“O’Malley? Here are your clothes. You can change in there.” The officer told him pointing to a smaller room before he unhooked the cuffs and walked away.
Ice stood there staring at the officers holding the bag of clothes in his hands. “What’s going on?”
“You made bail. You’re being released.”
****
“What the hell, dude?” Hunter all but shouted as Ice walked through the doors of Big Dogs.
He couldn’t help but smile at his friends as they all ran over to him, giving him hugs and asking a hundred questions at once. “Don’t take this the wrong way, but what the hell are you doing out? I mean, how are you out?”
He shrugged his shoulders and smiled at Lou. His bail had been over fifty thousand dollars. Lou was the only person who could get that kind of money. “Lou bailed me out. Didn’t you, Lou?”
His boss’s face sobered. “I wish I could have, kid. It wasn’t me.”
Who the hell else had that kind of money?
“Could it have been Maverick? Maybe he couldn’t handle seeing his star fighter behind bars during the big fight?”
Ice knew it wasn’t him. “No. Maverick had to remortgage his gym a year ago just to make ends meet. He couldn’t get his hands on that kind of money.”
That left no one.
“Maybe it’s a miracle, man. We all know that shit wasn’t yours. That fucking old friend of yours who stayed at your place a while back probably stashed it there.” Hunter sounded pissed off just mentioning Poe.
“It had to be. There’s only been three people in my apartment in the last few weeks, which includes myself, Nicole, and Poe.”
Hunter’s face dropped, and his eyes softened toward his friend. “You…you don’t think she had anything to do with this, do you?”
Anger grew at the thought that someone would think badly of her. “Hell, no. She’s too…she’s…Nikki, man. She would never do that to me.”
Hunter held up his hands in front of him to defend himself. “I’m just asking. Since the day they took you out of here, she’s been MIA. Looks shady.”
“You said Mandy thought she had gone back at her parents’?”
Hunter nodded his head “She did. Left the same day you did, and no one’s seen her since. I’m not saying she did anything, man. I just think it looks funny that the same day you get carted away, she hightails it out of here.”
Now that the pieces were laid out, so did he.
Fuck. Now he was doubting her too. He needed to get to the bottom of this one way or another, and he had a fight to get ready for. Even though he was out on bail, he hadn’t been convicted, making him eligible to fight in the ring.
“Look. Call Mandy. I know you have been playing around with her. See if she could get a message to Nicole? Ask her to come talk to me?” Ice asked before turning to leave the room.
“Where are you going?” Lou asked as Ice walked away. He didn’t stop to answer. “I have a fight to get ready for. I’ll be with Maverick.”
****
The rest of the week passed, and Nicole itched every day to see Ice. Tonight was the night he had been waiting for. The fight that would either make or break his career as a fighter. He had fought his way through the streets and drugs to stand where he stood, and she couldn’t be any prouder of him.
Things between them hadn’t ended the way she would have liked, but in the end, it had worked out better for him. He had been framed with those drugs, but without her connections, he would have stayed in jail and probably gone to prison. There was no way she could watch him go down like that. She loved him too much. And even if that meant she couldn’t be with him, at least he would be safe and happy.
Nicole reached the bottom of the stairs and headed into the dining room of her parent’s house. Her mother sat at one end, closest to the entryway and her father sat six seats away at the other end, facing them.
“Morning, Mom.” She took a seat next to her.
“Oh, honey, good morning. Did you sleep okay being in your old room again?”
Nicole shrugged her shoulders. It had been a week, and still she couldn’t get over the fact she had returned home. She had sold her soul to the devil himself—sitting at the other end of the table.
When Ice got arrested, she knew he had nothing to do with the drugs they found. She also knew he had no money to get a good lawyer. After being around her father all of her life, she knew it didn’t look good for him without a fair fight. He would need a little help on his side. All that left her no choice but to do what she needed to in order to help him. Even if that involved making a phone call to her father.
She had to make a deal with her father in exchange for his help. He agreed to post bail and get the charges dropped for Ice, and all she had to do in return was move back home and agree to live by his rules. Her soul and happiness had a price, and her father hit it when he agreed to get Ice back in the ring.
“Oh good, you’re awake.” Her father announced from the end of the table. “I have some good news for you. The charges against your friend are officially dropped. His fingerprints were nowhere on the bags, and they were able to lift another man’s prints. After running them through the database, they saw they wanted the other guy more than your friend. Leaving him free and clear.”
Even though she hated her father right now, his words were like music to her ears. Happiness filled her, and she couldn’t hide the soft smile from spreading across her lips. Ice was free to fight, and if he won, or better, when he won, he’d be free to sign into a contract without the fear of jail time.
He was going to be so relieved when he heard the news. She wished she could be there when they told him. But the price she’d had to pay meant there were some places she could never go back to.
“That’s great news, dear,” her mother said, patting the top of her daughter’s hand
“Speaking of friends. I called Mark and asked him to come over tonight for the dinner party,” her father announced.
Just the mention of Mark’s name sent a heated chill down her spine. She never promised to take him back. She agreed to live by her father’s rules. But there was no way she was ever going to date Mark again. “Great, Dad.” She forced a tight lipped smile on and offered it to her father.
No longer having an appetite, she pushed away from the table and out of her seat. Turning toward her mom she gave her a genuine smile. “I’m going to go call Mandy and invite her over tonight.” She leaned in to give her mom a kiss on the cheek.
How this wonderful woman managed to stay married to a man like her father for so many years, she would never know. Leaving her parents, she headed back upstairs to her room—the same room she had lived in all her life. It still had the pink walls and the white ruffled curtains. The room reminded her of the past. Of a life she once wanted. A life where she tried desperately to please her father and struggled to be a perfect daughter.
Things were different now. She finally saw her father for the man he actually was. She had seen what it was like having to work for everything she got. She missed her apartment. It had been small and wasn’t much to look at, but it had been hers. She missed the bar and all the girls. She even missed Lou. She didn’t however, miss dancing. She had felt bad about leaving the way she had, but there were too many questions she wasn’t ready to answer.
Getting to her room before pulling out her phone, Nicole closed her bedroom door as she hit send on Mandy’s name.
Two rings and she answered. “I was beginning to think you had vanished into thin air. How’s it going back at the site of World War Three?”
She smiled at Mandy’s little joke. But the truth was, they both thought coming back would turn her family home into a war zone. Her mother, at least, was thankful she had returned, and her father wore a smug smile knowing he had won. That pissed her off more than anything else.
“I’m alive and kicking. My father’s a true asshole and has made me promise to stay home. He’s throwing a dinner pa
rty tonight. Can you believe that? All he wants to do is rub winning in my face.”
“You lost for a good reason. Nikki. There aren’t a lot of people left in this world who would have done what you did for Ice. You gave up your freedom and your happiness for a man you love.”
Tears sprang up at the edge of her lashes. “Shut up, Em. No one said I loved him.”
“Are you kidding me right now? Duh, girl. Of course you love him! You wouldn’t have gone back to that mad house if you didn’t. You would have done what the rest of us did when Ice got arrested. You would have sat there stunned, feeling sorry for him that he got a bum deal. But since you do love him, no matter what you’re trying to convince yourself of, you jumped into action and got him not only out on bail but his name cleared to. If that’s not love, then…”
“Okay, fine. I did fall for him, and there’s nothing I can do about it now. A deal is a deal. I have to live by my father’s rules, and there is no way in hell he’s ever going to sign off on me dating Ice. Plus, Ice doesn’t want me anymore. The night before he was arrested, he left the bar with some blonde. I think it’s safe to say he’s over whatever we had.”
“That son of a bitch—”
“Its fine, Em. It’s for the better this way. Enough about that. How’s everyone at the bar?”
“Good. They’ve all been asking about you. They want to know where you ran off to.”
“You’re not telling them, are you?”
Mandy let out a heavy sigh before answering. “No, of course not. You asked me not to. But I think this is stupid, Nikki. Why can’t we just tell them what you did for him? They will understand, and it’s better than letting them all think you ran out on him.”
Nicole’s heart broke realizing the bar staff thought that little of her. She had grown to think of most of them as friends. The people at Big Dogs were like the family she had always wanted. They didn’t judge her when she had messed up. They were there when she needed someone, and hell, she always had someone to drink with.
“I don’t want them to think I’m buying his attention. Things would have been different if he hadn’t turned his back on me and made it clear he wanted to see other people. Don’t you get it? If he knew what I did, he would feel obligated to date me as some form of pay back. Forget that.”
A silent pause came from the other end of the phone. “No, I get it. To be serious for a minute, it makes me sad for you, sweetie. I know you love this guy, and it sucks that you can’t be together.”
Nicole wiped away the tears that managed to slip from her eyes and shrugged her shoulders. Not that Mandy could see her anyway. “Who knows? Maybe it’s meant to be this way.”
“Yeah, maybe. Okay, sweetie. I have to get going. Hunter has to meet Ice at the arena in an hour, and I’m riding over with him.”
It made her heart hurt that she wasn’t going to be there for the biggest fight of Ice’s life. She badly wanted to be there cheering him on. If only she could get out of this stupid dinner party. “Okay, Em. Love you.”
“Love you, too.”
Before Mandy had a chance to hang up the phone, Nicole called out to stop her. “Em?”
“Yeah?”
She wanted to ask her to wish Ice good luck for her. She wanted to ask for so much, but it wasn’t her place to ask anymore. “Um, could you…”
“Yeah, I’ll give him a good luck hug from you, but I’ll keep your name out of it.”
More tears slipped from her eyes as she slowly nodded her head and hung up her phone without another word. Leave it up to her best friend to know exactly what she needed to hear, even when she can’t ask for it.
****
The fights had been like nothing Ice had ever done before. They were unbelievable. The arena had been packed elbow to elbow with spectators; fans from all over the state packed in to watch their favorite fighters in the ring. There had been a little over twenty fighters in all, taking the main cage tonight, and Ice’s body felt like he had taken a beating from them all. Of course, he only had three fights tonight, but that was enough to light his muscles on fire. Luckily, he moved up the ranks quicker than he had thought. Out of three fights, he won all three.
He stood in the ring and soaked in every voice as the fans screamed his name. The feeling was amazing. Or, at least it would have been amazing if he could have gotten his damn head out of the fucking clouds. The entire time he remained in the ring, the one thought that kept coming back into his mind was Nicole.
He had wondered most of the night if she had made it to watch him. He looked for her every time he stepped out of the dressing room. He had Hunter and Johnny keeping their eyes out for her too. They all came up empty handed. She never made it to watch him. The crazy thing is, he didn’t know if Nicole remained a no show because of the way he had treated her their last night together, or if she believed he was guilty of that drug charge.
A hand slapped the back of his shoulder, bringing Ice out of his sober thoughts. “Let me buy you a drink, my friend.” Maverick took a seat next to Ice at the bar. Their entire crew had headed back to Big Dogs after the fights. Lou had closed the place down during the fights, so all the employees had a chance to go watch their in-house fighter. Now that they were over and Ice had come out on the winning side, Lou re-opened the doors, hoping to celebrate.
Ice gave his coach a grin before dropping his gaze away. “We did it, man. I’ve had two sponsors offer contracts. This is it for us.” It would make him feel like a pussy to start crying. But he would be damned if he didn’t feel a little sting of tears enter his eyes. This dream had been a long time coming.
“No, Ice. You did it. You did all the work. I just pointed you in the right direction. All that hard work and dedication, that’s all you. You made this happen.”
Shit. Now the tears were really going to start if Maverick kept that shit up. Besides Maverick, he had never had anyone tell him they were proud of him before…except for Nicole. They were the only people in his life who had ever told him he could do anything he set his mind too. That, more than anything else, meant a lot to him.
Keith took their orders and quickly brought them their drinks. “Where’s the girl tonight? Come to think of it, I haven’t seen her in a while. You know when I told you not to have girls around, I didn’t mean she couldn’t watch the fights.”
Maverick was talking about Nicole. His coach hadn’t heard that he had broken off their relationship. Maybe it was a good thing that he had, if all she was going to do is think the worst of him. She was here when the cops went through his apartment. She had seen what they had found, and she hadn’t been back since. If she did, in fact, think that little of him, then she didn’t know him at all.
Anger clawed at him as he took a drink from the beer in front of him and shook his head. “I have no idea. Haven’t seen her since the morning all that shit went down.”
“Sorry, man,” Maverick muttered.
Ice shrugged his shoulders. “It is what it is. If she doesn’t want to be here, then fine by me.” He wasn’t going to clue his coach in on the fact he had been the asshole the night before all that shit went down. He knew Nicole thought he left with that girl from the bar. He’d been such an asshole for doing that to her. But even though she thought the worst of him, she had known how much tonight’s fight meant to him. If she had given a damn about him at all, she would have at least come to tell him good luck.
“Hey, if it’s not the Ice Man himself. Damn, man, you looked great up there tonight. How’s that head of yours feeling? You took a few too many blows if you ask me.” Hunter rounded the corner to Big Dog’s main floor.
Ice turned on his stool as the room began to fill up. Hunter and Mandy entered in front of the crowd. Someone across the room turned on the DJ sound booth and within minutes, the place bounced like they had never closed.
Everyone, even people he didn’t know, came over to say congrats to the champ. Most of them offered to buy his drinks and before too long, he had beers lined up
waiting for him. There was no way he could have kept up, so he let them sit there.
“So this is what reaching your dreams looks like? Shoot, man, you got what you wanted in life. I couldn’t be happier for you!” Hunter held his drink up in the air as he toasted his friend. Others joined in, adding their drinks until there were dozens of glasses and bottles in the air.
Ice started to feel the effects of all the alcohol. His mind was beginning to fuzz over a little and the filter that normally sat firmly in place started to slip. “Everything I want, huh? Close. Not quite.” He grinned toward Hunter before taking another pull of his beer.
Hunter tipped his drink to his lips as he eyed his friend. Johnny chose that moment to lean toward Ice, but not close enough so they were the only ones who could hear. “Hey, man, she’s the one who left you. Forget about her. Look around. There’s plenty of ass in this place. Tonight of all nights, you could have the pick of the litter.”
Ice took his friend’s advice and looked around the busy bar room. Yes. There were some hot ladies in here, and he probably could get the pick of any of them if he wanted to. As he turned back to his drink to forget about women in general, a short, cute redhead caught his attention with a smile and a flick of her eyelashes.
He grinned back at her as he spoke to Johnny. “You might be right.”
The short redhead took that as a cue to make her way across the room. “Great fight tonight,” the girl purred leaning into him. She damn near crawled right on his lap. If he hadn’t been facing the bar, she would have.
“Thanks, sugar. What’s your name?” Indeed, a hot piece of ass might be what he needed. Even though she smiled at him and batted her eyes, in the back of his mind he couldn’t help but think of another. Flirting with this chick didn’t feel right.
“Sarah.” She picked up his beer bottle and brought it to her lips. She took a drink then ran the tip of her tongue along the rim of the bottle. Eagerly suggesting that if he took her home, she could be running her tongue along his dick instead of the bottle.
Shiver Page 15