by JJ Knight
I suck in a deep breath and take off. I’m wishing for tennis shoes, but at least I’m in decent flats. I’m not sure where I’m going or what I’ll do, but it seems better to force her to chase me and have both of us be tired to even the playing field. Hopefully her fighting moves won’t come with quite as much force when she’s winded.
I realize I went the wrong way as we approach the far side of the park. The fence on this side is a solid mass of white. The chain link could at least be climbed, although Lani would probably pull me back down. Now that I’ve gone deeper into the cemetery, no one can even see us fighting to call the cops.
That’s at least one thing I can do. Keep the action as publicly viewable as possible.
I’m taller than Lani and while she’s probably in better shape, I can outrun her just on leg length. I come up to a flagpole and decide to reverse my path back toward the fence with a view of the cemetery.
My hand connects with the smooth steel of the pole, and I use it as leverage to make the tight turn.
Lani is close on my heels but can’t stop fast enough to switch directions as quickly. So I keep my lead and head for the part of the fence that has the least amount of vines obscuring the view.
Halfway across, though, I start to slow down. I’m not in good enough shape for this. There’s a slight roll to the hill here and I try to keep my pace, but Lani catches up to me while we’re still fairly hidden from the fence. I should have started screaming the minute she came up on me, while we were close to the jogging path. Maybe then someone would have heard and called for help right off.
She leaps for me, grasping me around the waist to bring me down. I hit the ground with a hard crunch.
I have to get closer to that fence. I writhe and struggle, pushing at her, kicking at her legs to get her away. Her grip is fierce. I’m exhausted and angry. Why is she doing this to me? What does her problem with her brother and Parker have to do with me?
I can’t stop to think about this. I have to survive it. I give it everything I’ve got, wildly throwing elbows and kicking with my legs and wrenching around with twists of my body.
I get free again and I’m off like a shot, adrenaline giving me a second wind now that I have a goal — the fence.
I’m close enough for screams to be heard when she catches me again. But as I go down, I see something that makes my blood go cold. Another figure dressed in dark clothes, jumping over the fence.
If Lani has help, I’m a goner.
Chapter 15: Parker
I can see the two of them rolling in the dirt. The fence is nothing. I scale it and jump over in a flash.
They’re far off, though, and as I run toward their struggling figures, someone else is also heading for them. This one is a man, and he’s dressed in black. Lani must have backup.
He reaches the girls first and snatches Maddie up. At first I think he’s breaking up the fight, but then he holds her arms back so Lani can get a clean punch.
I bust into a full-tilt sprint.
Lani lands a hard jab to Maddie’s face. Her head snaps to one side.
I see nothing but red.
The man notices me coming and lets Maddie drop to the ground. Instead of falling, though, Maddie surprises me. She jumps on Lani and pins her with her legs. Then she pounds her face with a ferociousness I’ve only seen inside the cage. Jesus, she’s going to break her hands.
When I get to them, I’m not sure what to do. The other man is just watching, probably as much in surprise as me. Lani is caught beneath Maddie, trying to get her arms up. But Maddie has either gotten lucky or knows to brace her knees on Lani’s arms. It’s a very effective submission hold.
I move to lift Maddie away, but she growls, “Don’t even think about it.”
I’m not totally sure she knows it’s me, but I pull my hands back.
This seems to jolt the other guy out of his shock and he reaches for her instead. I knock him backward.
He takes a punch at me, and another fight is on.
I land three fast jabs and turn for a sweeping roundhouse that takes him to the ground. He lands one elbow to my ribs, then backs away, hands out.
“I don’t want to fight you, man,” he says. “That’s not why I’m here.”
When he moves into the light, I recognize him. Rough Ride. I’ve gone up against him at least three times in the cage. I drop my hands. “What the hell?” I ask.
“Lani just asked me to watch out for her, be backup in case a fight went south.” He turns to the fence. “She didn’t say nothing about a pro fighter being here.”
He scales the fence and takes off.
I turn around. Maddie is still sitting on Lani, hitting her like she’s a punching bag. This time I grasp her and pull her off.
Lani immediately rolls away and sits up.
I hold Maddie tight. “Hey,” I tell her. “It’s okay. I’ve got you.”
“Stay away from my daughter,” she yells at Lani. “Or I’ll kill you.”
Lani feels at her face. She has blood coming from her nose. Even though Maddie gave it all she had, Lani’s probably been up against worse.
“That was a lucky pin,” Lani says.
“Fuck you,” Maddie spits at her.
My phone buzzes but I can’t look at it now.
“You need to back the hell off,” I tell Lani. “You and Striker are going to end up in prison. Is that what you want?”
“Fuck both of you,” Lani says, dusting off her knees. “I’m not ever going to let up on you.”
Maddie lunges for her and I decide to let her go. I’ll break up anything that looks too bad.
Lani’s still sitting on the ground, and damn it all if Maddie doesn’t figure it out again, knocking her backward and landing with her knees on her arms. “Like this?” she says. She punches Lani with her bloodied hands again, but I can tell the pain is holding her back.
“Use your elbows,” I say.
Maddie switches immediately and this time Lani starts to struggle against her. She’s actually feeling it this time.
Now a crowd is coming up to the fence. Damn it, they’re both going to get arrested if this goes on much longer.
“Maddie,” I call out. “Hey. Come on. Stop it.”
“I can’t stop it,” she says. “She’ll keep coming.”
I walk over and pull her off Lani again. This time Lani stays down, hands to her face.
I hold Maddie close to me. “Come on now. We have to find another way.”
Maddie looks up at me, tears mixing in with the blood and dirt on her face. “You? You’re saying that? Don’t you fight to earn a living?”
I don’t have anything to say to that. I just keep her close.
A bright light shines on us from inside the cemetery, and then two more from the opposite side of the fence. A man in a cop uniform approaches us from the paths and two more peer through the chain link.
The one inside strides up swiftly. “Come with me,” he says gruffly.
One of the other cops from outside jumps the fence. The second, a heavier guy, stays on the sidewalk side.
“I’ve got these two,” our cop says. “That one attacked this woman. You can arrest her and take her in.”
The other cop squints at our guy. “Sure, Esposito. You going to do the papers on them?”
“Yeah,” he says. “I’ll take them in.”
He walks over to Lani. She jumps up like she’s going to run, but the cop says, “You don’t want to do that. I’ve got a cruiser waiting to pick you up anywhere you exit this park.”
She stops.
“Come on,” Esposito says. “Come with me.” He takes each of us by the arm and leads us down one of the cemetery paths.
“You taking us downtown?” I ask.
He doesn’t answer for a little while. When we approach the main gate, he says, “I want you to get to this little lady’s house and stay out of any more trouble tonight. Got it?”
“You’re not going to arrest us?” Maddie
asks.
Esposito lets go of our arms and unlocks one of the smaller side gates in the wall of the cemetery. “Not as long as you fix the hole in that silk shirt like you promised.”
And that’s when I get it. Jax. The bullet hole from the fiasco in Vegas. He must know this cop.
Esposito opens the gate. “I’ll walk behind you for two blocks, then you take it the rest of the way. You can do that?”
I nod. “Thanks.”
We head down the street. I pull my phone from my pocket to check the message that came through a few minutes ago. I have a feeling I know who it is.
Looks like you are ready for a little police presence.
Yep. It was Jax.
Chapter 16: Maddie
As I pass my distorted reflection in the windows of the hospital, I pat the thick coat of makeup on my face, covering the bruises. I’m starting to look like a fighter’s girlfriend, I think. I turn and wave to the man in dark glasses who is driving the car that brought me. Another security guard. Colt’s father apparently has an army of them.
I tug open the door. The ice packs took down the swelling on my face after my fight with Lani, but they couldn’t get rid of the purplish bruising along my cheekbone. Thankfully she didn’t get either of my eyes. I never wear makeup usually, but I wanted to hide this before visiting my father this morning.
When I left, two bodyguards were stationed at the house. At first my mom and Delores were upset at the thought of anyone hanging around.
Then they saw them.
Both are big as boulders, broad as a front porch, and chiseled as body builders. Every time Delores passes the one in her living room, she fans herself. Even Mom has silenced her bitter tongue, baking lemon cakes and making tea.
It’s been a good thing all around. I’m calmer. Parker’s more at ease. After Parker told Lily they were both former boxers, Lily started wearing her gloves, sneaking up on them, and shouting, “Pow pow!” as she pummeled their knees.
They are as unmoving as British castle guards, although I swear the one by the back door cracks a smile every once in a while. Parker says Jo attacked both of them in the hospital so she could see Colt. She must have looked like a grasshopper jumping on the Chrysler building.
The elevator takes me to Dad’s floor. I hope he doesn’t notice my face. He has more than enough to worry about with his lungs refilling with fluid every few hours. My only consolation is that Parker found him, and now we can help. He wouldn’t have lasted another day out in that cemetery.
I knock on his door. He’s propped up a little higher this morning.
“Madelyn,” he says.
I come in and sit on the edge of the bed. “How are you doing this morning, Dad?”
“I might be better.”
“Did they have to suction you?”
He grins. “Yes, but the nurse who handles the machine is worth the pain.”
I shake my head. “You’re terrible.”
“I tried to get her to sneak me in a little hooch but they said nope, they are cleaning up my act.”
I try not to overreact. “Dad, you have to stop drinking.”
“Yes, your mother tried to convince me years ago.” He looks down at the sheets at his trembling hands. I realize they aren’t shaking from his illness or his age. It’s his addiction.
“We can get you help for that too now.”
He tucks his hands beneath the sheets. “Somebody’s going to take my place in the angel house,” he says.
“The what?” I have no idea what he is talking about.
“In the cemetery. It’s one of the best spots.”
“Is that where you would sleep?”
He shifts on the bed to get more comfortable. “Sleeping with the angels. Most people dream about it.”
My throat closes up. Years on the streets have taken their toll. “You sure you’re okay?”
Dad looks at me. “Right as rain. Warm bed. Clean sheets. Hot food. Other than the lack of hooch.”
I will have to look up some rehabs and find him a room. This is what started the whole problem.
Or was it my mother?
Maybe I could work on that too.
“You look troubled, my Madelyn. Are you all right?” His face is calm and concerned, like the father I knew when I was small. His eyes narrow. “Is something wrong with your cheek?”
My hand flies to my face. “I’m fine, Daddy,” I say.
“Did somebody hit you?”
“No, I mean, I got in a little scrape in the street.”
He sits up tall now. “What sort of scrape?”
“Just with a girl. I’m fine.”
His breath comes faster, and then the coughing starts. He snatches up a cloth to his mouth.
I move closer and rub my hand across his back until it subsides. I glance at the monitors. No alarm goes off this time. That must mean he’s a little better.
“Don’t worry about me,” I say.
He talks in small bursts. “Is that…boy watching out…for you?”
“Parker? Yes. He’s at Mom’s house now with Lily.”
Dad nods. His breathing starts to calm. “Hold on to that one.”
“You keep saying that.”
He pats my hand. “Because it’s true.”
“What if things aren’t perfect? What if there’s bad things about being with Parker?”
He squeezes my fingers. “Has he hurt you? Is he cruel?”
“No, no. Not that. Just in his business. They aren’t nice people.”
Dad leans back against his pillow. “There will always be awful people,” he says. “That’s why you surround yourself with the good ones.” He smiles at me. “A buffer against the world.”
He closes his eyes. The coughing fits are always hard on him.
There’s a knock at the door. I turn around and stand up in a rush when I see it’s Mom. “What are you doing here?” I ask.
“I believe this is my husband,” she says flatly. I guess they never officially divorced.
But I know that voice. The bitter one. It’s the sound of my childhood.
“Don’t you come in here to be mean to him,” I say. She’s my mother, but I won’t stand for her doing anything else to my dad.
She lifts a foil-covered plate. “I brought him some lemon cake.”
Dad sits back up. “Lemon cake? Oh, your famous lemon cake.” He pinches his arm and frowns. “Apparently I’ve died.”
Mom sets the plate on the side table with a bang. “And now you’re in hell.”
Dad looks over at her. “Well, that’s where I figured we were both headed. Might as well pull up a chair and eat some cake.”
I take a few steps back. They’re sniping at each other, which is new. Back when they still lived together, Mom would get nasty and Dad would just bow his head like a browbeaten dog.
Mom takes it all in stride. She plops down in the side chair. “I’m too fat to be eating cake.”
Dad shakes his head. “You’re as beautiful as ever.”
I can’t do anything but stare at them.
“I hear you’re half-dead,” she says.
“Just half,” he fires back. “And the other half is perked up now.”
Mom settles back on the chair. She’s dressed up a little in a long black skirt and a flowery blouse. She’s kept her hair as black as mine with dye and it’s piled up on her head. She looks pretty good.
“You gonna open that cake or am I going to sit here smelling it until I’m all the way dead?” he asks.
Mom leans over and pulls the foil off the cake. “I even brought that silly cake fork that your grandmother brought over on the boat,” she says. She hands him a small polished fork.
I remember it well. It’s one of the few things from Dad’s Italian immigrant family. He never let anybody else use it. It was one of the things Mom sniped at him about.
Dad holds it up to the light like it’s a jewel. “I’ve missed this fork,” he says.
Mom sha
kes her head.
He passes it over to her. “You take the first bite.”
At first Mom is too surprised to arrange her expression into something bitter. I lean against the wall. I don’t know what’s brought this on.
Maybe just knowing someone you used to love might be dying.
“You’re teasing me,” she says, her voice losing its sharp edge.
“Nope.” He holds out the fork.
She takes it, and despite what she said earlier, slices it through the cake and takes a bite.
“Oh, that’s good cake,” she says.
“Always was,” Dad adds.
She passes him the fork.
I know my mouth is hanging open. They’re acting like they’re passing cake at their wedding.
“You going to eat it now?” Mom asks.
“Seems safe enough,” Dad says. He sticks the fork into the creamy yellow frosting.
“What do you mean by that?” Mom insists.
“I just had to make sure it wasn’t poisoned.”
Mom smacks him on the shoulder.
I feel like I might fall over.
Dad glances over at me. “You still here, Madelyn?”
Mom waves me away with her hand. “Go check on your aunt. She’s probably embarrassing herself by walking around those men in nothing but a towel and her shriveling old skin.”
I walk up to Dad and give him a quick hug. “I’ll come back later,” I say.
He holds up the fork. “Make sure you have this when it’s time for a wedding.”
Mom snaps her head around, startled, but for the first time in my own life, and probably hers, she keeps her mouth shut.
“Okay, Daddy,” I say. I kiss his cheek.
And try not to totally freak completely out as I walk out of the room.
Chapter 17: Parker
The word gets to us in the late afternoon. I’m sitting on the floor of Maddie’s mother’s house, playing jacks with Lily. Dang nuisance of a game, but Delores insists it’s the best game ever invented. I can’t seem to get my grubby paw to pick up any of the jacks between ball bounces.
