The Paradise Trap by Catherine Jinks Read Free Book Online

be doing under our caravan?’
    Newt, however, was already being dragged away. And when Marcus tried to follow her, the crowd closed in on her retreating back, swallowing her up and barring his progress.
    ‘ Newt! Hey, Newt! ’ he bawled. ‘ These aren’t your real friends! They can’t be! ’
    ‘Okay, son.’ A giant hand closed around his arm. ‘Let’s go.’
    Marcus looked up to see a hulking, tattooed bouncer looming over him. This bouncer had a shaved head and wore a tie but no shirt. His muscles were the biggest that Marcus had ever laid eyes on (outside of a computer game).
    ‘No kids in this club,’ said the bouncer. ‘You’re not old enough. There’s alcohol being served.’ His gaze shifted to the little white dog. ‘No animals allowed either,’ he added.
    ‘But my friend!’ Marcus wailed. ‘I need to talk to her! She’s just over there!’
    ‘Sorry.’
    Hustled towards the exit, Marcus craned around to scream at Newt. ‘ Newt! Look! I’ve still got your phone! ’ he told her. To the bouncer he said hoarsely, ‘My friend’s underage! She’s older than me but she’s still too young! You should make her leave, as well!’
    ‘Don’t worry about your friend,’ the bouncer rejoined. ‘She’ll be fine. You worry about yourself.’
    ‘But—’
    ‘Kids like you don’t belong in here. So I don’t want to see you again.’ The bouncer suddenly leaned down and thrust his massive, raw-boned, scarred and tattooed face at Marcus. ‘Get out and stay out,’ the bouncer rumbled, ‘or I’ll take you round the back and teach you a lesson you won’t forget. Understand?’
    Marcus nodded dumbly. The white dog barked. Ooompa-ooompa-ooompa went the music.
    ‘Right.’ The bouncer straightened. Then he yanked open a heavy steel fire door. ‘Off you go. And don’t come back,’ he snarled, giving Marcus a mighty shove.
    Whomp! The door banged shut behind Marcus, who tripped and nearly fell. The music stopped. Darkness descended. Newt’s phone bounced off a familiar stone floor.
    Once again, Marcus found himself in the cellar of his caravan. And Newton Huckstepp was nowhere to be seen.

13
    MUMS TO THE RESCUE
    ‘W ELL , THAT ’ S JUST AWFUL ,’ C OCO WAS SAYING . ‘I F YOU ask me, you’re better off without him.’
    ‘I know,’ Holly agreed. ‘I am. Only I worry about Marcus, sometimes.’ She reached for a chocolate, but had trouble picking it up because her new fake fingernails were so long. ‘He must feel rejected, even though he doesn’t talk about his father much.’
    Coco gave a nod. ‘It is very difficult,’ she observed, peering up at the sky with a puckered forehead. She was lying on an inflatable pool lounge, holding a tall, icy drink in one hand and a remote control in the other. Holly lay beside her on a matching lounge; both women had retired to the Huckstepps’ back veranda, where they were basking in the sun as they gazed across Diamond Beach.
    But there was a bit too much sun. As Holly ineptly tried to peel the wrapper off her chocolate, Coco waved her remote control at some well-disguised piece of electronic gadgetry overhead.
    A striped canvas awning immediately began to unfold above them.
    ‘Men are hopeless,’ Coco went on. ‘What I always say is that they’re just children at heart.’ The words had barely left her mouth when a strange object suddenly writhed into view. It was Prot’s disembodied left arm, which had somehow dropped to the floor and wriggled its way onto the veranda like a snake or a worm. ‘Oh, for heaven’s sake!’ Coco snapped, then raised her voice. ‘ Sterling! I thought I told you to fix that damn robot? ’
    ‘I am fixing it.’ Her husband popped his head around the side of one French door, screwdriver in hand. ‘That’s why I had to take its arm off.’
    ‘Well, don’t just leave the horrible thing scuttling around,’ Coco said crossly. ‘We have guests here.’
    ‘Sorry, my love.’
    ‘If it’s not fixed by dinner,