Avalon Expandable Heart: The Wild Heart Series

by Shantelle McKinnon

  “I’m stoked I smell better than cardboard, you know how to float my boat with compliments,” I blow out a breath as she pulls back to look up into my eyes, away from my heated body. She is beautiful. The light plays on her high cheek bones and glints softly from her pink lips. I’m astounded I haven’t lost control. I feel another surge of hope permeate my being.

  “What the hell? First, we meet MM who wants me all soft and girly, then can that be it? No, he wants to know everyone’s damn job and now you want compliments, I’m never wearing steak bikinis again, the things expected of me are ridiculous,” she scoffs in half outrage.

  “Who’s MM?” I try to keep the growl out of my voice and tension out of my arms, mainly so I won’t squash her.

  “Pfft, Pop,” she huffs. “He let the chook out of the bag, his alias is Master Mind. Evil – don’t- tell- the-whole-damn-plan-Master-Mind. You’ll need this information, oh the fates… the way he looks like I should be cottoning on to whatever, but I just don’t. On and on! Now I feel like the poor kid in class that doesn’t get it when everyone else does. Weel in one more area than normal.”

  Another bout of relief. I don’t know what to say; Orb is a pretty nice guy. I’m stuck in uncertainty. I just nod and smooth a stray hair back that is caught in her long, thick eyelashes, it slides through my calloused fingers like silk. Her eyes are incredible, no photo or image that anybody could take of her could ever truly capture her eyes; the colour always makes me think of the most amazing blue tropical waters and when she looks at you? Holy hell.

  “Remember you made me a video? I returned the favour! Wait until you see it! It’s so cool. Nat and me went like everywhere to film all the bits. Even into a department store and the cinemas! We are so going there this week,” she grins widely. “Not with Frank though, they charged us like for thirty people or something pretty much to watch the credits running and… Frank hogs all the popcorn. It was actually kind of annoying. Cleaning it up sucked. Movie theater carpets are sticky… I’m hoping it was soft drink. Nathan kept making gross jokes.”

  “You made me a video?” I ask weakly, before giving in to lean down and kiss her, loving the feel of her responding with a smile. She tastes odd and I draw back to look at her. Her blue eyes are a little glassed over. She balances on her tiptoes to kiss me again, I can’t not. Her hands move up to run over my shoulders and one tangles in my hair.

  “Get a room,” Sam growls next to us, just as I push her back a step and hold her there.

  “Can’t,” Av grins, cheeks pink and eyes glowing. “They’re all booked for this gang’s love fest.”

  “And ones got your name on it,” Nathan says to Sam as he walks past. “Not yours.” He casts a glare my way.

  Sam looks like he wants to attempt a whack to Nathan’s broad back.

  “Everyone is weird today. Unfortunately, I think it’s the bikini.” She smooths her hand down the length of her body. I try not to visualize it. “Seriously. It had a bizarre effect on everyone – except the lady in the bookstore – there’s no way I’m never wearing it again. I mean because of the strange incidences surrounding it and because my bum crack hurts so bad. Poor bum probably absorbed a lot of the evil. I mean it, I’m never ever wearing anything resembling underwear again,” she groans and grits her teeth. “Just in case.”

  Not what I needed to imagine right now, the whole no underwear bit. But the more she talks to the more I feel okay. I’m not the only one it affected. I breathe out heavily. “Maybe I should drop you at the prison…” I grin at her, trying to cover what my body is trying not to imagine with a line she used on me. For some reason Sam’s fondling comment replays and I swallow uncomfortably at the different take on it this time. I can’t help it; I wonder what it would be like. My fingers explore the soft skin on her arm as my hand slides up under the long sleeves.

  “May as well,” she chuckles, “probably will end up there anyway.”

  “And I’ll be right there next to you,” I whisper in her ear, my voice low and husky. Oh shit. What is overtaking me? I step back again, forcing distance between us.

  “Don’t wake the octopus and don’t kill Seth tonight,” she admonishes playfully tapping me on the nose. “You’d have to think they’d probably have some law against jail romances due to it being fun and all,” she muses thoughtfully. “Pop would.”

  “But we’d be in prison anyway so breaking the rules would be considered to be a given, right?” What the hell, I can’t help myself. I can feel my gaze darken on hers as I imagine being next to her again. My brain tries to add sans underwear. My body begins to awaken. Power and energy zing like fireworks.

  “Or maybe that’s their thought process, they can’t go about letting two baddies combine to make an even worse offspring,” she nods sure of her point.

  I don’t know what’s got into me, the thought of us going that far shoots more of that dangerous heat around my body. I let my head lean back against the wall to breath. Maybe I’m not fine. Jarrod told me I would lose it. That she would retaliate because that is who she is. I must control myself.

  “It’s so working already,” she says to someone next to her and I turn to see Nathan settle in beside me. I blink and swallow getting a grip on myself as he relaxes against the wall. Nathan is shrewd and can probably read the air and know what I’m trying desperately not to imagine.

  “Great,” he replies sarcastically. “Fricken shit in the air.” Exactly, shit.

  “We need to burn the bikini. Seriously,” Av twists and puts up her phone to snap a photo of us, oh shit it feels like she has nothing under her robe. Kill me now. I try to imagine the slew of photos that will appear on her bedroom wall after tonight. “You should get a slot on the radio,” she continues, oblivious.

  “And what the hell would I call it?” he shakes his head.

  “Advice for people with balls?” she laughs.

  “That’ll cull my audience to about twelve people nationwide then,” Nathan rolls his eyes. “Real money maker. Oh shit, check out who just rocked up,” annoyance enters his voice.

  Av curves to follow his gaze to a small red headed girl pushing an occupant in a wheelchair into the hall. My chest constricts as I hold my breath for too long, as if I’m expecting whoever has swamped me with messages to come strolling in and I would recognise them. The object of the attention is not the person that would send the message, she’s wearing a nurse’s uniform. But she does seem familiar.

  “Great, the fun police,” Av moans dramatically. “She’ll probably stick us with a sedative.”

  “Dosed for six elephants,” Nathan grinds out.

  “Who is she?” asks Sam.

  “Nurse Emily,” Av and Nathan reply simultaneously, their twin gazes locked on the red head.

  “Good ankles,” Sam muses with his head tilted.

  “She hates us,” Nathan says wryly as Av states that she is way worse than Dastardly Doreen. I remember her now, but then I start to think of other moments in the hospital. Av sliding up under my shirt. I swallow and readjust her even further from my heated body. This is not going well.

  Av seems more agro than I thought she would be as she glowers at the petite nurse. She sighs and turns back to me and I notice her observe the distance. There’s something about her face that’s not usual, I tasted that she’s had something to drink but there is an unfamiliar tightness around her eyes. And there’s only a few things that can stress Av out that much. I hope it’s not me. Maybe she knows right now, the thoughts I’m trying to push back down.

  “Avz,” I say gently turning her back to face me, I feel uncomfortable saying this in front of Sam and Nathan, but I have to get used to it. And I have to know if she felt the change in me. “You all good?” I don’t know if it’s me or Frank, Outlaw or her Pop. I don’t want to choose one, although I’d rather not be the cause of it. I notice Flea and Harry aren’t here. But she wouldn’t have left them if something was wrong.

  She swallows and glances at Nathan, who stiffen
s beside me. I see determination pass over her face and almost feel Nathan’s size double. What if she has been receiving messages too? What if the arsehole has her number? What if they’ve tried something? “Pop has lesions on his lungs, he’s staying here to have more tests done.”

  “Oh fuck,” I hug to me, knowing how precious family is to her. This news was not what I was expecting. “Let me know if you need me to take him anywhere.” I think after seeing Av drive in the city it would be better if I took him, so he actually made it there in one piece.

  “Thank you,” she smiles at me, her blue eyes electric in their darkened surrounds. They remain on mine and I try not to swallow as the intensity in them grows.

  “Excuse me, Miss?” A raspy voice croaks from behind Av. “You missed me!”

  Avalon drags her eyes from mine and turns, I shudder having made it through the exchange. Nathan presses in closer and shoots me a sideways look as his sister asks the old man what he meant.

  “The photo and job enquiry!” he nods almost frantically. His eyes are hugely magnified by the coke bottle glasses perched on top of his nose.

  “Oh, right, I’m so sorry,” Av gets her phone ready to take the selfie. They both smile as she clicks. Bloody hell she’s beautiful. In fact, beautiful does not do her enough credit.

  “Name and rank?” she grins.

  “Stix was what they used to call me,” Nathan moves forward as if the name suddenly interested him enough to join the conversation. The concoction sure has mellowed him out. There’s no radiation of hostility at all, even though for the last few seconds I was the object of his scrutiny. Should I tell him about the messages? What if he asks how I reacted to them? I can deal with anyone that comes close to Avalon myself, I decide. Just not myself.

  “And you were an explosive expert?” Nathan asks looming over the diminutive elderly figure eagerly.

  Of course he was.

  “I have the gift,” he states with meaning and unworried by the looming giant.

  Whatever the meaning is I don’t get it, but the two siblings in front of him certainly do. The three of them grow matching smiles. The type of smiles that make me inhale in readiness to be prepared for what may happen next. Sam’s voice whispers against my side, “Oh God, should we be worried? Surely they won’t blow something up in the next hour.”

  It was in that second as I go to turn to him, I catch Orb watching the whispering trio with a look I don’t know how to explain, except for the fact that he seemed like someone who’s seeing something fall into place. It’s gone in the next millisecond and I wonder if I had seen it in the first place.

  “Wouldn’t rule it out, I’ve learnt that good things don’t always come in small packages,” I chuckle with Sam.

  Avalon, Nathan and Stix are talking about this Hostel and the people in it… whether he is happy and fits in. Whether he can have day visits and what they would be required to get. The three of them seem very excited.

  I shake my head at Sam, lost. I wonder if Sam’s call of blowing something up is actually on the cards for the near future. Avalon gives a thumbs up across the room to her Pop, who nods and waggles an eyebrow.

  “Can’t believe how much she raked in today, can you?” Sam asks, losing interest in the three lowered heads before us, obviously not knowing what the ‘gift’ is either.

  I had forgot about that part. “How much?” I raise my eyebrow.

  “Like over a quarter of a mill,” his eyes are wide.

  “Bullshit,” I gape.

  “Yup, some big dollars toward farmers just for her getting a steak bikini on for five minutes. She better not burn it!”

  “Maybe I’ll get D to whip it over to a male version for you Sammie Bear! Hey, and you forgot, I also got an extra hundred bucks! Did you see? I pulled off a sexy look on the bridge! Chopper totally captured it,” Av beams. “Don’t challenge meeeeeeee!” she tickles Sam without abandon who curls up like a rollie pollie beetle. On the bridge?

  “Only cost me fifty, since bets were coming in all around today,” Sam shoots me a triumphant gaze after straightening and grasping Av’s hands behind her back. I shake my head slightly not following. Sam hastily lets her free misreading my head shake but smiles serenely. “I rocked up the Avenue this morning, right in front of your mate Jarrod and a few others too. You should have seen his face, talk about murderous eyes. Wade and Jaime had to cough up, then they did the runner up there too.”

  “Jarrod saw you and did nothing?” I ask, kind of shocked. Jarrod hates that stuff. He’s quite territorial.

  “Oh man, he wanted to alright, but only had a few chicks with him,” Sam crosses his arms with a gleeful grin. “I even nodded in his direction like no worries, princess.”

  “What time was this?” I think about how he came to visit me today and didn’t mention seeing Sam at all, something that he would have been harking up about all day previously. Maybe it was because I mentioned the fruit thing and he thought he better had not.

  “I better get this party rolling.” Av is back in front of me smiling with a palpable zing of new energy coursing through her veins. I can tell why she would rake in the money. I’d give her everything I owned to get her to notice me if I didn’t know her. “Can you film all our bits on my phone please? Harry and Flea can not miss this!”

  I take it and remember the last time she asked me to do that. I shake my head and then smile at what could be on the books for tonight. Her and Nathan have been very cloak and dagger about it.

  Av and the choir ensemble themselves on the stage as the lights dim indicating the show is about to start. Strings of soft white lights glow overhead. Gwen is winking at someone in the audience and Irene is smiling shyly. Av is sandwiched between two large ladies that keep grabbing her arm in excitement. She just goes with the manhandling even when they lift her off her feet in their glee.

  “You alright?” Nathan says next to me. His eyes assessing me with that shrewdness.

  “Just stuffed,” I reply honestly, and he stares at me for a second before nodding. I’m glad of the decision to keep the messages quiet and not give him any more to worry about. My phone hasn’t beeped since I got here, maybe it’s well and truly buggered… or hopefully, it’s over. The sender bored, moved on to torment another soul.

  “You’ll get used to it,” his answer reeks of multiple hidden meanings. I doubt I’ll ever get used to dressing like a zombie and being almost buried alive to see how that would work and sound, but I’m guessing he’s meaning that I will get used to the spontaneity of being with Av or something.

  I hear Av’s laughter and my eyes are drawn to her as the lights brighten.

  She seems overly smiley; she wipes her mouth and blinks her eyes rapidly. She passes something behind her. “Great. Don’t give her more, ladies.” He shakes his head with a rueful smile. “Be prepared when she crashes,” Nat states lowly to me. “They have no idea what they are ‘freeing’ up.”

  “What will she do?” Sam leans behind me to ask.

  “Depends who she comes into contact with.” Nathan states ominously, his eyes sliding my way. “She tends to narrow her focus.”

  “Whoa,” Sam breathes out from my other side. “I thought Av would be a happy drunk. I hope it’s Kelsey and she meets her later in a dark alley and rearranges her face.” Sam’s tone is violent, reminding me of what I might have sounded like before Av if I talked.

  “Who? That blonde chick? Pfft. No match for Av. Take her out by chucking a mirror into a pool. Nurse Emily better watch it though. Av might get an idea to relieve her of her lung for Pop. And hey, Gwen’s back up booty plan,” he pins Sam with a devilish glint in his eye, “you’re right! She’s extremely bloody happy performing her worst ideas… Ideas that even I suppress the odd shudder upon hearing. Things always seem to get twisted up.”

  I turn to gauge how genuine he is. He pins me with a look that says, ‘prepare’.

  “What? You really mean she’d cut out someone’s lung?” Sam asks incredulous
ly.

  Nathan shrugs. “Depends who is using it.”

  “There’s no way we are going to the cages then,” I rumble imaging that raging beast I fought earless and lungless.

  “That’s tonight?” Nathan’s chest expands and he bulges his biceps in a pose. “Pity. I’m the happy drunk so I’d probably lose from cracking up.”

  And then she starts talking, thanking everyone for coming and all those people who donated money and instruments to make tonight possible, then she starts singing… angelic tones that sooth my ragged soul. And I forget what we were just talking about. The crowd hushes.

  Narrow focus

  Avalon

  I’m into this! I’m pretty carefree when singing in most situations but whoa! That fifth swig of the ever-changing drink is in a serious tangle with my inhibitions. I’m having to keep stopping myself from diving into the crowd, the curiosity of the chances of completing a crowd surfing circuit niggling the dead maths calculator cells of my brain. Imagine the nurses’ faces if all the VA patrons had a go! If that matron were here instead of Emily, Nat could have been assured of being caught! And hurried off to somewhere mega private! The only thing halting me is the front row is mostly created from wheelchairs and two bed ridden patients who don’t look like they could hold up their own toothbrush let alone a teenage girl. Maybe the idea, of ending up in hospital again, lugged with Nurse Emily’s attentions is stopping my leap into uncertainty a little too. Nope, I have to be strong for Pop.

  Gwen’s concoction sure is ruthless considering these choir songs I’m belting out aren’t ones that ring my bell or anything. They’re quite sedate, working towards lulling the staff into a false sense of security (not that that was the plan, but I see glance between the staff members conveying ‘thank God’ DD was so wrong). Hopefully, they are thinking what a drama queen. Nan always said work with what you can, hmpf, when I think of her sayings now, they kind of shed a new type of light. Nurse Emily is glaring at me, so I give her an angelic smile, belaying the fact that I could rip her lungs out when she turns her back.