Caged: Cellar Door Series (18 page)

Matt leaned back against the couch, lacing his fingers behind his head, his chest rising and falling heavily. “Do you know how damn crazy women are?”

Kylee shifted on my lap. “Like men are sane? Don’t even get me started Matthew Layne.”

Matt shook his head and realized that probably wasn’t the best opening line to use. “Not you Kylee. Damn Ronnie. So she was closing up OverTime for the night, she doesn’t lock the doors, nope, she goes around cleaning up leaving the place wide open. She might as well have a neon sign that says come on in lit up. So I ask her why she didn’t secure the doors before finishing up. Its late, she’s alone.”

Matt dropped both his hands from behind his head and sat up on the couch. “She tells me that somebody messed with her car a few days back. If they want to find her, they can. Bro, I swear she wants them to try her. Apparently the car’s fairly new and she’s taken it kind of personal.”

“You did explain to her that wasn’t the best course of action right? ” I knew Matt had probably gone ape shit but I was waiting on his explanation.

“Damn straight I did. I asked her if she was bat shit crazy?”

Kylee groaned, rubbing both her hands over face. “Matt…please tell me that’s not what you really said?” I had to agree with Kylee, bad move on my boy’s part for sure. I didn’t see any bruises though so that was a good sign that Ronnie hadn’t beaten his ass.

Matt looked back and forth between us. “Hell yeah I did. And she got all bent. Told me she has a daddy, uncles and cousins too and doesn’t need any one else telling her what to do or how to do it. Then she tells me to get the hell out. I step outside the front door and she decides to lock the damn thing then. I banged on the door for 10 minutes. All I got was her turning up the music so loud she probably couldn’t hear me anymore. What the fuck?”

I tapped Kylee’s hip. “Hop up for a second. I need to grab my phone.” Kylee took off to get it for me instead, pausing to shake her head at Matt. I just looked at my boy like he was stump stupid. “You managed to beat out 100,000 other sperm but can’t figure out where you fucked up on this? Box. Of. Rocks. Seriously? You that twisted up about her?”

Matt glared at me, his arms crossing over his shirt, the bottom edge of one of his tattoos normally well hidden, peeking out from beneath the sleeve as it rode up his bicep and avoided the question. Kylee returned with my phone and settled back on my lap as I fired off a quick text to Ray letting him know what was up.

Kylee sat forward, balancing on her tips toes on the floor to keep from falling out of my lap as she stared at Matt. “Is that what I think it is?”

One side of Matt’s mouth tipped up. “Why? I know you can’t have a problem with tattoos seeing as JD is a walking monument of them.”

              I shook my head with a laugh, he was speaking the truth. My ink was constantly on display in one form or another. I’d never understood why Matt would have so much ink done but not want any to show it. “Anyway how do you plan on making it up to Ronnie? Its gonna be hard to keep an eye on her if you’re not even allowed in OverTime or near her. Just saying bro, generally you don’t want to insult the chick if you’re trying to hang around.”

              Matt glowered at me. “No shit Sherlock, after all I’ve had the #1 teacher to mentor me on how not to treat a female.” I flipped Matt the bird while Kylee tried to muffle a laugh behind her hand.

              I cocked my pierced brow at my hell cat. “Something funny?” She smiled and shook her head in the negative. I returned my attention to the problem at hand again. “So what are you going to do?”

              Matt sat back and stretched his hands out over his shorts, rubbing them against the tops of his thighs. “I’ll apologize or tell her I was drunk and talking out of my ass. I think she’ll forgive me once she’s had a chance to calm down, I hope. I mean she was pissed as hell dude. I don’t think you get it.”

              I moved my hand to Kylee’s back rubbing my palm over her lower back as she draped an arm around my shoulders snuggling into my right side, her head resting against my chest. “Really? You don’t get it. Kylee, what’s the one thing in the world that ignites my temper faster than anything?”

              Kylee’s head tipped back to look up at me and then set her gaze on Matt all traces of laughter gone. “Take the choice away from JD, tell him he has to do something and you might as well light a powder keg and hold it in both your hands as it goes off. It would cause less damage. You know that Mattie.”

              Matt inhaled deeply. “Well fuck…yeah I knew that about him. How was I supposed to know that about Ronnie?”

              I rocked back in the recliner and smirked. “She’s a fighter by choice. It doesn’t take a lot of connecting the dots to figure out she’s more than likely had to fight because she didn’t have  a choice at one point and time.” Matt had an ahh-ha moment, the light bulb finally going off in his brain. Ronnie was strong, independent and determined. I had a feeling a lot of people underestimated her both in and out of the cage.

              I checked my cell, no text back from Ray but noted it was after 2:00am. If that hadn’t been a tip off it was late, Kylee’s large yawn definitely was. “Come on baby girl, let’s get some sleep.” I stood up after her, moving towards the hall to the bedrooms and tossed Matt a nod hoping he was right, that Ronnie would calm down after a night’s sleep. If not, helping Ray just got a helluva a lot harder.

Matt’s groveling hadn’t worked for the past four days; Ronnie steadily ignored every single attempt he’d made to apologize to her. Kylee was sitting at our small kitchen table, strumming her fingers against the hard surface. I sat back in the chair opposite of her, both of us watching Matt who was leaning with his back against the counter. His arms were crossed over his chest and he was sporting a whole lot of pissed off which was rare. Matt was normally the level headed one. The steady dependable guy, the guy that had put his hobbies on hold to rebuild my career even with me bitching about the shit until I realized there was no changing his mind. At least most people knew him to be that way.

Mattie was really two people. One lived to please his parents, to do the right thing by them, by the other adults he respected. The other Matt, well he came out to play every now again. It was the Matt currently standing in our kitchen, in a white tank top that showed the flames that inked the tops of both his biceps and part of both shoulders that where usually hidden beneath his short sleeved shirts. This Matt, I was one of a very few to really know. Kylee hadn’t seen all of Matt’s work yet but I knew his back was carrying a large skull with red eyes, flames rolling off it, those same flames licking over his biceps and part of his shoulders. I was there when he’d gotten the work done, for the many sessions it took to complete it just like Matt had been at most of mine. It was beast. I can’t explain how talented Lydia is. 

Ray had text both Matt and I that morning to tell us Ronnie’s car had been keyed the night before and this time it had happened at her house. The asshole behind the shit was sending a very clear message to Ray, take the fall or take the consequences. To make matters worse Ronnie wasn’t forthcoming with the fact she was getting harassed, Ray was still finding out second hand. To keep Ronnie from completely shutting down the family, he couldn’t even bring it up to her. According to Ray, Ronnie had only just recently started letting the family back in to her life and that was exactly why he was tip toeing around the situation with her. It was one giant cluster fuck.

Kylee pulled one foot up on her chair, resting her chin on her knee as she wrapped her arms around her bent leg. “What are you going to do Matt?” Kylee was a care kind of girl. Always had been and even if she didn’t know Ronnie well, she automatically was concerned.

Matt scrubbed one hand through his blonde hair, a half smirk, half scowl forming. “I’ve got something in the works.”

I cocked my pierced brow at him, laced my fingers behind my head and returned the half smirk. “And that would be?” Kylee was looking back and forth between us highly confused. I had a damn good idea what Matt was hinting at.

Matt pressed his palms to the counter top and hefted himself onto the counter. “Heard from the boys yesterday. Guess who’s pulling into town in about 2 hours?”

Kylee perked up, her foot sliding off her chair as she sat up straight. “Really DGB is going be in town Mattie?” She clapped her hands excitedly. “I love them. Are you going to rock out with them?” Kylee’s big browns were shinning with her enthusiasm, the dark cascade of her hair falling over one shoulder.

I glowered at Kylee. I liked the guys for the most part. The band Days Gone By had formed back in high school and had been paying their dues for the past 4 years since graduating. They had started with touring dive clubs and worked up the ranks to festivals. They were on the brink of becoming well known. It was that hobby Matt had taken a break from when shit went to hell in a hand basket with me which worked out for his parents because he’d stayed in college instead of following the band out on tour. I don’t think his parents had any idea how hard that decision had been for Matt but he sucked it up as usual and did what made them happy and helped the hell out of me in the process.

Kylee rose from her seat and walked past me to the fridge looking like she was ready to break out skipping any second. What the fuck? “You excited much baby girl?” I was full on scowling which had Matt laughing that died out when I shot him a I’m gonna fuck you up look.

Kylee pressed a cold bottle of water into my hands, passed one to Matt and then plopped down in my lap. She had always been like that, do for herself; do for everyone else too.

“Of course I am. I remember watching Matt and the guys rehearse at Troy’s back in high school. I loved listening to them. I haven’t seen them in forever. At least I got to hear Matt sing.” I almost dumped Kylee in the floor when I sat straight up which had one of her hands gripping at my shorts covered thigh holding on to the material.

“Just when was that?” Matt would dick around some, hell when we played Xbox, he would unconsciously begin singing with the playlist we had programmed to our games but I hadn’t heard him really press his vocals since DGB had gone on the road. I’d heard his guitar plenty of times, but not his vocals.

A blush spread over Kylee’s cheeks, her eye lids lowering as she cast a glance to her hands. My gaze went to Matt’s and damn if that fucker wasn’t sporting some color on his face too. “You two got something you need to fill me in on?” I felt the edges of my temper flare. Yep…jealous as fuck prick. Not like I could help it. If there had been a fuse I could pull loose to disconnect that shit I would. It wasn’t my style at all but with Kylee it’s all I knew anymore. I needed to get it under control.

“It’s no big deal JD.” Kylee’s voice was soft and she seemed genuinely embarrassed. I eased back in the high back wooden chair, pulling her more firmly on my lap.

“If it’s no big deal baby girl, why are you struggling to tell me?” Kylee shoved her hair back away from her face, her eyes still glued on her hands.

“I would call Matt from college, like when I missed home. You wouldn’t talk to me and it hurt. Sometimes it just hurt a lot JD. I missed you. I missed Matt. I missed my parents. Mattie would sing to me. I got to pick what I wanted to hear and he would put his phone on speaker, play his guitar and sing to me. It made it a little better.” Kylee’s slight shoulders lifted in a shrug.

I hadn’t a clue that she’d been missing it that much. As much as Matt shared with me about her while she was gone, even when I told him to shut the fuck up about her, he’d never told me she missed home so much. It made sense why she came straight back after graduating. And even though my gut twisted because Matt had been there soothing her, I couldn’t get truly pissed about it. He’d always been there for Kylee, just like he’d been there for me. I could expect nothing less of him than to try to make her feel better, especially when I had been such a prick.

I tabled my water bottle and wrapped both my arms around her, hugging her to me. “My bad princess.” Kylee looped an arm around my waist and leaned into me. There wasn’t much more I could say. We’d covered the ground about my dickishness over and over. It was going to hurt for while still. I didn’t like it, but I got it.  Matt visibly relaxed, uncapped his water and took a big swallow of it.

“Anyway, Troy hit me up, the guys are all staying at his house while they are in town and they have a few gigs to perform. Guess where one of them is?” Matt smiled smugly, looking like the cat that ate the canary. “You get three guesses and the first two don’t count.”

Before I could spit it out Kylee sat up and beat me to it, screeching in the highest decibel possible. “Oh my god! OverTime! Right! I’m right aren’t I?” I leaned forward and talked low next to her ear.

“I think the next county and certainly every fan within a 100 miles may have just heard you.” Chuckling I sat back and tossed Matt a nod.

“Nice work kid. So when are they playing there?” If it ended up being on a Friday when I was scheduled to fight, I’d do it alone. I owed Matt the chance to fix shit with Ronnie, to have some fun hanging with the band he’d helped formed only to let it go, hell the list of shit I owed him was so long it would take days to cover it.

Matt took another swallow of his water letting the pause settle for dramatic effect. “This Saturday night. Guess who’s going to be guest lead singing?”

I covered both my ears knowing the piercing scream was going to be coming any second. I wasn’t wrong.

“You! Matthew Layne!!! You’re going to be up on stage again.” Kylee bounded off my lap and ran straight to Matt, fitting between his legs to give him a huge hug. I kept my ass planted in my seat and after a second’s flash of jealousy found out I was alright with it. Kylee  had always been like a kid sister to Matt even though we were all the same age. Matt had been the big brother Kylee never saw. She had one, but he was 7 years older than her and she barely knew anything about him. It was taboo in Kylee’s family to discuss him.

“That’s right Kylee Grace. I’m going to do a set with Days Gone By.” Matt’s pissed face was gone, a light shone in his green eyes making them so bright they were almost yellow. He was Hollywood surfer looks when he played the part where I was back street bad ass without even trying.

“Bro, how you gonna do that? The fans hear you sing with DGB and then Marcus tries to step back in as lead? That’s not going to fly.” To hear Matt talk you wouldn’t know the sounds that dude could put out. He was deep, dark, soulful and a lot of pure metal when he felt like letting loose. Marcus was good. Matt was fucking great.

Matt shrugged as he released Kylee and glanced up towards the ceiling like the answer could be found there. “That’s the thing JD, Marcus can’t be there, he’s got a family thing he has to take care of. Troy asked me. It was the perfect in to be able to see Ronnie without her being able to turn me away.” He dropped his chin down, laced his fingers in front of him and cracked his knuckles as Kylee came back to settle down over my legs again.

“I’m stoked. I haven’t performed for a crowd in almost four years. I can’t pass this up while its right here and I have the added bonus that it doesn’t interfere with any fights so it’s a win-win for me.”

“Matt, even if I had a fight, I could manage it so you get some time with the band. I know those guys are important to you and it’s a sick chance. I’d be pissed if you didn’t do it. It would suck to miss the show, but I’d manage”

Matt pushed off the counter and stepped close enough for us to tag knuckles. “And that’s why you’re my stick partner JD. I need to shower and head to Troy’s. They want to practice and god knows I need the warm up.” He bent down and dropped a light kiss to the top of Kylee’s head before leaving kitchen towards his room.

Kylee spun around in my lap, straddling my thighs with her hands resting on my shoulders. “I am so excited for Matt. It’s going to be awesome.”

I had to smile. Kylee was Matt’s biggest fan, DGB’s too. She’d attended most of their jam sessions while I’d been at Odyssey learning MMA and Jiu Jitsu the last two years of high school. I had forgotten how much time she’d been around them.

“Yeah, it’s going to be a good time baby girl.” I pressed my lips to hers, that little pink tongue of hers sneaking out to play with my lip ring and it was like it was connected to my cock. Groaning I pulled her in for a deeper kiss, my tongue tangling with and teasing hers before forcibly breaking off from it. I could lose myself for days just kissing her. Shit, to be honest I could lose myself forever. Screw days, wasn’t enough time by far.

Kylee’s eyes fluttered back open slowly, the dark browns almost black. I was tempted to just stand straight up and walk her back to my room but she stopped me.

“I have to go home for a little while. I promised momma I would help her with a few things.” Kylee’s lips moved across mine one more time before she wiggled off my lap, my dick going straight rigid as her body moved over it.

I stood, adjusted myself blatantly so she knew just what she’d done but I didn’t have to bother. The look she was giving me told me she knew just what she’d done. Damn hell cat.

“Have a good day. I’ll text you later babe.” With that she gathered her purse and sashayed her barely there short clad ass from the kitchen.

I was tempted to turn the bottle of water I’d left on the table over my head, maybe even pull the waist band of my shorts out and dump it there instead when my cell chirped that I had a text. Picking it up I saw the reminder from Doc Christine that I was due to stop by and get my staples out. Thank fuck.

Matt was in the shower, his voice flowing through the closed door. Yup, my boy was singing in the shower. I was half tempted to you tube his ass but really wanted the damn staples out so I could get back to training. I had a week and two days to get ready to do battle and sitting around wasn’t getting me in shape for it. I dressed and drove over to the Doc’s house.

I was greeted at the door by Sam who shocked the shit out of me. It was 11:30 in the morning. I didn’t expect to see him at his daughter’s house.

“JD my boy. Come on in. I’ll take you down to Christine’s make shift clinic.” Sam was always wore suits at the club so seeing him in jeans and a collared shirt threw me.

I clasped his hand giving it a firm shake before following him. I barely remembered where I was going. I must have lost a shit ton of blood to be that out of it that night. I tended to be real wary of my surroundings. Even at a restaurant I knew every exit, every place to bail out if I needed to get clear. Just one more thing I could give my pops thanks for.

Heading downstairs an angry female voice filtered over to us before we made it into the room the Doc had patched me up in. Sam shook his head. “That piece of shit just won’t let it go. Ever since Christine moved back home he’s hounded her.”