The Fighter's Block (54 page)

Again
he
wouldn’t answer.

“When the opportunity presented itself, he decided to take care of Brian once and for all. He beat the shit out of him to teach him a lesson, and then he killed him to be done with it all. He framed the one person that looked guilty no matter what, and while the police were bus
y with Van
—”

“
I didn’t frame him
!” Scott shouted, finally revealing some emotion again. “I didn’t frame you!” he said again, almost pleading with Van. “
All I did was steal a fucking pair of shoes.
I swear to God I
wasn’t the one that
frame
d
you…” He shook his head, not understanding h
ow things changed so quickly. “I
didn’t want you to go to jail, Van. I swear to you. I thought for sure they’d let you go because you didn’t do it; I thought they’d eventually come looking for me but they didn’t. You were released, I wasn’t a suspect, and I just left it at that.
I didn’t think it was
gonna
go that far…”

He could
n’t
say anymore. He was through. It had all come to an end.

Van sighed. “You could have come to me, Scotty.
Any of us.
We would have helped you out. Brian was an absolute piece of shit. We could have put him away together. You didn’t have to kill him, man. We could have figured it out.”

Scotty looked him in the eye. “Fuck you, Van. You wanted to do the same thing!”

“Yeah, you’re right,” he
agreed
.
“But I would have taken responsibility for it.”

“Right!” Scott laughed. “Responsible Van, always doing the noble thing. ‘Oh, I could kill a guy with my bare hands but I’m only man enough because I’d admit to it.’ You’re a piece of work!”

“What the fuck is your problem?” Cody growled.

“My problem? My problem is that I’ve been fucked over by life ten times over! You try being blackmailed and see how you like it!
That son of a bitch deserved it!
Do you know what I’ve been through this past couple of months
!?
”

Van could only imagine because of what Dani had been through. He looked at her, standing by the hall with anguish written all over her face. His heart broke, not just for her but also for everything else. He couldn’t even explain it.

Scotty even pointed to her and said, “This is all
her
fault. She brought all of this shit—”

“Shut the fuck up!” Van shouted
,
shoving him so hard he hit the brick wall. “This goes beyond her. She’s a victim too, you asshole!”

“Don’t fucking touch me, Van!” Scotty shouted back.

Both Cody and Paul
tried to step
between them, even though it was a terrible idea to stop either one of them if it came down to a fight. But it was too late when Scotty clocked Van in the face with his casted hand, and
then the two of them went full-
out takedown mode onto the floor.

Chapter Thirty-Two

Paul and Cody backed off at this point. This was Van’s fight and they both knew he wanted it. Unfortunately the apartment was going to take on some damage, being that two raging bulls were charging through it. Dani could only watch from the sidelines with
Marnie
as the two men crashed over the coffee table, and then over the couch. Tears were streaming down
Dani’s
face as
Marnie
put an arm around her. Pleading with the other
men
to
stop it
was not going to do any good.

Even Cole waited it out.
He was thankful
he didn’t have to deal with any of the traditional sorts of weapons that could be pulled on someone in
a confrontation like this
, but two u
ltimate fighters was more difficult
to deal with. He had to
decide
when to step in.

Finally Van’s chokehold on Scotty worried him a bit. He had him in submission with no hopes of escape, and Cole came over to end it.

“Van. Hey. It’s over, okay?”

He didn’t think Van would let the guy go until Dani came near and said, “Van? Let him go, okay?”

Van released his hold and hopped to his fee
t, working to catch his breath as he glared at the heap of betrayal on the floor.
At Cole’s request,
Gary and Cody came over to make sure Scotty was all right. Van left them to join Dani and she wrapped her arms around him.

“I’m so sorry,” she whispered, tears wetting his chest where she laid her face.

“Nothing you should be s
orry for, baby. It’s over.
We move on.”

She nodded her head and continued to hold him.

Cole opened the apartment door a minute after making a phone call; Doug Buchanan and three other police officers were coming down the hall.

Mickey was also amongst them and the man looked twenty years older than he was. This entire heartbreaking mess had happened from his fight club and it was devastating. He watched Scotty be cuffed and hauled out of the room
,
but Scotty wouldn’t look at him.

Doug approached Cole and said, “We got it all.”

Cole nodded and handed him the listening device.

Dani
was observing this by now. S
he was finally beginning to understand
when she caught sight of the gun at his waist when
his
clothing
moved
. She let go of Van but
still
held his hand. “You’re a cop?” she asked softly.

Cole glanced at Van a
nd then finally at Dani. “I’m a private
investig
ator. Jack sent me here to snoop and collect information.”

“You’re a
cop
?” Paul spat. No one could tell if he was pissed or just surprised.

“I’m an investigator,” Cole repeated. “And for the record, I’m sorry for breaking into all of your apartments repeatedly.”
He added a tiny little smirk that only Van caught.

Paul did look surprised that time. “What?”

But he seemed to shake it off when Van said, “
I couldn’t tell you
who he was
. My future depended on it.”

Once the information sank in,
Cody waved it off. “Yeah, man. No worries. I’m just glad this is all over with. Sad about it, but glad.”

“Yeah, me too,” Paul nodded.

“You were in my apartment?”
Marnie
narrowed her eyes
at Cole
. “Jesus, now
I
gotta
worry about being blackmailed.”

Everyone chuckled and Cole shook his head. “Trust me, I’ve come across worse.”

“Which makes me wonder,” Dani said. “How did you get my jewelry?”

Cole took a deep breath. “
Well, if you can keep up…
Turns out that
Andy
is
a petty thief. He
took
the jewelry
thinking
it
was
just yours and
Brian
would never know.
He’d actually taken other things of yours and sold them online.
When Brian was raging mad that he couldn’t find
the jewelry
, Andy put them back in his apartment like they’d just been misplaced. And then when Scotty killed Brian,
he
took them
.
”

“
What
?”

“I came across some things on
Andy’s
computer that I didn’t quite understand at first, but once you told me about your missing diamonds, it all made sense. He’d been trying to pin down a value for them
and
find a buyer. H
e was planning to sk
ip town
to escape his brother once and for all.
He just needed to let the dust clear before he left
.”

“
Andy
finally found the guts to defy his brother
?”

“Don’t think too much of the guy, Dani. He’s who set Van up.”

She stared at him. “
What
?”

“A set up that almost worked? It was pretty good. Took a brain more than what Scotty had
, so the two conspired together.
Andy told him about the jewelry that was in Brian’s possession and how much it was worth. When Scotty was there to do the deed, he took that as payment.
”

“Oh my God,” she whispered, shaking her head.

“Last night we set up a meeting to exchange the jewelry. Scotty was
told there was a buyer willing to pay
two hundred grand
for
it
. We had a middleman make the deal and the exchange. Scott was
given marked bills and they’re most likely being removed
from his apartment right now,” h
e nodded his head to next door. “Andy’s in custody
. He’s
been
singing like a jailbird
for a deal
.”

Dani shook her head at how much criminal activity had actually been going on. She would have never suspected Scotty. He’d always been
so
nice to her, and he’d been over quite a bit for meals with everyone else.
He was always polite, always helpful… He’d even washed dishes
for her
.

No wonder Cole had warned her not to trust people so easily. She felt like she’d learned her lesson with Brian, but she was heartbroken that two of Van’s fight brothers had
also
gone down in flames.

“There are a couple other details we came across.” He looked at Dani and asked, “Remember who you talked to about Van’s sister?”

Dani was hesitant to nod but eventually
she
did.

“Brian had been following you that day. He tracked that guy down—the social worker—got everything out of him and then made him give up your phone number. That’s how you got the text that
one
night.”

Dani swallowed. She thought she’d always have to wonder about that, and even though she had suspected
as
much,
it felt horrible to hear.

“What about Van’s truck?” she asked. “How did someone get into it to plant evidence?”

“The old fashioned way, apparently,” Cole shrugged. “Andy said he broke into pretty easily.”

“And the caller?” Van finally asked.

“
Andy
as well
,” Cole
answered
.

The room was silent as everyone let the information sink in. It would probably never settle with any of them, but at least everything made sense.

“So you really started rumors at the
Divehouse
?” Cody asked Cole, just to be sure.

Cole barely shrugged. “I had to. And spending time with Dani… I just had to see where everyone’s loyalties were. You’d be surprised how much you observe from people
because
you’re an outsider.”

Paul scoffed, but it was because he felt played. But the case was solved and things could go back to the way
they
were
. “
Well no harm done, I guess. Now that I know you were just in it to solve Van’s case
.
”

Yes, it started out as a paying job, but Cole would keep
the
rest of it
to himself…

“Well,” Van said. “I want all of you out of my apartment. I was in the middle of something with my wife before we were so rudely interrupted.” He scooped Dani up in his arms, and she laughed with surprise. He headed down the hall for the bedroom when he said, “Lock the door behind you.”

“My God, Van, you’re subtle,”
Marnie
scowled playfully. But when Van only offered a big fat grin as a reply, she just laughed along with everyone else.

“You are a caveman, you know that?” Dani teased him as he shut the bedroom door with his foot.

He gently set her on the bed and laid her
down
to kiss her. Then he dropped onto his back
next to her
and groaned. “Actually I was hoping you
’d
ice my face. It fucking hurts.”

She stared at him
for a moment
with surprise
,
and then laughed out loud. “You had to act all macho in front of your friends?”