The Fighter's Block (27 page)

Dani wanted to explode, even though she knew that her mom was right. It was what Van had warned her about before, and she chose to agree with him at the time. But she felt there was a time to just lick your wounds and accept defeat, and right now was one of them.
She wanted Brian to leave Van alone, and this was the only way she knew how.

Chapter Fourteen

“He really
don’t
wanna
see you,” Roberta said to Van on her way out the door. “But whatever,” she added, wavin
g it off as she left for work
. Her son had been mumbling about Van for almost two weeks now,
but
maybe
he could
actually
get
Quincy out of her
damn
house.

Van stepped through the front door and recognized a familiar smell. He shook his head and
walked straight to the back of the house. “What the hell are you doing?” he said, taking the joint out of Quincy’s hand.

“Hey!” he protested, trying to reach for it. But the sight of Van made him think twice and he settled back against the couch.

Van stuck it in a
nearly
empty bottle of beer. “What’re you smoking that shit for? What’s the matter with you?”

Quincy didn’t reply. As it was he wanted to take off and hide, but he knew that Van would catch him before he
even got off the couch
.
This was a bad situation to be in, especially because he had no control over his damn mouth when he was
in a state
like this.

“What’s the deal, man?” Van asked. “What’re you doing here?”

He shrugged and said, “Just visiting my old lady.”

“You hate your mom.”

“No I don’t.”

“Okay, she doesn’t care for you too much.”

Q
bobbed his head in agreement. “Okay, and I guess it is mutual.”

“So why are you here? Never mind, I just need to ask you some questions.”

“No, don’t do that,” he replied slowly. “No, that’s a bad idea.”

“You stoned ass clown,” Van chuckled. “What are you doing tha
t shit for? That’s garbage, man.
I thought we got you out of that stuff.”

Quincy took a deep breath of air as he stretched
,
but it made him cough.

Van waited for him to finish before he said,
“I need to ta
lk to you about Dani.
Can you handle that?” he added, lightly patting his face. He sat down on the coffee table and Quincy groaned and covered his face.

“No, man. Don’t do this, okay?
Ah, fuck…
”

Van stared at him for a few seconds, but Q was going to answer his questions no matter what. He was high, and you could get anything out of him when he was high.
And even if he weren’t, Van would make him talk anyways.

“Dani packed up all her stuff and left, Q. You were the last one to see her before she did that. What happened? Did she say anything to you? And why did you basically move out at the same time?” Quincy was slowly shaking his head, mumbling something. Van wasn’t sure if he had the patience for him. “Hey! Answer my question!”

“I didn’t want to do it,” he moaned. “He said I had to,
that he just wanted to talk to her
and…I got
ten
grand, man—t
en
t
housand bucks to take her to a place
in Orange
.
I didn’t know what they were
gonna
do, man, I swear. He wanted me to
tell
her tha
t Leah was there; he said
he was just gonna talk to her, but I didn’t know what they were gonna do…” He started to cry, but Van got pissed and didn’t care.

“What the hell are you talking about? Hey!” he shouted, smacking him to get with it. “Who paid you
ten
grand?”

Quincy laid his head against the couch but couldn’t look at him. “That Brian guy. He gave me
ten
thousand bucks to do it. I’m sorry, Van, I didn’t know…”

“To do what
!?
” Van shouted. “Fucking tell me what you’re talking about Quincy or I’m gonna beat the shit out of you!”

“To get her there.
To the
empty building
.
I did, and he paid me later. But
I didn’t know
,
Van
.
I swear,” he blubbered.
“He just wanted to talk to her. I didn’t know…”

“Didn’t know what?” Van growled.

“I think he… Well, he took her in the back room… And she was crying later…”

Van lost it. He jumped up and
kicked over
the coffee table.
Junk crashed everywhere—bottles, magazines,
a
few dishes…
“
Are you fucking stupid, Quincy
!?
”

“I needed the money—”

“For
what
? For drugs?”

“I’m sorry, Van!
Not drugs, I just owe people
, gambling
…
”

Van grabbed him by the shirt and drove his fist into his face, breaking his nose. He didn’t care that Quincy started to bleed everywhere as he blubbered and cried at the same time. He left him there and took off out the front do
or. A
s he drove he kept imagining all sorts of things that Dani might have gone through that night. It all seemed to make sense, and knowing Brian, he had threatened her silence. He most likely threatened Quincy’s too, but Q had a big mouth and it was only a matter of time. Maybe that’s what Brian wanted
instead
, but he wasn’t going to get away with what he did.

He somehow made it back to New Jersey but he didn’t remember driving. He went to Brian’s apartment first, even kicki
ng his door in. He wasn’t there
. I
n fact, the apartment was completely
vacant. H
is next stop was
Brian’s
place of employment. He
barged into the office
looking for him, but they said he
didn’t work there anymore
. They wouldn’t give him
any more information
and told him to leave or they
’d
call
the cops. Van didn’t even care;
he only left because he still needed to find
the piece of shit
.

Cody called him as he drove away, and Van wasn’t going to answer it at first. But he did, only to hear Cody say, “Hey, man, don’t do this okay? Q
told me you’re looking for Brian—I have no idea what the hell else he said, but I gather you’re pretty pissed. You broke his nose?”

“I don’t
give a shit
about Quincy right now,” Van growled. “That little
fuckup
took money to—” He stopped and took a deep breath. “
I can’t talk about it right now
. I have some unfinished business to take care of.”

“Van,
just hold off
, okay? Meet me at home and we’ll talk about it. You’re
gonna
end up in jail, man. Is that going to be worth it?”

“To break his fucking face? Oh hell yeah.”

“What the hell-
Van, what’s going on? What’s Q got to do with this? He took money for what?”

Van took a d
eep breath and said, “Brian paid
him
ten
grand to lure Dani to an apartment. That fucker raped her! I know he did!”

“Jesus
…”

“I’m gonna kill him, Cody. I am. And if I go to prison for the rest of my life, I don’t even care. It’ll be worth it to break every
fucking
bone in his body.”

“Van, think about this, okay? Do you want to go to prison, or do you want a life with Dani? I mean it seems a little obvious to me. I’d much rather hold her everyday than shower with a bunch of men. You know what I’m saying?
Come on Van
,
just think about it
. There’s a better way.
Think about
Dani
. You
wanna
be with her, right? You can’t be with Dani if you’re in jail.
”

Van had to pull over. His head was spinning and he wanted to throw up. He couldn’t think of a time he’d been so angry before, and it made him wonder how much of his
father
he had in him.

“Van?” Cody tried.

“Yeah, I’m here,” he said quietly.

“I’m sorry, man. I really am…”

He slightly shook his head. “What am I supposed to do?” he asked
, mainly to himself
.

Cody didn’t reply at first—he knew he was talking about Dani and he had no idea—but he needed to deal with Van so he didn’t do something he would regret for the rest of his life. “How ‘bout you get back over here, wait until Dani gets off of work, and then you can talk to her, okay? Maybe you need to do that first. Maybe you’re jumping to conclusions. I mean did Quincy
say
that happened?”

Van sighed. “I don’t know. He strongly implied it, and knowing Brian…”

“Yeah, okay, I understand. But just do what I said for now, okay?”

Thankfully
he
agreed, and Cody was relieved. He thought for sure he was going to be tracking Van all over town until he found him. He imagined that
when he did find Van,
he’d
also
find Brian’s bloody and broken body at his feet, and he didn’t want it to come to that.

When it was five o’clock Van and Cody were at Flegal Design to find Dani, but they noticed right away that her car wasn’t there. Van went inside to ask, and even though Sheila seemed wary of him again, she said that Dani left an hour early that day.

He called her, even though he knew he was going to have to leave a message. He said that he needed to talk to her and that it was urgent. All she did was send him a text message that she was
already
at her parents’ house and that she didn’t feel like talking.

He did the only thing he could think
of and he begged Jaime for the
address.

Dani was alone in the penthouse when she heard a
commotion in the hallway. W
hen she heard Van’s voice as he pounded on the door for several seconds, she
hurried to answer
it.

“I need to talk to you,” he said, breathing heavily. At the same time the door to the elevator opened and two members of building security stepped out.

“
There he is,”
one said, pointing at Van. Then the door to the stairwell opened and another security guard gasped for air as he bent over his knees. “You…” he barely said
, also pointing at Van
.

“Uh, he’s with me,” Dani told them. “Sorry for the mix-up,” she added, glaring at Van. She pulled him into the penthouse and
shut the door.
“What are you doing?”

“Uh, running from security because they wouldn’t let me up?”

“That’s obvious,” she scoffed. “I mean what are you even doing
here
. I said that I don’t want to talk to you.”

“I don’t care if you don’t want to talk, but I have something to say and I’m gonna say it.”

It was hard to look at him because all she wanted to do was be in his arms. But
he looked furious at the moment
and she wasn’t used to seeing him like that.

“Dani…” He took a deep breath because he was still breathing hard from sprinting up eighteen flights of stairs
, two and three at a time
.
“I saw Quincy today.”

That’s all he said, and then she put it together. She left him standing at the entryway and walked away.

“Dani, don’t do this to me. Please?”

He caught up to her only to find that she was crying. It made him sad and mad at the same time, but he wasn’t going to leave until he could hold her again.

“Dani, I
was
looking for Brian,” he admitted. “I was. I was going to break every bone in his body. I wanted to kill him. Actually I still do. But you know what stopped me? You. I thought
about spending my life with you
and that’s what I want more than anything. Brian can eat shit and die because that’s what he’s
gonna
get. But you and I have a life to spend together, and nothing is going to change that for us. Nothing. Do you
hear me? He’s not going to win
. I love you, Dani. I love you more than anything and I need you. Please know that I would do anything for you, anything to make you happy, and I promise you that. Will you give me another chance?”