The Fighter's Block (23 page)

She took the cash, grabbed a tattered backpack from the corner of the room, and high-tailed it out of there.

“There are a million actresses willing to play any role they can get their hands on,” Brian smiled at Dani.

Dani struggled to get herself free but had no luck. Finally Brian nodded to the guy to let her go, adding, “She knows better than to
screw up
. You wouldn’t want anything to happen to your little friend, would you?” he asked her, nodding to Quincy.

“What the hell do you want, Brian?” she growled at him angrily. She stepped away from the guy that had been squeezing her so tightly that she could barely breathe and said, “You touch me again and you’ll be sorry.”

Brian laughed and said, “See? She’s cute, right?
A little firecracker.
”

The guy laughed, and so did the one pointing the gun at Quincy.

“Okay, Dani, here’s the deal,” Brian said to her. “You and I can have a nice little chat in the back room, and nothing will happen to your friend here.”

“She’s not going anywhere with you, asshole,” Quincy said. The thug next to him belted him in the face with the barrel of his gun. It stunned him at first, but mainly made him mad. “Why don’t you put that away and see how tough you are!” he yelled at him.

“Shut up,” Brian said, coming closer to him. “You give me trouble and this will turn out a lot worse than it has to.”

“You lay a hand on her and you won’t know what trouble is,” Quincy
threatened.

Brian laid his fist into Quincy’s gut, dropping him to his knees. It made Dani wince, especially because she’d
once
seen a guy throw up after Brian did that.

“Fine,” she said, storming past him to the hallway that he came from. “Let’s have a little chat.”

Brian smiled his satisfaction and followed her down the hall. She paused at an open bedroom door and allowed him to go in first, but he motioned her in before him, and he shut the door behind them.

“People know that I’m here,” was the first thing she said to him.

He had taken a couple of steps toward her and then stopped. “No one knows you’re here,” he countered.

“Jaime does,” she told him smugly. “I even asked her to come with me but she was busy.”

Brian didn’t like to hear that, but it didn’t deter him from what he wanted to accomplish. He stood in front of her and reached to run his hand through her hair
,
but she swatted
it
away
.

“Don’t touch me.”

“You really are cute when you get all angry like that,” he
smiled
.

“What do you want, Brian? This is ridiculous. You could go to jail for this.”

“Oh, you’re not going to tell anyone,” he scoffed. He walked around to the side of the bed and dropped himself onto his back, placing his hands behind his head. “You know your little boyfriend?
Van
,” he said sourly. “He’s not really who you think he is, baby. I’m just trying to look out for you. I’ve done all that I can to talk to you, but it had to come down to this.”

“You know nothing about Van. This is just you trying to play games with everyone. I’m sick of it, and I’m not going to believe any of your lies.”

“Okay, fine. But he has been lying to you, princess. That can’t be good.”

“Oh, and what has he lied about?”

Brian smiled, eager to deliver the information. “He lied to you about his truck, Dani. I hear he said that his buddy wrecked it.”

“He did. We were out of town.”

Brian chuckled. “Yes, but the truck didn’t get in an accident
, sweetie
.
It was…totaled a different way,” he smiled smugly.

Dani looked at him carefully until she understood the implication. “
You
did something to his truck?” she glared at him.

“Well, not directly. I’m a little too sensitive to see such a nice vehicle get worked over like that. But…”

“You are unbelievable! You
vandalized
his truck? Are you kidding me?”

“Calm down, Dani. You’re so
moody
.”

“Kiss my ass, Brian. We’re through here.”

“He knows we’re
engaged
, Dani.”

She stopped dead in her tracks and turned around to look at him. “He does not.
And quit saying that because we’re not!
”

“Okay, so he doesn’t
know
. But he will.”

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “Why can
’t you just let this go, Brian? You and I are not compatible. I don’t like to be told what to do, and to put it plainly, you’ve turned out to be a little bit psycho.”

That amused him and he smiled.
“Fine and d
andy. B
ut you still owe me
.”

“I gave you back the ring.”

“Yeah, you did. But there’s more.”

“
I don’t
even
have
anything!”

“That’s bullshit.”

“It’s the truth! I used everythi
ng I had to help out my brother
!”

“You’re forgetting some tiny little
gifts, Dani. Uh, they’re pretty, and shiny,
and
are worth
a lot of money.
Just give me that and I’ll leave you and your boyfriend alone.
”

She shook her head at him. “I
thought you pawned those a long time ago. I don’t have them.”

He looked at her suspiciously. “What do you mean you don’t have ‘em?”

“I don’t have them,” she repeated slowly. “They weren’t with any of my stuff, so I just f
igured you took it all, along with a lot of other things I can’t find.
”

Brian got up from the bed and paced to the wall and back. “
You don’t have the
silver
box?
”

She shrugged. “
I thought you took it.”

He groaned out loud and ran his hands through his hair. “Then where the fuck is it!”

“That’s what all of this is about?”

“Where’s the goddamn box
!
?
”

“I don’t know!” she
shouted at him. “I’m done here.
” She went to leave but he stopped her by grabbing her arm. “Ow! Let go of me!”

He took her face with his hand and pinned her up against the wall. “I want the box, Dani. You find it or there will be hell to pay. Just think about your cocky ass boyfriend and picture his face all busted up. It would give me great pleasure to see that happen.”

“I’d like to see you do that to him
yourself
,” she snarled at him. “But no, you’d just put your dick between your legs and hire other people to do it!”

That pissed him off and he squeezed her face harder. “You’d better watch your mouth, princess. It’s only a matter of time before I sink you both.”

“And what is that going to accomplish? Huh?
I don’t have the fucking box, Brian. You can stop harassing me now!
”

             
“Well
now that you’ve disappointed me with
that
news, perhaps you should make it up to me another way…”

She didn’t like the way he was looking at her, and she pushed him away. “Get off of me.”

“Dani,” he smiled sweetly. He pressed up against her and put his lips against her face. “It’s been a long time, baby. I miss you.” He breathed her in, feeling a bit intoxicated by being so close to her again. He forced her to kiss him and she pushed him away again.

“We’re done here,” she warned him. “I’ll
go
through my stuff for the box, okay? I don’t think I have it, but I’ll look again.”

It didn’t seem to deter him, and he continued to kiss her.

“I said no, Brian. Get away from me!”

He ignored her, even using his hands to slide behind her to move
her
to the bed. He
pushed her onto it
, letting the unquenchable desire to have her again take over.
“You can scream all you want, but it will only make it more fun.
There aren’t any neighbors up here. In fact, this building is vacant
because it’s been remodeled. They start leasing next month; maybe you and I could shack up here.
”

“I will go straight to the police, Brian. There is no way you’re getting away with this. I have a restraining order against you! I have witnesses that know I’m here!”

“You
underestimate me
, Dani,” he said, lying over the top of her. He kissed her some more and said, “But the problem is that I’m a lot smarter than you.”

“It’s sad that you think that,” she retorted.

“
Well, I’ve got my bases covered. You can’t prove anything because I
’m already a step ahead of you
…”

Chapter Twelve

Van left work around five
-thirty
the next day. It was the last fill-in position he was going to get in a long time and it didn’t sit well with him. He was getting used to having a regular job
, but now he was back to being on-call. It may have been a coincidence that Mi
ckey called him on his way home
wanting to discuss his return, but Van knew that he kept tabs on everything going on in his life, and Mickey was aware that he was now available.

“Let me discuss it with Dani first,” he told him. “Let me get used to losing my job and then I’ll—”

“You didn’t lose your damn job,” Mickey growled at him.

“I know, but it feels like it. I mean I knew it was going to be temporary, but after four months I just got used to the regularity of it. Now I’m back to the 40-man roster.”

Mickey chuckled at the baseball reference. “Well, I understand, but who knows when you’ll get called up again.”

It was Van’s turn to chuckle
but he somberly added,
“Well,
when there’s another arsonist terrorizing the streets. Millions of dollars in damage before they finally decided to reinforce the department… But at least they finally caught the little prick.
”

“
Well you got four months’ of pay for it, Van, and now y
ou know it’s the perfect time to come back. You’re blessed to be great at two different careers. Take advantage of that.”

Van nodded to himself as he navigated traffic. “I hear you. But like I said, I’ll talk to Dani. We like to make decisions together.”

“Hmm, sounds like a married couple.”

“Yeah, somewhat. We just…get along really well and…”

“And you want to marry her someday.” Van
didn’t answer
and Mickey added, “It’s no secret, son. I can see it.”

“Well, we’ll just see, I guess. I’ve got a couple of obstacles to get through first and maybe we’ll be at that point.”

“She’d be one hell of a supporter in your corner,
Vanny
. I’m telling you. I see it.”

“Wait, are we talking marriage or the cage.”

“Heh
heh
, I was talking cage. But she’ll say yes, no doubt. Marriage
and
cage,” he added with a smile.

Van liked to think so. He felt that Dani would support him no matter what. But he still
wanted to talk to her about it
and he was surprised he beat her home when it was already six o’clock. He’d left her a message that he’d be a little later than usual, but he hadn’t heard back from her. He assumed she hadn’t had a chance to return his call just yet.

But something felt off after he’d been in the apartment for a minute. He looked around, noticing that it
felt
a little different but he couldn’t decide how. He took his stuff to the bedroom and that’s when it hit him. He didn’t see anything of hers, not one thing. He opened the closet door and his heart
plunged
into his stomach.

All of her clothes were gone.

He checked the dresser
and the bathroom… It was the same thing. He dialed her number right away and had to leave another message.

“Dani, what’s going on? I come
home and your
stuff’s gone. I-
I don’t know what to think. I mean obviously you’ve moved your stuff out but… What’s going on? Call me, okay? I need to talk to you. I don’t…I don’t want you to move out
. I just don’t even know what to think right now, but please don’t move out…”

He knew he was rambling on, but he told her that he loved her and then finally hung up. He wasn’t sure what to do at that point, but for some reason he felt like she wasn’t going to call him back.