In Sly's Eyes: In Sly's Eyes Marco's MMA Boys Book 2 (4 page)

CHAPTER 7

KARA

I don’t think I get the complete realization of what’s going on until we pull up in front of the Sheriff’s Department. This is what happens when you learn to stay lost in your own head. I look over at Sly, who may have chipped his teeth on the way here from grinding them. “Sly, we don’t have to do this. It’s stupid. They couldn’t track it last time so they probably won’t be able to this time, either.”

“Kara, this is bullshit. You don’t deserve this and I’m not letting you put up with it. You are not a victim and you can’t just let this shit happen to you.”

“Fuck you, Sly.” I open the door and jump out as he follows suit. “How can you say I’m letting this shit happen to me?”

He shakes his head, speed walking over to me. I shiver a little once he’s in front of me. “I didn’t mean it like that. I’m saying that if you sit back and let him harass you, you’re letting it happen.” He pulls me into a tight hug. “You’re a tough girl. I don’t want you to give up the fight against him. You’re tougher than that.”

I want to cry but I fight it like hell. I can’t show this much weakness all at once. Making our way into the Sheriff’s Department, Sly talks with the girl at the desk, letting her know who we need to speak with.

We are taken back to a small interview room to wait. I count the cracks in the grey wall in front of me, trying to keep my mind elsewhere. Soon, a balding detective comes in the door. “Ms. Chambers, I’m Detective Harmon.” We exchange handshakes and he takes a seat. “Now, I understand you’ve received another disturbing text message?”

I nod. “Yes, sir. I didn’t think it was a big deal but Sly thought I should let you guys know,” I say quietly.

“He was right. Let me have a look at the message.” He takes my phone, looking down at what he can see of the message on my broken phone. “Do you have any idea who it could be from?”

My mouth gapes open like a fish.
Is he fucking stupid?

“Are you dumb or just an idiot?” Sly barks out.

“Mr. Webb,” he points harshly at Sly. “I suggest you keep your mouth shut, you are still on a conditioned release. I am not dumb, but I have to ask her these obvious questions.”

I look at Sly, pleading with my eyes for him to shut up. He finally nods and I look back to the detective. “Drake Willis is the only person that I can think of. He’s the only person who could say these kinds of things to me.”

“Mr. Webb, can you step out for a moment while I speak with Ms. Chambers?” the detective says as he looks between Sly and me.

Sly looks at me as if he’s asking for my approval and I give a slight nod. He stands up and touches my shoulder. “Okay, but I’ll be right out there if you need me.”

“Okay,” I say quietly.

Once he’s out of the room, the detective looks at me. “How long have you and Mr. Webb been together?”

I shake my head. “Sly is my friend. We aren’t a couple or anything.”

He taps his pen on the counter, “So you weren’t playing the two against each other?”

What the hell?
“I haven’t been playing anyone against anyone,” I grind out.

He sits back and cocks his head to the side. “So that wasn’t what the fight between those two was about?”

“No, that-.” It hits me that I don’t need to talk about Sly’s case. Anything I say could cause him problems. “I don’t know what happened between the two of them, I wasn’t there. The fact is Drake Willis is an abusive asshole and Sly Webb is a very good friend. That’s all you need to know about my relationship with Sly.”

He nods and grunts, writing notes on his paper. “Okay, then how long were you and Mr. Willis together?”

“Around six months,” I say, picking at my fingernails.

“How long into the relationship did the abuse start?” he asks gruffly.

How did my life come to this? How did it come to sitting in a room at the Sheriff’s Department answering questions like these? “The verbal began not long after we started dating. The physical wasn’t much until-. The night-. Um, that was the worst night.”

He lets out a hard breath and takes a sip of his coffee. “I’m sorry, I have to ask all of the asshole questions. I can be a little clinical about this after so many years with the department. Unfortunately, I see situations like this way too often in my line of work.” He pauses, looking at me softly like a father would. “Are you sure you’re comfortable with all of the fighters that seem to be around?”

I pick my head up quickly and nod. “Yes. Those guys are great to me. They’re my friends, they look out for me.” I think about Drake. “When I let them. I don’t think I’ve been the best friend to them lately. He-he didn’t like them.” I feel my chest starting to tighten and my breathing quicken.

“I’m sorry, Ms. Chambers.” He reaches over, grabbing a cup and filling it with water. “Here, take a sip of this.” I take it and nod. “He isolated you from them. They don’t blame you, trust me. Especially that boy that was just in here. He was ready to take my head off.” He chuckles and I keep sipping my water. Feeling the cold water run down my throat, my heart seems to slow back down. “How often does this happen?” I look up at him. It’s as if he’s reading me. “I could see you were about to have a full blown panic attack.”

“Just every once in a while. Since the night-.” I look around. I can’t say it.

He lightly touches my hand. “It’s okay, I get it. I’d like to give you my card. If you get anymore messages, let me know. We have the information to run this number from today. When we step out, I also want to give you a card for a friend of mine. She is a great person to talk to and does great work with victims of domestic violence.”

I take another slow sip of my water and look up. “Thank you.”

“Okay. Let’s get you back out there with Mr. Webb before he either charms the secretary out of her clothes or tears the door down to get to you,” he says casually.

I smile and nod. “Thank you.”

He leads me outside the room where Sly is sitting facing the door. He jumps up and pulls me into a hug. “You okay?”

I nod and smile. “Yeah. I’m okay.”

Detective Harmon steps beside me. “Ms. Chambers, you have my card. Here is my friend’s card. Give her a call, she’s a great listener.”

I nod, taking the card from his hand. “Thank you again.”

“It’s nothing. I’ll call you when I find out anything about the phone number.” He touches my shoulder gently and turns to Sly. “Mr. Webb, nice to meet you. Take care of this sweet girl, okay?”

Sly pulls me into his side. “Sure thing. We look out for family.”

The detective nods, walking away.

As if he can read me, Sly doesn’t say anything, he just walks me to the truck. Once we’re inside, he looks at me. “I’m gonna take you home. Doc called and said to take the rest of the afternoon off.”

“But-.” Sly puts up a hand to stop me.

“He said no arguments. Sloan’s helping him at the front desk, she has a light day today.” I don’t argue because I really just don’t have the will power to.

The entire ride to our house, I flick the cards back and forth against each other. “You should call her, you know?” He points to the card.

“You think so? I mean, would it do any good?” I ask quietly.

He nods. “Yeah. Marco set a lady up years ago for us and our mom. I feel like if my mom had followed through with it, she wouldn’t be in the shape she’s in now. I know it helped me learn to deal with everything a little bit. I don’t know about Huck. I mean, he’s just Huck,” he says, shrugging his shoulders.

“Thanks,” I say softly. I don’t know what I would do without my friends right now. There is no way my mom needs the stress of all of this. Jade is more involved than I want her to be.

He glances over at me. “I’ve got some stuff to take care of. I’m gonna grab some steaks to grill this afternoon and some sweet potatoes. Huck and I have to load up on some protein and carbs for the next few days so just a heads up, there will be a lot of beef, eggs, liver, tuna, pasta, sweet potatoes and stuff like that.”

I shake my head and laugh a little. A yawn slips out and I realize how bad I want to sleep. “I’m gonna catch a quick nap. I guess all the stress has just worn me down. It seems like I can’t get enough rest lately.” Really it’s the depression. I know the signs, I fought through them years ago. I saw a shrink then, too, and he gave me some tools to work past things, but I think my way was much more effective.

He opens the truck door and looks back at me. “Okay. Well, I’ll see you in a little bit. We’ll let you know when the steaks are done.”

I give him a half smile. “Thanks.”

CHAPTER 8

SLY

“Hi, sir. Can I help you?” Miss Perky Tits behind the counter of the cell phone store asks.

I hold up the broken cell phone in my hand. “I need to replace this for a friend.” I didn’t tell Kara I was coming here because she would’ve argued.

She smiles and flips her hair a little. She leans forward, giving me the money shot of her boobs. “Let me see it.” She looks it over. “Well, we don’t sell this model anymore. Would you like to update it?”

I give her a wide grin and my signature wink. “Sure, how much will that run me?” Trust me, just like women use their bodies to get a deal, I can damn sure use mine.
Equal opportunity and all.

She licks her bottom lip. “Well, I’m sure I can find you some rebates and all.”

I lean forward, resting my arms on the counter in her personal space. “That would be great,” I glance at her nametag, “Karen,” I let out in a low voice.

Let me explain the power of this voice. My low voice has been known to cause panties to combust into flames, it’s been known to make bra clasps fly apart and boobs jump out. My low voice can cause spontaneous orgasms. I got this.

She giggles and I know I’m in
‘check’
. “Sure, let me get that totaled up for you.”

Checkmate, bitches.

Thirty minutes later, I’m walking out with an upgraded phone for Kara for less than the price of her old one, with GPS tracking and all the other bells and whistles.  And…the number of the sales girl.

I’m fucking awesome.

My phone rings and Huck’s name flashes up.

“Hey.”

“Hey, just letting you know Marco said the meeting with Bellator got moved to tomorrow instead of Friday.”

“Okay. I’m headed to the grocery store to get our grub for this week.”

“Good. Get me some extra carbs. Well, a little more than usual. This fight against Sergio is big. I need to make sure I’m well into my category weight wise. I don’t wanna get there and be one good dump short on weight.”

I let out a deep laugh. “Well, that’s great to think about with me headed to the grocery store.” I think of Kara. “Oh and I’m cooking extra, we need to make sure Kara’s eating. Sloan doesn’t think she is so I told Kara we’d be eating a lot this week. I figure we can talk her into joining us some.”

“Yeah, man. She was looking a little weak the other day. We need to get her back in the gym, too. She’s healing, but you and I both know how it is when-.”

“I know, brother. I got this.”

“Okay. Well, I’ll see you in a bit.”

“Okay.”

~*~*~

When Huck got in today, I filled him in on the text from earlier and our trip to the Sheriff’s Department. We agreed that we have to make sure Kara is eating, but she also needs to laugh. She hasn’t laughed enough lately. She has a great laugh and I need to hear it more.

Once Huck takes the steaks, chicken and potatoes off the grill, I knock on Kara’s door. “Kara, supper is ready.”

I hear her in there moving around and once she opens the door, I can tell she was asleep. “Thanks. I’ll be in there in just a second.”

“Okay.” I go back into the kitchen to set out the pasta and salad I made.

Huck and I sit down at the table and when Kara comes in, her eyes get huge. “Holy crap! Is someone else coming over? Like maybe an army?”

We both laugh. “No, Huck has to bulk up this week, plus it’ll give us a little for lunch tomorrow.”

Her eyes bug out. “Just lunch tomorrow? This would last me like a week.”

Huck laughs. “Well, load up now. Fight week around here is kinda like the Wild West when it comes to food.”

She laughs, putting a steak and some salad on her plate.

“Please tell me you’re going to get more than that. Get some chicken and a potato, babe.” I motion to all of the food.

“This will get me started, thank you.” She smiles.

I shrug, “Just sayin’, you might not get another chance to get a gourmet meal like the one I’ve prepared tonight.”

“You prepared? Bullshit,” Huck says, laughing.

“Hey, I made the salad and I boil a mean ass noodle.”

Kara laughs. “Well, thank you both. The steak and the salad are both very good.”

I reach over on the counter behind me. “Oh, here,” I hand her the bag. “All you have to do is call and have it activated to your account.”

“Sly, you didn’t need to do this. I was going to go get one tomorrow.”

I shrug. “Well, now you don’t have to. I broke it so I bought you a new one.”

“You didn’t need to buy me a new one. You didn’t mean to break it and you’ve done enough already for me.”

I put my hands up. “I bought it. It’s over. Quit thinking we’ve done so much for you. We would have done this for anyone we’re friends with. I wasn’t lying today, you are family.”

Huck is cramming food in his mouth like someone is going to take it. “He’s right,” he mumbles. “You’re family, we protect what’s ours.”

Kara chuckles lightly. “Thanks, I’ll keep that in mind. Just don’t choke, okay?”

He gives her a cheesy grin with food in his mouth, “I’m a growing boy.” She laughs harder and that is the most wonderful sound.

“So, are you coming to our fights Friday night?” I ask her, trying to sound casual.

“I’m thinking about it.” She shrugs.

I smile and wink. “I think Sloan is bringing Slick, so you know he’ll want you to come hang out.”

Huck crams another forkful of salad in his mouth. “Plus, just so you know, Slick cornered me the other day and said we needed to teach you how to fight. That was our job.”

I glare at him, but she starts laughing. “He would say that.” She starts telling him the story Sloan told me earlier today.

He laughs. “That kid is like the coolest kid ever and some people do just need to be punched in the balls.” He shakes his head. “But he’s right, you do need to get back to the class. We’ll take it easy on you to start with.” He puts his hand up like a scout. “Promise.”

She laughs. “Like you were ever a damn scout.”

“No, but I’m addicted to Girl Scout cookies and girls that used to be girl scouts. Does that count?” he says frankly, like it’s no big deal.

“You just made yourself sound like a total whack job, Huck. Like Batman whack job,” I say and Kara chokes on her water a little. Huck flips me off.

She looks so happy, so carefree. I always want her to look that way.

Once she finally catches her breath, she looks at me. “Why did you say Batman is a whack job?”

Huck sighs and sits back in her chair. “Great, here we go,” he murmurs.

“Shut up, Huck, he is.”

She looks at me confused. “He is what?”

I look at her serious. “Batman is a pedophile.”

And then water comes out of her nose.

“I’m serious. What grown ass man runs around in tights and makes his
ward,
that’s like eleven, run around that way, too? I’m telling you, go back and look at the storylines.” I am right about this, I know I am. I continue to make my case against Batman.

She puts her hands up as if in defense. “I believe you, Sly. It’s okay.”

“Huck and Lox used to be all goo goo eyes over Batman and I was all dude, he’d touch your special places. They were always like, ‘he’s
so strong.’
” A roll hits me in the head.

“Shut up, dick lick,” Huck grunts out.

Kara has tears running out of her eyes she’s laughing so hard. “Oh my God, oh my God. I can’t breathe, you guys are cracking me up.”

After cleaning up, we head into the living room and Kara sits down on one end of the couch. “So what are we watching?
Grey’s, True Blood
?”

“I’m not watching porn with my brother.” I laugh, pulling her foot over in my lap.

Huck looks over at me. “Dude, is it really that bad?”

“Lox said we shouldn’t watch it together and I have to agree, it would be awkward and I’ve only watched two episodes,” I say, nodding.

Kara looks over at me with shock on her face. “You haven’t watched any since the other night?”

I shrug and start rubbing her foot. “No, you weren’t out here to watch with me. I didn’t want to watch it by myself. It’s our thing, you know?”

She gives me a huge smile. “Yeah. Okay, let’s watch an episode or two before I go to bed.”

“Jesus, Sly, are you two going to be on the same menstrual cycle now?”

“Whatever, asshole. I’m basically watching porn with a hot chick,” I snap.

He grabs his cap. “Oh, well I’m headed out. See you kids later.”

After we hear the door close, Kara looks at me. “Where does he go?”

“His ballet school dropout reunion.” I laugh. “Hell, I really don’t know. I don’t ask. Maybe I should ask, I just always figured he was off getting a piece of ass. Male or female, I’m not sure of. I try not to intrude.”

She laughs. “Come on, you doofus, let’s watch this show. You know it’s funny to watch you try to cover your hard-on.”

“You could help out with that, you know?”

She shakes her head and turns back to the TV. I guess she doesn’t realize that I am serious.
I love women.