Fighting Back (Mercy's Angels) (8 page)

Charlie

Jax was keeping a close eye on Rebecca, and I knew I could trust him to keep her safe. Even so, I haven’t seen her in over two weeks and it was beginning to drive me insane. I was out of my mind with worry, and I was irritable and pissed off for no good reason. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve turned my truck in the direction of Bouquets, only to chicken out at the last minute. I didn’t want to push Rebecca, I wanted to give her space. But at the same time, I wanted to gather her in my arms and steal her away where no one else could touch her. How fucked up was that? There were still no leads on Rebecca’s attacker and his parting threat was still lingering in the air, so no one was comfortable leaving the women to their own devices; therefore, Jax had become a hovering pain in their asses. Dylan and Braiden Montgomery have been swamped since opening their second office in Claymont, but between the two of them they were still looking into Rebecca’s attack. According to witness statements, no one heard or saw anything out of the ordinary. In the police report they found, there had been no fingerprints left at the scene. All we had to go on was Rebecca’s crazy date with Luke Hollywell, who had a solid alibi. A combination of frustration—about a case that was seemingly going nowhere and not seeing Rebecca in what felt like forever—was playing havoc with my blazing, inner fury. Giving oxygen to those flames of anger was the son-of-a-bitch Hollywell, who had the nerve to walk through the doors of Lee’s Gym this afternoon. Apparently he had been kicked out of his own gym and was looking for a new training ground. In a moment of uncontrollable rage, I pinned him against the wall, prepared to pound my fist into his face. The General and Corey had to pull me off of him. Instead of tossing the insignificant piece of shit out on the street, the General saw it as an opportunity to teach us both a lesson. We had a problem with each other and it needed to be dealt with. The General only dealt with these kinds of problems one way: inside the ring. He wanted us to fight, get it out of our system, and move on. There was a possibility that this fucker had attacked Rebecca, had attempted to rape her. If it’s proved that he’s Rebecca’s attacker, there would be no moving on. If I was put in a ring with him, there’s a damn good chance I’d kill him. The General didn’t tolerate fighting on the street, so his answer was to keep it in the ring. In a moment of red hot fury, I accepted the challenge. I was going to fight Luke Hollywell in two weeks. I didn’t see it ending well.

I climbed from my truck and pulled my ratty old gym bag from the back seat. It was a little after five, and my class at Mercy’s didn’t start for another twenty minutes. Inside the shelter, the sweet scent of muffins filled my nose. I peeked my head around the kitchen doorway to find Mary humming along to the song I was positive sounded a little like Snoop Dogg’s
Drop It Like It’s Ho
t. Mary always seemed to be full of shocking surprises, and recently she revealed her new love for rap and urban R&B. Dressed in a floral dress, flats and a fancy apron full of ruffles, she was a complete contradiction. Her eyes sparkled with mischief when she spied me watching her from the doorway.

“Charlie Cole, I’m sure your momma would have taught you that it’s bad manners to sneak up on people.”

From anyone else, I would have prickled at the comment about my mom—who was on a plane to crazy town with a one-way ticket, and most of the people in Claymont knew it—but coming from Mary, I knew it was just playful banter. I smiled.

“You know me and manners never really took.” I dropped my bag in the doorway and began snooping around the kitchen, looking for the freshly baked treats I could smell. Mary watched me as I checked the still warm oven. Nope, not there.

“Looking for something, Mr. Cole?” Mary chuckled.

I stood up and scanned the kitchen counters. This had become a game for Mary and me. She baked and I ate. But lately, she made me work for it. I checked the large pantry, the kitchen cabinets, and lastly, the fridge—hoping to God she didn’t really put my warm treats in there. I found plenty of food, just not what I was after. When I turned to face her, I saw that she was barely holding it together.

“Where are my muffins, Mary? You don’t want this to get ugly.” I grinned.

She burst out laughing. “Five minutes, Charlie, just five minutes earlier and you’d have your muffins.”

My playful grin disappeared. “Who took my muffins?” I demanded.

She laughed harder. “Ella left just before you came through the back door. Actually, she ran; I think she knew you would be looking for them.”

That cheeky little brat
, I thought to myself. I was definitely kidnapping her precious penis cacti next time I dropped by Jax’s. I’d been threatening to unman her cactus for a long time.  Now that she had messed with my muffins, that cactus was done for! The girl was going down! Mary’s loud laughter finally settled and she reached behind her back to produce one lone muffin.

“I saved this for you.” She grinned at me. I moved forward quickly and wrapped my arms around Mary’s soft, large body, then quickly drew away, taking the still warm muffin with me. She shook her head. “I think you all love my muffins more than you love me.”

“Not a chance,” I said through a mouthful of muffin. “Without you there would be no muffins.” I grabbed my bag off the floor and made my way out into the wide open living area of what was Mercy’s Shelter for Abused Women. There were a few regular faces, and I was both glad and irritated to see a couple of new ones. It impressed the hell out of me that these women found the strength to leave the monsters that dared hurt them, but it pissed me off that such evil existed in the first place.

Mercy came in through the front door, and when she saw me, her hands flew up, palms out. “No, I had nothing to do with the abduction of your muffins. That was all on Ella and Jax.”

“Jax was in on it?” I shouted.

“I believe he was driving the getaway vehicle.” Mercy laughed.

They were both going down! At that moment the front door swung open and Ella strolled in, followed by Annie and then Rebecca. The air left my lungs on a long drawn out breath. She seemed to be held in a gripping conversation with Annie, while I carefully looked her over. Her hair was pulled back in a high ponytail, giving me an unobstructed view of her face. She looked beautiful. Her bruising was all but gone. There were dark shadows under her eyes, which worried me, but other than that she still looked like the damn ethereal beauty she always had been to me. Ella stood to one side, watching me as I watched Rebecca. Busted. She raised a brow and gave me a sly grin.

“Ms. Munroe, you look mighty proud of yourself,” I noted.

“Mr. Cole, I do believe you and your muffins were outsmarted.”

I snorted. “Not likely, all you did was show up five minutes earlier than me. That’s not outsmarting, honey, that’s pure luck. And don’t worry, my plan for revenge is gonna leave your head spinning.” Ella laughed just as Rebecca and Annie turned towards us from their conversation.

Rebecca’s eyes locked on mine, and the look in her eyes made my heart pound hard and heavy in my chest. It looked like she was happy to see me, fucking ecstatic even. Ella and Annie went to help Mercy push some furniture out of the way as Rebecca strolled nervously up to me, her hands tucked away in the pockets of her pullover. I hated that she felt nervous. I smiled in an attempt to ease her apprehension.

“Betty Boop,” I whispered, “how are you feeling?” She looked up at me, her eyes held a wealth of pain behind them. She smiled, but I could see the turmoil that was going through her mind and body. She looked away, unable to hold my concerned gaze, and shrugged. I waited patiently until those pretty blue eyes settled back on mine.

“Probably no better than I look.”

“You look beautiful.” Not even God himself could have stopped my hand from rising to her cheek, the back of my fingers gently caressed the soft skin. She blushed and it caused her face to glow a gentle shade of pink; it was adorable. It took a great deal of effort not to get a raging hard-on right there, surrounded by the women of the shelter. Damn, I was a sick fuck.

“I don’t feel like it, Charlie. I feel…” She seemed frustrated. “I feel…” Her eyes dropped to the floor between us. “I feel scared. I feel like someone else is living in my God damned skin right now.”

My hand cupped her neck gently and I used my finger to raise her chin so her eyes were back on mine. I wanted her to see the truth in my words; the complete honesty I was about to entrust in her. “I get that, Betty Boop, I get what it’s like not to be in control of your emotions. It’s like your outside of yourself looking in and you know what the problem is, you can see it but you just can’t find a way to fix it.  You will get that control back though, I promise you if it’s the last thing I do, I’ll help you get that control back.” Her eyes seemed to search mine for the truth behind my words. Finally, a small smile fell easily upon her beautiful full lips. A cough from behind us got my attention. I glanced over my shoulder to see Ella’s smug grin as she stood in line with several other women, all watching with rapt interest at the exchange between me and Rebecca.

“So eager to get started, short stuff.” I chuckled. Ella’s smile turned into a hard glare. I loved ruffling her feathers; it was definitely one of my favorite past times.

As the one hour class progressed, I could see Rebecca’s unease growing. I had teamed her with Ella and kept all their maneuvers clean and simple. I knew it was possible that a certain hold or position could trigger a memory, fuck, I have seen it happen with plenty of women in the shelter since I began teaching my classes here. Thankfully Mercy noted Rebecca’s discomfort, and made an excuse to draw her away from the group. Finally the class drew to an end and I guided the girls through a quick cool down and slipped away to find Rebecca. She was sitting in Mercy’s office, her legs drawn up in front of her. She looked so young and fragile sitting there all alone. I didn’t want to startle her so I knocked on the wall beside the doorway gently. Her worried frown turned to look my way. Her eyes glazed over with tears and before I could say a word they spilled over her lashes and down her soft cheeks. I knelt on the floor in front of her and allowed my arms to find their way around her small frame. She shook as she cried, her hands clutching me close.

“What’s wrong with me?” she finally whispered between sobs. The pain and confusion in her voice broke my heart.

“There is nothing wrong with you, Betty Boop. You’re scared and you’re hurting.” She gripped me tighter, trying to hold me as close as possible.

“I don’t want to feel this way,” she whispered.

“You won’t forever. I’ll help you,” I breathed. “Let me help you,” I quietly pleaded. Her subtle nod helped me feel some resemblance to calm. She was handing me a small amount of control, a chance to help fix this, to help repair the damage one person managed to inflict on her bright soul.

“I need to go home,” she confessed.

“You will soon enough.” It would take time but I had no doubt she would overcome the fear that lingered following her attack.

“No, Charlie. I have plants to water, food that’s spoiled and needs to be thrown out, and I need to check my mail.”

“I can go do all that for you.” She leaned away from me, a spark of determination firing behind her eyes.

“I don’t want anyone to do it for me, I want to do it, Charlie, it’s my home.” She took a deep breath. “It’s my family home, it’s all I have left of them. I can’t lose it.”

I leaned my forehead against hers, not wanting any space between us. “How about I take you? We can do it together.” Her eyes seemed to flutter shut with relief. “This weekend,” I added.

She nodded. “I’m working Saturday morning but I’m free all afternoon.”

“Saturday afternoon it is then,” I agreed. Her entire body relaxed.

“Shit, I’ve got to go in to Lee’s Saturday afternoon. It should only take an hour, two tops.” She lifted her head and being this close to her, I wanted to lean forward and kiss those beautiful lips.

“Maybe I can come?” she suggested.

Now I was tense. Normally I wouldn’t have a problem taking Rebecca with me to Lee’s, but now I was worried the aggression within the gym might trigger unwelcome memories for her.

She could see the obvious reluctance on my face. “I’m sorry, that was really forward of me.” She tried to smile through her tear stained face. “Forget it, my head is in another place right now, things have started coming out of my mouth as if there is no filter.”

I couldn’t stop my laughter. “I’m fairly confident that pretty mouth of yours has never had a filter, Betty Boop.” She smiled and it was genuine. Some of the tension that had seized my body lately seemed to melt away at the sight. “I want to take you, believe me I do. I’ll be sparring, it won’t exactly be real fighting but it has a tendency to sometimes get a little real, a little brutal. I don’t want you to see that.”

Rebecca’s back straightened, her hands slipping from my shoulders. “You think I’ll get scared,” she said with a little defiance that reminded me of old Rebecca.

I ran a hand down my face in an attempt to hide my smile. I groaned. “No, maybe,” I fought for the right thing to say. Rebecca sighed and seemed to come down from the fit I thought she was about to throw.

“Let me try,” she pleaded. “If it starts getting to be too much, I’ll just go wait in your truck or something.”

She really wanted to come, I could see that in her eyes. I wasn’t sure if it had something to do with defeating her fears or something else entirely. I raised my hands in defeat, I couldn’t deny her anything, especially when her eyes were begging me like that. “Fuck it, you can come with. If it gets to be too much, you can hang out back with Liz.” She gave me a ‘who’s Liz’ look. “The General’s wife, Liz, she’s always there on the weekends, otherwise she’d never get to see her husband.”