“Stop being a bitch and tell us where the boy is. Your ass isn’t going to call the damn cops because if they show, I’m pretty sure the only one who would be going to jail is you. The stench rolling out of your place would give them probable cause to search and we know it took you so long to answer the door because you were hiding your shit. So drop the fucking ‘I am a toughass’ and answer the damn question. Where. Is. Brant!?” Bry moved in closer and Martina took a step back. Couldn’t blame the woman, hell, Bry might be the middle brother but he was the biggest out of us brothers too. He had at least two inches in height alone on us at six-four and probably a good thirty pounds. So to get the situation under control before he snapped any further, I placed a hand on his chest to hold him back and stepped in his path.
“Martina, tell us where he is or I am going to call the cops and have them come here. I know you don’t want that,” I said and waited for her while she weighed the odds that I would do it over giving in and showing any weakness.
“What the hell, he is worthless anyway. The boy turns eighteen next week, and if he can’t start contributing around here, he can get the fuck out. He hangs down the block with some of those kids when he has time. If he isn’t there, then I don’t know where he is. Not like he tells me his comings and goings.”
“Yeah, like you give a shit about anything other than where your next hit is coming from.” Time to go, Brant was officially out of patience now. But before I could respond the door slammed in our faces.
“Well that shit went well,” I said and started down the steps that led up to the apartment over the bodega.
“Bro, how can you keep your cool and not go the fuck off on people? That chick is whacked and I don’t think all of it has to do with the drugs fucking up her brain. She is the boy’s mother and has no emotional attachment to him. We may have grown up poor but fucking hell, we had great parents. There is something else wrong with that bitch.”
“I know we did. They were the best and still are. Can’t imagine how any of us would have turned out with a parent like Martina. I knew Brant’s life wasn’t great but Christ, I had no clue it was like that. And about keeping my cool. Well, I would love nothing better than to go around and snatch every dickhead but with my experience in boxing and martial arts, I throw a punch, then I’m the one in jail for assault.”
We reached the corner where a group of kids were just hanging around and we stopped to ask if they’d seen Brant.
“Nah, hadn’t seen him since yesterday after school,” one of the boys said.
We looked toward the others and they agreed the kid.
“Okay, if you see him, tell him I’m looking for him,” I dug in my back pocket and handed him my card with my name and the gym’s number on it. They acknowledged the gesture and Bry and I turned to head back to my truck.
“Misters?” a female voice shot when we were halfway down the block and we turned back.
“Yeah?”
“Don’t know if this is any help but Brant wasn’t in school today,” she said and shrugged.
“Thanks.” Bry and I continued to the truck as I pulled out my phone to check in with Tony. We needed to find Brant before we returned to the hospital to see Brooklyn.
Tony
“Yo.”
“Seriously, you answer your phone that way?” Fin’s voice came through.
“I’m getting in my truck after dumping the last of my clothes at your place. Don’t give me any shit. What did you find out on Brant?” I listened as Fin filled me in on the Martina situation and then checking with the local kids.
“We need to find him, Tony, before we go over to the hospital. If Ms. Maddie is up and worried about him, I don’t want her stressing about him missing. She doesn’t need that on top of everything else.”
“Yeah, I agree. Let me make some calls, get some of my guys on it to help look for him. Where you headed and I will meet you there so we can figure something to tell Ms. Maddie if we don’t find him before we show at the hospital.”
“Heading back to the gym to drop Bry off. He went with me. Meet you there.”
“See you in a few,” I said and hung up.
Before I pulled out from the driveway, I dialed Reed, who I knew should be home from guard duty at the hospital.
“Hey, boss. What’s up?” I gave all I knew about Brant, and he and Jet, who was at his place, and kept me from making another call said they would head out and try to find some leads on Brant.
Ten minutes later I pulled up in front of the gym and the Slinking Ink sign caught my attention. Hell, the ink. If we had a tat on Brant we would have been able to locate him with no problem. But that wasn’t feasible because we’d have to have the parents’ permission for minors and I didn’t think too many would be thrilled about that idea, even if it could help in long run. With that thought pushed out of my mind, I stepped out of the SUV.
Brooklyn
“No, Mom, Fin and Tony haven’t been back since they stopped in this morning to check on you,” she’d woke up thirty minutes after they’d left that morning.
“Brant, did you tell them about Brant,” her voice was getting stronger but it still came across with a small strained.
“Yes, Ma, Brooklyn told them you were worried about Brant. Fin and Tony will check in on him and I am sure they will inform you if they stop back in,” Reese was right, if they stopped back in. Why that one word bothered me so much I don’t know.
Well, I did know but I was refusing to go there. I didn’t want there to be an if, I wanted it to be when as though there was no doubt they were coming. And if I were to admit it, which I refused to, I wanted their visit to be about me. I know that is selfish but I can’t help it. When was my life going to start? When was I going to even start having a life?
“It’s has to do with those fights.” Mom’s words registered in my mind at the same time Reese realized what she said.
“Fights, Ma. What fights? Brant’s not old enough to compete except in the youth competitions. If I remember those are only held around here a couple times a year. It’s not time for them, is it?” Reese asked and then I had to smile when my mother sighed because that was just another sign that she was healing. It was a sigh that Reese and I had heard over the years. The one that said “Get with the program and keep up” sigh.
Before I could reply to that my phone rang and I reached for my bag. By the time I had dug the stupid thing out it had stopped ringing. I looked at the screen and I didn’t quite understand how Fin’s name and number showed. First, why would he be calling me and second, how did he even get my number because I surely would remember giving it to him? Wouldn’t I?
“Who was it, sis?” I looked up at Reese’s question.
“Umm…Fin,” was all I said.
“Well, are you going to call him back and see what he wanted or what?” Reese said, looking at me as if I was mental before he reached in his pocket, pulled out his own phone, and headed out into the hall while he said over his shoulder, “Never mind, I will call him back. He was probably calling to check on Ma anyway.”
Unfortunately, I figured Reese was right.
Chapter Seven
Tony
Michael and I were in my office, Fin was due back any minute. My idea may not work, and it was slightly illegal, but if it helped, maybe, just maybe it would give us an upper hand.
“I am not sure about this, I mean the obvious issues aside, tatting kids with our ink could cause a lot of problems, man,” Michael said.
I had called him into my office right away when I got there. Because we used V on adults, and it worked fairly well, but only if they were directly involved with the illegal activity. I knew, as did the rest of the guys, these dirt bags used kids to do their dirty work. It was pathetic and chicken shit, but it was the way it was.
“Listen, I get the issues we are dealing with, but saving one kid could be worth it. They are getting tats from unsanitary needles, from dudes who learned in prison, their parents do
n’t give a shit, but we do. If we get a legal signed consent form from one of the parents, we are not breaking the law. Putting the V in the ink will not even be noticeable,” I said quietly.
“We are taking their choice away,” Michael said quietly.
“We do it to the criminals without their knowledge, how is this any different?” I argued.
“‘Cause we don’t know if the kids are actually doing anything illegal. Some of them may just run drops,” Michael said.
“What about Billy? Remember that kid? He was just walking home, man, got grabbed by one of the gangs and forced to deliver that box, no one listened to the mom who called when her son didn’t come home. They told her to check with his friends, and the whole time he was delivering a box to some crazy motherfucker who didn’t like the package and killed him. If we would have had the he ink on him, we could have found him, got him back home safe and sound. Some of these kids yeah, I get are involved in some bad shit, and they will not be saved, but more than not, they are victims to their surroundings. If we can save only one innocent child, wouldn’t it be worth it?” I said and Michael paused and looked out my window.
Honestly, I loved my office, it was on the second floor of the gym and overlooked the whole entire south side of the Bronx since we were on a hill. Fin had an office up here as did Michael. All of them agreed it was an amazing view, it was peaceful, which was crazy to think of when referring to the Bronx. I knew what I was asking pushed the envelope a little.
“What if we start with letting a few select parents in the neighborhood chime in on this? Tell them a little about what we want to do, the benefits of it, and then see where it leads to. If they agree, we can start there,” Michael said, turning back to me and I nodded quickly. Hell yeah I would agree to that. Fin knocked on the door just then and poked his head in.
“Am I interrupting?” he asked and Michael shook his head.
“Nah, brah, we are just chatting, I will let Tony fill you in on shit, I have a client in a few.”
Fin stepped in and hit his brother on the back as he walked out. I leaned back in my chair and waited for the door to shut before speaking. We didn’t have a lot of time, but we did need to talk about some shit.
“Brant is still in the wind,” Fin said and sat down in the chair across from me.
I brought him up to speed with what I asked Jet and Reed to do, and then what Michael and I had been talking about. Fin was curious just like Michael and asked a ton of questions. My desk phone rang in the middle of the conversation and I held up a hand to Fin.
“’Lo,” I said into the phone and Fin shook his head.
“Hey, boss,” Jet said in my ear. “I have some information; you are not going to like this.”
I frowned and hit the speaker and said, “Fin is here, what do you have?”
“Went to the streets to see what we could shake out about Martina. She is in deep to someone you do not want to be in deep to. Although no one knows a specific name, the word is she owes Diablo more than three grand,” Jet said and Fin hissed out a breath.
Diablo was the name that all of them knew since moving back to the Bronx, the man hid behind a hundred different people, running the worst criminal enterprise the Bronx had seen in its lifetime. The reason that could be said was because one, the fucking group had been around for fifteen plus years and no one, not the police, the FBI, or DEA had been able to get a picture of the man who ran it. And two, the group dealt in not only drugs, but prostitution, gambling, and any other illegal shit you could think of. Whoever ran it was smart, he had lieutenants for each arm of his enterprise, he diversified, and made sure that no one other than him had control. Each of his lieutenants answered to him, and him alone, so none of them had power. No one knew exactly what Diablo was involved in, they only knew that it was a lot. He wasn’t the only show in town, but he was the biggest. Owing him money was not a good thing.
“There is more,” Jet said grimly. “Seems that Diablo has branched out yet again. He has a new source of income, and fuck me, this one is almost worse than the others.”
“What?” I snapped.
“Underground fighting with a twist, they don’t use adults, it’s kids, according to the whispers some of them as young as eleven. Boys fighting while people place bets on who is gonna win. No rules, bare knuckles and, boss, they don’t stop until one is unconscious. There are rumors, nothing I can pin down, but at least one boy has disappeared, presumed dead,” Jet said grimly.
These assholes brought drugs into the neighborhood, violence into the schools, and now they were doing even more. Where the fuck was this going to end?
“Do you know who is running it?” Fin asked with a growl.
I looked at my friend, yeah, this was gonna tweak him. Fighting for him was like a religion, it worked out shit in him when we were younger, gave him a goal, something to achieve and he did, MMA Champion. He wanted to give kids the pride he had. With this type of fighting, he had to know that kids weren’t getting trained, they were getting sacrificed.
“Heard a name, don’t know much yet, still looking into it. Hector Sanchez,” Jet said and I leaned back looking at Fin.
“No fucking way. Are you shitting me?” Fin growled. Yeah we knew the name and that would be his response, because Hector Sanchez was a thorn in Fin’s side, had been the entire time growing up, and into adulthood. The man was a prick, and an arrogant prick at that. When we were younger, Hector trained at Mic’s gym with Fin. Hell, they could have been friends but Hector was all about winning, and nothing about control and training. So Mic had not taken to the boy like he had Fin. It pissed Hector off, he thought he was the shit, and also hated Fin for being better and having natural talent that when mixed with the training made him lethal.
Throughout their childhood the two had faced each other numerous times in the ring, and each time Fin had come out on top. When they went their separate ways, both had gone professional. Hector moving to a different gym where he was given exactly what he wanted. Attention. Both men fought their way up the ranks of the MMA, both successful, but not meeting each other in the ring until years later when the bout had been for the Light Heavyweight belt. Fin hadn’t been cocky, he hadn’t paid attention to the shit Hector spewed in the media, he had been focused, and it paid off. Of course, it wasn’t an easy fight, hell it was for the belt, and when it ended Fin was the one standing, but Hector hadn’t taken it well. After the bout, in the locker rooms, Hector had come at Fin, threatening to kill him, he had been out of control. Later, we found out Hector had been juicing, which led to his uncontrollable rage. The steroids had fucked him up, not surprisingly. He left the MMA scene in shame, and no one had heard a thing about him since. Hell, none of us knew he was back in town, let alone back in town and involved in something like this.
“Are you fucking shitting me?” Fin roared again and I stood and held up my hand.
“Jet,” I said. “You and Reed get as much information as you can on this. We need to shut this down, like now.”
“You got it,” Jet said and hung up.
“Fin,” I started.
“Do not,” Fin yelled. “Do not tell me to calm down.”
“I wouldn’t think of it,” I said dryly.
“That fucker is back here, in our neighborhood fucking with our people. You know he hated this place, he said it often enough. Why the fuck is he back here? You know why?”
“Yeah, I do—you,” I said quietly and Fin clenched his fists.
“He wants revenge,” Fin ground out. I nodded, not disagreeing. “He won’t get it.”
Once again I nodded and then looked out the window. “What about Brooklyn?”
Fin made another noise. Yeah, this was going to be an issue. Knowing Hector was in town we knew this was going to get messy, especially if a chick was involved. Why, because Hector had made it his goal in life to attempt to take anything Fin had. Especially women.
“We need to talk to her,” I said.
Fin nodd
ed, we did, but we also needed to make sure we were on the same page here. “If she’s the one,” Fin said and I sighed, she was, I had felt it, even with all the shit swirling around.
“Didn’t think we would go this route, man,” I laughed.
“Not surprised though,” Fin shrugged. “When we were with Kink and the club, both of us leaned toward the lifestyle.”
“Ma is gonna fucking flip,” I groaned and put a hand to my face. Fin knew I didn’t give two shits what anyone said about our private life. I loved my family, respected my parents, but I lived my own life, and they knew it. My mother would flip out, but then she would come around when she saw we were happy. Now the O’Malleys? I didn’t know.
Growing up, they knew we were close, when we moved on from the Bronx we stayed close, and they knew that as well. Everyone in the Bronx knew about Kink and the Op Warriors, mostly because when Kink came home, he didn’t hide what he was. Our parents accepted it, they knew the boy and liked the man, especially because he had gone into the military and done the Bronx proud. No one cared what he did in his private life, but I also knew our moms.
Fin and I had talked about this when we were with the Warriors. We were in agreement, the only way this would work was if both of us felt the same with one woman outside the bedroom. When she’d stepped out of that car and walked toward her mom on the sidewalk, I may not have known her right off but my body had, it had me moving in closer to her and Fin too. Women had come easy to both of us over the years and we shared quite a few of them, but it had only been about the sex. Brooklyn had always been around when we were growing up and we hadn’t paid her much attention, because well, she’d been seven years younger than Fin and I.
Brooklyn it seemed was that one woman, and both of us knew it even though we hadn’t voiced it. This was me voicing it, and Fin acknowledging it.
Vengeance: MMA/Ink Romance (KO Ink Book 1) Page 6