H.T. Night's 8-Book Vampire Box Set (75 page)

I was in the bathroom finishing my shower
when I heard my cell phone go off. It was giving me the signal that
I had a text message. I stepped out of the shower to see who it was
because I hardly ever had anyone text me. I went over to my phone
that I left near the sink.

The text read, ‘It’s Tommy. We need to talk.
You owe me that.’

I owed him that? Was he for real? The balls
on that guy.

I texted him back, ‘Where?’

He responded, ‘My cabin.’

I texted, ‘When?’

Then he texted in big, bold letters,
‘ASAP.’

‘Fine, I’m coming now.’ I sent the text and
went into my bedroom.

What the hell did he need to see me
about?

I sat on my bed completely nude and just
sighed. Who was I kidding? I wanted to see him. I missed him. I
just didn’t know what I was going to say to him.

I stood up and went to my closet and put on
a pair of jeans, a black-t-shirt and my black boots. I left my room
and went downstairs to Lena’s room. We had been sleeping every
night together and taking turns in each other’s beds. I opened
Lena’s door and there she was on her bed listening to her MP3
player.

“What’s up, girlie?” I said.

“Hey sexy, whatcha doing?” she answered.

“I just got a call from a mutual
acquaintance.”

“Tommy?” Lena asked, trying her hardest not
to sound interested, but I knew better.

“That would be him.”

“He’s more than a mutual acquaintance,” she
said, shutting off her music.

“I’d say… for the both of us.”

“So, what did he want?” Again, Lena was
trying her hardest to ask questions and sound uninterested.

“It’s okay that you’re curious about him,
Lena. How could you not be? It’s been weeks since we’ve heard from
him.”

Lena nodded her head. “I know. It’s just a
tough subject for the both of us,”

“I know,” I agreed. “It doesn’t have to
be.”

“I know, Lena said. “Anyway, what did he
have to say?”

“He actually texted me.”

“He texted you?”

“Yes, and he wants me to meet up with him at
his cabin. He made it sound pretty urgent.”

“Do you think he’s in trouble?”

“Who knows? Trouble seems to find that
guy.”

“I think I know another person trouble seems
to find,” Lena said, implying that I didn’t have much room to talk.
“You can fight it all you want, but you and Tommy are cut from the
same cloth. You’re so alike it’s scary.”

I nodded knowingly, but I also knew Tommy
and I needed to have a long, serious talk before anything would
ever be mended.

I kissed Lena goodbye. I knew she cared for
Tommy. It was hard not to, the guy is pretty infectious. I left
through the front door. I didn’t transition; I flew up into the sky
in my Mani form. Victorville is such a dead community, that I knew
I could get away with it.

I made my way up the back part of the San
Bernardino Mountains and found myself once again at Tommy’s cabin
in Running Springs. I decided to land in his yard and look ahead at
his giant cabin. I had a lot of memories of this place. This was
going to be harder than I thought.

I knocked on the door and there was no
answer. I eventually just opened the door and went in. Tommy wasn’t
in his front room, but I could hear something in the room where he
kept his cage. I walked up to the doorway and looked in. Tommy was
in the middle of his cage, sitting cross-legged, drinking what
looked to be an entire bottle of vodka.

I stood outside the doorway and just looked
in. A part of me wanted to leave and never let him know I was
there. I thought better of it, but it bothered me that he was just
lying on his back, wasted. I should have known he was drunk. Why
else would he contact me? Tommy was a very sad drunk sometimes,
especially when he drank alone. At a party, he was a madman when he
drank, but alone, nothing good usually came of it. He had drunk
himself into a suicidal dark place more than once and this was one
of his darkest secrets of the ones I knew. This looked like one of
those times. His head and face were sweaty and I could tell he had
been crying.

Poor guy.

“You okay?” I asked, from the door.

Tommy sat up a little surprised. “I’m
divine, Josiah, nice of you to ask.”

“You look it,” I said, with an obvious
condescending tone.

“Come in, so I can see you, brother.”

“I’m okay, right here,” I said. The room was
barely lit and it seemed Tommy was really going for serious
dramatics.

“What are you afraid of?” Tommy asked.

“You know me better than that by now, Tommy.
I’m not afraid of anything.”

“I know one thing you’re afraid of…”

Okay, apparently Tommy wanted to verbally
insult me, so I let him play his game. “Please tell me, what would
that be?”

“Yourself.”

“Myself?”

“Did I stutter?” Tommy rolled over and
knocked over his bottle. He grabbed it before too much had spilled
out.

“Actually, you did,” I said, laughing. “It
was more of a slur than a stutter.”

“Cute, Josiah,” Tommy composed himself and
poured himself a drink. “Just admit it, Josiah, you’re afraid of
you.”

“Me? I don’t think that I am.”

“You’re afraid of what’s inside you. You’re
afraid of what you’ve become.”

Great, he wanted to get all philosophical.
“Tommy, look! Is there something specifically you needed to talk
about, or were you hoping for some bro time?”

“Don’t flatter yourself!” Tommy spouted.

“Okay, then what is it you want to talk
about?” I asked.

Tommy took another sip of his vodka. “I got
a business offer from a friend of yours.”

“Huh?” I was now confused.

“You know, your billionaire Mexican amigo
that you decided to tell all of our pinky promise secrets to.”

Shit! Romero found Tommy!

“You talked to Romero?” I asked.

“Yes, we had quite the conversation. It
seems I ran into some trouble and, low and behold, your boy was
there bailing me out. Well, he wasn’t actually bailing me out; he
was mainly giving me mercy.”

“What kind of trouble?”

“Well, after you cast me out of your Mani
Kingdom, I took refuge in the city of sin.”

“Vegas?”

“No, Salt Lake City,” Tommy laughed. “Of
course, Vegas. You know me, Josiah. When in Rome, I like to do what
the Romans do.”

“Please don’t tell me you started gambling
again. The last time you got into it cost you all of your
winnings.”

“Oh, it cost me a lot more than my winnings
this time. I began doing some serious gambling. It made what I got
into before child’s play. I actually got up pretty good, but you
know how that goes. My luck only lasted so long. Eventually, I was
in pretty deep with more than one guy.”

“How deep?”

Tommy was referring to how much money he
owed bookies, cashiers, whomever.

“Seven figures.”

“What the hell? You owed a million dollars!
How does that happen?”

“It was 3.3 million to be exact.”

“Holy shit! Are you kidding me?”

“Like I said, I was up pretty big and about
a month ago. I had a sure bet, it was a freaking lock, and I
decided to put all my winnings, which was around 500 large, with
six different bookies.”

“And you lost?”

“I sure as hell didn’t win.”

“You’re a werewolf. Screw them, split town.
Who gives a shit about bookies?”

“You don’t think I thought about that. These
guys aren’t dummies. They employ guys like us. If I tried to stiff
any of them, I would have the whole immortal Mafia after me.”

“Is there such a thing?”

“You don’t even want to know the crazy shit
that’s going on in Vegas. I met Doc Holliday!”

“Yeah?”

“He’s one of us.”

“Bullshit!”

“Or at least he’s one of you. The whole
coughing-up blood routine is because he has a large appetite for
blood. He’s no ‘lunger.’ That’s other people’s blood he was
coughing up. He’s a notorious Mani who still resides in Vegas.”

“You’re trying to tell me that Doc Holliday,
best friend to freaking Wyatt Earp, is after you?”

“Well, they’re not best friends any longer.
Wyatt Earp has been dead for around a hundred years.”

“I could give a rat’s ass about Wyatt
Freaking Earp! You’re telling me Doc Holliday, leader of the
Immortal Mafia, is after you?”

“Him and others. Those guys don’t mess
around.”

Was Tommy telling me the truth? I needed to
know more. So, I asked, “How does Romero play into all of
this?”

“He’s the head honcho. Doc Holliday reports
to his ass! They were going to kill me until I brought you up.”

“Why did you bring me up?”

“I told them if they were going to kill me
to let you know. You’re the only family I have since my Grandma
passed a couple of months back.”

“So, you said my name? What happened after
that?”

“Before I knew it, I was brought to Tijuana
to some ranch to meet Romero. He made me an offer that I couldn’t
refuse, so to speak.”

“Did you take it?” I asked.

“I had no choice.”

“How long will it take you to pay him
off?”

“A-long-ass-time. He only gives me $25,000 a
fight.”

I did the math in my head. Tommy was going
to fight 130 times just to cover his debt.

“I’m a huge commodity,” Tommy continued,
“because I can fight as a werewolf whenever he wants. Thanks to
you, Romero is highly aware I have that ability.”

I noticed earlier that Tommy had some nicks
and bruises on his face and arms and now I knew why. Apparently
this poor guy was fighting every chance he got. I felt like shit.
This was all my fault.

“Couldn’t you have negotiated a higher
per-fight fee?” I asked.

“I actually did. He originally wanted to
only give me $20,000. I got him to go to $25,000, as long as I
fight at least five times a week.”

“What happens if you get really hurt?” I
asked.

“I don’t know. We haven’t discussed that. I
haven’t lost yet. I usually dispose of my opponent in minutes. It
pisses off Romero, but I’m not about to put on a show and risk
getting hurt.”

“So, why did you contact me?”

“I need your help.”

“In what regard?”

“I need for you to talk to Romero. He seems
pretty fond of you. I’m worn out. I have fought the last ten days
in a row. He’s talking about having me fight multiple times in a
night. So I can pay off the money faster.”

Romero was completely exploiting Tommy and
it was my fault. Well, it was both of our faults. After all, he was
the one down three and a half million dollars to bookies. “Can you
handle fighting as much as he wants you to?” I asked, feeling
guilty as hell to even ask the question.

“I don’t know, probably,” Tommy answered.
“But I don’t want to.”

“What do you think I can do?” I asked. I
hadn’t a clue how to fix this problem.

“I don’t know; help negotiate a higher
per-fight take for me. Maybe ask him to cut what I owe him down. I
just need for you to talk to him. Like I said, I’m worn out. I only
have a quarter of a million of what I owe paid off. It’s taking a
toll on me.”

“Maybe I’ll have a drink, too,” I said. I
walked over to Tommy and he poured me a shot into the glass he was
drinking from and I downed it. Tommy had the cheap stuff. It tasted
like ass.

We sat and didn’t say anything to each other
for a couple of minutes. Finally, Tommy broke the silence and said,
“What have you been up to?”

“Getting my head straight,” I said.

“That could be dangerous,” he grinned.

“You’re telling me.”

“How are Lena and Yari?”

I smiled at Tommy. “They’re doing well.”

“That’s good.”

“How are things with you two? You and
Lena?”

“Look, Tom. I’ll help you in regards with
Romero, but let’s leave Lena out of it.”

“Still bitter, I take it.”

“Just drop it.”

“Fair enough.”

“When are you going back to TJ?” I
asked.

“Tomorrow; I needed a night off. Romero
didn’t even want to give me that.”

The more I was finding out how bad Romero
was treating Tommy, the more it was pissing me off. “I’ll come down
and talk with him this weekend. Just be sure not to lose or get
hurt until then. And it probably won’t hurt you to put on a little
show for the crowd every once in a while. It could only help your
case when I talk to him. It’ll make you a higher commodity.”

Tommy nodded.

“Are you going to be okay?” I asked. This
time I was asking him a question as his friend, not someone who had
been guilted into helping him.

“Sure, I’ll be dandy,” Tommy said, as he
laid on his wooden floor.

“All right, then. I’m taking off.”

I turned around to leave the room and Tommy
yelled out, “Josiah!”

I stopped and looked at Tommy. “What is
it?”

“How did everything get so jacked up?”

“I don’t know, Tommy. It just did.”

Chapter Sixteen

I left Tommy’s place, hoping and praying
that he would be okay. I felt bad that he had put himself in such a
bad predicament. I felt a bit responsible for my part in his little
dilemma. So many things were happening so fast. It was hard to know
which decisions were the correct ones. My gut was telling me to be
there for him. I just didn’t know how.

I can’t fight his battles for him. Or can
I?

Romero had offered me a lot more to fight.
Maybe if I fought a couple of fights it could clear his name. The
problem with Tommy is that even if I did this for him and paid off
his debt, it doesn’t mean he wouldn’t be in more economic trouble
down the road. Maybe the best way to teach him a lesson was by
making him do it himself. I just didn’t want him to get killed. I’m
pretty sure Romero wouldn’t let that happen. I’d go up and see him
this weekend. I’d check out Tommy, too. I’d see what he’s up
against.