The Fighter's Block (22 page)

“Uh, my movies back.”

“Oh.” She motioned for him to come in, so while he shut the door behind him, Dani headed for the entertainment center. “You dying to catch up on your chick flicks?”

He chuckled. “Nah, not really. But two of those movies aren’t even mine and I was just pestered about ‘em.
I’m pretending to get them from
my
apartment.
”

“You loan out other people’s stuff?”

“Sometimes.”

She lightly laughed as she collected the movies and handed them to him.

“So what do you got going on tonight?” he asked.

“Nothing. I was just going to watch TV, or a movie or something.”

“Isn’t that all you ever do?”

She gave him a tolerant smile and replied, “Sometimes. But I’ll figure something out.”

“Oh yeah? Like what?” He passed her
cell
phone on the coffee table and saw her most recent text message. It was just in time too because then the screen timed out and went dark.

“I don’t know,” Dani shrugged.

She wasn’t about to discuss with Quincy what she was considering, but she didn’t expect him to say, “So you found Leah, huh?”

Chapter Eleven

Dani
stopped in her tracks while on her way to the kitchen and turned around to stare at him. How in the world would he—?

“I saw the text,” he said, nodding to the phone on the table.

She
silently groaned to herself, but she returned to
the
living room. “I found somebody that said he could help me out.”

“And he did? He found her?”

“Apparently so. But I’m just going to wait until Van is home Friday night, and then I’ll let him decide what to do.”

Quincy took a deep breath, and to Dani it seemed like he didn’t approve.

“What’s with the look?” she asked. “
This is great news. Van’s been looking for her for years.”

“I know, and he’s been disappointed for years. I’d just hate you to get his hopes up and then it doesn’t check out. I’m just saying… Maybe you should find out for sure before you let him down.”

He had a point, which was why Dani never let Van know how much she was actually doing to look for his sister. She had this idea in her head, a hope, that she could find Leah and reunite her with
Van
.

“Okay, so what do you think I should do?” she asked him. At the moment she wished she
were
still on good terms with Andy. He could take the address that she had and find out more than Dani could.

“Maybe you should check it out first. It said East Orange, right? That’s not far.”

“You really think I want to go somewhere I’m unfamiliar with, looking for someone I really don’t know
anything about
?”

“What
am
I, chopped liver?”

“What?”

He chuckled. “I’ll go with you, Dani. I’ve got nothing to do tonight. Just let me drop the movies off and we can go.”

He was already up and heading for the door, so Dani didn’t really have a response.

“I’ll just be a few minutes. And let me go load my 9-mil.”

“What?”

“Kidding,” he replied dryly as he shut the door behind him.

Dani took a deep breath and slowly let it out. Was she really going to do this?
Was there another option? But what would it hurt to at least get an idea of where Leah might be living? Maybe even just getting a jump on it might produce something good.

By the time Quincy returned to her apartment, she decided to go for it. After all, Quincy was going with her
and all they were going to do was track down where Leah was currently living.

The trip to East Orange took about thirty minutes. Quincy even offered to drive, but since Dani wanted to remain in control of the decisions that night, she only let him read the directions. When they came across the apartment building
,
Dani was surprised.

“This is it?” she asked, slowing down as she drove by.

“Uh, it says 2236 right there on the building,” Quincy pointed.

Dani drove two more blocks, f
lipped a u-turn, and parked across the street from the apartment complex
.

“Why do you look confused?” Quincy asked her.

“I was expecting… Well, I was expecting something different.”

“Different? You mean
something ghetto?” he chuckled. “You assume she lives in the slums?”

Dani was kind of embarrassed, but how was she supposed to know?

“Don’t worry about
it
,” Quincy said, realizing she felt bad. “I’m surprised too.”

“Really?”

“Sure. That place is way better than
our
building
. I bet she even has a doorman
, and an elevator that works consistently. Probably a few of ‘em
.”

Dani smiled and felt a little better. She was glad that he’d come with her. “Well at least Van doesn’t have to worry about her living somewhere…less than appealing. I mean if she really does live here.”

“Well, let’s go find out.”

He started to get out of the car but she grabbed his arm. “Wait
— No, I don’t want to go inside.
”

“What?”

“I’m not going to go inside, Quincy. I just wanted to check it out. I need time to think about what I want to do.”

“Well
while you’re thinking about it, I’m gonna go in and see if Leah Kemp wants to be reunited with her big brother. I don’t see anything wrong with trying at this point. We’re already here.”

Dani actually agreed, but she was an
xious. The unknown bothered her
and she wished she
already
knew the outcome.

“You wait here,” Quincy said, opening the door. “I’ll see what I can find out.”

He shut the door without waiting for a response and she watched him cross the street. But curiosity got the better of her and she opened the door and hollered, “Wait!”

He waited on the sidewalk as she crossed the street, and when she stepped onto the curb he said, “I’ll just be a few minutes. You should wait in the car.”

“I can’t. I need to come.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, I’m sure. Let’s do this.”

The tw
o of them entered the
building and Dani was surprised that there wasn’t a doorman—at least one that she could see. Quincy went straight to the wall of addresses, eventually finding
L. Kemp
.

“She’s in 8A,” he stated, heading for the elevator.

“Wait a minute,” Dani said, glancing at the addresses on her way by. She rushed to catch up with him and added, “You’re just going to go up?”

“Do you see anyone around to help us?” he asked, taking a look around.

“Well… I’m sure there’s a manager’s office nearby, or security or…”

Quincy waited for her to finish the sentence but she didn’t. He remained quiet for a few seconds, giving her time to state her decision, but she took way longer than he had patience for and he pushed the button on the elevator. “You should just wait here,” he told her. “Just give me a few minutes and I’ll be right back down.”

Dani sighed, still
unsure
about what to do. While Quincy was waiting for the elevator, she wandered down the hall a little bit and looked around the corner. It did look like a few offices, but she heard the elevator ding and she returned to the main entry. He was still standing there, holding the
door
and waiting for her to join him. She eventually got on and took a deep breath.

“I’m not going in the apartment,” she told him.

“Me neither. We’ll just talk to her from the hall.”

“Okay,” she said, relieved
that he agreed. But she still didn’t feel comfortable with it. She wasn’t sure if it was because Van wasn’t with her and she felt like she was doing something wrong behind his back, or if she was just nervous about approaching someone she didn’t know. Either way she was uneasy, and by the time they were standing in front of 8A, she wanted to turn around.

But Quincy already knocked on the door, and just as he asked Dani where she was going, the door opened a few inches.

“Yes?” a female voice asked from behind the chain.

Dani wouldn’t say anything so Quincy asked, “Are you Leah Kemp?”

She hesitated for a few seconds before asking, “Who wants to know?”

Quincy paused naturally, thinking that Dani would be warmed up to the situation already. He glanced at her for help, so she stepped closer and said, “Uh, my name is Dani. Um… Well, uh…” She didn’t quite know what to say so she finally just asked, “Is Donavan Kemp your brother? I mean I know his dad is named Donavan, but is your brother—”

“Van?” she asked, closing the door to remove the chain. She opened it again, almost fully, and
eagerly
said, “Are you friends with my brother?
You know Van?
”

Dani looked her over as quickly as she could. She couldn’t tell if t
his girl looked like Van or not, but did she have reason to doubt?
She was dressed nicely, and her apartment was nice-looking, but what did Dani really have to go on?
“Uh, yes. Well, I’m his girlfriend
—”

“Come in,” she interrupted, stepping aside so they could enter. Dani declined at first, feeling more comfortable talking to her from the hallway. But Quincy entered right away and gave her a questioning look for hesitating. Surely he understood why she was so cautious, right?

“Well, could I ask you a few questions first?” Dani asked her. “I mean Van’s been looking for his sister for a long time, and if you’ve been in New Jersey all this time, why hasn’t he been able to find you? And why haven’t
you
tried finding
him
?” she decided to add.

The girl
stared at her for a few seconds, seeming
confused. It also confused Dani
and she glanced at Quincy for back up. He didn’t say anything though, e
ven when the girl stared at
him
too.

“It’s a simple question,” Dani said. “You’ve been out of the system for a year now. Why haven’t you contacted your brother?” Again the girl was at a loss for words, so Dani said, “I’ll leave you Van’s number if you want to call him, but as much as I’d like to talk to you, I think it’s better if he’s here too.”

Dani was surprised when the girl started to cry, and especially when she said, “He probably hates me by now.” Dani glanced at Quincy and he only shrugged his shoulders, but
Dani
didn’t say anything and just waited for
the girl
to say something more. “I’ll show you some pictures from when we were kids,” she said, wiping a few tears away. “He was so good to us. It was a war zone in our house, but Van was always doing things to get us away from it. He’d take us down to the neighbor’s house, or even to the park.”
She left the door open and wandered to the far side of the room. Dani watched her pick up what looked to be a photo album from an end table and hold it up. “Do you want to see?” she asked. “You can just leave the door open. I have really friendly neighbors.”

Dani took a step closer towards the door and glanced inside the apartment. It was nice, even with matching furniture. But why was she expecting a nice apartment to make her feel at ease?
It didn’t, and she decided to go with her instincts.

“I’ll come back when Van is with me, okay?” She motioned for Quincy to leave with her because something just didn’t feel right. He barely glanced at the girl by th
e couch
and then made his way across the living room. Just as Dani was beginning to feel better about leaving, a figure came at Quincy from nowhere and knocked him to the floor. At the same time, another man appeared at the door and grabbed Dani’s arm. She screamed and tried to fight back, but he was way stronger than her and dragged her into the apartment with his hand over her mouth
, shutting the door behind
them
. She couldn’t make a sound as she watched the other man hold a gun to Quincy’s head, and then a third figure came out of a hallway on the other side of the room.

Dani’s body went cold
and her fate seemed to be sealed. She stopped struggling with the man holding her captive because it seemed like a lost cause.

“Hello
,
gorgeous
,” Brian smiled. He walked further into the room, pretending to assess the situation in front of him. He looked at Quincy, who looked pretty pissed, and then he smiled at Dani again. “Sorry for the complicated way we had to get together, but there was just no other way.” He reached into his pocket and handed a wad of bills to the girl posing as Leah Kemp. “Why don’t you keep the clothes
,
too,” he told her.