by K. B. Draper
“No. I’ll just stay here. I have some things to do and a change of clothes here.”
“Okay. So, I’ll pick you up here around six?”
“That works for me.” Daylen stood. “I’ll walk you out.”
Kanyon waved her off, wanting to keep her distance from Daylen a little longer. “Don’t worry about it, I can find my way out.” Kanyon turned to leave, but after only two steps down the hall she had a quick thought and stepped to lean back into the doorway. “If I wouldn’t have passed out, what exactly would I’ve gotten to see?” Kanyon asked partly in jest, but more out of hopeful curiosity.
Daylen turned slowly with a devilishly suggestive look that sent jolts of electricity through Kanyon. “Guess you’ll never know,” she replied with an added low, sexual huskiness in her voice.
Kanyon took a deep breath to steady herself. Okay, that hadn’t played out at all like I’d planned. Kanyon nodded once then ducked back out the door.
Back in her car and somewhat recouped from Daylen’s little flirt-o-tron, she called Roz and asked for two tickets to the fight. She avoided the hundred questions Roz threw at her about yesterday’s events and the newspaper headlines. “I’ll explain later. Can you get me the tickets or not?”
“Girl, that’s one of the dumbest questions you’ve ever asked me. Of course, I can get you tickets. I guess you want them delivered to your house?”
“That’d be great.”
“Okay, so let me get this straight; you want me to drop everything for you, but you won’t give me two minutes or return one of my five hundred messages? And since when do you like going to fights? Something’s going on with you, but I suppose you’re not going to tell me anything about that either, are you?”
“Roz,” Kanyon said sharply, cutting off Roz’s next little tirade. “Thank you. We’ll talk soon, I promise.” She hit the disconnect button.
Kanyon leaned back in her seat and resumed her earlier run through of the day’s events. She thought about Daylen having to pull over on the side of the road, which seemingly was the start of things to follow. It was like Daylen had a dizzy spell that forced her to pull over so she could close her eyes. But she only closed them for a second before she started searching their surroundings, which conveniently just so happened to be the place where she found Lenny. So not a headache, it was like she had a premonition, a vision or something. She shook her head. What was she saying? Daylen’s psychic? She shrugged the thought off as foolish mind ramblings. Her mind was just tired or probably still hung over and thinking crazy things. Crazy things like the tingling vibrations I felt when I touched Daylen.
She pulled into her garage, parked the Corvette, and walked amongst her collection. What car should she drive for tonight’s top-secret mission? She deliberated as she passed by each car parked neatly in their rows. She stopped. Duh, James Bond’s car. She walked over to retrieve the keys to the granite grey or “Casino Ice” as the dealer had described it, Aston Martin DBS from the security cabinet on the wall. She pulled the Aston out of the garage and parked it in front of her house.
Car selected and strategically parked, she let herself into her house. She dropped the keys and her bag at the base of the stairs and headed straight up to her bedroom. The events of the last twenty-four hours hit her all at once. Exhausted, she face-planted into her bed. She thought about Daylen and why, after working with her for five years, she had chosen now, her lowest moment, to consider letting her past her carefully erected walls. She hadn’t come up with an answer before she dozed off.
Chapter 7
Kanyon forced herself out of bed to answer the incessant ringing of her doorbell.
Roz greeted her on the other side, waving two tickets. Kanyon raised an eyebrow. “Personal delivery. To what do I owe the pleasure?” Kanyon had a feeling whatever it was, it wasn’t going to be pleasant. She reached for the offerings, as Roz yanked them back. Kanyon sighed, just as she figured. “Okay, so what’s it going to take?”
“What’s it going to take? What’s it going to take? I’ll tell you what it’s going to take!” Roz began to rant.
Kanyon stepped back so Roz could enter because she didn’t know what it was going to take, but she did know it was going to take a while for Roz to tell her.
Roz started in behind Kanyon as she headed down the hall toward the kitchen. “It’s going to take you telling me what the hell happened yesterday, why all of a sudden you’re back on the crazy train, and why you went all defensive end on a bunch of white dudes wearing the plumbing aisle of Home Depot?”
Kanyon took a jug of juice out of the refrigerator and took a swig straight from the container.
“Girl, didn’t your mama teach you any manners?”
“Sorry.” She held it out to Roz. “Do you want some?”
“No, I don’t want any! Like I’d drink after you! I don’t know where your mouth has been, which is exactly why I’m here. Where has that dirty mouth and the rest of you been for the last twenty-four hours?”
“Didn’t you read the papers? I went to the convention, got drunk, assaulted Lexi, made her cry, took out a bunch of dudes in white plastic suits, and then Daylen swooped in to save me from myself and my destructive ways,” Kanyon taunted matter-of-factly.
“Yes, I read the papers, but I don’t believe for a second that’s what happened. Are you going to tell me the truth or am I going to have to show you my destructive ways?”
“That’s the only way I’m getting those tickets, isn’t it?”
“Duh!” Roz slapped the tickets on the table, leaving her hand protectively over them.
Kanyon took the orange juice and sat at the table end of her center island. She recounted the events of the convention, however, in this version she was amazingly able to skip over some of the more embarrassing details, giving her even more suspicion that Ruby had something to do with the earlier confession.
“That hooking, lying, conniving bitch,” Roz said.
“Yep.”
“So why didn’t you let me know? I could’ve headed some of this off.”
“I passed out at Daylen’s then ended up helping her with some things today.”
Roz eyed Kanyon suspiciously. “Did you do anything else that’s going to end up on the front page of tomorrow’s newspaper?”
Kanyon thought of the crowd around Theo’s abomination of a car after his horn honking party, knocking a guy out cold, and Daylen’s vehicle getting stolen. “Ahhh, no,” Kanyon replied as she diverted her eyes, suddenly very interested in her ceiling.
“That was convincing.” Roz rose from her chair and slid the two tickets down the counter by Kanyon. “Try to stay out of trouble. And if you can’t seem to handle that, at least give me a heads up next time.”
“Will do.” Kanyon picked up the tickets. “Thanks, Roz.”
Roz grunted in annoyance as she headed to the door.
On time, Kanyon pulled back into the driveway of Daylen’s office and parked in the same place she had earlier in the day. Daylen came out the back door before Kanyon had time to get out of her car. Daylen was wearing a simple black fitted dress with a light jacket thrown over the top. Though it wasn’t near dark yet, with the tree coverage it was just dark enough that Daylen was illuminated as she walked in front of the car’s headlights. Kanyon’s heart tripped. Desires she had fought hard to keep suppressed for so long came floating to the surface.
Daylen slid into the passenger’s seat. “Nice car, James Bond.”
“I thought it was fitting for our secret mission tonight.”
“Right,” Daylen said laying her hand over Kanyon’s on the gear shift. “Before you so much as put this car in Reverse I want to get a few things straight. There is no secret mission. We’re just going in, finding Lenny, and getting my car back. There will be no high-speed chases, no hitting, no kicking, no tripping, no knocking anyone out.”
“Can I shoot them with my golden gun?”
“No golden guns, no weapons period and de
finitely no martinis, shaken or stirred.”
“You kind of take all the fun out of things.”
“That’s right. There’s absolutely no fun to be had this evening,” Daylen said flatly.
“None?”
“None,” Daylen said despite the five hundred fun ideas that just ran through her mind as she looked at Kanyon. “None at all,” she reaffirmed, more for her sake than Kanyon’s.
Well that kind of ruins my plans of making her my bond girl at the end of the night, Kanyon thought. What’s wrong with me? It’s official, the demon juice didn’t work because I’m most positively possessed by a demon and apparently it’s a horny one.
Twenty minutes later, they pulled up to the VIP valet parking booth next to the front door. Thank you, Roz. They got out of the car and Kanyon eyed the twelve-year-old sprinting toward them. “Are you even old enough to have a driver’s license?”
“Yes, ma’am. I’m 20,” the kid answered, as his eyes jutted past her to admire the car.
Kanyon snapped her fingers in front of his face. “If you so much as drool, let alone put a scratch on my car, you’ll be celebrating your 21st birthday with your buddies serving you beers through an I.V. bag. Understood?”
The kid nodded his head and she handed him her keys with a sizable tip.
She met up with Daylen on the other side of the car. “So how are we going to play this?”
“Let’s just keep a low profile while we search the crowd for Lenny.”
Flashbulbs went off in a flurry of rapid fire lights, only slightly faster than the shouts that came from a media area staged just inside the doors.
“Kanyon, over here! Why did you hit Lexi?”
“Daylen, are you helping Kanyon with her drinking problem?”
“Daylen, are you sleeping with Kanyon despite her being an alcoholic?” another shouted.
Daylen spun on her heels and began to address the crowd. “Let’s get one thing straight, Lexi is a–”
Kanyon grabbed Daylen’s arm, smiled, and waved at the cameras while redirecting Daylen away from the bullpen. “Well, that was about as low-profile as an afro in a 70’s disco.” Kanyon laughed.
“Kanyon, they need to know the truth,” Daylen protested.
“You know as well as I do the truth doesn’t matter. If it’s not me being a raging alcoholic then they’ll say I’m sleeping with a cokehead, boy band drop out.”
“But–”
Kanyon held up a hand. “Thank you for trying to defend my not-so-pure honor, but it’s fine.”
They continued down the hall past the crowds of people and into the center staging area where the ring had been set up. They paused at the entryway. “Crap. There are thousands of people in here.” Daylen said, assessing the crowd.
“Miss McKane, Miss Elliott. Welcome. Please let me escort you to your seats,” a man wearing a black security T-shirt offered.
Kanyon handed him their tickets. “Let’s get to our seats and I’ll think of something.” They both continued to scan the room for Lenny as they were ushered to their seats.
“Kanyon, we’re never going to find him in this sea of people.”
Kanyon had to agree. The chances were bleak. They continued to search the crowd as inconspicuously as possible as the opening fight began. Of course, it was a little hard since they were three rows from the ring and Kanyon was using a pair of mini binoculars. The first fight was over in five rounds. There was a quick intermission announcement before the main event. As images of the crowd rolled over the mega screen Kanyon got an idea. She handed Daylen the binoculars. “Meet me at the top of the stairs at the beginning of the third round.”
Kanyon excused herself and pulled out her phone as she jogged up the steep steps. “Theo, buddy, I need another favor,” she said as she hit the top of the landing.
Daylen was pacing at the top of the stairs, cursing herself for letting Kanyon out of her sight. At her fiftieth pass she glanced through the staircase opening at the mega-tron. “It’s the third round, where are you Kanyon?” What if Lexi was here? What if she cornered Kanyon in the bathroom again? What if she was setting her up? What if they were making up…?
“Hey.” Kanyon came jogging up behind her.
Daylen spun. “Holy crap! Where have you been? I was worried you…” She let her words die off.
Kanyon finished her thought. “You were worried I’d taken out another radical troop of futuristic soldiers and a vampire slayer in a short skirt?”
“No…” Of course, that would be a better ending than what she’d been picturing. “Maybe.” She was flustered now. “No. Whatever. What were you up to?”
Kanyon smiled as she turned Daylen to face the mega-tron over the center ring. “Wait for it. Wait for it.” The screen flickered once before scanning the crowd. It finally zoned in on a balding man with a tacky Hawaiian shirt, unbuttoned enough to expose a chest black with hair and decorated with several gold chains. The camera zoomed in and Lenny was framed in with flashing lights and a title which read “Winner of the Ugliest Shirt Contest.”
They watched the now smiling, fist pumping Lenny who had just seen himself on the mega-tron.
“Come on, let’s go.” Kanyon grabbed Daylen’s arm and took off toward Lenny.
Daylen ran alongside Kanyon. “How in the world did you know where he was?”
“Theo hacked the ticket sales records and found his name and assigned seat.”
“So, the Ugly Shirt Contest?”
“That was an extra bonus.” Kanyon shot her a devilish grin.
“Right.” Daylen nodded.
“Oh, and by the way, you have your own special date with Theo. You’ll be going to his house to see his Dark Savior collection.” She wiggled her eyebrows.
“Me?”
Kanyon smirked. “The guy wants what he wants. What can I say?”
“Wants what you offered him,” Daylen mumbled.
They stopped at the entrance leading to section 358.
“Why don’t you take this side and I’ll come in from the other side so he can’t slip out.”
“Okay,” Daylen agreed and then waited until she saw Kanyon come through the entrance on the other side of the section. They nodded in acknowledgement and began to descend the stairs. Ten rows down they both caught sight of Lenny who was dancing on his toes, as he was yelling and throwing air hooks and jabs.
Kanyon and Daylen moved in unnoticed on either side of him. Kanyon leaned back to see Daylen and gave her a “he’s all yours” motion with her hands. Daylen gave a slight bow as a thank you and then tapped Lenny on the shoulder. He spun in her direction nearly striking her with an upper cut. “Daylen?”
“Hello, Lenny.”
He turned to bolt and ran directly into Kanyon. “Where ya going, big guy?”
“Uh, nowhere.” He darted his head back and forth between the two women. “Come on. You babes aren’t mad ‘cause I borrowed your car, are ya? I was going to return it right after the fight tonight.”
Kanyon took Lenny’s hand, bending his middle fingers back unnaturally, forcing him to lower himself in his seat to relieve the pain. “Now, Lenny, what did I say about calling us ‘babes’?”
“What did I say about hurting people?” Daylen scolded Kanyon.
“You didn’t say anything about hurting people. You said no hitting, kicking, tripping, or knocking anyone out.”
“Fine. No hurting people in general,” Daylen said with a roll of her eyes.
Kanyon let Lenny’s fingers go. “You’re really taking the fun out of everything.”
Daylen ignored Kanyon and turned her attention to Lenny who was flexing and closing his fingers into a fist, attempting to relieve the pain. “Lenny, we’re going to handle this like adults.” She glanced up at Kanyon then back to Lenny. “First, where’s my car?”
“It’s out in the East parking lot. It’s fine. I didn’t do anything to it.”
“Good. Now let’s get up and go get it. Then I’m going to driv
e you home to your wife.”
“Can’t you give me a break?” he begged.
“No,” Daylen replied flatly.
“Can we just wait for the fight to get over? I got five large riding on the underdog. If he knocks this guy out then I’ll make my money back and be able to pay off my loans and Marie,” Lenny pleaded.
“Who’s the underdog, the guy in the white or the red shorts?” Kanyon asked.
“Red.” Lenny turned answering Kanyon. They all turned to the ring as they heard shouting.
“Crap,” Lenny said as he watched the ref count over the fighter in red shorts who was sprawled out on the ring’s floor. “…eight, nine, ten.”
“Lenny, where did you get the money to bet on this fight?” Daylen asked slowly.
“Well, see, I kind of refinanced.”
“With?”
Lenny looked down at his hands. “Lenny?” Daylen asked again.
“I’m guessing with those guys,” Kanyon answered for him.
Daylen shot her head up to follow Kanyon’s line of sight. The two guys in black suits they’d out run earlier were coming down the stairs toward them. Kanyon threw a look over her shoulder. No one was coming down the other side of the section. “You two go that way and I’ll slow them down. There’s an emergency exit just down the hall. Take that out and I’ll meet you.”
“Kanyon,” Daylen started to protest.
“Just go. I’ll be fine. I’ll be right behind you.” She pushed Lenny and Daylen past her.
