Dante's Way

by Marie Rochelle

  “No, I’m not getting involved with that controlling chick again,” Dante said, rubbing the heel of his palms across his tired eyes. “You know I can’t handle how much she wanted to know where I was all of the time. She never gave me a chance to even breathe at work or at home. I broke up with her weeks ago and I’m about to fire her since she isn’t able to handle us working together anymore.”

  “I can’t believe she’s still working here. I told you not to let her get her claws into you. She only saw you as a mark and nothing else when Jim ignored her advances. I don’t know how you didn’t see it before now.”

  Walking further into the room, Caleb took a seat and then gave him a huge grin. His buddy looked like he was busting to tell him a secret. Lord only knew what it was. Why didn’t he call in sick instead of coming into work?

  “Okay, if it’s not Bambi then what waitress kept you up most of the evening? I called your house several times last night and didn’t get an answer. Was it the red-head who’s been practically tossing herself at you every single night?” Caleb teased. “Come on, spill it. I know that you want to tell me who it is?”

  Dante narrowed his eyes at the smug man sitting across from him. He loved Caleb like a brother. The two of them had been friends since senior year of college. They had met during football practice and struck up an instant friendship. Caleb was part owner of the bar with him and Griffin, but sometimes his buddy had a way of speaking first and thinking second.

  Why did Caleb keep bringing up various women when he knew that he had no interest in her whatsoever? He was the one who liked to be the hunter and not the hunted.

  “No, I wasn’t out with her either,” Dante replied as he sat up straighter in his seat. “You know that I don’t date my employees anymore. Unlike you, who have dated almost every new client at Inked that you’ve worked on in the past two and a half years. If you don’t stop you won’t have anyone left willing to let you give them a tattoo.”

  Caleb held up his hands in mock surrender as he leaned away from him. “Sorry man. I didn’t know I’d hit a nerve this morning. What in the hell is wrong with you?” he complained, lowering his hands. “You usually take my teasing better than this. So, honestly tell me, what does have you so tied up in knots? Did something happen at the club last night?”

  Running his fingers through his hair, Dante eyed Caleb knowing he should apologize for snapping at him for no good reason, but he wasn’t in the mood to do it. All he wanted to do was make it through the day and take another look around the neighborhood for the girl.

  “Nothing happened last night,” Dante lied as he put his hands on the arms of his chair.

  “Now, Dante you shouldn’t lie to old Caleb there. He would love to know how you almost had a poor, hungry homeless teenage girl arrested for stealing food off your motorcycle,” a voice taunted interrupting their conversation.

  Groaning, he pinched the bridge of his nose, and closed his eyes. Slowly, Dante counted to ten and then reopened them glaring at Griffin who came into his office and took a seat next to Caleb.

  “What girl?” Caleb questioned as he glanced back and forth between them. “What is Griffin talking about?”

  Since his old buddy had decided to open his big mouth, Dante knew he had to tell Caleb everything now. When they were alone he was going to make Griffin understand when he needed him to keep his mouth shut!

  “Last night when I was leaving the club, I caught someone stealing from my motorcycle in the alleyway and when I warned the thief to stop, the person took off running instead, so I chased after them.”

  “You actually ran after someone during the rainstorm last night.” Caleb, shocked, sat closer to the edge of his seat. “That doesn’t sound like you at all. Why did you do it?”

  Shrugging his wide shoulders, Dante shook his head. “I was tired of parts being stolen off my bike. Damn, last week the rear axle and engine oil filter cap were removed while I was at work. Luckily, Jim had some replacements in stock at his shop. He was able to come over to the bar and replace them for me.”

  “Aren’t you leaving out a huge part of the story?” Griffin cut in. “We both know that Caleb is only hearing half of it. Why don’t you tell him the rest?”

  Why was Griffin pushing him so hard about this? Didn’t he already feel bad enough about his behavior as it was, but his friend wasn’t going to let it drop until everything was out?

  “Fine,” Dante snapped, upset at being pushed so hard. “I caught the thief and dragged them back here to the club, but they didn’t have any parts from my bike on them. The homeless person had only stolen my bag of hot wings and fries.”

  “All right, I’m still not getting what this has to do with a girl and why Griffin is so pissed off at you. Why does he feel like I need to know all about this?” The confusion was loud and clear in Caleb’s deep voice.

  Taking a deep breath, Dante blew it out. “The homeless person wasn’t a teenage boy but a young girl. I didn’t know this at first or I wouldn’t have manhandled her the way I had earlier. I only found out because she was running out of the bar after I told her I was going to call the cops and have her arrested. I grabbed the back of the hoodie she was wearing and it fell down revealing a young, black girl when she spun back around.”

  Caleb’s eyebrows drew together into an angry frown. “You were rough with a woman? Aren’t you the one who, when we were back in college, defended any girl whose boyfriend got too rough or abused her? Damn man, you taught self-defense classes for three years. How could you be so disrespectful with a woman? If it had been me or Griffin that had done something like that you would’ve been down our throats.”

  Shit! He didn’t need to hear any of this.

  Jumping up from his seat, Dante began pacing in circles around his office. He felt Griffin’s and Caleb’s eyes watching his every move. It wasn’t like he knew she was a girl beforehand with all of the baggy clothes covering up her body. He regretted acting so quickly last night and he tried to fix his mistake by searching for her; however, his little thief was a street kid. So, without a doubt she probably had a million hiding places around Los Angeles.

  Where in the world was her family? Did something happen at home to send her to a life she was leading now?

  Someone as young as her didn’t need to be struggling to survive day to day on the streets. She was barely able to protect herself from him. How was she going to protect herself against a man who wanted to take something from her?

  He couldn’t believe she was faring well at all. He could have been a helping hand to her instead of scaring the shit out of her. He wouldn’t feel better until he found her and helped her out any way he could.

  “Dante, stop beating yourself down about last night,” Griffin said, cutting into his wandering thoughts. “Caleb and I know you’re a good guy. You just made an honest mistake. All of us could have done it. Hell, I saw her and thought she was a boy too. You didn’t hurt her. You merely frightened her a little. I know you’ll probably run into her again and will be able to lend a hand to her if she’s willing to accept it.”

  He stopped his pacing and studied his friends, but he had his doubts. “Thanks, I wish I could feel the same way.”

  “Griffin is right. You’re being way too hard on yourself. I shouldn’t have said anything else about it. I know how you have this hero complex. You feel this need to save the lost and lonely. I know you’ll get another chance to fix this,” Caleb said.

  “Are both of you sure?”

  “Damn right,” Griffin stated. “Now, how about you get out of this office? We need your help in the bar with this crowd. They’re starting to pile in and we need to make sure everything is flowing smoothly.”

  Dante wanted to argue and resume searching for her again, but any problems with his bar came first. He only hoped that he did get another chance to prove he wasn’t as harsh as he came across that night.

  Chapter Four

  Lying on the cardboard box, Amara tried blocking out
the noisy sound of the sanitation truck empting out the trash at the side of Mr. Lee’s cleaners but it wasn’t working. The racket only seemed to be getting louder and louder making her finally realize that her day had officially started. It didn’t matter if she wanted it to or not.

  Opening her eyes, she tried not to think about how horrendous her life was at the moment. Her entire body was stiff and cold from the rainstorm that returned late last night. The trash bags she had grabbed off the cart behind the grocery store weren’t thick enough to keep her as warm and dry as she wanted to be.

  At least one of her problems was gone; she wasn’t starving this morning thanks to Mr. Lee’s generosity. He was her guardian angel. Anytime she was down and out thinking she wouldn’t be able to make it another day, he showed up with food, clothing or a kind word of advice that always got her over the hump.

  But she was positive Mr. Lee wouldn’t be proud of her stealing the food off Dante’s motorcycle last night. Just thinking about him sent another shiver down her spine and it wasn’t from fear or the cold invading her limbs.

  He was so handsome. Men who looked like him didn’t live in her hometown. Everything about him was different including his hot temper. Amara hated to think what he would have done if he’d caught up with her that night after she had escaped from him a second time.

  One thing was for sure. There was no way in hell she would have made it one night behind bars. Amara knew she would have tried to make a break for it before the cops showed up. She had heard countless horror stories from Liam about how it felt to spend one night in a cold, damp jail cell.

  It wasn’t something she ever wanted to experience. Being out here on a daily basis was bad enough, but the situation only got worse once a homeless person got labeled as a street child. She would never forget when a vendor hollered at her after she touched a colorful bottle on his cart.

  At first, she thought she was too old to be considered a ‘street child’ since she was twenty-four years old. However, Liam told her any young person living in a box, inside a park or on the streets was considered street children by certain biased people around town.

  None of them had been unfortunate enough to have lost everything and been forced to a life on these hard and cruel streets. Without anyone to depend on you needed your own sheer will just to try to get enough energy to survive another grueling day.

  Unlike her, who had no family to go back home to at all, Liam still had family ties, but it was tenuous and he only maintained it casually or occasionally.

  Yet, he had no interest in going back home no matter how many times she tried to encourage him to do it. At least that is what he told her, but Amara believed if his family came looking for him Liam would go back home in a heartbeat and leave this life behind him.

  She would give everything she owned, which wasn’t much, but she would trade it all to have someone back at home worrying about her. Yet, it was a dream that never was going to happen. She was all alone and it would remain that away for a very long time.

  Yes, Mr. Lee was a good friend to her; but she couldn’t get too attached to having him in her life because he might be up and gone one day. Nothing lasted forever and she learned that very quickly after she lost everything she held close to her heart.

  She had seen it happen to other homeless people before. A person got fond of them and gave them food along with a place to sleep and then one day all of it would stop. He would get tired of her and move on to another ‘special project’ leaving her all alone in the cold without as much as a final goodbye.

  Everyone had in some way, shape or form found a way to disappoint or let her down over the years. So, she learned to develop a harder outer exterior. She noticed how certain individuals pretended to be friends with you to lure you into something bad or destructive which wasn’t what she wanted or needed in her life.

  Not once when she was growing up did she ever imagine that her future would end up like this without her parents to turn to for help. All she wished for everyday she got out of her makeshift bed was a better existence than the one she was living now.

  The sound of footsteps coming in from the distance immediately put Amara on full alert because she knew the sound of Mr. Lee’s footsteps and these weren’t his. Her heart pounded away against her ribs as she got ready to defend herself against whoever was out there.

  “Amara, are you still in there?” a familiar male voice whispered making her body instantly relax.

  “Liam, is that you?” She untangled herself from her damp bed. Pushing the trash bags off her body, Amara uncovered her head and found Liam standing over her sporting a fresh black eye and a cut above his lip.

  “Oh my God,” she gasped, staring at her best friend. “Who did this? What happened to you?” She jumped up to her feet. Reaching out, Amara touched the corner of Liam’s eye then quickly dropped her hand when he flinched in pain.

  “Ouch,” he hissed, wincing.

  “Who hit you in the face?” she asked again.

  “Ike,” Liam answered, taking a step back from her. “I caught him grabbing Theresa last night. I jumped in between them to prevent him from hitting her and he punched me instead. You know how he has that vicious temper.”

  Amara nodded her head. “I know. I’ve seen it more times than I care to admit it,” she confessed. “How is Theresa doing? I really wish that she would get away from him. He really scares the hell out of me. I tried once talking to her, but she wouldn’t listen to me. She would rather do as he tells her than be back out on the streets with us.”

  “I know, but we both know how Theresa hated begging for food every day and sleeping on the ground. Ike provides her with a warm place to stay every night if she does exactly as he tells her to without causing him any problems.”

  Stepping off her makeshift bed, Amara stood in front of Liam and fixed the collar of his dirty off yellow polo shirt that he’d been wearing for the past month. He never kept any of the clothes the shelters gave him because he constantly gave them away to his many friends.

  It didn’t matter how many times she told him he needed the clothing, he ignored her and passed it on to someone else anyway. Liam was such a giving guy and deserved to be off the streets but he had a problem dealing with people getting too close.

  “I’m not even going to ask what happened to the almost brand new sweater you found two days ago inside the donation bin outside the Salvation Army store,” Amara said.

  Moving away from her, he dropped his eyes and shoved his hands into the pockets of his faded ripped jeans. Liam kicked a rock with the toe of his worn tennis shoes.

  “You already know what I did with it. I gave it to Theresa,” he answered in a low voice. “I couldn’t let her stand out on the streets in this weather with no protection at all. She was barely wearing anything as it was. You didn’t see her last night. She looked so cold standing out there on the corner. I didn’t want her to get sick giving Ike another reason to lose his temper. I mean I didn’t really need it anyway.”

  Amara loved Theresa, but she wished Liam would stop bending over backwards to help her out all of the time. Didn’t he understand how important it was to take care of his health as well? The nights were getting colder and he should have something to keep him warm from the elements.

  “You should have kept that sweater for yourself. Now, I’ve something for you and I want you to keep it or I won’t give it to you.”

  Turning around, Amara bent down and dug through the white plastic bags of clothes Mr. Lee gave her last night. She pulled out the black and red hoodie with a huge black and gold dragon design on the back.

  “Here, I want you to put this on and leave it on. I don’t want you to give it away. Do you understand me?” Amara demanded, placing the hoodie against Liam’s chest.

  Liam’s beautiful sky blue eyes looked at her before they shot down to the clothing pressed against his lanky frame. “I can’t take this from you, it’s yours,” he protested. “It wouldn’t feel right. You
might need this more than me.”

  “You will take it and that’s the end of it. When I first ended up in this part of town living on the streets, you were the one who showed me how to deal with everything. Your help made a huge difference to me. I wouldn’t have made it a week without you at my side showing me the ropes,” Amara said. “At least, let me repay you the only way I know how. Besides, I still have a bag full of clothes that Mr. Lee gave to me. Now, take the hoodie.”

  Nodding, Liam grinned at her before he put the hoodie over his head pulling it down over his jeans. He shoved his hands inside of the pockets. “Thank you,” he said. “I do feel a lot better.”

  Amara noticed the change in Liam’s body instantly. He stood straighter and looked so much warmer than a few minutes ago. She loved Liam so much and only wished he would find the courage to go back home.

  “Since you gave me this to wear how about I treat you to breakfast. I know the restaurant around the corner usually has some extra food on their delivery truck. I know we can grab a few things before it leaves.”

  The thought of eating breakfast sounded amazing. Besides, she wanted to talk to Liam about helping her find a new place to sleep. She had been camping out here for about two months which was way too long in one place. She wasn’t in the mood to be shocked awake by the police or anyone else for that matter. No, it was time for her to move on to another spot because she was getting way too comfortable here.

  “I would love some breakfast,” she admitted. “Let me grab my stuff and we can be on our way.”

  Amara quickly packed her stuff up shoving in into the tattered Hello Kitty backpack she still had from home. Theresa had taught her a trick to roll everything up, so it would give her more room to pack stuff inside of the small space.