Chapter Six

 

Of course Dustin did catch up with me, easily. But his mood had switched again and he didn’t even complain about my leaving him behind when he’d told me to wait. In fact, he went on to chatter animatedly about his last trip to Austria and some of the things he done there with kids in the Alps. It made me long for another ski trip to Europe. I’d been to Lech several times, growing up. I’d made the most of the long runs while my parents had enjoyed the glamour of the resort. I told him about that, and it turned out he loved to ski, but hadn’t done so for years because of winter play commitments and insurance issues.

When we reached the small fishing village market on Honeysuckle Key, I saw that it hadn’t changed since the last time I’d been. There was still a stall on the first corner selling fish in blue crates of ice, and opposite was another stall laden with fresh fruit and salad greens. As was always the case, the narrow aisles were heaving with locals stocking up for the week. Old women in head scarves and kids with tatty clothes made up the majority of the customers, though I noticed more tourists than usual, which made sense, what with the hotel being full.

“I’m going to the far end,” I said to Dustin. “There’s a clothes stall just beyond the fruit. I think you’ll get swim trunks there.”

“Yeah, and a hat,” he said, rubbing his shorn haircut. “I’m used to cold not heat. Don’t want to get sunstroke.” He turned and ambled off, head and shoulders above everyone else. I didn’t need to worry about losing him. He’d be easy to spot if I decided to walk back with him.

I pushed through a group of young men, one of whom leered at me, then I moved to the west end of the market. Perhaps I should have put on a t-shirt, rather than just my bikini and sarong. Habit I guessed, I’d always ambled up here in swimwear, ever since I was a kid.

“Gina, my treasure.” The old man at the sweet stall greeted me with a tip of his hat and a beaming smile. “You never change, you’re still my little girl.”

“Hi, Raymond, how are you?”

“I am very well.” His grin widened and I noticed he’d lost yet another top tooth since I’d last seen him. He now had a grand total of three, from what I could make out. I guessed that was the risk he took spending his life sitting at a sweets stall.

“I saw your father last week,” he said. “He told me he’s retired now.”

“Yes, that’s the plan. The doctors have advised him to take it easy.”

“And who is running the team, what is it…” He crinkled his face, each line deepening until his skin was like crumpled paper. “The Cobras?”

“The Vipers, and that’s down to me now. Well, with help obviously.”

He pressed his gnarled fist to his chest. “Child, what a lot to cope with.”

“It’ll be fine when it settles down.” I pointed at the pink coconut sweets I loved. “A big bag of those will help. I’ll put them in my office, keep them for emergencies.”

“Yes, you should.” He set about filling up a bag with a small silver shovel. “Double your usual amount then?”

“Yes, please.”

“Mmm, they look good.”

I turned and came face to chest with Dustin. I looked up and let the scent of warm male wrap around me. He was wearing a red Honeysuckle Key cap.

“They are,” I said. “But I don’t share, you’ll have to buy your own.”

“I intend to, and some of that.” He pointed to a tray holding fudge dotted with pistachio. “But I do share.”

“Raymond,” I said, wishing I hadn’t sounded so spoiled brattish about sharing. “This is Dustin Reed, one of the players.”

Raymond swung the bag over itself to seal it. “I am happy to meet you,” he said, smiling broadly. “You get the points?”

“No, I stop the opponents getting the points. I’m in goal.”

“Ah, I see.” He nodded but I’d bet he’d never watched a hockey game in his life. “And you are vacationing with my Gina, this must mean you are very happy together. A wedding soon, yes?”

Dustin laughed. “Well, she is, but I’m not.”

Raymond frowned.

So did I. What was Dustin on about?

“Can I grab a big chunk of that taffy?” Dustin asked, gesturing to the sticky cubes and then turning to me. “And you’ll be pleased to know I’ve got trunks.” He held up a pair of neon green shorts between us. The brightest material I’d ever seen. Worse than my purse.

“So you don’t get any more…shocks,” he said.

“Good.” I slipped on my shades and grinned. “But the color is so shocking they might blind me.”

“Can’t do anything right, can I?”

“Well, wearing something when swimming will be halfway there,” I said, shaking my head and still smiling.

“Sure thing, boss.”

I took my sweets from Raymond, paid and bade him farewell. Dustin seemed quite taken with sampling honey-coated peanuts, so I left him to it and wandered to a purse stall next door. There was a great variety to choose from, all handmade. I fingered the material, admired the stitching and then chose a deep-purple, velvet shoulder bag that would fit a book, sun protection and a towel, perfect to go with my bikini.

I hunted for some bills and then paid the woman who unfolded white tissue paper and started to carefully wrap it.

“No, no,” I said. “I’ll use it now, don’t worry about that.”

“Are you sure, madam?”

“Oh yes, this one is terrible.” I pointed at my garish orange bag. “I’ll switch everything over straightaway.”

She smiled and then her attention was caught by another customer, a man with dark, greasy hair who was roughly unzipping and zipping a bag. It looked like the guy who’d undressed me with his eyes earlier.

Dustin was still talking to Raymond, a small crowd of children had gathered around him and I saw that he had a bag of jellied sweets that he was handing out to them.

“Two each,” he was saying as he stooped over. “And if you all just take two I’ll buy a bag of those pineapple cubes and you can have two of them each as well.”

A squeal of delight went up and I smiled. He was like the Pied Piper, kids were just drawn to him despite his giant size and gruff voice.

Guessing he’d be a while, I maneuvered my way out of the market and set my new and old bag on a stone wall overlooking the harbor. I’d switch my wallet and phone to my new bag and fold the old one into it to take home. The new one was much nicer, it had an unusual diamond pattern on the side that was shaped sort of like sideways fish.

Suddenly a rush of air pummeled into me and then a sharp jab hit between my shoulder blades. The heat and solidity of another person’s body whacking into mine hard had me crying out. I lurched forward, tried to grab the wall but missed, and instead crumpled onto the ground, my breath knocked from me.

“Oi!” A deep shout rang through the air, breaking through the sound of my rushing pulse in my ears and the drag of air surging back into my lungs.

As a blur of orange flicked past me, I twisted and saw the shady guy from the purse stall pelting away. My purse was falling to the floor but he had my wallet in his hand.

There was another burst of energy at my side and I realized it was Dustin who’d called out. He must have seen the guy wallop into me, and now he was tearing forward, his feet pounding, his arms thumping.

I pushed onto my hands and knees, head spinning and watched, in what seemed like slow motion, as Dustin caught up with the guy in the mouth of an alley.

Damn, he’d run fast.

Dustin grabbed the thinner man’s arm, flung him ’round as though he were a ragdoll and shoved him up against the wall.

“Gina, Gina, oh sweet mother of mercy, are you okay?” Raymond was next to me, his hand on my shoulder. “Oh, this is terrible.”

“I’m fine, really,” I said, watching the chaos unfold.

Dustin had his thick forearm beneath the thief’s neck, pushing his chin up. His captive’s feet were lifting off the ground and he was clawing at Dustin’s forearms.

A loud whistle piercing the air told me one of the island’s few policemen was on scene.

Thank goodness.

“Get off,” the captured man half gasped, half shouted. Even at a distance I could sense the panic in his voice. He really hadn’t expected an Olympic athlete to be in the area. Not only that, one who was twice his size.

“Give me that, scumbag,” Dustin sneered, plucking my wallet from his hand. “Were you never fucking taught that stealing is wrong?”

“Leave me the hell alone. Get off.”

Dustin kind of growled again, that noise that made my belly flip and my thighs clench.

“Shit,” the guy squeaked, “it’s just a wallet, fuck…”

Dustin had increased the pressure. The man’s cheeks were bright red, his feet were a good few inches off the floor now and he was tugging violently at Dustin’s t-shirt.

Dustin didn’t seem to notice.

“I’ll take it from here, sir.” An officer ran up to the alley, handcuffs at the ready, his voice loud and commanding. “I saw it all. Please step back.”

Dustin released the criminal as quickly as he’d caught him, but he didn’t step away, instead he stayed looming over the man who was clutching his neck and gasping for air.

“Gina, you are hurt?” Raymond asked. “Your knees. Look.”

I glanced down as I straightened. Sure enough, my right knee was grazed and a fat globule of blood was trickling down my shin.

“Come, sit on the wall. I will get you something to clean it with.”

I allowed Raymond to help me up. The lady from the purse stall rushed over.

“Oh dear, that was terrible. I saw him before and I knew he was bad. He had those eyes,” she said, winding her hands together. “Eyes that hold many bad deeds.”

“I thought the same thing.” I swiped my palms together to rid them of grit, bent my leg up onto the wall and thought how dramatic the blood looked seeping toward my foot.

But I knew I’d gotten away lucky. A shove in the back was preferable to a knife in the back.

A small crowd had gathered now to watch the policeman handcuff the thief. I could still see Dustin. He was nodding and speaking to the policeman. I saw him hold up the wallet and then point my way.

“Here you are, here you are,” Raymond said, rushing back with a wet cloth. “Quick, you must stop that terrible bleeding before you run out of blood.”

“I’ll live, it’s superficial,” I said, “but really, go and mind your stalls, you two. Dustin is coming now, he’ll help me. I’ll be okay.”

As I said it I realized how glad I was that he had been there and that he’d chased down the man who’d pushed me and stolen from me. That he’d shown everyone, including the children in the market, that stealing was wrong and wouldn’t be tolerated.

He was coming toward me now with a grim look on his face but a softness in his eyes.

Raymond and the other stall owner left me, obviously anxious about their unmanned wares.

I began to shake, not a lot, just a little. I pressed the wet cloth to my knee and tried to suppress a wince.

“You all right?” Dustin asked a little breathlessly. “Well, no you’re not.” He glanced over his shoulder at the cop who was marching his prisoner away. “Bastard, I should have fucking strangled him. That way he’d never do it again.”

“It’s just a graze,” I said, dabbing at more blood and watching it soak onto the wet cloth. “It was the fright more than anything.”

“Yeah, that must have been a real shock getting pushed to the ground like that. I saw him rush up to you, he was running pretty fast.” He handed me my wallet. “Yours.”

“Thanks.” I juddered in a breath. Willed my eyes not to fill with tears, but they were, the sting behind my eyeballs told me it was inevitable. I thought I was tough, but the shock of the attack was rattling through me like a mini earthquake.

“You’re shaking,” he said, taking the cloth from me and cupping my hands in one of his. “Did he hurt you anywhere else?”

He swept his gaze over me, but not like he had on the beach or even in the locker room. This was a functional check for mangled limbs and bleeding arteries.

“No, no I don’t think so.” A tear broke free and I swiped at it with my shoulder as I huddled over, hoping he wouldn’t notice. “I’m fine. I just want to go back to the villa.” As I’d said villa my voice broke on a sob.

“Ah shit, don’t cry,” he said, “You’re all right and I got your wallet back.”

“I know, and I’m grateful, really I am, it’s just…”

“What?”

“I’ve been coming here since I could only just walk and nothing like that has ever happened. It’s always so lovely.”

He shook his head, squeezed my hands. “There’ll always be bad people in the world, that’s why we have to make the most of the good ones.” He frowned. “I saw him follow you from the purse stall. I had a gut feeling then he was thinking of doing something he shouldn’t. I’d have been quicker if I’d followed him then rather than waiting.”

“How could you have known?”

He blew out his cheeks, sighed and shook his head. He seemed cross with himself despite having saved the day.

“Mister, mister, you dropped your sweets.” A small boy stood in front of us holding a torn paper bag containing dusty yellow candy. He wore no shoes and his t- shirt was ripped on the lower seam. “I picked them up for you. All of them.”

Dustin’s face softened. “That was kind of you.” He took the sweets, studied them. “But I don’t think you can eat these now, they’re all dirty, they’ll give you belly ache.” He plucked out his wallet. “Here, go and buy a new bag of these sweets, but you have to promise me one thing.”

The little boy nodded, his dark eyes so wide I could see all the whites.

“You have to share,” he said, “with all the other kids at the market. Can you do that?”

“Yes, mister, I can do that. I promise.” He nodded earnestly.

Dustin smiled. “Good, here you go. Now you’re in charge. I’m trusting you, share nicely.” He handed over several ten dollar bills.

“But brush your teeth afterward,” I said, sniffing.

“I will, miss, I will, and I’m sorry about your knee.”

I smiled and dabbed the cloth on the broken skin. “It’ll be better by tomorrow, no harm done.”

The boy dashed off and a policeman came over to make sure I was okay and take my details. He told me I could press charges but they would be holding their prisoner in custody for some time as he was a known troublemaker on the island and wanted for several other crimes.

“Can you walk back or should we get a cab?” Dustin asked after the policeman had bade us goodbye.

“Cabs are in short supply around here,” I said, standing. Keeping one hand on the wall, I tested the weight through my leg. It was okay, it would no doubt ache tomorrow, but I could walk back to the villa.

Dustin hovered next to me, hands out as though I might topple over.

“It’s fine,” I said. “Really. And it’s not bleeding anymore.” I turned, gathered up my purses, my sunglasses and my wallet and shoved them away safe in my new bag. “Come on, I could do with a drink.”

“I’ll make you a deal,” he said. “We’ll have a drink here first, before you walk back.”

“And what if I don’t agree?” Though actually it did sound like a good idea.

“I’ll carry you.” He tugged on his bottom lip, elongating that slim scar as if holding in a grin.

“You are joking.”

“Nope, not joking.” He pointed to a harborside bar that was lined with azalea plants in full flower. “A drink there, any drink, your choice. Otherwise you go over my shoulder for the whole way back.”

“That sounds like possibly the most uncomfortable way to travel ever. So yes, I’ll agree to the drink.”

“Wise choice.” His eyes kind of glinted, but only for a second because then he covered them with his black shades and hid them from my view.

There was no doubt in my mind that if I hadn’t agreed, I would have been over my goaltender’s shoulder for the entire mile back to the villa.

A glass of wine was definitely the better option.