Stand of Redemption

by Cathryn Williams

  “What do you mean by that?” she asked sharply.

  “You are naïve. Why didn’t Nicholas go to the police? Your friend did. I had to spend quite a bit of money to avoid them searching for you.”

  Ria was shocked. Lacey hadn’t told her she had actually gone to the police. Doubt began to enter her mind, but she pushed it away. Nicholas had felt guilty she had lost her job because of him, hadn’t he?

  She trusted him. They had spent the last two weeks together, drawing closer and spending all their time together whenever he wasn’t at the gym.

  As the lights turned on, illuminating the pit, she stiffened when Nicholas was introduced. He walked out into the spotlight, removing his t-shirt to the cheers and boos of the crowd.

  Angelo walked out next with his arms in the air. He was easily twice Nicholas’s size.

  She scooted forward in her seat when he took off his T-shirt, revealing a muscular chest. Nicholas was muscular but lean compared to the other man. He was going to be hurt. She was unaware of the small whimper passing her lips.

  The two men stepped into the pit, circling each other in the small space. The bell rang, and immediately, Angelo’s fist struck out, hitting Nicholas in the temple. He staggered back, almost falling out of the pit; instead, he used the momentum to come forward, using his fist to hit Angelo in the mouth.

  The fury that she could see emanating from the man didn’t bode well for Nicholas. He began striking Nicholas wherever he could. Nicholas bent over after one to his stomach.

  “You have to stop it!” Ria grabbed Emiliano’s arm.

  “Why? He’s going to win. Watch.”

  Ria turned back to the pit. While Angelo was reacting with bloodlust, Nicholas was remaining calm. He was hitting Angelo with quick jabs on the jaw and temple. Nicholas was coldly beating Angelo’s ass.

  Angelo’s threw a punch at Nicholas, landing on his cheekbone. He returned it with one on the underside of Angelo’s jaw with such force it had him staggering back. Before he could regain his senses, Nicholas struck again in the same spot, and Angelo went down. Ria couldn’t help herself, jumping to her feet, and then jumping up and down.

  The lights came on and two men carried Angelo away as Nicholas left.

  Bets were being taken when Emiliano stood up.

  “You can go down to the changing room to meet him if you wish.”

  Ria stepped away, heading in the direction Nicholas had disappeared.

  “Ria, ask him about Matthew.” Emiliano’s hard face stared at her, and Ria paled.

  Before she could say anything, he turned, walking away, and Mitchell followed, giving her a grim look.

  Ria shakily went down the steps, her mind trying to form some idea of why she should ask Nicholas about Matthew. They couldn’t have known each other, could they? They were just a few years apart in age, but Nicholas had grown up on the other side of town. Did he have a connection with the cartel she hadn’t known about?

  She went down the hallway, seeing several doors. She knocked on three before Nicholas opened the last door, wearing a small towel around his hips.

  “Come in. I won’t be a minute getting dressed.” He walked over to a large table, picking up his slacks.

  Ria watched quietly as he dressed. He only had a small bruise on his cheekbone. He had come out of this fight looking much better than he had the others.

  “I thought he was going to kill you. He was huge.”

  Nicholas grinned at her as he put on his shirt. “That made him slow.”

  He sat down on a bench against the wall, sliding on his shoes. Everything about him screamed money. Ria noticed how happy he looked. Nicholas loved fighting.

  When he finished, he came to her, lifting her in the air and twirling her around.

  “Let’s go celebrate. I gave Emiliano the money, and he agreed to let you go. After we eat, we’ll go by your place and pick up your things.”

  “What money?” Ria frowned.

  “He said if I gave him five hundred thousand dollars, he would let you and your mother go. I fought until I could get my dad to release my money, but I got paid for the commercial and endorsements I signed a few weeks ago, so I didn’t have to wait for the money from him. It’s all over. We can—”

  “He made you give him five hundred thousand dollars for me?”

  Nicholas put her down. “Yes.”

  “Why would you agree to that? You barely know me.”

  While Nicholas’s face became shuttered, Ria’s stomach clenched.

  “Why, Nicholas?” she yelled. “No one would do that. Why didn’t you go to the police? Did you know my brother Matthew?”

  He paled.

  “Nicholas? Please tell me. I don’t understand. Why would you give five hundred thousand dollars to Emiliano for me? It couldn’t be because you felt guilty over me losing my job; you had already straightened that out.” Ria was becoming frightened. She had spent the last weeks with him in her bed. She had been falling in love with him. Now she was finding out he had been keeping something concerning her brother hidden from her.

  He stared back at her, seeing the pain in her eyes. Even if they put him away, it would be easier than keeping it buried inside of him. He had to tell the truth if he wanted any kind of future with her.

  He cleared his throat, trying to find a way to tell her the truth.

  “My mother was killed when I was sixteen,” Nick started at the point his life had changed.

  “I’m so sorry. I assumed she had passed since you never mentioned her,” Ria said sympathetically.

  Nick nodded his head. “She was a school teacher. She loved her job. I remember listening to her stories about the students she had helped out of a rough situation at home. Many of the students came from troubled homes and a lot of violence occurred at the school. My father was always worried, begging her to quit, but she refused.”

  Ria listened quietly as he spoke.

  “The day before she died, her school had been awarded a grant to implement safety measures to reduce the violence in the school. The money would cover a metal detector and called for a policeman to patrol the school for several hours a day. Our family celebrated her success that evening. It is one of my best memories of my childhood. Our family was the happiest we had ever been.”

  Nick saw the tears brimming in Ria’s eyes and knew those tears of sympathy were about to turn to tears of hatred. He continued the story anyway.

  “Before Melanie and I went to bed that night, my mother asked me to pick her up after school the next day. We were going to shop for a spring break trip. After I picked up Melanie, we went into the school to meet our mother. When we walked in, there was a circle of students standing around a fight. I had no intention of getting near it; I was going to stay back with Melanie until it broke up.” Nick took a deep breath. He had relived this moment so many times in his thoughts and nightmares. It was difficult saying it out loud.

  When Ria reached out, squeezing his hand, Nicholas looked down at their joined hands.

  “I’ve always been taller than most other people my age, so I was able to see over the crowd. I was able to see my mother running from the hall on the other side. She was running to break up the fight. I don’t know where the hell any of the male teachers were, and I don’t know what possessed my mother to think she could stop a fight between two boys, but I could see that was what she was going to do. I hesitated, not wanting to leave Melanie, but I could see she was going to try to break it up. I waited too long.” His face was a tortured mask.

  Ria ached for the young boy that Nicholas had been to witness his mother endangering herself.

  “I ran through the kids to try to stop her, but I was a few seconds too late. One of the boys had a knife. He was swinging it around to kill the other boy, but instead, my mother was stabbed. It went straight into her side and into her heart.”

  “Oh, my God, that’s horrible,” Ria exclaimed. She held his hand tighter.

  “Melanie and I watched ou
r mother bleed to death,” he said.

  “Oh, no,” Ria said to him. “I’m so sorry you had to go through that.”

  “After we watched her take her last breath, I looked for the boy that killed her and looked him in the eyes. He showed no remorse and no indication that he cared for what he had done, so I attacked him. The male teachers finally showed up and pulled me off him. When the paramedics and the police came, he still showed no remorse. The punk wasn’t worth one breath my mother took, and he didn’t even care!”

  Ria’s eyes started to narrow. Nick knew she was finally figuring out where the story was leading. He felt her let go of his hand.

  “You know who it was, don’t you, Ria?”

  Her eyes were wide, and he could see the realization and shock coursing through her body.

  “You killed him,” Ria whispered as she took a step away from him.

  “Yes, Ria. He killed my mother,” Nick said calmly, looking up at her. He expected this reaction from her. He had every belief that she would be reporting him.

  “You had no right! It was an accident. He was just a kid,” she yelled at him.

  “He was a cold-blooded murderer. If he hadn’t killed my mother, he would have killed the other boy. Either way, someone would have died at his hand.”

  “He was only nineteen!” she continued to yell at him.

  “I was only sixteen.” His sharp voice cut through her building hysteria. “And I had just watched someone too old to be in high school kill my mother. When I approached him on the street, he had been selling drugs to kids all day and was high himself. He pulled the knife on me first. If I hadn’t killed him, he would have tried to kill me,” Nick said with force and conviction. He refused to feel guilty for his actions that day. “I didn’t have any type of weapon on me; it was his own knife that led to his death.”

  “You asshole!” Ria screamed and slapped him across the face.

  Nick didn’t try to defend himself.

  “You’ve been fucking me, and you knew all along you had killed my brother!”

  “I know.” His guilt had been eating him alive every day.

  “You know? That’s all you have to say is ‘you know’?” Ria gave a hysterical laugh.

  “I didn’t want these feelings for you. I’ve tried to fight them, but I couldn’t. I knew I should have left you alone once I found out who you were, but I couldn’t.” He gave a harsh laugh. “Then Emiliano took you, and I felt responsible when you told me it was because your brothers weren’t around to protect you,” Nick explained, knowing it wouldn’t matter.

  “Well, I can tell you for damn sure that there would have been nothing between us if you told me the fucking truth!” Ria continued to yell at him.

  “That’s why I hadn’t told you before, but I couldn’t keep it from you any longer,” he said. “You can do what you want with the information; I won’t deny it.”

  Ria stared at him, and he waited for what she would do next. At this point, he didn’t care if he spent the rest of his life in jail; he was tired of carrying around the burden.

  “I hate you,” she snarled at him.

  He hadn’t expected anything different.

  “When I first met you, I didn’t know you were his sister.”

  “But you knew before you fucked me, didn’t you?”

  Nick nodded his head. “Yes.”

  Determined to come clean, he told her the rest. “I was there the day your other brother was killed too.”

  “You know who killed Alejandro?”

  “Yes, I do,” Nick replied.

  “Was it you?” she asked, stunned.

  “No, but I won’t tell you who did it. I was there. I could have stopped it, and I didn’t,” Nick stated. He was the only one going down for that shit. He wasn’t going to ruin anyone else’s life.

  Ria glared at him again. She seemed at a loss, staring at him speechlessly.

  “I’m a lying, deceitful bastard. I’m glad your brothers are dead, but I’m sorry how it affected your life. That’s why I tried to help you. I guess I was trying to redeem myself.”

  “That’s impossible! I will never fucking forgive you, not for taking my brother’s life or for lying to me.”

  There was nothing Nick could say. He watched her walk out the door without shutting it behind her without attempting to follow her. He listened to her heels running down the hallway. He just sat down on the bench, staring at the empty doorway.

  He heard someone approaching, hoping it was her coming back; instead, Emiliano came inside the room.

  “I take it you finally told her the truth.”

  “You knew?”

  “Of course. I’ve always known. Do you not remember me?”

  Nicholas stood up, facing him, staring at his vaguely familiar face. It took him several minutes to remember.

  “Jesus.”

  “Yes, thankfully for me, He intervened that day, sparing me, but taking your mother instead.”

  “Why would Matthew try to kill you?”

  “He was a hot-head. He did not care about anyone but himself. I made him angry, and he reacted by trying to kill me. Your mother saved my life.”

  Nicholas’s hand covered his face, not knowing what to think.

  “Has this all been payback for me killing Matthew?”

  “No. This has been about you thinking that you would take a woman that I consider a sister and making her your puta. I own that restaurant you took her to. I saw in your face what you had planned for her. The same treatment you gave Sandy. She missed a week’s work when you stopped seeing her.”

  Nicholas had never wanted to punch someone so badly in his life. Emiliano’s lips twisted as he read his mind.

  “I wouldn’t advise it. I’m more than capable of defending myself.”

  Nicholas didn’t doubt it.

  “Why did you let me see her if you were so worried of how I would treat her?”

  “Because I remembered her as a child. She’s very captivating and beautiful, but she could hold her own with you. I just wanted to level the playing field.”

  He had given her more than a fair chance; he had made Nicholas see her the way he had never seen another woman. He had lowered his guard and fallen in love with the sassy woman. Emiliano was right; she was captivating. She had captured his heart.

  “She hates me now.”

  “She’ll get over it.”

  “Are you crazy? She’s never going to forgive me.”

  “She was terrified that Angelo would hurt you. She’ll forgive you. Give her time.”

  “You want me to be with her?” Nicholas was astounded.

  “I’m not opposed to it as long as that’s what she wants. She’s able to make that decision for herself now.”

  “The money?”

  “That will be given to Ariel’s mother.”

  Nicholas nodded. He wanted them taken care of.

  Emiliano turned, walking toward the door. “You and Zane have nothing to fear. The cartel has taken care of Matthew and Alejandro’s deaths. The blame will never be cast on you.” He left, closing the door behind him.

  Chapter 23

  Ria went to see Emiliano first thing the next morning, interrupting his breakfast.

  “I want my mother back.”

  Emiliano laid down his cloth napkin on his plate. “You can have her back on one condition.”

  “Which is?”

  “She will stay at the apartment I provided you. I own the building and will keep watch over her.” In other words, no one would be able to sell her the drugs she had become addicted to. It was a safe and luxurious apartment. Ria would never be able to afford to keep her in such a good a place.

  “I agree. Thank you, Emiliano.”

  “You may come and go as you please.” He lifted his hand when she would have spoken. “You have proven to me that you’re more than able to take better care of yourself. I believe you’ve already found another job?”

  Was there anything he didn’t
know?

  “Yes. I start next week.”

  “Good. That will give you some time to spend with your mother before you find a new place.”

  Ria nodded out of the corner of her eye she noticed a servant cleaning the pool.

  “Is that John Maxwell?” She asked disbelieving her own eyes.

  “Yes. Don’t tell me you thought I had him killed? Dead men can’t repay their debts, he will remain in service to me, until he has repaid what he has stolen.”

  “What about Kataya Meyers?”

  Ria took a step back in fear at his expression. “She is repaying her debt also.” His tone stating the subject was closed.

  “Sit and eat some breakfast while Mitchell gets your mother.” He waved his hand at Mitchell who had been silently sitting at the table. Mitchell left while she pulled out a chair and sat down.

  “She’s been here the whole time?”

  “Of course. I’ve seen to her care myself.”

  Ariel remembered back to when she had been a child. The time before her mother had come to depend so heavily on the drugs. When she would come into the kitchen, Emiliano would be in there, laughing and talking with her mother, often sitting down to eat with them.

  A door opened and she glanced over. Her mother walked out with a huge smile on her beautiful face. She had gained weight, filling out the dress she was wearing. Her eyes were clear and bright.

  Ria ran to her mother, hugging her tight, and her mother burst into tears, telling her how much she loved and missed her.

  Ria choked back tears, turning back to Emiliano. “Thank you.”

  * * *

  When Nicholas knocked on Zane’s door, Melanie opened it with a smile that dropped as soon as she saw his face.

  “Oh, my God, Nick, what’s wrong?” She took his hand and pulled him into the house.

  He had called her earlier, wanting to talk to her alone. She had told him that Zane had already left for the gym—he was preparing Ty for a fight in the next few days. Nick knew it was past time to tell her what had happened.

  He sat on the couch, and she quietly sat on a chair across from him, waiting for him to speak. She had been begging him to talk to her for so long. Nick knew she was smart enough to realize he was finally going to, and she wasn’t going to rush him. He had been holding it in for so long, wanting to protect her, but she needed the truth.