The Fighter's Block (12 page)

“So,” he sighed. “All that’s supposed to get me to open up, huh?”

Dani knew he was going to when he smiled, but she could tell it wasn’t something he was comfortable with. Howev
er, she softly took his hand to her lips and kissed it,
prepared to hear the worst.

“Well, I guess I should start when I was about
seven
or so, which is as early as I can remember. My parents fought all the time, my dad was abusive, and we were pretty poor
and moved around a lot
b
ecause he couldn’t hold a job.
But
w
hen I was sixteen…
my dad killed my mom.”

Dani could feel her heart
sink
, but she remained quiet
as he continued
.

“He went to prison, and the kids—me and my brother and sister—went into foster care. I went to a different home than they did because I was older—they were
eleven
and
ten
at the time
—and I never got to see them.
When I turned eighteen the courts wouldn’t let me take custody of them. I didn’t have a steady job—well, they decided that competitive fi
ghting wasn’t an appropriate career
—and a
fter that, they both
got moved around to a few homes
an
d I wasn’t able to locate them.
I
finally
saw my brother about…
two
years ago. He was
eighteen
at the time and just…” Van sighed. “Well, he’s got a great drug-dealing career right now. He wanted nothing to do with me once he found out I wasn’t going to support him financially while he continued on with his lifestyle.”

Van shrugged, unsure of what to say, and Dani thought she frowned but hoped it didn’t show.

“What about your sister? And what are their names, by the way?”

“Uh,
Darren
is my brother, and my sister’s name is
Leah
. And I haven’t seen her since she was
ten
years old. It’s actually her birthday next week… She’ll be
nineteen
.”

“Do you want to find your sister? I mean is that something you still want to do?”

“Yeah,”
he nodded. “I tried for years, but
the state didn’t exactly care to help me out.
My dad was in prison for manslaughter, and I guess that
meant I should be kept away
.
”

“Have you heard anything about your sister? Anything at all might be the start to tracking her down.”

Van thought for a few seconds
and said,
“Well, one foster family—not the last one she was with but the one before—mentioned that she talked about cosmetolog
y school. I have no idea if she ever found a way to pay for something like that
, but I guess it’s the only thing I know about her.
I looked into it the best I could, but wasn’t able to track her down that way.
I feel like someday I’ll meet up with her, but for now…I have no idea who she even is.
”

Dani thought about Van’s family all weekend, and by the time he went to work the next afternoon, she decided that she needed to help him find his sister. She spent Saturday night at Jaime’s house—two heads were better than one—and Sunday she continued to do what she could research-wise on the computer. She didn’t get much done over the phone that day, but Monday
came around and that
was a better opportunity for getting a hold of people. She didn’t have any results by the end of the day, at least not in the way that she hoped, but she felt optimistic if she just kept at it.

The other side of it was what bothered Dani. If Leah really wanted to get a hold of Van, it wouldn’t be that hard. He’d lived in the same place for the past seven years—since he turned eighteen and left the foster system. He’d known Mickey since he was fourteen—Van used to hang around the Dive
house
watching the guys spar, wishing he could do to his dad what those guys were doing to each other. Mickey used to let the kid stay, even letting him learn a little bit of the cra
ft. Once Mickey found out what
Donny Kemp had done to Van’s mom, he took a special interest in Van. He didn’t want
him to be consumed by certain
influences in the
world, and he convinced Van’s f
oster parents to let
him work with Van
.

And
that’s how Mickey Tate became a surrogate father to Van,
so when Mickey stopped by the firehouse on Monday, Van was happy to see him.

“When you gonna come in and watch my
newbies
?” Mickey asked him. He
stood
next to Van
at
the bench press.

Van finished his last two reps and sat up as he exhaled. “I don’t know; I’ve been pretty busy lately.”

“Yeah
, I guess,
since I haven’t seen you for a couple of weeks.”

Van
grinned
. “Went and found me a girlfriend. It’s more fun
grappling
with her than with you.”

Mickey chuckled and nodded his head. “Yeah, I guess so. Well, bring her by. I wanna meet her.”

Van thought about it, but he wasn’t sure what Dani would think about the gym. She flinched just
from
watching violence on TV.

“I’ll have to see. I don’t want to scare her away too soon.”

“Fair enough. But one of these days you need to come back, Van. You’re too good to let your youth go to waste.”

“My youth, huh?”

Mickey chuckled but studied Van carefully. Yeah, the kid missed it. He could tell.

“So tell me what’s going on with your dad,
” Mickey
said
.

Van moved over to the wall and picked up a pair of free weights. “His lawyer is trying to convince me to come to his parole hearing. That bastard doesn’t deserve to get out after ten years.”

Mickey slowly nodded. “You still don
’t want anything to do with him.
”

“Hell no. He ruined sixteen years of my life
, and tore the rest of us apart
.
You know he
had Gus ge
t me
to the meeting
by telling me Darren was
gonna
be there? And then he said, ‘Oh, I meant for the hearing…
’ ” Van scoffed and shook his head.
“There’s no
fucking
way he’d show up for that, either.”

“Darren still won’t talk to you, huh?”

“Nope.”

“And no word on Leah?”

“Nope.”

M
ickey sighed. “I’m sorry, kid, b
ut I’ve tried everything to track her down. I don’t know what else to do.”

“If she wanted to find me she could—”

“Va
n, I’ve told you a dozen times.
You don’t know what she’s heard over the years, okay? Kids in foster care, when they’re as young as she was, don’t know one end from the other when it comes to their families. And Darren has no clue where
he
is, let alone his sister.”

Van didn’t want to talk about it anymore and Mickey could tell. Instead he asked about Van’s new girlfriend, and that got more smiles out of
the kid
than Mickey had seen in a
life
time.

“So? What’s the news?” Brian asked his brother, entering his apartment.

“What news? I told you I didn’t have any.”

“You’ve got to have
something
,” Brian scoffed.

“Well…not really. I mean all of her mail is still going to her sister’s house,
like it always has,
but I haven’t found anything that’s linked to the Jefferson Apartments.”

“What about the phone?”

“I got nothing, man.”

Brian groaned but the
n
asked, “Okay, where’s she working?”

“Oh,” Andy replied, remembering that he did get that
much
. But he suddenly grew a conscience and didn’t want to tell him.

“Well? Where is it? What’s the name of it?”

Andy didn’t want to deal with Brian so he just said, “Flegal Design. –On
Benson
.”

Brian
smiled,
glad to
finally have something new. He ha
d followed her one
morning
, but he lost her in traffic. And then the n
ext time he tried following her
she’d made a few stops along the way, and then he had to get to work.

“So what are you gonna do with the information?” Andy asked him.

Brian looked him over, debating whether or not he shou
ld talk to him
about it
. But all he said was, “Nothing. I just wanted to know where she works.” He remembered what he’d been considering before and added, “But I do need one more thing from you…”

When Van got home that night, Dani was there as well. He liked that, and when she had dinner in the works, it made him feel even more grateful.

He kissed her hello
and Dani loved that. She pulled him closer to prolong the affe
ction
, pressing against him as she slid her hands up his shirt
.

“Are you hungry now or do you want to wait until later?” she smiled, continuing to kiss him.

“That depends on which appetite you’re referring to,” he replied, picking her up and setting her on the counter
to kiss her more
.

She
laughed
, but really didn’t have to answer that.
He spread her knees apart with his hips and forced her against him. She could feel his bulge instantly and it made her smile. He brushed his lips over hers to tickle them and then she kissed him hard. She
lifted
his t-sh
irt and went through her usual
ritual of appreciating his body with her eyes and hands. She couldn’t get enough of it, es
pecially when he’d been gone
.

“Well the jeans are kind of a brick wall,” he joked, groping at her crotch but hardly getting anywhere. He unbuttoned them, but since they were pretty tight fitting, he knew he had some work to do before he could have
his way with
her on the counter. “I’m gonna grab you by the ankles and shake you out of ‘em.”

She laughed out loud and said, “Next time I’ll wear a skirt, I promise. But this time…” She smiled as she slid off the counter.

“This time…?” he coaxed eagerly. He couldn’t wait to find out what idea was in her head.

With a bite of her lower lip, she winked at him and used a finger to make him follow. She didn’t even have to motion twice. He stared at her ass as she purposely wiggled it down the hall, luring him easily while his lower anatomy led the way. 

“Those jeans look nice on you,” he said. “Tight and just… Mmm, I’m jealous of them.”

She smiled again when he entered the room behind her. She
slammed
him up against the wall and the stupid smile on his face grew even bigger. Pres
sing her lower half against his, she began to kiss him. Then
she said, “These jeans will be gone in five…four…three…” She continued to slip them off until she said, “Zero,” and tossed them on the floor.

He watched her the entire time, especially since she’d turned her backside to him to remove the pants
, revealing a very sexy thong with a little bow at the top.

“Oh my God,” he practically panted, wanting to grab her and take her right there.

“
Nuh
-uh,” she warned, wagging a finger at him. “No touching. You touch me, I stop.” He tried to protest and she warned him again. “You touch me, I stop. Y
ou want to play
or not?”

He swallowed and took a deep breath to control his breathing. “Play,” he answered with narrowed eyes. But he was trying not to smile. He liked this side of her but damn…she was going to make him suffer first.