The Fighter's Block (25 page)

“That can be covered up,” Dani replied.

Simone motioned for her to hold her arms out, so Dani did. “The shape of your arms are still beautiful, so yes, it should be fine. I’ll call Alberto and let him know.”

“Thank you,” Dani told her when she stood to make the call.

She was left alone in the room with her dad, and she could tell he was studying her arm. “What happened?” he asked, looking at her sternly for an honest answer. “Is that what you meant when you said that Brian threatened you? Did he hurt you?”

“He grabbed my arm,” she told him. “
It was nothing. He’s an asshole
and I don’t want to talk about him.”

Dominic
wasn’t convinced, but he let it drop.
There were a lot of thoughts swimming around in his head and he had to be careful with what he said.
To be speaking to his baby girl after all th
is time was what he’d
hoped for and he couldn’t risk upsetting her. The last thing he wanted was for her to run off again in rebellion.

“I’ve been studying photography,” she told him,
in case she needed to
change the subject.

“Oh?”

She nodded and pulled a hard folder out of her bag. She handed it to him and he opened it.
He liked what he saw right away
and nodded his approval. “Very nice,” he told her. He flipped through her work for another minute, studying one picture for it’s symmetrical presentation, and another one for the simple beauty of it. “Who’s this?” he asked, pointing to it.

She glanced at it but had to look away. “Um, that’s Van. He’s, uh…he’s my boyfriend. Or was,” she reluctantly added.

Dominic
eyed his daughter for a second and he could see the hurt
in
her
eyes
. But he studied the photo and said, “It’s beautiful. And
he’s
beautiful. He’s got a very…raw quality to him.
Edgy.
”

“I know,” she smiled. “That’s what I told him and he didn’t believe me.”

He looked at her again but the smile
had
disappeared. He glanced over the photo again and casually asked, “So what happened? Why did you suddenly move out?”

Again she wasn’t surprised that he knew that much. She was sure that Van called Jaime,
and
Jaime called everyone else.
“It’s complicated.”

“It doesn’t have to be. You said you didn’t want to drag him into your life? Is that because of Brian?”

She sighed just as her mother re-entered the room. “Yes, it’s because of Brian. He
vandalized
Van’s truck, Dad. He completely…
destroyed
it. He was lingering around
the
apartment complex, looking for me, and Van told him to leave me alone. Brian filed assault charges against him! And Van doesn’t even tell me this stuff—Brian told me, can you believe that? I just…I can’t make him put up with it anymore. And Brian told me he’s just going to
keep making his life miserable.
”

Her parents looked at one another and Dani could tell they were both startled. At least they cared about what happened to her, she concluded. That was the only thing that made coming home bearable.

“Well I’ve heard enough already,” Simone
finally said
. “Danielle, he needs to be locked up.”

“And what if it makes things worse?”

“How can it get any worse? He could seriously hurt you one of these days!”

Dani
agreed
, which is why she did
what
she did.

“Why didn’t you tell us what’s been going on?”
Dominic
said.

Dani gave him a look and the three of them kind of silently concurred that no one
had
liked each other at the time.

“Well,” he fina
lly said, waving it off. “I’m going to speak to my
lawyer and we’ll get this son of a bitch out of your life.” He got up from the couch to make a phone call
and
Dani didn’t stop him. At least he was willing to do something to help her out, even if
she
wasn’t
sure of what
she wanted
to do
.

“He doesn’t think I’ll go the lawyer route because I’m broke,” she told her mom. “The last thing he ever expected me to do was come crawling back home.”

Simone didn’t respond at first. She’d missed her daughter tremendously over the past
few
year
s
. She knew she’d made mistakes with her
, and she did regret
some
of it, but now was her chance to make things right. She was too proud to apologize, but
now she could
show that she really did care.

“I think you should take a hot b
ath and go to bed after you eat. Let your father and I take care of the other stuff for now.
”

T
here was a knock at the door. Simone answered it and room service brought in a cart of food.

Dani didn’t disagree
with her mom
, and as soon as she consumed a little bit of food to tide her over until morning, she did head for
a
bath and then went to bed by nine o’clock.

Her parents were grateful for the privacy to plan their next move…

Chapter Thirteen

Her text to him was upsetting. Dani told him that she wasn’t ready to live with him full time, and she needed to be on her own to figure out her life. Van didn’t know what that meant, and he especially didn’t understand why she had to take off like she did. Why couldn’t she just talk to him? They’d gotten so close and he thought they were able to talk about anything.

He did text her back, even though he was afraid of pushing too
far
. He told her that he loved her and that she could come back any time. He also
told her
that he needed her in his life.
She didn’t send a reply, but w
hat else could he do?

Well, the only outlet he had was the Divehouse. He entered the facility the very next morning at five a.m. and began his training regiment. Mickey knew something was up—that wasn’t determination, that was anger—but he left him alone. He peeked at him several times throughout the day—
an hour
of
grueling
weights,
an
hour
of
intense
cardio, and another hour
hammering
the bags. There was something going on, but he still left him alone. Van left the building without his knowledge, but when he returned, Mick
ey realized he’d gone on a five-
mile run.

Whatever had happened, Donavan Kemp would be in fighting shape one way or another.

Van returned the next morning at five a.m. He only heard from Jaime that Dani was staying in Manhattan with her parents. That surprised him, but
because
it was shocking to Jaime
, it worried him even more
. And Jaime said that her sister wouldn’t return her calls, either.

Van was concentrating on the bag that evening when he suddenly
recognized a familiar presence
behind him.

“Don’t make me have to purchase new equipment sooner than I need to,”
Mickey
warned
him.

Van let out a long breath of air and bent over onto his knees
, sucking another bolt of burning fire into his lungs
. He let the sweat drip all over the floor
and watched it pool
for a few seconds before h
e stood. “She left,” he answered
, knowing Mickey
was there to finally
ask
and he wasn’t going to leave until he got an answer.
“
After talking to you on the phone
the other day
, I came home and she was gone.”

He returned to the bag again, the frustration brewing once more. Mickey
watched him for a bit before he
left him alone and went back to his other fighters. They were all watching from across the room (no one really wanted to be near Van just in case he decided to unleash on one of them) and Mickey motioned for them to get back to work.

Twenty minutes later Van felt ready to collapse.
His body could take a lot, but he’d pushed himself to the limits this time. He was a beaten man, heart and soul.
He leaned onto his knees for just a
minute
and allowed the sweat to
puddle
on
the
smooth concrete
, but then he stood and walked out the burn in his lungs and arms. When he finally caught his breath he turned to the rest of the gym and shouted, “Anyone see Quincy lately
!?
”

Everyone stopped what they were doing and stared at him pacing across the floor.
The room instantly went eerily silent
.
No one wanted to be confronted by Van.

“Anyone at all?” he asked again
, his voice echoing
through the building
. He walked through the gym so he could make eye contact with every one of them. “I’m only going to ask one more time,” he said
firmly
. “I wanna know where Q is—”

“I heard he’s in Brooklyn with his family,” Scotty replied
carefully
.
His heart was thumping in his chest with the reply, but he
tried to ignore it.

Van approached him and stared him in the eye. “How do you know?”

Scotty took a second to hold his own and said, “My sister talks to Meredith all the time.”

“I talked to Meredith too and she didn’t say anything about him being in Brooklyn.”

Scotty slowly shrugged
and tried to swallow with subtlety
. “Uh, I don’t know, man. Maybe it was just her guess.”

Van considered it for a second. Why wouldn’t Q’s sister mention that he was in New York? Did she lie to him? “Anyone know anything else?” he asked loudly.

No one said anything, and he was just about to ask again when Mickey said, “All of you, get back to work,” and he took Van by the shoulder. “Get a grip, kid. What, you gonna fight an answer out of someone?”

“No,” he scoffed. “But someone’s gotta know something.”

Mickey took a deep breath and face
d
him when they were a distance away from everyone. “What’s Quincy got to do with all this?”

Van was angry, and he almost felt too stubborn to answer.
That stone look of defiance could normally cause a person to recant their question.
But Mickey roughly patted his face and said, “He
y, I asked you a question
, son
. What’s
Quincy
got
to do with Dani?”

Reluctantly he answered.
“He was the last one to see her that night.”

“So?”

“So?
Dani moves out and Q disappears? Is that a coincidence?”

“And what part do you suppose he has in all this?”

“I don’t know!” he said loudly. “I don’t have any answers and it’s pissing me off!”

“I see that,”
Mickey
growled. “And if you yell at me like that again, you’ll find your ass out on the streets!”

Van turned away and took a deep breath. He knew that
people were still watching them
and that made him even angrier. But he faced Mickey and said, “I’m sorry. I
just
don’t know what to do.”

“I understand that.
But letting your emotions get out of hand isn’
t gonna
help the situation. You’re
gonna
get yourself in a lot of trouble. This isn’t like you, Van. You need to find a way to calm down.”

Van took another deep breath, pulled up a chair
and
dropped into it
. “Something doesn’t feel right. I talked to her that evening and everything was just…great. We were talking about a trip to Florida, and she was telling me about photography ideas she had, and she told me she loved me a dozen times… A person can’t just pack up and leave the next day for no reason. Something happened.
I love her, Mickey. So much it just… And if anything happens to her…
”

“And Quincy was the last one to talk to her?”

“The last one to see her,” he nodded.

Mickey
slowly bobbed his head as he thought it over.
“You let me find Quincy, okay? I don’t wa
nt you to talk to him right now,
not when you’re like this.”