Page 72 of Gold Digger
“Well, what the fuck is going on tonight? You must have known this was going to happen. Why is she even here?”
Vicky whimpered, and Mike shifted her slightly to encase her even further into the hug.
“Lottie wassupposedto make sure she left,” Ollie said through gritted teeth.
“You’reher brother, mate,” Mike snapped, clearly unimpressed.
“Where were you whenyoursister was hurt?” Ollie snapped back, and Mike’s back stiffened.
“Look, can we just concentrate on sorting Vicky?” I asked them both. We were now attracting a fair bit of attention. I knew Vicky would hate to be seen like this.
“Right, well,I’mgoing to be the one sorting Vicky out,” Mike told us both, and before either of us could say anything, he scooped Vicky up into his arms, holding her tightly into his chest and strode through the crowd towards the exit. Ollie and I followed at pace. Once we were outside on the driveway, Mike didn’t even break stride – he went straight to his massive, ancient Land Rover, wrapped Vicky in his jacket, and deposited her on the front passenger seat. Ollie blocked him as he was about to get in himself.
“I’ll take her home,” Ollie growled at Mike. “You don’t know what you’re?—”
“No, Idon’tknow what I’m dealing with becausenoneof you fuckers bothered to tell me,” Mike’s furious voice cut in. “You’ve dropped this ball, Harding. It was me she wanted to go to in there. Me that she burrowed herself into, and it’ll be me that makes sure she’s okay.”
Ollie glared at Mike, clearly not going to move, but then Vicky’s shaky voice piped up. “I’ll stay with Mike,” she said. Ollie turned to her.
“Vics, I think?—”
“Let her do what she wants to do,” I said in a firm voice, and Ollie glared at me. “She’s her own person, Ollie. She can make her own decisions.”
“Fine,” Ollie snapped, moving out of the way to let Mike jump up into the driver’s seat. “If anything happens to her, I swear to God…”
Mike rolled his eyes and put his arm over the back of Vicky’s seat to look over his shoulder and reverse. Vicky blinked as she watched this manoeuvre, and I could see the panic falling away to be replaced by an entirely different emotion. There’s nothing quite like an attractive man reversing a car with the arm-over-the-seat action. I suppressed a smile as he swung backwards and then tore out of the driveway.
“I think she’s going to be fine,” I said to Ollie, my tone light with relief that Vicky had managed to calm down. But when Ollie turned back to me, I realised that a lighter tone probably wasn’t advisable at that juncture. His face was white with worry and fury. His fists bunched at his sides. It was the first time I’d ever felt physically threatened by him, and after what had happened earlier in the evening, I took a shaky step back. That look in his eyes was back again. The look he had after I took the money to stay away from him.
“Youpromisedto get her out before the fucking fireworks,” he said, advancing on me, and putting his hand on my shoulder to turn me towards him.
“Ollie, listen,” I said quickly. “Something happened with Blake and?—”
“Not this shit again?” he snapped. “Honestly, you’renotblaming Blake for this. I’ve already fucked with my relationshipwith my sister and brother-in-law because of your baggage, making you see things that aren’t there, and now you’re going to blame Blake for not looking after my other sister when you promised?”
“Ollie, you don’t understand. Blake?—”
“Stop it!” he shouted. “I’ve had enough. You’ve turned everything upside down with your bullshit. Vicky wasfinebefore you came along.”
“She wasn’t fine,” I snapped. “She was frustrated. I’ve been helping her.”
“She didn’t need your goddamn help. Look where yourhelpgot her tonight?”
“Vicky wanted to be out of her comfort zone. She wanted to?—”
He interrupted me with a harsh, humourless laugh. “Well, she sure as shit was out of her comfort zone just now. Do you think she wantedthat? Do you think she wanted everyone to see her meltdown? I told you not to push her so hard. I’ve been telling you from the beginning to leave her alone.”
“I love Vicky,” I said in a shaky voice. “I would never do anything to hurt her.”
“Too bad. You’ve done it. So?—”
“Listen, she was already upset by your family,” I snapped. “If you’d just listen to me, then maybe you could see that Blake and Claire?—”
“Stop talking about my family,” Ollie’s voice was low and dangerous now. “My family are none of your fucking business.”
I blinked at him and snapped my mouth shut. There was nothing I could say to that. He was right. His family were none of my business. These people were not my people.
“Yes, of course,” I agreed in a toneless voice, then looked down at where he was holding my shoulder. “You can let go of me now.”
