The Fighter's Block (29 page)

“I came to get my shit,” he said, and he brushed by Mickey and headed for the locker room.

Van took a deep breath and
slowly released it.
Dani was looking at him to make sure he was going to leave Quincy alone and he held up his hands and said, “No worries.”

“Stay away from the locker room,” she warned him with a smile.

He lightly laughed and said, “Yes, ma’am,” and gave her a kiss on the cheek. “I think I’d rather spend the rest of the day with you, though. I’m done here.”

“You sure?”

“Positive.”

Quincy was glad they were gone when he came out. He didn’t like the looks the other guys gave him, but Van was the only one he was truly afraid of. Out of all the guys he could have pissed off, he wished it wasn’t Van. But it was too late to use common sense now, and he was still paying the price for
his
mistakes.

He left the Divehouse with an armful of gear and threw it
with his bag
in
to
the back of his car.
If his friends were going to forsake him, he was now on his own.

He decided to disappear after that. He couldn’t face any of them anymore.

Van had a fight the next Friday. Dani left work at four,
got home and changed her clothes
, and headed down to Trenton with Marnie. Van was already there with Paul, Cody, Mickey, and the rest of the guys that had fights that night, and she met up with him before the event started.

“Are you nervous again, or is it getting bette
r?” Van asked her with a smile.

“I’m always nervous. I don’t know if it will get any better.”

“Nah, don’t say that. You’ll get over it.”

“Maybe. I mean I enjoy watching you win, so as long as you keep winning, I should be fine.”

He chuckled and said, “Well, that’s usually the plan.
Come here for a sec,” he said, motioning for her to give him a hug. She ste
pped into his arms and he held her close. His bare skin was still dry because he hadn’t even warmed up yet, so she wrapped her arms around him and enjoyed it.

“You’re
so sexy
,” she told him. “It’s the only reason I like watching this sport.”

He smiled and said, “Well, you might like my opponent tonight. He’s pretty popular with the ladies I hear.”

That made her smile but she said, “The only thing I like about your opponents is when they lose. That’s all I care about.”

“Wel
l, tonight could be a tough one,” he decided to warn her.

“Don’t tell me that.”

“I’m getting tougher matches, D. It’s the way it goes.
I’m moving back up the ladder again.
”

She sighed, but she was grateful for his honesty.

“Jonny, you’re up,” Mic
key called to a welterweight
that had been warming up in the next room.

“Well, I have to let you go,” Van said reluctantly. “I need to get ready.”

“Okay. I’ll be cheering for you, even if you can’t hear me.”

“I hear you right here,” he replied, tapping his chest.

She smiled and said, “Aw, you’re so sweet.”

“What?” Mickey overheard. “I don’t wanna hear that crap!” He motioned for Van to get his hands taped and winked at Dani.

“Okay,
mi amore
,” she said. “Knock him down.”

“Sure thing, baby,” he grinned. He kissed her goodbye and watched her leave, and then he
met
Andre in
the other room for a tape-up.

“Does this seriously get any easier?” Dani asked Marnie as the
y
found their seats.

“Yeah, I think it did. Of course
I’d been around it with my brothers for a couple of years already.
I met Paul after I’d seen him fight a few fights. We didn’t start dating until a few months later. I guess I was used to it by then.
”

Dani took a deep breath and let it out. Cody’s family was to her right and she talked to them for a minute before Jonny’s fight was announced. Jonny ended up losing in the second round by tapout, and then Cody’s
middleweight
match was announced next. Paul was in his corner that night with Mickey. He’d been taking on fights recently, but just not that night since he was in the same weight class as Cody, and Cody was deemed a better fit for that night’s middleweight match. The match was a close one, but Cody ended up winning by tapout in the third round. Dani’s adrenaline was already pumping because of Cody’s match, so when Van’s
light heavyweight
match was announced, she felt pretty tense.

“Ooh, Van was right,”
Marnie
said to her. “Gavin Morrison
is
pretty hot.”

Dani glanced over her husband’s opponent that had entered the ring, but she shook her head with a smile. “No way, he’s got nothing on my baby. And he’s
gonna
lose tonight. Totally cancels out the hotness factor.”

Marnie laughed with agreement, but as Dani stood to cheer Van’s entrance to the ring, something caught her eye across the room. It was Brian, she was sure of it. Eve
n with a hat on he was unmistak
able, especially when he caught her gaze and smiled back.

“
Oh God
, Brian’s here,” she said to Marnie.

“Where?” she growled automatically.

“Other side of the room
to the right side
, eight rows up.”

Marnie took a few seconds to locate him and said, “What a
shi
t f
ace.
What the hell is he doing here? He’s breaking the restraining order, right? Call the cops,” she said, pulling out her phone.

“Nope,” Dani said. “He’s fifty feet away. I bet he even measured it out.” Dani had to look away by then; he was the last person on earth she wanted to see
and her stomach felt sick
. But why was he here? He’d never been into MMA before.

She focused her attention on Van, which was a good thing because he looked her way at that moment. If Van knew that Brian was in the room, he would have left the
cage
without a thought and ripped him apart. Maybe Brian was hoping for that. She didn’t doubt it. With a room full of people there was no way Van could do much to him, and if he did, he’d have dozens of witnesses.

The only thing Dani could do was
remain
where she was. She was safe, and Van was occupied in the cage. When the match started, she subtly used her phone to take a picture from her lap, just in case she ever had to prove that Brian had been there. Then she texted her parents to let them know, and her father replied that he’d call someone to look into. After that she focused on Van’s match that lasted only one round, ending with the knockout of Gavin Morrison.

“So much for good looks getting you anywhere,” Marnie said to her.

Dani smiled as she cheered for her husband’s victory. She glanced to her right to keep an eye on Brian, but he was already gone.
The trainers were still working on getting
Gavin
to come to, and when he did, the crowd applauded for him. Dani watched Van’s exit with Mickey and Paul, and then she and Marnie left their seats a few minutes later to join them.

Mickey was cleaning up a tiny cut by Van’s eye when she entered the room. She liked his smile and she
gave him a fist pound
to congratulate his win. He dried his face again with the towel
that was
around his neck and
asked
, “Well? How’d you do?”

She smiled and replied, “Um, just fine.
You
did great.”

“ ‘Um, just fine?’ ”
he
teased
, mimicking her
.
When she took a deep breath
he
recognized something else was bothering her.
“What’s the matter?”

“You stay sitting right there?” she asked.

He gave her a curious look, but Dani could tell that Marnie had already told Paul, and he was at Van’s side to help
if he needed to.

“Brian wa
s here,” she told Van.

“What?” he growled,
popping
up from the
table.

“Hey,” Mickey warned him, putting a hand on his shoulder. Paul stepped
in front of him
to make sure he didn’t make a break for the exit.

“I think he left though,” Dani said quickly. “But he was there, watching your fight.”

Van contemplated silently. He was angry, but he remained angry
to himself
. He
began stripping the tape from his hands. “You’re not going to be anywhere without me, okay?” he finally said.

“I know,” she replied with a nod. “And my dad called Trist; I’m sure he’ll be tracking him down.”

Van wasn’t going to count on
a private investigator
, but he only nodded his head. Mickey had to leave for the cage with Nate for his heavyweight match, so he gave
Andre
a look to keep an eye on Van
as he motioned for Paul to come with him
.

“Where was he?” Van asked Dani.

“Uh, my
three
o’clock,” she replied. “Kind of under the
dealership
sign? About eight rows from the floor.”

He barely nodded. “Fifty feet from you, huh,” he stated.

She watched him toss the balled up tape into the garbage but he didn’t say anything further. By then everyone had given Van some space—
Andre
and Marnie were on the other side of the room, but Dani knew
they
were
positioned by the exit for a reason.

“I’m gonna go shower; wait here, okay?” Van finally said.

She nodded her agreement, not surprised that he returned only five minutes later and barely dried before he’d gotten dressed. She sat with him upstairs to watch the last two fights of the night, but Dani could tell he was hardly watching the
octagon
. He kept scanning the crowd for Brian, even though he knew he most likely wasn’t there.

When they got home that night, Van called Doug Buchanan to inform him of the latest. He knew that nothing could be done at that point unless Brian broke the restraining order, so Van pushed for the order to be changed to one hundred feet.

“You’ll have to go before the judge again, Van. And I’ll be honest with you…just seeing the guy at a fight isn’t going to get you very far. He didn’t talk to her, he didn’t come near her…it’s gonna be a useless argument.”

“
Jesus, Doug!
He has physically assaulted her
twice
! And the second time…” Van was too angry to finish the sentence.

“I’m sorry about that, Van, I really am. I just don’t know what else we could have done.
She didn’t report it that night
—”

“She
was threatened
not to
!”

“
Van—”

“I don’t wanna talk about this again,” Van growled. “I still cannot
believe this guy fucking gets away with everything!”

“The only way to charge him with the crime now is if he confesses.
Or if we can prove that he was still in Jersey that night—
”

“Then find a way to make it happen!”

“Van, I’m not your P.I. Talk to the guy that’s working for her dad.”

“Forget it,” Van said, and he hung up the phone. He was glad that Dani was in the shower and didn’t hear the call. He didn’t want her to be worried, but at the same time it was probably a good idea to keep her extra cautious.

Dani came out of the bathroom a few minutes later and found Van already in bed
with the TV on
. They usually didn’t get home until almost midnight on fight nights, but even if he wasn’t ready to go to sleep, she knew he was physically exhausted.

“Are you pretty sore tonight?” she asked, climbing into bed next to him.

“Mm, a lit
tle,” he admitted, pulling her close to him. She smelled good, as always, and when she
gently
positioned herself against his body, he enjoyed the feel of her satin
chemise
in his hands
as she kissed him
.

“Guess what?” she said with a smile. She couldn’t wait to tell him and now was better than any.

But Van was instantly on guard for some reason. That ‘g
uess what’ phrase made him over
think her excited smile, and the first i
mage
in his head
was
of him trying to change a baby’s diaper and failing miserably. He wasn’t ready for that—a kid—and he wasn’t sure how he was going to pretend that he was excited for her news—