First, though, I had to make sure we didn’t lose more than absolutely necessary. I followed Gray out of the mechanical room and motioned to Dominick. “Climb in.”
My uncle scoffed. “That’s not happening.”
I grinned, pulling the gun out that Danielle had been prepared to use on children. “I was hoping you’d say that.” I aimed the piece at his uninjured leg and pulled the trigger. The resounding blast echoed through the locker room, drowned out by Dominick’s shriek and resulting cries. I had to admit, shooting him felt good and it took everything in me not to keep shooting and listening to his cries.
Danielle’s hands hovered over Dominick and she glared at me. “You shot him.”
“If he doesn’t get in that basket, I’m doing it again.” I made the promise with a smile. No need to threaten when I had no problem following through.
Dominick raised pain-filled eyes toward me. “I won’t stay quiet.” I recognized his words for a promise as well.
I nodded, turning to Maria. “I hope you don’t need him awake for whatever you have planned.” As if she knew what I intended, she shook her head, keeping her mouth shut as she moved to stand beside Danielle to keep her in place.
Rubbing Gray’s arm, I turned to her and murmured, “I’d really rather you didn’t watch this.” I didn’t want her to see me as a ruthless jerk, but I had to follow through.
Whatever it takes ran through my mind over and over. Combine that thought with the pure anger flooding through my soul and I wanted to beat Dominick into unconsciousness. I needed to beat him. I just hoped I could stop so Maria could do what she needed to do.
I studied Gray as she held her incredibly intense blue eyes on me. She shook her head, her lips curving in sadness. “I’m not looking away. You just watched me kill a guy. The least I can do is watch you beat your uncle. Plus, I think I might like this one.” She winked and I appreciated her attempts to lighten the moment.
Her smile faded and we stared at each other. It was like we were on a train moving at unbreakable speeds and no one could get off. No one. The only way any of it would stop was when we reached our final destination with a crash.
Dominick wasn’t going anywhere with two injured legs. I expected he could crawl over the side into the basket on his own, but he refused to do that which meant he’d spend the entire time fighting whoever – me – tried to get him into the basket.
His eyes widened as I approached. “Stryker, don’t you dare. I’ve loved you like my own.” His words just spurred on my anger and I slowed down. I had to be able to stop. I gathered as much control around myself as I could. He had never loved anyone but himself.
Maria pushed Danielle back, holding her as Gray’s aunt struggled to get to the man who controlled her completely.
Gray bent down behind me and checked the pockets of Vlasi Ivanovs. After not finding whatever she was looking for, she stood and folded her arms as she waited for me to knock out Dominick.
Under control, I finished closing the distance to Dominick. Grabbing him by the lapels of his expensive button-up shirt, I pulled him closer, half off the bench. He cried out as his bleeding legs moved and I grinned. “You probably should have done what you were told.” I pulled back my right arm and backed the punch with my anger, infusing my frustration through the contact.
The three punches I used to knock him out felt good while also feeling wrong. I wasn’t sure I could explain the conflict of emotions as he sagged in my hands because of what I’d done. I had to remind myself of the things he’d admitted and the things I’d never know to assuage my remorse. Fighting was a way of life for me, but only when both people agreed and participated. It took everything in me to do what I just did to an unarmed and temporarily disabled person. No matter how evil he was.
My dad had taught me to watch out for people weaker than myself. Beating my uncle went against that, even though he severely deserved to get his ass kicked.
Gray slid the top of the basket off. The large piece of white canvas moved easily to the side, hanging over the top bar of the frame. A layer of dirty towels lined the bottom of the basket.
With one hand gripping Dominick’s shirt and grabbing at the thigh area of one leg, I hefted Dominick into the basket and let his body tumble onto the towels.
Pure satisfaction at the sight of him contained consumed me. In that moment, we weren’t finished. We hadn’t won anything. But he was contained. He couldn’t hurt anyone for the immediate future and I held onto that comforting thought.
“I…” But Danielle stopped talking from behind Maria.
“If you want to join him, by all means. Keep talking.” Maria glanced over her shoulder at her sister with a sickly sweet smile that didn’t hide her promise of vengeance very well.
Gray moved to Vlasi’s feet, gripping his ankles and smiling encouragingly at me. She had no idea how hot she was with her impishly spiked hair and her makeup setting off the blue in her eyes. The muscles in her arms moved. We’d get through that. We had to.
“If you can get the torso, I’ll do the legs.” She wrinkled her nose and I couldn’t stop grinning.
I didn’t have to lose her. She wasn’t going with Dominick. She wasn’t going to sacrifice herself.
Stooping, I grabbed under Vlasi’s armpits, hefting the majority of his weight to waist level. Together we maneuvered the dead man’s body into the basket. He landed on Dominick who didn’t flinch.
Danielle had stopped struggling against Maria’s hold. She sagged limply against her sister and watched me with a different level of respect than she’d ever had before. “You’re just like him. He’s ruthless.”
Her words were like a slap to the face with a metal glove.
Before I could move forward to refute her words, Gray stepped around me and got close to her aunt and mom. Her words filled the silence of the locker room with a soft steeliness no one would dare argue against. “Stryker is nothing like Dominick. If you’d open your eyes, you’d see what that man has done.” Gray studied Danielle and then shook her head. “But you won’t. You’ve damned yourself as surely as he’s damned.”
Maria reached up and gripped her sister’s chin in white knuckled fingers. “You’re going to walk alongside us as we leave this building with a smile on your face and hold your shit together, or I’m going to kill Dominick. Do you understand? I will kill him, Danielle.”
Danielle pulled back, studying her sister as if searching for a break in her control, but found nothing to hold onto. As if sensing this was her last chance, she nodded slowly and stood, her legs visibly shaking. “I’ll do it. Just promise you won’t hurt him.”
Controlling Danielle was going to be easier than I thought.
Now all we had to do was get out to the van, load up and get everyone out of there. I’d miss my fight with Blaze, but I could catch up with him any time. And I had no doubt I’d catch up to him. He and I had some shit to pound out of each other – namely me beating him into a bloody mass.
You didn’t touch Gray without getting my revenge brought down full force. Not when I cared about her as strongly as I did.
Chapter 23
Gray
We pushed the laundry cart from the locker room, our eyes shifting all over the place. I stared above the heads of the few people we passed, unable to describe anyone in the hallway. I didn’t stand too close to Stryker in case my fear of getting caught stood out.
Black SUVs had been parked at the curb in the parking lot of the school. A large white van without windows in the back parked beside the trees I’d met Chris in. With its rear backed up toward the trees and the dark interior, anything was possible inside.
Each breath I took was loud and focused. Could anyone else hear me? I swear my thoughts were broadcast on my face and in the way I moved.
We had a dead body in the laundry basket on top of a man we had essentially kidnapped. The bodyguards associated with either man were mere feet from us as we passed by, rolling the basket over the concrete squa
res of the walkway. Each time the caster wheels hit a groove between blocks, my heart wanted to stop. We were sure to get caught. Sure to be shot right there where we walked.
Someone had to know what was happening. Someone. Each breath fit one step. I glanced at Stryker who had a hand on the corner of the basket as he and Maria rolled it forward. Danielle’s forced smile seemed natural as she nodded and acknowledged kids who walked by or someone from the community said hello to her.
“Where are you going with the laundry, Danielle?” A man with gray coveralls stopped us, his hand on the metal frame of the basket beside the flag pole. He studied Danielle and then looked at me, Stryker, and Mom in turn. “If you need it emptied, I’d be happy to do that in the back.” He leaned down, bracing his hands on the edge beside Stryker as he prepared to push the basket back the way we had come.
I widened my eyes, staring intently at Danielle. She didn’t flinch, smiling as she waved a hand toward the parking lot. “Steve, you’re such a hard worker. You always go above and beyond. Actually, I’m taking it to get a surprise for the winning team. We’re supposed to get a shipment of new boxing bags and gloves and whatever else Spalding is sending from that van over there. FedEx is doing a special delivery. I’ll put it right back when I’m done. Thank you.” She reached out, pushing the basket with a commanding pressure and Steve backed up, nodding.
“Okay, that sounds good. The fights are really good. I’m looking forward to the championship in a few hours.” He nodded briefly at each of us and gave us room to pass.
I hadn’t realized I was holding my breath until he walked about ten steps behind us and we’d reached the end of the line of black SUVs. I blew my breath out on a whoosh.
My shoulders sagged forward and I pressed my fingers on my temples. If I didn’t look older than my age yet, this day would accomplish that pretty fast.
“We’re fine, everyone. Just keep going. No one suspects anything.” Stryker’s tone was calming as he moved us forward. He must have chosen the white van by the trees since there were no other vans in the parking lot. Well, except for a green minivan, but with the yellow fuzzy dice hanging from the rearview mirror I had a feeling that wasn’t the vehicle we were looking for.
“What are we supposed to do when we get there? I mean, where are we taking them?” We had a dead body and someone I wished was dead. What could we possibly do with either?
Plus, in all honesty, Danielle was worthless. She was so tied up in Dominick, she could be the female version and that was being nice because she was a relative.
I still wasn’t sure what to make of Mom. I knew what I wanted to believe. I wanted to believe that she was all the things her actions claimed, but when it came right down to it, she’d still left me. She’d still abandoned me when she could have taken me with her. She didn’t have to go in after Danielle and she knew what it was like to live with Dad. Why would anyone leave someone like that on purpose?
The early afternoon didn’t care that it was supposed to be midday. Heavy fall clouds hung in the sky, giving the lighting an evening feel. Anything was possible when the weather had no idea what it was doing.
No one answered my question as we got closer and closer to the van. I had no idea what we were going to do and that made me more anxious than the thought of walking around with two bodies in a basket.
Stryker pulled on the frame as we reached the part of the sidewalk that trailed behind the van. He jammed his foot in front of the wheel closest to him to stop the rolling cart from going anywhere. Rapping his knuckles on the rear window of the van, Stryker glanced around as if someone was watching.
And let’s be honest, most likely there were a lot of someones watching since Danielle was with us and she had no reason to be anywhere but where Dominick had sent her. Not to mention, from what I understood, Mom was Dominick’s property, too. Wherever she was, he had to be. Why weren’t the two women being asked about him?
Probably because they didn’t believe that either of the women could ever take things into their own hands and free themselves from Dominick’s rule. Why would any man in a misogynistic world believe a woman could do anything for herself? That was one thing I’d learned from my dad. You didn’t have to be a man or a woman to be lazy. Anyone could succeed at that, just like anyone could succeed when they put in enough effort.
The back doors opened silently and Gunner jerked his chin at Stryker, glancing curiously at me and the other two with us. His eyes lit on the basket and he stepped out of the back of the van, revealing my dad in handcuffs lying on the floor in the fetal position. He wasn’t moving or speaking.
As much as I hated what he was going to do to me – trade me in to pay off his debt and to save himself – I still couldn’t help being upset that he was in that position. I glanced at Stryker, pressing my lips together and keeping my exclamations to myself.
Nothing was going to be easy, but I had to refuse to let myself pay for my dad’s choices anymore. It wasn’t my job. I had to let him learn. And if he died because he hadn’t learned before this that gambling wasn’t the way to go, then so be it. Some people refused to learn. I wasn’t one of them and I shouldn’t have to be punished because of it.
Gunner pulled the basket closer to the rear opening of the van and looked across the top at his cousin. “So, what’s going on? I feel like I missed a lot following this douche.” He glanced quickly at me, raising an eyebrow and muttering, “Sorry, Gray,”
I shrugged. “He is a douche. Sorry you had to douche sit.”
Gunner’s side grin at least made me feel a little bit better, like maybe every piece of me hadn’t been broken. Maybe there was something worth saving after all, if I was able to bring a smile onto Gunner’s face. I’d have to remember I could do that when he found out about the awful things Dominick had done.
Gunner reached into the back of the van, grabbing my dad’s shirt as if to drag him from his mobile cell.
Stryker reached out and put a hand on Gunner’s arm, shaking his head. “We’re not taking him. He’s staying in there.”
I snapped my gaze to Stryker’s. “What do you mean?” Why would my dad stay in the van when we were trying to get rid of the bodies or at least one body and blame it on Dominick?
Stryker glanced at Mom and then back at me. He kept his mouth closed and I wanted to scream at him for being the strong silent type at the most inopportune times.
Mom cleared her throat and glanced meaningfully in Danielle’s direction. Did that mean I should wait until Danielle had left? I wasn’t sure what was going on. “Let’s load up the other two and I’ll explain.”
Stryker nodded, avoiding my gaze and I didn’t like that even a tiny amount. He was keeping secrets now? When did that start and what did they have to do with my dad? I already knew all the bad stuff about my parents. Why did Stryker think he had to hide more about my father from me?
I nodded to let them know I wasn’t going to stand in their way, but the hardness in my gaze promised I also wasn’t going to stand by without answers either. I could wait. It’s not like they were going anywhere.
With the backdoors open fully, we were blocked from view from the SUVs and all the other vehicles and potential onlookers at the school.
Mom pulled the top canvas back and Gunner reeled up at the sight of Vlasi’s dead body and Dominick’s unconscious one twisted together. He lifted his questioning gaze toward Stryker. “Are they both dead?”
Stryker shook his head, swallowing hard. “No. Just the Russian.”
Gunner reached in, grabbing Vlasi by the armpits and hustling him up as Stryker grabbed him by the waist. Together they moved him unceremoniously into the back of the van, letting his weight fall to the rubber mat. The crochet needle hit the floor and pushed upwards more through his neck, the other end protruding half an inch through the back.
I looked away. I might have done that, but I wasn’t proud of it and it wasn’t something I wanted to think about. At all.
“What’s the de
al with Dominick?” Gunner shoved Vlasi’s legs into the back and to the side to make sure he didn’t get stuck in the doors when they closed.
Stryker took a deep breath, his muscular chest rising as he did so. I won’t even try to lie and say that I didn’t notice the outline of his body in the clothes he wore. I just wanted to run from the entire situation with his hand in mine and have a do over of our time in his room or the bunker. Anything. Just a connection with him to solidify that it wasn’t a lost part of my past.
“Honest moment you need to be prepared for…” Stryker studied Gunner, unaware of my lascivious thoughts as he faced dealing with telling his cousin the truth about his father. Gunner’s eyes didn’t stray from Stryker’s face as he waited. Stryker continued, “Dominick admitted, almost bragged about killing mine and Brock’s dads. He hired Tiny…” He blinked and reached out, resting a hand on Gunner’s arm. “He… Well, he killed your dad and made it look like a suicide.”
The words were harsh and blunt but there was no other way to reveal something like that. No other way to expunge your uncle’s suicide and declare it a death. No other way to make sure your cousin understood that he wasn’t the reason his dad had died, that he could get rid of the mindset that he wasn’t enough for his dad to stick around for. No, all Stryker had to do was shift the blame from Gunner for his father’s death to the rightful owner – Dominick.
The truth hit Gunner like a bolt of lightning. He jerked straight up, staring at Stryker as he processed what he’d been told. He licked his lips and tears welled in his eyes, tears I didn’t begrudge him – no one did.
“Look, let’s get him loaded. If you drop his head, I won’t even notice.” Stryker moved to the basket, ignoring Danielle’s indignant gasp. “But we need to get him loaded before someone notices that he’s gone and we were the last ones to see him.”
Her Champions: A high school bully romance (Bad Boys of Jameson High Book 3) Page 20