by T M Kelly
He pushed off the wall and stepped closer. “There’s a flight leaving tonight for San Francisco.”
I knew that meant, we should go to the bar and get to the bottom of this. We were fighters not killers, though. The thought took me by surprise after what my dad and brother put me through. Maybe a little part of me felt scared. Which seemed odd since I never let myself feel afraid. I always stood my ground on everything and made sure to get what I wanted. Like the flyweight championship belt. It would be mine soon.
“When does the flight leave?” I stood up and headed toward the door.
“How did you finally convince her?” Brooks said from behind me.
“He didn’t,” I said and placed my hand on Jackson’s forearm. “I had to convince myself.” Jackson grabbed my hand. “If we don’t stop Dad and Mason, who will?”
It was true. My family needed to be held accountable for their actions. Since Jackson and I were family, it would be easier to attempt to take down my father and his business. We both knew where the bodies were buried. Well, not literally, but I did know enough details to take them down for good.
“There better be room for five fighters,” Brooks said and stepped up behind me.
The door opened and Tyler walked in. “Make that six.”
I turned my head to the side because I obviously looked confused. “Um, how did you—”
“I pay attention,” he said and placed his hands in his pants pockets.
Tyler was pretty quiet, and damn he was hard to read. He was Zoe’s trainer, and she even struggled working with him. I knew there had to be a reason for his distance and hopefully someday I could figure it out. For now, we had a flight to catch.
“Like I would say no.” I patted my hand on his chest and turned to grab the door handle. “Wait,” I said and spun on my heel to face Tyler. “You worked with that guy that just left, didn’t you?”
“Yeah,” he said and dropped his head.
I stepped closer to Tyler. “Talk to me.”
“You’re not going to like it.” He turned and sat in the empty chair.
“Tell me something new,” I teased and leaned against the wall, anxious to hear this story.
“He started working out here about six months ago,” Tyler said and combed his hands through his hair. “He was looking for help in mixed martial arts moves.”
“That’s what he said?” I laughed and tried to hold back from rolling my eyes. “He didn’t say MMA?”
Tyler stood up and crossed his arms over his chest. “No, but it was obvious he didn’t know much about the sport.”
I pushed off the wall and walked to the door. If my dad had sent someone to watch over me, he sent the wrong guy. “Did the asshole ever mention my name?”
“Nothing.”
“So he managed to stay under the radar.”
“And we all were oblivious,” Julian chimed in.
“If he never mentioned my name or asked any unusual questions—”
“Well, he did ask unusual questions,” Tyler quickly said and dropped his hands to his side. “He was fascinated with your fight in Liverpool.”
“So he did mention me?” This conversation was starting to give me the creeps.
“A few weeks ago, I had a session scheduled with him. Before we even jumped in the ring, he was commenting on the fight. Talking about how you should get a main fight ticket.”
I put my hand up to stop him. “He only asked about me? Never mentioned Lily or Zoe?”
“Yeah, but now that I think about it, he never said your name directly. He just talked about the pre-lim fight and the female fighters. So he did technically avoid saying Charlie somehow.”
“And this didn’t make your warning lights flash bright red?”
I watched Tyler as he tried to answer that question. He seemed to be choosing his words before finally speaking. “Charlie, there are several men in this gym who ask about you and Lily all the time. His questions didn’t feel any different.”
The creep-O-meter just rose to extreme. “I seriously can’t wrap my head around this information.” Instead of continuing the conversation, I threw the door open and left the room.
“Charlie, wait,” Jackson said from behind me.
“Why?” I turned on my heel to face my brother. “Dad has this crazy hidden agenda against me. I fucking don’t understand why, but I sure as shit plan to find out.”
“His men are tougher than you, Charlie,” Brooks blurted out and stepped up beside Jackson.
“Are they? Are you sure about that?” The anger I felt inside was rising. “My. Father. Tried. To. Kill. Me.” The moment the words were yelled, I knew there were no options for take-backs. The do-over button had failed. The gym felt like the air had been sucked out of the room. I couldn’t hear music playing anymore, and the sounds of punching had died away. My outburst was extreme and inappropriate. I glanced around at everyone staring directly at me and let out a heavy sigh. “I’m sorry. Ignore me.” What was I supposed to say? Yup, my dad was an asshole.
“Charlie,” Lily whispered from the office doorway.
“Lily, my dad continues to get away with everything. Men like him believe they are untouchable.” I glanced over at Jackson. “It’s time to prove him wrong. The only people who can truly take him down are his family.”
“I already have my plane ticket,” Jackson said and headed toward the front door. “You don’t need to convince me, so is it you you’re trying to convince?”
“Tapping out is not an option anymore.”
“Then what are we all waiting for?” Brooks said and reached for my hand.
“Me to get my head out of my ass.”
“Have you been successful at that task?”
His question made me laugh. “Shut up.” I grabbed his hand and headed for the door.
“Charlie.” I turned to find Jenny running toward me.
“Jenny. I’ve been meaning to connect with you. I’m so sorry.”
She placed her hand on my shoulder. “It’s okay. Malik let me know where you’ve been.”
“Are you okay?”
“Um, I guess. Listen, there was this fighter that taught me how to fight for what I believed in.”
I knew she was talking about me. Jenny’s husband was ruthless and could someday succeed in killing this innocent woman. When we trained, I pushed her to see the importance of fighting for what she wanted. Here she was throwing my words back in my direction. Smart woman.
“That’s true.” I placed my hand on top of hers. “Whoever this fighter is, she’s pretty damn smart.”
“I think so.” She winked and ran back to the mat. I stood there for a moment, watching her and thinking about all that Jenny’s husband had gotten away with so far. If I could fight to stop my father, maybe I could also convince my new friend to find the strength to leave her abusive husband.
I realized at that moment my father would tap out this time. Not me.
26
“Charlie, maybe you should wait here,” Brooks said and sat down on the edge of the bed.
We were all in one hotel room, hashing out the details. The bar that was the alleged drop-off point for my father’s business was only five miles away. We all agreed before boarding the plane to not discuss anything. Brooks and I sucked at rules; we were whispering all the way to San Francisco about why I should not go into the bar. He felt it would put everyone in danger with me being there. I told him we would be in danger with me there or if I was sitting in a damn hotel room with a finger stuck up my ass.
“So apparently you didn’t hear me on the plane,” I said and threw on a coat. “Do you really think I would sit back here and wait?”
“Well you can’t say I didn’t try.” Brooks stood and made his way over to his suitcase.
“She’s never been any good at directions,” Jackson chimed in and handed me a piece of paper.
“What’s this?”
“Read it.”
I unfolded the mystery mes
sage and immediately crumpled it up. “Where was it?” I seethed. Jackson pointed to the pillow on the bed closest to the window. “Fuck me.”
“What was that?” Brooks pointed to the crumpled paper.
“A welcome message from Dad.”
“You’re joking, right?” He reached for the paper.
“See for yourself.” I let him take a moment to absorb the words on the small crumpled note. “I’m going, end of story.”
He wadded the paper back up and nodded. “Fine.” It was like the mystery message was the final straw.
We waited until nightfall, which gave Lily and I enough time to grab a disguise. She insisted we needed a wig and heavy makeup. I knew it was a good idea but found it difficult to concentrate at the store.
We were standing by the wigs trying to decide which look would put me under the radar of my dad’s men. Just like always, Lily had found a way to make me laugh even with my anger at a boiling point. I was running my hands through a long blonde wig when she nudged my side. “C, look, you could be a princess.” She threw on the wig I was holding. Before I could respond, she grabbed another wig and threw it on. “No, wait, you could be a flapper. Which means we would need to find the frilly dress.”
It was simple and maybe anyone else would think I was crazy, but I knew what she was trying to do. “I love you, Lils.” I wrapped my arms around her waist and dropped my head to her shoulder. “My life would suck if you weren’t in it.”
“That may be stretching things just a bit,” she teased and kissed my cheek. “Charlie, you’re going to be okay. You know that, right?”
“I hear the words and my mind is trying to agree with you.”
“But.”
“Well, my career is on hold because of my father and Mason.”
“The doctor said there’s no guarantees you have to wait a full year to fight.”
“That’s not the point.”
“I know. I’m sorry.”
Why was she apologizing? “Lily, you didn’t do anything wrong. I just want that gold belt wrapped around my waist like now.”
“Okay, then let’s finish this shit.”
I grabbed the short brunette bob. “This wig will be the perfect disguise. Minus the dress of course.”
“Of course,” Lily said and reached for a pair of sunglasses. “With these.”
“So you want me to go blind in a dark bar?” I held the dark glasses in my hand.
“No, I—”
“Let’s hit the makeup aisle, gorgeous.” I bent and kissed her cheek.
My hair was brown, but it hung past my shoulders. I liked that my hair had some waves, and I was not a fan of bangs like ever. The wig would surely annoy me by the end of the night with the short hair hitting my ears and hanging close to my eyes.
“Smoky gray eyes is all the rage now,” Lily said and held up some eyeshadow.
“Well I don’t want to look outdated.”
“Right?” She threw eyeshadow and mascara in the cart. “Charlie.”
“What?” I was holding two different bright red lipsticks, contemplating on which color to buy.
“What if your dad isn’t the bad guy?”
I dropped the lipstick back in the holder and turned. Her words caught me off guard. “Care to elaborate?”
“What if you’re right and Mason is the reason for all this shit?”
“It all seems impossible.”
“Why?”
“Because it’s my dad that always calls me and makes surprise visits to piss me off. Mason has never once stepped foot in my house or dialed my number.” I was curious where she was going with this theory. “You have a thought, though?”
“I guess I just find it odd that Mason was in the United Kingdom without your dad.”
“Well, a mob boss will have others do their dirty work.”
“Fair point.” We both had a chance to learn all about a mob family after Lily’s mom shared her big reveal.
“If my dad wants to take me down, we need to find out the real reason why.” My money and career seemed like too easy of a reason. Or was it?
“Hey, you sure you’re ready for this?” Brooks wrapped his arm around my waist and tugged me close to his body.
I placed my hands on his chest. “Well, what do you think?” I bounced my hand up and down on the ends of my hair. “We have to go now. I need to show off my new do.” He leaned forward and kissed me and then surprised me by dipping my body back over his arm. “Brooks,” I shouted and struggled to hold in a laugh.
“Listen, I know you’re Miss Independent but don’t forget you have backup.”
“I know.” He caught me off guard by his words.
“And we plan to kick much ass,” Lily said and wrapped her arms around our waists.
“So the saying go in guns a blazin’ doesn’t apply here?” Tyler said and reached for a water bottle out of the mini fridge. “I’m a little confused—what do you think we will find when in the bar? Or better yet: who?”
I sat down on the edge of the bed. “My dad has always liked to play dirty with his business. The little that I know leads me to believe he is involved in money laundering. There is no proof of that, but I think this bar will give us some answers. Well, I hope it does.”
“Dad somehow rose to the top of the food chain quickly and stayed the top dog ever since. Hill Enterprise had been on the top one hundred list for Fortune five hundred companies for several years.” Jackson sat down beside me. “I have suspected my dad worked off of dirty money, but I have no evidence to corroborate that claim.”
“But this bar could give you those answers?” Tyler said and took a drink of his water.
“Fingers crossed.” I stood and started to head toward the door. “After this many years, it’ll be hard to take down a man that has all the protection in the world.”
“Are you sure he’s protected?” Brooks said and crossed his arms over his chest. “Someone on the inside always flips.”
“Here’s hoping,” I teased and crossed my fingers. “Let’s keep under the radar and go in for a drink just to scope out the place. That way we can see if Mason or Dad are there.”
“After you and Lily finish your first drink, you can excuse yourself and head toward the bathroom. Right, C?” Brooks said repeating the plan.
“Yup, and we’ll look for the location of the back door.”
“Remember the floor plans we found for the bar show the door we need to enter is on the outside of the building and supposedly leads to a basement.” Julian pulled up an image on his tablet. “I know we’ve looked at this a thousand times, but it never hurts to run over it one more time.”
“If Lily and I make our way through the kitchen, we’ll send off warning bells immediately.” I scanned the floor plan again, thinking about our objective. “Maybe we need to stay in the car and wait for your signal? Sitting in the bar drinking could be more suspicious.”
“That makes sense,” Julian said and flipped to the next image on the screen.
“What’s our signal?”
Jackson was fidgeting with something on the computer. “I’ll send you a text message when it’s all clear to move. Once it is clear, you both can go scope out the back of the building. There are cameras everywhere to monitor your every move. I plan to scramble the monitors for a small period of time, so you can go in unnoticed.” He had always loved technology, which was why I found it crazy when he told us he planned to be a firefighter. His house back in Michigan had every electrical gadget known to man. When we discussed going to the bar. I was cracking up when I found out he had run out and bought some high-tech equipment to monitor our dad’s place. “You’ll only have sixty seconds to act, so you need to maybe sneak close to the building and wait for my signal.”
We had discussed sneaking into the back door and scoping out the place. Lily made it abundantly clear I would not go alone. Which was why I made her get a wig, too. I knew it all felt too easy. The unknown always sucked.
Jackson invaded my thoughts and wrapped his hand around my elbow. “I need to talk to you alone.”
“Um, okay.” I didn’t dare protest because he had a good grip and was insisting we step out in the hallway. “Jackson, what the hell?” I pulled my arm out of his hold. “Care to share why you just practically dragged me out here?”
“Look.” He handed me his phone.
On the screen was a black and white video. I noticed a woman walking into a building and not just any woman. “Is that?”
“Yeah, I think it is.”
27
“Well, looks like plans have changed.” I pushed the phone away. “She left and never looked back years ago.” The she I was referring to was my long-lost sister, Grace.
I could still remember the day like it was yesterday. My sister was a dancer and talked about going to Juilliard after graduation. When she turned eighteen, there was no cake or balloons. The only image I could see of her was when she popped her head into my room and said she loved me. I never saw her again after that, but Jackson and I assumed she went to New York. This was the life my dad had created. He surrounded us with so much hate my family wanted out. Or did they?
I opened the door to the hotel room and had all eyes on me as I made my way inside. “We have a hiccup in the plan.”
“What are you talking about?” Brooks stood up from the couch.
Discussing Grace in this way felt weird. My mind was trying to replay when we all were back home together, pretending to be happy. Grace hated drama and avoided my dad’s evil ways by going to dance class almost every night.
“My sister just made an appearance at the bar.”
Brooks scowled. “Which sister are we talking about?”
“My older sister who left and never looked back.”
“And now she’s at the bar that could potentially be—” Lily said and stepped closer to me.
“The place that takes down my dad, or should I start saying family?”
Lily grabbed my hands. “C, if she’s involved, the plans don’t change.”
She was right. Grace would be just as much of a problem as Mason or my father. I was struggling with this new reality. Did my sister get pulled into my father’s world, or did she go willingly? I let myself take a few deep breaths. “Yup, you’re right, Lils. We have to stick to the plan.” I turned to face Jackson. “Do you agree?”