Bang Gang (43 page)

“I’m sure he’s not gonna grumble.” She laughed. “Go up and surprise him, grab him and stick your tongue down his throat.”

Ruby pulled a face. “That’s gross!”

Tonya ruffled her hair. “Sorry, Ruby. Adult speak. I’ve had too many wines.”

Ruby nodded. “I get it, like garage talk. Still gross.”

A gaggle of women joined the guys, and I felt my heart drop a little. They were dressed up like groupies, short skirts in October and a shit ton of makeup. How do you even look that good when you’re supposed to be camping?

One of the blondes stepped close to Darren, looked at him every time he laughed. She was drinking beer from a can, her smile easy.

“She’s nobody,” Tonya whispered. “Just some dumb cow.”

I shrugged. “Maybe she knows him.”

“She wants to. That’s all.”

She leaned in and asked him a question and he dropped his head, smiled and laughed. I felt jealous and it was absurd. He was probably fucking other women every night of the week and some random blonde’s drunken flirting was bothering me? Quite absurd.

“Can I go see Dad?” Ruby asked. “I’ve finished my burger.” She showed me her empty polystyrene tray as evidence.

I nodded. “If he’s busy with his friends, come back though, right?”

I watched her skip over to him, and the moment she arrived it was as though the blonde didn’t exist. He scooped Ruby up and spun her around, and the world was only her. The blonde sidled away and he didn’t even notice.

“You’re going to have to talk to him,” Tonya said.

“Sorry?”

“This thing, whatever it is, it’s got to go one way or the other. You’ll both end up insane at this rate.”

I sighed. “I know, but it’s got to be the right time.”

“He wants to be with you, Jo, I can see that plain as day, even if you can’t.”

I wished I had her faith. “He’s fucking half the village. He has Stacey’s ring still in his bedside cabinet.”

She raised her eyebrows. “He does
?”

I nodded.

“Shit,” she said.

“Tell me about it.”

She took a swig of wine. “Doesn’t add up, Jo. I didn’t think he was all that bothered about Stacey. He never seemed it out at the pub, not like he was about you.”

“He was engaged to her.”

“Yeah, well, maybe she was rebound.”

I laughed. “She wasn’t rebound, Tonya. We’d been split up ages before he got with her.”

“He wasn’t
over it
ages before he got with her though, Jo, I’d put money on it. He was a mopey sod for a fucking long time before he hooked up with her.”

“I wouldn’t know,” I said. “I was always home with the girls.”

“It’s true. I saw it. Back when I was dating Phil Evans and we were down the Drum every night. He wasn’t over you, Jo. I don’t think he ever has been.”

The wine made me giggle. “Now you’re really pushing it.”

“No,” she said. “I’m not. I’m just telling it how it is.”

He was staring again, and not even hiding it. Ruby’s
hand was clutched in his, the guys caught up in some rowdy conversation or other, but his eyes were right on me.

Tonya poked me in the arm. “Go,” she said. “Before I drag you over there. I’ll powder my nose and I’ll join you.”

I sighed, finished the rest of my wine. “Alright,” I said. “I’ll go.”

I was so ridiculously nervous as I crossed the field, weaving my way through groups of people as he watched me. I was smiling, just a few metres away from him, and he was smiling back, ready to make conversation when a godawful shriek cut out across the crowd.

“Dadddd! Dadddd! Help me!”

Mia.

My eyes widened and so did his. My heart thumped so hard I felt it right through me, terror reaching up and grabbing me by the throat.

I scanned the crowd, desperate for sight of her, wondering where the hell she was.

“Darren…” I said, but he was already moving, his direction hidden from me by moving bodies.

“Stay!” he called to Ruby. “Stay right where you are!”

I followed him with my heart in my throat, caring little for the people I shoved from my path as I fought my way towards our baby.

Buck was alongside me, Jimmy O, too, all of us pounding after Darren as he barged through the crowd.

And then I saw it, in the shadows at the edge of the park – the group of lads around our girl. The guy with his hand on Mia’s arm, holding her tight as she tried to pull away.

“Daddd!” she shrieked, and he was there.

I saw him up ahead, saw him reach her and tug her free, and my stomach lurched as he pushed her behind him, lurched again as he grabbed Daisy from the crowd, too.

I didn’t stop running, not even when Darren’s fist landed on the guy’s jaw. Not even when the other guy reeled and stumbled, not even when the crowd of lads squared up to Darren and he squared up to them right back.

I didn’t stop running until my girl was in my arms, until Daisy was there, too.

“They wouldn’t let us go!” Mia cried. “They wouldn’t! They wouldn’t let us go!”

I looked at Darren and he was wired, red-misting with an anger I’d never seen before. The kind of anger that sent electric through my spine, adrenaline coursing right through me.

His fist landed again, connected with one of the lads facing up to him, and I felt it, I felt all of it.

The scene unfolded in slow motion, him standing strong and fierce even though he was vastly outnumbered. I saw the way he didn’t even care.

I felt it in my stomach, in some strange part of me I never knew existed, something deep and primal and raw.

Buck and Jimmy O appeared at his shoulders, and he barely even noticed. He didn’t care about that, either, didn’t care if he had backup or not, didn’t care if he was up against an insurmountable force.

The only thing he cared about was protecting our little girl, whatever the cost.

A couple of shoves and a whole load of expletives, and I told the girls to cover their ears, that it would be alright and not to worry.

A crack as Darren took another swing, and shunting bodies.

And then silence.

The lads backed away, and the crowd came closer, jostling in around the aftermath.

Darren looked at me and his eyes were so dark, so fierce. He shook out his knuckles, and headed over. My heart was like a train.

I didn’t realise I was gripping the girls so tight until he crouched down and pulled Mia from me. He checked her over, his eyes searching hers.

“She’s ok,” I said, and my voice was shaky and weak. “She’s ok, Darren. They’re both ok.”

But I wasn’t, I wasn’t ok at all. My legs were jelly, my skin crawling, every part of me cranked up to fight or flee.

I’ve never been so relieved as the moment I felt his arm around my shoulders, ushering us back through the crowd and back towards our tent. I held on to the girls and he held on to me, flanked by Jimmy and Buck right the way back to Tonya and Ruby, who’d taken a seat at her side.

Darren sat himself down by our tent, and pulled our girls down alongside him, Daisy, too.

And that’s where he stayed, all evening long, glued to those kids like he’d never let them out of his sight again.

And I knew.

I knew he was it. I knew he was everything.

I knew that there was nobody on earth who’d love my girls the way he did, who’d give everything for my girls the way he did, who’d do whatever it took to keep them safe, no matter what the cost, no matter what they needed.

I’d loved Darren Trent for a lifetime.

But never so much as now.

“We need to talk,” she said. Her voice was just a whisper. I barely heard her above the chatter around us.

I nodded. “Where?”

She looked around us, at the campers huddled nearby and the thin tarpaulin between us and the girls. I doubted they were even asleep yet, I’d heard giggles from Mia and Daisy less than five minutes back.

She shrugged. “Your tent? Tonya’s here with the girls. We could nip over there…”

I was still too tightly wound, the thought of leaving my stakeout hitting me right in the gut. She took my elbow. “They’ll be fine, Darren. Those lads aren’t even here anymore.”

I didn’t mean to glare at her, but I did. I’d known it was trouble. I knew Mia looked too old, was too made up, was too naive to be out in a crowd full of drunk lads. I should’ve fucking stopped it, should’ve known better.

“Darren,” she prompted. “We’ll be right over there.”

“Alright,” I relented. I drank down the rest of my beer and flashed Buck a look. “You’ll stay with the girls?”

“Aye,” he said. “Won’t be going anywhere.”

From the way he was sitting with Tonya I doubted he would’ve been going anywhere regardless.

I led Jodie through the clusters of tents, her hand on my elbow as I picked out a route. Mine was in the far corner, in the shadow of the truck. I dipped down and unzipped the entrance and Jodie crawled inside. She sat herself down on my sleeping bag, pulled her knees up to her chest.

I zipped the door back up behind me, then flicked on the battery operated lamp at my side. The orange glow made her hair look darker, her eyes too.

I waited for her to speak.

“They told the lads they were older. Daisy apparently. Told them they were sixteen, and had a bit of beer with them. I really don’t think they knew what they were playing with. They didn’t mean any harm…”

“Why the fuck would she do that?”

Jodie shrugged. “I guess she wanted to seem cool. She’s a teenage girl, Darren. I probably would’ve done the same myself at her age.”

“She’s twelve,” I said. “She’s not a fucking teenager, Jo.”

“Daisy is. Daisy turned thirteen last month.”

“This doesn’t happen again, Jodie, I mean it. No wandering off on her own, no more pulling shit like this.” I felt the fear again, the horrible fucking panic at hearing Mia scream. “What if I hadn’t been there?”

Her eyes met mine. “You were there.”

“Yeah, but what if…” My voice trailed off.

“You’ll always be there, Darren. You’re her dad.”

The fear exploded, and words came with it. “But I’m not
there
, am I? I won’t know where she is every night. I won’t know when she’s off with Daisy and what time she’s gonna be back, I won’t be waiting at home when she first takes the bus into town alone, I won’t be waiting for her to get back in a taxi when she’s gone out to a club when she’s barely legal.”

“But I’ll… you’ll know… I’ll tell you…”

“How? Real-time fucking text updates? A nightly fucking phone call? How, Jo?”

She put her head in her hands. “If that’s what you want, Darren. I’ll call you ten times a day if that’s what you want.”

That’s not what I want. I want to be THERE.

I unzipped the door enough to light up a cigarette, and caught her staring at my knuckles.

“How’s your hand?”

I shrugged. “Alright.”

“Doesn’t look alright.”