“Charlie.” He looks over at me from the driver’s seat. “I need to answer this, ok?” “I’ll be quiet.” I roll my eyes. “Your dirty secret is safe.” “Tristan.” He answers as he puts him on the loudspeaker.
“Mate,” Tristan says down the phone. “Did you get that custody form? You need to sign it as a reference.”
“I’ll do it this evening, ok? I’m just… out right now.”
“Sure,” Tristan replies. “Then hopefully we have the bitch cunt right where we want her.”
I wince as I hear a darker angrier Tristan than I’m used to. Danny gives me a sheepish sidewards glance.
“She can’t leave the country with my son, Danny.”
I stare aghast at Danny, but he ignores me. Gemina is trying to leave England? Why didn’t Tristan tell me? He told Danny but not me, his own sister?
“We’ll do it, Tristan,” Danny says softly, bringing the Aston Martin to a stop. “She won’t take Daniel.” His voice is confident, but he fails to hide the concern on his face.
“Listen.” Tristan starts. “Go easy on Mara, ok? She’s working on a critical case, and I can’t have her distracted. Don’t turn her goo-eyed like all the others.”
Mara. Perfect bloody Mara. I had forgotten about her. Her name does weird things to my stomach.
Danny visibly flinches beside me.
All the other goo-eyed morons like me. I squirm in my seat. How many does he have?
You knew this; a small voice chastises me. Don’t get emotionally attached.
“Listen, I gotta go,” he says hurriedly. “I’m running some errands.”
Tristan’s laugh booms from the speaker. “Since when do you do your own errands?” “Bye, Tristan,” Danny grunts, ending the call.
I plaster my big girl smile on. Mara might be the perfect match, but she’s not here now. I am. I will get into this pond and show Danny Walker what a fun time girl I really am.
***
Swimming in a pond isn’t as zen-like and romantic as it sounds. For a start, I’ve been here twenty minutes, and I haven’t managed to actually get into the water. So far, I have gotten as far as my knees, and that took a lot of willpower and pain. Now I understand what Jack means when he explains to Rose about the water hitting you like a thousand knives.
Danny stripped off and jumped in as soon as he’d turned the ignition off like some type of freak fishboy and has been trying to coax me in ever since.
“Charlie, just jump in.” He shouts up from the water. “You are making it worse for yourself.” “No,” I hissed at him.
There is sneering and snorts of laughter behind me. To top it all off, I am being victimised by a gang of ten-year-old boys.
“What a wuss, lady!” The ginger one shouts at me.
I glare at him. “Go fuck yourself, dipshit!”
“Charlie.” Danny shakes his head, laughing. “He’s about 10. You can’t say that to him. Anyway, you are being a wuss.”
“Listen, Pamela Anderson,” I snapped back. “I don’t need a few little pricks taunting me. If I am doing this, I am doing it my way.”
“No, you’re nooot.” Ginger sings at me, inching forward.
“What are you doing?’ I demand, flapping my arms at him. “Don’t come any closer.” Smelling my fear, his confidence grows. He waves his pre-puberty army over.
“Come on, lads, let’s get her!”
They advance on me like rodents on a dead bird. Pushing and shoving me.
“Get off, you little mother fuckers”. My screams are smothered by high-pitched giggles and cries of ‘get her.’
With a final shove, Ginger sends me flying into the lake, and I hit the water with force. A thousand knives immediately stab every pore of my skin from my toes to my ears. Jack was spot on. I’m having a heart attack.
Strong arms pull me up, and as I hit the surface, my mouth lets out a scream so blood-curdling even the ducks do a mass exodus.
I thrash around wildly in the water, cursing, and I swear I’ve forgotten how to breathe.
The gang laughs from the river bank. “Fucking assholes.” I bellow, sticking my middle finger up at them. “I’ll fucking murder each and every one of you.”
“Easy, Charlie! They’re just playing!” Danny wraps my legs around him so that he’s holding my weight up. “You’ll have a gang of angry mothers over if you carry on like that.” I turn to him, spitting out water.
“Don’t you start,” I growl with such ferocity he cowers.
***
It’s hard to stay mad with a man with a washboard stomach and a jawline that could cut glass. Especially since he is now naked, towelling himself dry in front of me, and even though we have been in freezing cold water, he’s still huge.
We are in the outdoor changing rooms after my near-death experience. I’ll admit I may have overreacted a tad, but I’m still freezing to the core.
“You are indecent in that string thing.” He murmurs as he towels me dry. “The triangle barely covers your best bits.”
“It’s two sizes too small, remember?” We made a detour via a clothes shop before hitting the lido, but it was limited in choices. Of all the things to bring to Danny Walker’s on Saturday night, a bikini was not on my list.
“Good thing no other men were here to see you,” he growls. “I would have knocked out anyone who looked.”
“Except for that violent gang,” I mutter as I turn around to hang up my wet bikini bra. “My bones have turned to ice with the shock of that attack.”
“We can get you warm again.”
He grabs me from behind and pins me against the wall.
“What the hell are you-“