Stand of Redemption (8 page)

Chapter 11

The long fighting session had helped ease some of the tension, and he was ready to start the day. He was on the way to Zane’s gym to meet Ty for a training session. He had spoken with Zane a few days ago about scheduling a fight for Ty, and they had agreed to let Ty choose the fighter he wanted to challenge.

As he pulled into the parking lot, he saw only Zane’s vehicle and glanced at the clock. He was almost an hour early, but he knew Ty would be up. The kid was a hard worker; he was always early and never slacked off.

Nick had been spending some additional time with Ty during their training sessions to try to get a better understanding of why he was so full of anger. A fighter always had to control his temper, or it would lead to mistakes and give their opponents power. Nick sensed there was something going on with the young man, but Ty wasn’t willing to talk. Nick never asked or pushed, simply wanting to be there when Ty finally opened up or needed his help.

“Hey, Nick. You look like shit.” Zane observed when Nick walked through the office door.

“Good morning to you, too
motherfucker,” Nick retorted.

Zane leaned back in his chair to study Nick.

“Stop it, Zane. I get enough of that shit from Melanie; quit trying to find a way to fix me,” Nick said harshly.

“Man
, you know we care about you. What if Melanie was doing what you’re doing to yourself? You would do everything in your power to help her, wouldn’t you?” Zane pointed out.

Nick sighed. Everyone knew Melanie was his only fucking weakness; subsequently, she was easy to use when Zane wanted to drive his point home.

“I’m fine.” Nick said with finality.

Zane narrowed his eyes at Nick. “I honestly just want to beat the shit out of you, but som
eone else is already doing that.”

“Can’t I have any secrets?” Nick snarled.

Zane shrugged. “Then don’t pick fighters in my gym to train with.”

Nick grinned. “I need to work on my techniques. Your fighters have the different ranges I need. Marco gives me the martial arts. Frank the boxing.”

“What’s Trey giving you?”

“An ass whipping,” Nick said wearily, sitting down in the chair across from his desk.

“I’d do that for free.”

“When my arm has healed, you can try,” Nick threatened. “You know I don’t plan to lose to you again.”

Zane laughed. “Fuck, I’m not looking forward to our next fight.”

Nick laughed, too. “Me, neither.”

Their last fight had been intense, both of them getting a lot of good blows in. Zane had ultimately found a way to get Nick into a hold he couldn’t break free from. Nick sometimes wondered to himself if he had let it happen just to let his friend win, but he knew it wasn’t in him to give up. He gave full credit to Zane.

“So what have you been up to? Anything new?” Zane asked as he looked back at the co
mputer to enter some information.

“Not really. I took Ria out last night, but I won’t have time to see her again. I’ll be busy ge
tting Ty ready for the fight,” Nick replied as he scrolled through his phone messages. He realized he wasn’t hearing anything from Zane, and looked up to find Zane giving him a hard stare. “What?”

“You’re seeing Ria?” Zane asked, almost too casually.

Nick sensed there was something he didn’t know. “We’ve been out a couple of times, but I don’t plan on seeing her again,” Nick repeated, hearing the slight hint of disappointment in his own voice. He hoped Zane hadn’t heard it, too.

“Oh, okay.” Zane tried to put on a casual air as he went back to the computer.

“Zane, what the fuck are you trying to hide? Since when do you give a fuck who I go out with?”

Zane hesitated. “You don’t know who she is, do you?” Zane continued before Nick could respond. “It’s a crazy, small world.” He shook his head when Nick told him to quit bullshitting around.

“Do you remember when we confronted Dragon?”

Nick nodded his head in silence.

Dragon had been the chief of a drug cartel that Nick had recently discovered Zane used to work for. When Nick had first found out, he had been furious with Zane. However, as the truth came out, Nick had discovered that Zane was only working for the cartel in order to protect Nick’s family.

Nick felt the
guilt rise in him again. Zane had suffered for years, just to protect Nick. Zane’s sacrifices hadn’t been known by his family until he had tried to quit the cartel, and they had struck back. Dragon had taken Melanie as punishment. Therefore, Zane had taken Nick with him for the meeting.

During the confrontation with Dragon, Nick had quickly realized the reason they were there. Zane had helped Nick out as a kid, helping him hide any evidence of killing Dragon’s younger brother. After the meeting, Zane had needed Nick to help eliminate any evidence when Zane killed Dragon. Nick had watched Zane point the gun and shoot Dragon with no hes
itation. So far, no one had come after them.

“What about it?” Nick asked.

“I knew how to keep Dragon from fighting back and accept his fate,” Zane stated.

Nick thought back to that night. He had been so tormented over Melanie’s disappearance, as well as watching Zane shoot a man in the head, that everything else was just a blur. He thought hard about what had changed Dragon’s demeanor. It came to him suddenly.

Zane had kidnapped someone. Nick had never asked any details about the girl, though. He had known Zane wouldn’t hurt an innocent person and had assumed he had been bluffing.

“Yeah. You said you had Ariel,” Nick responded, and then jumped up when the realization struck him.
“You’re not telling me what I think you are, are you?”

Zane nodded his head grimly. “I don’t know why she refers to herself as Ria. When she i
ntroduced herself that morning in the gym, I was surprised. I guess it’s her nickname.”

Nick sat back down in shock.
“Did you really take her?”

He would have thought Ria would be traumatized from an experience such as kidnapping, but she had given no sign of anything like that happening to her. She was tough, though. She didn’t let the recent attack hold her back.

“Yes. I used the money I made off the cartel to buy two of Dragon’s men. They kept her locked up until morning. Ty and Lane also watched the house to make sure I wasn’t double-crossed by them trying to hurt her,” Zane explained. “She never saw anyone or said anything to the police,” Zane added.

“Fuck
,” was all Nick could say in response.

He sat for a few moments as he took it all in.

“How was she related to Dragon? And why the fuck didn’t you tell me?” Nick was furious that he had been kept in the dark. What the hell was wrong with Zane?

“She is Dragon’s and Matthew’s half-sister. And I didn’t know you were going to start d
ating her, Nick. She’s not the type of girl you’ve ever gone after before. She actually has a brain, and you can have a normal conversation with her.”

Nick scowled at Zane, but he couldn’t argue his point.

His phone buzzed with a message from Ty. It said he couldn’t train this morning, but it didn’t explain why. This was the first time Ty had ever missed a session; therefore, Nick knew it was important. He replied back to tell him to take care.

He looked back at Zane. “I guess we do what we’ve always done. Keep our mouths shut.”

Zane nodded. “I guess it’s a good thing you’ve decided not to see her anymore.”

“Yeah, it would be a bitch to find out you’re dating the man who was responsible for both of your
brothers’ deaths.”

Nicholas
didn’t know how he felt about Ria being related to Matthew and Dragon. There wasn’t a family resemblance in their features, and neither one of her brothers would have devoted any time to saving a human being like she had. Ria wanted to save lives, not take them as they had. He didn’t want to blame Ria for their mistakes anymore than he wanted anyone to blame Melanie for his.

Chapter 12

Nick drove around; thinking about what had happened the day after his mother had died. He had wanted justice. He had even called the juvenile detention center, asking what would happen to the boy that ended his mother’s life. He would never forget the rage he’d felt when they had told him he had already been released. From that moment, he had known it would be up to him to get the justice he was searching for.

He and Zane had determined where he would be. His name was Matthew, and he was a nineteen-year-old senior, too much of a punk to settle down and do what he needed to do to graduate. He shouldn’t have even been at the school. It wasn’t fair to have a nineteen-year-old kid bullying the younger students. He was even taken to the juvenile detention center in error; the cops mistakenly assumed he was underage.

He and Zane had stayed close, but out of sight, as they’d watched the multiple drug deals. Matthew sold to kids. He was one of those sick bastards that went after the young children. He dressed the addict
ive drugs up in pretty parcels to get them hooked early before they could realize the impact it would have on them as they grew older.

He and Zane had waited patiently all day to find a moment when Matthew would finally be alone. When the time had come, Nick hadn’t wasted another moment as Zane had looked out for him.

He had rushed Matthew, determined to confront him. He hadn’t even been sure what he was going to do until Matthew had turned to him and said the words Nick still heard in his nightmares.
“I’ll kill you like I killed your mother!”

Matthew had then jabbed at him with a knife, but he’d stood no chance against Nick’s strength, speed, and need for vengeance. Nick had taken the knife from him and stabbed Ma
tthew, just like Matthew had stabbed his mother. Nick had looked down at Matthew without remorse, watching the blood pour out of him.

As he
’d watched Matthew die, Nick refused to feel guilt. Matthew had chosen to swing his knife into his mother; he deserved to die.

He recalled Zane coming up to him and wiping down the knife, telling him to run. And that’s what they had done. They ran until they had believed no one would ever know it was
them.

Nick had believed for years that they had indeed gotten away with it. However, they hadn’t. Zane had simply found a way to keep Nick safe until he couldn’t bear it any longer. Nick couldn’t blame him for killing Dragon… Alejandro, or whatever the fuck his name was supposed to be.

He and Zane were responsible for the murder of Ria’s two brothers, one of whom had killed his mother.

He thoug
ht of her current situation. Ria and her mother were living in the worst part of town, something she seemed ashamed of. That would only be because she was used to having at least some money. With Alejandro dead, she was on her own.

He felt an overwhelming need to help and protect her. She was scraping by at that fucking bar. He could at least help her get a better job when she received her exam results.

The next two days, he repeatedly called Ria, becoming increasingly frustrated when she didn’t answer.

After his doctor appointment, he took the freeway to Ria’s apartment. He had found her a job through a friend of his. He wanted to tell her, but couldn’t get her to answer the damn phone.

He knocked on her door several times, yet she didn’t answer.

He was about to knock again when a door opened behind him. Nicholas turned to see a slob of a man holding a beer can.

“No one lives there.”

Nicholas looked at the apartment number again.
“Ria doesn’t live here?”

“I don’t know her name. She never gave me the time of day.” Nicholas could understand why. The food-stained t-shirt he was wearing was turning Nicholas’s stomach.
“She moved out two days ago.”

“You don’t happen to know where she was moving to, do you?”

“No.” The man slammed the door in his face.

Nicholas was glad she wasn’t living in this neighborhood anymore, but he wanted to know where she
moved to. What if it was worse than this?

He drove to the bar she worked at. Once there, he waited impatiently for the bartender to quit flirting with the waitresses to come to take his order.

“I don’t want anything. I’m looking for Ria.”

“Why?”

Nicholas bit back his anger. “I’m a friend of hers.”

“If you were a friend of hers, you would know she doesn’t work here anymore.” The snarky comment almost earned the bartender a punch in the face, but he couldn’t preach to Ty about controlling his temper if he couldn’t do it himself.

“She quit?”

“Yes.
Two nights ago. Look, I’m busy; you want a drink or not?”

Nicholas didn’t answer, walking away. It seemed that Ria had drastically changed her life after their date. What had happened?

Nicholas took a chance and decided to find the only person that he thought might have the answers he wanted.

*  *  *

He met Lacey by the ER entrance.

“I’m sorry to interrupt you when you’re on duty, but I was worried about Ria.”

“I am, too. She tried to call two days ago when I was on duty. I couldn’t answer.” Lacey’s worried eyes caught his. “She texted me a few minutes later, asking to borrow some money. I shouldn’t be telling you this, but I’m so worried.”

“I want to help her if I can find her.”

Lacey sighed. “When I called her back, she answered and said she didn’t need the money anymore; that everything was fine. I don’t believe her. She told me she got a new apartment, and when she had time, she’d have me over to dinner. I talked to one of the cops that came in here, and he said, since I talked to her and she seemed okay, she’s not missing.”

“If she
calls again or you find out where she is, will you call me?” Nick handed her a piece of paper with his number.

“Yes.”

Nicholas started to turn away, but Lacey caught his arm.

“I’ve known Ria since high school, and she’s never even borrowed lunch money off me. Something’s wrong.”

“I’ll try to find her,” Nicholas promised.

*  *  *

“Go low,” Zane called out.

Nick barely missed the fist that was about to slam into his jaw. Moving quickly, he dropped, sweeping his leg out to knock Mario off his feet.

“Good. That’s it for today.” Zane picked up a couple of towels, tossing one to him before tossing the other toward Mario.

“Another
month and you should be ready to go back in the ring.”

It had been two months since he had been able to stop wearing his sling and Ria had disa
ppeared. He had used his contacts and even hired an investigator; however, there hadn’t been a single trace of her.

Lacey
had received three phone calls from her, but she had never divulged where she was, merely telling her friend she was okay and working steadily. Nicholas had stopped trying to call her because the number she had given him no longer worked, and he had traced the number she had called Lacey from only to find it was from a throwaway phone.

“Where’s Ty? He was supposed to go running with me,” Nick asked Zane. He wanted to take a quick run before he showered.

He looked toward the door as Ty came rushing in.

“Sorry I’m late. Give me a minute.” Ty went into the changing rooms while Nick stretched.

“Something’s going on with him,” Zane said after he left.

“I know. I was hoping he would tell me what’s going on by now.”

Ty hadn’t opened up to him at all. He had won the first two minor fights that Nicholas had set up for him, but had asked to take a break before another one. It had surprised Nick. Usually, once they started their fights, a fighter kept wanting to advance.

Ty returned in his running shorts and shoes.
“I’m ready.”

“We’ll be back in a few.” Nick told Zane.

The two men ran in unison, side-by-side, neither trying to outdo the other. The goal was to build their endurance. A MMA fighter had to incorporate different sports into their training: jujitsu, Karate, boxing, wrestling. Then the training had to include sparring, running, weight lifting, and maintaining their weight. Anyone that thought they could spend a few weeks training soon learned it took months just to be able to hold their own in a ring.

When they were done, they sprawled out in chairs in the gym, drinking water to replenish themselves.

“Nick, there’s something I need to tell you.”

He glanced over at Ty. “What is it?”

“I’m afraid if I tell you, that Zane will cut me.”

Now Nick understood why Ty had remained silent about what was wrong.

“I can’t guarantee he won’t until I know exactly what it is, but I can say I’ll talk to him. If he does cut you, there will be a place for you in my gym.
That
, I can guarantee.”

“I can get in trouble with the cartel for talking.”

Nicholas straightened in his chair.

“This will be just between us, then,” Nicholas promised.

Ty remained silent, obviously debating within himself about talking.

“Explain, Ty. Now.”

“I’ve been working for the cartel that Zane worked for. When Zane quit, I took over his job. I’ve been saving to get an apartment for me and Lane.”

“Dammit, Ty. You could have come to
me or Zane! We both would have helped you out.”

“I didn’t want your help. I’m a man, and I can take care of myself. I don’t mind going after the ones that owe the cartel money. If you’re stupid enough to try to steal from Emiliano, then you get what you deserve.”

Nicholas didn’t try to tell him that it was a fucked up assessment. If he chose to think that to do what he needed, who was Nicholas to get in his way? Ty was at the age where he wanted to be independent. To come and go as he wanted, or have girls stay—all the rules that Zane enforced.

“So you don’t need my help to get away from the cartel?”

“No, but Ria does.”