He looked at her casually and said, “Hey, I’m in total control.” Then he lifted—absolutely lifted—Idiot off his feet, just by the one-handed hold he had on his neck. A spluttering noise came from Idiot as his feet kicked free and as he tried to kick Troy. But he didn’t seem to have that much control, and ever-so-slowly Troy lowered him to the ground. Then he removed his hand from around his neck.
Idiot grabbed a chair to keep him upright, still gasping for breath.
“Listen to me, Idiot. I stopped this time,” he said, “but, if you ever speak to her like that again, next time I won’t. Now get your shitty ass away from us. You’re spoiling my view.”
Idiot was bent over double, coughing and choking, his hands around his neck. “I’ll have you charged for that,” he roared, when he could. The trouble was that his voice came out like a squeaky little mouse.
“Good,” Troy said. “Let’s have a full investigation into things on this rig, and we’ll see if you had anything to do with the three women who were raped.”
Idiot took a step back. “Just because she won’t sleep with anybody doesn’t mean the others didn’t,” he sneered. “All three of them spread their legs for anybody and everybody, and I think one of them was even taking money for it.” His expression held more anger than fear.
As Troy took a step forward, Idiot backed up hurriedly and then took one last look at her, hating her with his gaze, before he turned and bolted away.
Jonesy walked over. “I get that you probably felt you needed to do that, but there is something wrong with Phil. You know that, right?”
“That’s obvious,” Axel said. “Not too many people are stupid enough to cross us.”
“No,” Jonesy said. “They have the smarts not to. But that’s what I mean. Phil’s not quite right in the head.”
“So you tolerate that behavior, using his mental state as an excuse?” Troy asked, a curious tone in his voice.
“We tolerate all kinds of shit around here. For peace,” Jonesy said.
“We shouldn’t have to though,” she said. “This place has gone to hell.”
“Well, I won’t argue with you there,” Jonesy said. “Just watch your back. Phil is not somebody you can trust.”
“I know that already,” she said. “It just really sucks that I can’t be safe at my workplace.”
“It’s not just your workplace though,” Troy said. “It’s also where you sleep and have almost no time on your own, because you can’t trust—”
“I know,” she said. “He’s been crossing the line further and further all the time.”
Jonesy looked at her in surprise. “You haven’t said anything?”
“You’ve seen him,” she said. “You’ve stuck up for me a couple times.”
“Well, I did,” he said, “but obviously I’m not needed anymore. I sure hope you know who this guy really is,” he said with a motion to Troy. “Because all of us noticed how quickly you fell into his lap.”
She glared at him. “You don’t know anything about us,” she said, her tone biting. “For all you know, he’s an ex-boyfriend and an old friend,” she said.
“No,” Jonesy said. “He isn’t. But we can all see the attraction. The two of you were zinging right off the bat. I get it. We’ll back away, but watch out for Phil. His attitude obviously is a little off-center.” With that, he turned and walked off.
“Shit, shit, shit,” she whispered under her breath. Axel looked at her with interest, and she shrugged. “I don’t need this.”
“Do you want me to leave?” Troy asked.
She shook her head. “No, you’ve appointed yourself my guardian,” she said. “And, as much as I would prefer not to need anybody in that role, now it’ll be worse if we change it.”
“Well, hopefully none of us will be here long enough for it to be an issue,” he said.
She nodded. “Speaking of which, where the hell is the pilot who brought you in?”
“Hopefully with Mason,” Axel said.
“I left the three of them in the office,” she said. “I didn’t see any pilot with Mason. I haven’t seen a pilot at all.”
“Well, it’s not his first trip onto the rig, so maybe he’s holed up somewhere,” Troy said.
“Most of the time they’re holed up here in the dining area,” she said, motioning toward Denny, still muttering to himself as he banged around large pots.
“Good point.” Troy got up and walked over to talk to Denny.
She couldn’t hear the conversation, but she studied Axel. “Is Troy a good guy?”
“The best,” Axel said. He turned to look at her, his lips quirked as he added, “And your buddy there was correct. It’s obvious something is zinging between the two of you.”
She shrugged self-consciously. “Not so you’d notice on my part,” she said.
“Oh, you’re interested,” he said. “And you can bet that Troy will never be the kind of guy who will let somebody abuse or even disrespect a woman in his presence.”
“And that is much appreciated,” she said, “but I wish he hadn’t pulled that macho tactic here. It won’t go down so well with the crew.”
“He’s worked on oil rigs before,” Axel said, surprising her. “He knows perfectly well that dominance needs to be slammed home before it becomes a bigger problem.”
“Right,” she said with a sigh. “Top dog and all that. What am I? The spoils of war?”
“Tell me,” Axel said, leaning forward across the table, his gaze intent. “Have you gone out with or hooked up with anybody here?”
She shook her head. “No, that would be suicide.”
“Exactly,” he said. “And so, if somebody is pushing the line, what will you do about it?”
“Push back,” she said with a shrug. “I’m not completely helpless.”
“Except three women were raped by multiple men. And now you’re the only woman around. That will sit in the back of their minds.”
She stared at him, feeling the color bleach from her face. “So you’re saying that Troy really had no choice but to do this?”
“To keep you safe, yes,” he said. “Unless you want to sit here and fight them all off.” And he added, “I can tell you that your idiot buddy there is mentally unstable and will go off half-cocked on you. At some point in time that’s coming up. So keep Troy or me close, just for your own protection. At all times.”
“If he’s got a weapon,” she said, “you or Troy could do nothing about it.”
“We’re hardly unarmed,” he said with a half smile.
She looked at him in shock. “You brought weapons here?”
He shrugged and gave her a wink.
She took that to mean yes, and somehow that made her feel better. “Make sure you keep them well secured, because, if any of these guys find them, I don’t know what they’ll do at this point.”
“We’d like to find out who had something to do with all those bodies,” he said. “I’d like to keep everybody in tight and up close, so I don’t have to worry about where people have disappeared to.”