by Nikki Wild
“And the most confident, apparently,” I replied.
“He’s earned the right to be confident. He’s saved thousands of kids lives with his bare hands.”
Jesse turned, pulling me into his arms and wrapping himself around me. He’d taken to holding me like this the last few days, his body feeling like a protective shield that had been sent to guard us. “He’s going to save Maddy, too. You’ll see, babe. Have a little faith.”
“That’s all I’ve got,” I said, my voice muffled against his chest.
He pulled away, peering deeply into my eyes.
“Hey, that’s not true. You’ve got Maddy. You’ve got Eddie. And, if you want… You’ve got me.”
“Of course I want you,” I said. We’d spent the last twenty four hours hashing out the last ten years, and somehow we’d come to a sort of truce. He agreed not to hate me and I agreed to never cut him out of Maddy’s life again. “How could I not?”
“I’m not perfect, Maisey. Not yet. But I will be. You’ll see. I’m going to be the best dad to Maddy,” he insisted. His eyes were so gentle, so earnest, so hopeful. I don’t know how he’d forgiven me, and I wasn’t sure I’d have done the same thing so easily if I were in his shoes, but I was so grateful that he had.
Most of all, he was absolutely convinced that his doctors could cure Maddy’s illness. And to be honest, if that happened, then I’d have given him my life… If he wanted me to keep the faith, then I’d do it.
I could only wish Maddy had forgiven me as easily as he had. She was still a little angry, and once we’d gotten to the hospital and her breathing had stabilized completely, she’d withdrawn even more. I couldn’t blame her. I deserved her anger. But she knew I loved her with all of my soul, and I knew she loved me. We’d be able to work things out. Maybe it would take a little time, but I was prepared for that.
What I wasn’t prepared for was how easily she and Jesse took to each other. After he’d chased her down and we’d taken her to the hospital, they’d given her a sedative to help her body relax.
She’d taken a quick nap, and when she woke up, the first person she asked for was Jesse.
I watched their meeting from the hallway, saw their awkward laughter turn to affectionate banter and I knew everything was going to be okay. He explained his sister’s illness to her, told her about his charity and all the work he’d been doing when he wasn’t on a football field. Her eyes lit up when she realized what it all meant for her. It was as if the whole world opened up to her.
If Jesse was right, Maddy’s potential to lead a full, healthy, normal life just increased immensely.
But I knew the truth… She’d never lead a normal life. Her life was going to be extraordinary. I’d make sure of that…
And so would Jesse.
After her conversation with Jesse, Maddy had drifted off to sleep… But I wasn’t going to find rest quite as easily. I spent the entire night talking with Jesse, discussing the past, and figuring out what all of this meant for our future.
“Maisey, I get it,” he’d said, his voice a low whisper as we sat by the window in Maddy’s hospital room. “I don’t hold it against you. We’ve all made choices we regretted later.”
“Did you?” I asked. “What do you regret?”
“Me? Well, for starters, I regret not coming after you on prom night. I saw your note to your dad. I knew where you went. I could have driven down to the bus station and found you… But I didn’t. I let myself get angry. I let you go, and I’ve regretted it ever since. Now I know why.”
“I should have told you the truth,” I said. “I was scared, so I ran.”
“I guess all three of us are good at running,” he winked.
“I can’t believe you’re joking about all of this,” I said. He reached over and grabbed my hand, his warmth comforting me like a blanket.
“What else can I do? All we’ve got is now, Maisey. We can’t change the past, so why spend time being angry about it? And, I don’t know if you noticed, but it needs to be said - you’ve given me the greatest gift of my life, the most important gift I could ever receive. I’m proud to be Maddy’s father, she’s a wonderful kid. You’ve done a great job of raising her, Maisey,” he said, my heart melting in my chest at his words. “You should be proud of that. And you did it all alone, Maise. That’s amazing.”
“You’re amazing,” I said, smiling up at him. “I’m so lucky to have you in our lives, Jesse.”
“I’m the lucky one,” he said, leaning over to kiss me. His lips were so gentle, so warm, so loving, so fucking perfect that tears began streaming down my face.
“Why are you crying? You aren’t going to run away again, are you?”
Laughter bubbled up from under my tears, and I shook my head.
“No, Jesse, never again.”
“Good. Cause if you try it again, I’m gonna have to tackle you.”
Maisey
7 months later
“Oh, my God, I’m so excited, I’m gonna piss my pants!” Eddie cried, throwing his scarf over his shoulders.
“Eddie!” I tried to scold him, but I couldn’t stop laughing. Maddy jumped up and down at my side, and the three of us stood huddled on the sidelines in what was easily the most exciting moment of all of our lives.
Jesse had made it to the Superbowl and for the last several hours we’d been cheering them on as they played against Arizona in the Superdome in New Orleans. Jesse chartered a jet for the three of us and we’d been living it up in the Big Easy all weekend. The only sad part is that I didn’t get to spend much time with him over the last few days. He had to travel with the team and they were practicing and training every minute leading up to the game!
We’d all spent the last two weeks counting the days till we stepped on that plane, and we’d had the time of our lives. I couldn’t remember ever being this happy, and it amazed me that my crazy life could lead to this even crazier moment.
Jesse had been right about Maddy’s illness. The doctors had performed a bonafide miracle. Once she was properly diagnosed, they were able to schedule a surgery almost immediately. A month in the hospital and one little pill to take every day and her symptoms had disappeared completely. As she recovered, Maddy spent more and more time walking the hospital floors and getting to know the other girls who had come here for treatment under Jesse’s charitable program. She had a gentle grace about her, and it wasn’t long before she was friends with every patient and nurse in the building.
Maybe she would go into medicine someday… Just like me… The world was her oyster and it was all thanks to Jesse.
I’d spent years imagining what would happen if the truth came out, and I’d never imagined it turning out this wonderful. I counted my blessings every day of my life, and I did everything I could to make it up to both of them. Maddy had finally come around after a week or so, and once she realized that Jesse was here to stay, she saw it for the blessing that it was. We’d finally bonded together like a real family.
And here we were as if we’d always been like this.
I held my breath as the last play of the game unfolded before our eyes.
We were down by three points but well out of field goal range, and there were just seconds left in the game. Jesse had just called their last time out with time for one final play.
As Jesse ran over and conferred with the coach, Maddy reached up and squeezed my hand.
“Make a wish, baby,” I whispered in her ear.
“I already did!” she said. I laughed and pulled her and Eddie close as we all held hands and watched Jesse run back to the huddle for a few seconds before the teams went into formation.
Jesse took the ball from the center and rolled out right. I could feel the energy coming off his body. I knew his arm would find its target, that was where his true talent lay. He found his wide receiver and the pass was the most perfect spiral I’d ever seen. The crowd fell silent as the ball danced through the air, pirouetting gracefully until it landed square in the
wide receiver’s chest. He secured it with his huge hands and turned and ran for the end zone.
The defenders launched their bodies at him in complete desperation, but he eluded their attempts like a skilled escape artist. He slid through the human barricades like a snake, sidestepping and dancing around them, leaving them fumbling through the air in his wake.
“Oh lord! Oh lord! Oh oh oh!” Eddie cried, jumping up and down beside me.
“Go go go!” Maddy yelled. My eyes traveled over to Jesse and my heart swelled when I saw the complete joy on his face as he watched the wide receiver travel safely into the end zone, throwing the ball down as the crowd erupted in joy and confetti and balloons began raining down around us. Jesse pumped his arms in the air in victory and tears sprang to my eyes. I reached down and pulled Maddy up into my arms, spinning her around as we laughed together.
“Let’s go!” I said, setting her on her feet and running onto the field. Eddie followed us and we pushed our way through the ecstatic crowd and colorful streamers. Hundreds of people surrounded the raised platform that Jesse and his teammates now stood on. We ran up on it and he threw his arms around us, kissing me hard on the lips and then turned to Maddy, picking her up and spinning her in the air. Laughter peeled from them as they beamed at each other.
“Look at that trophy!” Maddy said. He handed it to her and she held it up with both hands.
A reporter stepped forward and put a microphone in his face.
“Congratulations on your win! What are you going to do now, Colorado?” the reporter asked.
“I’m going to marry the woman of my dreams,” he said, catching my eye and winking. I gasped as he pulled me close and grabbed my hand. I heard Eddie squeal beside me as he pulled a small black box from his pants and handed it to Jesse.
My eyes widened as I watched Jesse kneel on one knee in front of me.
He opened the box and my mouth dropped open when I saw the sparkling ring that lay inside. The diamond was the size of a small mountain.
“Maisey, will you make me the happiest man in the world? Will you please marry me?” Jesse asked, his voice booming through the loud speakers, echoing through the arena, love beaming from his eyes. Love for me.
“Oh my God,” I said, the forty thousand people in the arena with us disappearing, the roar of the crowd turning to a whisper as I looked into the eyes of the love of my life. My heart swelled in my chest as my body began buzzing from the sweetest joy I’d ever known.
I’d spent my whole life running from him. Running from the fear of the unknown.
And all along, I’d been running the entirely wrong direction.
It was time I changed course.
“Yes,” I cried, “yes!”
He slid the ring on my finger and swept me off my feet, kissing me with breathless passion. Slowly, the reality that we were being watched by thousands of adoring, cheering fans dawned on us and he set me down.
“What are you going to do after you get married?” another reporter asked.
“Maddy?” he said, pulling her up into his arms. “What are we going to do, babe?”
They smiled at each other and yelled into the microphone together.
“We’re going to Disneyland!”
You’ve ALMOST made it! There is ONE LAST SURPRISE in store. Are you ready to find out what it is? TURN THE PAGE!
-Nikki xoxoxo
THE FINAL SURPRISE! You’ve just found MALICE!
Here it is! A brand new never-before-released novel from Nikki Wild!
I wanted to do something extra special to end 2016, and here it is… For all my loyal fans who made it this far, here is a totally new and totally unreleased Nikki Wild novel just for YOU. MALICE is a bad boy cage fighter romance that I think you’re going to love! Thanks for making this the best year of my life.
-Nikki
Troy
The soles of my shoes beat a rhythm on the pavement like rain on a tin roof. I never liked to listen to music while I trained because there were too many things to be on the lookout for. Especially at night. So, I let my feet, and my thumping heart, and my labored breaths be the soundtrack.
Rounding the corner on to Sparrow, I crossed in front of Haye’s Auto Repair. It was where I’d spent most of my time when I was a kid. That is, when I wasn’t out raising hell.
Haye’s had bars on the doors and windows just like every other business in this fucked up town. The owner was a mountain of a guy named Robert. Robert had taken it upon himself to look out for me, seeing as how my mother wasn’t exactly capable. He used to give me a few dollars here and there for helping him sweep up the auto bays; and his wife, Sarah, always made sure I had food in my stomach.
When I was around twelve, my sister and I were taken away from Mom for good. She went to rehab, and they split us up and put us into foster care. Neither situation panned out. After a stint with some new family, I’d find an excuse to run off. Fitting in with someone else’s program wasn’t my style. A few weeks would go by, and they’d find me—usually standing on the curb in front of that blown out old shop.
That was how it went for a few years. The system kept me as its burden until I turned eighteen, and then, it spat me out. Mr. Haye died not long after that, and with my sister lost in the wind, I was officially on my own.
My legs burned as I pushed it to the limit. It was sometime after midnight, and even in a city like Chicago, the streets still smelled good after a fresh rain. The quiet night was so crisp.
Everything was better outside the walls of Cook County Jail. I’d only been free for a little over a month, but life still just seemed… sharper. Things can get bleak in a dungeon like that. At least I didn’t end up in state prison.
As a kid, I was in and out of juvenile hall; not because I wanted to be the next Al Capone, but because I had to eat. I made it all the way to twenty-three before I went to big boy jail.
It was a felony battery charge and you can bet your ass I was guilty.
I’d been doing work for a local loan shark named Damon Ortiz. Ortiz was responsible for a healthy portion of the city’s other crime statistics too, but I stayed away from all that. Anyway, whenever he needed someone to collect on a bad loan, I was the guy that got the call.
Mostly, my work was limited to scaring the shit out of gambling addicted businessmen from the north side who didn’t want to pay their debts—or, more likely, didn’t want to tell their wife they dropped ten grand on a Bears game. In the end, I always collected. Sometimes, though, I got a more… challenging assignment. It was one of those that landed me in the county for an extended vacation.
Eddie, the guy who usually gave me the jobs, told me he was waiting on payment from a couple of kids from the university. They’d sharked out twenty-five thousand to throw a huge blowout and basically party their faces off for a couple of weeks. When it came time to settle their debt, they told him to fuck off.
Nothing was worse than dealing with spoiled, coked up, college kids. They all seemed to have lawyers for fathers and were never shy about letting you know it.
Anyway, I made my way to the address Eddie had on file, where I found three of them waiting for me. I told them to pay up, they refused… and then they went to the hospital and I went to jail. End of story.
Cardale road wound behind a strip mall and petered out in front of an apartment complex that was built sometime before cell phones were a thing. That’s where I lived, and it wasn’t too bad. For the most part, it was a building of families and young professionals. I’d only moved in a couple of weeks back, but sometimes I wondered if they saw me as the bad apple in the bunch. Little did they know about my fresh commitment to turning over a new leaf.
Practice was going to come early tomorrow. I’d had a moderately successful high school wrestling career, but it was nothing compared to this. Mixed martial arts were a different animal. Every morning started with a six o’clock warmup, followed by strength and agility training, and then drills and sparring until lunch. After tha
t, I’d head over to the auxiliary building for jiu-jitsu class, and when that was all said and done, I’d go to my job loading trucks. It was a hell of a way to spend the day, but when you remembered that in two short weeks you’d be standing across the cage from your opponent, the grind became worth it.
I picked the streetlight at the front of the parking lot as my finish line. If I could sprint as hard as I could until I crossed it, then I’d sleep tonight. I had to find little challenges like that to keep from drifting off my path. It’s also why I liked to run at night. It gave me fewer opportunities to find trouble. Idle hands are the devil’s play things, is what my grandma always used to tell me.
My lungs begged my legs to quit, but they wouldn’t. I passed a lady sitting in her car at the stoplight and she looked at me like I’d just stolen something. Maybe once you were branded as a ‘felon’, people could just sense it about you. Or, maybe I was the one being paranoid.
I passed my mark and my legs turned into jelly. Stumbling to a stop in front of the manager’s office, I doubled over and rested my elbows on my knees.
“Oh, shit,” I whispered, sucking in huge breaths of cold air. My heart hammered so hard inside of my ribcage that I considered for a second it might break through.
And that was it. The city buzzed, the stars blinked, and I could add another check to the sheet of paper hanging on my refrigerator. Another day down without letting myself blow it all up. Troy Eason was an upstanding member of society.
Riley
“Oh, my goodness Riley, what are you still doing here?”
Marlena ran the night crew that cleaned our section of the building. They usually didn’t get started on our floor until after two. The mere suggestion that it was so late made my bones ache.
“Hi, Marlena,” I said, rubbing my tired eyes. “What time is it?”
