I start laughing and I can’t seem to stop, thinking about the craziness of all of it. “Oh my God! I drove my car into a dealership. Right into a fucking glass wall. I’ve really lost it.” I start laughing again, clutching my stomach.
He shakes his head and pulls me over to the bed. Sitting back against the headboard, he grabs the remote. “No, I think you’ve finally found it. That little spitfire I always knew was in there.”
I finally catch my breath and think about the original question again. “I’ll probably just drive my dad’s truck until I figure something else out.” I shrug. “It’s just sitting there and it needs to be driven. I don’t think it’s been moved since one of the guys from the department drove it home for my mom.”
“Did you even tell your mom where you were going?” I ask, staring at the TV.
“I told her I was going to get some of my things from my old apartment. She’d worry too much if I’d told her about going to confront Pavel. Her sister is in town so I went ahead and called her to tell her the drive made me tired and I’d be back tomorrow,” I say, staring out into space.
“I’m sure she would. She was pretty worked up about all of the secrets you had going on.” He flips nonchalantly to another channel.
“Yeah, tell me about it. When I came home from the hospital I had a lot of explaining to do. She was pissed at me for the stripping part. I’m talking seriously pissed, my dad was always the one to lose his shit about stuff.” I think back about her yelling at me. “This time, though, Mom lost it, but she also told me that she appreciated me caring, but I shouldn’t have taken on the medical bills myself. Although, she was pretty understanding about the Pavel thing. She didn’t like it but she tried to understand it,” I say, pulling the blanket up over my legs. Giving him a little laugh, I smile at him. “She did tell me if she ever found out that I was taking my clothes off for money again, she would beat my ass. Even if it was the last breath she took.”
He chuckles under his breath a little. “Well, I can agree with her on that.” He reaches over and turns off the lamp, then tugs me down into the bed. “Let’s just get some sleep.”
I’m lying here thinking in the dark with Huck, only the TV lights the room. I feel like we’re turning a corner. I always thought I loved Pavel, only now do I realize what love actually feels like.
Hearing his breathing even out, I know he’s asleep and it comforts me. It’s been years since we’ve shared a bed overnight. Even then it was only once. He has me pulled into his side and I feel safe. What was left of my intoxication and my fatigue take over and I fall into a much needed sleep.
Huck and I are curled into each other on my bed at home. I hear doors slamming. Jolting up, I shake Huck. “Huck, wake up. My parents are home.”
He bolts out of bed, “Shit.” He starts tugging his clothes on. This is the first time I’ve seen his entire body naked. Anything we’ve ever done, the lights were off.
He kisses me quickly and out my window he goes.
Suddenly, I’m no longer in my room. I’m in the car with my mom. She’s looking at me very disappointedly. “Chelsea, I cannot believe you’d embarrass your father like this. Getting caught smoking pot, of all things.” Looking down at my dress in embarrassment, I’m nervous. “I’m sorry,” I say, looking up, but I’m no longer in the car with my mom. Now, Liz and I are in her car on the way somewhere. An announcement breaks into the music.
“An Okeechobee man was found dead in a local canal this morning. He’s been identified as Richard Markov, police are investigating this as it looks like there was foul play. We’ll keep you updated as there are breaks in this case.”
It’s dark and cold. I’m alone. I can hear someone breathing behind me.
“Give Volkov a message.” I nod my head. “I did his dirty work. He owes me. If he doesn’t come up with the money, I’ll kill him.”
There’s a blaring siren in the background. I keep searching for it. I can’t see where it’s coming from.
“Chelsea, baby. Chelsea, wake up.”
Bolting up in the bed, I’m covered in sweat and Huck is sitting next to me. “Chelsea, baby, you were having a nightmare or something.” He brushes my sweaty hair back away from my face. “You okay?”
I nod. “I kept hearing a siren.”
He points to the TV. “We left it on. You sure you’re okay?”
I nod slowly again. “When I get back home, I need to talk to Mack. I think I just figured out what that guy did for Pavel,” I say with uncertainty. “It was so clear in my mind.”
“You wanna talk about it?”
I shake my head. “Not right now. I just wanna go home.”
He nods. Glancing over at the clock to see it’s six in the morning, he pushes the covers back. “Okay, well let’s get dressed and we’ll go.”
I jump from the bed and begin putting my clothes on from yesterday. “Good. I’ll call Mack on our way home.”
CHAPTER 28
HUCK
I expected the trip back from Miami to feel like it was taking forever, but it went rather quickly. Being locked in a vehicle with Chelsea for a few hours was uncomfortable, the tension was at a high. I wanted to know where we stood. We had talked a little last night but I still didn’t know and couldn’t bear to ask her right now. How much of what she was saying was drunken ramblings and how much was the truth?
When I pull up to her mom’s place, she looks over at me. “Thanks for the ride, Huck.”
“Uh, I’m coming in. I need to know what you remembered,” I say in my “you’re not fucking with me” tone.
“Huck,” she whines, but doesn’t get a chance to refuse when her mother swings her front door open.
“Chelsea! You’re home.”
We both get out of the truck as a black unmarked sedan pulls in the driveway.
Jenny steps further out. “Mack, what a wonderful surprise.”
I can see that the chemo has taken a toll on Jenny over the past few weeks. She has a scarf wrapped around her head, along with a mask over her face. She’s lost weight and she looks very frail.
As I walk up the steps, she sighs and pulls me in for a hug. “Huck, good to see you, too.”
We all file into the house and Chelsea looks at her mom. “Mom, I have to talk to Mack about some stuff.”
“Where’s your car? Why did Huck bring you home?”
I start to snicker and then cough when she glares at me. “Sorry.”
“It’s a long story, Mom. I’m going to tell you, but I need to talk to Mack about some stuff,” she says, hugging her mom.
We all sit down in the living room. Chelsea explains the events of the last twenty-four hours. Mack laughs about her putting her car through the dealership, while her mom scolds her with some amusement in her eyes. “Well, Pavel didn’t report you for trying to make his office a drive thru so he’s obviously trying to cover up your relationship.”
She glances back up at him. “I think I know what the man who attacked me was talking about.”
His eyes go wide. “What do you think it was?”
“Well, the night before Dad called me about Mom, I’d discovered that the dealership in Okeechobee had some invoices that didn’t look right. I’d done a little looking and it seemed the manager was skimming. Last night, I had a dream and I remembered that one day I was in the car and there was a news report about a man being found dead. Richard Markov. He was the manager of that dealership. Like I said before, I never knew how much of Pavel’s business was on the up and up, I just kept my nose out of it. All but that one incident. I didn’t think any more about it after that day. In the dream last night, I saw that and then flashed to the guy telling me that he did a job for Pavel and he owed him.” She shrugs, fiddling with her fingers. “It just pieced together. I think it might be worth looking into.”
Mack has written all of that down with names to check out. He stands up and pulls Chelsea to her feet. Hugging her, I hear him say, “You’re a little more like Leroy th
an you know.”
She nods and pulls away. “I guess so.”
He levels his eyes with hers. “Chelsea, I’m going to look into this. If any of this turns out, are you going to be willing to testify?”
She nods and almost whispers. “Yes. I will.”
Mack shakes my hand, hugging Jenny and Chelsea before he leaves.
Once he leaves, I talk briefly with Chelsea and her mom about Miami. Then we discuss the fundraiser tomorrow night. We’re hoping that Jenny will feel up to coming.
I step out on the porch to leave and Chelsea follows me out. She touches my hand. “Huck, thanks for everything.”
I reach out and touch her arm. “Babe, you don’t have to thank me. I have your back.” I pull her in and kiss the top of her head. “Always. I told you last night you haven’t lost me. I’m here.”
She looks up at me and gives me a small smile. “Thanks, Huck, that means a lot.” I give her a smile in return as she walks back in the house.
~*~*~
Sitting in front of cameras has never been my idea of a good time, but we needed the publicity for this fight tonight. So all of the fighters and coaches are here for the press conference. It’s been all over the news and now they want to talk to us. All of the fighters, even our competitors have agreed to be here for the cause. Tonight, each one of us are representing someone who’s either fighting cancer, survived cancer or fought and lost to cancer.
Our entire gym is representing Jenny. In honor of breast cancer, all of us are wearing pink trunks in the cage. Some of the guys are wearing teal for cervical or uterine cancer. A couple of guys are in lime green for lymphoma. A few more colors are representing, but I’m not quite sure what they are for.
All over the building they have signs that say “#MMAknockingoutcancer.”
So far, we’ve raised over ten thousand dollars for Jenny here local, our sponsor agreed to cover all the costs of the fights, all winnings are donated to fund cancer research and our sponsor also is matching our money raised. So that brings a total of around twenty thousand, which makes me very happy. Jenny only has one more treatment in this round and then they’re going to do bloodwork and some new scans to see if she’s in remission.
One of the reporters draws my attention when he calls out my name. “Huck Webb.” I make eye contact. “Word has it that this is your baby. You came up with this?”
I lean toward the microphone. “I did propose the idea, Marco and guys from Bellator really took off with it.”
“So Marco’s Gym is representing a Ms. Jenny Harmon tonight. Does she have special meaning to this gym?”
Marco leans forward. “She’s a local woman battling breast cancer.”
Sly leans forward, speaking into the mic. “Her late husband was Detective Leroy Harmon, he was killed in the line of duty. He helped save my woman and my baby girl during a vicious attack. He looked after our family, so we’re looking out for his.”
The same reporter chimes in. “Huck, are you involved with their daughter, a Miss Chelsea Harmon? Reports say you and a prominent Miami man were in an altercation over her at the championships in Jacksonville.”
“Chelsea and I have been friends since high school and that’s the only comment I have on that.” I look around the room wishing she could’ve been here today.
Marco can see I’m gripping the table with all I have to keep from strangling that reporter. He leans to the microphone in front of him again. “All right, guys, thanks for coming out to support this wonderful cause. All of the fighters need to go get ready for tonight.” He stands, motioning for all of us to stand.
We’re in the dressing room for our in house meeting before tonight. Marco stands in front of us. “Guys, I’m proud of the effort you’re putting forth for tonight. We take care of our family. We bust ass this weekend and next weekend, we celebrate as a family.”
After he finishes, Lox looks over at me. “Hey, man, I need to talk to you and Sly for a minute.”
Sly and I move over to where he’s standing. “Sloan and I have found a house we’re interested in buying. We put in an offer and much to our surprise, they took it. The thing is, it’s a short sale so we have to be ready to go in it soon. The lease isn’t up on the house Sloan is in now for a few more months. I know you guys are all happy living together, but I was thinking maybe Huck would want to take over Sloan’s place. It would help us out, give Huck and you guys some privacy,” he says, pointing to Sly.
Sly nods, looking at me. “Man, that’s up to Huck. We’re fine. I know eventually it’ll get crowded with toys and stuff for Princess, but right now we’re good.”
Thinking about it, Chelsea pops into my head. How I’d like to have a private place for us to go. I start nodding. “Yeah, man. I think that’s a good idea actually. It’s about time we all have our own places.” I thumb in the direction of Sly, “plus those two sound like they’re shooting a damn porn in the room sometimes.”
Sly crosses his arms over his chest. “You’re just fuckin’ jealous, man.”
I look back to Lox. “Get me the details, man.”
Lox smiles. “Thanks, man. This will be great, we’re gonna need more room sooner rather than later. So we need to get in this house.”
That catches the attention of Sly and me both. I put my hand up. “Wait a minute, are you saying?”
Sly finishes, “Sloan’s pregnant?”
Lox gives us a million megawatt smile. “Yep. Keep it quiet though, we’re telling Mom and Marco next weekend with their wedding gifts.” He shrugs, “but we needed an answer on the house situation this week.”
We both take turns giving him a congratulatory back-slapping hug.
Sly smiles a big smile. “You’re the only one left, man.”
“Dude, I just got us a couple of new siblings, don’t I just get credit for that? I don’t need to knock someone up right now.” I laugh.
He sighs, “I guess. So are Gia and Mox coming tonight?” Sly has dubbed Eli with the nickname Mox because of his last name. “I texted Mox earlier but I haven’t gotten a text back.”
“Yeah, they’re supposed to. His phone has been acting up. I bought him a new one today to give to him. They’ll be here a little before the fights start. I got them seats with our section. Plus, Mox is going to come back and help me wrap my hands, stuff like that.”
He nods. “Okay, good.” He goes to walk off but turns back. “I’m glad you found them, or they found you, man. Mox is really starting to show some serious potential when we’re working out.”
Lox nods. “Yeah, coming to the gym and working with us, I’ve definitely seen a big boost in his confidence.”
I look at them and smile knowingly. “That’s what I wanted. All right, let’s get ready to do this.”
CHAPTER 29
CHELSEA
Mom has been so happy tonight. Being out and around people has been great for her. Sly’s crazy ass ran out during his walkout, grabbing Mom up and giving her a big kiss for the cameras, she ended up on the Jumbo Tron. I’ve been sitting next to Gia and Eli tonight. It’s so neat to see their reactions to everything. I’ve only been to a few fights, but this is all new to them. Eli went to the dressing room to hang with the guys I’m guessing.
Gia leans over to me. “How do you deal with this? How are you able to watch them get hurt?”
I pat her leg. “Well, most of the time they don’t get hurt too bad. I mean your brothers are pretty good,” I say cheerfully.
She watches as Sly clearly dominates his opponent. “I guess maybe you’re right.” She smiles shyly, “So are you and Huck together or just friends?”
“Well, it’s a little complicated. I’m not even really sure how to answer that for you, but he’ll always be my friend.” I say with a hint of laughter, picking at the hem of my skirt.
“You know he did all of this for you, right?” I glance at her face and then she sighs. “How romantic.”
I shake my head and smile, she’s still a teenager and lov
e is all hearts, flowers, love notes, writing your name a hundred times with his last name and boom boxes over your head. Okay, maybe not the boom box part because she wouldn’t get the John Hughes reference.
“Like I said, it’s complicated. So how’s it going in the dorms?” I ask, trying to sway the subject in another direction. Since they just got moved into the dorms last week, it seems like a great distraction.
Her face lights up. “Great! I love it there. My roommate is a trip, which is awesome because I was worried about that. You know, you don’t want to get stuck with someone who’s uptight, but you don’t want a party girl either. She’s on the softball team with me, so that kinda helps, too.”
“Good. How’s it going for Eli?” He’s really smart but it’s also obvious that he’s the more reserved one of the two.
She nods, smiling. “He likes it as far as I can tell. It’s so much better than living at home. It just always takes him longer to get settled in.” She crosses her legs. “He’s never been real outgoing. That’s always been me, but since he’s started working out some at the gym with the guys, it’s helped his self-confidence some, I guess.”
Before I can say anything, the bell rings indicating the match is over and Sly is declared the winner. I watch as Gibbs and Marco give him a towel and some water quickly.
Gia smiles. “Man, he is HOT.”
I look to see who she’s talking about. She’s talking about Gibbs. I give a little laugh. “Yeah, he is kinda cute. A little young for me, but a nice guy.”
“Do you know if he’s seeing anyone?”
From what I’ve heard, Gibbs is seeing a lot of people, but I’m not going to share that with her. “I’m not sure, I’ve only talked to him a few times.” I shrug. “I’m still kinda new to the group too really, so I don’t know them that well.”
She nods and smiles as I hear “Simple Man” start over the speakers. I know Huck is coming out. Before I realize what I’m doing, I’m up on my feet. Slick steps a few steps forward, holding one of the signs he’s made for each one of our guys.
Holding Huck's Heart (Marco's MMA Boys #3) Page 14