with a steel pipe in my pants, so I took a cold shower. It didn’t help. Then I was wide awake with a hard-on. I tossed and turned with a picture of Elle smiling at me in my head. Taunting me for being such a sap.
The constant hum of the bell from downstairs reminds me how late I am. It’s almost six. I buzz the elevator up and lift the gate and find Vinny standing there. I swear the kid grew overnight. At thirteen he’s only a few inches shy of six foot already. The kid’s going to be a force of nature sooner, rather than later.
“What the fuck?” The smartass kid has balls of steel to look at me and talk that way. He reminds me of me at that age, and I force myself to cover the smile. I can’t let him think it’s okay to show disrespect.
“Language.” I say sternly.
He rolls his eyes and looks like a teenager again. “What are you, my mom?”
If I was his mom, I’d still be high from the night before. Cracked up on whatever today’s loser brought with him. A different loser every day, but it’s always the same story. She fucks him to get her high for eight hours. It could be bleach he hands her to shoot into her vein. The last time I saw her she was so desperate, it might have been better if someone actually gave her bleach. Put her out of her misery. The kid might be better off in the long run.
“No, I’m not your mom. But I can kick your ass with one hand behind my back, so show me some respect you little shit.”
“So you can curse, but I can’t?”
“I’m an adult.”
“Hypocrite.”
I rub my hands across my face, losing my patience after my lack of sleep. “Go downstairs and give me five miles on the treadmill. If there is any time left before school we’ll train, big mouth.”
Vinny groans, but quickly starts back toward the elevator. When I started training with Preach, all I wanted to do was learn moves. I hated cardio too, it was punishment to a kid who was in a room with a good trainer.
I take my time making my protein shake and make one for Vinny before I head down to the gym. I know there probably isn’t any food in his house. Some of these kids only stay in school because they know they can get a free meal there.
Vinny is drenched in sweat as he runs full out on the treadmill. I smirk as I pass him. I would have done the same thing. The faster you’re done with the cardio, the faster you get to the fighting.
“Preach says you might fight Kravitz.” Vinny gives me a quick left and I duck and easily sweep out his legs while he attempts to rebalance from his miss.
“You’re leaving yourself exposed. Lean into it. Set up your legs.” I extend my hand and pull Vinny back to his feet.
“So is it true? Are you getting back in the cage?”
“Stop gossiping like a little girl and take me down.” The kid needs to focus. Plus, I don’t have an answer to give him.
Vinny shoots in and tries for a double leg takedown. The kid is definitely becoming more explosive.
“Nose up. Back straight. Again.”
He shoots, I wobble for a second, but I don’t fall. Someday kid. Someday.
After another twenty minutes, he’s drenched and I’m warmed up for the day. “Jump in the showers. Make it fast. You got 25 minutes to get to school. If I find out you’re late, next week will be ten miles on the treadmill and there will be no time for training, no matter how fast you run.”
Vinny groans but sprints to the shower. The kid wants it bad. I just hope it’s bad enough to keep him clean with all the shitstorm swirling around him at home.
“See you Monday, Nico.” Vinny jogs by me with his backpack swung over one shoulder. I nod and he’s gone. Out the door after a thirty second shower. I smile knowing he’ll make it to school on time. I pick up the phone and call my brother to give him an update on his student. The kid’s lucky my brother has a soft spot for fighters or he’d have had him expelled the last time he found Vinny pounding a kid three years older than him in the stairwell. But instead, he found him a place to channel the fighting he was doing in the halls. Yep, the kid lucked out when they assigned his teachers.
Chapter 8
“Sal’s deli just called to see how Leonard was feeling. Business must be down with him out for almost a week.” Regina says with a smile as I hand her the menu for our lunch order.
“He’s probably just afraid we’ll sue him for damages after they’ve fed him those deadly sausage and peppers heroes every day for all these years. You know how much fat and cholesterol are in those things?”
“You know who doesn’t look like he eats any fat at all?” Regina wiggles her eyebrows suggestively and speaks in her best sex kitten voice.
“Nice segway. I think you can turn any conversation into something about Nico Hunter lately. You should’ve been a lawyer.” I laugh at Regina’s latest obsession.
“Do you blame me for being smitten?” Smitten, who uses the word smitten?
I sigh, thinking back to our kiss last night. No, I certainly don’t blame Regina for being smitten. I think I agreed to have dinner with Nico so I could find something wrong with him and get his lethal smile out of my head. But last night only made things worse. I didn’t find a single thing to help me push my wayward thoughts out of my head. In fact, I actually found things that made it harder to stop thinking about him.
“Are you going to tell me about your date or do I need to bring you into the conference room for a formal deposition?”
“How come you never ask about my dates with William, Regina?”
“Because I don’t want to be bored.”
“Regina!” I raise my voice chastising her.
“What?” She smiles at me knowing I’m not really mad. It’s an odd friendship, but the part of my relationship with Regina that I value most is that she is so honest when we talk.
“What makes you think my dates with William are boring?”
“Aren’t they?” Regina grins knowingly.
“William is a nice guy.”
“I didn’t say he wasn’t.”
It’s my turn to sigh. Regina is right. My dates with William are boring. Nice, comfortable, but boring. But it’s good for me. I don’t need any emotional rollercoasters, I’ve had enough of that to last a lifetime.
I don’t leave the office till after ten. I’m handling my caseload and helping out with Leonard’s while he’s still out. I keep myself busy all afternoon and late into the evening after my lunch with Regina. I don’t want to think about Nico. He isn’t what I need. I should be thinking about William. He’s the type of man I should be with. He’s stable, honest, and hard working. He’s good for me and he cares about me. So why are thoughts of Nico keeping me awake? I toss and turn for hours until I’m finally exhausted enough to slip into dreamland.
I wake in the morning to screaming. I’m petrified. Unable to move at the harrowing sound. It takes me almost a full minute to realize that I am the one making the sound. I’m screaming and I can’t stop. The dream is back. It’s not really a dream, it’s a nightmare. Although nightmares are a figment of a person’s imagination, so I guess what I just woke up to wasn’t a nightmare…it was reality. My reality. My memory. My past.
It’s been six years since I woke to the torment that haunted my sleep for as many years. I can’t believe it’s starting again. It took me years to make them go away.
I always wake at the same place in the nightmare. His fist connects with her head and she stumbles back and hits the refrigerator. Hard. Her eyes roll into the back of her head as her body slides down in slow motion. He’s really hurt her this time and it doesn’t look like he’s done with her yet. He leans down, his fist pulled back, ready to pummel her lifeless body. A gunshot blasts. It’s so loud it hurts my head. The sound leaves a high-pitch ringing in my ears. It makes me reach up and cover them. I never knew sound could hurt. I feel like my ears are
