by Love, Amy
“I’m sorry,” Chelsea said.
“Me too,” Blue answered.
“So what do we do now?”
Blue opened his mouth as if to speak and then closed it and looked away.
“What is it?” Chelsea demanded. “Tell me, Blue. I can handle it.”
“I know a guy who used to train fighters,” Blue said. “I fought against a lot of his guys. I know where he is and he might know more about the upcoming fight. But he might not like me, since none of his guys ever beat me. It’s dangerous, Chelsea, and I can’t put you in the middle of that.”
“Blue, I told you, I can handle myself. I’m not going to let you go alone. Besides, I can be pretty charming. You might have better luck with me there,” Chelsea said.
“Fine,” Blue agreed with a nod.
A half an hour later they were in front of Gary’s Gym. It was housed in an old brick building on the bad side of town. There was a bar on one side and a pawn shop on the other. The sign in front of the building was a chipped and faded pair of boxing gloves with the hours stenciled onto the front.
Blue pushed open the door, the jangle of bells announcing their presence as Chelsea followed inside. The gym was bright and filled with blue mats and red punching bags and gloves. It smelled like rubber and sweat and it was a little warmer than an average gym. There were a few men lifting weights and a few others sparring, but overall the place had an outdated feel to it. You could tell the good days for Gary’s Gym had passed quite a while ago.
“Can I help you?” a girl from behind the counter asked. They turned around to face her and Chelsea’s face screwed up a little. The girl looked so familiar, how did Chelsea know her? “Chelsea Riley?”
“Theresa!” Chelsea said, suddenly remembering at the right moment. “We had the English and biology together.”
“I can’t believe you’re really back in town! I keep telling everyone I know you. It’s crazy to see someone you know in the magazines as you’re checking out at the grocery store, you know?”
“Yeah, thanks,” Chelsea said. “What are you doing here?”
“Oh, this is my uncle’s gym. I’m working here while I go to nursing school.”
“Is your Uncle Gary around?” Blue cut in.
“Yeah, he’s in the back,” Theresa said, pointing behind her. She gave a suspicious look at Blue.
Chelsea smiled and asked, “could you get him? Blue really wants to talk to him and in the meantime we could catch up!”
“Yeah!” Theresa said. “OMG, I’m gonna take so many selfies!”
“Awesome,” Chelsea said, her mouth straining from smiling so much. Theresa disappeared behind a door and Chelsea looked at Blue and said, “try and make it quick.”
Chapter Twenty
It only took a minute for Theresa to come out of the back with an older man next to her. He was short and stocky with a full head of white hair. His face looked lumpy and uneven and etched in a permanent frown marked by deep lines. Chelsea could see that his nose had been broken more than once.
“What do you think you’re doing? Who do you think you are that you can come in my gym. Get outta here, DeMarco, and don’t ever come back,” the man spit.
“I need to know about the upcoming fight,” Blue said.
Gary’s eyes flashed to Chelsea and then back to Blue. “Go on, girl, give us a minute,” Gary said, nodding his head at Chelsea.
“No,” Chelsea said automatically. Why was everyone always trying to get rid of her? Why did they act like she didn’t have a stake in this? They had taken her sister.
“Come on,” Blue begged placing his hand on her stomach to calm her.
Chelsea quelled her anger and balled up her fists. She knew Blue was right, Gary wasn’t going to talk with her there. They needed to get information, not get into a fight, so Chelsea backed down. “Fine,” Chelsea said, brushing past Gary. She walked back to the counter where she was greeted by a cellphone-wielding Theresa.
***
They drove back to the house quickly. Blue kept his eyes on the road as they sped down empty and cold streets. Chelsea watched Snowbird pass outside of her window, but any affection she used to have for her hometown was long gone. The barren trees and the dead grass at the side of the road gave the whole place a barren and dark feeling. This wasn’t the Snowbird of her childhood, the one filled with bike rides and school dances. It was dark and dirty and dangerous now. It had been ruined.
“What did he say?” Chelsea finally asked. She had watched as Blue and Gary had a tense conversation out of the corner of her eye while Theresa snapped a million selfies. But she hadn’t heard anything. Blue rushed her out of the gym and they had been riding in silence ever since.
“Mostly what we already know. There’s a fight at the abandoned mall in three days, but he doesn’t know who the sponsors are. He said he’s out of the game now.”
“Another dead end,” Chelsea said, throwing her head back and resting on the head rest. “We wasted an entire day and we didn’t find out anything. We’re no closer to finding Jamie.”
Blue didn’t say anything. He kept his eyes fixed on the road, but Chelsea could see how strongly his fingers were gripping the wheel. She sat up and reached for his hand, pulling it towards her. She wrapped his cold hand in hers and then brought up and pressed her lips against the smooth back of his hand. She pressed his hand against her cheek and said, “It’s okay. This isn’t your fault. We’ll find her.”
Blue nodded numbly, but his hand still felt cold in Chelsea’s. There was a sudden distance between them and Chelsea needed to know what had caused it. She could still see the basement at the old gas station. The beaten dirt floor, the vodka bottles and cigar butts, it was too horrible for words. She was making Blue relive all of that and she couldn’t even imagine how much that was hurting him.
“Where are we going next?” Chelsea asked.
“Home,” Blue answered. “You didn’t sleep at all last night; we both need to get some rest.”
“I slept last night,” Chelsea objected.
“For what? Three hours?” Blue demanded. “You need to rest and we can get started early tomorrow. Besides everything we did today was a bust. I need to be smarter about this. I need to think.”
They pulled up to the house and Chelsea unlocked the door and sighed as she walked inside. With the windows blocked off and only half the furniture left, it looked even more desolate than it had before. Blue swept through the house, checking all the closets and windows and under the bed.
“It’s clear,” he said as he came out of the main bedroom. Chelsea flopped down on the couch and closed her eyes. Her sister had been a captive all day. She had been tied up in some dungeon somewhere and Chelsea hadn’t gotten any closer to finding her. She felt like such a failure; she had never felt so useless in her life.
There was a knock at the door and, with a gasp, Chelsea sat up, but Blue shook his head, “it’s all right. It’s just Paul.”
Blue opened the door and let Paul in quickly. “Anyone follow you?” Blue asked.
“Nope,” Paul answered. “I drove around for a few blocks, but I didn’t see anyone.”
“You bring it?” Blue asked.
“Yup,” Paul reached into his backpack and pulled out a small gun in a leather holster. Chelsea shuddered and backed away from it. “It’s not registered, do with that what you will,” Paul said.
“Why do you have that?” Chelsea demanded.
“It’s for you, Chelsea. You need to have it to protect yourself.”
“I don’t even know how to shoot a gun,” Chelsea said looking between Paul and Blue. She couldn’t believe they actually expected her to carry that around with her. It was so dangerous.
“Hopefully you won’t have to,” Blue said. “But if it does come to that, just point and shoot. Don’t hesitate.”
Paul put the gun on the coffee table and Chelsea looked at it dubiously. Blue sat down beside her and picked up the gun. He held out and pointed
out the safety and the trigger and how to reload it.
Chelsea held it in her hands and was surprised at how light was. She aimed it at the grandfather clock, but didn’t shoot it. She put it back in the holster and put the holster on her side of the bed in the bedroom. She had only intended to put the gun away, but the bed looked so soft and warm and she couldn’t help but slip between the sheets. She promised herself she would only close her eyes for a moment. But she was so tired that sleep overcame her almost instantly. She didn’t hear Paul leave and she didn’t wake up when Blue joined her in bed.
She awoke bleary-eyed to the bright sun shining through their makeshift curtains and Blue bringing her a cup of coffee. In another lifetime it would have been heavenly to have sipped coffee in bed with Blue. But instead it was hell. Chelsea felt like there was a solid block sitting on her chest. She had cried so much for Jamie and she still ached for her sister. It was the first thought she had when she woke up and it was the one thought that wouldn’t leave her.
“I thought of some more places we can go where maybe we can see some people who will be more willing to talk,” Blue said.
Chelsea nodded numbly, but she couldn’t look him in the eye. She felt empty and broken inside; a very large part of her wanted to crawl back under the covers and wait for this to be over.
Blue’s hand caressed her cheek as he tucked a strand of hair from her face. She looked over at him and saw the large purple bruise on his face looked better already; it was lighter in color and far less swollen than yesterday.
“Did you ever try to run away?” Chelsea asked Blue. She didn’t know where the question came from. She had been thinking about that basement and wondering how anyone could survive that.
“I thought about it,” Blue said. “But a lot of guys in the fights, a lot of the guys I fought, were runaways. They didn’t have any money and they didn’t even have a high school degree so they couldn’t get a job. Most of them were on meth and I knew a couple were forced to do things worse than the fights. I knew that as bad as my house was, it was still a house with food and access to a school. I told myself I had to wait until I turned eighteen and then I could join the Army and be set. That was what got me through it. I just counted down the years and then the days until I was done.”
“You’re done now,” Chelsea said taking his hand in hers. “I’m so sorry you had to go through that and I’m sorry you’re being dragged through it again.”
“Yeah,” Blue said he glanced at Chelsea and then he pulled away from her and quickly got out of bed and stood up. “We should go,” he said. “I have a bunch of ground I want to cover today.”
“All right,” Chelsea said, she looked at him in confusion, but he was already walking out of the room and he didn’t look back. He was pulling away from her and Chelsea needed to know why. Was he embarrassed or upset? She knew talking would make him feel better, but Blue wasn’t really a talking kind of guy.
She looked sadly at the doorframe where had been only moments before. She would have to find a way to get him to open up. He was keeping something from her and she just needed to show him he could trust her and talk to her about anything. But how? How could she show a guy like Blue DeMarco, a guy raised in the fighting pits, that it was okay to trust someone.
Chapter Twenty One
Chelsea had just jumped out of the shower when her cellphone rang. Seeing it was Ryan Baron, she debated for a moment whether or not to answer. It seemed wrong to care about her career at this moment. She felt like all of her mental energy should go to finding Jamie. But, at the same time, she had asked a lot of her label and spending five minutes on the phone with Ryan seemed like a fair price to pay.
“Hey,” Chelsea said into the phone as she finished dressing.
“Hey, I just thought I would check up on you. I didn’t hear from you at all yesterday.”
“Yeah, this family thing is still going on,” Chelsea said. She felt herself choking up and she cursed her constant tears. Why couldn’t she just get ahold of herself? All of this crying wasn’t doing anyone any good, it certainly wasn’t helping Jamie.
“Are you crying, Chelsea?” Ryan asked and his question sounded sincere.
“No,” Chelsea said letting out a sob. “I’m just a mess at the moment, but I’m trying to get it together.”
“It’s okay,” Ryan answered. “You can cry. You don’t need to be perfect or strong all the time. You’re allowed to show some weakness.”
“No, not now I can’t. I need to be strong.”
“You can’t be strong every moment of the day, Chelsea,” Ryan said, “and if there’s one time that you’re allowed to cry and be vulnerable, it’s when you’re talking to me.”
“Thanks,” Chelsea said. It was possibly the nicest thing anyone had ever said to her and Chelsea was grateful for it. Maybe this fake relationship with Ryan wouldn’t be that bad.
“Do you want to talk to me about it?”
“I can’t,” Chelsea said. But surprisingly she wanted to tell him. She wanted to tell him everything that had happened. But then she reminded herself that she had never actually met Ryan Baron and she wasn’t sure what his intentions were. At this moment he was just a nice voice on the phone, but anyone could be that.
“Can’t or won’t?” he challenged.
“Both, I guess,” Chelsea answered. “I know that’s vague and not very helpful, but it’s the truth. There is just some family stuff that I have to deal with. Hopefully it’ll turn out to be nothing, but I still need to give it my full attention.”
“I totally understand,” Ryan said. “I’m kind of the same way. When I’m prepping for a role I get really method and really into it. It’s a lot and some people can’t handle it. But when I’m in the part, I’m all in, no distractions of any kind, I give it my all.”
“Right,” Chelsea said as she rolled her eyes. It wasn’t fair, though. Ryan had no idea that he was comparing acting in a movie to dealing with a real life kidnapping attached to real life fighting pits. Still, it did make him sound a little ridiculous. Chelsea could hear Blue in the kitchen and she was impatient to join him. “Look, I am sorry about this, but I have to go.”
“Of course, babe. No problem. I’ll talk to you later.
Babe? Chelsea thought as she ended the call. She shook her head and walked into the kitchen. Blue was slouched down in a chair the paper in front of him. Chelsea looked at the paper as she walked closer to him and her eyes went wide.
Local Singer and Superstar Chelsea Riley Dating A-Lister Ryan Baron.
“Wow,” Chelsea said, walking past Blue, “only like two things in that headline are true.”
“Is that right?” Blue asked. Chelsea could hear the anger in his voice and she turned around to look at him. “This article says you’re confirming the relationship and you’ve been leaning on Ryan for months now. Who the fuck is Ryan?”
“It’s not like that,” Chelsea said quickly. “We’ve never even met. It’s just a thing our publicists set up.”
“What?”
“It’s normal,” Chelsea said with a shrug. “They use pretend relationships to put stars on the cover of magazines and in gossip columns. This reminds the public that the person exists so when their movie or album comes out, people will know about it and go to it.”
“And you’re doing that?” Blue demanded. “I can’t believe you, Chelsea.”
“It’s part of the game. Either you play it or you starve. Besides, the ten million offer was only if the relationship with Ryan happened and I know how bad that sounds,” Chelsea said. “But it’s just...” she searched for the word, but couldn’t come up with it, “it’s a thing people do. It’s part of the job.
“What job?” Blue demanded.
“Don’t do that,” Chelsea counted. “It’s pretend. It’s just another story fed to the press. It doesn’t cost me anything and it gets me everything I want. Why wouldn’t I do it?”
Blue nodded. He was standing now with his hands on his h
ips and he looked up from the floor right into Chelsea’s eyes. “So what does that make me?”
Chelsea opened her mouth and closed it as she searched for the words. “I don’t know,” she finally blurted out. “But you were complaining about the paparazzi and stardom. I didn’t know if you were in this for the long haul. There’s also the issue of our parents getting married. Don’t pretend like this has been simple; this has been complicated from the start.”