Chapter 1 #2
When she’d told him she’d had a drink after work—one drink—he’d backhanded her.
When she’d fallen, he’d kicked her twice and continued to harangue her.
She’d tried to explain—she really had, but he’d decided, and that had been that.
He’d morphed from Charming Ari to Monster Ari, and she’d taken the beating to protect her taniwha identity.
Again.
“Here’s your coffee, Nyree. No, don’t reach for it. I’ll put it on the table for you.”
Curvy Emma set a tray bearing two mugs of milky coffee and two pieces of shortbread on a wooden coffee table. That done, she took the seat beside Nyree.
“Thanks,” Nyree said.
“No problem. I had to wrestle the guys for the shortbread, but I’ve been training. It was no sweat.”
Nyree smiled because her cousins were quick with food. Her smile died fast since even that hurt, and Emma, bother her private-eye-attention-to-detail, noticed everything. Emma’s gaze narrowed, and her mouth tightened a fraction, although her grin remained intact.
“Tell me what happened,” she ordered in a deceptively pleasant tone.
Her friend practically vibrated with anger, disdain, and judgment.
It was the judgment that hurt the worst. Nyree didn’t understand how her relationship with Ari had drifted this far off course.
To anyone else—Hana and her mother—he was charming and generous and always ready with a smile and a joke.
They didn’t see the danger lurking in him.
“Nyree,” Emma prompted, a hard, determined edge to her verbal prod. “Don’t try lying to me because I’ll know.”
Nyree had lied in the past, but right now, she hurt, and fatigue slowed her down. So, so tired. Nyree hesitated before puffing out a painful breath. “Ari has a temper. He hit me.” Once the words started, they gushed forth.
“I worked late last night, and it slipped my mind Ari had guests for dinner. He was angry because I was late home and cooked an ordinary meal.” Nyree shifted to ease her discomfort and winced at the jagged shard of pain that zapped down her ribs and pooled at her hips.
A gasp escaped her parted lips.
“What happened after you arrived home and realized you had guests for dinner?” Emma asked.
“Ari shouted. No, he whispered at me in a harsh voice because his guests had arrived. He’d given them drinks, and I found a bag of crisps and made a dip.
As soon as I’d done that, I checked the pantry contents and prepared a pasta dish along with a garden salad and cooked an apple crumble for dessert.
To finish, we had cheese and biscuits and coffee.
Everyone appeared to enjoy the evening, and I was proud of myself for managing a tasty and delicious meal. ”
“Ari didn’t agree.”
Nyree winced. “No.”
“You know this can’t go on, right? You’re a taniwha, and you should’ve whopped his butt.”
“I couldn’t tell Ari about the taniwha race.
” Nyree’s shoulders rounded inward as her and Ari’s previous night’s conversation replayed through her mind.
“I told Ari I wanted him to leave my apartment. That we were done.” A tear escaped and ran down her cheek.
Nyree jerked, and pain reverberated across her ribs and down her torso.
“He refused to leave?”
“He told me he loved me,” Nyree said, her voice without tone.
Emma sniffed. “How did you feel about that?”
“I think…I think a man who loved me wouldn’t keep hitting me. He wouldn’t shout or threaten or treat me as insignificant. And my gut instinct wouldn’t tell me never to tell him the truth about dragons.”
Emma nodded. “What do you want to do?”
“I want Ari to move out, to leave me alone.” But that wouldn’t happen. Ari had told her as much. He’d said he loved her, but his love was a smothering blanket from which escape was impossible.
“Are you positive you can’t get Ari to leave?”
“Yes.” He would make her life difficult because he’d see it as a loss of mana.
His prestige would take a hit, and their friends and family might laugh behind his back.
Ari would dig in his toes and stand his ground.
He’d come from a poor background and been the sole member of his family to gain a higher education.
Ari’s pride would plummet if she turned her back on him.
“Drink your tea,” Emma ordered, her expression thoughtful. She picked up her china mug and took a sip. With a faraway gaze, Emma reached for a piece of shortbread and bit down. The cookie crunched as she nibbled. “Yum. You should have one.”
“I’m not hungry,” Nyree said. In truth, she hurt too much to eat. Each swallow loosed a barrage of pain because Ari had grabbed her by the neck at one stage.
Nyree closed her eyes briefly before she opened them again.
Despite the pain, she forced herself to drink more of the sugary coffee Emma had poured for her.
A tremor sped through her, and a few droplets of milky liquid leaped from her cup.
From habit, Nyree hurriedly wiped up the splatters. Ari didn’t like—
Her thoughts screeched to an appalled halt.
Ari disliked many things. Small, inconsequential things that she’d changed because they bothered him.
He’d been so charming at first, and she’d been head over heels smitten with the handsome man who hailed from the North.
When they met, he’d accompanied another woman, and Nyree had been at the local pub with her girlfriends.
Their gazes had connected, and he’d grinned and winked at her before escorting his date from the pub.
She had thought little more about him until he’d tapped her on the shoulder three weeks later at the same pub and asked if he could buy her a drink.
“I have an idea,” Emma said, breaking into Nyree’s wander down Memory Lane.
“If you’re going to say I should go to the cops, I can’t do that.”
Emma drew herself up, straightening her shoulders and piercing Nyree with a direct gaze. “You should’ve reported him straightaway, or at least told your cousins. Men like Ari are bullies, and they prey on those who are weaker and can’t fight back.”
“Ari threatened to hurt my sister if I went to the cops. He’d do it too, and Hana idolizes him.
She doesn’t understand the face he presents to the world isn’t the one he wears at home when we’re alone.
Mum and Hana believe Ari when he laughs and tells them I’m clumsy. He’s a chameleon with his emotions.”
Emma grasped Nyree’s right hand and gave it a brief squeeze.
“Back to my idea. I have a friend who spends the summer working in South Georgia—the island in the Atlantic, not America. South Georgia is an English territory. It’s isolated, and Ari wouldn’t be able to find you there. Would that interest you?”
“I’ve never heard of the place.”
“South Georgia is near Antarctica and the Falkland Islands. Do an internet search later. The place in South Georgia where you’d be working used to be a large whaling port.
Once commercial whaling ended in the sixties, they abandoned the processing plant.
These days tourists and scientists conducting research visit the island. ”
Nyree frowned, interested despite the difficulty in escaping Ari.
His threats disturbed her, and worse, he was capable of carrying out his promises.
Even if she warned her mother and sister, they wouldn’t believe Nyree until it was too late.
Ari was that good an actor. He’d punish her family because Nyree had thwarted him. “What type of job is it?”
“A bit of everything, really. The staff greet groups of tourists and run a whaling plant tour. From the pictures I’ve seen, the wildlife is incredible.
Lots of penguins and seals. Whales swim into the bay, now that it’s illegal to hunt the creatures.
Shackleton, the polar explorer, is buried in the Grytviken cemetery.
They have a gift shop and a museum. Should I tell my friend you’re interested? ”
“What if Ari keeps his word and attacks Mum or Hana?”
“Manu and Jessalyn have a vacant property. I know they’re looking for new tenants. Would it ease your mind if your mother and Hana moved in there? Manu and Jessalyn would monitor them. We will all protect them. Would you trust us to keep them safe?”
“I…I don’t know,” Nyree said.
Emma took the undrunk mug of coffee from Nyree’s hands and set it aside. “If you don’t make a change, the beatings will get worse. If you’re honest with yourself, you know this. Ari might say he’ll change, but he won’t. I’m going to take you to my doctor and get you checked out.”
“No, I’ll heal fast. Tomorrow, I’ll be on the way to recovery,” Nyree said.
“We’re going to the doctor,” Emma stated. “We need to document your injuries. Once we’ve done that, we’ll work out a plan to keep you, your mother, and your sister safe. I don’t know how you hid your taniwha and didn’t punch back.”
Nyree opened her mouth to tell Emma it was an ingrained habit to conceal her true nature, but Manu spoke first. He rounded the corner and placed his hands on his lean hips.
Power radiated from him, along with intelligence and a healthy slice of pissed.
His mother, who had died under mysterious circumstances two years ago, had radiated that same vibe.
“Emma is right. She will take you to visit the tribe’s doctor. Once you return, we’ll discuss our next steps.”
“No, I need to work. I can’t lose this job,” Nyree said.
Ari would truly complain then. During the heady days of their relationship, she’d agreed to Ari’s proposal to have a joint account.
It was only later that Nyree realized her contribution was much larger than Ari’s.
The money mysteriously disappeared while she went through an interrogation each time she wanted to spend her wages.
She’d started hoarding cash and keeping it here at the office, out of Ari’s reach.
“You’re a valuable employee,” George Taniwha, her boss and uncle, boomed.
Emma rolled her eyes and pulled a face. “Come out here instead of hovering like a bunch of old biddies.”
Heat roared through Nyree as her boss and the rest of her workmates stepped into view. She ducked her head to conceal her burning cheeks. Everyone had listened to her confession. Knew of the depths to which she’d fallen—her stupid mistakes.
Footsteps came toward her and halted.
“Nyree.” Manu’s voice contained authority even though it held gentleness too. “Look at me, sweetheart.”
Nyree swallowed hard, and it was an effort to lift her gaze to meet his.
“I will protect your mother and Hana. You have my promise. They can move into the house on my property, and I and the others will watch over them while you’re away.”
“But I—”
Manu held up a hand. “The break will do you good. It will allow you to decide your future.”
“But what about my apartment?”
“I will take care of that too. Do you want to keep it?”
“Yes. It took me ages to find a place I liked.”
“Emma, how long is the contract in South Georgia?”
“It’s for the entire summer. November to the end of February.”
“Right, I’ll find a short-term tenant for you. That way, we’ll get Ari out and keep your apartment available for when you’re ready to return home.” Manu’s intense gaze dared her to argue.
“But my stuff.”
“Emma and Jessalyn will pack your possessions while the rest of us take care of the heavier items. The house where your mother and Hana will live has three bedrooms. We can store most of your stuff there. Will that work for you?”
Nyree dipped her head a fraction, feeling as if a steamroller had flattened her before she could flee.
“Nyree?” Manu sounded insistent this time. “Do you want this? Now is the time to tell us to go away, and you’ll cope with whatever happens on your own.”
A bark of laughter emerged from her as she studied her workmates.
Emma tsked. “Nyree, you don’t have to do anything, but I’ll give you the truth now.
If you continue with the status quo, the chances are the beatings will worsen.
You’ve read the stories in the paper, on the telly.
You’ve seen the work we’ve done with the shelter.
If you don’t fight back, he’ll kill you. ”
“No, it’s not that bad.” Shame suffused Nyree because the only one she was fooling was herself. It was simple to read her workmates’ thoughts. She sucked in a careful breath because she hated to become more of a statistic, and that’s what would happen if she did nothing.
She ducked her head while her mind busily worked, tossing up the consequences and Ari’s probable reaction. The advantages of getting away from here and starting over. If her mother and Hana were protected, she’d be able to focus on herself and her safety.
Nyree drew in another careful breath and gingerly straightened and lifted her head. “Thank you for this opportunity.”
Emma tsked for a second time. “You’re family. Of course, we’d want to help you.”
“Thank you,” Nyree said. “A summer job on South Georgia sounds amazing.”
She surreptitiously crossed her fingers and sent a prayer skyward. Please don’t let Ari spoil this opportunity for me.