“He grabbed me!”
Danny looks up and sees her, pretty drunk, staggering in the deep sand, coming toward him, walking back toward the fire that’s dim now. He zips his fly, gets up and, still groggy, asks, “What’s the matter? What’s going on?!”
It’s like a weird, bad dream.
“He grabbed me! That son of a bitch grabbed my boob!”
Now Danny sees Liam walking up behind her, this stupid grin on his face, his hands spread in mock innocence. “It was an accident. A misunderstanding.”
“Shit, Liam.” Terri’s on her feet now. She wraps Pam in her arms and Pam starts crying. “It’s all right. It’s all right.”
Terri looks at Danny, like Aren’t you going to do something? Then Danny hears people running toward them and then Paulie and Peter, Pat and Sal Antonucci, and Tony come running out of the fog.
Danny grabs Liam by the elbow. “Come on. Get out of here.”
Liam jerks his arm away. “It’s no big deal. I just brushed against her tit is all. Misunderstanding.”
“We need to get you out of here.”
“Where were you?” Paulie asks Pam. “I been looking all over!”
“I went for a walk,” she says. “To clear my head. That son of a bitch must have followed me!”
She points at Liam.
“Did he hurt you?” Paulie asks.
“He grabbed my breast.”
“The fuck, Liam!” Peter yells.
Sal starts to move in. That’s Sal, Danny thinks, he takes care of things for the Morettis. Pat steps between them. “Take it easy.”
“A mistake.” Liam smirks. “I was trying to find my way in the fog, I reached out and . . . tit. Oops.”
“Shut your stupid mouth,” Pat snaps.
Danny grabs Liam, holds him tight this time and pulls him away because Paulie is going apeshit.
“I’ll kick your fucking ass!” Paulie yells. “I’ll fucking kill you, you motherfucker!”
Liam yells, “You’ll try, asshole!”
Danny cuffs him on the side of the head. “Shut up.”
Liam breaks away and runs down the beach away from them. Danny starts to chase him, but Jimmy Mac is there now, grabs hold of Danny and says, “Let him go.”
Jimmy looks as Irish as corned beef. Curly red hair, pale skin with freckles, a face as open as a book. He’s stocky leaning toward chubby, and Danny knows sometimes his softness makes people think he’s weak.
It’s a big mistake.
Jimmy’s a gearhead, maybe the best wheelman in New England. What he can’t do with a car can’t be done. He’ll get you in and he’ll get you out. But he’s more than that—you get into a beef, you want Jimmy with you. He’ll go with his hands, with a knife, or with a gun, that’s what it takes. Angie bosses him around like he’s a cocker spaniel, but that’s because he loves her and he lets her.
Jimmy Mac has balls.
So Danny doesn’t fight him, he watches Liam disappear into the fog.
Pat walks up to Paulie and Pam. “I’m sorry. I apologize for my brother.”
“He’s an asshole,” Paulie says.
“I can’t disagree.”
“What he did is not acceptable,” Peter says.
“He’s drunk.”
“No excuse.”
“No, it’s not,” Pat says. “I’ll talk with him. We’ll deal with it.”
“Can we get her in out of the cold?” Terri asks. “The poor girl is shaking.”
“He didn’t do anything more to you, did he?” Paulie asks her.
“No, he just touched my breast.”
They take Pam back to their cottage because they don’t want to wake up Pasco and Mary with this. Terri gets her settled down, even laughing a little bit, and then Paulie takes her back to his place.
“Your fucking brother,” Danny says when they’ve all left. “I swear.”
Terri, she looks sad. “I can’t help feeling bad for him.”
“What for?”
“It’s his way of getting attention,” Terri says. “It’s not easy being Pat’s younger brother. Pat the hockey star, Pat the basketball star, Pat the star student . . . the star son. His whole life, Liam’s been in Pat’s shadow. Now Dad relies more and more on Pat in the business . . . that will be Pat’s. Liam just wants something that’s his, you know.”
But Pam isn’t his, Danny thinks. That’s the problem. “There’s going to be hell to pay for this.”