by Jacky Gray
Her parents were watching a movie, so she clumped down the stairs to answer it, stepping back in surprise as Luke hovered anxiously.
“Sorry to interrupt, but Dad could only give me a lift if I came right now. I was gonna call, but …”
“Don’t worry about it.” She smiled, peering past him. “Is Jude with you?”
“No, this is something I don’t think you’d want her to hear. Can I come in?”
“Sure. Sorry. Where are my manners?”
After closing the door, she sank into his bear hug. He kissed the top of her head, a custom he’d taken up after the whole hero stunt he’d played to rid her of the Dirty Diana problem.
She smiled, loving her new big brother. “Can I get you a drink? We’ve got tea, coffee, coke ...”
“Coffee would be great, thanks. Don’t suppose you run to a cappuccino? Jude’s got me hooked on them.”
“Mum has something in a packet, but to be honest it’s more of a sweet brown sludge. I could boil the milk, that’s always good.”
“Ok, we’ll give it a blast. Did you finish the physics?”
“I think so. I struggled with the last question. All the rest factored out easily enough.”
“You should have used 9.8 instead of 10 for the acceleration due to gravity, that’s what Langley said. It doesn’t always do to round it all the way up to ten. I could see your mind wasn’t on the job when he said it.”
“Of course.” Liv metaphorically slapped the heel of her hand into her forehead. “Watch the milk for a sec. If I don’t do it right away I’ll have forgotten by the time you leave.”
His face gave a pure-panic wobble. “Hang on, what do I do?”
“It’ll bubble for a while then, all of a sudden, it’ll start foaming like a wild animal and rising up. Turn off the gas the second it does.”
“How do I do that?”
“You just turn this knob ... ohhh, you brat, I nearly fell for it.” She caught the wicked grin on his face and slapped his arm, then ran up to get her physics book.
By the time she’d worked out the new value and written it down, he’d switched off the gas.
She poured the coffee and brought it over. “Thanks for that. But it wasn’t why you hauled your cookies all the way over here, was it?” She gestured at her physics book.
“That sounds rank.” He pulled a comically disgusted face. “What have you been watching?”
“Grease.” She adopted a too-cool-for-school pose and quoted the iconic speech. “‘You mean you hauled your cookies all the way to the beach for some guy?’ Great line from the Queen of snark, Rizzo.”
“Did you mention cookies? Chocolate chip by any chance?”
“Oh, all right. But for goodness’ sake, tell me why you’re here.” She went back to grab the biscuit tin and a plate.
“Three guesses.”
Not difficult after his earlier comments. “Jimmy Proud.”
“In one.”
Liv sat opposite him and tipped a few cookies and ginger biscuits onto a plate. “I thought you said what you needed to by the lockers; something about a notch on his bedpost. You needn’t worry. I already told him I’m not old enough.”
She dunked a cookie into her coffee. “And anyway, he did the whole perfect gentleman routine. Didn’t even want to come in the house when I told him it would be empty.”
“But he did, though, didn’t he?”
Liv blushed a little. “How did you know?”
“Just a wild guess. Anyway, who you choose to let into your house is none of my business. I just want you to be absolutely sure about the kind of guy he is and what he’s capable of ...”
“Was, you mean.”
“I’m not convinced. Anyone who did the sort of things he did has a great big nasty cruel streak. You don’t lose that overnight.” He stood and paced a few steps, indecision clear on his face, then turned, with a pleading gesture.
“You’ve probably only seen him when he’s smart and charming. Don’t look at me like that, I know all about his smarmy side.”
Liv unpursed sceptical lips. “What do you mean?”
“I’ve seen him in action. It’s not just with women; he could charm the birds out of the trees. What are you smiling at?”
“Sorry. He called me a bird earlier on.” She straightened her face. “Look, I know you mean well. But, as I told him, I can take care of myself.”
“Ok, you’re right. I was just trying to do the big brother bit. I care about you, Liv, and I don’t want you to get hurt. After all, you stood by me when the going got tough.” He held out his arms for a hug.
With a smile, she stood to receive his embrace, only to be stunned by his next move. In a split second, he had her trapped with both arms pinned behind her in one hand, leaving his other one free to tweak her nose. “Go on then, get out of that.”
As she struggled to free herself, he countered every move she tried, all the while taunting her. “Come on, Liv; he’s got a hand free.” He waved his free hand in her face. “Jimmy could have you half-naked by now, and he won’t think twice about hurting you.”
She tried a couple of sly moves but he managed to sidestep her lunging knee and held himself out of range of her kicking foot.
“Ok, you win.” This ceased to be funny. “It’s starting to hurt now.”
He released her wrists. “Sorry. Just trying to prove a point. Does it really hurt?” With a concerned expression, he gestured for her to let him examine her wrist.
Flinching back from his touch, she gave her forearms a quick rub to stop the tingling. “Not that much.”
“Sorry again. I held back as much as I could.” His remorse turned into sincere concern. “He might not be as strong as I am, but he won’t be far off. If he’s out to get what he wants, he won’t be gentle with you.”
“What can I do?” Liv’s helplessness finally hit home. “I used all my best moves and they had no effect on you.”
“Because I was expecting them. It’s all about the unexpected. Don’t be afraid to use your nails and teeth if you can, but most of all, be prepared to run like crazy.”
She smiled. “That I can do, now.”
His stern expression conveyed the gravity of the situation. “But you have to be prepared for the consequences. If you bite someone, they’re gonna hurt you even more.” He showed her a couple of simple tricks which would work in a lot of cases.
As they sat back down, she grinned. “Thanks. I could have used that last one at lunch.”
“I thought you said he’s only been charming.”
“Not on him.” Liv explained about the incident by the lockers. She shivered. “You were right. At one point he told the ringleader what he’d do to him if he’d hurt me, and I heard a real nasty tone in his voice. It went when he spoke to me, and he was Mr-Nice-Guy again.”
“So you know what I’m talking about.”
“Yeah. He threatened to sort those lads out later, but I made him promise to drop it. You don’t think he’d do anything to them?”
“Probably not, if he’s honestly trying to impress you. You’d find out sooner or later.”
“Or he might just have changed.”
He grabbed her hands. “You just won’t see it, will you? I’ve been in two minds all day about whether to say something.”
Releasing her, he played with the biscuit crumbs on the plate. “I spoke to Jude about it, and she pointed out I’ve changed, and asked why shouldn’t he.”
“My point exactly.”
“But only I know how different we are. I could never be as bad as him, no matter what anyone saw, or thought they did.”
“You’re not making sense.”
He shook his head, with a frown. “There’s no other way. I’d promised Kat I’d tell her when I was ready to talk about it. But you need to hear this more than she does. It’s not pretty; in fact, it’s really sick.”
“I’ve heard how nasty you guys can be to each other.” Liv felt her lips forming one o
f her mum’s disapproving pouts and tried for impartial. “Go on. Do your worst.”
“It happened a couple of weeks after I started hanging around with them. I knew Paul from rugby; he was always a good craic on the field. A good bloke to have in your corner, you know?”
“Sounds like you.”
A rueful grin acknowledged her support. “He introduced me, and Jimmy turned the charm full on. About how a guy needs to have a gang behind him an’ all that. And at the start that’s all it was, somewhere to go and play poker after school.” He glanced at Liv but she kept her expression neutral.
“They tried to get me smoking but Paul stuck up for me sayin’ I was a top jock and shouldn’t be ruining my lungs ...”
“All very fascinating, but ...”
Her snark caused a change in Luke’s demeanour, as though she’d shattered the last obstacle preventing him from sharing. “Ok. Apparently, some kid had been cheeky to Dave in school. I never heard the full story, but the Dark Angels had been following him home for a week while they planned how to take revenge.”
Liv frowned. “Wouldn’t he have noticed a whole gang of you?”
“Probably, but Jimmy ran it like a military operation. They took it in turns to do different bits ’til they got the route sorted. I wasn’t allowed to do any of this until I’d proved myself.” His look said this was no bad thing. “So one night, they jumped him by St Andrew’s Church and dragged him to a patch of waste ground behind the graveyard.”
“I know where you mean. Didn’t someone see them?”
“Nah. They put me on lookout. I’m so glad I didn’t see it, but I heard him shouting until they gagged him. It sounded awful; he was only a year eight.”
“What did they do to him?” Liv imagined all kinds of things.
His lips tightened and he couldn’t meet her gaze. Memories appeared to overwhelm him briefly, then he spoke in a low tone. “I don’t want to go into detail, but they collected fresh dog turds the day before ...”
Liv winced “Enough. Poor lad.”
“I just felt sick. When he passed by me, the awful stink nearly made me throw up.” Dreadful emotions contorted Luke’s features as the memories played out. “One of them – I didn’t see who, but Dave is top of the list – suggested making him eat some. But I heard Paul call a halt, saying the boy had suffered enough and he’d learnt his lesson.”
“Totally gross. But like I say, you lot can be pretty evil. Vicky told me about a gang who did horrible things with frogs and paint.”
“Not quite on the same level.” Luke’s turn to wince.
“Unless you’re a frog.” The quip snuck out before she could stop it.
He clenched his teeth. “You still want to go out with a boy like that?”
His disbelief spurred her into a snark attack. “You were there, and you didn’t stop him.”
“I couldn’t, Liv. For one thing, I wasn’t directly involved. But if I’d objected, they’d have seen it as a sign of weakness. Who knows what the mob mentality made them capable of?”
“True. If I break my promise to him now, I’m not exactly going to be flavour of the month, am I?”
He sighed. “All right, but you still don’t seem to realise how serious this is. It gets worse.”
Liv glanced at her watch. “I’m not sure I want to hear this. It sounds like a long one. Will you have time?”
“I can make it as brief as you want. It wasn’t a kid this time. A rival gang had beaten up a couple of the Angels. They got hold of the leader and smashed his dick between a couple of bricks ...”
“Stop. I don’t want to hear anymore.” She closed her eyes for a second, trying to rid herself of the mental image. “It’s so gross. How could you bear to watch stuff like that?”
“This happened way before I got there. Someone mentioned the Scorpions and Jimmy described the gang warfare under his brother Gerry’s leadership. He said they’d never had any bother with any rival gangs since that incident.” Luke touched her arm. “I’m sorry Liv, but do you see why I can’t let you carry on without knowing what you’re up against?”
She nodded. This was way more than she could put up with from a boyfriend. “I wish I’d talked to you before I said yes. He told me I should, but I figured if everyone else …”
“Hang on, he told you to talk to me? But surely he’d know I would tell you all this stuff. What’s his game?”
“Unless he really has changed.”
Luke’s eyebrows shot up under his fringe.
“Don’t look at me like that. Listen.” She gave a brief summary of the incident in the poolroom when they first met.
“And you still think he isn’t just after one thing? Come on, Liv.”
“But that’s the whole point. I’d forgotten all about it. My memory’s gone a bit weird since the show.” She frowned. “In fact, I still don’t remember it exactly as he said; I only have vague impressions.”
“None of them good by the sound of it.”
Liv couldn’t meet his eye. “The way I remember, I was throwing myself at him. “ A beat. “But however it went, he didn’t have to tell me. He could have just waited to see if my memory came back.”
Luke sighed. “I’m just not gonna make any difference here, am I? I might as well give up.”
“Not at all. Thanks, Luke, you’ve given me an idea. I really don’t know what to think right now, but I’m surely going into it with my eyes wide open thanks to you. If I challenge him with anything you said, it won’t come back on you, will it?”
“Nah. He knows I can take care of myself. We had a couple of sparring sessions; that’s how come I know he’s not as strong as me. And to be honest, since the car thing, the Dark Angels have been keeping a low profile. Maybe they’ve finally grown out of needing to be part of a gang.” He stood and shrugged on his jacket.
She hugged him. “Thanks a lot. I hope you told Jude you were coming round here tonight. We don’t want her finding out and getting jealous thinking I’m trying to steal her guy.”
“She wouldn’t think that.”
“Don’t be too sure; love makes you do all sorts of strange things.”
He stiffened. “You just used the L-word. Has Jude said something to you?”
She grinned at the panic on his face. “Behave yourself, Luke. It’s a figure of speech. But if the cap fits, don’t waste any time in telling her that’s how you feel.”
He pulled a face, and Liv shooed him out the door before her foot-shaped mouth could do any more damage.
Thursday proved a total challenge as Liv tussled with the dilemma brought by Luke’s information. For another day, she paid lip service to the lessons as her mind see-sawed between ditching Jimmy without explanation and giving him an unconditional second chance. Snarky and Wimpy took advantage of her distraction, wriggling out of their boxes. As they worried at the problem from every angle, a third option presented itself. She could watch him interacting with the rest of the gang, and see how they took to him. Apart from Luke, and possibly Kat, the others were neutral and she trusted their opinions.
The internal wrangling made it difficult for her to be her normal self when Jimmy met her by the lockers, but he seemed distracted by his own thoughts. When they reached her house, he stayed on the bike, removing his helmet so they could talk.
“Sorry I couldn’t meet you at lunch today; I have a couple of things on my plate right now. I won’t be around tomorrow, but I’ll see you at the rink at ten on Saturday morning.”
Guilt made her smile a lot warmer than it otherwise would have been. “No worries. Kat’s cousin Liam is coming, too. So it’ll be a full house.” She forcibly ignored Snarky’s command to ask what was so important he would miss school.
“Great. I’ll see you then.” He reached for his helmet and had it almost fully on before remembering. Swiping it off, he beckoned her over with an apology and gave her a quick kiss: A complete afterthought, but it still managed to melt bits of her which should have known better.
Waving him off, Liv sensed a cooling of his affections. Good. That would make it easier for her to break it off when the time came. Except a huge part of her, probably 95% ego-driven, wondered what was more important than the exciting initial stages of their relationship. Snarky had plenty to say, taunting about her unworthiness. You can snare ’em, but you can’t keep ’em. Her track record to date backed him up.
16 A Right Charmer
Ray had a few misgivings about returning to school on Friday, but his father was adamant. At breakfast, he had another go, pointing out Ray had already missed nearly four days’ worth of work. “Sorry son, but you can’t afford to miss out at this crucial stage. See if you can pick up notes from the lessons you missed and get on it over the weekend.”
“Give the lad a break; he’s been doing all those past papers in maths and physics.” As Caroline stuck up for him, Ray gave his step-mum a grateful smile. She’d insisted on giving him a lift to school, saying it was too soon for him to think about wheeling that kind of distance.
After a few days away, he struggled to deal with the fast-paced cut-and-thrust of the gang’s banter, and one or two of the jokes went completely over his head. He perked up when he heard the others were going skating tomorrow. “Yeah, count me in; that’s if I don’t have a relapse. My guts still feel ...” His description got swamped by several cries of TMI as the bell rang for end of break.
The double period of woodwork turned out to be exactly what Ray needed to try and make sense of what had happened in a few short days. As he sanded the burrs off the edges of the soft pine, he tried to put his thoughts in order. Luke’s phone call last night had been timely, and Ray was glad he’d still been up. The guy was turning out to be a real mate, filling him in on a few things.
At least he now knew why he hadn’t seen or heard from Liv while he’d been off school; she’d been far too busy being dragged into the world of this shady gangland character. Tomorrow, he’d finally get to meet this creep who brazenly claimed ownership of his rose, his poem and his girl. At least, in Ray’s mind, Liv should be his girl.
