Funny how the sight of a mere piece of paper can make you fill with instant rage, but that’s precisely what happened when I saw the white sheet fluttering on my Ducati. People leaving flyers under your car wipers is one thing, but touching my baby and taping it to the seat?! That’s taking the piss.

I ripped it away and went to screw it up, when the writing caught my eye,

YOU’RE PLAYING WITH FIRE… LEAVE BEFORE YOU ARE BURNED

Written in scrawling red letters above an advert for a firefighter vacancy out of state.

What the hell? I mounted the bike and sped up the street, hesitating at the junction before taking the turn towards Anna’s apartment. It was Sunday, she should be home, she always had Sunday off and then rotated her other days.

“What do you think this means?” I shoved the paper into her hands as soon as she opened the door.

Before she had a chance to reply I was ranting, “Zac used those words with me the other night after poker. He said I liked playing with fire. Who did this? Was it him trying to be funny? I thought the games were over?”

Anna didn’t say anything, she shifted about not looking at me, so I carried on, “He was weird last night. One of his twatty friends pulled him away and he ditched me for the hundredth time, saying he needed to think. Then he does this? Where the fuck are his balls hiding? He couldn’t tell me to my face? He blows hot and cold every five fucking minutes—”

“Have you tried talking to him, instead of speculating?” Anna offered.

“I can’t. I have such an uneasy feeling about this. I’ve been feeling sick from the moment I found it.”

I marched up and down her apartment and tripped over a pair of massive Doc Martens boots. I muttered further obscenities as I picked them up, noticing that they sure as hell were not Anna’s. She gestured to the bedroom.

“I have a guest,” she said under her breath.

“Right,” I replied briskly. “Sorry, I’ll leave you guys.”

As I was saying the words a man I vaguely recognised came through and took his boots from my hands. I’d definitely seen him around the island. He had an appearance you didn’t forget. Hard face, thick black beard, dressed head-to-toe in black. Attractive, but rough around the edges.

“Don’t worry,” he said, his voice deep and commanding. “My work here is done…for now.” He gave Anna a wink and then returned his gaze to me, smiling for a while until Anna sniffed to break the silence. He turned and kissed her for a long time while I stood waiting, not knowing where to look.

“Thanks, Anna, I’ll call you,” he finally broke the kiss and left us standing there, contemplating each other in silence.

“I’ll put the kettle on, shall I?” she asked, as she ambled into the kitchen. “Go on, I know you don’t want to talk about me and William. Carry on.”

“Fuck it!” I yelled instantly. “He thinks I like playing games?! At least I don’t do stupid shit like this. I should have known, all those bimbos hanging around him. He probably plays with a different woman each week and then gets bored. Well, I have completely run out of fucks. Zero left. I won’t give him the satisfaction of seeing me like this. He can go to hell.” And with that, I threw myself down on the sofa in protest.

“Did you get any answers about the bungee jump incident, or just suck his face off all night?” she asked, playing with her hair, which had a distinctly ruffled just-fucked look about it.

“Not really. I have a million unanswered questions, to be honest.”

She raised her eyebrows.

“I know, I know. I should walk away. But there’s this magnetism. I can’t help it. I can’t get him out of my head.”

“Well, I’m writing to the company and issuing a formal complaint. Whatever happened, it was messed up. The police need to be involved,” she said, casting me a sideways look as if too afraid to face me full on with this news.

“I understand, you’re right. Do what you need to.”

We settled into another awkward silence, flicking through TV stations. The hours passed slowly. Evening approached and I was adamant I didn’t want to go out and bump into him, so we continued to sit, bored and uneasy.

When the shrill ring of my phone went off we nearly leapt from our skin. I ought to change the tone to something more subtle.

“What?” I snapped.

“I was hoping I’d have seen you at the beach by now. You are coming out tonight?” Zac replied.

“Is this a joke? What is wrong with you? Do you have some sort of multiple personality disorder?” My voice rose with each word.

A quiet pause stretched out.

“I see. I know you think I’ve done something bad, but I haven’t,” he said, calm as ever. That was bullshit, I could picture the completely not-calm body language he always had going on. He might have good control over his voice, but his body told a different story.

“How do you know if you didn’t do it, Jackass?”

“It’s pretty obvious by your mood.”

“You can’t say you didn’t do it, if you don’t know what IT is.”

He sighed heavily, “Please, Jess, come to the beach and talk to me. I’ll explain.”

* * *

“Thanks for coming,” he offered. His face was so beautiful, it wasn’t fair. My heart threatened to rip open at any moment. If this was the end, before we even began… well, I didn’t know how I was supposed to deal with that. How could I have fallen for him so hard? I didn’t even know him.

“Anna practically handcuffed me to try and stop me.” I focussed on the ground, not daring to get sucked into those eyes, not this time.

“Someone’s trying to separate us.”

“Really,” I replied flatly.

He didn’t respond, so in the end I had to look at him. “Who? One of your ex-lovers or dirty groupies jealous of me?”

“I don’t know who did it.”

“So how do you know what it even is? I haven’t told you what happened.”

“No.”

“No?” Could he ever give a straight answer? Oh god. It was his wife, wasn’t it? I bet he was married and playing me, and now she’d found out.

“I’m not that sort of guy.”

“Why do I feel like you answer my thoughts?”

His mouth set in a line and his fingers rapped on the bar. We had somehow made our way to MoJoe’s whilst talking, without me even noticing until now. Danny was there, watching with a weird mix of disgust and longing on his face. Oh hell. Had he left the note? Or even Anna? No, no way.

“How open-minded are you?” Zac asked.

“Enough to try anything once,” I winked at him automatically, which made me furious at myself. I was supposed to be angry with him and yet, as usual, it was diminishing fast under the scrutiny of that deep hazel gaze. Don’t look at him.

He laughed, a soft chuckle with a wry smile, which softened the hard eyes for a moment. “That’s not hard to believe. Listen, you’ve already noticed that I’m a little weird. I have good senses. I can read people really well,” he paused, uneasy. “Sometimes, I can get the gist of what people are thinking.”

“Like a psychic?” Excitement tickled under my skin.

“Yeah, if you like.”

“So, you can read my mind?” I sat forward eagerly, already lost in the thrill of that idea.

“Are you not even a little bit freaked out by this?” he frowned, shaking his head. “I was bracing myself for a big problem convincing you that I’m not mental.”

“No way, I love all that supernatural stuff! I go to a psychic back home and… I’ve had weird experiences myself that I can’t explain. I believe in forces outside of what we know. I mean, I don’t believe in God as such, but I believe in the soul. There has to be some spark that makes us what we are, right? And that spark can’t just disappear?”

His face darkened. I went on, hoping to get the smile back, even if only a half-hearted one. “And I believe that once upon a time we probably all had extra abilities in our minds. The brain has these bits that we don’t even use. Some people are probably better at tapping into that than others. Extrasensory Perception.”

“Well, I wasn’t expecting it to be this easy. I wonder if I should be done with it and tell you all my other secrets, too?” There it was, the half-smile. Even that was dazzling enough to blind me with awe, his full grin would surely be atomic. Maybe I’d get lucky and see that one today, too.

“There’s more? Don’t tell me you can use telekinesis?” I laughed, despite my head telling me to quit giggling like a love-struck schoolgirl and start demanding answers.

“No.”

“What then?”

“Nothing. I’m just kidding. This is enough isn’t it?” he asked.

“It’s awesome! Tell me what I’m thinking now.”

“It doesn’t work like that. I can only usually hear thoughts that concern me. And even then I can’t always hear them. They come to me sometimes.”

“Oh.” My cheeks felt hot, remembering all the dirty fantasies I had about him each day.

“Yeah, those are the ones,” he laughed.

“Bloody hell, stop it at once!” I pushed him, expecting him to stumble sideways, but found myself up against a brick wall, his arms wrapped around me.

“You’re strong,” I whispered. He was hugging me gently, but I had the feeling I could snap at any moment if he tightened his arms.

“Don’t be embarrassed, I love those thoughts. You have an extraordinarily imaginative and dirty mind.” He leant his head into me, as tension dropped over him again. “There is something else we need to speak about, though.”

Crap. That didn’t sound good. I didn’t want to ask him all the questions. Now that his arms were around me, I didn’t want the answers. I knew I wouldn’t like them. And he felt too good to let go now. I tried to kiss him to shut him up, but he dodged it.

“My brother, Alexander. You need to keep away from him,” he said.

Memories from the other night flooded through my mind, like an unwelcome guest that you just can’t help warming to. Initial thoughts were of fear and hatred, closely followed by desire. Images swirled of him sucking on that girl’s neck, in public, so erotic. His appearance after the fire. The way he made me feel when he looked at me, sparks throbbing between my legs.

I shook my head to clear it and took Zac’s hand in mine, because he suddenly looked mad as shit.

“You’ve spoken with him?” his voice low, threatening.

“Kind of. He acts like you – irritatingly evasive.”

“You won’t ever find me over the South side. Don’t go there again.”

“Yes, boss,” I said with a mock salute.

“I mean it,” he tried to smile as he pulled me back close. “I don’t get on too well with my brother.”

“So I hear. Who exactly is he? Because it sure looks like he’s involved in some bad stuff, like a pimp maybe, I don’t know. Do you know? Because if you do, what does that say about you? You’re hiding so much from me. I wish I could walk away,” I blurted in a constant stream of babble, needing to get it all out before I looked into those eyes again and forgot all my worries. Was he drugging me? I looked at my drink and set it down on the table.

“You’re right, he’s dangerous. That’s what I’m trying to tell you.”

“And what about you? Are you dangerous?”

“Yes,” he said simply.

I caught movement over his shoulder and noticed for the first time that Leon and another follower were loitering nearby.

“Can’t you go anywhere without them? What are they? Bodyguards?!”

He scoffed, “I don’t need bodyguards. They’re pretty adamant I need protection from you though.”

I laughed. He didn’t.

“You’re not without your own dangerous secrets,” he said. “Since we’re opening up here, are you going to tell me about yours?”

I laughed nervously and bit my lip in hesitation. “I don’t have any.”

He cocked his eyebrows.

“I don’t know what happened on the beach, if that’s what you mean. That’s the truth. Do you believe me?” I asked.

He paused, thinking, rubbing his delicious bottom lip between thumb and forefinger.

“There are things you still haven’t told me, but yes, I believe you don’t understand it,” he shrugged, like we were talking of not understanding a math problem, as opposed to a conjured sand monster.

“Shouldn’t you be the one freaking out then? Running from me? That’s what usually happens…”

“I don’t run. In fact, want to go for a ride?” he asked with a sudden happiness. “We need to get away from here, and I know an amazing place that I’d love to show you.”

“It depends. Will you kiss me there?”

“Yes, Ma’am. I do believe I will.”

We left the bar holding hands and as we approached the bikes I was filled with dread at the sight of another piece of paper taped to the seat. At least it put him in the clear about doing it.

Zac quickened his pace to get there first and made a funny noise beside me. Was that a growl?! He snatched the paper and screwed it into a ball.

“Hey! That was for me. I want to read it,” I said.

He reluctantly uncurled his fingers and handed it over.

HE’S NOT WHAT YOU THINK HE IS. YOU DESERVE MORE.

Well, I guessed it ruled out Danny, too. He’d been at the bar the whole time, burning a hole through Zac with the evil eye.

“They’re trying to freak me out. They obviously don’t know that you’ve already told me about the psychic thing. Although, we still haven’t established who they are?”

His face burned with an urgent intensity as he sat himself astride his chopper. “Later. Come on, I still have something to show you.”

Well, where’s the fun in tall, dark, strange men if you don’t allow yourself to be whisked away by them?