The Fighter’s Block: Cole, Book Two

by Hadley Quinn

  She laughed out loud. “Oh my, you dirty talker…”

  “Uh, that’s not dirty talking, sweetheart.”

  “No?”

  “Nope,” he shook his head. “That’s just a fair warning.” Softly kissing her lips he added, “But I’d love to give you a crash course.”

  He pushed her up against the door and kissed her again, wrapping her legs around his waist. “Maybe your dad’s on the other side of this door, listening in,” he joked. He thrust against her, pounding her back against the door so it made loud thuds over and over.

  “Stop, that’s not even funny!” she laughed.

  “No? Then how come you’re laughing?” He forced her against the door a bit harder several more times.

  It only made her laugh more. “Stop!” she squealed.

  “Oh come on, he left here knowing we were gonna be humping each other. He ran out of the building so fast it was probably the most cardio he’s had all week.”

  She couldn’t stop laughing. In fact, she was laughing so hard it was becoming impossible to be affectionate with her right now.

  Cole pulled her away from the door, carried her to the bedroom, and set her down. He took two steps away from her, maintaining eye contact. She was watching him very curiously right now, her green eyes on him dutifully.

  He unbuttoned the top button of his shirt and said, “Eyes back up to mine, beautiful.”

  She made eye contact again.

  “Only one rule. You break eye contact with me, I stop getting naked for you. Understood?”

  She bit her lip to keep from smiling but continued to meet his eyes. “Understood.”

  He continued to undo his shirt, button by button. When he slipped out of it, she licked her lips but never once broke eye contact. “Good girl,” he smiled. “So far so good, but I think I’ll break you in just a bit.”

  She practically snorted. “Doubt it.”

  Ha, her confidence pleased him. He unbuttoned his jeans, watching her closely for the slightest break in focus. She never faltered, so while his pants dropped to his ankles, he reached for his dick and said, “So fucking hard for you. Bet you wish you could find out.”

  She gave him a smug smile and stepped toward him, still maintaining eye contact. Reaching for his erection she said, “You never told me I couldn’t touch.”

  Good God, her hands on him…

  She slid her fingers into his boxer briefs and pulled them down, taking his cock skin-to-skin. “I’m still maintaining eye contact, but for some reason…you’re not,” she whispered.

  He opened his eyes, realizing he’d shut them at some point to thoroughly enjoy being touched by her.

  She was still watching him as she leaned forward to put her lips on his mouth. “You know what that means? I win. You lose.”

  He gathered her hair in his hand and gripped it tightly, tilting her head back so he could kiss her neck. This woman did things to him that he couldn’t explain, and the fact that he wanted her more than ever right now made him feel very animalistic.

  Still gripping her hair, he continued to kiss her neck, lightly biting behind her ear. He stripped her of her outer clothes until she was in just her bra and panties.

  Julia pulled back and faced him with a seductive smile on her lips that made him want to throw her on the bed and have his way with her.

  Well, he actually did. It was a given. She can’t look at him like that and not expect some kind of primal reaction from him. And hell, it felt so good to sink inside of her like that after stripping her completely; to feel not only a physical connection but one that made him comfortable just being there with her emotionally.

  He’d never questioned himself on how he felt about her, there was never a doubt, but he realized she had always been on his mind when he was tending to other things.

  And he realized he hated being away from New Jersey because she was there. He’d never really cared about coming “home” to someone—home had never really meant anything to him—but he’d cared about seeing Julia when he finally could. That meant something to him. It meant that he needed to think long and hard about his life and how he’d been living it.

  But more importantly, how he wanted to live it.

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  “Thanks for doing this for me,” Leah said softly.

  Cole glanced at her in the passenger’s seat while he drove. “You’re welcome. And I understand why you didn’t want Van to come with you.”

  “Do you?” she asked earnestly.

  “Yeah, I do,” he nodded. “I think that’d be mixing way too many things together too soon, you know? Van is going through a lot right now as it is, and you’re going through a lot right now. Adding Donny is going to be…”

  “Stupid?” she chuckled.

  He smiled as he parked his truck across from Benny’s Automotive. “Nah, I don’t think it’s stupid. It’s necessary for you, but I know it’s not easy.”

  They both stepped out of the truck. Leah paused to prepare herself as she led the way to the open garage. Cole saw Donny right away toward the back, but the guy changing oil in front of them asked, “Help you with somethin’?”

  Donny looked up from the back and paused, looking at both Leah and Cole. The other guy asked again what they wanted, but Donny said, “Nah, I got it Wes.” He came across the garage and stopped in front of them. Then he motioned for them to follow him to the small waiting area.

  Upon entering, Leah said, “Look, I’m only here to say what I want to say and I’m gone, okay? You don’t have to say a word. I just have to do this so I can move on.”

  Donny leaned up against the counter and crossed his arms over his chest. He was looking at Cole more than Leah, and it was apparent he remembered him from before.

  “I’m listening,” Donny finally replied, returning his attention to her.

  Leah exhaled. “Well, I know the big family secret,” she shrugged. “Not sure why you couldn’t tell me that Mom had an affair and you’re not my real father.”

  He stared at her for a very long time before he answered, “Figured it was better left as it was.”

  “Why? I mean it would have saved me a shit ton of trouble the past few years.”

  He narrowed his eyes with curiosity. “Why’s that? What’s going on?”

  “First of all, I’m still trying to forgive you for telling me that Van died in a fight. I came out of foster care and the first thing I did was visit you in prison. What do I get in return? A shitty attitude and lies.”

  “You know what?” he asked gruffly. “Van was doin’ good on his own. He didn’t need you crashing into his life, fuckin’ it up. He’s my son. Despite what he thinks of me, I care about him.”

  Leah remained silent for a moment, slowly shaking her head. “But not a damn thing about me, huh? Not a damn thing because DNA says I belong to some other guy I barely know?”

  Donny shifted his stance. “So you’ve met him?”

  “Uh, somewhat. I’ll never ‘know’ him, though. He died a couple weeks ago. Left me a shit ton of money that I refuse to touch, but I’ll never get to ask him why.”

  He raised his eyebrows and Cole could tell he was surprised. “Didn’t know that,” he replied blandly.

  “Hm, well, I don’t really care. But because someone failed to tell me the truth, someone else wanted to use me for his inheritance. Not that I knew anything about that, but you know, minor details.”

  Donny held his grease stained hands out and shook his head. “So what do you want from me?”

  “I don’t really know, exactly. I guess to tell you that I don’t think you intended to kill mom. Too late for that, I suppose, but it doesn’t excuse the fact that you used to beat the crap out of her and then take it out on us. Again, it’s in the past and I’m not dwelling on it. I just want to say that I’m trying to forgive you. Even if you’re not my real father, I’ve still always considered you to be. I wish that you could have cared about us enough to give us a safe life, but th
at doesn’t matter either. I don’t know where Darren is these days but I’d like to find him. At least talk to him. Van and I have been catching up. It’s strange, everything that’s happened, but I want to get to know him better. I care about him. And his family. I don’t really know how to show him, but I do.”

  Donny sighed. “Well, I lost my rights as a father to you guys a long time ago. I can’t change anything, but I feel like I’m a better man these days. Went through a lot of therapy in prison; a lot of soul searching and repentance, I guess. Attended some classes to get my act together, so maybe some day I could redeem a little part of me.

  “Van still won’t speak to me; I don’t know where Darren is either. I deserve that. I know it. And as for you coming to see me a few years ago… I guess I wasn’t ready for it yet. I’m sorry. I really am. In my mind, you were basically the reason for what happened to your mom. I know you had nothing to do with the facts, but I didn’t want anything to do with you. That’s shitty, and I know it. I’m sorry. And I know it’s too late now, but for what it’s worth, your visit is what really made me think about what the hell I was going to do with the rest of my life. I decided to make some changes after you left. Felt like you would find your own path—sounded like you would with the guy you were moving with—so I let it go. The past. Sent you on your way. Figured someday the time would be right to tell you. I just couldn’t then.”

  Leah remained quiet for almost a minute, thinking things through. Finally she said, “Well, I have nothing more, I guess. Just wanted to get it out in the open. Thanks for taking the time to listen.”

  Cole had nothing to say while Leah was around—he was just there to support her—but Donny looked at him and said, “Now tell me your part in this? Who are you and why were you really here before?”

  Cole could feel Leah’s questioning eyes on him. He handed her his keys and said, “I’ll meet you in the truck.”

  She looked like she was going to protest but said, “Fine.”

  When she left, Cole faced Donny to answer him. “I’m a private investigator,” he admitted. “I’d been looking through a case that tied you to it. Wanted to meet you in person so I knew how to proceed.”

  Raising his eyebrows, Donny scoffed. “What case?”

  Cole reached into his back pocket and pulled out a photo. He set it on the counter between them. “This case.”

  Donny looked it over for a very long time before he carefully picked it up. “Johnny Nix.”

  “Nix?”

  He shrugged. “Well, it was short for Nichols or something, but we called him Johnny Nix, or sometimes just ‘Nix.’ How do you know him?” He looked up and waited for an answer.

  “He was my father.”

  He looked Cole over, shaking his head as he studied him closer. “Wow, guess I can see the resemblance. John was a friend of mine long ago. He disappeared, though. I know nothing about it except he left town in a hurry. I don’t know what the fuck happened.”

  “Not at all? So he wasn’t your ‘assignment’?”

  Donny appeared alarmed. “No, he wasn’t. And I don’t know who was if that’s the case. I’m not into that business anymore.”

  “I actually believe that. Doesn’t escape my attention that you’re still into a bit of something, though.”

  He sighed and shook his head. “The phone call you heard when you first stopped by,” he realized. “Yeah, gambling debts. I work for a bookie on weekends. But it’s small time, just until I’m in a better place financially. Nothing but scaring a few guys now and then.”

  “Tell me about my father.”

  Donny was reluctant but said, “I don’t know much, okay?”

  His parents had died in a car accident, but there had always been that question lying underneath the surface—a feeling he’d had that something just wasn’t right with it all. “Did someone want my father dead?” he asked.

  Again Donny paused and released a sigh. “Is he dead? I’m sorry, kid, but come on. I don’t know what happened to John, okay? He left town, that was the last I saw him.”

  “I just want to know who my father was. That’s all. Just tell me about him. You want some redemption in your life? Answer a few questions for me. It’s a damn fucking miracle that out of all the people in this town, you are someone that knows something from my past.”

  “Why’s it a miracle?”

  Cole shook his head with a bit of disbelief. “Because Van has become a good friend to me. I’m the one that found Leah after all these years of him not knowing where she was. I’m the one that gave them answers at a time they needed ‘em most. I’m not a very demanding person for myself, Mr. Kemp, but this time…this time I want answers. For me.”

  After a brief silence, Donny asked, “How’d you link your dad to me? Because kid…that’s probably not a good thing.”

  “The truth?”

  Donny narrowed his eyes. “Yeah the truth.”

  “I’m good at what I do.”

  Donny bobbed his head from side to side in consideration. “I believe it. But I don’t want no trouble, you understand?”

  “Yeah, I understand. I’m not looking for information to use against you. Like I said, this is just for me. And to answer your question, I went through employee records. You worked at the same restaurant years ago, before he met my mom.”

  “The restaurant?” Donny asked. “Wow, that was ages ago. Yeah, we bussed tables and shit. Washed dishes. We were still teenagers. Then he shipped out for the military for a couple years—”

  “Wait a minute, what?” Cole interrupted. “He was in the military?” He hadn’t heard a single thing about his father being enlisted. What in the fuck was that about?

  “Yeah, at least that’s what I thought when I didn’t see him for a bit, but when he came back, he said that wasn’t the case and had just been traveling or something. I didn’t bug him for more. But how I really spent more time around him was the storage units years later.”

  Cole tilted his head with curiosity. “The what?”

  With a heavy sigh, Donny shook his head reluctantly. But he motioned for Cole to follow him down the hallway into a tiny break room. He pulled up a chair and sat down, so Cole did the same.

  “Yeah, I worked with your dad about ten years after that. It was a storage facility in Sayreville; we both knew a guy that offered us the same kinda work. A bit of extra cash, we both needed it.”

  “So this storage facility… Illegal comings and goings?”

  Donny barely nodded. “Yeah. I mean it was a legit business and all—people really did rent out units to store their shit—but the guy who owned the place, Jameson Deels, he used it for other things.”

  “Like what?”

  Pause. “Just…other things.”

  “I wanna know,” Cole spoke firmly. “Just fucking tell me for my own knowledge, okay?”

  “Look, I don’t think your pops knew nothin’ about any of that until he might’ve stumbled in on it. Probably walked in on some bad shit like I did.”

  “Like what?”

  Donny sighed. “I used to work for this guy years back—Blake Hestor. He was a real motherfucking badass collector, you know? Worked for Jameson Deels, the guy who owned the storage facility who was also a big time drug dealer on the side. Scary fuckers, seriously. Blake would give me some side jobs now and then, collecting payments. He got me the job at Deels’ storage unit, said it was a good situation, you know? I’d been working there for a couple of months in the auction bays—those are the units where Deels would buy out estates and shit and store ‘em in a unit. People would come by—junk collectors, second hand stores—and bid on a unit with everything in. I stored these units when the shit came in, and packed ‘em up when they were purchased. Simple, no-brain job.

  “One day Blake says, ‘Hey, boss needs you in bay seventeen.’ Okay, so I got to bay seventeen. They used a couple of units to store massive amounts of drugs. I mean massive. Floor to ceiling, I kid you not. So I thought maybe I was needed to
load a shipment or something. But they had this guy in there, right? A banker or something, owes a shit ton of money… They fucking cut off one of his fingers. I almost shit myself. I mean come on, I can fight someone but that? That was just… I didn’t know what to think.”

  He exhaled a breath of air and shook his head.

  “So bottom line, they also used these storage units to make people pay up?”

  Donny looked at him hard. “And then some.”

  Cole slowly nodded his head. “Murder.”

  “Yeah. And I honestly don’t know who, what, when or all that shit, I just shut the fuck up about it and would get a nice little bonus now and then.”

  “So what happened to my father?” Cole asked impatiently.

  Donny adjusted in his seat and lowered his voice. “There was a bar down the road a mile. We stopped there to have a couple drinks, John remembers he forgot something at work. He goes back to the units to get whatever it is, but I stayed at the bar for another round. And…I never saw him again.”

  Donny shrugged, as if to say that was all he knew.

  “And you never heard from him again, either?” Cole asked.

  “Nope. I showed up at work the next day and he didn’t show. I asked Blake a couple days later where he was and he said John found another job. I also noticed Blake had been shot in his arm—through his shirt I could see it bleeding out a bit. I asked him what happened but he said some clients just got a bit hostile or somethin’. But then when I never saw John again… Yeah, I considered the possibility that they’d gotten into it, but just pushed it aside. The less you know, the better. I had my own family shit going on at that point, Leann and that fucker I found out she was seeing. Anyway…”

  Cole silently considered the possibilities but decided he was done with Kemp for now. He had other things to bring up, but not right now.

  He stood and said, “Thanks for your time.”

  “That’s it? You don’t wanna know about the fire?”

  “What fire?”

  “Two nights later, the entire place burned to the ground. Reports say it was arson,” he shrugged. “But, you know what I think, right?”