by A. L Long
“You can’t fight on Saturday, Nikki. This whole thing is messed up.” Sly confessed.
“I have to. Don’t you understand? If I don’t my life could be in danger and so could yours.”
“My life won’t matter if you're dead, Nikki,” Sly admitted.
“Yeah, well, fighting is a better alternative.” I needed to get out of here for a while so I could clear my head.
“Wait, where are you going?” Sly asked.
“I need to get some training in. I’ll stop by and check on you later.”
Before Sly had a chance to say any more I left his room. I wanted so badly to feel his lips pressed to mine, but if I kissed him goodbye, I would break down and he would see how scared I really was. All my life I was able to hide my insecurities, but with Sly, the more time we spent together the harder it was hiding how truly scared I was.
~****~
As I punched the speed bag, I kept thinking about what the doctor said about the blow to my face being so close to ending my life. In a way, it would have solved all my problems. The harder I hit the bag, the madder I got at my dad for getting me into this predicament in the first place. If he was here, I would be punching him instead of this damn bag. I didn’t know the whole story behind how much he actually owed Carlos, but Carlos made it very clear that my dad stole from him and now I needed to pay for his debt. I was pretty sure I had paid for that debt ten times over.
Just as I was about to move on to the punching bag, the door to the gym opened and speak of the devil, Carlos and two of his goons walked in like they owned the place. As they headed my way, I tried to ignore them as I began punching the bag.
“Glad to see that you haven’t lost your ability to follow orders,” Carlos said, sarcastically.
“What do you want, Carlos?” I asked as I continued to punch the bag.
“Just wanted to remind you how important it is that you win the fight Saturday. Wouldn’t want anything bad to happen to you.”
“Don’t worry. I’ll win. I can’t wait for the day when I’m done with you.” I seethed, looking over at his men standing behind him, one of which I left my mark on.
“Good, I’m glad were are on the same page,” he paused. “It would be best for you to concentrate on winning the fight instead of dreaming about what is never going to happen. I will never be done with you, Nikki.”
I could have killed him. Deep down I already knew he was never going to let me go even if the debt was fully paid. I was his money tree and as long as I was able to bring in the green, he would continue to use me. I wanted more than anything to be done with this. The fighting, Carlos, and this town.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Sly
When Nikki left my room, I knew I should have told her about Carlos Giordano and the rivalry he had with Angelo Conti. I just wasn’t sure how to explain to her that they could have been the reason behind her mom’s and ultimately her dad’s death. I had to get out of here. I had this horrible feeling in my gut that something bad was going to happen to Nikki and I needed to get to her as fast as possible.
Pulling the IV from my arm and taking the monitor off of my finger, I threw the covers off my body and went to the small closet where I knew my clothes would be. I dressed as quickly as possible, hoping the nurse taking care of me wouldn’t stop me from going where I needed to be.
Getting out of the hospital was the easy part. Getting to Nikki without a ride was going to be a little bit harder. My only other option was to call someone.
“Lou, I need you to come get me at St. Mary’s Hospital.” I demanded.
“What are you doing at the hospital, Sly? Did something happen?” Lou asked, concerned.
“I’ll explain it when you get here.”
Hanging up, I stayed out of sight in case some of the hospital staff came looking for me. I’m pretty sure they wouldn’t, but I wasn’t going to take any chances. Walking around to the side of the building, where I would still able to spot Lou’s Tundra, the pain of my bruised ribs started kicking in. The pain medication they gave me must have been wearing off.
The minute Lou pulled up, I hurried over to his truck and got in. I wasn’t aware of how high his truck actually was until I tried to get in. The strain on my ribs was almost more than I could handle. By the sound of my grunt and the look on Lou’s face. I needed to do some explaining.
~****~
When we got to my place, Lou knew everything, except the part about who my father’s current employer was. None of the guys knew about that. There was no way I was going to get them involved in the problems I had with my dad. The less they knew, the better.
All I knew was that I needed to come up with a game plan. I had less than two days to figure out what to do. One thing I did know was that the partial plate I got belonged to Carlos Giordano, according to Peter. This bit of information I kept from the officer that questioned me before I was brought to my room. Even though I wasn’t one hundred percent sure who tried to eliminate me, I could pick out that SUV anywhere.
Lou waited while I took a quick shower and changed my clothes, I would have preferred facing Nikki alone, but without my Jeep, I needed a ride. Hopefully it was still in one piece when we got there. Brownsville wasn’t the best place to leave a vehicle unattended, especially when that vehicle was new. When I asked Lou to take me to the gym, at first he suggested I call a cab, but then he decided that I might need more than a ride once we got there.
When Lou pulled up in front of the gym, the girl that had been fighting with Nikki a few days ago was leaving. I wasn’t sure where she was headed, but my main focus was finding Nikki. Opening the door to the truck, I grunted as I lowered myself to the sidewalk. Looking over to Lou, I said, in agony. “You wait here. I am going to check inside to see if Nikki is here.”
“The hell I am. If anything happens in there, you aren’t in the best shape to ward off any trouble.” Lou argued.
Entering the gym, I spotted Lewis and walked up to him. Tapping him on the shoulder, I asked with no restraint, “Nikki here?”
He tilted his head pointing to the locker rooms. Nodding at him with thanks, we headed in that direction. Several men exited the men’s locker room while there were no women coming out of the women’s. I didn’t see any other women in the gym, so I felt pretty confident that no one else would be inside the woman’s locker room but Nikki, so I opened the door and entered.
Looking down each row of lockers, I finally saw Nikki. She was sitting on the bench holding what looked to be a picture in her hand. I don’t think she heard me come in and she definitely didn’t hear the sound of my boots on the tile floor as I approached her. Taking a seat next to her, I took her hand and pulled the picture from her grip. Holding the picture in my hand, it wasn’t hard to figure out that the little girl was her and the woman next to her must have been her mom. The photo was so faded that I knew Nikki had been holding on to it for a long time. It was probably the only thing she had left of her mom.
Handing it back to her, I pulled her to my side. “We need to talk about Saturday, Nikki,” I admitted.
“What’s there to talk about, Sly?” she asked in a hushed tone.
“There is something you need to know. The SUV that hit me belongs to Carlos Giordano. The plate number I got was linked back to him…” I ran my hand through my hair before I continued. This was going to be the hardest thing to tell her, but I knew I needed to let her know. “This fight on Saturday may be more than a fight.”
“What are you talking about, Sly?” she questioned as she turned to me.
“I haven’t been exactly honest with you, Nikki. There’s something you need to know about my family.” Taking her hand, I rubbed it gently between my thumb and fingers “My father works for Angelo Conti,” I confessed.
“What does this have to do with the fight?”
“Angelo is just like Carlos Giordano. Their families have been fighting one another for years. Not like the Hatfields and the McCoys kind of fighting eit
her. They would take out their own family just to show who had more control.”
“You aren’t making any sense, Sly,” she admitted, confused.
“My dad approached me with a proposition from Angelo. He wants you to throw the fight. He even suggested that there might be a little something in it for you if you did.”
“I can’t do that. It would be like writing my own death sentence. Carlos made it perfectly clear that I was to win that fight, and if I didn’t…. Well, let's just say, it would be the end of me.” Nikki stated, shaking her head back and forth.
“Somehow we need to figure out how to prevent this fight from happening. And then we need to figure out how to get you away from this shit. Forever.” Lifting Nikki’s chin, I could tell that she was really worried about what was going to happen. Placing a light kiss on her lips, I whispered, “We will figure this out, baby.”
When her body pushed into mine, I knew she trusted me to fix this mess. There had to be a way to stop the fight without letting Carlos or Angelo know what was going on. Maybe getting in touch with the guys and putting our heads together would bring a solution,
~****~
On the drive home, the air between Nikki and I was so thick you could have cut it with a knife. That was about the only thing you could cut, because the conversation was next to none. I knew she was worried about what was going to happen on Saturday night. It was supposed to be the fight of all fights. I could only imagine how much money was at stake. It had to be in the hundreds of thousands. Maybe in the millions.
Backing into my parking spot, we sat in silence for a few moments after I turned off the engine. It was like we were so preoccupied with our own thoughts that everything around us went unnoticed. So unnoticed that I didn’t see the guy approaching the Jeep wearing nothing but black until it was too late. When he pulled out a gun and aimed it at Nikki, my only reaction was to grab her head and pull her towards me. Shot after shot, the bullets hit the Jeep, some hitting the windshield and hood while the others missed us completely.
With both of us ducking down as far as we could, I knew that soon he would be out of ammunition. After a few moments when there was no more gunfire, I raised my head to find that the guy was gone. Realizing that Nikki wasn’t moving other than her hands shaking as she held them to her head, I took hold of them. “Nikki.” I repeated her name several times with no response. Worried, I pulled her over the dash and into my lap.
Her body was shaking so uncontrollably, all I could do was hold her tightly and hope that she would come out of it. Once again, I spoke her name, but this time I whispered it in her ear. “Baby, I’m right here. Shh… it’s okay. It will be okay.”
Rocking her back and forth like my mom used to do to me whenever I got scared, I was finally able to calm her enough that she lifted her head to look at me. Without a word, she placed her lips on mine and kissed me. I could feel her tears touch my cheek as she pressed harder against me like I was going away for a long time. I knew she needed this. I needed it too. We were like two hearts trying to come together as one. I loved this woman and I was never going to let anything happen to her again.
Surveying the damage, glass was everywhere. On us, on the seat, on the dash. I was pretty sure the hit on us had something to do with Carlos Giordano. Lifting Nikki out of the jeep, I carried her to my apartment. Once she was settled on the couch, I got in touch with Peter to let him know what happened. He suggested that I take Nikki somewhere safe and stay with her. Carlos Giordano had connections and staying here wasn’t an option anymore. Staying at Nikki’s place was also a definite no.
While Peter was working on a way to stop the fight on Saturday, I was working on finding a safe place that Nikki and I could go. The best thing would be to find a place out of New York City, but first I needed to find a new ride. Finishing my call with Peter, I walked over to where Nikki was curled up on the couch.
Rubbing her back, I said softly, “Baby, we need to go. If Carlos had something to do with this, they might come back. I need to take you somewhere safe. Do you think you can get up?”
Her eyes were red from crying, at least one of them was. The other was so swollen that it made me want to kill Carlos for doing this to her. As she looked up at me she unfolded her body and uttered, “I’m so scared, Sly.”
I knew she was scared. As tough as she pretended to be, there was a sweet defenseless woman hiding under a coat of armor. “It’s okay, baby. We are going to get through this. For now we need to go.”
When we got to the parking garage, Peter and Lou were waiting for us. As we walked over to them, Peter placed his hand on my shoulder and gave it a gentle squeeze. “The shooter really did a number on your Rubicon, bro.”
“No shit. Luckily, it was only the Jeep and not us.” I hissed.
“Here,” Peter said as he handed me the keys to his Camaro. “She’s all gassed up and ready to go. The key to the safe house is on there as well.”
“Thanks, Peter, I’ll take good care of her.”
“Give me your cell phones,” Peter requested as I looked at him, confused.
“What the heck for?’ I asked.
“I don’t want to take any chances that Carlos Giordano might be able to find you. Use these instead,” he demanded, handing me a burner phone that couldn’t be tracked.
“You always think of everything, bro. Glad you have my back.” I admitted.
Climbing in Peter’s car, I put the car into reverse and headed out of the garage. With the address Peter gave me, we were on our way to a place I knew would be safe for Nikki. I was pretty sure it was Carlos behind the shooting. Who knows what his game was? I wasn't going to stick around and find out and I wasn’t taking any chances with Nikki’s safety.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Nikki
The minute Sly pulled the seatbelt over my shoulder, reality finally set in. I couldn’t believe that this was my life. Running from the one man who basically raised me and yet who I hated more than my own father. I had seen with my own eyes and had felt his wrath more than once. The fact that I would never be able to have a child of my own was evidence of that.
I would never forget the day that Carlos felt I needed to know what it meant to be a fighter. It didn’t matter that I was only a child, fifteen, to be exact. I had fought my first real fight and lost. Carlos placed a lot of money on that fight on the odds that I would win. It didn’t matter that the girl I was fighting against was two years older than me and at least fifty pounds heavier. I would never forget the look in her eyes. There was hate in them. Like she was ready to take out anything that got in her way, namely me.
The whole fight lasted only a few minutes and was a complete blur as each punch she landed to my head and gut pushed me that much closer to death. When the final punch landed and I fell down on the sweat-drenched mat, all I could hear was the crowd cheering, at least until everything went silent. I wish she would have killed me that day, because what happened a week later was much worse.
Carlos thought that I needed to know what it meant to be in a real fight. He said it was his way of conditioning me for the fight that was to take place the next week, only I never made that fight. The guy Carlos had chosen to show me the facts of fighting could have sat on me and I would have been out. But instead he gave me what Carlos wanted him to. Punch after punch he kept at it, knowing that I could barely stand. It didn’t matter. If I was about to fall, he grabbed me by the hair to keep me upright. I knew I must have passed out at least two times. Then it was over. There was nothing left. The last thing I heard was Carlos telling him to stop. Carlos leaned over my body, his breath smelling like a cigar. “Not a word.”
That was the last time I lost a fight. I knew that if I was ever going to get out from under my dad’s debt, I needed to win. I had never worked so hard in my life. It didn’t matter that my knuckles were swollen and bleeding. It made me work that much harder. I had no other future but to be a fighter, and I was going to be the best.
~****~
The place that Sly was given directions too wasn’t that bad. It was in a secluded area in a small town about a hundred and fifty miles from New York City. Sly stopped the car in front of the tiny house and turned off the engine. Getting out, he rounded the car to my side and assisted me out. As I looked up at the tiny house, he said sarcastically, “Home Sweet Home.”