He punched me then. In my gut. The pain was so bad I started coughing, trying to breath.
“Now you’re going to call Lee or I will beat the hell out of you. When I’m done you won’t be pretty anymore ever again.” He brought out a blade and traced the blunt end down my face and then abruptly flipped the knife over, cutting into my chin. I didn’t even flinch as blood began to flow down my face, eventually ending up as droplets of red on the floor.
“Do what you want. I’m not calling Lee.” I had been tortured before. This wasn’t my first rodeo. I knew that I was probably going to die there in the old stale smelling school gym, but I wasn’t going to pull Lee into this. Because if I called Lee and they killed him, who would Avani have? I had no one but my grandparents, when my parents died. Avani would end up in foster care somewhere and I feared that reality for her more than I feared death.
“Suit yourself, I’ll get him here anyway. You’re just a bonus prize.”
Shepherd kept his eyes on me as he dialed Lee’s number. No one said a word. All was silent as we waited for him to pick up. And then suddenly ringing was coming from somewhere else, from somewhere behind me.
The other men apparently noticed it too and then I saw Shepherd’s eyes widen as he stared at something past my shoulders.
“What happened Shepherd, you didn’t want to invite me to your party? I’m sorry for crashing it. But look you’re calling me, aren’t you?” Lee said stepping into my line of vision just to the left side of me, looking down at his phone and smiling broadly. The smile didn’t look humorous. It looked deadly. “I’m sure you’re calling to offer me an invitation. So nice of you. I don’t feel as left out anymore.” Lee concluded, sounding nonchalant and cold.
“You’re one stupid dude for showing up here,” Vicki said, suddenly feeling tough.
“You really think I’m the stupid one?” Lee said softly.
Shepherd slowly raised his hand and pointed his gun at Lee. “Your kid sister is going to be so sad. First her dear mommy and now her little brother. I feel so sorry for her. Hey, who knows? Maybe if she ends up in foster care, I’ll adopt her and bring her into the fold.” Shepherd said with a sick smile on his face.
“I’ll drag you to hell with me before I let you get within a foot of my sister,” Lee said, his voice so full of conviction that I could easily imagine Satan himself stepping out of Lee’s way to let him take care of unfinished business.
“Then hell it is,” Shepherd said and then I heard it. The roar of motorcycles approaching and from the sound of it, there had to be hundreds of them.
“Do you know whose territory you’re on, Shepherd?”
Shepherd looked confused for a second, “Shit,” he mumbled as he looked from Lee to Vicki who was now looking afraid, not nearly as cocky as a second ago.
“You can kill me and Angelica, but you know if I don’t walk out of this building alive, as soon as you do, you’ll end up a living target. Now think about it. Do you want to leave alive or do you want to die?”
“Let’s get out of here, Shep,” Vicki said nervously licking at his lips.
“Shut up, Vicki!” Shepherd yelled clearly frustrated and not knowing what to do. The vein on his neck bulged and he looked torn.
“I’ll be back for you, Lee.” He said turning away and walking towards the exit doors with his crew. Vicki scampered behind him.
“No. I don’t think so,” Lee said softly watching them leave.
When they were gone, I sighed and said, “Think you can untie me now?”
Lee turned towards me, took a knife out of his back pocket and cut me loose. I lowered my hands and was about to express my gratitude when someone burst through the backdoor.
“Lee! You in here, buddy? You okay?”
The man looked from me to Lee and then back at Lee again.
“Who’s this?”
“Angelica. This is Quentin. Quentin this is Angelica. Quentin helped me get out of the gang years ago.”
“Shhh...not so loud,” Quentin said looking around. He was almost the same age as Shepherd, but while Shepherd was lanky and looked emaciated, Quentin was built like a bear.
“I saw Shepherd practically run out of here like he saw a ghost or something. They hoped on their bikes and rode out of here so fast that my men were disappointed. I promised them there would be some action.”
“Tell the boys I’m sorry, but thanks for looking out.”
“We got your back, Lee. You might be out of the gang, but we’re still your brothers. Oh and I don’t think Shepherd will be bothering you again. It seems he’s wanted on a murder charge back in Alabama and someone happily told the police where he could be found. Something tells me poor little Vicki’s going to be holding on to his big brother from a jail cell.” Quentin gave a chuckle and then just like that he left.
“Your old gang?” I said when he was gone.
“Yeah.”
I was silent for a moment, “Thanks for coming for me.”
“I heard what you said back there. You’re definitely not a coward.”
“I might be a lot of things, but coward isn’t one of them.”
“Shepherd would have killed you.”
“I wasn’t going to let him use me to go after you. Avani needs you.”
Lee’s jaw tightened and he nodded, studying me carefully, his eyes grave.
“I’m sorry for getting you into this. Avani was skipping school again and saw them dragging you out. She called me and I ---.” He shook his head, seemingly at a loss for words.
“This is why I don’t do emotional times. My world is dangerous. It sickens me that they took you. It sickens me to think of what they would have done to you if Avani hadn’t seen them take you.”
I didn’t say anything, I just stared down at my hands, trying to find the words that I felt would reach pass Lee’s stubbornness and pride. He had this need to protect me, but I didn’t need to be protected, at least not from him.
“My life was endangered. That’s your fault.”
He closed his eyes briefly and then nodded in resignation, turning away from me.
“But you also risked your life to save mine. If anything, I would say that we’re even.”
Lee slowly turned back around towards me. “Even after all this you still want something to do with me?”
“Call me crazy, but I have a thing for dangerous men who are strong enough to turn their lives around.”
He walked slowly back to me and held my eyes, as he buried one of his hands in my hair. “I wanted to kill them all for taking you.”
“And I would have let you.” I said dead serious.
“I think that makes both of us very dangerous people.”
I smiled at him as I nodded slowly, “We might as well be together, after all, who else would want to take us?”
He laughed, “You have a point. So were you scared? At all?”
“That they were going to kill us?”
“Yes.”
“No. I knew once you arrived that there was no way you were going to let that happen.”
“You have too much faith in me.”
“If you can’t trust the man you’re falling for, then who can you trust?” I said simply.
“Falling for, huh?” Lee said, a smile now curving his lips. His brown eyes searched mine and then he abruptly lowered his head and gave me a hard kiss on the lips.
“Are you sure you want to be mine?” He said when he finally pulled away for air.
“I don’t know. Kiss me again like that or I might just change my mind.” He lowered his mouth back down to mine, happy to oblige.
The End
Part II
Sports Romance Collection
Part I
Fight For Love
Romantic Comedy
Chapter One
By the time Jasmine stormed into Gentleman Jackson’s Boxing Club, she’d had a full forty-five minutes for her anger to pick up steam, and she was in no mood to do anything o
ther than cry her eyes out over a glass of wine. She was exhausted. She had just spent ten hours at the hospital, and hadn’t even had the chance to change out of her scrubs before Emma peeked out of her bedroom and announced that Michael had gone off somewhere to do boxing, of all things.
Boxing? Jasmine knew what that meant. It meant bruises, scrapes, violence, and concussions…if this was, in fact, boxing and not just some makeshift fighting ring someone had set up in an alleyway. It took her ten minutes to find out from Michael’s friends where he went, and another half hour to take the requisite busses. Now that she was here, she was far from amused by the pretentious name of the boxing club. The mortified look on Michael’s face only partially made up for it all.
“Michael.” Her voice was a hiss.
“Um…” Michael, sixteen and unusually thin—some people had all the luck—looked like he wanted to melt through the floor at being confronted by his older sister, in front of all of his boxing buddies.
Jasmine would have thought that was funny, but she cringed at the thought of what they were all seeing. Her wild mess of curls was only partially held back with a headband and an elastic, she was still wearing scrubs with God only knew what on them, and there wasn’t a scrap of makeup on her face. In clubs, in the right light, with makeup and jewelry, she looked almost okay. Right now, she was just chubby and disheveled. She swallowed, trying to decide whether to cut and run.
Like hell she was going to be shamed by a bunch of sixteen year olds. They could be polite to her, or she would teach them a thing or two about boxing. She swept her eyes over the group and was pleased to see that all of them quailed.
Or…all but one of them.
“May I help you?” The voice was a drawl. When her head jerked around, she saw him. He was leaning against the wall, arms crossed. A banner over his head proclaimed an upcoming tournament, and he was smiling at her. He had the bluest eyes she’d ever seen.
“Yes,” Jasmine said promptly, scowling. Those blue eyes were set above chiseled cheekbones, a mouth far too full and sensual for a man’s face, and a jaw just as chiseled as the cheekbones. His nose might have the slight irregularity that came from having been broken more than once, but looking at the self-satisfied smile on the man’s face, all Jasmine could think was that he must have deserved it. “What is going on here?”
“You must be Michael’s older sister.” He gave a smile and looked out over the crowd of boys. “Pushups and sit-ups, everyone. You too, Michael.”
“No, he’s coming home with—”
He ushered her over to the side wall. “What seems to be the problem?”
“The problem?” Jasmine glared at him. “Okay. The problem is that my younger brother is not at home doing his homework and waiting for dinner, he is here, getting beaten up so that he can come home covered in bruises, with a concussion, start fighting all the time at school, worry our mother, and probably drop out before he can apply to a college.”
“That’s a lot to assume from the fact that he’s trying MMA.” The man didn’t look exactly pleased. His white tee-shirt stretched snugly over bulging biceps as he folded his arms and stared her down.
“What the hell is MMA?”
“Mixed Martial Arts,” he explained tiredly. “It’s a fighting style that combines Muay Thai with Jiu-Jitsu, boxing, some Tae Kwon—”
“So, fighting.” Jasmine crossed her own arms. “You’re teaching him to fight.”
“You have a problem with that?”
“Of course I have a problem with it!” She was going to punch him if he kept smiling at her like that. He was a pretty-boy, used to getting everything he wanted when he flashed those blue eyes, and she was sure as hell not going to fall for that. She pointed one finger over at the boys doing sit-ups and pushups, and leaned closer to hiss at the instructor. “Michael is smart. He might be a sixteen-year-old, but he’s a good kid. He doesn’t fight in school. He gets good grades. I’m not going to let him mess that up.”
The man sighed and leaned his head forward, running one hand over the back of his scalp. When he looked up, his eyes were more direct, and grave, than she expected.
“Look. I grew up in Detroit, okay? So I’m not just…some rich guy coming here to tell you how to behave. You know how hard it is for kids like your brother. I’m not making him violent, I’m giving him an outlet—the same outlet that saved me. Look over there. They’re not doing drugs, they’re not joining gangs—well, most of them. I’m working on it. These are good kids. They’re doing something physical, something good for their bodies, and they’re getting out a lot of the anger they can’t get rid of any other good way.”
“This isn’t a good way!”
“Why not? Did you hear a word I just said?” He shook his head, looking away. “Maybe you don’t get it, but I do. I needed this when I was younger, just like they need it now. It kept me out of way worse things. It taught me to push for something. It gave me something to achieve. That saved my life.”
“Well, maybe it saved your life, but Michael has things to push for. He’s going to be more than just a boxer.”
“What’s wrong with being a boxer?”
“He’s going to spend half his life beat up! When he gets older, he’s going to start forgetting things.”
“Most people do.”
“You know what I mean!” Her shout echoed, and the boys looked over. Jasmine clenched her hands.
“Hey. I’m not going to let him be harmed.” His voice was unexpectedly gentle. “I have rules about that. No head strikes in sparring here. I don’t do any of the crazier Muay Thai stuff.”
“Oh, yeah? He’s covered in bruises.”
“Bruises heal.” He shrugged his shoulders.
“I don’t want his teachers thinking he’s turning into one of those boys.” Her voice was rising again.
“Lady, what is your problem?”
“What’s my problem?” She clenched one hand in her hair. “Are you serious? Okay. Well, here’s something. Our dad died of cancer eight years ago.”
“I’m sorry.”
“I’m not finished. We never got out from under that debt. You know how much we owe now? Three hundred thousand dollars. You know how we’re going to pay that off? We aren’t. My mom works three jobs, and she’s too sick to be working at all. The chemicals she works with at the cleaning job are ruining her. She thinks I don’t know that she’s dying, but I do.” Jasmine could hear the tears building up in her voice and she knew she should just walk away, but she couldn’t seem to stop talking. “I graduated a year early so I could go to nursing school. It’s steady work, okay? And for the past four years, I have been trying as hard as I can to get my brother and sister through school so they can get the hell out of here. So they don’t end up working cleaning jobs. So they don’t get stuck here for the rest of their damned lives, paying off someone else’s debt! And I was doing fine, by the way.” She felt tears escape her eyes and dashed them away angrily. “I told you Michael’s smart. Well, he’s scientist smart. He looks at math and he just gets it. He’s too smart to be stuck around here, and even if he wasn’t I’d try to get him out. And Sarah? She’s got the prettiest voice, but she’s studying up to get her nursing degree, too. They’re smart. They’re pulling their weight. They’re going to get out.” She glared at this man, this smug man who’d come in to tell her how fighting wasn’t going to ruin her brother. “I’m not going to let you mess this up for him. Because you know what? Losing him would actually kill my mom.”
She turned on her heel and marched away before he could say anything else. She knew Michael’s bag and so she snatched it up from the side.
“Come on. We’re going.”
“But—”
“Now.”
At least he didn’t contradict her. He hung his head as he pulled on his tee-shirt, and he followed her humbly out into the cold.
“Where’s your coat?”
“I didn’t bring one.”
“Are you entirely stu
pid?” Jasmine rounded on him, and felt the tears start again. She squeezed her eyes shut. “I didn’t mean that, I’m sorry. Michael…what are you doing? What is this?”
“I just…like it.” He shrugged his shoulders. “It’s hard not to get angry sometimes. It isn’t fair that dad died. It isn’t fair that—” He shook his head. “But when I’m here, I can forget about it—and then sometimes I feel better for hours. Days. I’m still getting As, Jazzy.”
“That guy?” Jasmine jerked her head at the gym. “He’s bad news.”
“No, he’s really nice. He—”
“He’s bad news,” Jasmine repeated. “And I don’t want you going back there.”
Chapter Two
There was a silence as the door slammed shut behind the two of them, the woman ushered her younger brother out into the evening dark and all of the other boys stared after them. Then someone started laughing.
“Mike got in trouble!”
They were all joining in, shoving each other and shouting jokes over the noise, until Tyler pounded on the wall for them to be quiet. He had been so consumed in staring after her that he’d let the joking go on far too long. Those eyes, those lips…
They stared at him, and he tried to remember how to speak.
“All that talk means people aren’t working hard enough!” He let his eyes sweep over all of them, and then pointed to the back wall. “Sprints. Come on.”
“This is boxing, not running!”
“This is MMA, not boxing—and go on, just try to get in the ring without being fit, huh?” Tyler let his genuine amusement show in his face. “You’ll be on YouTube forever.”
With a grumble, they set off, sprinting back and forth between the two walls with increasingly pleading looks that Tyler ignored until he saw their pace slow to a legitimate jog. He didn’t let himself smile this time, although he wanted to. These were good kids, with a lot of energy and a lot of drive. That was one thing he’d found since he moved here. These kids wanted to win at something, but even more, they wanted to be part of a team. It warmed a part of his heart that he hadn’t known existed.
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