by Wyatt, Dani
That day kept playing inside Flynn’s head as he took the turn toward Southside. How many months ago was it? Three. He knew that much.
First it had been the kiss, their first kiss. Then as quickly as the magic came, it disappeared. There was nothing in this life that didn’t get punished sooner or later — even a moment as perfect as that kiss.
Flynn still remembered the look on his father’s face when he pushed through the music room doors and saw Flynn and Lilly locked against the wall. He’d stood with a smile, arms crossed as the black-suited Neanderthal held Flynn by the neck on the floor.
“Kill me, you fuck. If you’re going to do it, fucking do it,” Flynn choked out as his hands fought the pressure on his windpipe.
The other black suit stood over him, a sleek, cold, black handful of steel aimed at his head.
“It wasn’t her. It was me. I pushed her, she fought me. Leave her!” Flynn struggled against the pressure to get the words out as Colin moved toward Lilly.
Her eyes were dead again. The blaze of life and fire gone, her face slack and cold as she stared at Colin.
Flynn watched his father’s mouth and knew what that smile meant. He had seen it hundreds of times and he twisted on the floor, flinging his legs upward to latch around the neck of the machine that held him.
It was too late. Colin’s smile never wavered as he brought his arm around in a sweep that ended with a crushing smack that sent Lilly’s hair flying into her mouth and over her eyes.
“No!” Flynn flipped the body of the black suit off balance, sending him toppling to the floor in a heap of 350 pounds.
Lilly’s ivory cheek blistered into red as she lifted her head and stared back at Colin as though he had just delivered her flowers.
“Thank you, Sir, may I have another?”
The sound of the second blow exploded in the tall plaster ceiling of the elegant room.
Colin was still smiling when Flynn got to his feet and turned to face the barrel of a gun.
Lilly blinked once as blood trickled from her bottom lip. Her eyes giving nothing back but defiance.
“Get him out.” Colin tilted his head toward Flynn. “Take him down to Rosemont and Cass. Drop him there.” Colin took out his white handkerchief and wiped his hand as if smacking Lilly had left some unpleasant residue.
“Don’t fucking touch her again. I’ll end your useless life, you fuck.” Flynn pressed his forehead against the gun barrel, grabbing onto it with both hands, baring his teeth as he felt the fire of his rage explode from his lungs.
“Don’t come back. You can see what it’s like on your own. See what it’s like to live without the privileges you’ve undeservedly been given. You will see what your life would have been like with that whore, crackhead of a mother. Go —” He waved his hand. “Get him out. Tell security to change the gate and house codes, re-key the locks. They can call me in my office to verify.”
Flynn jerked and swung as the two men grappled with him, he became the Tasmanian devil until they both released him and came back with guns at his head.
Colin took Lilly’s arm without looking back, pulling her out the double doors onto the terrace, her hair still across her face and two red circles of blood soaking her soft yellow sweater.
***
Three months gone since that day Colin had kicked him out. During those three months, Flynn had trained and fought and fallen in line, as much as he'd hated himself for doing it. It wasn't long before Colin was calling him to fight again, to use his fists to collect from the poor souls that dared not fulfill their debts with the devil.
Soon after that, they pulled him even farther back in; had him spending time at the house, but always sending him away like a stray dog when they were done.
But at least it had kept her closer, and he’d been willing to do anything to spend any moments of his life nearer to her.
He shook his head, trying to stop the memory from playing over and over. He was taking the last turn toward the Southside gym and he needed to shut down. Do his job.
He was once again entrenched in a life with people he hated, this time sequestered in the guest house as he reverted back to doing family business as if nothing had changed.
But, the deep pulling scar tissue on his chest reminded him just how much had changed.
***
Flynn pulled up behind the crumbling building with the chipped, white painted ‘Southside Gym’ sign on the brick high above the parking lot, dragging himself from the memories of how he got from that first kiss to today.
Colin kept Lilly at a distance, never mentioning the kiss to Flynn again.
But, the consequences were clear. If he dared step over the line again, the punishment would not be ex-communication, it would be far more painful and potentially permanent. He’d discovered just how real that was the night he decided his life was forfeit and he sat watching her sleep waiting for her to scream.
The future had never been a consideration before. Now, he was ready to fight for a future.
With her.
Free from them.
Flynn shook his head, reached to grab the gym bag in the passenger seat and took a long, slow breath. Whether allowing him to come home had been a decision to suit some plan of his father’s devious design or if it marked some shred of decency rarely ever seen, mattered not.
Flynn’s objective remained the same. He wanted Lilly in every way. Just thinking of her turned his flow of blood downward, and he needed to walk into the gym focused and without a half-hard cock in his shorts.
The gym was an old, has-been kind of place. Flynn’s job was to train every day, keeping an eye on Topher’s investment until he took ownership when the fading owners failed to pay up their markers.
Flynn did as expected.
Not out of some fierce loyalty but because it kept him connected to her. Without his compliance, he would be out, completely and without some glimmer of hope. Flynn could not bear to think of a life with no chance to bring his soul back to her.
It was just a kiss.
Those words became his obsession because they were the truth and the lie at the same time. A paradox that teased and twisted in his gut until he felt like his skin would peel from his body.
Keeping Flynn on lowly watch duty at some gym where no one was anyone anymore was just another way to show him how far he’d fallen. While Gideon moved with Colin above the mess of their street business, Colin made sure Flynn walked in the muck with the other dogs, reminding him of where he came from and where he belonged.
Flynn didn’t give a shit. The nights in the guest house brought him one step closer to her. The place shadowed by the house where she slept held him at night while he wove the details of her into his dreams. There was a way, a way to her, he wouldn’t give up until he took his last breath.
The dump of a gym seemed to be just what Flynn needed right now. These old has-beens were so out of touch, they had no idea who was who in the fighting world. It kept him anonymous.
That felt comfortable, easy. Roger met him at the ring, a once proud Golden Gloves hero, who now looked like he’d been left out in the rain beside a dumpster for too long.
But, dude had chops. He sized up Flynn and put him through his paces. After banging on the bag and a young hopeful who ended up leaving the ring with his head in his hands, Flynn felt something akin to human again.
“Where you been fighting?” The old man knew better than to think Flynn was just some lucky talent out of some basement somewhere.
“I’ve been living around. Florida, then I was in Texas for a while. I didn’t fight anywhere you’d know.”
“Uh. Well…” Roger squinted his eyes and sucked in on his teeth. “You got something. You outta shape and that—” He tipped his head at the jagged pink and silver line that ran over his chest. “— you gonna have to work that chest out. I’ll post a weight schedule for you. Stretch. You better stretch the ass out of that scar or it’s gonna pull at you. Keep your muscles from coming
back. I don’t ask, but something you hopefully got settled. I don’t need trouble. Why you not fight over at the gym by O’Leary’s? You gotta know some of your folks there — your name. You not part of that group over there?”
Roger reached under the chair where he sat watching Flynn in the ring, took a long draw out of a water bottle on some liquid that sure didn’t look like water.
“Naw. No trouble. I’m just trying to find a place to settle, ya know? I don’t know anyone in town. So, I don’t know what you mean about my people, but no. No trouble, man. Just here to fight.”
Even from his place in the ring, Flynn could smell the sharp scent of whiskey as Roger let out a long breath.
“All right. I’ll put you on the schedule. You wanna get back in shape, you needa be here six days at least. Weights, stretches, sparing, bags — I’ll train you, but you gotta do what I tell you. I’m not here to fuck around. I’m too old to babysit. You wanna win, you do what I tell you. Easy.”
Flynn swung his arms in a huge arc, wincing as the muscle in his chest pinched and stung with the movement as he watched the old man fill out a sheet on a clipboard.
“Imma set you up with Lincoln tomorrow. See whatcha got. He’s no more than you can handle, but with whatever you got going on there, you gonna have to bring your game. You not too old yet. You got it, I can see that. But, you don’t have time to fuck around, kid. Life’s short, I know. You don’t grab it by the balls and take what you want, life’s a fucker. It don’t wait for no one.”
With that, the old man took another long draw on his ‘water’ bottle and limped off, his cane scraping and his left foot dragging.
“Okay then.” Flynn shook his head.
Crooked old dude made him smile. Something he didn’t remember doing for a while.
Picking up the workout sheet Roger had left behind before shambling away, Flynn took note of its scrawled training plan and made his way to the weight room, then back to the bags. Two hours and one hot shower later, the ranting voices in his head had quieted.
Of course, he kept his eyes open; he still had a job to do here. He took a mental tally of who came and went. The gym was tired. Only a couple older guys muddled around the whole time Flynn was there. Except one guy. Definitely a fighter. Big ass dude, tats, and he gave Flynn a glare that would skin a damn cat. He walked through like he owned the place. In contrast, the old dude just gave him a sidelong glance as he walked next to a sweet-looking girl wearing a Southside T-shirt.
Never mind. Flynn shook the last of the shower off his wet hair and headed out the back door.
Jesus, I fucking needed that. I haven’t felt this damn good in a fucking long ass time. I never expected her. That’s why I’ve been so fucking blindsided. Never. Me. Feeling. Fuck.
Outside, the back parking lot cracks were filled with weeds, dying in the cooler fall weather. Just a few cars dotted here and there and any of them could have been abandoned there years ago. In this part of town, you didn’t take too much time getting to your car, especially one that stood out like the damn President’s Security One.
I gotta get my fucking Bronco out of storage. Fuck this. I’m not driving this totem around with a target on my ass. Besides, I fucking know they have a damn Lo-jack on every car in the family fleet. They aren’t going to track my ass.
One of many things a good workout did for Flynn was clear his damn head. Flynn felt a focus lost for too long, restored.
What the fuck. No more waiting. No more excuses.
He wasn’t going to end up some drunk with a limp in a shitty gym somewhere telling a kid that life was short.
Flynn had dodged the Grim Reaper twice in the last month. If he didn’t wake the fuck up, she might be gone next time.
Tonight. Now or fucking never, man. Time isn’t your friend, and she doesn’t think she has any. I can’t just be her friend, but I will be her everything else. Just gotta figure out how to fucking get to her without ending up on a slab like last time.
Chapter Thirteen
“How’s the work?” Colin cut into his nearly raw lamb chop.
“On schedule.” Lilly answered. It was the same conversation every night.
She blew out a breath, watching him put the raw, pink meat between his lips. It took her a long second to get her stomach to give her the go ahead to say anything else.
“Good. I’m very pleased with your work ethic. You truly are a genius of an order I’ve not experienced before. This is new ground for the family. You will usher us all into a world of legitimacy and a level of wealth that will give us a position of power that has eluded us. I’m quite enthused.”
You look it.
“Well, I’m just happy to be a cog in the wheel of such an honorable undertaking.”
Colin tapped his knife on the edge of the porcelain plate, staring her down.
For a second, Lilly could hear her mother’s voice. Urging her to yield to the tradition, to find something to love, or even like about her soon-to-be husband.
If he never opened his mouth, he would be nice to look at. I’ll give him that. Older, sure. But god, when he starts to talk, everything that could be considered attractive evaporates like mist off a bog. How could I have been so naive? So fooled by him all those visits back home. Was I so superficial I was swept off my feet by a complete lunatic? A sociopath in an Armani suit? No. He was different then. He played his part so well; he truly is a sick man.
“Why do you think our families make arrangements such as ours?” Colin set down his fork and knife, his hands folded casually across his dark suit.
“Is this a trick question?” Lilly stabbed at her flavorful iceberg lettuce, putting a larger than polite gob into her mouth with an overzealous “ummmmm” while staring back at Colin.
Her mother’s voice echoed again in her head, telling her to play nice, to try to make it work, for all of them.
Colin let out his usual sigh of irritation, and she felt the skin on the back of her neck tighten.
“All right. You and I, we have a job to do. Your intelligence precludes you from accepting your fate and quietly enjoying the privileges it would provide. You are far from a naive village girl, gleeful to be living in such luxury without a thought as to what you may have to give in exchange. So, here is my suggestion, for tonight, lay down your arms and I will do the same. Ask me what you will. I will answer you, and let us try to find a civil place where we can dwell for the next twenty years as husband and wife. What is it you want?”
Lilly felt the heat rising in her cheeks.
This was new, but she bore no new trust from this suggested offer of a truce. Still, she was intrigued, and her mind scurried around thinking of how to approach this new battlefield.
“Okay. I’ll bite. Why do we have to get married? I mean, I can do the work, finish your project without the marriage. It’s superfluous.”
Colin looked bored already.
“Your father and I have an agreement. That is why. In our own way, we are honorable men. He wants you here —” Colin waved a hand toward the crystal chandelier and hand-painted Italian fresco that covered the domed plaster ceiling of the enormous dining room. “— secure within the family. He thinks it is what is best for you and all of us. Bringing our families together can only help us all prosper. For too many years, we worked against each other. Now, working together, everyone will prosper.”
“Everyone?”
“Yes. Everyone, including you. You are a valuable asset. An asset that with our union will free my family from a long-standing debt with yours. Mistakes were made. Debts owed.
“It was before my time, but that doesn’t make it not so. By taking you as my wife, Topher agrees to clear the debt — the mistake — and all of us can move on. Besides, he does not have the same connections and, shall we say, sophistication to pull off such a legitimate business venture. The development of this new software will create a chain of events that, hopefully, results in an IPO that should solidly place us in the field of legitim
ate legal gambling. A social network megaplex for online bets, from weekly football to online poker. With your genius, it will launch us into another world.”
“So, all those times you came to visit. All the flowers and gifts, the promises to my mother, none of that meant anything to you. It was all just part of the game. You need me to clear your family debt, whatever that is, and my father needs you to bring him into the twenty-first century. So, I get ignored for the first 16 years of my life, then, when I show some monetary value, suddenly everyone wants a piece of me. I feel so loved.”
“And you need me to give you the one thing you want most.”
“The thing you promised to give her when I got on that plane and agreed to marry you. Well, someone who looked like you at least. Because, we both know, whoever that was who courted me, made all those visits and promises, that wasn’t you.”
“I haven’t broken my promise. I have simply delayed its execution. And, the longer you take to complete your part of the terms, the more likely it will be that your mother will die without ever receiving what I offered.”
“Yes, but the ‘terms’ changed when I got here. And so did you.”
“Well, we are where we are, Lilly. Just finish the job. You have not exactly been the smiling, gracious country girl I first met either.” Colin turned from indifferent to annoyed. “I will pay for your mother’s treatment, just as I said I would. Set her up with the best of the best. You are the one who holds her fate in your hands. Finish the work. And all— ”
He apparently became too bored to even finish the sentence. All this civility obviously wearing him out. He picked up his fork and stabbed another pink morsel of lamb, and Lilly swallowed the rush of sick heat.
Deep breath. Go. This one’s for you, Mom.
“Okay. I get it,” Lilly said.
She felt the wheels grinding inside her head, but she could feel the iron door was still open a crack.
“I haven’t given you the best of me,” Lilly went on. “I’ll admit that. I’m not all that easy to get along with, and I’ve been playing the righteously indignant part until I’m even tired of myself. So, I will do my job, as I have been. I’ll stop some of the sniping, the pouting, and indignation. But, I want some more freedom. I mean, you have two cavemen on me like I’m on suicide watch. I do know how to drive, you know. Let me cart myself around now and then — I’ve seen that cavern full of cars. I’ll take the little Nissan. I don’t care about what I drive, but give me a little freedom. Where will I go? To work, then home, work, then home. It’s not like I have an active social life here. You’re pretty much my only friend.”