The Fighter's Block (14 page)

He probably wouldn’t have
noticed Brian parked on the side of the road, but t
here was a homeless guy on
the sidewalk
pestering
a woman for
change
and Van happened to glance their way. Before his eyes resettled on the road in front of him, he caught
sight
of a familiar face on his way by.

“Shit,” Brian said to himself
, realizing he’d been seen
. He
turned
the ignition to his car
but the black truck had already screeched to a stop and backed up several feet, blocking him in.

Van
jumped
out of his truck and yanked Brian’s door open.

“What
the
fuck
are you doing here
!
?
”
he
shouted. He
grabbed
Brian
out of his car, threw him up against it
and held him there. “You still stalking her? Huh? You just sit here, waiting for her to come and go?”

Brian refused to answer, and his smug smile made Van even angrier.

“There’s something wrong with you!” he yelled, banging him against the car. “You stay away from her, you understand
me? If anything happens to her
you will have
me
to deal with, you got that? This is done,
asshole
,” Van growled
, pulling out his phone
. “You won’t be coming by here again, I’ll make sure of it.”

Van didn’t trust himself to handle it
any
further, so
he grabbed Brian’s keys from the ignition and
decided to make a phone call.

“Doug,
I gotta situation here that I need someone else to handle…”

Van wa
s glad that he had enough sense
to allow somebody else to intervene. As it was, he already wanted to beat the shit out of
this guy
.

Dani was upstairs reading a book when Marnie called her.

“Van cornered your ex on the street,” was all she got out before Dani jumped up to look out the window.

“Oh,
no
,” she moaned after she stuck her head out the window to see the commotio
n. Yes, there was Van’s truck on the street
and there was Brian, surrounded by Paul, Eddie, a couple of guys
in suits
, and two
uniformed
cops.

She left the apartment in an instant, made it downstairs in a matter of seconds, and flew out the front door. Paul saw her coming first and said something to Van, and Van
took a deep breath to decide the best way to handle the situation
.

“W
hat the hell is going on?” she asked, out of breath.

“Just walk with me,” Van said, intercepting her before she got any further.

“Dani!” Brian called. “Come on, I just need to talk to you!”

The
officers
at the scene discouraged him from saying any more, and Van led Dani to the passenger’s seat
of his truck
.

“Where are we going?” she asked.

“Just…
hop
in, please. I have to at least move my truck for now.”

The police had just informed him to do so, and with Dani’s arrival, it was the perfect opportunity. He pulled around to
the other side of the street
and turned off the ignition, and then just sat there in silence.

Finally Dani asked, “What happened?”

“He was parked on the street.”

She
thought about that for a second. “And?”

“And what? Dani, there’s no reason for him to be here!”

“I understand that, so what happened? You just saw him there and…and what?”

“I had a talk with him, and then decided I needed to let someone else do it. I didn’t want to do anything I would regret.”

She
was thankful for that, assuming that he hadn’t done anything to Brian that would cause her ex to press charges. The last thing she wanted was for Van to get in trouble
because of
her.

She moved closer to him and slid her hands behind his neck, leaning her forehead against his. She wanted to cry because things had gotten so out of hand, and she just wanted everything to stop. But she remained composed and took a few seconds to think.

“Van, I think that I should just…move on for now, okay? I’m going to go stay somewhere else; somewhere that doesn’t put you in the middle of all of this—”

“Don’t do that, Dani. I mean it. You are not to blame for any of this, and you don’t have to worry about keeping me out of this to- to protect me, or whatever.”

“I can’t handle all of this, Van. It makes me really uncomfortable having all of these people now a part of this. Not just you, but now Eddie, and Cody, and Paul and Marnie… It’s not fair, and I feel that Brian is just doing this because he’s pissed, you know? I broke up with him, you step in at the club,
you
break his hand… And th
en I end up going home with you,
now I’m living with you…” She sig
hed. “It’s just a mix of things
and I think he’ll settle down if I just—”

“You’re completely catering to his wishes,” Van interrupted.

Dani closed her eyes and moved back to her seat. She took a deep breath and laid her head back, wishing she knew what to do.

“Dani, listen to me,”
h
e
said softly. He took her hand in his and waited for her to look at him. “I don’t know the best choice either, okay? I want him to stay away from you, he’s been warned several times, and it’s either still not getting through to him, or he just doesn’t care. What do you think is going to happen if you move out?” He paused for several seconds, not really expecting an answer, but using the time to word one correctly. “He’s
going to
take that as a green light, Dani. He’s
going to
think that he got his way, and that he can manipulate you even further. Now I don’t care if you tell me to stay out of this because it’s not
gonna
happen. You can move out, or say that you don’t want to be with me anymore—and I’ll be
broken
, I guarantee it—but I’m not
gonna
s
top caring about you. I’ll still be around, doing what I can to keep you safe. That will never change.”

She
didn’t respond, even though she was touched by his concern for her. She sat there for a long time, trying to weigh her options as quick
ly
as she could.

“Dani,” Van said quietly.

She loo
ked his way and their eyes met;
her
heart seemed to beat a new rhythm. There were silent emotions exchanged at that moment, but neither of them
was
brave enough to say
out loud
how they felt
.

The timing wasn’t in their favor anyways when Cody approached the truck, so
Van rolled down the window.

“The police want to talk to Dani if…if you’re ready for that…” He wasn’t sure of what was going on in the truck. It looked pretty intense, even though
no one
seemed to be talking. 

Van looked at Dani. “Please file a restraining order,” he told her. “If anything, at least we’ll have the law on our side, okay?”

She
had already decided to do so. If Brian was still following her around, she needed to do something to make him stop.

“Okay, I’ll do that.”

Van nodded and then opened the door and got out.

“There’s one more thing,” Cody said quietly while Dani was still in the truck. “That douche bag is filing assault charges against you.”

Van wasn’t surprised, being that he not only yanked the guy out of his car and slammed him against it, but most likely because of the incident at the club the month before.

He didn’t say anything
in response
and walked around to the passenger’s side to open Dani’s door.

Dani did file a restraining order against Brian, and Brian didn’t take it very well. He was more a
damant tha
n ever to press charges against Van, but
he decided that
maybe he could play it just right.

“You tell Dani I’ll drop the charges against him if she forgets about the goddamn restraining order,” he told Sergeant Buchanan
. “It’s a bunch of shit anyways
and she knows it.”

“She doesn’t know about the charges,” Doug informed him.

Brian was caught off guard, but did some quick thinking. “Fine, then tell—what’s his name again?” he chuckled sarcastically. “
Van
? Then tell
Van
that I’ll drop the charges if he convinces her to
forget it
.”

Doug looked over the little
prick
and shrugged his shoulders.
“Even if that were an opt
ion, I can guarantee that he’d n
ever agree to
it
. But most importantly, w
e haven’t found any evidence to make those charges stick
in the first place
,
”
he added with a tiny smile.

Brian’s blood burned hot and he could feel his temper about to reach
boiling
. However, he took a silent breath to calm himself and said, “The asshole grabbed me out of my
car and slammed me against it,
m
ore than once. If that’s not assa
ult, I don’t know what is. Wait,
of course I do. It was when he broke my fucking hand in a parking lot,” he finished with
a bitter
laugh
.
“Yeah, I think the guy has a serious problem. I’m being railroaded here, right? Is that it? Jesus
, you people are something else—
”

“You done with your whining? –Because if you were harassing
my
girlfriend, I’d want to kick your ass too. You’d better smarten up and realize how lucky you are right now. For one, this all happened because
you
were being a very naughty boy—things could be a lot worse if
she
had pressed charges against
you
the first time. And two, you are messing with the wrong crowd of people
, son
. I suggest you count your blessings
,
take your sorry ass back home
, and follow the restraining order to the
letter
.
You’ll have your appearance with a judge to plead your case, but until then, you’re not allowed near her.”

Sergeant Doug Buchanan dismissed Brian with a motion of his hand, and even though Brian had plenty more to say, he decided to get the hell out of there and give his thoughts some time to develop.

Wrong crowd of people?
Was that a challenge?

By the time Van was finally able to close his eyes to let sleep overtake him, he had too many things on his mind. He played the last six hours in his head, and the more he pictured Brian’s face, the more he wanted to bash it in.
He’d drop the assault charges if Dani dropped the restraining order? Was he
fucking
serious? Doug assured Van that he was, and Van just couldn’t comprehend it.

Dani stirred just slightly, and it caused him to remember the good things that were in his life. Right now he had a beautiful girl in his arms and he was very happy with her. He realized that his feelings for her were only
growing
deeper
, and even though he had no idea what the future had in store for them, he was intent on holding on to what he had with her.

She
knew that Van was awake
and she could sense that the day’s events were still bothering him. She felt awful about it, but so grateful he was in her life. Did God really plan for it to be that way? She would have gone through this trial with Brian anyway, but was she truly sent someone that would help
her
get through it
? Even though she wished he didn’t have to bear the burden, Van did it so willingly that Dani couldn’t think of any other word to describe her feelings for him except…love. She loved him. And she knew she did, with all her heart.
It scared her—she’d never been in love with anyone before—and even though her strongest instinct was to tell him how she felt, she was hesitant.