Page 25 of Dublin's Danger Dancer

Panic stings the back of my throat.

“She’s garda. I can smell a pig when I see one.” He pulls the gag out of my mouth and I splutter, fibre sticking to my tongue.

“I’m not garda. I’m not garda.” I protest.

“Then what the hell are you doing on this boat? Looking around, poking your nose where it doesn’t belong at this time,” the older man looks at his watch. “It’s 12:30 at night for feck’s sake.”

“I was out running and...” I say, trying to use my teeth to scrape the fibres from my tongue.

“And?” asks the younger man, his muscles tensing in a short-sleeved t-shirt.

“Pigs got to train,” sniffs the older man.

“Admir, get me my tools.” Demands the older man.

He turns on the overhead light and I realise he is a regular at the club, and Liam’s uncle, Freddie.

Admir brings back a collection of what look like red jump start cables for a car battery. He hooks them onto the metal legs of the chair.

“What are you doing?” I protest as he stuffs the rag back into my mouth.

“Oh. This is just the start. If this doesn’t work, we have some men downstairs who haven’t been laid in a while. We’ll soon find out what unit you’re working for,” smiles Freddie, about to turn on the electricity.

“Liam, Liam,” I scream through the gag. He pulls the gag out of my mouth.

“What are you bleedin’ saying?”

“Liam. I was on a date with Liam and I heard him say that he was going to meet with a woman called Kathleen at the dockyards. That’s why I’m on the boat.”

Freddie takes a step back. “I call bullshit. Liam had a date with a stripper tonight. You look too old to be a stripper.”

I ignore his compliment. “Phone him and see.”

He nods to Admir.

Admir phones Liam and passes the phone to Freddie.

“Liam, have you been out with a big titted brunette tonight?”

I hear a chain of expletives come off the phone.

“Take your feckin’ hands off her. If one hair on her head is touched, god help me, I’ll kill you Freddie.”

“There’s no need to talk like that, boy. Remember who you’re talking to.”

“I’m on my way,” says Liam, ending the call abruptly.

“Well, we better get you unhooked. Maybe we can keep this between us. Sorry. It’s my mistake. We don’t get women coming onto the boat past midnight without cause. They are normally guards.”

Within minutes, I hear a car screech to a stop outside the boat. I smell Liam before I see him. His orange bergamot Joop smell mixes with sweat and anger.

He rushes down the metal steps towards me and expels a huge sigh of relief. “I’m so sorry Ciara, what happened? What are you doing here?”

His uncle pierces me with his gaze trying to suppress the truth, but I have nothing to gain from helping him and everything to gain playing the damsel in distress.

“Your feckin’ uncle tied me to a chair, gagged me and was about to deliver a thousand volts through my body, and then have his men gang rape me. I should go to the guards myself!”

“I thought she was a Guard, ‘’ he says, holding his hands up. “but it seems she’s not a big fecker from Templemore she’s just a Leanhaun Shee. Even worse.”

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