“Hey!” Her feet slipped and skidded as she ran over the glass-covered tile, straight into the attacker.
A pale lump lay on the floor with a shirt the same blue as the one Quin had worn that morning.
The man turned to face her, a bar from a weight bench in hand, and swung it at her. In the dim light she caught a glimpse of his face, just the profile, and her stomach dropped.
No way.
She dodged the heavy, cumbersome weapon by a fraction of an inch and backed away from Quin. If he was able-bodied enough to get up, she wanted to give him that opportunity, and if not, she wanted this piece of trash far from him. She was the only one allowed to take her dues from his flesh.
Righteous anger burned her veins. She’d been powerless to stop all the shitty things happening in her life, but she could kick some ass at the very least.
She knew that posture, the hunch of the shoulders and that lazy left arm. He held himself like a man who knew martial arts and fighting.
“Here, catch.” She grabbed a weight from a stand and threw it at him. She didn’t stand a chance of hitting him with it, but it was enough to divert his attention for the split second she needed. She stepped in close enough and rammed the palm of her hand up against his jaw, shoving his head back and drilling a punch into his chest.
That face. She knew him. Shock slapped her like a bucket of cold water.
He brought the bar up and smashed it into her shoulder. Pain radiated down to her fingers. He kicked her shin and hooked her around the ankle, but she was ready for that. She pivoted with him and threw her elbow back into his body. A fist smacked the right side of her head, right on the temple, and her vision blurred, her grasp of reality wavered and she stumbled forward.
A blur of blue pushed her aside and she tripped over her own damn feet and fell, rolling at the last second to land on her hip. She threw her weight around and sat on her ass, too dazed to do more than watch the ferocious bull that was Quin. The bar lay on the ground a few feet away, maybe where the vandal had dropped it when surprised by Quin, who now had the vandal pinned and was laying into the guy with hard blows, giving him no room to counterattack.
Kellie got to her feet, feeling a little woozy. It was her luck she might have a concussion from one chance blow.
The vandal threw Quin to the ground in a brute force tumble and tried to leap over his body, but Quin grabbed his foot and yanked. No sooner had the man hit the floor than Quin was on top of him, straddling the back of his legs and punching.
“Quin! Quin, stop.” She understood the urge to beat him. Hell, she wanted to beat Robert, the guy who destroyed her shop, but that way only brought trouble.
She caught one of the guy’s flailing arms and pinned it to the ground with her knees. She wrapped her hand around Quin’s shoulder and pushed him.
“Stop. Now.” She put every ounce of authority into her voice.
Quin planted his hands on the vandal’s shoulders and sucked in deep breaths.
“Quin?”
“Are you okay?” He turned his face toward her. His voice and body vibrated, probably a mixture of adrenaline, anger and fear. She felt it too.
“Probably a concussion. I’m fine.”
“That’s all?” Even in the semi-darkness she could see his face growing redder with rage. He shoved the vandal’s shoulders back down.
“Are you okay?” She touched his face and shoulder. What if there had been a gun? What if the guy wasn’t alone? What if she hadn’t been there? Every bad possibility flashed through her mind. If she’d stayed in bed, would she be getting a phone call that he was in the hospital? Or worse?
“Fine. Get my phone, will you? Left pocket.”
She reached into his shorts and grabbed the weight of his phone. “Anyone special I should call?”
“Call Detective Rosa, tell him to get his ass here.”
She clenched her hand around his arm, keyed in his password and brought up his contacts. The detective was a recent call.
“Mr. Berkus—”
“It’s not Quin, he’s here, but he’s holding the asshole down who smashed into the gym this morning.”
There was a beat of silence. “I’m on my way, and I’m bringing the cavalry.”
“Awesome.” What the fuck was the cavalry?
The line went dead. She peered at the face of the phone, but it appeared that he’d hung up on her.
“What did he say? Turn the flashlight on.”
“That he’s bringing the cavalry.” She flicked on the flashlight app. “What the hell does that mean? What are you doing?”
“I want to see who this motherfucker is.”
She did too.
Quin crouched on the other side of the vandal and rolled him over. He didn’t struggle, but judging from the blood, he’d had a few screws knocked loose.
“Shin. What the fuck?”
Shin hadn’t been her favorite person, but she’d known him since she was a kid, they’d played together, their grandmothers had been friends, his father had courted her mother briefly. They spent holidays together.
“You know this fucker?”
She scrubbed her cheeks. “Yeah, he was my neighbor. You met him yesterday, well, you saw him. Shin, why?” She pushed his shoulder when he wouldn’t answer.
“You should have been my wife. This should have been my gym! Mine!”
Was he serious? That didn’t make sense. Shin went out of his way to make things difficult for her.
“Dallas Police, hands up,” a deep baritone bellowed.
In an instant, flashlights surrounded them. Kellie did as they asked, holding her hands up even as a little bit more of her faith in humanity crumbled.
“That’s the owner, Quin,” another rumbling voice said.
She couldn’t see much, but there was movement to her right and someone grasped her hand.
“This is my girlfriend. This guy is the one that broke in,” Quin said, his voice still vibrating with anger.
He pulled her to her feet and they backed away. She blinked away spots as police converged on Shin. She was still in shock. It didn’t make sense. She’d never given him any indication that she was interested in him. The gym had been sold when she was younger.
“I don’t understand,” she muttered.
“Where did he hit you? I saw that fucker hit you.” He cupped her cheeks and tilted her head back. His face was a warped mask of worry, lines creased his brow, the crow’s feet pronounced.
“I’m okay, I promise.”
“You need to go to the hospital.”
She dug her heels in on that. “Nope. Not a chance. Not going to another hospital for a long time.”
“I’m going to argue with you on this one.” Quin wrapped his arms around her and kissed her forehead.
“Excuse me, you two, can I have a word?” someone interjected.
The next half hour was a blur. Employees arrived, the cops asked questions, took pictures. There were questions that replayed the same few minutes over and over again. Somehow she wound up sitting on Quin’s tailgate with stone-cold sausage biscuits and lukewarm coffee. She was alone for the moment while Quin chatted with the cops yet again and went through the damage.
Shin’s reasoning was still as mysterious as it had been, but she could relate each instance of vandalism to events in her life. Had Shin been stalking her? Did he really have plans for her and the gym? It didn’t make sense and she wanted an answer.
Sliding off the tailgate, she approached the patrol car Shin had been shoved in. A few uniformed police officers stood nearby, eyeing her as she approached.
“Can I help you, miss?” one of them asked.
“Would it be possible for me to ask him a question?” She had a niggling suspicion in the back of her mind that wouldn’t go away.
The officers looked at each other. What she was asking them to do probably wasn’t allowable under several laws, but what did it hurt to ask?
“I’ll open the passenger door and if you happen to
talk loud enough he can hear you, what am I going to do about that?”
She liked this stony-faced man. The officer opened the front passenger door and leaned against the hood of the car. Shin watched her from the backseat, his eyes so dark with hatred he might as well have been a stranger. She stepped into the lee of the door so she could see his face through the grate.
“Did you tell the doctors at the hospital I abused Grandma? I know it wasn’t Quin, and they said it was a man. I can’t think of anyone who would say that.” She wanted him to say no.
He studied her for several seconds, saying nothing.
“Yes.”
They stared at each other, and oddly she wasn’t drowned with questions. She wanted to know the whys of it all, but she was starting to realize that Shin was seriously unbalanced. She’d missed it over the years because she hadn’t cared enough for him to pay attention to what went on, but snatches of memory streamed through her mind under this new filter. Shin was a sad, pathetic little man.
She turned to the officers and smiled. “Thanks, that’s all I wanted to ask.”
Kellie headed back to the truck, feeling both lighter for having her answer and troubled that all along this vileness had been under the surface.
A white Honda pulled into the parking lot, maybe one of the regular gym members coming in for a workout. Kellie changed directions and headed for the car. The closer it got, the more the woman in the front seat looked familiar. The woman glanced up and rolled the window down.
“Kellie, hi.”
“Hey, Penny.”
“What happened?”
“Mulaaaaaan!” Something thudded against the back window. Judging by the flailing child in the backseat, she assumed it was a toy.
“Hey, Josie,” she said and waved. She felt a little like Mulan rescuing her guy. “We had a run-in when we got here with the person responsible for redecorating.”
Penny gasped and covered her mouth with her hand. “Are you guys okay?”
“Yeah.” The paramedics had confirmed her diagnosis of a concussion and some bruises. She was a little embarrassed about getting clocked in the head, but she had delivered a few blows.
“I want to see Daddy!”
“Not now, sweetheart,” Penny said over her shoulder.
“He’s doing something with people and cameras inside right now. Do you want to go in to see him?”
“Can we?” Penny asked.
“Yeah, why don’t you park over by Quin and I’ll show you.”
“I don’t have to see him, but now I’m worried.”
A little flair of jealousy bit her in the ass. She knew Penny was happily married and her relationship with Quin was platonic, but knowing better didn’t eliminate the little green monster. She had given him a child, which meant they’d had sex, and Kellie didn’t like that idea. Still…
“Nah, he’d like to see Josie I bet.” She backed away from the car and let Penny pull into a spot next to the truck.
Penny juggled her bag and getting Josie out of the back of the car. The little girl waved at Kellie and smiled, totally unfazed by the cops and activity going on.
“Where’s Daddy?”
“He’s inside, we’re going to go see him.”
Kellie led them past the employees she was beginning to recognize into the gym. Quin stood with a knot of official-looking people in the middle, talking and gesturing. He turned, pointing at something, and saw them. He said something else to the men, and headed for them.
“Daddy!”
Quin grinned, displaying the split lip and bruises he’d earned.
“Oh my goodness,” Penny gasped and covered Josie’s face with her hand. She looked at Kellie with an accusing glare. “You said he wasn’t h-u-r-t.”
“Uh, he’s not.”
Judging by Penny’s very expressive face, with her large eyes and exaggerated mouthing of words Kellie couldn’t understand, she decided to do the only thing she knew to do.
“Why don’t I show Josie around? Come here, pussycat.”
Penny transferred the little girl to Kellie’s hip and she took off for the other side of the gym with no real plan of action. She’d grown up in these walls, which meant she had a small advantage.
“Want to see something?” she asked, setting the bait.
“Yes.” Josie tightened her hold around her neck.
Behind where the octagon now sat was the storage area on the left, which backed up against the offices. A mishap when her grandfather had walled off the areas was a small crawl space between the closet and the exterior wall.
“I’m going to have to put you down. Can you hold on to my hand and follow me?”
Josie nodded dramatically and took her hand. Kellie put her back to the wall and squeezed herself past the column of cinderblocks hiding the opening. As a child she’d easily slipped past, but now, with boobs that went on forever, it was a little harder. Cobwebs and dust clung to the wall, but after a six-inch squeeze it opened up into a three-foot-wide rectangle of space about four-feet long. A few blocks made up benches at both ends. She went to the far wall and sat down.
“I used to come here when I was a little girl and I found this spot. It was my secret place, so you can’t tell anyone.” Though she would make sure Quin knew just in case.
“Did you draw this?” Josie traced a drawing in thick black lines.
“I did.” Grime covered words and caricatures, a small collection of her life in one spot, held frozen in time.
“Are you Daddy’s princess?”
Kellie froze. This was why she didn’t do kids. They asked questions she didn’t have an answer for.
Josie turned and regarded her with eyes far older than her three years. “Mommy has Dad, and he says she’s his princess. Daddy needs a princess too.”
Kellie opened her mouth and closed it. Warmth bubbled up in her chest. There were problems and things to work out if they would make it for the long haul, but she wanted Quin. She loved him even if she didn’t think it was the smartest choice for her at the time. You didn’t always get to pick and choose your future. She sucked in a shaky breath.
“I don’t know.”
“Would that make you my mom?”
“Uh, you already have a mom.” She was sweating bullets thanks to a three-year-old.
Josie shook her head. “I have Mommy.”
“Oh right, and Mommy and Daddy get the longer names because they’re the ones who made you?”
“Yup. So Daddy’s princess would be my mom.”
This was so out of her element. “Why don’t we go see your daddy? Want to do that?”
They retraced their steps and came out looking like the raiders of the lost ark, sporting cobweb accessories and a layer of dirt.
“Do I want to know where you took my daughter?” Quin asked.
Kellie shared a conspiratorial look with Josie. “Nope.”
“Come on, Josie, we’re leaving. Tell Daddy goodbye.”
Quin hugged his little girl tight and gave her a kiss before they left. They stood together and watched the two other women in his life exit before Kellie wrapped her arms around his waist and held him close. No one was perfect, but they’d had each other’s backs.
“Do you think, when things calm down, we can take a few days and get away? Just us?”
The slow path of his hands up and down her back stilled. “Uh, yeah, I’d love to do that.”
“Me too.”
Epilogue
Six Months Later
Kellie pulled her sunglasses off and stared at the futon sitting at the curb.
The same futon she’d fought with Quin over keeping.
There was no furniture in the house and some days she didn’t want to scale the stairs after a long day’s work. A place to sit and stare at the wall, or God forbid eat dinner, would be nice. But she wasn’t about to even broach the subject of a dining table with him.
Maybe it was time to think about getting her own place. Kellie loved Quin, she
could admit that to herself finally. She hated living out of boxes and he refused to put down roots. She needed more stability, a place to call home. But in six months, nothing had changed. The sex was still hot. Their schedules were crazy. And neither had uttered a word about the future. Four months ago that was enough for her, but not anymore. She was a family girl, and he wasn’t ready for that level of commitment.
She sucked in a deep breath and willed the ache in her heart to go away. Things weren’t perfect between them, but they’d worked on their relationship. They’d even gone on a short vacation to the Texas Hill Country to ride dirt bikes and stay in a cute little bed and breakfast in the middle of an apple orchard. But they still hedged around their emotions and the cute “I like yous” were beginning to grate on her nerves. Maybe it was still too much too soon.
With a heavy heart, Kellie got out of the Cube and made her way across the freshly painted porch to the front door. She hadn’t realized he was working on the exterior yet. Heck, maybe Quin had an offer on the house. He’d never made a secret that he planned to flip it. The idea of selling the house just made her even sadder. Her mother had sold their family home to a newly immigrated family and warned them about her. She’d gone back once and wouldn’t make that mistake again.
She pushed the front door open. “Honey, I’m home.”
“In here,” Quin called from the living room. There was a thread of excitement in his voice though that made her pause. He’d been waiting to hear back on a string of fights that would take him across Louisiana, Alabama and into Florida. Her heart clenched at the thought of him being gone for weeks. She had to move out fast for her own sake. Maybe she’d get an apartment across the street from the home where Grandma lived now. Even Kellie had begrudgingly admitted that the staff took great care of her and had several people who could at least understand her, and several who were learning key Korean words.
Closing the door, Kellie peered down the hallway at what should have been a clear view of the ginormous windows. Instead, something blocked half her view.
“What did you do?” She paused in the entrance to the living room and wondered what parallel universe she’d walked into.
Instead of the empty space she expected, a huge, charcoal-gray sectional took up the bulk of the area. A scratched lacquered tea table that had once been crammed in the corner of her bedroom served as a coffee table. Several vases sat haphazardly in the corner and three rows of floating shelves displayed the tea set she’d thought she’d lost in her hurried move as well as several pieces of china. Her chest ached as her gaze roved over the walls where pictures and old paintings Grandma had brought with her from Korea now hung.
The Harder He Falls: 2 (So Inked) Page 34