by Hadley Quinn
“Just what?” she purred, lifting an eyebrow.
Oh God, she is perfect. I am really fucking losing it, he thought.
When she realized he was too pained to speak she grabbed the edge of his shirt and lifted it over his head. His hands weren’t on the wall anymore and he didn’t want to return them again.
“You may…put your hands on my ass,” she told him kindly.
He eagerly did what she allowed but also pulled her against him. She raised her eyebrows to warn him and he said, “Sorry. My mind is so fucked up right now. Give me some slack.”
“Oh, I am,” she said as she pressed her mouth against his shoulder. She kissed him slowly, and although his hands were moving against her butt cheeks, squeezing and kneading passionately, she let him get away with it. She brought her lips to his neck and kissed until she traveled along his jaw line to the edge of his mouth. She stayed there, just at the corner of his mouth.
Dani could tell it drove him crazy, and she finally said, “You are now free to do whatever you—”
He picked her up and made it to the bed in one swift motion, dropping her gently with him over her. She couldn’t help but giggle when he ripped—literally—her panties off of her and was inside within seconds.
“My God, Van,” she teased.
“I want you so bad,” growled softly, devouring her mouth. “What the hell do you do to me?”
Hmm, she could think of a few things, but now she was focused on the incredible things he was doing to her. And the eye contact they made the entire time… It was more erotic than anything either of them had ever experienced as he fucked her senseless.
***
“There’s a guy down here with a box of Dani’s things,” Eddie said to Van over the phone. “He wants to talk to her, too.”
He’d been eating dessert later that evening with Dani while they watched TV, but Van jumped up from the couch and headed for the door.
Dani was startled and she popped up as well. “What’s the matter? Where are you going?”
“Downstairs,” Van replied shortly, and he was already out the door.
She ran to the hallway after him. “Van! What’s going on?”
He turned around and said, “Just stay there, okay?”
When he continued for the stairs, she followed after him. “No, I won’t! Not until you tell me what’s going on!”
He stopped and took a deep breath. He was letting his emotions get the better of him and he knew he should apologize. He returned to her in the hallway and took her face in his hands. “I’m sorry.”
“Just tell me what’s going on. What was the phone call?”
He sighed and said, “Someone’s downstairs wanting to see you. He’s got a box of your things.”
“Brian?”
“Eddie didn’t say it was, which means Brian probably sent someone else.”
“Andy,” she concluded.
“Yeah, that was my guess.”
Dani sighed and shook her head. But after a moment she said, “Andy’s really not that bad, Van. I actually kind of feel sorry for him. He does a lot of Brian’s bidding.”
“Which is why he’s downstairs and why I’m going to go talk to him.”
“Talk?”
“Yes, talk.”
She sighed again. “Fine, but I’m coming too.”
“No, you’re not.”
“Van, this is my business. It’s my problem. I’d like to hear what he has to say.”
“Brian is not going to use stupid tactics just to see you. It doesn’t matter that he’s doing it through his brother; he’s just trying to see what will work. If he can use Andy to get you downstairs, who knows how he’s going to use that to his advantage next time. Could you just trust me on this?” Van pulled her close to him and whispered, “Please, Dani. Just trust me?”
She couldn’t resist his gentle plea and eventually nodded against him. “Okay. I’ll be in the apartment.”
He kissed the side of her face. “Good. I’ll be up soon. Do me a favor and holler at Paul or Cody if they’re home? Just have one of them meet me down there. Or Q or Scotty… I don’t care.”
She nodded again and he disappeared through the door to the stairwell.
***
Andy was nervous. His brother had sent him into a death trap—the pussycat sent to confront the big dogs. After what seemed like way too long, a guy appeared from the stairwell. It scared him; he was waiting for the ding of the elevator to startle him instead.
Andy recognized Van from that day with the laptop, and as Van eyed him with daunting eyes, Andy did his best to muster some courage.
“Uh, I’m Andy,” he said. “You probably remember that, though. I brought a box of Dani’s things; things that she left at Brian’s.”
Van glanced at the box sitting on the floor as Eddie stepped out of the office to observe everything.
“Is Brian outside?” Van asked.
Andy was a little surprised by the question. “Uh, what?”
“Is Brian outside?” he repeated slowly. “Did he bring you over here?”
“Um…”
“Where is he?” Van said, walking toward the front doors.
“No. I mean no he didn’t bring me here. He just told me where to take the box.”
Van returned to him in the lobby. “And?”
“And what? What do you want from me?” he said, starting to feel panic in his chest. Especially when another guy came out of the stairwell, looking just as menacing as the guy in front of him.
Van stood very close to Andy and in a low voice said, “Brian is not going to have anything to do with Dani, do you understand? And all of these little ploys he’s attempting to get her to talk to him had better stop. Are you hearing me? Because I want you to pass that along to your brother.”
Andy waited to make sure he was done and nodded his head, not about to dispute a single thing with this guy. But he did ask, “And what’s your name again? So I can pass along the message properly.”
Van pulled back just slightly, looking him over. So Brian didn’t even know his name, huh? Was that what this was all about? To find out who Dani was staying with?
“Look, Andy,” Van finally said, squeezing his shoulder with a tiny smirk. “Dani has a lot of friends here, okay? This really isn’t a place you want to be. If he comes by here again, or he comes up with any other stupid trick to see her, things are gonna get complicated. Tell him to stay the fuck away, all right? It’ll be better for everyone.”
Van picked up the box and left Andy in the lobby as Cody followed him into the stairwell.
Chapter Seven
Brian sat in the dark in silence. Andy had been over to deliver the results of his trip to the Jefferson Apartments, and when Brian wouldn’t say anything further, his brother quietly slipped out the door.
After a half an hour, Brian stood and walked over to the desk. He pulled out a few photos that he’d tossed in the drawer and looked them over. They were pictures of Dani; modeling pictures that he’d stolen from her before she cleared out her things.
He sat down on the couch again and flipped on a lamp to look them over. Yes, Dani’s parents were pretty talented—and wealthy—and Dani had done some amazing jobs over the years. She’d been in tons of magazines, catalogues, and commercials. She’d modeled in France, Italy, and LA… She’d worked with top names since she was three years old. Brian felt she could go even further, and as soon as this little rebellion of hers was over, he would reunite her with her parents in New York, and all will be well.
He thought over what Andy had told him. He hadn’t decided what to do about being threatened by Dani’s poser bodyguard, but now that Andy had described him, Brian was positive she was living with the guy. It made him furious. That little prick broke his goddamn hand, and then smugly sauntered into his apartment with Dani like he owned her. Brian wasn’t going to stand for it, and if he wasn’t able to find out his name yet or which apartment he lived in, then he would just r
esort to finding the guy’s truck. Once he got a plate number, Andy could find out all the information Brian needed…
***
Van was tired. He’d been awake the past thirty-two hours due to an apartment fire downtown, and by the time he headed home on a Friday evening, he was so ready to spend the weekend with his girlfriend.
He probably wouldn’t have noticed Brian parked on the side of the road, but there was a homeless guy on the sidewalk pestering a woman for change and Van happened to glance their way. Before his eyes resettled on the road in front of him, Van caught sight of a familiar face on his way by.
“Shit,” Brian said to himself, realizing he’d been seen. He cranked the ignition to his car but the black truck had already screeched to a stop and backed up several feet, blocking him in.
Van jumped out of his truck and yanked Brian’s door open.
“What the fuck are you doing here!?” Van shouted. He grabbed Brian out of his car, threw him up against it and held him there. “You still stalking her? Huh? You just sit here, waiting for her to come and go?”
Brian refused to answer, and his smug smile made Van even angrier.
“There’s something wrong with you!” Van yelled, banging Brian against the car. “You stay away from her, you understand me? If anything happens to her you will have me to deal with, you got that? This is done, asshole,” he growled, pulling out his phone. “You won’t be coming by here again, I’ll make sure of it.”
Van didn’t trust himself to handle it any further, so he grabbed Brian’s keys from the ignition and decided to make a phone call.
“Doug, I gotta situation here that I need someone else to handle…”
Van was glad that he had enough sense to allow somebody else to intervene. As it was, he already wanted to beat the shit out of this guy.
***
Dani was upstairs reading a book when Marnie called her.
“Van cornered your ex on the street,” was all she got out before Dani jumped up to look out the window.
“Oh, no,” she moaned after she stuck her head out the window to see the commotion. Yes, there was Van’s truck on the street and there was Brian, surrounded by Paul, Eddie, a couple of guys in suits, and two uniformed cops.
She left the apartment in an instant, made it downstairs in a matter of seconds, and flew out the front door. Paul saw her coming first and said something to Van, and Van took a deep breath to decide the best way to handle the situation.
“What the hell is going on?” she asked, out of breath.
“Just walk with me,” Van said, intercepting her before she got any further.
“Dani!” Brian called. “Come on, I just need to talk to you!”
The officers at the scene discouraged him from saying any more, and Van led Dani to the passenger’s seat of his truck.
“Where are we going?” she asked.
“Just…hop in, please. I have to at least move my truck for now.”
The police had just informed him to do so, and with Dani’s arrival, it was the perfect opportunity. He pulled around to the other side of the street and turned off the ignition, and then just sat there in silence.
Finally Dani asked, “What happened?”
“He was parked on the street.”
She thought about that for a second. “And?”
“And what? Dani, there’s no reason for him to be here.”
“I understand that, so what happened? You just saw him there and…and what?”
“I had a talk with him, and then decided I needed to let someone else do it. I didn’t want to do anything I would regret.”
She was thankful for that, assuming that he hadn’t done anything to Brian that would cause her ex to press charges. The last thing she wanted was for Van to get in trouble because of her.
She moved closer to him and slid her hands behind his neck, leaning her forehead against his. She wanted to cry because things had gotten so out of hand, and she just wanted everything to stop. But she remained composed and took a few seconds to think.
“Van, I think that I should just…move on for now, okay? I’m going to go stay somewhere else; somewhere that doesn’t put you in the middle of all of this—”
“Don’t do that, Dani. I mean it. You are not to blame for any of this, and you don’t have to worry about keeping me out of this to- to protect me, or whatever.”
“I can’t handle all of this, Van. It makes me really uncomfortable having all of these people now a part of this. Not just you, but now Eddie, and Cody, and Paul and Marnie… It’s not fair, and I feel that Brian is just doing this because he’s pissed, you know? I broke up with him, you step in at the club, you break his hand… And then I end up going home with you, now I’m living with you…” She sighed. “It’s just a mix of things and I think he’ll settle down if I just—”
“You’re completely catering to his wishes,” Van interrupted.
Dani closed her eyes and moved back to her seat. She took a deep breath and laid her head back, wishing she knew what to do.
“Dani, listen to me,” he said softly. Van took her hand in his and waited for her to look at him. “I don’t know the best choice either, okay? I want him to stay away from you, he’s been warned several times, and it’s either still not getting through to him, or he just doesn’t care. What do you think is going to happen if you move out?” He paused for several seconds, not really expecting an answer, but using the time to word one correctly. “He’s going to take that as a green light, Dani. He’s going to think that he got his way, and that he can manipulate you even further. Now I don’t care if you tell me to stay out of this because it’s not gonna happen. You can move out, or say that you don’t want to be with me anymore—and I’ll be broken, I guarantee it—but I’m not gonna stop caring about you. I’ll still be around, doing what I can to keep you safe. That will never change.”
She didn’t respond, even though she was touched by his concern for her. She sat there for a long time, trying to weigh her options as quickly as she could.
“Dani,” Van said quietly.
She looked his way and their eyes met; her heart seemed to beat a new rhythm. There were silent emotions exchanged at that moment, but neither of them was brave enough to say out loud how they felt.
The timing wasn’t in their favor anyways when Cody approached the truck, so Van rolled down the window.
“The police want to talk to Dani if…if you’re ready for that…” He wasn’t sure of what was going on in the truck. It looked pretty intense, even though no one seemed to be talking.
Van looked at Dani. “Please file a restraining order,” he told her. “If anything, at least we’ll have the law on our side, okay?”
She had already decided to do so. If Brian was still following her around, she needed to do something to make him stop.
“Okay, I’ll do that.”
Van nodded and then opened the door and got out.
“There’s one more thing,” Cody said quietly while Dani was still in the truck. “That douchebag is filing assault charges against you.”
Van wasn’t surprised, being that he not only yanked the guy out of his car and slammed him against it, but most likely because of the incident at the club the month before.
He didn’t say anything in response and walked around to the passenger’s side to open Dani’s door.
***
Dani did file a restraining order against Brian, and Brian didn’t take it very well. He was more adamant than ever to press charges against Van, but he decided that maybe he could play it just right.
“You tell Dani I’ll drop the charges against him if she forgets about the goddamn restraining order,” Brian told Sergeant Doug Buchanan. “It’s a bunch of shit anyways and she knows it.”
“She doesn’t know about the charges,” Doug informed him.
Brian was caught off guard, but did some quick thinking. “Fine, then tell—what’s his name again?” he chuckled sarcastically. “Van? T
hen tell Van that I’ll drop the charges if he convinces her to forget it.”
Doug looked over the little prick and shrugged his shoulders. “Even if that were an option, I can guarantee that he’d never agree to it. But most importantly, we haven’t found any evidence to make those charges stick in the first place,” he added with a tiny smile.
Brian’s blood burned hot and he could feel his temper about to reach boiling. However, he took a silent breath to calm himself and said, “The asshole grabbed me out of my car and slammed me against it, more than once. If that’s not assault, I don’t know what is. Wait, of course I do. It was when he broke my fucking hand in a parking lot,” he finished with a bitter laugh. “Yeah, I think the guy has a serious problem. I’m being railroaded here, right? Is that it? Jesus, you people are something else—”
“You done with your whining? –Because if you were harassing my girlfriend, I’d want to kick your ass too. You’d better smarten up and realize how lucky you are right now. For one, this all happened because you were being a very naughty boy—things could be a lot worse if she had pressed charges against you the first time. And two, you are messing with the wrong crowd of people, son. I suggest you count your blessings, take your sorry ass back home, and follow the restraining order to the letter. You’ll have your appearance with a judge to plead your case, but until then, you’re not allowed near her.”
Sergeant Buchanan dismissed Brian with a motion of his hand, and even though Brian had plenty more to say, he decided to get the hell out of there and give his thoughts some time to develop.
Wrong crowd of people? Was that a challenge?
***
By the time Van was finally able to close his eyes to let sleep overtake him, he had too many things on his mind. He played the last six hours in his head, and the more he pictured Brian’s face, the more he wanted to bash it in. He’d drop the assault charges if Dani dropped the restraining order? Was he fucking serious? Doug assured Van that he was, and Van just couldn’t comprehend it.
