The Fighter's Block

by Hadley Quinn

  Dani was very happy to hear that. The last she heard was that they would consider him. She was glad they must have liked his portfolio.

  “And what about you?” Simone asked her. “Are you willing to get back to work?”

  Dani knew she meant the modeling industry. She didn’t answer at first because her initial response was no. There was no way she wanted to get back in the industry. But it would be the quickest way to make some money, and right now she needed something in her bank account so she could find a place to live. “Yes, I’d like some work. But I do have a job in Edison. I’d prefer something that’s weekend only.”

  Simone was pleased to hear that her youngest daughter had the desire to work for her again, but she didn’t want to admit it. She so badly wanted Danielle to return to modeling and her wishes for that to happen again just might come true. “There’s one condition,” she had to add.

  “I’m not losing twenty pounds,” Dani said angrily.

  Simone didn’t respond at first, and then said, “Ten. If you can lose ten, I can work with that.”

  Dani almost scoffed, but she was actually surprised that it was only ten. But it was going to take a couple of weeks before she could make that kind of goal, and she needed money sooner than that. “Is there anything I can do before then?” she asked.

  Simone considered it, but really there wasn’t. At least, nothing big like she wanted for her daughter. She knew of another agency that would take Danielle that weekend, but there was no way Simone Martin was going to let her daughter be photographed without certain terms discussed.

  “Let me see your arms,” she told Dani.

  Dani sighed and shrugged out of her sweater. She noticed the bruising on her right arm just as her mom did. Dani had forgotten all about it and she wasn’t surprised when Simone said, “Well, formals are out of the question.”

  “That can be covered up,” Dani replied.

  Simone motioned for her to hold her arms out, so Dani did. “The shape of your arms are still beautiful, so yes, it should be fine. I’ll call Alberto and let him know.”

  “Thank you,” Dani said when her mom stood to make the call.

  She was left alone in the room with her dad, and she could tell he was studying her arm. “What happened?” he asked, looking at her sternly for an honest answer. “Is that what you meant when you said that Brian threatened you? Did he hurt you?”

  “He grabbed my arm,” she told him. “It was nothing. He’s an asshole and I don’t want to talk about him.”

  Dominic wasn’t convinced, but he let it drop. There were a lot of thoughts swimming around in his head and he had to be careful with what he said. And to be speaking to his baby girl after all this time was what he’d hoped for, so he couldn’t risk upsetting her. The last thing he wanted was for her to run off again in rebellion.

  “I’ve been studying photography,” she told him, in case she needed to change the subject.

  “Oh?”

  She nodded and pulled a hard folder out of her bag. She handed it to him and he opened it. He liked what he saw right away and nodded his approval. “Very nice,” he told her. He flipped through her work for another minute, studying one picture for it’s symmetrical presentation, and another one for the simple beauty of it. “Who’s this?” he asked, pointing to it.

  She glanced at it but had to look away. “Um, that’s Van. He’s…he’s my boyfriend. Or was,” she reluctantly added.

  Dominic eyed his daughter for a second and he could see the hurt in her eyes. But he studied the photo and said, “It’s beautiful. And he’s beautiful. He’s got a very…raw quality to him. Edgy.”

  “I know,” she smiled. “That’s what I told him and he didn’t believe me.”

  He looked at her again but the smile had disappeared. He glanced over the photo again and casually asked, “So what happened? Why did you suddenly move out?”

  Again she wasn’t surprised that he knew that much. She was sure that Van called Jaime, and Jaime called everyone else. “It’s complicated.”

  “It doesn’t have to be. You said you didn’t want to drag him into your life? Is that because of Brian?”

  She sighed just as her mother re-entered the room. “Yes, it’s because of Brian. He vandalized Van’s truck, Dad. He completely…destroyed it. He was lingering around the apartment complex, looking for me, and Van told him to leave me alone. Brian filed assault charges against him! And Van doesn’t even tell me this stuff—Brian told me, can you believe that? I just…I can’t make him put up with it anymore. And Brian told me he’s just going to keep making his life miserable.”

  Her parents looked at one another and Dani could tell they were both startled.

  “Well I’ve heard enough already,” Simone finally said. “Danielle, he needs to be locked up.”

  “And what if it makes things worse?”

  “How can it get any worse? He could seriously hurt you one of these days!”

  Dani agreed, which is why she did what she did.

  “Why didn’t you tell us what’s been going on?” Dominic said.

  Dani gave him a look and the three of them kind of silently concurred that no one had liked each other at the time.

  “Well,” he finally said, waving it off. “I’m going to speak to my lawyer and we’ll get this son of a bitch out of your life.” He got up from the couch to make a phone call and Dani didn’t stop him. At least he was willing to do something to help her out, even if she wasn’t sure of what she wanted to do.

  “He doesn’t think I’ll go the lawyer route because I’m broke,” she told her mom. “The last thing he ever expected me to do was come crawling back home.”

  Simone didn’t respond at first. She’d missed her daughter tremendously over the past few years. She knew she’d made mistakes with her, and she did regret some of it, but now was her chance to make things right. She was too proud to apologize, but now she could show that she really did care.

  “I think you should take a hot bath and go to bed after you eat. Let your father and I take care of the other stuff for now.”

  There was a knock at the door. Simone answered it and room service brought in a cart of food.

  Dani didn’t disagree with her mom, and as soon as she consumed a little bit of food to tide her over until morning, she did head for a bath and then went to bed by nine o’clock.

  Dominic and Simone were grateful for the privacy to plan their next move…

  Chapter Fourteen

  Her text to Van was upsetting. Dani told him that she wasn’t ready to live with him full time, and she needed to be on her own to figure out her life. Van didn’t know what that meant, and he especially didn’t understand why she had to take off like she did. Why couldn’t she just talk to him? They’d gotten so close and he thought they were able to talk about anything.

  He did text her back, even though he was afraid of pushing too far. He told her that he loved her and that she could come back any time. He also told her that he needed her in his life. She didn’t send a reply, but what else could he do?

  Well, the only outlet he had was the Divehouse. He entered the facility the very next morning at five a.m. and began his training regiment.

  Mickey knew something was up—that wasn’t determination, that was anger—but he left Van alone. He peeked at him several times throughout the day—an hour of grueling weights, an hour of intense cardio, and another hour hammering the bags. There was something going on, but still left him alone. Van left the building without his knowledge, but when he returned, Mickey realized he’d gone on a five-mile run.

  Whatever had happened, Donavan Kemp would be in fighting shape one way or another.

  Van returned the next morning at five a.m. He only heard from Jaime that Dani was staying in Manhattan with her parents. That surprised him, but because it was shocking to Jaime, it worried him even more. And Jaime said that Dani wouldn’t return her calls, either.

  Van was concentrating on the bag that eve
ning when he suddenly recognized a familiar presence behind him.

  “Don’t make me have to purchase new equipment sooner than I need to,” Mickey warned him.

  Van let out a long breath of air and bent over onto his knees, sucking another bolt of burning fire into his lungs. He let the sweat drip all over the floor and watched it pool for a few seconds before he stood. “She left,” he answered, knowing Mickey was there to finally ask and he wasn’t going to leave until he got an answer. “After talking to you on the phone the other day, I came home and she was gone.”

  He returned to the bag again, the frustration brewing once more. Mickey watched him for a bit before he left him alone and went back to his other fighters. They were all watching from across the room—no one really wanted to be near Van just in case he decided to unleash on one of them—and Mickey motioned for them to get back to work.

  Twenty minutes later Van felt ready to collapse. His body could take a lot, but he’d pushed himself to the limits this time. He was a beaten man, heart and soul. He leaned onto his knees for just a minute and allowed the sweat to puddle on the smooth concrete, but then he stood and walked out the burn in his lungs and arms. When he finally caught his breath he turned to the rest of the gym and shouted, “Anyone see Quincy lately!?”

  Everyone stopped what they were doing and stared at him pacing across the floor. The room instantly went eerily silent. No one wanted to be confronted by Van.

  “Anyone at all?” he asked again, his voice echoing through the building. He walked through the gym so he could make eye contact with every one of them. “I’m only going to ask one more time,” he said firmly. “I wanna know where Q is—”

  “I heard he’s in Brooklyn with his mom,” Gary replied carefully.

  Van approached him and asked, “How do you know?”

  “My sister talks to Meredith.”

  “I talked to Meredith too and she didn’t say anything about him being in Brooklyn.”

  Gary slowly shrugged. “Uh, I don’t know, man. Maybe it was just her guess.”

  Van considered it for a second. Why wouldn’t Q’s cousin mention that he was in New York? Did she lie to him? “Anyone know anything else?” he asked loudly.

  No one said anything, and he was just about to ask again when Mickey said, “All of you, get back to work,” and he took Van by the shoulder. “Get a grip, kid. What, you gonna fight an answer out of someone?”

  “No,” he scoffed. “But someone’s gotta know something.”

  Mickey took a deep breath and faced him when they were a distance away from everyone. “What’s Quincy got to do with all this?”

  Van was angry, and he almost felt too stubborn to answer. That stone look of defiance could normally cause a person to recant their question.

  But Mickey roughly patted his face and said, “Hey, I asked you a question, son. What’s Quincy got to do with Dani?”

  Reluctantly he answered. “He was the last one to see her that night.”

  “So?”

  “So? Dani moves out and Q disappears? Is that a coincidence?”

  “And what part do you s’pose he has in all this?”

  “I don’t know!” he said loudly. “I don’t have any answers and it’s pissing me off!”

  “I see that,” Mickey growled. “And if you yell at me like that again, you’ll find your ass out on the streets!”

  Van turned away and took a deep breath. He knew that people were still watching them and that made him even angrier. But he faced Mickey and said, “I’m sorry. I just don’t know what to do.”

  “I understand that. But letting your emotions get out of hand isn’t gonna help the situation. You’re gonna get yourself in a lot of trouble. This isn’t like you, Van. You need to find a way to calm down.”

  Van took another deep breath, pulled up a chair and dropped into it. “Something doesn’t feel right. I talked to her that evening and everything was just…great. We were talking about a trip to Florida, and she was telling me about photography ideas she had, and she told me she loved me a dozen times… A person can’t just pack up and leave the next day for no reason. Something happened. I love her, Mickey. So much it just… And if anything happens to her…”

  “And Quincy was the last one to talk to her?”

  “The last one to see her,” he nodded.

  Mickey slowly bobbed his head as he thought it over. “You let me find Quincy, okay? I don’t want you to talk to him right now, not when you’re like this.”

  Van sighed. “I’m not gonna hurt him. Well, as long he doesn’t tell me something bad.”

  “Just don’t worry about him,” Mickey said firmly. “Let me go make a phone call. I got his mom’s number…”

  Van watched him head to his office, but he didn’t feel any better. He stripped his hands of the tape, put his running shoes on, and headed out on the streets to pound his worries into the pavement for a few miles. When he returned, Mickey told him that Quincy saw Dani that night because he picked up his movies. Other than that, he didn’t know anything else.

  Van didn’t have any reason to doubt the story, so he didn’t say anything when Mickey relayed the message. It didn’t make him feel any better though; he still needed to make things right with his girl.

  ***

  Quincy was a different story. When he hung up with Mickey, he dropped his head into his hands and moaned, “Oh, shit.” Dani begged him not to tell Van anything, even that they’d gone into East Orange. He knew he was screwed though; he knew that Van would find out. He didn’t know how, but he just knew. Why did he even do it? Why did he talk her into going? Had it even been worth it?

  He sat in his mom’s kitchen, shaking a nervous leg and tapping two fingers on the table. Van was going to find out and he was going to break his face. “Oh, I’m a dead man,” he whispered to himself. “Fucking dead.” He couldn’t sit there any longer though, and he left the house. He needed something to calm him down, so he went to Clive’s to get a fix of something, anything.

  ***

  On Monday Van showed up at Flegal Design. He knew it was a bad idea to show up at Dani’s place of employment, but he couldn’t help it. He also despised the fact that he was stalking her just like Brian had. What did that even say about him? Now he was acting like that asshole?

  He stopped at the front desk and politely asked for Danielle Martin. The woman looked him over for a second, seeming to either disapprove that she had a visitor, or possibly not believe he was who he said he was. As embarrassing as it was, Van was glad that she asked for his I.D. She looked it over and asked him to have a seat, but when she returned, it was she that seemed embarrassed when she said, “Well, she said she’d rather not see you right now.”

  “Then I’m going to wait here until the police haul me away,” he replied. “Tell her that.”

  She narrowed her eyes at him, but this time she dialed on the phone to relay the message. Dani appeared a minute later and said, “Van, you shouldn’t be here.”

  Just seeing her made him lose his breath. That, combined with how much he loved her, broke him in half. He looked her over—examining her face, her hair, and her clothing for any answers—and even though his heart was bursting with emotion he said, “You owe me an explanation.”

  Dani glanced a Sheila, who was hanging on every word. With a sigh she took Van by the elbow and led him outside. Van couldn’t help it and he gathered her in his arms as soon as they were alone. It took her by surprise, but because she loved him so much, it made her cry.

  “You can’t do this,” she said, even though she wrapped her arms around him tightly.

  “I love you and I can’t let you go. Dani, something happened and you just need to tell me what. You can tell me anything, okay? Nothing you say to me is gonna change how I feel about you. I swear to God.”

  “You need to leave,” she said quietly, hastily brushing away the tears. “I can’t do this right now.”

  “Then I’ll wait for you after work. Plea
se, Dani, you need to talk to me.”

  “I can’t,” she sobbed, laying her face against him. “Please just give me some time.”

  “Time for what? What is it that you need to sort without me?” He almost couldn’t handle the heartache. He would get his ass kicked in a cage every day of his life if he could trade the despair he felt at that moment. He was losing her, he could tell. His fear convinced him that she would close the book in his face.

  She didn’t say anything for a while, but finally took a step back from him and said, “I haven’t been completely honest with you.”

  He looked over her tear-stained face, complete with streaks of mascara. His heart dropkicked his ribs but he said, “Okay, then just be completely honest with me.”

  She took a deep breath and said, “Um, I didn’t tell you this at the time because…well, I’m not sure why but…”

  “Just say it. Are you talking about you and Brian?”

  She looked at him with alarm, believing for some reason that he knew what Brian had done to her. But before her panic could cause her to break down in front of him, he added, “Dani, are you talking about your engagement? Because I know about that.”

  That took her by surprise. “What do you-what do you mean you know about it? You know that we were engaged?”

  “Yes,” he nodded. He took his thumbs and wiped the tears off of her face. “The day you filed the restraining order… Doug told me that Brian called you his fiancée.”

  “Oh, my gosh,” she sighed, turning away from him. “Why didn’t you say something?”

  “Why didn’t I ask you about it? Well, there were enough problems with that asshole. I didn’t want to make things worse. I thought you needed some time and eventually you would tell me, but Dani… I don’t even care, okay? I know that everyone makes mistakes, even in trusting people, but I don’t hold it against you. It’s not like you’re married to the prick—thank God,” he added, “—but it’s all in the past, babe. Trust me on that, okay? I don’t care what your history is with him—”