Page 74 of Gold Digger
“What are you?—?”
“Nobody hurts my sister.”
“Ollie, that’s not?—”
I pulled back to look at her face, framing it with my hands. “Nobody hurts you. Understand me?” She shook her head at first, but as she stared up at me, something shifted in her expression. After a moment, her face crumpled, and she fell into me, burying it in my chest, her body heaving with a suppressed sob.
“What’s going on here?” Mum’s voice cut in, and I looked over Claire’s head to see her flanked by Felix and Lucy. Felix was staring at Blake with an absolutely furious expression. I kissed the top of Claire’s head and then gently transferred her to Mum’s arms.
“Claire Bear,” Mum muttered as Claire sobbed on her shoulder. “What on earth?—?”
“Claire, darling,” Blake said, belatedly moving to comfort his wife, but I stepped in his path, stopping him in his tracks. He swayed on his feet as he stared up at me.
“You hurt my sister.”
“What?” his voice rose to an almost squeak, and real panic flooded his expression. “Hurt Claire? That’s ludicrous.”
“There’s a bruise on her cheek, you piece of shit,” I said in a near shout, very close to losing it.
He gave a nervous laugh, taking a few steps back, but Felix had moved to block him, giving him a sharp shove back towards me. That was when I noticed him cradling his hand.
“Did that little townie bitch say something?” Blake snapped, his face transforming from fake concern for his wife to absolute fury. “I told you,sheattackedme. Probably attacked your sister as well. I think my goddamn hand is broken, if you care.”
“You should be thankful,” Felix put in. “Before Lottie got in there, I was about to beat the shit out of you, and I promise you wouldn’t be standing there whining about your hand, and you wouldn’t be thinking something wasprobablybroken. You’dknowit was, that’s if you were conscious.”
“What happened?” I asked Felix whilst staring at Blake, who was starting to look left and right, clearly looking for an escape.
“He grabbed Lottie and shook her so hard her teeth rattled,” Felix said through gritted teeth. Blake looked really panicked then. “Then he backhanded her. She dodged but I think he might have clipped her.”
“That’s bullshit,” Blake spat.
“It happened really fast,” Felix continued as if Blake hadn’t spoken. “Before I could get to her, she’d kicked him in the nuts and backhandedhimlike a fucking awesome ninja before disappearing into the crowd – and then you guys were with Vicky.”
“Fucking hell,” I muttered, feeling like I might throw up. Lottie had been assaulted? And she wasn’t even going to tell me that, was she? No, all she wanted was for me to check on my sister. She didn’t think I’d believe her. Or maybe she didn’t think I’d care. I blinked, and then that red mark on Lottie’s ribs on the day she’d fallen into the pool came into my mind, and bile rose in my throat as her words filtered back into my mind:
I didn’t trip. Someone jabbed me, and it knocked me off my feet into the pool.
I moved fast then. Blake’s eyes widened as I grabbed him by the scruff of his neck, giving him a brief shake to get his attention.
“You pushed her into the pool that day, didn’t you?” I said, and when he didn’t answer, my voice rose to a shout as I shook him again. “Didn’t you?”
“For fuck’s sake,” he snapped, still faking outraged fury, but the colour had drained from his face. “Why the fuck would I?—?”
“She saw right through you. She’s always seen right through you. And you hated that.”
Blake’s eyes darted around the group of hostile faces, and his face twisted into an ugly mask of real rage that I’d never seen before. “My elbow slipped, okay? It was an accident.”
“She could have drowned, you sick bastard.”
“How was I to know she couldn’t swim? What grown adult can’t actually swim?”
“We overheard her telling Ollie that, Blake,” Claire said, her voice shaky but stronger than I’d heard it in a long time.
“Shut up, Claire,” Blake snapped.
“You motherfucker,” I said, advancing on him as he backed away from me. “I can’t believe you?—”
“She’s a fucking cleaner, mate!” he shouted, and the stupid bastard actually took a swing at me. But he was drunk, his reactions were sloppy and he was fighting someone his own size for a change. I easily avoided the punch, kept hold of his shirt with one hand, pulled my other arm back, and then let my fist fly into his face.
