A Better Place

by Jennifer Van Wyk

  “James,” she whispers.

  “Good?” I ask her, the small panic I felt earlier threatening to take over again.

  She slowly shakes her head but quietly says, “No. Great. I love it.” Her voice is so sweet I almost taste it. “Put it on me?” She lifts it from the box and hands it over then lifts the back of her hair.

  I unclasp the hook, reach around her front to loop the necklace around, and fasten it around her neck.

  Never in my life have I wanted to kiss the subtle curve of the back of someone’s neck like I do in this moment. Even though it takes everything in me, I refrain, knowing Jack is sitting in the same room. He may know that his mom and I are officially dating now, but that doesn’t mean he wants to see the parts that only Carly and I enjoy.

  After it’s secure, she turns around and throws herself into my arms. She loops her slender arms around my neck and hugs me tightly.

  “Thank you,” she whispers into my neck, sniffling.

  I squeeze her tightly. “You’re welcome, beautiful.”

  We pull back, resting our foreheads against each other, sharing our breaths. My hands drift up to cradle her neck, and I want so badly to kiss her, to let her know what I feel in my heart.

  But Jack clears his throat, reminding us that we’re not alone. “Let me see?”

  Carly bites the corner of her lip and leans up and touches her mouth to mine, the kiss light and sweet. She pulls away and turns toward Jack. “Yeah, buddy. See?” She lifts the thin pendant off her chest and holds it out for him to see.

  He looks down, up in her eyes, then shifts his gaze to me. “Moving forward,” he murmurs.

  She nods her head, eyes glistening with unshed tears. She reaches over and squeezes my hand in hers, confirming what I already know.

  I’m hers.

  She’s mine.

  And I’ll do everything in my power to protect what’s mine.

  It hits me right then. There’s no way I can hold back the information I was told tonight. And as scared as it makes me to say it out loud, afraid that she’s going to run, I know I can’t not tell her. She deserves to know. We’re building a relationship, and we can’t do that if we don’t have trust. We can’t have trust if she finds out that I know her piece of shit ex-husband is here looking for her and don’t tell her. What’s worse? What if he’s coming after Jack? And if my suspicions are correct, it sounds like this information is going to freak them both out.

  “Jack?”

  “Yeah?” He shifts his focus to me, and I know what I need to tell Carly needs to be done quietly. She needs to be able to tell Jack on her own time. I don’t have any business telling him. At least not yet.

  “Can I have a moment with your mom?”

  “Uh, sure? I guess? I’m going to head to bed anyway.”

  He leans down and kisses Carly on top of the head, murmurs a goodnight, then turns to me and gives me a low wave. As soon as I hear his door shut, Carly looks at me with confusion and a bit of fear in her eyes.

  “Carly.” I blow out a breath and pace around in front of her. “Damn. I need to tell you something.”

  “What?”

  “I don’t… Okay, first you need to know I’m not going anywhere. There’s not a chance on this earth that anything I’m going to tell you or you’re about to tell me will change how I feel about you. Yeah?”

  “James, you’re scaring me.” Her voice is barely above a whisper.

  I move swiftly, sitting down on the couch and pulling her down with me, grabbing her hands in mine. “No, baby, don’t be scared. Please. Not of me.”

  “No, I could never be scared of you,” she promises me.

  “Okay. You remember our first date?”

  She smiles and bites her lip. “You mean the one that happened tonight? Of course.”

  I wink and lean over to kiss her quickly before settling back on the couch. I drape my arm over the back of the couch and start playing with her hair, trying to keep us both relaxed. “Remember when Will had to tell me something?”

  “Yeah?”

  “He needed to tell me Vince has been around.”

  My words come out like a rush but they may as well have been said in slow motion, stabbing her in the chest with each syllable. So much information in that one little sentence.

  I know her ex-husband’s name.

  He’s been looking for them.

  “What?” she asks, breathlessly.

  “Yeah. Shit. Long story short?”

  “Um, I’m not sure. I guess I need to know everything?”

  So I went on to tell her… how Vince was looking around for them. That Tate recognized the picture that Vince was carrying around, and that’s why Will thought he recognized her. “Carly, I know whatever Vince was saying about you kidnapping Jack is a bunch of crap. Believe me, I know you. We might still be new, but that much I get.

  “He’s here? And why didn’t you tell me right away?” She tries standing up, but I reach out and pull her closer to me. I cradle her face in my hands and look into her eyes.

  “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you or have Will tell you when he was telling me. I know I should have, but I wanted to give you the opportunity to tell me about him. And honestly? I didn’t want to ruin our date… until I had a chance to talk to Tate. I don’t know if anyone has heard any more out of him or not. And things have been good, yeah? Between us? I guess I was afraid of bringing him into the fold, if maybe he just gave up and left. And I’m hoping that’s exactly what he’s done. I don’t know, beautiful. I was going to wait until I had the chance to talk to get more information, but I couldn’t. I’m sorry if I screwed up. Please don’t hate me. I am trying to protect you. To protect Jack.”

  “I get that, I think. I just… James. It’s my life. I need to know something like this. You have to understand, the extent of what he did to me, to us? It was bad. And… I don’t want lies between us. I don’t want anything to stay hidden. I can’t. I had that with him.”

  “I promise, beautiful. No lies. I’ll never keep anything from you again. I just… Dammit, Carly. Things with us are perfect. I won’t allow him to screw that up, yeah?”

  “Yeah.”

  “We’re okay?”

  She looks between my eyes, no doubt my emotions are displayed right there on my face. “We’re okay. What else? What’s the plan?”

  I blow out a breath, grateful that she’s moving forward and ready to take this one. Grateful that she’s not going to run.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  James

  I’ve been at the gym for about a half hour and came in the hopes that I would get a chance to catch up with Tate. As soon as I left Carly’s, even though it was close to midnight, I called him. Shockingly, though maybe not so much, it sounded like he expected my call. He answered with “Yo, man. What’s the plan?”

  I know he’s a good guy now. After that split moment of stupidity resulting in my initial dislike of the man simply because he was around Carly, that is.

  So, we got Will on a three-way call and formulated a plan. One I hoped we would never have to put into place but feared we would, all the same. One that I relayed to Carly, and we’ll discuss with Jack.

  Problem with coming in today? It’s Tate’s day off. And because I don’t really keep tabs on him, I had no idea until I got here.

  Rather than leave, I stay and decide to get my workout in. In all honesty, it’s a lot more fun when Jack is here with me, but I’m a grown-ass man and can do shit alone.

  Just as I’m about to tape up my hands to start on the bags, the phone in my gym shorts sounds. The ringtone for “You’re Beautiful” pulls a smile to my face, knowing who’s on the other end.

  “Hey, beautiful,” I answer when I have the phone to my ear.

  “Hey there.” I love that she still has a bit of shyness around me. Because when she finally gives herself over? When those walls she’s built around herself so securely do finally crumble to the ground? It’s going to be marvelous. Ground
-shaking. Earth-shattering.

  “Hey there? That’s all you got?” I tease her because I absolutely can’t help myself. I can picture her pulling her bottom lip between her teeth and a slight blush creeping up her neck. Gorgeous.

  “What do you prefer I call you?”

  “I seem to remember Hotty McHot…”

  She groans. “Don’t finish that statement, mister. I’m never living that one down, am I?”

  “Never.” I promise her, and I mean it. Because I’ll never let her go. “I have a few other ideas, you know. Even though that one is pretty accurate.”

  “Oh, do tell.”

  “Captain is always a winner. Like Captain, my Captain,” I continue, and she groans again. “Stud, Sexy, Dashing, Dreamy… Want me to keep going?”

  “Uh, no. You’ve given me plenty of options to think about.”

  “Glad I could be of help.” My smile is so wide that my cheeks actually start hurting. I look toward the door as it swings open, bringing in a gust of cold wind with it. A guy walks in I’ve never seen before, looking like he’s on a mission. I nod my chin up at him, but he just sets hard eyes on me as he looks around the gym with a scowl on his face. I bunch my eyebrows together, wondering what his problem is. People don’t usually enter the gym looking pissed, but this guy doesn’t seem capable of any other facial expression.

  I watch as he goes into the locker room, and I refocus my attention back onto my girl.

  “James?”

  “Huh?”

  “Where’d you go?”

  “Oh. Sorry, baby. I just… I don’t know. I’m at Tate’s. Some guy came in looking pissed off.”

  “I’m sorry,” she replies oddly.

  “Why you sorry, beautiful?”

  I can just picture her shrugging her shoulders when she doesn’t respond.

  “Anyway, to what do I owe the pleasure of hearing your sweet voice?”

  She giggles.

  So damn cute.

  “Tess called.”

  “Ah, hell. What’s the nosy woman want now?” I joke.

  “Dinner tonight?”

  “Sure.”

  “Yeah?”

  “Of course. Unless… do you not want to? I know my family is a lot to take in.”

  “No. Not at all! I love them. I promise.”

  “Good. They love you, too,” I tell her quietly.

  The door to the locker room swings open with a loud bang again, the new guy’s ominous appearance causing a chill to go down my spine.

  He sets glaring eyes on me then jerks his head toward the boxing ring as he takes menacing steps through the gym.

  “What is his deal?” I mutter.

  “What?”

  “Nothing, baby. No worries.”

  I start walking to the ring, bending down to pick up my gloves as I go, assuming this guy needs to get out some aggression from whatever put him in this mood in the first place.

  I’m happy to help. I have enough angry thoughts about Carly’s ex rolling around in my head.

  “I gotta go, beautiful. I’ll pick you up in about an hour, okay?”

  “That sounds good, Captain,” she says, laughing.

  “That’s better,” I murmur. “I’ll see you soon, beautiful.”

  I hear the guy in the ring scoff, and again I look at him with confusion, wondering what his deal is.

  I walk over to the ring and start putting on my fingerless gloves.

  “You wanna go?” I ask him.

  He nods, not giving me much then lifts his hands to show me his own pair of gloves similar to mine.

  “Alright,” I say, wondering for the umpteenth time what his problem is. “You okay, man?”

  “Yeah,” he grunts. “I’m just motherfucking fine.”

  I raise my eyebrows but climb into the ring anyway.

  “I’m James,” I tell him, reaching out a hand to bump fists with him.

  “Got it.”

  Oka-a-ay, so this is how it’s gonna be.

  “Yo!” I holler to Danny. Danny is another trainer here at Tate’s gym. I have a feeling it might be good to have him watching over for us.

  “Yeah?”

  I nod my head to the stranger and lift my hands, showing him we’re gonna bout.

  “Got it,” he says, coming over next to us.

  I put my mouthguard in and lift my hands in front of my face. The second I’m in my stance we start circling each other, not giving Danny a chance to even ready us. I have a feeling this guy isn’t really here for pleasantries anyway.

  I’ve done bouts before. But something about this one feels a little… off. Usually neither side is in this perpetually pissed off state, but this guy’s aggression is coming off him in waves.

  “You ready for this, pussy boy?” he provokes.

  I briefly look over at Danny and notice he looks just as bewildered as I am.

  I take on a defensive stance as we both bounce on our toes, adrenaline pumping through my body. I jut out my right arm, taking a light swing at him, testing, feeling it out. He does the same, but makes contact with my shoulder.

  He smirks, making his already hostile demeanor look even more so.

  I shrug off the hit — not that it really hurt — but it pisses me off he got first contact. I don’t know why, but this guy’s presence annoys the hell out of me.

  He nods his head, and waves his hands at himself, taunting me, asking for me to come at him.

  That’s how he wants it?

  I take a step forward and swing, taking him by surprise, hitting him square in jaw. He grunts as his head jerks to the side, a little bit of blood trickling out the corner of his mouth. For some reason, a sick sense of satisfaction comes over me.

  He reaches out, swinging in my direction again.

  For every antagonizing swing at me, I match it.

  He strikes hard, hitting me in the cheek, and I hit back, punching him square in his nose.

  I lift my leg and kick, hitting his left thigh, bringing him to his knee. He glares up at me, and I shrug my shoulder, hardly apologetic to an asshole who came in here with a giant chip on his shoulder asking for a fight.

  I lift my hands up, taunting him just as he did to me. He sniffs and spits out some blood onto the floor.

  He grunts as if to say, “That all you got?”

  It’s not. I can give this guy way more, especially with visions of Carly’s ex floating through my mind.

  For the next several minutes we go at it, punching, jabbing, kicking… Each hit is met with another. I take one more left hook, hitting him hard enough to make him stumble backward. I may have never done MMA or boxing professionally, but I’ve been in the ring a time or two. Nothing he throws at me is surprising. It’s almost like he grabbed an MMA textbook and is just going through the motions. But his hostility, his anger, is palpable. I can feel it in every hit. We’re both panting, breathing heavily, gasping in whatever air we can get, but neither of us is willing to back down.

  I glance over at Danny again, who’s standing in the corner watching with a curious eye, looking like he’s about ready to call the match quits. I shake my head lightly, knowing this guy… this random guy who walked into Tate’s gym less than thirty minutes ago… won’t stop. Not until he’s ready.

  My brief look away from him gives him the advantage he needs, and he comes at me with his shoulder to my gut, knocking me off my feet. He starts swinging at my face the second I’m on the ground, but I hook a leg around him, spin us, and pin him to the mat. I twist and get him into an armbar hold, a move I can tell he wasn’t expecting and obviously has no clue how to get out of.

  Before he can tap himself out, I push away from him and stand up. I lean against the corner post, leaving him on the ring floor, panting for air.

  I spit out my mouthpiece into my hand as Danny walks over and helps me remove my gloves. “What the hell, man? Nice to meet you, too.”

  I shake my head and take the water bottle Danny is offering.

  “Dude.
Who the hell are you?” Danny asks.

  “None of your fucking business,” he growls.

  “Alright. Well, seeing as you’re not a member here, I’m gonna have to ask you to leave.”

  Danny stands with his arms over his chest while I wipe my face with a towel. I look over at the stranger and see he looks pretty beat-up. A sense of pride fills my chest, knowing I could take on this piece of crap.

  He bends over and grabs a towel from the floor. He throws an angry look my way then walks toward the locker room.

  “What the hell was that about?”

  I shake my head, trying to fight off the lingering feeling that the next words out of my mouth are a lie. “No damn clue.”

  “You did good.”

  “Thanks. Kind of had some pent-up aggression of my own, I guess.”

  “You’ve never seen that guy?”

  I have an eerie feeling I know exactly who he is, but the mistake I made was not asking Carly for a picture of Vince. I’m not sure why — whether it was because I didn’t want to put a face to the name or something else. “Nope. You?”

  “Me neither.”

  “Kind of weird, yeah?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Might need to talk to Tate. I need to go, though. I got a girl to go see. I’m gonna clean up. Catch ya later.”

  “Sounds good. Have a good one. Tell Carly hi for me.”

  “Will do. See ya.”

  I go into the locker room, expecting to see my opponent, but he’s not in here. I take a quick shower, inspect my face in the mirror quickly, but see there’s just a small cut on my cheek. Not too bad.

  After changing, I grab my bag and head out to the parking lot. When I get there, I see the same silver car that was sitting in front of Carly’s on Christmas Day drive out of the parking lot. And in the car is none other than my lovely sparring partner. I have a huge sinking feeling that I just met Vince Taylor.

  Fuck.

  Ten minutes later, I’m walking up the steps to Carly’s house, looking around for that damn silver car. I knock, but no one answers. I twist the knob, not expecting it to turn. When it does, I frown, knowing Carly never leaves it unlocked, even if she’s home.