Chains (4 page)

“It’s part of the job. So, can you help me?”

“Let me take a look,” he said, clicking on his computer keyboard. “Spell the last name for me, please?”

“D-E-B-A-S-C-O. Danielle.” My toes wouldn’t stay still inside my shoes. I bit the side of my cheek while he looked over the reservations.

She had to be here.

“No. I’m sorry. Nobody by that name is registered with us.”

Fuck. What the hell was I thinking anyway? She was living from hit to hit. Probably came here with some guy, and he left her or she lost him.

“Thanks anyway,” I said and turned to make one more circuit of the room before coming up with Plan B.

I headed for the blackjack and poker tables. Anyone with enough cash to keep Danny supplied with meth wouldn’t be sitting at the slots. The place was deserted except for a couple of blackjack tables, each with only two players and the dealer. The poker tables were empty, but a casino employee—and not just a regular employee, the kind with a black suit concealing a loaded piece under his jacket—stood in front of a set of closed double doors.

The high stakes room.

To a girl like Danny, desperate for her next score, these men were the payday.

The guard eyed me and lifted his chin. I couldn’t hang around outside the doors waiting for the game to end. That’s what criminals did to find a mark—the only guy smiling walking out of the room.

Something else I knew first hand.

Danny had to be laying low somewhere close by. Or not. Hell, she might not come back to this casino tonight. She could be anywhere. Gone.

I rushed back out onto the sidewalk, my mind buzzing with panicked thoughts of never finding her again. Where were all these thoughts hiding for the past four years? Whenever I thought of her—which was all the fucking time—she was still fifteen and living with Striker, putting up with him touching her and—

Fuck.
She wasn’t fifteen. When I started living above Mike’s, I should’ve gone back for her. But I was too caught up in my own shit. Now she was a fucking meth-head, and I had no idea where to find her.

I walked for blocks, checking every casino and bar I passed. My head ached, my body throbbed, my muscles were threatening to give out. I needed something to dull the pain, and Mike didn’t leave me any meds. If I fell over on the street I wouldn’t do Danny any good.

I hadn’t used in eighteen months. Mike threatened to kick me out, fire me from my job at the gym and never train me again if I didn’t stop. The last thing I wanted to do was start again, but Jesus Christ, the pain was unbearable. I had to find something.

Clutching my side to keep my busted ribs from spilling out onto the street, I turned the corner and made my way over a few blocks from the casinos to where there were trashed apartment buildings and old-ass motels, like the one I was staying in, that rented rooms by the month. These were the places where users laid low, strung out, waiting for the next hit.

There was usually the tell-tale vicious dog chained outside or barking at the window, keeping unwelcome strangers away. Strangers like me. I needed to find someone hanging around outside.

This far over, the music and casino chaos faded into silence. An occasional car drove by. A plane flew over and a shot of anxiety hit me—I should be on that plane with Mike. I should be leaving, touching down in Austin and getting ready for my fight in two days. What the fuck was I doing here wandering the streets of Reno looking for something to take the pain away? I earned this pain. I was never going to find Danny. Making the wrong choices was part of who I used to be, but I left that loser behind. Tyler Graves wasn’t a junkie living on the street anymore.

No way was I giving up going pro in MMA and sliding back down into the hell I crawled out of. I crossed the street and headed back up the way I came.

“Hey.” I snapped my head toward the voice. A guy in a casino dealer’s uniform was standing by a car outside an apartment building.

“Yeah?” I said.

“You lookin’ for something?” The way he angled his head and patted his pocket told me all I needed to know. He was dealing more than cards.

The urge flooded me, up from my feet straight to my gut and made me lose my breath. Fuck yes, I wanted something. “Nah, man. I’m good,” I said, but my pathetic voice betrayed me.

“You sure?” He smiled, knowing a user when he saw one.

I took a deep breath and thought about being in the ring—thought about being disqualified for life for using. “I’m sure.”

“Alright. You know where to find me if you change your mind.” He pointed to his door.

I nodded and turned to walk away, then spun back around. “Hey, you wouldn’t know a girl—woman—named Danny, uh, Danielle Debasco would you? Blond, about five-two, last I heard she was hanging around the Ramada.”

He thought for a minute, frowning, then shook his head. “No. Doesn’t ring a bell.”

“Okay.” I lifted a hand in parting.

“Why you looking for her, anyway?” he asked, making me pause. Something told me he might have information he wasn’t sharing.

“She’s an old friend,” I said. The truth might put him at ease and make him talk. “She and I were fostered into the same house growing up. I haven’t seen her in years.”

“So she’s like your sister,” he said.

“Yeah, I guess.”

“I’ll keep my eye out for her. You got a number where I can reach you?”

I gave him my cell number and decided to go back to my room in the motel. On the way, I checked out the Ramada again, but nothing had changed. The high stakes poker game was still behind closed doors and even though a few more early morning gamblers were staking out tables and slot machines, Danny wasn’t one of them.

She was probably passed out somewhere, sleeping it off.

When I got to my motel, I passed by Jose’s door and knocked on the off chance that she was inside. He did
buy
her for the weekend—Jesus what a thought. Made me want to puke again.

Nobody answered and the curtains where drawn tight. I couldn’t see a thing through the window. The sun was blinding, and the temperature was somewhere around scorching hot.

I needed water. Gallons of it. And a bed. My body was launching a protest in every nerve ending. I resisted the lure of drugs, but it was time to indulge in the basics. After I slept and gave my body time to do some healing, I’d go back out and search for Danny.

THREE

I got a few hours of restless sleep—couldn’t find a position that didn’t make some part of my body throb. Didn’t even have a bottle of fucking aspirin. And my stomach was eating itself.

I got up, showered and threw on some clean clothes before checking my phone. There was a text from Mike telling me he got to Austin. It was almost four in the afternoon.

Outside, it was hotter than hell. People I passed on the sidewalk were either moody from the heat or drunk. I found a place that served burgers and ordered one with fries and a Coke the size of my head. Lounging in a back booth, stuffed and starting to feel somewhat human again, my phone rang. I didn’t recognize the number.

“Yeah—this is Ty,” I answered.

“Hey, man, I think I’ve got your girl here.”

The voice was familiar, but I couldn’t place it for a second. Then it hit me—the guy from this morning. The guy with the drugs. The guy who took my number. “Where? Where are you?” I cracked my thigh on the edge of the table jumping up onto my feet.

“What are you going to do for me if I tell you?” he asked.

God damn it. “What do you want?” I tried not to sound like I’d strangle the life out of him when I saw him again, but failed.

“You fight, right? I want you to fight someone for me.”

“Fight someone?” What was this, a curse? Was I doomed to repeat every fucked up part of the past in Reno? “You saw me, right?” I asked. “I got the shit kicked out of me. What makes you think I can fight someone for you?”

“Are you saying you don’t know how to fight?”

Pride reared its head. “I didn’t say that.”

“I didn’t think you would.” I could hear the smirk in his voice. “So do we have a deal or not?”

“Who do you want me to fight and why? I can’t put my career on the line if I don’t have details.”

“Not even for Danny?”

What was I supposed to say to that? It sounded like a threat to me. Didn’t matter what this fight was about, or where or with who. If I wanted to see Danny again, I’d agree to his terms. “Fine. I’ll do it. Where is she?”

“Meet me in front of my apartment where you saw me this morning. I’ll take you to her.”

Jesus, I hoped this wasn’t a set up. “Listen, man. Since I don’t know you from Adam, you should know I don’t have more than fifty bucks on me if that’s your plan.”

“No, this is on the level. You fight for me, I take you to your girl.”

I closed my eyes and grit my teeth. Mike would kill me if he found out. “It’ll take me about ten minutes to get there.”

I hung up knowing I was walking into a shit storm, but what else could I do? Leave Danny again? Not going to happen. This time I’d do what I should’ve done four years ago, or at least sometime before
now
—save her. From her past. From herself.

Walking down the street, I could practically feel a shadow of doom following me. I half expected the sky to go black and thunder to rumble in warning. I thought I was past making dumbass decisions that got me into trouble, and then more trouble, because it breed like fucking rabbits. Next thing I knew, I’d be on the street again, but with Danny this time, and fighting to support both of our drug habits.

This was dangerous territory for me. I had to be careful not to get sucked back in. Mike
trusted
me not to do anything stupid, and here I was, walking right into stupid.

I saw the guy standing outside his apartment from a block away. He had another guy with him and they were watching for me, leaning against the car he got out of that morning. “Hey, there his is,” the dealer said, clasping my hand and shaking it. “Let’s get down to business.”

Names were never part of the
business.
That way if and when it all went wrong, you couldn’t give anyone up to the cops. “Who do you want me to fight and why?” I asked.

He pulled out a cigarette and lit it, offered me one. I waved my hand, declining. “It’s a guy who owes me money,” he said and inhaled sharply on his smoke.

“You want me to shake him down for it,” I said.

He shook his head, exhaling. “No. He’s willing to double up if I find a fighter to beat his guy in one round. One five minute round. You think you can do that?”

I shifted my eyes back and forth between them. “What about him?” I asked, nodding toward his friend. “He looks like he can hold his own.”

“He’s only here to witness our conversation in case we come to terms and you bail on me.” The dealer gave me a sly look. “You do want to see your girl again, right? I can take you to her.”

Fuck. There were too many unknowns. I could be walking into my own funeral. “How do I know I won’t make a deal with you only to find out you have no idea where she is? How do I know you’re not yanking my chain?”

He pursed his lips, considering this. “You don’t. But what other option do you have?”

He had me by the balls, and he knew it. There was no worse situation to be in. All I could do was keep my desperation to find her in check and keep peppering him with questions. “What weight class is this other fighter? What kind of fight?”

He shrugged, inhaling a hit off his smoke. “Anything goes.”

“That could be a death sentence. You know that,” I said, crossing my arms. “You could put my ass up against a three hundred pound giant with a seven foot reach.”

He held up his hands, like whatever. “Your call. I need a fighter. You need to find your chick.”

I put my hands on my head and turned away from him, seething. If his silent witness wasn’t standing next to him, I’d kick his ass up and down the street all fucking day. He knew it, too, which was the real reason the other guy was here.

This was the first time I’d seen Danny in four years. It wasn’t like I’d run into her somewhere else. This was a one-time deal—my one shot to make things right, to make up for being a self-absorbed asshole who left her. If that came with a sacrifice bigger than I wanted to make, then it did. I only hoped to God I didn’t end up hospitalized or worse, paralyzed.

Fighting in an unregulated, back-alley, anything goes fight was a one-way ticket off the tracks of going pro in MMA. Was I willing to trade my future for Danny’s?

In a fucking heartbeat.

I pivoted around to face him and held out my hand. “Let’s do it.”

“Told ya,” the dealer said to the other man while shaking my hand. “I told my friend here that you didn’t look like the kind of guy who walks away from what he wants.”

Walking away was my specialty. Staying was the challenge. Staying, letting people get close, and trust. And I never let myself want anything too much, even if MMA went to shit for me, it was only a means to an end anyway. I wanted it, but wouldn’t die without it. You moved on and didn’t let anything grow roots inside you. It hurt too much when they were torn away.

But Danny’s roots were in deep, entwined with scents, sounds and memories from the past. I carried her with me and now that I knew what she’d become, she’d haunt me if I didn’t find her and protect her. Save her. It was my job, and I abandoned it.