The Fight Within (57 page)

“Who tha
fuck
do you think you are?! I will
always
be involved, in
all
aspects! All three of ’em! Brian,” he counted off his fingers, “Asia and Treasure. No matter how much you may wish for it to be different, that’s
my
family, not yours! They don’t belong to you, Mr. Mahoney. You can’t take my place or even come close.
My
woman,
my
children! They
never
were yours and
never
will be. You are messing with
my
wife, my—”

“
Ex
-wife, Jackson…ex.” Sean yawned.

“You’re not married to her, never were and never will be.” He pointed at him, drawing closer, jamming his finger in his face. “I don’t know what game you’re playing, but you won’t win.”

“Oh, I see what’s going on here.” Sean smirked as he leaned lazily against his car, crossing his arms and ankles. “Everything was fine as long as Treasure was miserable, right? As long as you believed she was lonely, pining away. Now that she’s moved on, you’re threatened. You’re such a sad little man.”

“What could you possibly do for her?” The beast looked him up and down, as if he smelled of sulfur and shit.

“What can
I
do for her?” Sean raised a brow and pointed to himself. “Apparently,
all
that you could not…”

“You low life, sneaky son of a bitch.”

“Oh, you want to name call? Well why don’t you try these out for size? You’re a cheating, lying, insecure, petty, controlling, scheming, money-obsessed bastard, and you suck as a father, too!”

Before Sean knew what was coming, the man raised his fist and lunged toward him in record speed. The damn air seemed to sway to the fucker’s movements, and his arm divided the sky as it blasted toward him. Sean caught the orb of knuckles in his palm like a ball in a pitcher’s mitt, and it heated from his touch.

“You’re fast. But not fast enough…”

Jackson’s hand trembled in his grip as Sean pressed on, digging into it, fighting the urge to break every one of the fiend’s fucking fingers. It would’ve been easier than slicing through warm butter with a heated knife…

SNAP.CRACKLE.POP.

I could mangle his hand so damn easily… Don’t do it, Sean…don’t do it…

It was almost too difficult to resist. He wrestled with the notion, leaning toward the dark side…

“Let go!” the man shouted, his mouth his only recourse as he gritted in pain, but refused to relinquish the shred of control he had. After a few moments of suspended anguish, Sean finally released the bastard, throwing his hand down like rubbish.

“I’m. Not. Going. Anywhere.”

“I don’t want you with her and my children! Do you understand me?!” the man roared, running his palm over his sore hand, gritting his teeth as the pain no doubt surged through his knuckles and fingertips.

“Well, lucky fuckin’ me that it isn’t up to
you
now, is it?!” Sean yelled, tired of the buffoon’s shit. “You shouldn’t have thrown your opportunity away. And if you try to swing on me again, you will buy yourself a one-way trip to the emergency room.”

“You are fucking with the wrong person. I don’t know what they are teaching you dumb asses in Queens, but don’t let my law degree fool you. You white boys from there really think you can take on the world! I’ve watched jerks like you in court, thinking you can beat a case that you deserved…think you are owed some shit ’cause you grew up poor, right? And now you’re jealous of a black man with some cash, think it should be yours, think you own everything and my black ass has no right to have anything but the shit you give me!”

“Is that what you tell yourself?” Sean shook his head and offered a half smile. “Your race and financial status is of little importance to me. Treasure and I are the only people who won’t give you center stage, and it just eats you up inside. You just wanna feel important, like a big shot. You can’t stand the fact that she no longer wants you. She doesn’t love you anymore, Jackson! MOVE ON!”

“You don’t know
shit
! You don’t know what that woman and I have! You think I should be back on some plantation, don’t you?! You think you run the whole goddamn country. You feel entitled to everything I have, even my leftovers!”

Sean glanced away indifferently, scratched the back of his head, then turned back in Jackson’s direction. The drum within his chest beat a bit more loudly, the rhythm uneven as his temper flared. He didn’t know how much longer he could hold up, hold on and hold out. A newly erupted hatred was born within him, and it was a fight to keep himself off of the bastard. He needed to defend the woman he loved, their relationship, but grappled with not wanting to use words, but his damn fists…this was an internal fight he just may lose…

“They say one man’s trash is another man’s treasure… I’d have to wholeheartedly agree.” Jackson simply glared at him, hating him more and more no doubt as each second passed. “If you spent this same energy into maintaining your marriage when you had ’er, there would be no ‘Sean’” he said with sarcasm, putting his fingers in quotes. “No man to try to intimidate in the parking lot of your sister’s wedding reception hall.” He looked over his shoulder and casually hit his fab to unlock his car. The customary clicking sound soon followed. “It’s time for you to let go, Jackson.” He slid into the driver’s seat of his car, taking control, dismissing the jerk. “I’m driving now. Your services are no longer needed.” He winked at him.

“You’ll
always
have to deal with me, Mr. Mahoney and I hope it’s worth it to you.” The man sneered, still holding tight to his slippery position, and still rubbing his sore hand, too.

Sean burst out laughing—simply couldn’t help himself.

“Hot damn! I thought I was a funny guy, but you are crackin’ me the hell up!” He looked the guy up and down, a half grin on his face, fighting the urge to burst out laughing real hard.

“I will destroy you.” Jackson’s tiny thread of dignity waved in the damn wind like a piece of toilet paper stuck in the back of some bastard’s pants.

“Destroy me?” Sean chuckled. “What is this? X-Men or some shit? You’re such a fuckin’ clown, so silly, ya know that?” He rolled his eyes. “Don’t make promises you can’t keep. If you
ever
try to come up on me again, intimidate me or mess with Treasure, the next time I won’t be so nice. Lawyer or not, I will fuck you up in a millisecond and please believe me when I tell ya that I’m
always
on motherfucking time.”

“That’s the third time you’ve done that! You have a lot of nerve threatening a lawyer! You must feel like a big man now that you’re fuckin’ my ex-wife, huh?! A little sugar mama for you to toy with… She’s too stupid to see what you’re up to!”

“And to think she actually was with the likes of you
ever
?” Sean glared at the man, trying to understand what she’d seen in him. “Let’s move on to more important topics, shall we? Let me ask you something, Jackson.” He clicked his tongue against his inner cheek. “What is the song Asia will be dancing to in her next recital? She’s been practicing for weeks, day in and day out, playing it over and over again, trying to get everything just perfect. You know it, right?”

The man’s face drew tight and tense like a raisin in the damn sun.

“Oh.” Sean grinned. “You don’t know? Surprise, surprise. Okay, let’s try a different one.” He sucked his teeth, trying to regain his composure lest he knock the bastard clear across the damn parking lot onto the hood of something expensive and lavish. “What’s Brian’s girlfriend’s name? They’re pretty serious, you know.
Surely,
you’d know this.” He waited a couple of seconds. “I can see from your facial expression that you
don’t
. Damn.” He smirked and shook his head. “Okay, let me give you an easy one!” he taunted, raising a finger in the air as if trying to gauge wind direction. “What did Asia and Brian get on their report cards this last semester in, say, English?”

SILENCE.

“What?! Come on, take a stab at it…nothing?! You got
nothin’
man?!” Sean frowned, utterly disgusted.

“I love my children!” the man blurted, forcing the words out, and looking for all intents and purposes like he didn’t know what to do with himself.

He’d been placed on the spot.

“Then fucking
show
it! You want to stand here and try to argue with me about Treasure, and the hell with your damn kids, right?! You don’t know
shit
about them! I bet you can tell me
all
the details of your last three cases, and you know every damn thing about me, too, but you can’t even tell me what Asia’s favorite color is or Brian’s preferred video game… Get tha fuck outta my face, man.”

“Oh, so now you wanna leave? You were just talking a lot of shit a second ago. Don’t stop on my behalf!”

“Jackson, get the hell away from me and my car. I mean it. I will drag your ass around this parking lot by the goddamn ears so you can hear me clearly since you’re obviously unable to understand what the hell I’m sayin’ to you! Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have some ribbon wands ’nd shit to help cart away.”

“Yeah, garbage man!” Jackson laughed loudly, so much it echoed. “That’s what you do… clean up shit, haul off
trash
!” he hooted, as if the words he spewed were the wittiest thing ever.

Feeling the Devil creep inside him, Sean tapped on his steering wheel as he peered out the window before him, sinking his teeth into his lower lip.

“You know what?” He looked back at the man, turning on a dime. “You’re right…I clean up shit, messes. I haul away trash, just like you said. I clean up the shit no one wants, the shit people throw away, discard, take for granted…like you did to your goddamn family.”

The smile from the man’s face quickly faded like an eclipsed moon.

“I clean
all
that shit up, but the problem is, Jackson,” he said, narrowing his eyes to slits. “There was a beautiful prize in that trash you abused, tossed aside, and I found it. Now you’re digging back in the can, probably realizing you had a real gem but replaced it for two bubblegum machine replicas. Too late, I’ve got her on lockdown now, right in my damn heart. You mad?” Sean cackled, causing the man before him to stiffen.

“And now, you want to come ’nd claim my beautiful discovery after you flung it aside, treated it like complete shit. I’m sorry, man, but finder’s keepers. And neither
you
nor your big-headed attorney or celebrity friends, Treasure’s crazy ass mother, or the man on the moon can fucking make me change my mind or stop me. Oh, and here is some trivia for ya. You may want to write this down.” He cleared his throat, as if about to deliver a moving speech. “Asia dances to Brandy’s song, ‘Almost Doesn’t Count’ in a couple of weeks. Remember that oldie but goodie? Her favorite color is blue, sky blue to be exact, and Brian is obsessed with Call of Duty: Ghosts—heard of it? Maybe he likes it because your memory haunts him… he R.I.P.’ed your ass a long time ago.”

If he didn’t know any better, he’d swear Jackson’s eyes were welling with tears. That only urged him on…

Cry motherfucker, cry. It still wouldn’t match up with the amount of tears cried by your son and daughter over you…

“Your teenage son put your memory in a fucking graveyard, yet here you stand, trying to revive the relationships you murdered, instead of salvaging the ones with two people who should mean the damn world to you, and are still
very
much alive. Actions speak louder than words. Stop chasing apparitions and pay attention to what fucking matters!”

The man just stared at him as the sky grew darker and the distinct scent of pending rain accumulated around them. Soon, he spotted a raindrop on his windscreen, and then another.

“I may be a trash man, Jackson, but I’m richer and happier than you’ll
ever
be, because I’ve got the love of a damn good woman. You may have had her first, but I have her
now
. In this case, finishing last is the best feeling in the goddamn world! Now, I’m going to need you to fall the fuck back. If you don’t, I’ll be your personal escort and
trust
me, you don’t want that…” He slammed his car door and backed out of his parking space, leaving the arrogant fucker in his wake…

*

The rooftop at
Hotel Americano was the perfect spot for sparkling cocktails. Sean was lucky he’d gotten a spot for the two, overlooking the city. The place came alive with twinkling lights from vibrant, fragrant candles that surrounded comfy looking daybeds and cozy cabanas—perfect for snuggling.

“Do you have any idea how long I’ve wanted to come here?” Treasure plopped down beside him after her short jaunt to the restroom and immediately made herself at home. She slung her black messenger bag to the side, looking relieved to be relaxing after a hard day’s work.

“Put your legs across my lap.”

Hesitating for a moment or two, she did as instructed. He wasted no time sinking his fingers into the tense flesh of her calf, massaging the tight muscle.