Beyond the Sea

“By the way, Principal Hawkins said he couldn’t make it to your party,” I said. “He already has other plans.”

Noah’s eyebrows knitted together. “He did, did he?”

I nodded. “Why invite those people anyway? They aren’t friends of Vee.”

“Vee doesn’t have any friends. Those four come closest since they were friends of our parents.”

“If they’re friends of your parents then why don’t they ever come to visit Sylvia?” I questioned, remembering Principal Hawkins asking almost shamefully how she was doing. If he really cared, he’d come and see her in person. “The only people that woman gets to interact with is me and Irene, maybe Vee when she decides to give her mother the time of day, which is only ever once in a blue moon.”

“Sylvia will survive,” Noah said, before muttering something else under his breath I didn’t quite catch.

We were in the city now, and a dodgy part of it at that. Noah pulled into a small, dark car park and cut the engine. I looked around. A bouncer in a leather jacket stood by a metal door. The building looked industrial, most of the windows blacked out.

“Where are we?” I asked.

“This is where I work.” He paused and rubbed a hand across his stubble, shooting me an almost sheepish look. For a second, he looked so much younger, like he was sharing a mischievous secret. “Actually, it’s where Aleksy works.” He got out of the car, not allowing me any time to respond. I hastily followed as he approached the man by the door. He gave Noah a nod, like he recognised him.

“Aleksy, good to see you,” said the guy in a thick, Eastern European accent.

“Good to see you too,” Noah answered, his accent matching the bouncer’s. I stared at him, mouth agape. What was with the fake accent?

Now the man brought his attention to me. “Who is this?”

Noah threw his arm around my shoulders. “This is Estella,” he said. His voice and the feel of his arm around me made the tiny hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. It was still Noah’s deep, masculine cadence, but he sounded like someone else entirely, and I couldn’t decide if I was wary or impressed by how easily he could switch. “I hope Tomasz won’t mind that I brought a friend tonight.”

The man eyed me. “She looks a little young. You’ll vouch for her?”

“Of course,” Noah replied.

“Okay, then. In you go,” the man said with a shrug.

He opened the door, and Noah ushered me in. I shot him a wide-eyed glance, several questions on the tip of my tongue, but then we were in a long, dark, smoky room. Several men sat around a table playing cards and drinking liquor, while a few others stood by a bar chatting and having drinks with scantily clad women. What was this place?

I started to wonder if I could trust Noah. After all, no trustworthy person had a fake persona. This might be his place of work, but why did he need to pretend to be Aleksy? It didn’t make sense.

I quickly scanned the table and saw the men were playing poker. Then I saw the stacks of cash and realised they were playing for money.

“Tomasz,” Noah greeted a balding man who looked like he was in charge. He sat at the head of the table and wore a black shirt, several gold chains peeking out.

“Aleksy,” Tomasz replied with a stoic nod.

Noah bypassed the men, and I followed him to the bar at the other end of the room. He greeted the young guy who’d been manning it, speaking a language I didn’t recognise, then took over for him. Noah could speak a foreign language? I had to admit I was impressed, and a little turned on. I hesitantly lowered onto one of the stools and watched as he began making drinks for the men and women at the bar, interacting with them in the same language he’d spoken before. To my inexperienced ears it sounded sort of like Russian, but I couldn’t be certain.

Noah gave zero explanation as I sat there. It was like he expected me to digest this double life of his all on my own.

I finally managed to catch his gaze as I raised both eyebrows and made an exasperated gesture with my hands. He simply smirked and went about his work. At one point he set a Coke down in front of me, as though that should assuage me. I reluctantly sipped it since I was admittedly thirsty. When things died down and Noah was less busy, he came to lean across the bar. “I’ll give you three questions. Use them wisely.”

Low music played, so we could speak with relative privacy, but he didn’t drop the act, speaking in English but still with that annoyingly sexy accent. “Three questions?” I replied, ignoring the shivers his voice brought on.