by Nancy Radke
CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR
Kyle watched Jerry as he put the bad tire in the trunk. “You say you have two fights left on your contract?”
“Yes,” Jerry said, hitting the tire with the jack handle. “ Even if I get out of this one, the next person I fight will probably do the trick.”
“You can demand a rematch, right away. Say that Stormy’s accident caused you to lose your focus.”
“I’ll do that,” said Jerry.
“We could fight the same way. Only this time you’ll announce the presence of the soft spots and that the doctors won’t allow you to box any longer. You’ll officially retire. And I’ll retire and leave the championship open.”
“And marry Stormy,” Jerry said.
“If we can wait that long. So make sure you ask for a quick rematch.”
Hugo laughed. “Keep her with you until after the fight, Kyle. I don’t want anyone seeing her and drawing conclusions.”
“I’ll take granny home with me,” Kyle said. Jerry looked confused, so Kyle explained Stormy’s disguise.
“Oh. I wondered how you got her past the casino area. They have cameras in every place.”
“You’ll have a lot of press around you, Kyle, when you win,” Hugo said. “So I’ll get granny and take her home with me. You can come get her from there.”
Kyle looked at him and smiled. “No. You just take her to the outskirts of town. I’ll meet you and take her from there. To your place if you want to.”
“We’ll ask her. She’ll probably only want to go where you go anyway.”
Jerry agreed. “Stormy’s loyal. And true to her word. Once she decides you’re worthy, she’ll stick with you through anything. But should you wait until after the fight to take her out of the room? What if the promoters want to come up afterwards?”
“Good point,” Kyle said. “Move her during the fight, Hugo. It’ll be a perfect distraction.”
“If you can think of a way to end it with just this match, the better,” Kyle said. “You don’t want them threatening Stormy or Amy again. And our fights won’t stand up to too much scrutiny.”
“I’ll work on it,” Jerry said. “I just couldn’t think of a way out.”
Hugo got into the car with Kyle and rode the rest of the way to his hotel, which Kyle discovered was at the boxing venue, right next door to where he was staying.
“You said those killers had an accident. What happened?” he asked Hugo.
“They fell.”
“And?”
“Nothing. They won’t bother Stormy again. That’s not to say that some others might not take their place.”
“Remind me not to make you mad at me.”
Hugo chuckled. “I said they had an accident. I wasn’t anywhere around. They made a mechanic angry at them.”
“Oh. Then how do you know...?”
“Joe’s a friend of mine.”
“Then I won’t make your friends angry at me.”
“Just take care of Stormy.”
“With my life.”
“Yes. You’ll do.”
It sounded like Hugo had given his seal of approval on Kyle. It made Kyle feel good.
Hugo got out of the car and Kyle drove the short distance to his hotel. He turned the car over to the valet. Tommy again.
He felt so happy, he gave him a huge tip.
“Wow, Mr. Torrin. Thank you.”
“You do a good job, Tommy. I appreciate it. And don’t throw it away on the tables.”
“I don’t gamble, sir. I’m doing this to earn a college degree. I get enough each season to pay for one year. So I work one year, go to school one year.”
“No student loan?”
“Not for me. You graduate in debt. You can’t afford to marry or get a house, because you have to pay back a debt with interest. I know about money, from working here. You don’t want to be in debt.”
“When you get your degree, Tommy, come see me. I’ll give you a letter of recommendation, or help you however I can.”
“Thanks, Mr. Torrin.”
“Thank you, Tommy. It’s good to see young fellows like you now and then. Too many are looking for the easy way. They don’t want to pay the price. They want someone else to foot the bill.”
“Hard work never hurt anyone,” Tommy said. “This is not really hard work, either.”
“How about the hours?”
“Well, they are long. But the pay is good. And I share an apartment with several other fellows who are doing the same thing.”
“Good luck,” Kyle said as he walked away.
“You make your own,” Tommy said in return.
The crowd that gathered around Kyle as he tried to cross the casino was even greater than before.
The last time he had boxed here, he had tried parking his car himself and riding up the elevator directly to his room. But once the crowd found him, he wasn’t able to get his car out. This arrangement with Tommy kept his car “private” until it was needed.
It took him a half hour to settle people down and get up to his room. Even then some wanted to come in with him.
“Look, fellows, I’ve got a match tomorrow. This is not party night. Clear out. Now.”
“See you tomorrow, Champ.”
“Knock his head off!”
“We’ll party tomorrow night.”
Kyle waited until the hallway cleared, then entered his suite.
He locked the door and looked around. No sign of Stormy. “Stormy,” he said. He walked into her room. There was no sign of her.
CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE
Just as Kyle was beginning to panic, Stormy crawled out from under the bed.
“That was quite a mob out there. I could hear them asking to come inside.”
She reached down and pulled her suitcase out. “The maids are pretty good in this hotel. They even dust under the bed.”
Kyle smiled and gathered her into his arms. “You know, I could get used to this—coming home to you—very easily.”
“I’d be waiting.”
He kissed her then, feeling complete. This was the girl he wanted. He must ask her to marry him. But not now. After the match. If Jerry could fake it well enough, Stormy would no longer be in danger.
Actually, Las Vegas was a good place to get married. He’d do it tomorrow, but he knew that Perri would want to be there. And, he realized, that as much as he wanted to marry Stormy right now, he wanted her to have the white dress and big ceremony with Perri as her matron of honor and Hugo as his best man. They would have to get that planned first. And her friends in Seattle. Some of them would probably want to come.
“What did Hugo want?” Stormy asked, her eyes radiant.
He kissed her again. He could make this a full time job.
“He arranged for me to meet with Jerry.” Kyle smiled as he remembered how Hugo had set up the meeting. “It’s all planned. We box. I don’t hit him in the head. He falls down. I win. He lives.”
She threw her arms around him and kissed him harder. Sir Galahad could get the girl after all.
Kissing in a bedroom. Not smart. He wanted to do a lot more than kissing her. He grabbed Stormy’s hand and pulled her out into the sitting room.
“In return for saving your brother’s life, I want to know all about you. Where you grew up, what things happened to you, and how you learned to swim like a fish.”
“That last is because my feet are hinged right. Look.” She pointed her foot downward. It went beyond straight out. “Most people’s feet pull them down when they kick. Mine act like a dolphin’s tail. The fast swimmers all have ankle joints like mine.”
“Beautiful ankles.” He admired them. “So that’s how you swam so far.”
“Partly. I also know how to relax in the water so I don’t get worn out. Your head is the heaviest. You have to let the water hold your head. And distance swimming requires knowing how to change strokes so you last longer. Part of the reason the Havasu swim was so hard on me was that I did a lot of
it underwater.”
Kyle pointed his foot. It barely went past a 130 degree angle. He could see why he didn’t swim very fast.
“That crowd wants to come in after the fight,” he said, “so Hugo is going to come get you tomorrow night, just as the fight is starting. I expect he’ll take you across to his hotel and keep you there until it’s over. You’ll want to get into your granny wig and be ready to go.”
“Okay.”
“I’ll have to leave early for the weigh-in.”
“I know.”
“Did I tell you, I’m going to retire.”
“You said when you were through boxing.”
“That’s now. I don’t want to do it anymore. This will be my last fight, unless I need to do one more with Jerry to keep him alive.”
She nodded.
He sat down on the couch and patted the spot beside him. “Now tell me about yourself. I have a lot of catching up to do.”
She sat down next to him. “Only if you’ll do the same.”
“Fair enough.” He took her hand in both of his.
“Well, I was born on a small farm near the Tucannon River. We moved to Coeur d’Alene when I was five. I didn’t like being so close to town, but we had a mountain as our back yard, so Jerry and I explored it. That was when mother left us. She said she couldn’t take the ups and downs of prize fighting.”
Kyle could feel the hurt that resounded in her voice after all these years. He pulled her onto his lap and kissed her, feeling her hungry response. How could anyone leave Stormy?
“It wasn’t your fault, you know,” he said covering her face with kisses.
“I know.”
He pulled back and looked her in the eyes. “It really wasn’t. It was your mother’s fault for not being strong enough and caring enough to stay with her family. It wasn’t your fault. You were only a child.”
She looked at him. “I thought that if I had been better, she would have stayed. That I had done something wrong. Dad said it was for the best, but I felt so forsaken.”
He wrapped his arms around her, as if to shield her from the past. “Divorce always hurts the children the most. They don’t understand what is going on.”
“I remember the night she left. I thought she was just going on a trip. They were yelling at each other, and when the cab came, she just walked out.” Stormy hesitated, then slowly added, “She didn’t even say goodbye. She never wrote, or sent a birthday card. She was just...gone.”
Suddenly Stormy started to cry and Kyle just held her. He didn’t know how to comfort her any more than to just hold her. He rocked her back and forth, as he would a child, thinking that she’d feel better if she could release some of that grief.
“Let it out,” he said. As the older sister, she had probably put on a brave front to protect Jerry. He wondered how Elston had handled it. If the way he had put off Stormy’s attempt to rescue Jerry was any indication, he had probably put off Stormy’s need for comfort.
Was this one of the reasons she threw herself into so many causes? She needed people to appreciate her, and to tell her how worthwhile she was?
He didn’t know if that were true, but he could feel the need in her, to be wanted. To be loved. He responded to that need with one of his own. He had so many people who wanted money and help from him, who were just clingers-on, that he’d pushed people away. He’d isolated himself from all but his family on the ranch and his trainer.
He stroked Stormy’s red-gold hair, feeling its silky strands under his fingers. He could picture little Torrin girls looking like her, being the delight of her grandparents’ eyes, having an entire Texas ranch to grow up on.
Stormy would never leave them. She would stick through any crisis.
He recalled what he had thought out at Hugo’s place. She had the spirit of a winner, the heart of a champion. It was a heart he wanted to win.
It would be won with tenderness, he realized. His physical strength did not matter. Stormy needed to be loved and he had a heart filled with love, just waiting to be given to her.
Tonight he would comfort the child. Tomorrow, after the match, he would propose to the woman. And he would never leave her.
The locker rooms were painted white, utilitarian, one for each of the contenders, consisting of a shower area with lockers and an outer waiting, sitting room. They were large rooms, because they were used by rock stars and their bands, and all the other groups who performed at the venue. Kyle knew it well and felt comfortable there.
He sent out the hanger-ons and went into the locker room to suit up. Arne came in to tape his hands for him.
“It’s terrible about Jerry’s sister,” Arne said, shaking his head in sorrow. “I don’t see how Jerry can box today, with her missing. She’s probably dead. She was trying so hard to get this fight stopped. Everybody knew it. I wonder if it really was an accident.”
“It wasn’t an accident,” Kyle told him.
“Oh, no. That’s terrible. Why are you going ahead with the fight? I wouldn’t give those gamblers, or whoever did it, the satisfaction of having won.”
The old man looked genuinely upset, and Kyle smiled at him. “She’s okay, Arne. Just hiding out for awhile.”
“She is? Really?”
“Really.”
“How do you know this?”
“I just left her.”
“You did?”
“Yes. And you were right, Arne. She is very much worth knowing.”
“I still say, she was trying to trick you,” said Leon, as he walked into the locker area, a stack of papers in his hand.
Kyle slipped his hands into his gloves, wondering why Leon was there. “I know better.”
“Just remember my words when Jerry starts pounding on you.”
“What do you need?” Kyle asked, for usually his manager was out handling the media and not back here.
“What do I tell the sports reporters after you win? I know you had mentioned one or two fights more.”
“Maybe one more. Tell them I’ll let them know when I’m retiring. It’ll be soon. I don’t want to keep coming out of retirement to fight. I want to quit while my health and mind is still unaffected.”
“You’ve got a following who wants you to continue.”
“They aren’t in the ring, taking a beating. They’ll find someone else.” Just like he had found Stormy. He was ready to drop prize fighting all together and take up some of her causes. As long as he was with her, he didn’t care what he did. Together, they’d make quite a team.
“I’ll tell ‘em.” Leon left the room and Arne tied on Kyle’s gloves.
Stormy stood in Kyle’s hotel room, transformed into granny, her suitcase packed and ready to go. Hugo had just called her and she waited for his four sharp raps on the door.
The fight was almost ready to begin, so she and Hugo should be able to leave the hotel easily. There, two quick raps followed by two more. She opened the door and stepped out into the hall.
Hugo was dressed in black, his cocky attitude on full display, and Stormy understood why he had won her cousin’s heart. He reached up and adjusted her wig and they walked down the hall and waited at the elevator. The door opened, and three thugs stepped out.
They started to walk down the hall, then one of them said something and they all stopped and turned around.
Hugo stepped up to meet them. “Stormy! Run.”
CHAPTER TWENTY SIX
The elevator was set to open and close slowly, so that even the most elderly had time to get off and on. Stormy didn’t bother to get in it, but instead ran down the stairwell, knowing it was faster. On the second floor, she spotted a room being cleaned and ducked inside.
She pulled off her granny wig, figuring it would hinder her, walked rapidly down the hall and slipped out a side entrance. The back parking lot looked fairly vacant of people and she walked rapidly across it and into the casino where the prize fight was taking place.
She still had the tickets in her purse, s
o she went in and sat next to Amy, figuring no one could get her there with all the cameras on her.
Amy nearly fainted. “Stormy. I heard you were dead!”
“People keep saying that. Mistaken identity, Amy.”
She looked up. From her ringside seat, she could see Kyle as well as he saw her.
How was Hugo? Three against one were not odds she would want and she looked nervously around to see if he had followed her in. She had run because he had told her to. Should she have stayed and tried to help him?
She would probably have ended up being a hostage to be used against him—like happened in the movies. She knew nothing about fighting, and as she had turned the corner into the stairwell, she had glanced back.
Hugo was still on his feet, but one of their attackers was on the floor and another doubled over. The third had pulled a knife.
Should she call the police? She wished there was someone she could ask.
Kyle frowned. He had seen Stormy come into the seating area. She wasn’t wearing her granny wig and Hugo was nowhere in sight. What had happened to change their plans?
He took a right cross to the jaw that just about decked him.
Jerry was fighting as if they hadn’t talked last night. Leon might be right. Maybe that was why Stormy was here—to see her brother win.
It couldn’t be. He pushed the thought away. He had doubted her once. He was not going to do it again. Not after that marathon swim across the lake. Leon had heard wrong.
Kyle backed off from Jerry and looked over at Stormy. He would never leave her. He would never doubt her. If he lost this fight, it didn’t matter. Let Jerry win.
He punched Jerry on the chin and saw him waver, and he wondered if the chin would be okay to hit. It should be. The soft spots would be on the brain. At the same time he saw Stormy wince, as if the blow had hit her. Between brother and sister, he was barely hitting Jerry at all.
Then Jerry increased his flurry of punches. Kyle backed away from Jerry and they danced around the ring for a second. Jerry dove in at him, fists flying and he knocked them away, protecting himself while at the same time landing blows of his own. Body blows.