Gold Digger

Lottie

“Ollie came to me about my fucking drinking habits . Apparently, you noticed the signs or some bullshit. I’ve been putting the groundwork in on that family for fucking decades. I’ll not have some common slut blow it all to hell for me.”

“You’re the one blowing it all to hell, Blake. You’re an alcoholic, and you beat your wife. There are people like you everywhere in every walk of life. Just because you have old money doesn’t make your shit stink any less than anyone else’s, and it doesn’t make your behaviour any less reprehensible than all the other bottom-feeders I’ve come across in my life.”

“You and that nutjob brat need to stay away from my family,” he said, and as his grip tightened even more, his spit landed on the side of my face, and he gave another vicious shake before he lifted his other hand, drawing it back. I actually hadn’t thought he would be stupid enough to hit me in public and my shock meant that I didn’t quite dodge quickly enough. He didn’t manage to make full contact but his fingers did clip my chin.

How fucking dare he?

I’d had enough.

What these people didn’t appreciate was that I’d been having to look out for myself since I was ten years old. I wasn’t some helpless girl they could push around and backhand. So, I lifted my foot and brought my spiked heel crashing down onto his shin. He shouted out and dropped my arm, which gave me the opportunity I needed. I spun around and kneed him in the balls. He made an almost inhuman noise and went down to the ground.

I’m not proud of what I did next but, in my defence, my chin was stinging and I still had the vision of Claire’s bruised face in my mind, with the rock-solid knowledge of how it got there. So, I pulled my arm back so that my palm was up facing my ear and then watched the complete shock on his face as the back of my hand whistled through the air and connected with the side of his face, throwing him to the side until he was lying at my feet. Blake, unlike me, did not think to dodge. I took one casual step forward so that the ball of my foot stepped on his outstretched hand on the floor. When I bent over slightly to put all my weight through that leg, he whimpered.

“If I ever see a bruise on your wife again, I will fuck you up way worse than this, motherfucker,” I said in a low voice. “Yes, I am a townie. I’m not like the posh birds you’re used to. But I’m not weak. I’ve never been weak. You made a mistake thinking the common, agreeable little girl who doesn’t swear could be pushed around, but I’m your worst nightmare – a woman who fights back.”

When I took my foot away, he scooted back from me, cradling his hand. “You crazy bitch,” he breathed through the pain. “You’ve broken my hand.”

I rolled my eyes and smoothed my hair back. His hand would be fine. When I turned, I realised that we’d attracted a fair bit of attention. The people around us were all wide-eyed, some with drinks suspended halfway to their mouths.

“Ladies. Gentlemen,” I said, nodding to acknowledge them as I turned on my heel to where Vicky had disappeared. We were cutting it fine now. But as I walked away, looking in the wrong direction, I collided with what felt like a brick wall.

“Hey,” Ollie said, his hands coming out to steady me at my elbows. I winced as his hand closed over where Blake had grabbed me. “You okay?”

I opened my mouth to tell him about Claire and Blake, but then his disinterest from the last time came to mind, as well as his loyalty to his family. “I’m fine. Just looking for Vics.”

“Shit, what’s the time?” Ollie said, real panic in his tone now. “You said you were going to make sure she’d left.”

I bit my lip. We had five minutes to get out of here. Where the fuck was she? My heart felt like it was beating in my throat as I scanned the room. Finally, I spotted her, and I understood why she wasn’t already halfway out of the door. There was only one distraction that could have stopped her leaving, and all six foot four of him was glaring down at her across the room with his arms crossed.

“Sugar,” I muttered. Ollie turned the direction of my gaze and swore under his breath. As we both started striding over to them the organiser’s voice filled the room.

“So, if we’re all ready. It’s that part of the evening where you can start oohing and aahing as we light up this entire county!”

Ollie broke into a run, and I followed suit, but my heels and the crowd held me back. With the first bang, Vicky flinched, and her hands went up to her ears. The sky outside transformed into multi-coloured sparkles, the floor seemed to shake with the force of the explosions, and Vicky’s hands at her ears started flapping. Then, one of the rockets must have misfired, and it came flying close to the open double doors, sparks from it shooting out into the crowd. It gave everyone a shock, and most people flinched, but Vicky completely lost it.

Mike’s arms had uncrossed now, and his frown was replaced with concern as he focused on Vicky. But the Vicky I knew had left the building. This Vicky was terrified. The crowd had recovered from the backfiring rocket and were now all moving towards the large balcony to watch the rest of the fireworks, so Ollie and I were suddenly cut off from Vicky. That’s when the screaming started. I watched as Mike reached for Vicky, but she was half crouched, screaming, hands flapping and totally in her own world of terror.

“Hold her!” Ollie shouted at him. “Mike, hold her!” Mike’s eyes snapped to Ollie’s as we pushed through the crowd. “Do it, now .”

Then Mike moved, striding forward to Vicky and pulling her small body into his, encasing her in his strong arms. The screaming stopped, and a gap became clear for me to slip through to get to them. When I arrived at their side, I reached for Vicky’s bag, which had fallen to the floor, and pulled out her noise-cancelling headphones.

“Keep firm pressure,” I said to Mike. “Don’t stroke to soothe her. Just use the pressure. You can sway her very slightly from side to side. But no light touch. She can’t stand light touch.” Mike’s face was pale but determined as he gave me a sharp nod. I put the earphones over Vicky’s ears as she burrowed further into Mike’s chest.

“Give her to me,” snapped Ollie as he put his hand on Mike’s shoulder.

“I’ve got her,” Mike said firmly, glaring at Ollie. “What’s wrong with her?”

“She’s autistic,” Ollie said, and Mike’s head ticked in surprise.

“Why has nobody ever bothered to tell me that?”

I shook my head. “She doesn’t want people treating her differently.” I bit my lip and my voice was lower when I spoke again. “Especially you.”

His eyes flashed as his gaze cut to me.

“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 was supposed to make sure she left,” Ollie said through gritted teeth.

“ You’re her brother, mate,” Mike snapped, clearly unimpressed.

“Where were you when your sister 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’m going 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, I don’t know what I’m dealing with because none of 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.

“You promised to 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’re not blaming Blake for this. I’ve already fucked with my relationship with 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 was fine before 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 your help got 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 wanted that ? 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.”

His furious expression wavered for a moment. “Shit, Lottie, that came out wrong. You just…” He blew out a frustrated breath. “You know I’m protective of Vicky and I?—”

I shook my head. “I said I understand. Now, take your hand off my shoulder.” When he didn’t, I decided I’d had enough, and I jerked out of his grip. When he reached for me again, I took two rapid steps back, and for once, thank the Lord, I didn’t trip and fall on my butt.

Panic flitted across his expression for a moment before his features hardened with determination. “This doesn’t change anything,” he said firmly, and I resisted the urge to shake my head.

“Go and check on your sister,” I told him, my voice still neutral. He frowned and tilted his head to the side.

“What do you?—?”Content (C) Nôv/elDra/ma.Org.

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, letting it out slowly. “Just check on Claire, Ollie.”

He huffed, looked to the entrance to the event and then back at me, indecision clear.

“Ollie, check on your family .”