The Fighter's Block (17 page)

Van smiled with agreement. “Yeah, everything comes in balance, right?”

“Awww,” Dani frowned for him, taking his arm. She knew h
e loved his old truck to pieces
and he was still getting used to driving a different one.

He leaned down to kiss her for a few seconds, hoping to relieve her insecurities. “I couldn’t care less what I drive as long as I have you to ride.”

She smacked his chest with a laugh. “Nice, Van.”

With a big grin h
e
led her through the door to the building that had been familiar to him for the past ten years, and as soon as a few
recognizable
voices
declare
d his arrival, most of the activity in the gym came to a halt.

Dempsey was there and had to announce: “
And in this corner…
A
t
six-
one
,
a
hundred
and ninety
pounds…
Y
our titan of power… Don-o-van Kemp!”

Dani was thoroughly amused by that. The guy sounded like a professional.

“Van!” Gary called from the ring. He stopped sparring with a young kid and stepped between the ropes to meet them. “Where you been, man? You haven’t been in here for almost a month!”
But
Gary glanced over the hot little thing at Van’s side and could put two and two together. “Keeping busy elsewhere, I see,” he smiled.

“Uh, this
is
Dani. Dani, this is Gary O’Keefe, one of my sparring partners.
And he’s actually one of my neighbors but I hardly see the guy.
”

Gary shrugged with a smile. “Living life.
And I’ve been out of town a lot.
Nice to meet you,”
he
said
to Dani
, holding out a glove. Thankfully Dani knew what to do and knocked it with her fist.

“Nice to meet you too.”

Gary looked at Van with a smile, and before he even said anything, Van already knew what was coming.

“She
gonna be one of our girls, Van
?” Gary
called
with a laugh as Van led Dani across the room.

“One of ‘our’ girls?” Dani scoffed. “What does that mean?”

Van shook his head. “He’s just being an ass. Hey, Mick!” he called as his trainer waved to them.

“Hey there, kid!” Mickey replied from the corner.

As he was finishing up with another fighter, Dani faced Van and asked, “What did he mean by ‘one of
our
girls’?”

Van just didn’t prefer to say that Gary wanted to see her parade around in a bikini between each round, but he had no idea she was imagining something else until he noticed
the look on her face
.

“Oh! God, no, not that,” he told her quickly. “He meant the ring
bunnies
.
The girls that
hold up the signs
for the rounds
?”

It took a second to register, and then s
he felt really stupid. “Oh,
my g
osh
,” she murmured.

Van couldn’t help but smile, but he placed his hands against her neck and looked her in the eyes. “Dani, I don’t even want to know what you were thinking, but whatever it was…I’m not that kind of guy.
”

She chuckled uneasily and laid her head against him. “No, you don’t want to know
what I was thinking
. Besides, I don’t even have the chest for that,
”
she smiled.

“So, this is the lovely young lady I hear so much about!” Mickey said as he approached them. “Jesus, Van. You said that she’s drop dead gorgeous, but you didn’t tell me she was a
knockout
. Heh
heh
heh
,” he chuckled at his own joke.

“Well she’s certainly that, too,
”
Van replied.

“No wonder you didn’t want to bring her here,” Mickey added, glancing around.

As it was, every pair of eyes
were
staring at them.
Van’s presence at the gym was normally enough to receive the attention
on his own
, but with Dani at his side, it was even worse.

“Get back to work!” Mickey shouted at them all.

He put an arm around Dani and led her toward the office while Van followed, glancing behind him at Gary. Gary whistled slightly as he checked out her backside, and then made pelvic thrusts for Van to see. Van stared him
down
with warning, long enough for Gary to know not to joke any further.

“So what’s got you in this neck of the woods,” Mickey said to Dani.

“Besides this sweet and han
dsome man?” she replied, sliding an arm around Van’s waist. “Do I need another reason?”

“Heh-heh,” Mickey smiled. “I do say you’ve picked the best.”

“Yes, I’m aware of that,” she nodded.

“And what about you?” he gruffly asked Van. “When the hell you gonna get back in here? I got some work for you.”

Van shrugged. “Uh, I don’t really have the time
while I’m filling in at the station
. Have Quincy work with your
newbies
.”

“Quincy,” Mickey scoffed.

“Hey, he’s just right for those guys. He may not be in fighting
condition
, but he knows what he’s talking about.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know… But he hasn’t been i
n here much
,” he added.

“Yeah, I haven’t seen him around, either.”

“And Paul
ie
with his leg… I don’t know when he’s coming back.”

“Well
he broke it…
three months
ago? He’ll be back. He
needs
to be back.”

“Hm. They
still struggling?
”

“Well, they’re doing okay for now. Marnie got a part time job. Paul can
train
, though. Get him in here for that.”

“Mm, tried that. He did a little too much and it wasn’t good. And Marnie ripped
me
a new one.”

Van chuckled because he could picture how furious she might have been. Marnie had no problem speaking her mind.

“So tell me about yourself,” Mickey said to D
ani. “Van’s gonna watch my newbie
out there while you and I chat.”

Van just went along with it since Dani did. They left the office and returned to the
gym
, sitting down in a few chairs
by the ring
. Mickey and Dani got to know each other while Van observed Gary working with
a
n
eighteen
-year-old named
Chris Tully. He had good form…was pretty quick…nice takedowns…not so good at maintaining control…
But
Gary had him working on kicks and
a few other things, and Van had a hard time keeping his mouth shut
during the time they were there
.

“You did that on purpose, didn’t you?”
he
later accused Mickey on their way out.

“Did what?” he replied with feigned innocence.

“Made me watch because Gary was working with him.”

Mickey chuckled. “Van…” Then he changed his mind and just shook his head. “You
just
let me know,” he said instead.

He waved at them both
as they left and watched Van ho
ld the door for his girlfriend. When they were gone he mumbled
to himself, “H
e’s gonna marry that girl…”

“Yeah, they’re just leaving the fight club,” the
onlooker
informed Brian over the phone.

“Well, you know what to do. And I don’t want any fu
ck
ups, you understand?
You’ve got a lot at stake
.”

“Yeah, you don’t have to remind me, okay? Just…let me do this so we can be done.”

The two h
ung up; Brian feeling irritable
and his spy even more disconcerted.

“Hey, I need you to do something,” Brian said
after dialing
Andy.

Andy groaned to himself, glad his brother couldn’t see his response through the phone. “What is it?”

“I need you to find me even more information on this fight club and the people there—
a
ll of them
.”

“What exactly are you looking for?” Andy asked dryly. “I gave you a whole crap load of information.”

“I’m looking for the final blow.
”

Andy sighed. “I gave you the names of guys who can help you. Surely with their rap sheets they’re all a good option.”

“No, I need something special; something that’s gonna bind him up for good. I got someone to start me out, but I need more.”

Andy didn’t like the direction Brian was going. He’d always been a
schemer
, but ever since Dani broke things off with him, Andy was seeing a darker side to Brian than he was used to.
He’d always been a dick, but ever since he started failing at his current shady deal, he
’d become
fixated
with things that were even shadier.

“Yeah, okay, I’ll see what I can find,” Andy eventually said. He felt like he was lying since he really didn’t plan on helping Brian destroy anyone’s life.

“You know you’re getting a huge cut in all of this too, Andy,” Brian remind
ed
him.

Andy didn’t reply, but Brian hung up on him anyways.

There was something
different
about Marnie that Dani just couldn’t put her finger on. Lately she seemed a little distant, almost unfriendly. Paul and Marnie were over at Va
n’s
apartment
on a
Friday
evening
, and
Dani had
made a traditional
pot-au-feu
for dinner. Normally Marnie was a little more conversational, and she might have even been in the kitchen to chat for a while, but after a brief
comment about what was cooking
,
she
joined the guys on the couch and hardly said anything.

Dani gave her the space—a girl certainly had the right to have
unsociable
days—but by the end of the night, after a few too many cold or snide remarks, Dani was sure there was a bigger problem. The guys even noticed it, especially when Marnie made mention of all Dani’s “silly” French names for the food.

“Well, it’s a
mille
feuille
to me,” Dani replied with a polite smile. “That’s all I know to call it. Uh, what would you call it?”

Marnie knew her comment had been rude, but she was too stubborn to recant it. “I don’t know. It’s just a pastry, right?”

Dani nodded
and she decided not to respond more than that. After she’d set the dessert on the table, she returned to the kitchen to clean up
.

“Looks a litt
le fancier than ‘just a pastry,’
” Paul said, giving his wife an unhappy frown while Dani couldn’t see.

“What does
mil…
Whatever it was you said,” Van smiled. “What does it mean?”

Dani could tell that both guys were aware of Marnie’s unusual behavior, but she wasn’t sure if she should just change the subject. But she’d tried that
already throughout the evening
and Marnie was still in a funk.

“Uh, it means ‘thousand-leaf’
because of the different layers,” she replied, rinsing some of her cooking utensils in the sink. “I’ve never actually made it that way before; I wanted to try it since Marnie likes strawberries.”

Paul gave Marnie another look, which Van also caught.

“
Jesus,
I’m in a bad mood,” she f
inally said. “I’m in a bad mood!
” she said louder for Dani’s benefit.

“Okay,” Dani smiled from the sink. She glanced back at the table as Van got
up to clear some of the dishes, and when he stepped behind her, he kissed the side of her neck.