by Anne Martin
“Come on,” Trixie said, dragging me across the room, her hand gripping mine tightly.
Breakfast was massive. Sausage links, sausage patties, bacon, eggs, hash browns, muffins, steamed spinach and squash.
A man at the table stood when he saw me. He had a receding hairline and a gentle expression. He held out his hand. “I’m Trixie’s father.”
I smiled and took his hand. Ow. He squeezed and kept squeezing and squeezing and squeezing. “It’s nice to meet you, sir,” I said trying not to mind.
He kept holding my hand and I noticed the steel in his eyes. “You married my daughter?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Do you think that you can marry an innocent girl without asking for consent?”
I blinked at him. “It didn’t occur to me.”
“Dad,” Trixie said, gripping his wrist in a pressure point so her father released me. “You’re living in the wrong century. I’m thirty-two. I do what I want and I marry who I want.”
“You can do what you want in someone else’s kitchen,” Trixie’s mom said with a terrifying scowl. “Sit down and eat.”
We all sat and ate after a good Catholic prayer, said by her father, whose soft accent and gentle expression didn’t match the hardness in his eyes.
“Are you Catholic?” he asked me, same soft voice, same hard eyes.
“I am.”
Trixie looked skeptical, but she didn’t say anything.
“I mean,” I added, “I was raised Catholic, but I haven’t been to church for a long time. Vegas isn’t a very religious town.”
“Religion of the devil!” Trixie’s mom spat and crossed herself.
“And here we go.” Trixie focused on eating, but she rolled her eyes every once in awhile as her mother went off on a diatribe against Las Vegas and the evils of the world.
“…And now you’re back, pregnant, with a man we all know is a womanizing reprobate.”
Mr. O’Hara thumped his fists on the table. “Isa, you won’t speak that way about the father of our grandchild. You’re coming with me today,” he said, pointing at me.
I looked at Trixie. She gave me a small smile. “Have fun. Dad, don’t hurt him, okay? Maybe I should come with.”
“No, Trix. We need man time.”
She sighed and grabbed my hand, squeezing but not as painfully as her father. That grip. He was going to kill me for touching his daughter. For a second I went cold, but then I looked at Trixie and it didn’t matter. She was worth every humiliation and struggle.
We walked through the streets. Mr. O’Hara nodded at several people, but he didn’t stop to chat. He wasn’t a talker as far as I could tell. I kept my mouth shut. When we got to a corner gym, he pulled out his keys and unlocked the door.
“You work here?”
“It’s my place.”
“Best gym in the city.” Another voice chimed in behind us.
I looked behind me and there was Marco, closing the door as he came in.
“Marco. Warm up our friend.”
“With pleasure.” He grinned at me broad and warm before he patted me on the shoulder and went to the ring. I walked more slowly, taking in the atmosphere as well as the pictures on the wall. Champions. Marco’s picture was there, and Trix’s beside him. Trix was younger, cherubic looking in the face, but she could certainly have passed for a boy, a very heavy-set boy. Her weight class for her age would have been very high. The other champions of the WBA were there, on the wall, names I knew.
“You’re mixed martial, right?” Marco asked, swinging under the ropes, his protective headgear and red gloves on.
I followed after taking off my shoes and putting on the gloves. “Something like that. I’ve been fighting too long for the viewers. I do whatever looks the most impressive for the audience whether it’s practical or not.”
“Do you lose on purpose?”
I shrugged. “Our rankings are the second highest.”
“That’s what I mean. Trix’s team, Death-Hammer is number one. Except this year.”
I shrugged. “Trix is hard to beat.”
“And Nix?”
I sighed. “I like Nix.”
He grinned and nodded. “I thought so. You have to want to beat people. You have to know when to fight and when to like. You don’t like Nix when you’re in the cage. You have to kill him.”
I blinked at him. The cold, fierce, ruthlessness that came out so suddenly after he’d been so smiling and gregarious was disconcerting.
Trix’s dad leaned on the ropes from outside. “Let’s see some basics. Jab, jab, cross. Marco, be gentle with him. He’s been in the desert for a long time.”
Boxing. Marco was extremely well-trained. Her dad was a boxer, a coach, a gym owner who had been famous in his day, and her mom was from the mob. I shook my head to clear it from the last hook Marco had shot at me.
“Mitts up, Horse. You have to fight like you want it,” her dad said in his soft voice.
“Marco’s taking it easy on me. I have to hold back.”
Marco grinned at me. “Don’t say that to the old man,” he murmured.
“Marco, don’t hold back. He doesn’t want to hurt you.”
Marco shook his head. “See what you did? You never bring your B game to pop’s ring. Unless you’re warming someone up. You are going to hurt.”
I did. I hurt so much. I sat in the chair in the back room with a steak on my eye. In the chair next to me, Marco had a steak to his.
“I think you cracked my molar,” he said, cheerfully.
“I know you cracked mine. You are fast.”
“And furious. When are you going to ask for my dad’s consent? He’ll stew until you do it. He can’t give it unless you ask, and he needs to.”
I got up and put the steak back in the freezer. Such a disgusting yet charming tradition. I went back into the gym where it was now filled with athletes and trainers. O’Hara was on the side, intently watching a young girl attacking her opponent.
“Sir, if I could have a word?”
“Talk.”
I cleared my throat. Most of my face was swollen and my talking wouldn’t be pretty. “I’m sorry for not asking for your permission to marry your daughter. I wanted to do it fast before she changed her mind.”
“Do you think that you deserve her?”
“No. She’s a goddess. Unbelievably strong and beautiful.”
“Do you love her?”
I took a deep breath. “Yes.”
“Why’s that?”
“Because she can’t be bought. She’s priceless. She’s…”
He turned and gripped my shirt, pulling me in so his eyes, those eyes filled with chains and infinite pain gazed at me. “If you hurt her, you’re dead. Before you’re dead, pain. Got it?”
I nodded.
He smiled and let go, stepping back. “Good. She’s a tough woman. You’ll have to be willing to fight to keep her. Are you really the father?”
“No.”
He shook his head. “Forget about that. You make this baby your child. You fight for him and you fight for her.”
I nodded and with that, I was dismissed. I walked out of the gym reeling and not only from Marco’s excellent right hook. Her family was as strange and beautiful as she was.
Chapter 11
Trixie Dragon O’Hara
“What happened to Vanessa? Such a pretty girl.”
I glanced at my mother. “She was in the peace corps. I don’t know, I haven’t heard from her in years.”
She was one of the few girls in high school who didn’t mind the way I dressed and acted. She was also part of my first bender.
“You should have a party with all your old friends. To celebrate and show off your husband.”
I laughed as I picked up another plate to dry and put away. “I think that’s a great idea. Lucas, Charlie, Gladys, I can see that being a lot of fun.”
She put her hand on my shoulder and squeezed. She knew exactly where I needed tha
t. Horse did too.
Horse. When I went on my rampages and had some wild time with someone regrettable, in the morning, when I wasn’t drunk or in the grip of madness, I’d always felt a combination of horror and self-disgust. Waking up with Horse was just nice. I wasn’t crawling out of my skin when he touched me. I didn’t have anywhere that I suddenly needed to be, far away from the man-whore.
He didn’t feel like a man-whore or any other label. He was the one I wanted to wake up with, and fall asleep with, and kiss, and get sandwiches and hold hands with.
“How long do you think he’ll be at the gym?” I asked, glancing at the door.
“Do you miss him already? You two should go on a honeymoon. From the sounds coming through the wall, you are on your honeymoon.”
I gasped and felt like crawling under a rock. “Mom, that’s completely inappropriate. Do I ever say anything about the sounds coming from your room? Hm? No!” I threw down the towel and headed out.
“Where are you going?” She laughed and said something about me always being delicate.
“Theresa’s. I’ll be back.” Theresa was my cousin. She lived two apartment buildings away, in the same building as her mother. She hadn’t come to the impromptu party, because one of her kids was sick.
When I knocked on the door, she opened it looking harried, her bleached out hair sticking out around her head like a poodle. I gave her a hug and then took her son out of her arms, holding him on my hip.
“Do you want to take a shower first, or just sleep?”
She looked like crying.
“Sleep. I’ll give you two hours. It will be saving me from my mother. She wants to talk about my sex life. Go! Go!” I pushed her into her bedroom and bounced the boy on my hip. He looked around eighteen months. That was a trouble age. He yanked on my hair. I shook my head and growled at him, my best lion’s growl.
By the time Theresa stumbled out of her bedroom, looking hazy and happy, I’d finished her laundry, except for the piles of underwear the kid was wearing on his head as he ran around.
“Nice panties,” I said, nodding at the black silky ones on top.
She sighed and snatched them off his head, then headed for the coffee pot. “You didn’t make coffee. Forget the laundry, make me coffee.” She threw me a smile and shook her head. “Sorry I’m a mess. How do I live without you?”
“Clearly it’s a miracle. How’s Tom?”
“He’s good. He’s probably passed out at work today. We were up all night with this guy, but is he tired? Of course not.”
That wasn’t entirely true. Fifteen minutes later, he’d fallen asleep under the coffee table. We just left him there with his little legs sticking out.
“So,” she said once the coffee had kicked in, leaning forward with her elbows on the table.
“So…”
“Horse. You married Horse? And you’re having his baby? That man is so sexy. Don’t tell Tom. Oh! I shouldn’t say that because you’re married to him! How awkward.”
I laughed and patted her hand. “It’s okay. He keeps his Horse man-whore persona separate from who he really is. You can totally objectify the leader of League of Demons. He is so hot.”
She smirked. “And you’re pregnant.”
I shook my head. She was thinking all sorts of things about his powerful semen. “I am pregnant.” I smiled suddenly and leaned over the table. “I’m having a baby, Theresa. It was supposed to be impossible.”
She beamed at me. “I’m so happy for you. Not that it isn’t hard, I mean, you know it’s hard, with all the cousins and nieces and nephews, but it’s the best. It’s the absolute best. When are you due?”
We talked pregnancy stuff, which was so revelatory. I’d always stayed away from any conversations about what to expect, or how hard it was, because I’d always felt that people should be happy with any discomforts, because they got to have a baby. Now, I could talk about being on bed rest, and how hard it had been, and how I had no idea what I was going to do after the baby was born.
“What about Horse? Will he let you stay at home?”
I stared at her. “Stay at home?”
She nodded, intently. “Your work isn’t really flexible. It’s dangerous. I guess you could open a garage like your uncle, have a race track out back for kids, but you must be reconsidering the whole lifestyle.”
“I don’t know. I’m the best. How could I stop while I’m at the top?”
“Sounds like the perfect place. And what about Horse? He’s a beautiful man who a million women want. Isn’t that going to bother you?”
I shifted uneasily then got up to get a drink of water. “I couldn’t ask Horse to give up anything to take care of me.” I shook my head. What was I thinking? Of course he wasn’t going to change his lifestyle for me. And I wasn’t going to change mine for him, but for a baby, I’d have to change my life. I’d have to quit racing permanently.
I ran a hand through my hair. I didn’t have to, but I couldn’t take care of this baby the way he’d need to be cared for if I was living the life. I had a sudden vision of a baby with Horse’s dark hair and blue eyes.
I shook my head and frowned. It wasn’t Horse’s baby.
When I got back to the apartment, Horse was sitting in the kitchen with a steak on his face.
“That’s so gross,” I said.
He raised the steak and turned a very colorful eye towards me. “I thought you’d appreciate it. How’s the kid?”
“Kid?”
“Your mother told me that you went to help a cousin with a sick kid. Theresa?”
“Yeah. Little Tommy’s fine. Theresa needed a break. Do you want to go to Jersey?”
“What’s in Jersey?”
“My uncle’s garage and track. I’ve been thinking about him.”
He stood up and stretched, the muscular lines of him making my mouth water in spite of the swelling. All right, I found men who were swollen and colorful moderately attractive. I always had. I took his hand after he’d washed it and held it the entire time that we were on the train until we reached the garage and track. I spent forty-five minutes of holding his hand and feeling like he was my man, and I’d hurt anyone who gave us a sideways look.
The garage and shop were older and shabbier than I remembered. I went in back and there was my uncle, under the hood of an old Chevy sedan.
“Patty, do you have something for me to race?”
He straightened up and came towards me with grease-covered hands outstretched.
I went into his arms and breathed in deeply the scent of motor oil and peppermint. I pulled back and he kissed my cheeks.
“Ah, my beautiful lass. I heard you got married. Did you bring him by so I could run him over with a car?”
I laughed and turned to nod at Horse. “Horse, meet my uncle Patty.”
Horse came forward, hand outstretched.
Patty took it. “That looks like Marco’s right hook. You’re lucky. His uppercut is much worse.”
“I’ll remember that.” Horse’s words were a little garbled. He hadn’t done much talking on the way over. Maybe I shouldn’t drag him around when he looked like that. Maybe I should have him rest on the double bed. With me.
I smiled at him and took his hand. “Do you want to see the track?”
He smiled and winced because he shouldn’t smile when his face was in that condition.
“I’ve got to finish up here. You see the track and then I’ll take you two out to lunch to celebrate.”
I gave Patty a quick hug and headed out into the sun.
“It’s always smaller than it used to be,” I said once we’d gotten out into the dirt track. It was a hundred yards long. Inside the loop was a smaller track with jumps and tunnels. I’d had so much fun on these tracks.
“How old were you when you started? I saw your picture in the gym. I didn’t know you were a serious boxer.”
I shrugged. “I was one of the boys on my dad’s side. There aren’t a lot of girls, just Jessic
a, and she’s like an alien species. She was born wearing heels.”
“That sounds painful. Hopefully we’ll have a boxer.”
He wrapped his arms around me, his hands sliding over my stomach while he kissed the side of my neck.
“Doesn’t that hurt?” I leaned against him and felt so good, so right, on a track with this man.
“I can take the pain. Don’t I look like I can take the pain?”
I turned in his arms and kissed him. He’d been practically asking for it. His skin was taut, but that didn’t stop him from reciprocating. He kissed like he was hungry for me, like he couldn’t get enough. I pulled away to stare at him. “I knew we should have stayed in the apartment to take a nap in the double bed.”
“I wouldn’t be napping,” he growled and kissed me with way more intensity than was good for his face. I didn’t protest. If someone was going to make him hurt, it should be me.
We walked the track, kissing every now and then, like the kind of couple I’d always watched from a distance. When my uncle drove up in a low car with huge tires and two front seats with room in the back, I climbed in the passenger’s side, Horse climbed in the back, and Patty told us to buckle up.
We raced gently, but the track was still fun, making me grip the dash and catch my breath as we took a ramp at just the right speed and angle. I’d missed it so much. I needed to get on the track at home and take something out for a smooth ride. There had to be room in my life for speed.
“Are you thinking of retiring?” he asked as we took a corner with just the right amount of torque on the tires.
“Yeah.”
“What’ll you do? Can your man take care of you?”
I glanced back at Horse. It was hard to tell his expression through the swelling, but there was a definite smile.
“I’m able to take care of myself.”
“But you’ll be taking care of the baby. If he’s anything like you and your brothers, he’ll need a full time mom.”
“You know what racing means to me.”
“Sure, but family is always first. Always.” He covered my hand on the dash and squeezed my fingers. “You’re like the daughter I never had. If you ever need a place to stay, I won’t even tell your mother.”
I laughed and shook my head. “Isn’t Joey staying in your extra room?”
