The ringleader slid the cue from his shoulder and sized Stephen up. ‘A thousand.’
‘Ha. No chance,’ I couldn’t help but interject. They were after some kind of reward money. But how would these boys know a fifty- to sixty-year-old man? A teacher perhaps, or one of their dads? This had been a wild goose chase and I knew Stephen wasn’t going to be impressed.
His fingers tightened on my waist, like he was cautioning me to keep my mouth buttoned, but sadly, that wasn’t my style.
‘What if wetakea thousand and give you no information?’
They group around us shifted, like this suggestion signalled they needed to get themselves ready for what was to come. Suddenly my knees felt a little loose and I was glad Stephen was still holding on to me.
‘How do you propose to do that? I don’t carry that kind of cash on me.’ Stephen gave them a rueful smile as though this was a business deal that wasn’t working out.
‘Well, we could break all your teeth to convince you to tell us your PIN code,’ Eric sneered as he leaned forward. ‘Then we’ll help ourselves to your bank card. And that fancy cell phone you got.’
‘Hmm…’ He pretended to think about it. ‘Difficult to speak with broken teeth. Not sure that’d work for either of us.’
Eric went quiet, blinking rapidly like Stephen’s polite refusals were confusing him. He recovered soon enough. ‘You have a point. What about you go fetch us the money while your girlfriend keeps us company? She’s cute. Sure you’d be in a hurry to get back to her.’
One of the henchmen moved in closer, hand outstretched as though to touch me. I don’t know where, because Stephen pulled me against him. The hairs on my scalp were standing up.
‘No. I’m not a fan of that deal either.’
‘Looks like you’re running out of options.’ Eric, or I should say, the little dickwad, lifted his pool cue and pointed it right at Stephen’s throat. My heart thudded against my rib cage. Oh crap. This was bad. This was so bad.
‘There’s always room to negotiate.’ Stephen’s voice was all ice.
‘Is she back on the table?’ The pool cue lowered from Stephen’s neck, and then wavered over towards me, moving close enough to hook the bottom hem of my shirt. Stephen grabbed the end of it to stop it from moving any further. But he didn’t push back on it or try to yank it free, which was a smart move I thought. I sucked in my stomach and took a step back too.
We heard chairs scraping behind us from over in the corner. Now the bikers were making their way over too. This setup was probably a training exercise for their young apprentices. I was eyeing up my drink to see if I could throw it in one of their faces and we could make a run for it, but we were so outnumbered, it was ridiculous.
‘Get out of here,’ a deep voice rumbled across the bar.
Everyone went quiet. The college boys looked at the bikers and us. We looked at the college kids and the bikers. The bikers glared at the college kids.
The tension in my chest released a little. They were on our side. Thank the Lord.
‘You heard him,’ said the bartender, hands splayed wide across the counter. ‘You little pissants need to leave and don’t think of showing your faces here again.’
‘Fine. This place is a dump, anyway.’ Eric threw down his cue and his friends followed suit, shuffling out, kicking chairs and trying to look big.
‘Stay and have another drink. They might be waiting for you outside. On the house,’ the bartender said.
Stephen thanked the gang of bikers who’d come to our rescue and looked down at me. ‘Are you okay?’
I nodded, shakiness coming over me.
‘Good.’ His arm slid away from my waist and I realised I was still clinging to him, my chest pressed up against his side in a way that flooded me with warmth now the danger had passed. I pulled myself away.
We stayed for two more drinks in the end. The bikers hadn’t been counting teeth, they’d been playing scrabble and we joined them. I helped Leon, the one with the scar that cut right across the left side of his face, win with ‘quixotry’.
It was dark when we left and Stephen took my arm as we walked out of the neighbourhood, neither of us feeling relaxed until we neared my apartment.
‘Life’s certainly an adventure when I’m around you, Noelle,’ he commented. ‘Guess you were wrong about those bikers being the ones to worry about.’
‘Is this really the time for an I-told-you-so?’
‘No. It isn’t. I’m sorry.’ He shook his head and put his hands on his hips to breathe for a minute, like he hadn’t relaxed until this moment when we were at my doorstep. The sodium light from the restaurant sign lit up a circle we were standing just outside the circumference of. ‘We’re only going to give the posters one more week and I’m not meeting anyone else. Either they give us the information over the phone or not. Agreed?’
‘Fine.’ I didn’t suppose I was in a position to argue with him. It wasn’t like I was naive. My dad had told us enough stories and was always in vigilance mode, wherever we were. That kind of thing rubbed off on you, but I hadn’t considered anything past the idea of the poster. Sometimes ideas that worked in books and stories didn’t turn out quite that way in real life.
