Stand of Redemption (17 page)

“You’re lucky I’m still basking in the afterglow,” she threatened.

He laughed as he put his clothes back on.

“The next time we’re together, I’ll give you an afterglow to remember.”

Ria took a deep breath. She was nervous and excited at the same time. She already thought she was going to have a hard time when he finished with her.

He was almost done getting dressed, so she forced herself to get up and put on a pair of white shorts and a pretty, coral top. She noticed her hair was a mess and brushed the tangles out, starting to braid the thick, unruly hair.

“Leave it loose,” he said as he ran his fingers through her hair and undid the braid. It fell loose in big waves, and even she liked the way it looked when it was fanned out over her shou
lders.

He bent down to kiss the side of her neck and she felt the shiver of delight run through her body as she leaned back into him.

“We better go before I throw you back on the bed,” he said as he pulled her out of the bathroom.

I want to be thrown back on the bed
, Ria said silently to herself with a smile. “After dinner. You need to feed me first.”

“What does Dios mean?” he asked, holding the door open for her.

“It means, okay,” Ria lied.

“Just okay?” He arched a brow.

“I believe in calling a spade a spade.”

They were both still teasing each other as he pulled out and drove them to the restaurant.

Chapter 22

Ria sat in the chair by Emiliano. She had asked to be present for Nicholas’s last fight. She couldn’t sit in her apartment while the fight was going on, knowing he was only doing it for her.

She twisted her hands on her lap.

“Calm down, Ariel. Angelo is no match for Nicholas.” Emiliano’s smooth voice next to her drew her gaze.

“He shouldn’t be fighting at all! He’s only doing this
for me.”

Emiliano shrugged. “That is not the only reason, but if that is what you wish to believe, I won’t disabuse you.”

“What do you mean by that?” she asked sharply.

“You are naïve. Why didn’t Nicholas go to the police? Your friend did. I had to spend quite a bit of money to avoid them searching for you.”

Ria was shocked. Lacey hadn’t told her she had actually gone to the police. Doubt began to enter her mind, but she pushed it away. Nicholas had felt guilty she had lost her job because of him, hadn’t he?

She trusted him. They had spent the last two weeks together, drawing closer and spending all their time together whenever he wasn’t at the gym.

As the lights turned on, illuminating the pit, she stiffened when Nicholas was introduced. He walked out into the spotlight, removing his t-shirt to the cheers and boos of the crowd.

Angelo walked out next with his arms in the air. He was easily twice Nicholas’s size.

She scooted forward in her seat when he took off his T-shirt, revealing a muscular chest. Nicholas was muscular but lean compared to the other man. He was going to be hurt. She was unaware of the small whimper passing her lips.

The two men stepped into the pit, circling each other in the small space. The bell rang, and immediately, Angelo’s fist struck out, hitting Nicholas in the temple. He staggered back, almost falling out of the pit; instead, he used the momentum to come forward, using his fist to hit A
ngelo in the mouth.

The fury that she could see emanating from the man didn’t bode well for Nicholas.
He began striking Nicholas wherever he could. Nicholas bent over after one to his stomach.

“You have to stop it!” Ria grabbed Emiliano’s arm.

“Why? He’s going to win. Watch.”

Ria turned back to the pit. While Angelo was reacting with bloodlust, Nicholas was remai
ning calm. He was hitting Angelo with quick jabs on the jaw and temple. Nicholas was coldly beating Angelo’s ass.

Angelo’s threw a punch at Nicholas, landing on his cheekbone. He returned it with one on the underside of Angelo’s jaw with such force it had him staggering back. Before he could r
egain his senses, Nicholas struck again in the same spot, and Angelo went down. Ria couldn’t help herself, jumping to her feet, and then jumping up and down.

The lights came on and two men carried Angelo away as Nicholas left.

Bets were being taken when Emiliano stood up.

“You can go down to the changing room to meet him if you wish.”

Ria stepped away, heading in the direction Nicholas had disappeared.

“Ria, ask him about Matthew.” Emiliano’s hard face stared at her, and Ria paled.

Before she could say anything, he turned, walking away, and Mitchell followed, giving her a grim look.

Ria shakily went down the steps, her mind trying to form some idea of why she should ask Nicholas about Matthew. They couldn’t have known each other, could they? They were just a few years apart in age, but Nicholas had grown up on the other side of town. Did he have a connection with the cartel she hadn’t known about?

She went down the hallway, seeing several doors. She knocked on three before Nicholas opened the last door, wearing a small towel around his hips.

“Come in. I won’t be a minute getting dressed.”
He walked over to a large table, picking up his slacks.

Ria watched quietly as he dressed. He only had a small bruise on his cheekbone. He had come out of this fight looking much better than he had the others.

“I thought he was going to kill you. He was huge.”

Nicholas grinned at her as he put on his shirt.
“That made him slow.”

He sat down on a bench against the wall, sliding on his shoes.
Everything about him screamed money. Ria noticed how happy he looked. Nicholas loved fighting.

When he finished, he came to her, lifting her in the air and twirling her around.

“Let’s go celebrate. I gave Emiliano the money, and he agreed to let you go. After we eat, we’ll go by your place and pick up your things.”

“What money?” Ria frowned.

“He said if I gave him five hundred thousand dollars, he would let you and your mother go. I fought until I could get my dad to release my money, but I got paid for the commercial and endorsements I signed a few weeks ago, so I didn’t have to wait for the money from him. It’s all over. We can—”

“He made you give him five hundred thousand dollars for me?”

Nicholas put her down. “Yes.”

“Why would you agree to that? You barely know me.”

While Nicholas’s face became shuttered, Ria’s stomach clenched.

“Why, Nicholas?” she yelled. “No one would do that. Why didn’t you go to the police? Did you know my brother Matthew?”

He paled.

“Nicholas?
Please tell me. I don’t understand. Why would you give five hundred thousand dollars to Emiliano for me? It couldn’t be because you felt guilty over me losing my job; you had already straightened that out.” Ria was becoming frightened. She had spent the last weeks with him in her bed. She had been falling in love with him. Now she was finding out he had been keeping something concerning her brother hidden from her.

He stared back at her, seeing the pain in her eyes. Even if they put him away, it would be easier than keeping it buried inside of him. He had to tell the truth if he wanted any kind of f
uture with her.

He cleared his throat, trying to find a way to tell her the truth.

“My mother was killed when I was sixteen,” Nick started at the point his life had changed.

“I’m so sorry. I assumed she had passed since you never mentioned her,” Ria said symp
athetically.

Nick nodded his head. “She was a school teacher. She loved her job. I remember listening to her stories about the students she had helped out of a rough situation at home. Many of the students came from troubled homes and a lot of violence occurred at the school. My father was always worried, begging her to quit, but she refused.”

Ria listened quietly as he spoke.

“The day before she died, her school had been awarded a grant to implement safety measures to reduce the violence in the school. The money would cover a metal detector and called for a policeman to patrol the school for several hours a day. Our family celebrated her success that evening. It is one of my best memories of my childhood. Our family was the happ
iest we had ever been.”

Nick saw the tears brimming in Ria’s eyes and knew those tears of sympathy were about to turn to tears of hatred. He continued the story anyway.

“Before Melanie and I went to bed that night, my mother asked me to pick her up after school the next day. We were going to shop for a spring break trip. After I picked up Melanie, we went into the school to meet our mother. When we walked in, there was a circle of students standing around a fight. I had no intention of getting near it; I was going to stay back with Melanie until it broke up.” Nick took a deep breath. He had relived this moment so many times in his thoughts and nightmares. It was difficult saying it out loud.

When Ria reached out, squeezing his hand, Nicholas looked down at their joined hands.

“I’ve always been taller than most other people my age, so I was able to see over the crowd. I was able to see my mother running from the hall on the other side. She was running to break up the fight. I don’t know where the hell any of the male teachers were, and I don’t know what possessed my mother to think she could stop a fight between two boys, but I could see that was what she was going to do. I hesitated, not wanting to leave Melanie, but I could see she was going to try to break it up. I waited too long.” His face was a tortured mask.

Ria ached for the young boy that Nicholas had been to witness his mother endangering
herself.

“I ran through the kids to try to stop her, but I was a few seconds too late. One of the boys had a knife. He was swinging it around to
kill the other boy, but instead, my mother was stabbed. It went straight into her side and into her heart.”

“Oh, my God, that’s horrible,”
Ria exclaimed. She held his hand tighter.

“Melanie and I watched our mother bleed to death,” he said.

“Oh, no,” Ria said to him. “I’m so sorry you had to go through that.”

“After we watched her take her last breath, I looked for the boy that killed her and looked him in the eyes. He showed no remorse and no indication that he cared for what he had done, so I attacked him. The male teachers finally showed up and pulled me off him. When the par
amedics and the police came, he still showed no remorse. The punk wasn’t worth one breath my mother took, and he didn’t even care!”

Ria’s eyes started to narrow.
Nick knew she was finally figuring out where the story was leading. He felt her let go of his hand.

“You know who it was, don’t you, Ria?”

Her eyes were wide, and he could see the realization and shock coursing through her body.

“You killed him,” Ria whispered as she took a step away from him.

“Yes, Ria. He killed my mother,” Nick said calmly, looking up at her. He expected this reaction from her. He had every belief that she would be reporting him.

“You had no right! It was an accident. He was just a kid,” she yelled at him.

“He was a cold-blooded murderer. If he hadn’t killed my mother, he would have killed the other boy. Either way, someone would have died at his hand.”

“He was only nineteen!” she continued to yell at him.

“I was only sixteen.” His sharp voice cut through her building hysteria. “And I had just watched someone too old to be in high school kill my mother. When I approached him on the street, he had been selling drugs to kids all day and was high himself. He pulled the knife on me first. If I hadn’t killed him, he would have tried to kill me,” Nick said with force and conviction. He refused to feel guilty for his actions that day. “I didn’t have any type of weapon on me; it was his own knife that led to his death.”

“You asshole!” Ria screamed and slapped him across the face.

Nick didn’t try to defend himself.

“You’ve been fucking me, and you knew all along you had killed my brother!”

“I know.” His guilt had been eating him alive every day.

“
You know
? That’s all you have to say is ‘you know’?” Ria gave a hysterical laugh.

“I didn’t want these feelings for you. I’ve tried to fight them, but I couldn’t. I knew I should have left you alone once I found out who you were, but I couldn’t.” He gave a harsh laugh. “Then Emiliano took you, and I felt responsible when you told me it was because your brothers weren’t around to protect you,” Nick explained, knowing it wouldn’t matter.

“Well, I can tell you for damn sure that there would have been nothing between us if you told me the fucking truth!” Ria continued to yell at him.

“That’s why I hadn’t told you before, but I couldn’t keep it from you any longer,” he said. “You can do what you want with the information; I won’t deny it.”

Ria stared at him, and he waited for what she would do next. At this point, he didn’t care if he spent the rest of his life in jail; he was tired of carrying around the burden.

“I hate you,” she snarled at him.

He hadn’t expected anything different.

“When I first met you, I didn’t know you were his sister.”

“But you knew before you fucked me, didn’t you?”

Nick nodded his head. “Yes.”

Determined to come clean, he told her the rest. “I was there the day your other brother was killed too.”

“You know who killed Alejandro?”

“Yes, I do,” Nick replied.

“Was it you?” she asked, stunned.

“No, but I won’t tell you who did it. I was there. I could have stopped it, and I didn’t,” Nick stated. He was the only one going down for that shit. He wasn’t going to ruin anyone else’s life.

Ria glared at him again. She seemed at a loss, staring at him speechlessly.

“I’m a lying, deceitful bastard. I’m glad your brothers are dead, but I’m sorry how it affected your life. That’s why I tried to help you. I guess I was trying to redeem myself.”

“
That’s impossible! I will never fucking forgive you, not for taking my brother’s life or for lying to me.”

There was nothing Nick could say. He watched her walk out the door without shutting it behind her without attempting to follow her. He listened to her heels running down the hal
lway. He just sat down on the bench, staring at the empty doorway.