“Yes,” Donte says. “Now answer my question, Trial, or I’ll blow the little girls head off her shoulders.”
“No one else knows,” I say.
“He’s full of it,” Vivian says. “Come on, baby, you know I can tell when you’re lying.”
Donte grabs me by my hair and waves his gun about. “Bring the little bitch over here, and I’ll-”
“No, don’t!” I shout. “Leave Mary alone. One other person knows, you’re right. Brandi’s father. He tested the water for me that was in your last opponent’s bottle to see if you were drugging your competition. But he didn’t know what it was. I just asked him to test the water and tell me what was in it. He didn’t know anything about what I was looking into.”
“See? Was that so hard?” Donte laughed.
“Why did you kill Gabe?” I ask. “I know you had been after me. But why hire someone to kill me? What did I ever do to you? I mean, I had lost our match. You had no beef against me then.”
“Dumbass,” he says. “You already know, but you just want me to confirm it. I was fucking Brandi. I’ve been doing her since before you put a ring on that bitch’s finger. When I found out she was pregnant, I knew it was probably mine. But she didn’t give a shit. Said she didn’t care who was really the father –said she loved you and all that shit. I hired a guy to take you out, but it turned out to be this bitch’s damn cousin!” He pointed a finger Vivian’s way.
She rolled her eyes. “My cousin came to me and told me someone had hired him to take you out. I asked him not to, but he needed to buy himself some time. Donte had already paid him for the hit, and he had spent the money. So he took out Gabe instead to make it look like he mixed you two up.”
Donte huffed at her, but then he laughed. “But then you screwed up everything on your own. So I didn’t need the hit. I had gotten what I wanted. Brandi left your ass, and I moved in. She eventually changed her mind, though.”
I glare up at Vivian. “What about you? You really want to kill me Vivian?”
“I didn’t. Not until you turned me down and embarrassed me at the gym,” she snarled her response.
“You were acting crazy! You’re still acting crazy!” I shout, and Donte beams me over the head again. He’s going to give me a damn concussion. I suppose it won’t matter if he decides to shoot me.
“That was just before I caught wind of your snooping and what you had told your manager about me. It wasn’t hard to sweet talk Vivian into helping me find another hitman. She’s got all sorts of creeps in the family tree. Surprised you didn’t know that,” Donte says. “We had him take out Caleb, but I wanted to handle you myself.”
“I get to blow your girlfriend’s brains out, though,” Vivian says, throwing a thumb over her shoulder towards Laurel.
“Why Mary? And why Tyler?” I question.
“Mary just caught us dragging Laurel into a van,” Vivian says.
“And Tyler?” I ask.
“Well, he’s your boyfriend, isn’t he?” Vivian asks.
“Excuse me?” I hiss. “I’m sorry, what?”
“I’ve been spying on you ever since we broke up,” Vivian says. “I know all about you three-”
“Oh, fuck!” I snap, my mind jumping back to an awkward night spent with Tyler and Laurel. “No! I’m not gay, Vivian!”
Donte laughs. “I told her that. I said there was no way, but she swore there was some weird shit going on with you, Laurel, and Tyler. I didn’t think you swung that way.”
“No!” I shout.
“Glad we could clear that up,” Donte says. “But, geez, man, did you really have a threesome with another dude?”
“Fuck off,” I say. I dare to turn my head to look at him. “You really think Brandi is going to want anything to do with you after this? You’re going to prison, Donte.”
“They can’t prove shit,” he says.
“Other than a text I sent Brandi before coming in here about Vivian,” I say. “And like you said, she’ll squeal.”
“I’ll take my chances,” Donte says. “You’re done, Trial.” He presses the gun to my temple. I hear two bullet shots, but I’m still alive and breathing. “What the fuck?” Donte shouts, and I glance over to see Laurel standing over his thugs with one of their guns in her hands. They’re down for the count. While Donte is distracted, I move. I fling my arm back, knocking the gun down before jumping up with my fists raised. Donte laughs, probably thinking a fist fight is some sort of ironic justice.
He swings at me hard and quick, but without drugging me beforehand, it seems that he is at a disadvantage. He knocks me in the head twice, but I deliver three quick jabs. Then he one-ups me. He punches me right in the throat, and I fall back. He goes for the gun as I am standing up and fires in my direction. I feel the bullet go straight through my damn elbow.
Vivian flees, and sweet little Mary, still tied up, trips her –allowing Laurel to get on top of her and deliver a punch hard enough to knock the woman out. I can’t swing at him, so I kick the shit out of him –landing the base of my foot in the center of his chest and sending him falling flat on his back. The gun slides away, and he gasps for air. I grin –that’s a little something I learned from watching Laurel’s fights.
I stand over him. My right arm is shot, but I deliver a punch with my left arm right in the middle of his face, and I knock him out. Laurel runs up to me and puts her arms around me. “Thank God,” she says tearfully. She pulls away and hurries to Mary to get her untied.
Mary comes running up to me and wraps her little arms around my waist. “Thank you,” she says.
“Are you two all right?” I ask.
“Been better,” Laurel says. “You realize you being a bisexual lover might come up in court, right?”
“Screw you,” I say. My brain jolts awake. “Shit! Marty!”
I run out of the warehouse, and Laurel and Mary follow not too far behind me. I don’t even notice the pain in my arm; I drop down beside him and gently touch his face. “Marty? Marty?” I question, but he does not move.
Mary starts screaming and crying. “What’s wrong? What happened? Why isn’t he moving?”
“He’s been shot,” Laurel says, kneeling down beside us.
I hear sirens in the distance. Thank God. Brandi pulled through there at least. “Marty, come on, man, wake up,” I say.
“He’s breathing,” Laurel says and goes to touch him.
“Easy,” I say and point up at the fire escape, “He fell from up there. He could have a broken neck for all we know.”
The police arrive before the ambulance, and it has me on edge. They assure me that one is on the way, though. I grin slightly to see Donte and Vivian being put in the back of police cruisers. His thugs will be getting a ride to the hospital in a separate cruiser after Laurel had shot them.
The ambulance arrives, and they put Marty on a stretcher. “You need to go too,” Laurel says to me, and I am suddenly reminder that I too had received a bullet wound. And only now that I am able to breathe for a second, I start to feel the pain from it.
I hitch a ride in the ambulance with Marty; I don’t intend to leave his side for too long. I watch in horror as they shove a tube down his throat and start doing a general assessment. “Is he going to be okay?” I question the paramedic, but he does not answer me.
I look out the door to see Laurel and Mary standing together, Laurel’s arm around Mary’s to offer her some comfort. “We’ll see you at the hospital,” Laurel says firmly as they close the back doors of the ambulance.
86
I leave my room in a rush after my, what will be the first of many, elbow surgeries. I’ll fucking kill Donte. My boxing career is looking pretty shot at this point; the bullet had traveled from my elbow and down my arm –exiting through my damn wrist. My arm has over two hundred fucking stitches in it, and it’s wrapped up tight and in a sling as I make my way into the waiting room.
I spy Amy sitting with Tyler and Bobby. As of right now, they’re the only ones here. I imagine t
here’s a dispute at the gym about when to leave and what cars to take; the event is still going on, so someone has to stay. It’ll be over soon, though, so I expect to see people in drones arriving. Tyler, apart from a line of stitches across his forehead and a few on his lip, is looking way better than when we had found him.
“Thank God,” he says and stands up to greet me.
I smile, but I also cringe slightly. “Hey, man,” I say, joking slightly when I speak in a hushed tone, “you and I need to be careful. The only reason they snagged you was because they thought you were my gay lover.”
“I could have gone the rest of my life without knowing that,” he says.
Bobby and Amy stand, and I am given hugs. “Glad you two are all right, at least,” Amy says, her eyes are soaked with tears.
“What’s the word on Marty?” I ask.
“They’re not telling me much,” Amy says. “He’s still in emergency surgery. The last doctor who came out here to talk to me just told me to pray. I think I’m going to be sick.”
“Screw that,” I snarl, and I march up to receptionist desk to demand some answers on Amy’s behalf. I’m nice, but I am also firm. Soon we’re talking to an actual doctor who fills us in on how the surgery is going; it sounds like we’re going to be here for a while, and it’s not like I’m leaving until I can speak to Marty myself.
Laurel arrives next, saying Mary and her parents are right behind her. She gives me this hug, and I let her squeeze me tight. She looks at Tyler and gives him a similar embrace. We tell her all we know, and she goes and sits beside Amy and clasps her hand in hers. Gabe’s parents and Mary arrive next, and Mary runs up to Tyler to give him a big hug; I suppose the last time she saw him they were dragging him off to kill him.
The fighters arrive in two groups: first Marianna, Britany, and Eleanor. Then Katie and LaWanda. Damion and Alex arrive too, saying they threw a bunch of duties off on some of the volunteers. Soon, our little group is taking up the majority of the waiting room. I fill everyone in on what happened, and everyone is nothing short of shocked and horrified. Gabe’s parents cry when I tell everyone what Donte and Vivian had done to try to kill me and threaten me –resulting in the deaths of both Gabe and Caleb.
“So…” Damion, the old bastard I got to love, addresses the uncomfortable elephant in the room. “Is what Donte said about Brandi and Ambriel true?”
As if it was fate, Brandi finally arrives; I’m sure the baby is what held her up. She’s pushing a stroller into the waiting room, but I jump up to nab her before she can get inside. “Hey,” I say, “let’s step out into the hall. We need to talk.”
We step out, and I look down at Ambriel. I can’t help but to pick her up and hold her. I kiss her forehead and then lay her back down in her stroller. “How’s Marty? What happened? Is he going to be okay? Laurel said he was really hurt.”
“Easy, Brandi,” I say. “He’s still in surgery, so we don’t know much yet. He was shot, and he fell two stories and landed flat on his back.”
Brandi looks legitimately upset. “Laurel told me you knocked Donte out. I wish I could have seen it.”
“I’m sure you would have been proud,” I say. I take in a deep breath. “Brandi, Donte was after me this whole time. He’s the one who hired someone to kill me, but the guy killed Gabe instead, and he’s the one who hired someone to kill Caleb. He hurt Laurel and Mary and Tyler… and he shot Marty. All because he thinks that Ambriel is his.” Brandi goes pale, and I know that it is a possibility just by the look on her face. I frown. “Tell me the truth, Brandi. Is that my daughter?”
She hesitates, but she finally says, “I don’t know.”
I feel a lump form in my throat, but I fight it off. I cough slightly as though that will somehow dispel the terrible knot. “You don’t know? So that might be Donte’s daughter, then? Brandi, you cheated on me?”
“Yes,” she said. “Donte and I were together before you and I even got married. I’ve been cheating on you the whole time.”
I let that sink in for a moment. “Are you… are you still?”
“Up until last night, yes. I told him I was done,” she says.
“Last night? Even after he hit you, you kept seeing him?” I question.
She nods. Then she becomes the version of Brandi I hate as she becomes defensive and angry. “You cheated on me too, Jonathan, with that nut-job, Vivian!”
“You’re right,” I say. “But, damn it, Brandi, I dumped her before I asked you to marry me. I know that isn’t much better, I’ll admit, but you just… you lied to me. You lied to me about Ambriel. That’s just sick. How could you do this to me?”
She takes a calming breath. “I wanted it to be you. I hate Donte. He’s manipulative and violent. I don’t even know why I kept going back to him. I wanted you to be the father –I still do.”
“But you don’t know?” I ask to confirm.
“I have no idea,” she says.
There is this long pause between us. “So you broke up with Donte last night? How many times have you broken up with him before?”
“Once before the marriage… then again before you moved back home…. Then last night…”
“And every time you wound up going back to him?” I ask.
“I didn’t know he was responsible for what happened to Gabe and to Caleb-”
“Who cares? You kept going back. If all this craziness didn’t go down today, who’s to say you wouldn’t have gone back to him again and kept this shit up?” I bite my tongue to keep from saying anything too harsh. She’s already crying.
“I don’t know,” she admits. “But I’m done with him after this. He tried to kill you… kill Tyler, Laurel, Mary… Marty. I’m done. I don’t care if he is the father; he’s not stepping within a mile of Ambriel.” She looks at me with these sad eyes. “I will pay for a DNA test.”
I nod. I look down at Ambriel with this feeling of love that I don’t think any result to that test could wipe away. “Brandi, listen,” I say, still looking down at Ambriel, “I want to know. I do. But I want you to listen. I don’t care what that test says at the end of the day. That’s my daughter. Donte is going away for a long time; it’s not like she’ll have a father in her life if it turns out to be him. That is my daughter.”
This huge smile appears on Brandi’s face. “Jonathan, you have no idea how glad I am to hear you say that-” she steps towards me to give me a hug, but I hold out my hand to stop her.
“But you’re just my ex-wife,” I say somewhat cruelly. “That’s it. I care about you Brandi, and I want to be there for you and for the baby. But I’m done. I’m done with you. All of this… it was just too much. You cheated on me. You lied to me. You let me think that I was the bad guy this whole time, but it was both of us. You made me hate myself.”
Brandi drops her arms. “I suppose I understand. I really messed up, didn’t I?”
“Yeah, you did,” I say. “But I want you to know, I’m going to be there for Ambriel whether I’m her father or not.”
“Thank you, Jonathan,” she says. “I’ll find out. I promise.” She looks towards the door of the waiting room. “I suppose I should leave. Will you, please, let me know how Marty is doing?”
I nod. “Yeah, I will.”
She sighs and starts to push the stroller away. I can’t help myself; I lean down and give Ambriel a little kiss on the forehead. Brandi offers me a sad smile, and she leaves with the baby. I wanted to fight for us, but I can’t fight for someone like that anymore. God, I hope that little girl is mine.
87
Marty stirs, and I jolt upright in my seat. Most everyone is still in the waiting room; they’ll only let a few people back in the room at a time, so it’s just me, Laurel, Tyler, and Marianna at the moment. We’ve been taking shifts. I got to admit, I’m glad I’m one of the ones here when he finally starts waking up.
“What the fuck,” I hear Marty grumble, and I laugh slightly.
“Hey, man,” Tyler says, lingering over him wi
th this big grin on his face. “That morphine’s not cutting it, huh?”
“Fuuuuuck,” Marty says, attempting to readjust himself.
“Easy,” Marianna says, helping him to fluff the pillows to help him lean up slightly.
“You’ve been out of surgery for about two hours,” Tyler says. “They told us you’d be out a lot longer than this. Glad to see you up.”
“Where’s that son of a bitch, Donte? Did he fucking shoot me?” Marty asks.
“Yeah,” I say. “And he’s in custody along with Vivian and their thugs.”
“Damn, that was a serious fall,” Marty says. “Where’s my doctor? What the hell is broken? Damn, my fucking back…”
“You have a fractured spine,” I say. “Two broken legs and a shattered elbow. And the bullet has pretty much wrecked your shoulder.”
“Are you serious?” Marty looks devastated. “I had a big match that was going to skyrocket my career coming up!” he pauses. “Wait, my spine? My fucking spine? Fuck!”
“Easy,” Tyler says. “Man, you’re alive. We thought we’d be burying another friend this year, all right? Your wife is out of her mind right now, and-”
“Amy! God, where is she?” Marty asks, suddenly becoming pale.
“She went down to the cafeteria,” I say. “Her nerves are shot. She’s going to be glad to see you up.”
“I’m not going to be able to box ever again, am I?” Marty asks.
“You’re not the only one,” Laurel says and nods my way.
Marty frowns. “Man, what happened?” He noticed my arm in the sling for the first time.
“Donte shot me right in my damn elbow, and the bullet traveled down my arm,” I say.
“Fuck, man,” Marty says. He leans his head back into the pillow that Marianna had fluffed for him. “Hey, Jonathan, think you can get me a job at that damn gym?” Marty asks; I can tell he’s trying to joke around, but there is still a hint of devastation in his voice. I’ve been too busy worrying about Ambriel to have even thought about whether or not I’m ever going to be able to box again; boxing suddenly seems a lot less important. It’s much more present on Marty’s mind.
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