by Emilia Finn
Instead of the panic I might expect, or the steel-clad ‘stay away from boys’ other parents might aim for, my mom only takes my hand and squeezes. “That’s understandable, honey. William is handsome. He’s charismatic, and strong, and every single time I’ve seen him or heard stories about him, he’s been kind and courteous to everyone he encounters.”
“Except Brenten.”
She snickers. “Except Brenten.”
“Mom… He’s also the guy who was on the run from the police for years. And the guy who I’m almost positive I witnessed make a drug deal last night.”
No longer amused, her eyes darken and narrow.
“I saw hands shake,” I admit, “and words whispered. And when I came closer, William wouldn’t let me near the other guy. He was protecting me in his own weird, crass way. And it’s ridiculous that I’m attracted to this dangerous man, even while dating a safe man.”
I draw a breath, and let it out on a sigh. “If the rest of the world ceased to exist for just one hour, if I could do whatever I wanted with the guarantee that there would be no repercussions, then I’m almost certain I would spend that hour with him.” I meet her eyes. “With William. And it’s so stupid, because we both know that’s the wrong choice. But knowing that, and knowing it would hurt Brenten, I’d still do it.” I squeeze the door handle and shake my head. “That makes me a bad person, Mom. And I hate feeling like this.”
I open the door with the intention to leave and wallow in my heartache at home, only to stop again when my stepfather and brother stand shoulder to shoulder, matching angry glares, and bulging muscles, just two feet away.
“Shi–Ben…” I swallow the lump in my throat. “Um… Daddy…”
“Don’t you Daddy me right now, Olivia.” Oscar Franks – town cop, best friend to the chief, mostly my hero, but right in this moment, a pain in my ass – shoulders his way into my bedroom and glares. “You were at Rhino’s last night, even though you overheard me at dinner saying something was going down? What the hell is wrong with you, Liv? And what the hell kind of deal do you think you saw?”
William
Strange Allegiances From Foreign Lands
“Come around on the left.”
Jamie and I stand inside the boxing ring, in shorts and gloves and not much else but a filthy sheen of sweat coating our skin. Jamie wears a pair of Thai pads that cover his hands and forearms, I wear grappling gloves, and in the putrid heat, to the beat of rap music booming through the sound system, Jamie trains me the way he trains so many others who go on to become champions.
“Left hook.” He holds his pad up for me to hit. “Left again, right rip, then chop my leg.”
So I do. I follow his instructions, but pull my kick at the last moment so I do as he tells me, but without deadening his leg.
“Good.” He claps the pads together and skips a little to the right. “Left, left, rip, uppercut.”
“I want him out of this gym, Kincaid! He needs to go.”
My attention whips to the left, to the hallway leading toward the front office of the gym, even as Jamie continues to work in front of me.
“Left. Left, rip, and a hook. Focus, Will.”
“He’s a stain on your good gym!”
I let my hands drop, and step away from Jamie as more shouting comes from the hall.
“We’re not tossing a guy just because you said so, Franks. That’s bullshit!”
“I’ve never asked you before. I’ve never asked anything of you.”
The voices come closer and closer, until my fight stance has nothing to do with training, and everything to do with the war coming my direction.
“Franks!”
“Stand down,” Jamie murmurs. He lowers his hands and lets his heavy pads drop to the floor. “Don’t fire back. No matter what.”
“They’re talking about me.”
“Yeah,” he acknowledges. “They are. But still, I’m telling you to stand down. Don’t you dare square up, Will.”
By the time Oz Franks and Bobby Kincaid stop at the top of the hall and come into view, Jamie stands in front of me.
“You!” Oz storms forward in full work gear – as in guns, so many fucking guns – and charges at me like he thinks he’s immune. “You need to take your ass out of this town now before I toss you into a cage for good.”
“Oz.” Jamie’s voice is like a physical jab. “Back up.”
“I love you, kid. But this doesn’t involve you.” Oz climbs onto the outside of the boxing ring and pokes a finger in my direction. “I have it on good authority you were inside Rhino’s club last night.”
I leave my gloves on, because if I’m gonna hit the guy, I’d rather claim it was sport and not a felony. But I step around Jamie and meet the cop eye-to-eye. “I was at Rhino’s last night.” I glance up when Olivia’s brother sprints into the training room with wild eyes and a face that says he’s ready to roll. “Last I checked,” I bring my gaze back to Oz, “that club is a legitimate establishment. Explain where I went wrong.”
“You were doing deals with known criminals! That’s enough for me to lock your stupid ass up. It’s not like you come with a clean record around here, boy.”
“Boy?” My brows wing high, and my adrenaline spikes like the fight has already begun. It only gets worse when Ben Conner races forward and jumps onto the side of the ring with his daddy. “You’re calling me ‘boy,’ and you both wanna square up?”
“No.” Bobby Kincaid rushes forward and works on grabbing Ben. He grabs the younger one first, as though he knows Oz has guns, but recognizes that Ben is still the more dangerous of the pairing. “There will be no squaring up if you fuckers can’t pull your shit under control. Ben, go to the locker room now.”
“Can’t do that, Coach.” Ben’s eyes stay on mine. “I’m busy here.”
“Ben!” Evie rushes into the room and adds another body, another voice to our drama. “Don’t you dare!”
“Go away, Eve. This isn’t for you.”
“You heard that I kissed Olivia.” I speak to Oz, to Ben, and I ignore the way Jamie jolts when my words register in his head. So much for not snitching. “You’re here for the customary beatdown, all because I kissed your girl.”
A vein in Oz’s forehead bulges with threat. Is it the kissing Olivia thing, or the criminal portion of this situation?
“I’m here,” he clarifies, “because my job is to keep criminal pieces of shit like you out of my town. The Kincaids run a respectable business. I’m certain they’ll boot you rather than house a criminal and risk being shut down.”
“You’re trying to shake me down now?” Bobby grabs Oz’s arm and spins him around to face him. “Are you seriously gonna walk through my gym each day as a cop, and make sure things are above board? You’d better tell me you’re joking, Franks. Otherwise we are gonna square up.”
“Only until you take out the trash,” Oz snarls. “Remove him from this place where my wife works, my daughter works, my sister-in-law works, and my kid trains, and we won’t have trouble.”
“The fact your entire fucking family is up in here should prove to you I keep my place clean!” Bobby snaps. “Take your threats and get them the fuck out of my gym, Oz. Go home and take a nap, then come back here and step up. We’ll straighten this out before nightfall.”
Oz’s face burns a nasty shade of enraged red. “You’re taking up for him?”
“He’s done nothing wrong!” Bobby roars. “You rush your ass in here and start demanding I toss a guy who’s done nothing but train and be decent since he got here. I’ll remove trash from my gym, Oz, but I’ve yet to see any trash enter this room.”
“He was doing deals at the club last night,” Oz growls. He steps down off the edge of the boxing ring and meets Bobby on his same level. “We have witnesses who say he did a deal with Larkin Pryor.”
Bobby’s eyes flicker to mine for a moment. He’s Jamie’s uncle, my sister’s future family by law, and he studies me now with a frown. He looks back
to Oz. “I don’t know who Larkin Pryor is.”
“It doesn’t matter that you don’t know! The point is I do. I know he’s trouble, and I know your fighter was shaking his hand last night.”
“Oz has a problem with you as far as the law goes,” Ben murmurs for me. He lets his stepfather duke it out with the gym’s owner, but in their distraction, he slides through the ropes until he and Jamie stand chest-to-chest. “That’s his business,” Ben continues. “I don’t like crime in this town any more than he does, but that’s for him to deal with. But this…” He takes another step forward and forces Jamie back. “You kissing my sister?” He shakes his head. “That’s for me to deal with.”
“I would think it’s for her.” I give Ben space. A foot or two. Not because I’m afraid to get too close, but because this is his stomping ground, this gym is his domain, and putting him down in a place he’s considered a hero – in front of his wife – is bordering on cruel. “She’s a grown woman, Conner. If she has a problem, then she can talk to me about it. But you…” I place another foot of space between us. “You’re not involved.”
“Oh no. Oh shit.” Olivia rushes into the room, straight past Oz and Bobby’s debate, and up to the boxing ring where the rest of us stand. She stops beside Evie so their shoulders touch, but her eyes remain on mine. Pleading for me to walk away, but knowing I won’t. “Ben, stop it.”
“Go away, Livi.” Ben’s eyes remain on mine. “Will and I are just talking.”
“Ben! Stop it.”
“I said go away, Livi!” Ben turns his eyes to her for just a second, then back to me. “You need to go to another part of this gym, Liv. Right now. I don’t want you watching this.”
“William!” Olivia changes her plan and speaks to me. “Walk away. Right now.”
“I didn’t walk here in the first place,” I counter. “I was training with Kincaid. I was bein’ good.”
“And now I’m asking you to walk away.” She ducks through the ropes like she’s done it a million times before, but she steps between me and the other two like a complete rookie.
Evie’s eyes widen with a type of ‘oh shit’. She ducks through the ropes too, to protect her sister-in-law when the inevitable happens, and fists start flying.
“William?” Olivia steps to me, like she thinks she commands me more than she commands her brother. The tragedy is, I suspect that’s true. “Walk away.”
“Don’t walk away,” Ben taunts. “Unless it’s out of this gym and out of this town. Mostly, I just want you to walk the fuck away from my sister.” He begins moving faster, harder, and uses his weight to move Jamie around. “Walk away, William Quinn. Or step the fuck up. But no matter what, you leave this gym today with my sister realizing what a pussy you are.”
“Ben!” Olivia leaves me and walks to Jamie’s back; it’s as close as she can get to her brother. “What the hell is your problem? Just stop.”
“My problem is this motherfucker put his hands on you. He kissed you, and you have a boyfriend.”
“A boyfriend?” she exclaims. “You don’t even like him!”
“Nope, I don’t. But you do, which means Will didn’t have your permission to kiss you. That means he and I have a problem that I intend to deal with.”
“Ben!” Aiden Kincaid – Evie’s dad– steps into the room and booms loud enough to make us all jump. “Walk away. Now.”
“I’m sorry, Coach. But I can’t do that.”
“You swing once, and you’re cleaning the locker rooms for a whole month,” Aiden snarls. “I’m not playing, Ben. You’re not a kid anymore. You’re a grown-ass man, a husband, a father, and the man I entrust my daughter to every single day when you drive away from this place. You need to rein it in and prove to us all you can control your emotions.”
“I’m in control, Coach.” Ben looks to him with wild eyes that contradict his statement. “I’m in complete control. And just as soon as he walks, I’ll walk.”
“I’m not booting the guy from my gym,” Bobby snaps. “He’s been nothing but decent to every person he encounters in here.” He pushes Oz back when he tries to come around to me. “Come back with an arrest warrant or proof of wrongdoing, and I’ll reconsider my stance. But bad blood between you three ain’t enough for me to base business decisions on.”
“Thank you!” Olivia throws her hands up and turns to her brother. “Leave, Ben. And you,” she turns to her stepfather. “You can’t throw around unfounded accusations. It’s rude.”
“Unfounded?” Oz booms. “Unfounded? Did you or did you not tell your mother last night about a deal you watched go down in that club?”
My heart pounds, and my brain swirls with thoughts on how to undo this mess, but beneath that, my mind spins with a little hurt that she would rat me out so easily.
I mean, damn. Where’s the loyalty that I so easily shared with my sister for twenty years? We were both running from the law, and not once did either of us snitch the other out. But I shake a guy’s hand once, and Olivia runs straight home to tell her mommy?
Her eyes flicker to me, like she knows what I’m thinking, then back to the cop. “I was having a private discussion with my mother, in my private bedroom, and did not give permission for you or anyone else to listen in. Isn’t there some law about needing a warrant for that kind of stuff?”
“A warrant?” he blusters. “You want me to get a warrant? That was my home you were speaking in!”
Olivia’s shoulders come up high – she’s not scared, she’s about to throw down. “Oh, I’m sorry, Oscar. I seem to recall you mentioning six trillion times since I was twelve how that was our home. Our family home. Shall I call ahead next time I want to drop by, and make sure I’m legally and ethically allowed to enter your premises?”
“Stop sassing me!” Oz growls. “Dammit, Beauty. Stop tossing your attitude at me because you’re in a bad mood. You said the dude was doing a deal in a shady club, then you said he kissed you. And since we all know you’re dating that wet rag of a lawyer-wannabe, that means there was no permission given for that kiss. It’s my job to protect you, and that was two strikes in Quinn’s column. Add in that whole maybe did, maybe didn’t kill a guy thing, and now I’m taking out the trash.”
“I saw him talking to a guy,” she counters. “That’s it. Last I checked, that wasn’t illegal in this state or the next. And if I had a problem with him kissing me, then I would do something about it my damn self. I don’t need you to bring a war to my dating life. I’m not a little girl who needs a prince to save her.”
“It’s not dating, Beauty! It’s you being shoved into a dark corner while this dude, who is clearly stronger than you, holds you down and kisses you. That’s not consent!”
“You don’t think? So what would you call my tongue in his mouth?”
“Oh shit,” Jamie chokes out. “We’re all dying today.”
“Olivia!” Ben roars. “You don’t speak that way!”
“You force me to,” she shouts back. “I.” She claps once. “Am not.” Clap. “A child! I date men, I have sex, I have a job that I like, and dreams that I’m working toward. I wore a top to that club that would get any other chick arrested for showing too much skin, and pants that make men want to touch me. And you know what?” she whips out. “I wear pants like that because I want men to touch me.”
“Olivia!”
“William kissed me. Yeah, that’s true. And no, he didn’t ask my permission first. But there isn’t a soul in here who could say I’m incapable of getting away from him if I wanted to. Instead, I stayed put, I stood on my toes, and I kissed him back. Big freakin’ deal. You’ll all get over it.”
“But, Beauty…” Oz’s voice is softer now. Hurt. “You’re… He’s…” He looks to me for a moment. “He’s not for you. He’s dangerous.”
“Need I remind you again that I’m not a child?”
“And what about Brenten?” Ben asks. “Did you break it off with him yet?”
“No,” she growls. Then she
glares into every single pair of eyes in this room. “If any of you snitch to him and cause trouble, we’re going to have something to settle. Maybe you’re all bigger than me, and maybe you’re all trained fighters, but I’ve spent my life learning how to hurt a man’s testicles in the fastest, most brutal way. If any of you get it in your stupid heads to snitch to him and screw me over, then we’re going to have a problem.” She turns away from Ben and Oz, and instead looks to me. “Fight my brother, and I’ll punch your lights out.”
“Punch my lights out?” My heart races, but my lips twitch, because any self-respecting badass knows to come up with better threats. But when Olivia lifts a dangerous brow and slams a hand to her hips, I simply nod. “Okay. Sure thing.”
“Sure thing?” Ben yelps. “Just like that?”
“Just like that!” Olivia snaps. Then she turns on her heels, glares at her stepfather for a long, torturous minute, then to Bobby. “Don’t toss the guy out because my family has some bad attitudes. That’s not fair.”
“Wasn’t gonna,” Bobby gnashes his lips together to hide the smile he’s fighting so hard against. “But thanks for the reinforcement.”
“Olivia?” I take a step forward and rest my hands on the ropes before she goes. “Where are y—”
“And you!” She spins back to me with a brand new fury radiating from her eyes. “Stay the hell away from me. I am a taken woman, I am a busy woman, and I have no interest in the likes of you. You can train in this gym, William. But you stay on your side, and I’ll stay on mine. And if Brenten comes in here, you stay the hell away from him.” She clicks her heels, turns in a militaristic way, then leaves the rest of us behind like casualties in a war.
Sweat dribbles along my chest, and my throat is parched from nerves. The tips of my fingers tingle, and the ends of my sweaty hair dangle over my forehead and tickle my skin.
And all the while, several grown-ass men stand in shocked silence, because we were just told the fuck off by a pale-skinned princess.