Sly: Jagged Edge Series #4

by A. L Long

  After I finished what I could of Sly’s amazing meal, he assisted me to the bathroom. Not that he really needed to, but with his lips stuck to mine, there really wasn’t any other option. Setting me on the toilet, he began filling the tub full of water. This would be the first bath I had taken in my new apartment. As the water flowed in the large tub, Sly poured in some soothing bubble bath that had the scent of lilies and vanilla. Ridding myself of my clothes, Sly held my hand to steady me as I stepped into the heavenly scented water.

  While I was relaxing in the mound of white lather, Sly decided to finish cleaning up the dishes in the kitchen. I missed his company, but it was nice to relax for a moment with nothing but silence. Shutting my eyes, I submersed my body further down inside the tub and leaned my head against the rim. “Yep, I could definitely get used to this.”

  I must have dozed off for a minute or two, because my body jerked at the loud voices that were coming from outside the door. I recognized the one voice as Sly’s, but I had no idea whose the other one was. Feeling it was time to go investigate. I placed my hands on the edge of the tub and pushed myself out of the water.

  Once I was dried off, I put on the comfortable clothes that Sly must have laid out for me, and headed in the direction of the arguing men I heard just moments ago. When I finally got to the living area, the arguing had stopped and only Sly was there. He was looking out the window with his arm stretched out and his hand against the window. I could tell he was tense. Whoever he was having it out with must have had an impact on his mood.

  Quietly I walked up beside him and placed my hand on his shoulder. “Who were you fighting with a moment ago?” I asked.

  “Someone that shouldn’t have been here,” he answered defensively.

  I stood still and I watched him head to the couch to grab his coat. Slipping it on, he walked back over to where I stood stunned and kissed me lightly on the forehead. “Are you going to be okay for a while? There’s something I need to take care of.”

  “Where are you going?” I asked.

  “To the shop,”

  I didn’t even know what that meant. Moving past me, he opened the front door, leaving me alone. No matter how badly I wanted to follow him to find out what was really going on with him, I knew I had more important things to do.

  ~****~

  Changing into my jeans and a t-shirt, I slipped on my gray hoodie and set the alarm to the apartment. Sly had set the security system up for me and he thought it would be better to pick a code that we both would remember. It was pretty simple, really, ‘home.’ I pressed 4663 on the pad and waited for it to engage before I opened the door.

  It felt good to be back in the gym. Carly was already in the ring practicing her footwork with one of the trainers. She also was scheduled to fight on Saturday. The only difference between me and her was that she chose to be in the ring, whereas I was forced. I never told her why I became an MMA fighter. As far as she knew, I got my kicks beating the shit out of women.

  Standing on the edge of the ring holding onto the middle rope, I watched Carly work the ring. When she spotted me, she gave her trainer a nod and headed my way. Pulling her mouthpiece out, she squatted to my level and looked at me with concern. “Hey, Nik. Where have you been? You know the fight is in two days.”

  “Yeah. I must have caught the flu or something. Been pretty sick,” I confessed.

  “Bummer. Are you going to be okay to fight on Saturday? I heard that Black Jewel chick has been training crazy hard. There was even a live stream of her posted. She looks pretty good, Nik,” Carly warned.

  “Yeah, I’ll be ready.”

  I hadn’t seen the video that Carly was talking about and I wasn’t about to psych myself out by watching it. Pushing from the rope, I knew I had better get training or Black Jewel was going to slaughter me.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  Sly

  “Fuck, fuck, fuck,” I thought to myself as I headed out of Nikki’s apartment building. Of all things, why the hell did my father have to show up at her apartment? And how the fucking hell did he know where to find me? The only blessing was, Nikki was still in the tub when we finished our little discussion. The last thing I needed was for her to question me about who he was or what he did for a living.

  I couldn’t believe what he was telling me, either. There was no way that Angelo Conti had a stake in the fight on Saturday and was willing to pay Nikki a sizable amount of money for throwing the fight. How could I even tell her that my dad worked for the biggest Mafia family in New York? I needed to get my head around this. I had a funny feeling that this fight might be more than just a fight between two women, and my dad made that abundantly clear before he left. Maybe with a little digging I would be able to find out the story behind Nikki’s choice of careers. But most importantly, I needed to find out what she wasn’t telling me.

  Parking my Jeep behind Peter’s Camaro, I got out and started in the direction of the shop when I saw Mike and Ash coming out. “Hey, guys, where you headed? “ I asked.

  “Some lady on Park Avenue is having trouble with her security system. She’s afraid to go inside her apartment. Something about hearing weird noises,” Ash explained.

  “Well, good luck,” I said with a chuckle. I knew exactly the lady they were referring to. I was there about a month ago for the same reason. I think more than anything she was just a lonely woman who was looking for someone to keep her company for a while. When I suggested she get a dog, she said she would, but apparently that hadn’t happened yet.

  Opening the door, I looked over at the pool table where Hawk and I used to play. I really missed having him around, but I knew that he was happy in Kierabali with Isabelle. Hopefully they would find the time to come back here.

  Peter was back in the conference room. I could see him working on his laptop through the glass windows. Finishing with my ‘Hellos’ to the other guys, I headed that way. Tapping lightly on the door to get his attention, I entered and closed the door behind me. Peter looked up at me, probably wondering what was on my mind.

  Taking a seat directly across from him, I asked him openly, “I need your help. I think Nikki might be in trouble.”

  The minute he closed the lid on his laptop, I knew I had his attention. “What’s going on, Sly? Don’t leave anything out.”

  After spending about half an hour explaining to Peter everything I knew about Nikki, including the information about my father, I knew Peter was trying to sort this shit out. By the look on his face, I knew I was fucked. I only hoped that he would be able to help me with the situation that could possibly put the only woman I gave a shit about in harm’s way.

  “The first thing we need to do, Sly, is a thorough background check on Nikki. There must be something in her past that will let us know how to handle this fight on Saturday and what to expect,” Peter suggested.

  “What do you need from me? Nikki trusts me, so I’m pretty sure I can get what you need. I’ve already gone through all her stuff when I unpacked it. There wasn’t anything among her things that said anything about her or her past. It was like she had none,” I confessed.

  “Well, there should be a birth record for her and that will at least tell us about her parents. Maybe if we could find them, we could put together a past for her, and find out what she’s hiding.”

  “I don’t know what you’ll find, Peter. One thing I do know is that her parents are no longer living. Not sure how they died, but Nikki only said that they died when she was young.”

  “Well, then we will start there. There has to some sort of death record on them. I’ll see what I can find out when I run the check. In the meantime, stay close to her.” Peter ordered.

  Pushing from the long table, I gave him a nod and headed towards the door. Before I opened it, there was another thing that I remembered. “Peter, were there any hits on the partial plate I gave you?”

  “Not yet, bro.”

  “I think that is going to be our ticket to find the truth about Nikki’
s past. Whoever was inside the SUV was someone with power. I have a funny feeling that whoever he is, he may be holding something over her,” I pointed out before leaving the room.

  The ride back to my place was long and exhausting. I needed a shower and get back to Nikki’s place to see if there was anything else I could find. One thing I knew for sure. It wouldn’t hurt to check out her locker at the gym. Sometimes a person’s most valued possession could be found there.

  ~****~

  When I got to Nikki’s place, the alarm had been set, but there was no sign of her. I punched in the code and then went to her room to see if maybe she was sleeping. Opening the door, I looked inside to find that the bed was still unmade, but she wasn’t in it. She could only be at one other place, the gym. Setting the alarm, I closed the door and made sure it was locked. I couldn’t believe Nikki would be there after feeling so sick the past couple of days.

  Jumping back in my Jeep, I took the fastest route to the gym. I could have had a dozen tickets, by the way I was weaving in and out of traffic and exceeding the speed limit on more than one occasion. Reaching the gym in record time, I was disappointed to find that there were no lights on. I was beginning to worry when a figure walked out of the gym door. I waited in the Jeep for a moment to see if I could tell who it was. I would know that body anywhere. Turning off the engine, I got out and jogged across the street to where Nikki was.

  “Nikki, wait,” I yelled, so she would at least slow down so I could catch up to her.

  The minute she turned towards me, I knew something was wrong. I hurried to her side while she waited for me. Her face was hidden by the hood of her jacket, so I lifted her chin. I could see that something was definitely wrong. I lowered the hood to find the beautiful face that I loved so much was busted up pretty badly. Her lip was swollen with a cut along the bottom and there was bruising under her left eye, barely open enough for her to see.

  “My God, baby, what happened to you?” I asked, ready to kill the person who did this to her.

  “It’s nothing, Sly,” she cried.

  “Bullshit if it’s nothing. Who did this, Nikki?” I demanded she tell me.

  “Please, Sly. Just leave it alone. I’m begging you,” she pleaded.

  “I’m not going to leave this alone, Nikki. Not this time. Who did this to you?” I asked again.

  “Not here, Sly. I’ll tell you, but not here.”

  The way she looked at me, she was downright scared. It was only her and I standing outside the gym, or so I thought. The minute a set of headlights came on, I knew we weren’t alone. What I didn’t count on was the pair of headlights to come right at us. Pushing Nikki out of the way was the only thing that kept her from getting hit. I looked over to her briefly to make sure she was okay before darkness hit.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  Nikki

  The people that were walking back and forth in front of me were driving me crazy. I don’t know how long I sat beneath the bright fluorescent lights, but my lip was throbbing and the ability to see out of my left eye was nearly impossible. I still hadn’t heard anything on Sly. “Why did he have to push me?” I said to myself, wondering where he was at. My patience finally ran out and I couldn’t spend one more minute here without knowing anything.

  Pushing from the hard bed in the Emergency room, I pulled open the curtain and walked over to where several people dressed in blue scrubs were standing at the nurse’s station.

  Squeezing between them, I asked, agitated, “Can anyone tell me what’s going on with Sylvester Capelli?”

  They way they all looked at me, they were probably pissed that I interrupted their little gathering. What was it with these people? Didn’t saving lives mean more than having a gossip session?

  Seeing my agitated look, a woman behind the desk finally began typing on her computer. With an irritated look, she replied, “Mr. Capelli is still being examined. As soon as the doctor has any information, he will let you know.”

  With a huff, I walked back over to the room they left me in and resumed holding the ice pack over my eye. Leaning back on the bed, I waited some more. When the curtain was flung open, the tall man that had checked me out earlier appeared.

  “You are a very lucky young lady,” he pointed out, looking at my chart. “The CT scan came back showing no trauma to your brain. Had the blow to your face been a few inches higher, you might not be sitting here right now. Would you please tell me what happened?”

  “Not really, Doc. But I would like to know how my friend is doing. Nobody seems to know,” I said rudely

  “If you’re referring to Mr. Capelli, he is in good hands. He has a lot of scrapes and bruising, but he should be fine. We are going to keep him here overnight for observation,” the doctor responded as his brow curved upward..

  “Can I see him?” I asked.

  “Yes. He should be in his room now.”

  ~****~

  When I got to Sly’s room, his eyes were closed and he looked to be resting. Seeing a chair next to his bed, I scooted it closer to him. The doctor was right. His face was pretty scraped up and so were his chest and arms. I was almost tempted to check out the rest of him, but I was afraid I would get caught sneaking a look under the covers. Right then a nurse walked in, pushing away my naughty thoughts.

  As she checked his fluids, she kept looking over at me like I should have been the one laying in that bed. We were quite the pair. Appeasing her curiosity, I finally said, “Thought I would give bungee jumping a try.”

  The way she looked at me, I was pretty sure she thought I was full of shit. Turning before she left, she said bluntly, “You should put ice on that eye.”

  Sly must have heard her comment, because his eyes slowly opened. Standing, I leaned over the bed so I could get a better look at him. Even with his scrapes and bruises, he was still gorgeous. Taking his hand in mine, I softly said, “That was really stupid not moving out of the way.”

  “Yeah, well, I was kind of saving someone else,” he grunted. “Are you going to tell me now who hit you?”

  “I’m not sure I can, Sly. It is really complicated and…”

  “Stop, Nikki. I don’t care what it is. All I know is that I care about you and whatever it is, it won’t change how I feel about you.”

  Taking a seat on the chair, I placed my hands in my lap and took a deep breath. I wasn’t sure exactly how much I was going to tell Sly, but I knew I couldn’t keep it from him any longer. I hoped he wouldn’t feel differently about me once I told him the truth, like he said. “Okay, but before you say anything, let me finish what I have to say.”

  Sly propped his body up on one elbow with a painful groan. “Like I said, Nikki, it won’t change the way I feel about you.”

  “I’m not sure where to begin.”

  “The beginning would be good,” Sly replied.

  “Okay, Everything started when I was thirteen, the fighting, hating my father, losing my mom. I’m not even sure how she died. One day she was there and the next she was gone.”

  “Go on,” Sly urged

  With my hands in my lap, I began picking at the skin around my index finger. “My dad was in a lot of trouble, I remember my mom and him always arguing about what he did for a living,” I paused for a moment before I continued. “When a man I didn’t know showed up at the door claiming to be my uncle, I knew something bad had happened. He didn’t look like any uncle I ever knew. He ordered me to get my things and go with him. I kept asking him where my mom and dad were, but he wouldn’t tell me. With no other choice, I left with him.”

  Explaining things about my past was a lot harder than I thought it would be. I didn’t know if it was because it was Sly I was telling or if it was the bad memories being stirred up. Standing from the chair, I headed over to the window. Somehow it eased my mind knowing that Sly couldn’t look at me as I told him the truth about my past.

  “I was told that my mom got shot in a parking lot of a grocery store while she was unloading groceries into her car.
They never found the man who shot her, but I was pretty sure that my dad working for Carlos Giordano had something to do with it.”

  “Wait a minute. You know Carlos Giordano?” Sly asked, confused.

  “Yeah,” I began to chuckle. “He was my long-lost uncle.”

  “Nikki,” Sly called out before I interrupted him.

  “Sly, please let me finish before I can’t,” I pleaded, looking over at him leaning over the side of the bed so he could see me.

  Sly rested his body back on the bed and I continued to look out the window. I acted like I was looking out over the city, but I saw nothing. All I could think about was how messed up my childhood really was. “The day that Carlos took me from my home was the day my life changed forever. He told me that I was going to be the one to make up for my dad’s stupidity and that he owned me until he was fully paid. That was when he introduced me to fighting. It was his passion. He organized an illegal fighting ring. Everyone who was anyone was involved. That’s why he came after me at the gym. He was angry that I hadn’t been training like I should have been. Thought he could find out how ready I really was, so he put one of his guys on me.” I let out a small chuckle before continuing. “At least I gave him a run for his money and got a few good punches in before he knocked me out.”