“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 ofmana.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?”
