Chains (5 page)

“Take me to Danny,” I said.

“Not yet.” Dealer stepped away from his car.

“When?” This was not going to end well for him if I couldn’t see her soon.

“The fight’s tonight at ten. Meet us back here at nine and she’ll be here.”

I reached out and clutched the front of his shirt in my fist, barely resisting the urge to shake the life out of him. “Where is she
now?
”

His witness shoved his hands against my shoulders. “Around,” the dealer said, through clenched teeth. “I’m not fucking with you, man. Let go.”

I jerked him forward and glared into his eyes letting him know I had nothing to lose but Danny, and if she wasn’t delivered, he was spending tonight in a body bag.

“Let go,” his friend said, and I opened my hand and released him.

“Nine o’clock,” I said. “She better be here.”

I didn’t wait for them to respond. The temperature and my anger were a lethal combination, and I was on the verge of exploding. I strode away, pounding down the sidewalk talking myself down.

By midnight tonight, this would be over. I’d have Danny, and in another day I’d be in Austin for my next match. I shook out my arms as I walked and rocked my head from side to side, letting out the tension in my neck. I only had a few hours to wait.

Back in my room, I did some pushups and crunches, threw some combinations and practiced my footwork. Before long, I’d knock some guy who thought he was tough on his ass, this trial would be behind me and Danny would be with me again.

I never really thought of her as a sister when we lived together when we were younger. We were kids with the shitty luck of getting suck under Baron Striker’s roof. It was a large roof. He did well for himself. Nobody would ever believe a successful business man who wore suits and ties to work every day, went to church on Sundays and unselfishly opened his home to foster kids was a fucking monster. But he was.

Church on Sundays was a joke. He made me, Danny, and Alex go with him. Her in a dress and me and Alex in a shirt and tie. We sat beside him and prayed—that he’d be struck dead in his sleep. That someone would find out what he was doing and stop him, except then we’d be separated and Danny said she’d kill herself if we were apart. She didn’t trust anyone but me and Alex. She would’ve ran away before she was sent to another foster home. “Somewhere else could be even worse,” she’d say when we talked about it. “And you wouldn’t be there, Ty.”

I wanted to tell someone so badly. If I told, maybe they’d stop him from hurting her. I didn’t care what he did to me, but taking what she didn’t want to give night after night was destroying her. I watched her blue eyes go dark and glaze over, like a sun setting that would never rise again. She was thinner from not eating and pale. Her hair started falling out from stress and she bit her lips bloody.

Looking back, it’s still not easy for me to think,
dumbass—call the police
, even if that’s what I’d tell a kid in that situation now, because when you’re there, when you’re in that hell and can’t escape, the unknown is even scarier than what you already know you can survive.

I still feel every single punch that connected with his face the day I beat the ever-loving-fuck out of him. I’d dreamed of how it would feel, how my muscles would tense and bunch and strike, only to recoil and do it over and over and over again. My fingers still tingled when I thought about it.

And I’d do it again in a second.

I’d take those six months in jail and triple them. He deserved to die that day. I shouldn’t have stopped until he wasn’t breathing. I wouldn’t have stopped if Danny’s screaming hadn’t penetrated through the white noise of numb ecstasy raging inside my head. I heard her and dropped my fists. That’s when I got off of him, leaving him broken and bleeding on the driveway.

Danny called an ambulance and told me to run. She said she’d say she didn’t see who did it and found him lying there. So, I ran. Then he regained consciousness in the hospital and told the cops it was me. They found me hiding in a gas station bathroom and the rest is history.

But if I got busted tonight fighting in an unsanctioned street fight, I’d be sent back to jail. Hell, if I hurt the guy and he pressed assault charges, my ass was back behind bars for sure and it wouldn’t be a smack on the hands for someone like me with a prior violent offense. It’d be me locked away for a long, long time.

Mike’s trusting face flashed into my head.

Trust was disappointment’s bitch.

I never trusted—especially not myself.

By the time nine o’clock rolled around, I was keyed up, adrenaline pumping and muscles hot and hard as steel. I grabbed my bag with a towel, my mouth guard and tape for my hands and headed out to the street to catch a cab. It wasn’t far, but Danny was waiting and any second longer it took to get to her on foot was too much.

My God, my stomach clenched and quaked, like I was panicked or anxious. Both. Not about the fight. Because of Danny. I had a good two minutes with her at the party, before Jose and his band of crazy fuckers beat me unconscious. There’d been no time to talk and she was blitzed out of her skull. Tonight would be different. I’d get her out of there—away from the drugs and men who used her. We’d go back to my motel room, get something to eat, take showers and talk all night. Maybe watch a movie together. It would be like old times, but without the threat of Striker busting in and taking her away. Without time ticking down to age eighteen when I’d have to leave her.

I’d never be without her in my life again.

The taxi driver pulled into the alley, and I had him stop a couple blocks from the dealer’s apartment. I didn’t need the driver to be able to pick me out of a line up and pinpoint my last known whereabouts if the fight tonight lead to the cops looking for me.

I paid him and stepped out onto the street. It was cooler at night in the desert, but still hot enough to be an irritation. Hot enough to make me agitated. There were times I was certain I should still be medicated for all my bullshit mental issues. Times I could snap and slide into that dark place I fell into for the first twenty years of my life.

Back then, I didn’t care what happened to me when I went to jail. I didn’t care if I took another breath. I did what I needed to do—stood up for Danny. For myself. It was done. There was nothing else. I had no future. College seemed like a mythical, out-of-reach place that people like me didn’t get to go. People like Danny and me didn’t worry about homework and tests. Grades don’t matter when you’re afraid of being locked in the basement while the only person in the world you care about is being raped.

Fury coursed through me as these thoughts crashed through my mind. I wanted to fight and get it over with. I was ready to pound my fists into flesh—to bloody, bruise and maim. My teeth ached from how hard I clenched my jaw, and ragged breaths tore in and out of my heaving chest.

I needed to calm down and stop thinking of the past before I saw Danny, but I didn’t want to. I wanted to use the memories and anger as fuel to get this over with. To get us out of there. We’d had enough bullshit in our lives. It was time to end it.

Nobody was standing out front. I jogged closer and scanned the driveway. Nobody. A weight shifted on my shoulders, and dread crawled down my arms as I knocked on the door. Then I heard voices from behind the building.

I treaded down the gravel driveway between two apartment blocks to a walled courtyard with a gate standing open. Dealer was inside with the guy from earlier and about half a dozen other men. “There’s my star fighter,” he said when he saw me and came forward with his hand outstretched. “Ready to win?” He took my hand and pumped my arm up and down. I had no desire to shake his hand.

“I’m always ready to win. Where’s Danny?” I asked, looking around.

“Inside. She’s safe,” he said. “The fight will be out here. Ten minute rounds until a knock out.”

“No,” I said, shaking my head. “I don’t fight until I see her.”

“You’ll see her aft—”

I grabbed the front of his shirt. “I’ll see her
now
.”

He scowled, his eyes squeezed in a narrow glare. “Fine.”

I let go and patted his chest, shoving him back a step. He brushed his hands down the front of his shirt and walked past me toward the backdoor. Before he opened it, he turned to look at me and the desperation on his face was pathetic. “I have your word?” he asked. “I need this money. If you bail on this fight, I’m a dead man.”

“I thought you were the one who was owed money?” I asked.

“I am, but I owe a debt of my own. I can’t pay it without you winning this fight.”

“Vicious cycle,” I said. “I’m here, aren’t I? I fight, you give me Danny. That’s our deal, right?”

He looked me in the eye and nodded. “That’s our deal, but it wouldn’t be fair of me not to mention that if you try to take her and run, you’ll be shot before you reach the street.”

Son of a bitch. Of course they had guns. Why hadn’t that thought crossed my mind? What the fuck was I getting into here? “Take me to her,” I said. There was no getting out of this now. I committed and backing out wasn’t my style even if the threat of being shot wasn’t looming over my head.

I followed the card dealer inside the little, grungy apartment. We stepped into the kitchen that stunk like old grease, but the sickening, cloying scent of drugs being smoked hung in the air. “Jesus,” I said, “I’m going to get high standing here. Then I’ll be shit in the ring.”

“She’s in here,” he said, stepping through a doorway.

I followed. The place reeked of stale body odor and cat piss. The busted down coffee table was covered with bongs, syringes, lighters and empty plastic bags. Weed stems and seeds were scattered across the scarred wood. On the couch, two girls lay with their heads at opposite ends, legs entangled. One was Danny.

The other woman lifted her hand, smiling. “Hey, babe,” she said to the dealer. “Is this your fighter?”

“This is him,” he said. “Danny, you know this guy?”

Danny looked up at me through hazy, distant eyes. She could barely lift her head and her eyelids were heavy when she blinked.

“She’s stoned out of her mind,” I said. “Danny. It’s me. Ty. After I win this fight, I’m taking you home, okay?”

Her face cracked into laughter. “Where’s home?” she said.

I hated what she’d become. I hated that I could see myself—how I used to be not long ago—when I looked at her. “Home is with me.”

She grabbed the back of the couch and pulled herself up to sitting. The back of her blond hair was matted, and there were needle tracks up her arms. “I don’t know you and you don’t know me,” she said, her words slow and stuttered.

I leaned down to look at her eye-to-eye. “You know me better than anyone. I’m going to fight some guy and win and then we’ll get out of here.”

She shook her head hard, snapping her hair back and forth. “No. No more fighting. You’ll go to jail again.”

I held her face in my hands and made her look at me. Her huge pupils skittered around, never content to rest in one place and focus. “I’m doing this for you. I won’t go to jail. We can be together again, okay?”

“No.” She jerked her head away. “Don’t fight for me again. No!”

“I have your word,” the dealer said from behind me.

I didn’t bother looking back at him. “I told you I’d fight and I will.”

Danny was shaking. She wrapped her arms around herself, squeezing tight. “Don’t. Please don’t. Not for me. I’m not worth it.”

She killed me with those words. “You’re worth it,” I said, taking her by the shoulders. “You’re worth more than anything.”

Her forehead crinkled and she closed her eyes, like she was in pain. “Not true.”

I pulled her to me and held her, kissing her head. “I found you again, and I won’t lose you, Danny. I should never have lost you to begin with. This is all my fault, and I’m going to fix it. Get you out of here. You’ll be okay.”

She eased back and touched my cheek with her fingertips leaving trails of sensation that woke something inside me I didn’t realize had been dormant. My eyes stung, and I blinked a few times, fast.

I was no expert at love. Not even a novice. But, I knew it when I felt it. I’d loved Danny for a long, long time, and her touch rekindled that feeling I’d buried over the past four years without her.

“I’m not going with you,” she said, slamming the door on every emotion surfacing inside me.

“Yes, you are,” I said, taking her chin between my finger and thumb to make her face me. “You aren’t going to live like this.”

She batted my hand away. “Who are you to tell me how to live?”

“The person who’s as close to family as you have. That’s who.”

The person who loves you, is what I should’ve said—what I was thinking.

The dealer’s girlfriend sat up and pushed my shoulder. “She doesn’t want to go anywhere with you. Leave her alone.”

Squaring my jaw and clenching my teeth, I stood up straight and looked down at her. “I’m not leaving without her.” I shifted my gaze to Danny. “Got it?” I asked her.

She didn’t answer, just looked away.

“Come on,” Dealer said. “We gotta get back outside.”

I would not let Danny’s reluctance put me on edge. Reaching out, I stroked her hair and she turned her face back to me. “Don’t watch,” I said. “It’ll be over fast, but stay inside.” The fight would bring back too many bad memories of the night she found me in a trance, pounding on Striker with blood-covered fists.

She dropped her eyes to her lap and didn’t respond. I stroked her hair one more time before following the dealer back through the kitchen and out the door to the courtyard. The size of the crowd had grown to nearly fifty if I had to guess, but my opponent was nowhere in sight.

Unease crept inside my veins and teased my nerves. There was something about this situation that wasn’t right. Something the dealer wasn’t telling me.

Then I spotted the guy I was supposed to fight. He was an ex-MMA champion. He was kicked out of the league for too many disqualifications.

His last fight resulted in his opponent’s death.

He was an animal in the ring, and training him was Mike’s biggest regret.