on his side in the soft sand, watching me. “Since it got interesting…” He teased me. “Which was pretty much straight away, you little criminal!”
“The landlord cancelled the notice after the flood,” I answered Jo. “He realised he couldn’t sell the place after all, and they’ve only just started to do up the basement flat – it’s been a stinking hole in there for months now.”
Sue looked across at me, a worried expression on her face. “I don’t like listening in to a conversation where a young girl is advised to ride a faster bike to get away from some violent local thugs…”
I shrugged. “Fact of life round our way,” I dismissed.
Rob had been lying there with his eyes closed. Now he sat up and stretched. “You done Quinn?”
Quinn glanced at his watch. “Yeah, we’d better scoot. Get that jacket back to me when it’s finally dry you vandal!” He directed at me.
After they’d moseyed off Tyler reached out a hand to me and rested it on my arm. “God, Eve, you’re freezing.”
“Yeah, this jacket’s sopping wet,” I agreed.
“Well take it off then you idiot!” Jo said.
“Can’t,” I said, giving Tyler, and Tyler only, a quick flash of what was underneath.
He choked back a laugh. “Someone give this girl a cardigan,” he appealed.
Sue managed to turf one out for me and I turned my back, took the jacket off, hauled off the wet cotton vest and quickly replaced it with the cardigan. When I looked round, Paul had politely lain back down with his eyes closed, pretending to sunbathe.
“I think we’ll go back and get this girl into some dry clothes,” Tyler suggested, getting up. “Thanks for lunch Sue, and for the trophy, Paul!”
Pete looked at Jo. “Bet I know where Tyler’s going to get dragged tonight…”
Tyler gave him an odd look.
“Just don’t let her hold your broken hand,” he advised him. “Or you won’t be able to drive tomorrow.”
Jo poked her Dad hard. “I’m expecting you to take me again you know,” she informed him. Then she looked up at the pair of us, “so we’ll see you there I expect!”
As we walked away, Tyler said, “What were they on about?”
“You’ll find out,” I promised smiling up at him.
Back at the guest house we showered off all the salt and sand and as we lay naked and entwined together on the bed, Tyler kissed me with gentle, loving eyes looking into mine. “Don’t put yourself in any danger will you, Eve? I don’t want to be worrying about you all the time. You’re such a lovely precious thing…”
I said nothing.
He put his arms around me. “I mean it Eve. I wish I could be with you all the time to keep you safe. I wish I could whisk you away to my lair and guard you like the dragon guards the princess…”
I smiled at him, but his expression became so intense with longing and things he didn’t dare say that I pulled away.
“Let’s go and get something to eat,” I suggested briskly.
“Ok,” he said, his eyes lidding over his emotions. When he looked back up, there was no sign of what had been there before. “Where shall we go?”
“Fish and chips,” I said promptly, “and then the really big rides on the funfair.”
His eyes lit up with glinting amusement. “Ah, now I understand…”
True to his word, back at the flat on Monday, Quinn immediately began to sort me and Daisy out with an exchange of vehicles.
“Where should we take her to teach her how to ride your bike Ginty?”
We sat and thought carefully. A couple of phone calls later and I’d organised for us to take her up to the Satterthwaites’ practice track.
Tuesday found us all out in the windy field trying to instruct Daisy how to manage my bike. We had to start from absolute scratch, even how to hold it upright, push it along when necessary, pull out and put away the stand, let alone how to start the engine and wobble away. (She screamed a bit). Various Satterthwaites appeared for a few minutes every now and again, variously smiled, repressed a smile, or got the giggles and had to go away. Finally, completely exhausted, we all retreated to the kitchen where Paul made us some mugs of tea.
“Phew, that was hard work!” Quinn exclaimed while Daisy was off on an excursion into the rest of the house to find the toilet. He accepted a mug from Paul.
“We’ve got to teach her how to manage in traffic yet,” I said gloomily.
“Maybe we should book her into a course,” Quinn said sensibly. “Because I’ve discovered big time this evening that I haven’t missed my vocation as a teacher…” He waved his mug at me. “But you go ahead and take over my bike straight away,” he offered generously. He took a second glance at my expression. “You can’t wait can you?”
Daisy returned and Pete and Jo started wandering in.
“I hope you’re not too light for it,” he added with a frown. “You need to go careful cornering it at first and not go too fast.”
“So I don’t end up like you did on your first outing on your last one?” I reminded him tartly.
“Oh shut up!” He threw across the table at me.
“What happened?” Jo asked curiously, sitting down with us.
“He was showing off on his new heavier bike, driving too fast and didn’t lean far enough into the corner so ended up trapped under his bike in a deep and muddy newly ploughed field…” I informed them delightedly.
Quinn glared at me as he remembered the scene. “And then the total cow just left me there!” He reported to them.
“Well, as I remember it, you yelled at me ‘don’t just fucking stand there you bitch, get this mother off me’ and I figured you needed to learn some manners!” I said acerbically.
Everyone except Daisy was laughing. “That’s so mean Eve,” she protested. “So how did you get out?” She asked him supportively, giving me a reproachful look.
Quinn grimaced. “It was utterly humiliating. I had to wait for another car to notice and stop and I finally got hauled out by young woman who was seven months pregnant!”
Sue walked in to catch us all in various stages of hilarity. “Will you three stay for a meal?” She offered.
“Are you sure?” I ascertained. “We don’t want to impose…”
Sue smiled directly at Daisy. “I’ve been dying to meet the wonderful Daisy, I’ve heard so much about you!”
Daisy blushed and smiled, and Quinn grinned at me. I think he guessed that whatever Sue had heard about Daisy, it wouldn’t all be good…
On Wednesday I went up to work on Pete and Fay’s cars.
“Now you’re back helping out at the racing,” Pete said, “we’ve lost our magic elf…”
I gave him a weird look.
Paul smiled. “Pete’s been calling you the magic elf because we’ve been going off driving at the weekends and come back to find his other car all beautifully sorted.”
Jo smiled too. “Yeah, it’s been great, we’ve been lazing around all week with our feet up!”
“Are you helping Tyler again next weekend?” Paul asked.
“I don’t want to get into it being expected of me when he clearly doesn’t need me and some other people genuinely do,” I said, “but on this occasion, with it being the European, I thought it would be fun.”
Pete eyed me. “You think he’ll take it then?”
I shrugged. “He’s already got the English Open, the British, the Ben Fund and the F2 Nationals…”
“Damn that divorce of his!” Jo said grumpily. “He used to stick to just the World Championship and the occasional other title,
but now he’s free to just throw himself at everything. And since our own favourite idiot saw fit to get herself banned it looks like he’ll walk away with the Silver too!”
“How’s he going to decide to paint his roof?” I queried with a wrinkled brow. “Stripes?”
Jo began to giggle. “He’ll look like a liquorice allsort!”
“Or a dolly mixture!” I suggested subversively.
Even Pete cracked into a grin at the thought.
“Come on Pete, we’re relying on you to get the Gold for us this year,” I urged. “We’ve just got to take it off him!”
Pete grimaced. “With every successive title he snatches, the less hopeful I feel about my chances,” he admitted.
I fixed Pete with a stern stare. “You’re taking the Gold this year Pete, it’s your year. Now go out and bloody well do it!”
Paul was watching me thoughtfully. He glanced at Pete. “She’s right Pete. A lot of this is just in your head. You need to decide that you’re going all out for it and not allow another thought to enter your head.”
On Friday morning Dad rang me on my mobile. “I’m worried about how the Quinns are doing. Could you go round and see them?”
I thought that was a bit weird. “Why me Dad?”
He hesitated. “Well Siân really, that’s what I mean. You’ve got more chance than me or Pauline of finding out what’s going on there…”
“Crap Dad, I’m the last person she’ll want to talk to!” I protested.
“Please just have a go,” he pleaded.
It was so uncharacteristic of him to contact me like this that I thought I’d better do as he asked.
After work I rode round on Quinn’s bike to the house. I loved Quinn’s bike. It was bloody amazing after mine. I had to let him know I loved it to reward him for loaning it to me, but I didn’t want to enthuse too much in case it reminded him how much he used to enjoy riding it and decide to take it back.
I rang the doorbell. It was strange to have no dog barking hysterically from inside, but the dog was dead of course. For the best I supposed. It would be just one more thing to have to look after. Eventually little Declan answered the door. He could only just manage to reach the catch.
The Way Barred (Not Quite Eden Book 4) Page 19