The Fighter's Block

by Hadley Quinn

  He took a deep breath, unsure of what to say. He did believe her, he wanted to, but it was just too hard to digest. He knew that was the apartment building that Brian had lured her to, and there she was, willingly playing to his every wish?

  He still didn’t speak, and Dani found herself miserable, totally humiliated. Even without seeing the entire video, she knew what Brian had done, what specifically he wanted Van to see. She stood there for another minute and cried, all of the memories coming back to her. She was weak, and pathetic, and she let Brian manipulate her. Why didn’t she see it coming? Why didn’t she see his plan?

  “Van,” she finally sniffled. “I love you. So much…”

  He stood from the couch, his heart splitting because of her meekness and because of his vulnerability to her. He took a quick breath of air and said, “Dani, I love you too…” He wanted to say more, but he didn’t know how. He wasn’t sure how to talk about this. He didn’t know where to start.

  Dani realized this, and as painful as it was, she had some explaining to do. She would have rather he saw the beginning of that night, what happened before she finally stopped fighting Brian. That she could have stomached; not what she had to do to finally get out of there. And to think that Brian had somehow recorded it? She should have known…

  She started with a soft voice, trying to keep it calm. “I resisted him. I did, Van. But he held me down and…” She sniffled and wiped at the sides of her face, slick with tears. She took a deep breath and said, “Everything I told you before is true. When I said that he held me down and forced himself on me, that was true. And it was awful…he hurt me…” Her voice broke, and Van’s heart broke some more. “But then he held a knife to my face.”

  Van tilted his head. This was new. “He what?”

  She swallowed and stepped closer to him so she could reach out and touch his face. She held a finger to his cheek diagonally. “He said he was going to cut a six-inch scar into my face if I didn’t stop fighting him.” Dani paused, truly ashamed by how vain she’d been, how maimed she would have felt with such a hideous mark on her for everyone to see. She didn’t know if Brian would have done it or not, but at the time she felt she didn’t have a choice. He was going to continue doing what he was doing one way or another, and she just wanted it over with.

  “So he made you act the part of a consensual, um….”

  She exhaled and barely said, “None of it was real, Van. I swear to you I only did and said what would get me out of there faster. He just kept saying all this stuff, like what he was going to do to you and… I just couldn’t take it anymore, Van. I just couldn’t bear to think about him hurting you. And I knew he would. I knew that he’d follow through. I knew that he’d find a way to do it. After that I just… I just wanted it over. He promised he’d leave you alone. Then he kept yelling at me to stop crying. What you saw, when I—”

  He held his fingers up to her mouth and she stopped. “I only saw the first few seconds, and then you walked in. I didn’t watch when I realized what it was. I was just… I was numb.”

  “Please don’t watch anymore of it,” she begged quietly.

  She closed her eyes and more tears cascaded down her face. Within the darkness in her own eyelids she could almost shut out the pain she saw on Van’s face, and when she felt his arms wrap around her to pull her close, a sound of relief poured out of her. She cried against him because he let her. She held onto him for dear life because he let her.

  He loved her even more because he couldn’t help it.

  Something changed in Van that day. He felt himself harden inside even more, but at the same time he was absolute putty when it came to his wife. The two things could not coexist, could they? Bad things happened to good people all the time. He knew that. But they were not going to happen to him and Dani. No way. He wasn’t going to let miserable people ruin his life, or the people that he cared about.

  Brian was going to be one sorry son of a bitch.

  Dani saw it in him right away. It was as if all the sweetness in him was being sucked away while something else took over, something darker. What Brian had done made her angry—she hated him, every fiber of his being—and she considered countless acts of vengeance, just to settle the score. But she knew that Brian would never give in to defeat. She knew that he would always be around to make her life miserable.

  However, he seemed to be having an effect on them anyway. She couldn’t believe it when she answered the phone the next day, the fire station looking for Van, and it was then that she learned what Van had done. She was stunned. She sat on the couch with a cup of tea while she waited for him to return from his run, and when he did, she immediately stood and said, “You quit the fire department?”

  Van looked at her for several long seconds. She looked so delicate, fragile, especially holding a cup of tea. But yet she was the strongest person he knew. She was absolutely beautiful, and too genuinely sweet to be manipulated by a fucker like her ex. How could she possess all those qualities and have such awful things happen to her?

  He exhaled and tossed his key on the table by the wall and headed to the kitchen for some water.

  Dani followed him there. “Van, tell me what’s going on. You’ve been trying to get on there for a few years now. You’re close, aren’t you?”

  “Not really,” was all he replied. He downed an entire glass of water and then refilled it again.

  “I don’t understand,” she said. “You just started getting time there again. I thought that’s what you wanted.”

  “Things change.”

  “Like what?” she exclaimed, starting to get frustrated.

  “Like life,” he countered.

  She was at a loss for words. He was angry all of a sudden, and when he forcefully set the glass on the counter, she was surprised it didn’t break. He turned and faced her, leaning forward onto the counter that was between them. “This is who I am, Dani. I’m sorry to disappoint you.”

  “You’re a lot of things, but disappointing is not one of them,” she replied evenly.

  The room was silent for some time. Dani was aware of his struggle. The idea of her with Brian didn’t settle well with him and she didn’t expect it to. Intimate relationships were generally kept private—what you didn’t really know couldn’t affect you as much—but she knew Van didn’t have those blinders anymore.

  She stepped around the counter and put a hand on his arm that was hot with sweat. “I’m sorry for what this has done to you. This is why I wanted to stay away. I was living with this, my own personal nightmare, so you wouldn’t have to. There’s no way I wanted you to know what I had resorted to that night. I didn’t feel worthy of you anymore. I’m sorry, Van. I’m so sorry.”

  Her sincerity slapped him in the face. He shook his head and exhaled as he wrapped her in his arms. “No, I’m the one that’s sorry.” He kissed her forehead and then tucked her under his chin. “God, I love you. You’re everything to me, Dani. I just don’t know what to do about this. I’m torn.”

  She took a step back to look at his face. “I can’t make you forget about it, I know that, but please Van… I don’t want you to think about it, okay? I just—”

  “That’s not what I mean,” he shook his head. “That doesn’t affect how I feel about you, I promise. You’re my wife now and it’s you and me. Everything else is in the past. I’m talking about Brian himself. I mean I understand why you don’t want the video to go to the police, but what now? He’s not getting away with this. I swear to God that he’s going to suffer for this, one way or another.”

  Dani sighed, not even attempting to hide the worry on her face. Brian was still in their lives, and where that was going to lead was unknown.

  However, she decided to change the subject when she said, “About the station…”

  Van didn’t respond at first. She thought he would reconsider—realize how hasty he’d been because of the emotions from the night before—but eventually he just shook his head. “I don’t think I
can.”

  “I don’t understand. I thought you loved it.”

  Van took his time answering. The timing of that change in his life, he thought, had ruined everything. “I’m twenty-five years old, D. There is little that I’ve accomplished in my life, but I’ll always have a bad reputation because of my father. I’m a fighter, a guy that has made a living by keeping his brains in tact while trying to scramble someone else’s.”

  Dani slightly winced.

  “It’s who I am,” he continued. With a sigh he said, “Mickey got me in with the department because it was a change I thought I needed to make. He had some connections so I started volunteering there a few years ago. But because of my dad, it was like being the new guy in school. Besides Ian and Dicky, I really don’t feel that camaraderie that a man should feel in a unit like that. I have the respect, but not the brotherhood. Not like my real brothers in the ring. They’re different. I know they’d never leave me out on a limb; I know they’d never hang me out to dry.”

  Dani nodded her understanding. She wished he felt differently, but she did understand.

  “And before you mention Quincy…” He sighed and shook his head. He didn’t know what to think about Quincy. Out of all the people that could betray him, why did it have to be Q?

  Dani knew to leave it alone so she moved on. “I want you to be happy,” she told him. “I want you to make your own choice because it’s what you want.”

  “I was a different guy when you met me. I was trying something different to find a direction for myself.”

  “You’re the same guy, Van. There’s nothing about you that’s there just because of a career choice.”

  “Exactly, which means the bad is still there too.”

  “The bad? What bad are we talking about?”

  He licked his lower lip, unafraid of the conversation, but slightly unnerved by it. “I am my father’s son.”

  She rolled her eyes, not out of disrespect but from pure disagreement. “Maybe your existence came from him, but you’re your own man. And I don’t want to hear this shit about how you’re like him more than I think, or that you’re not a good guy and all that. It is absolutely fucked up to hear you say that!”

  He raised an eyebrow to her language, but it wasn’t the time to tease her about it.

  “And yes Van, you tell me you could have killed Brian that day, and I believe that you’re capable of it, but so am I. I feel that anger too. I feel rage whenever I think about him. I’ve thought of a dozen ways I could make him suffer. But it’s the choice that you eventually make that counts. What matters is how you regard the things that are important to you. That’s the better half of life. And you, my love, are a passionate example of that. It’s what makes you better than what you think you are. It’s what tips the scale.” She looked him over, placing a hand against his face to run a thumb along his cheekbone. “I love you, Donovan Kemp. You are my entire world. I wouldn’t change any part of you.”

  He sighed, unsure if he felt weakened or strengthened by her faith in him. He never doubted her love, and for that surety he was grateful, but he felt like he was losing control of life. He had always been comfortable with who he was, knowing that he could take care of himself and had friends that accepted him. He always looked out for them, knowing they would do the same for him. But now he had a wife, who happened to come with a new set of challenges he was unfamiliar with. Their relationship was solid, but it didn’t mean that Van knew every answer. He wanted what was best for them both, and this situation with Brian was going to be a recurring nightmare.

  ***

  The next day Van met up with Tristan Overland, the private investigator that Dominic Martin had hired to help them out. Just trying to get an appointment with Tristan was an ordeal, and Van was already agitated when he finally just dropped in on him after lunch.

  Tristan slightly stiffened at the sight of Van just entering his office unannounced, and at first he was going to refuse to see him. But he could tell that this particular visitor would not take no for an answer, at least not until he said what he was going to say, so he grimly motioned to a chair for him to sit.

  Van silently refused and said, “I want to know why you haven’t located Brian Thompson yet.”

  Trist took his time as he unnecessarily straightened papers on his desk. “I don’t work for you, Mr. Kemp.”

  “Oh? So does that mean you’re not gonna answer my question?”

  “Yes, that’s what it means. I work for Clarence Teagan; you’ll have to go through him.”

  Van took two more steps towards the desk, causing the investigator’s heart rate to increase. “Does Mr. Teagan realize that he’s doing jack shit to help out his client?”

  Tristan took a silent breath of air and replied, “The Martins did not retain Mr. Teagan for any type of assertive action right now. He is solely there for legal advice, or representation if needed.”

  “ ‘If needed’? Are you joking?”

  “Mr. Kemp, a person cannot be arrested for attending a fight, especially when he did not break the restraining order.”

  “And what about our motion to increase said restraining order,” Van questioned. Tristan made eye contact for only a few seconds, but Van already knew the answer. “They haven’t done that?” he scoffed. He took a deep breath as he shook his head. “What exactly have you been asked to do?”

  “I don’t work for—”

  “I don’t fucking care!” Van shouted, slamming his fist on the desk.

  “Get out of my office,” Tristan told him, standing up. “I could have you arrested right now.”

  “A person’s life is in danger and you want to play authoritarian?”

  “Mr. Kemp, I don’t answer to you, do you understand that? If you want to pay me to answer your questions—”

  “Fuck you,” Van said over his shoulder as he left.

  ***

  “Now he’s threatening the investigator,” Dominic Martin told his wife.

  She was surprised to see him, even having left his photo shoot next door. “What? Why in the world would he do that?”

  “He wanted answers and Trist wouldn’t give them to him.”

  “Answers to what, exactly?”

  “He wants to know where Brian Thompson is.”

  Simone pursed her lips as she closed the design book. She motioned to her seamstress that she was done for the day, so Eva left the mannequin partially dressed and exited the room.

  “What does he want with Brian? I thought the point was to keep Brian away.”

  “Apparently we’re not doing enough for our daughter.”

  “He said that?” she inquired with raised eyebrows. “We’ve spent how much so far?”

  Dominic chuckled bitterly. “I guess financial help doesn’t count. Or, maybe at the least, he doesn’t realize that.”

  Simone gathered her books and returned them to the shelf below the counter. She faced her husband and said, “Well at least he cares. He’s only looking out for her and I can’t be upset with him for that. But this is our daughter’s reputation, her future. Our reputation. I’m comfortable with our decision.”

  “I am too, and I agree.”

  Dominic returned to finish up his photo shoot and made a few business calls to complete his workday. The news of late did not settle well with him, but Danielle was his number one concern. He made a couple of personal calls before he left, and when he felt comfortable with the answers he’d received, he met up with his wife for dinner.

  Chapter Nineteen

  “Somebody thinks they’re funny,” Van said to Dani when he came out of the bathroom.

  She laughed and stretched in bed before he joined her again. She wrapped her arms around his neck when he was close enough and pulled him closer. He kissed her and she asked, “Well?”

  “I agree,” he smiled, still amused with the dirty joke his wife had written in lipstick on the bathroom mirror.

  They spent the next hour in bed, making love and enjoyin
g the start to a lazy Sunday. Dani made breakfast at ten, and while Van was rinsing the dishes in the sink, his cell phone rang.

  “Can you see who that is?” he asked Dani.

  She’d been folding a little bit of laundry, but since she had dry hands and he didn’t, she stepped over to the end table to check Van’s phone. “It says Gus Walden.”

  Van groaned out loud and said, “Never mind.”

  “Who’s Gus?”

  Van took a deep breath and dried his hands on a towel. “My father’s lawyer.”

  She slightly nodded and returned to the laundry so she wouldn’t be tempted to ask questions. But the phone rang again and obviously someone wasn’t willing to just leave a message.

  Van walked over to the phone and stared at it for a second, but he reluctantly decided to just answer it at the last second.

  “Van!” Gus exclaimed. “Thank God. Look kid, your dad made parole! He’s getting out! We want you there, Van. If you can pick him up—”

  “That’s a fucking joke, right?”

  That caught Dani’s attention, but she kept folding socks in between glances to her husband.

  “Van, listen… I know this is going to be a difficult start, but it’ll be fine. If you just hear me out for a second. He’s a new man; I swear to God. He’s got a job too, working with Benny again. And I talked to Darren, Van. He’s coming back to town. He’s gonna be living with your dad; he’ll be there when Donny’s released and—”

  “Kiss my ass, Gus. You have no fucking idea what you’re talking about.”

  Dani stared at the back of Van’s head because he’d turned away from her as he walked into the kitchen.

  “Van, come on,” Gus pleaded.

  “Why do you even care? You’re done with this.”

  “Donny was my friend, you know.”

  “Oh, because he beat the shit out of some guy in a bar that was hitting on your wife. Sure, real hero. I betcha he could’ve just as easily stabbed you in the back by sleeping with her too.”