“Put a hand on her and I’ll lay you out.”
“Xan,” Cat nearly sobbed his name in relief.
“Oh, how chivalrous of you,” Tony laughed. “But also quite stupid to think you can come and go as you please. Have I taught you nothing?”
“You did, and more than you think; for example: never arrive at a party empty handed.” He smiled coldly at the man whom he had been delusional enough to consider his savior.
“I wouldn’t,” Gabriel’s quiet warning stopped Tony as he reached under his jacket.
Catalina’s knees threatened to buckle after she realized he was probably carrying a gun.
“Xan here would love nothing more than to wipe the floor with Mr. Forley and rip you a new one, Boden, while I would probably enjoy a bit too much putting one or two holes in you myself. By all means; feel free to make us prove it to you.” There was nothing friendly in Gabriel’s smile and Cat thought this was the side of him she had never witnessed before and all she could feel was gratitude for that.
“Hands behind your head!” Gabe snarled and all of a sudden the darkened interior burst with police.
Xan moved so fast all Cat saw was a blur of motion, heard an audible crack and a moment after, Tony was on the floor.
“He should be happy it ends only in a dislocated jaw,” he said vehemently, looking at Gabriel as if daring him to make a big deal out of it.
“Considering all you told me on the way here… I agree.” He nodded. “Sweep the whole place. Start upstairs from his office,” he ordered as officers slapped handcuffs on the two men. “That should give you enough time to collect any personal items from the place,” he said and for the first time there was nothing but a total understanding when they looked at each other.
“Right after you are done, of course,” he muttered when Xan enfolded Cat in his arms as if he were not planning on letting her out of his sight ever again.
If anyone were to ask about Gabriel’s opinion, it didn’t seem like Catalina would protest the concept overly much.
EPILOGUE
Three days later, Catalina was utterly consumed in admiring a sparring session between Xan and Noah… through her lens. She tried to pace herself and take only the most intriguing shots, capture the best angles, but she felt like a starved woman placed in front of a buffet.
There was literally no bad angle and no bad picture when she was depicting Xan.
Yes, she realized she might not be the least biased person in the world, but she deserved some leniency in the light of the recent events.
Facing Xan’s past, her grandmother, and Tony on top of that, took a heavy toll on both of them, but she wanted to believe the hardest part was behind them. She didn’t dare say it out loud because life had a funny way of taking such statements as a challenge. And they could use some time without any dare coming their way, she decided.
She raised her Canon for what felt like the hundredth time, feeling as if she were having a workout of her own.
She took another picture when Xan was telling Dragon that learning to accept the fact of being beat up every now and then would make it much easier on him when it actually happened.
She tried to stay on the sidelines and not intrude as much as possible because she understood Noah was having a hard time getting back in the saddle after his last fight ended so catastrophically for him.
Catalina knew that it was a lesson Xan had learned intimately more than once himself. Acceptance was the last word she would use in order to describe her warrior when she first met him, yet now she could clearly see it in him.
Acceptance along with a strong mind, she thought.
He wasn’t the kind of man to give up after a rough day; he made promises to keep them, not to use them as a springboard for creating excuses. He held himself accountable and persevered through the obstacles that were trying to stop him from reaching his goals.
But he wasn’t the only one who had changed, she decided, taking a few more shots.
She had stepped so far out of her comfort zone since that night at the club where she took his first picture that she could barely recognize herself.
The very same club that was shut down now and its owner was facing very serious charges.
She sat next to Xan in Gabriel’s office while her friend was taking their statement. His every word when he was describing the events of the last twelve years of his life was forever etched into her heart like shards of glass. And he was not the only one who had been lured into joining the club under similar circumstances. Noah had a similar experience and Cat could bet more fighters would step out of shadows to tell their stories.
She understood Xan’s forced stay in the club better than she would have liked. Catalina knew how it felt when someone did all in their power to root out even the slightest indication of independence, stifle every bit of freedom a person would gain.
A cage was a cage, no matter if it might look gilded on the outside just like hers did.
Yet Xan didn’t allow any of it to warp him: not his father’s sociopathic behavior, not Tony Boden’s ill-understanding of ways in which loyalty was built.
Maybe her friendship with Gabriel Mercer was never going to be the same as before, but she knew he was a man of his word and she could count on him. No matter what the future brought, she would never forget he crossed the lines for them, allowing Xan to get his things from the club so he wouldn’t get mixed up with all that went down after that. It was the best gift he could have ever offered them.
Yes, she could count on him while so many others would turn their back on her in the blink of an eye. Some of them already did, she thought, remembering Chloé and even Florence.
‘Their loss’, she recalled Xan’s words.
Was it surprising she was madly in love with him? She smiled to herself, pushing the shutter of her camera time after time.
They all had their inner demons trying to hold them back on a day-to-day basis, but now she knew that having someone who fought next to her made everything more bearable.
“Hey Cat.” She lowered her Canon to smile at Kelton when he called out her name.
“You are not joining them today?” She asked curiously.
“Not today; watching is sometimes more educational than participating.” There was laughter in his voice and she looked at him questioningly.
“How come?”
“Take you and your love affair with this camera for example.” He chuckled while she frowned. “I would have never imagined a photographer could make love through the lens of her tool of trade. See? Educational.” He grinned at her and she blushed.
“Don’t let Xan hear you; he is already full of himself,” she teased.
“I wonder why that might be.” He smirked making her laugh.
“Flirting with my woman again?” Xan wiped his face with a white towel, walking toward them.
“She’s so cute, I can’t stop myself,” Kel said and she rolled her eyes.
“Can’t blame you.” The look he sent her couldn’t be considered anything other than wicked.
He bent his head to brush his lips across her mouth.
“Have I told you that I love you today?” It was funny how he guarded himself against the words and feelings before her, Xan thought.
However, it only made him appreciate more what he had now. Cul-de-sac had elicited plenty of emotions in him and most were of a bad kind, but he could never really hate the place since it also brought Catalina into his life.
No, he wouldn’t change even one single thing from his past if it meant altering the present with her.
“I love you too.” Her lips were smiling and pliant under his when he pulled her toward the locker room.
“They are starting again,” Dragon complained. “I didn’t even get a chance to ask her if I am going to make at least one of those pictures.”
“There might be a very slight chance, but I wouldn’t count on it much,” Kel chuckled, looking after the couple.
&nbs
p; THE END
Footnotes
1. (MMA) Mixed martial arts is a full-contact combat sport that allows the use of both striking and grappling techniques, both standing and on the ground, from a variety of other combat sports and martial arts.
2. (adj) Anything that is perceived as "upscale" from a blue-collar point of view. 'Bougie' (pronounced boo'-she) is a hacked truncation of the word Bourgeoisie, which refers to the middle-class in Europe, but refers to a more affluent class level in the United States.
CUL-DE-SAC (On The Edge Book 1) Page 41