The Ballerina & The Fighter (Book 1) (12 page)

“What happened? Who needs
help?” One of the officers asked.

“Maze, he’s back there.” I
turned and lifted my head in the direction of the alley. “In the alley…we…we
were mugged by three men with knives.” I wasn’t about to tell them Maze fought
with knives, too. They raced past me to the alley when I turned to follow them
but another female police office held my arm.

“Whoa stay here, miss. Let us
do our jobs.”

“Please, I need to know he’s
all right.”

Her radio crackled and I
heard a voice say a bunch of numbers but they were meaningless to me, and then
something about in pursuit of suspects. I wrenched out of her grasp, but she
stayed with me as I ran toward the alley through the crowds that had gathered
at the edge, to see what was going on. I made my way past them but the alley
was empty. There wasn’t even any sign of the two officers. The female officer
shined her light around the alley and her light flashed over something wet on
the ground. She walked over to it and I went with her. I hadn’t noticed the
spot before. She didn’t have to tell me what it was, blood. But whose?

Two hours later, I finally
took a cab back to my apartment and entered. Dante stepped out of his room just
as I shut the door. He took one look at me; I still held that damn pizza box in
my hand. He walked across the rug to me and took it out of my hand. I followed
him into the kitchen.

He rested the pizza box on
the counter and looked at me. “What happened?”

I began to cry. I had no idea
what had happened. I’d been texting and calling Maze since he disappeared in
the alley but he never replied. I didn’t know if he was hurt or what. Whose
blood was that? It was three men against one, although he’d been holding his
own more than that, he’d been winning, but they had guns and knives. Who were
those people and why hadn’t he at least let me know he was all right? I sat on
one of the kitchen chairs and Dante came over and sat beside me, he placed his
arm around me.

“Ivy, you’re scaring me. You
look like shit. Did Maze do something? I’ll kick his ass.”

I smiled, Dante, ever my
protector. “No…no Maze didn’t do anything he…he protected me. We got jumped.”
Then I told Dante what happened at least what I understood to have happened.

“Wow, you had quite a night.
Still it sounds to me like this dude is involved in some messed up shit I do
not want you involved in.”

I glared at him. “Oh please
don’t give me ultimatums.”

He sighed. “Yeah, I know how
stubborn you are, but you know I’m right.”

“One thing’s clear, Maze knew
one of the guys and did not want to go with him. I think they took him
someplace with them that he didn’t want to go. But why didn’t he call me by now
to let me know he was okay?”

“I don’t know, babe.” Dante
flipped open the pizza box and took a bite of the cold pizza.

Earlier I’d been hungry but
my appetite had fled hours ago and had still not returned. I had questions but
no answers, only Maze could provide those for me.

I went to bed shortly
afterward, but my sleep was fitful, so it was no wonder I got up early, or
something else had awoken me. At five a.m. in the morning. The ping of my
phone, I had a text. I grabbed for my phone. It was from Maze. I breathed a sigh
of relief.

Maze:
‘You ok?’

Me:
‘ME!!! I’m fine. What the hell about you? Are you all right?’

Maze:
‘Yeah I’m fine.’

Me:
‘Who the hell were those guys?’

Maze:
‘No one.’

Me:
‘The police want to talk to you. I gave them a description of those men.’

Maze:
‘Don’t worry about it. I’ll take care of it.’

Me:
‘Ok. Will I see you today?’

His reply was a long time in
coming, for some reason I felt my stomach knotting and cramping. When the reply
finally came it tightened even more.

Maze:
‘No. Listen this was not a good idea. But I was glad I saw you dance.’

Me:
‘What’s not a good idea?’

Maze:
‘Us.’

What did I say to that? I
pushed him away before now he pushed me away. I couldn’t help feel this had
something to do with last night.

Me:
‘Are you in some kind of trouble?’

Maze:
‘No.’

Me:
‘Why don’t I believe you?’

Maze:
‘I gotta go. It was really nice seeing you. Take care.’

Me:
‘Will I see you again before you leave the country?’

Maze:
‘Probably not, I’m going to be busy. What do they say in show biz, break a
leg.’

And just like that Maze came
into my life and he went out. I sat there for a long time just staring out the
window. It took a minute for me to realize it was raining, because tears fell
from my eyes. There was a knock on my door and before I could say come or go,
Dante had pushed the door open and poked his head in. The second he saw me
sitting on the bed crying he walked into my room. Without a word he sat down
with his back to the headboard, he took me in his arms and just held me while I
cried over someone else. I didn’t even understand why I shed tears over him. So
we kissed a few times in our lives, but Maze didn’t seem interested in doing
any more of that, any more of anything. I’d get over it. Meanwhile Dante
continued to hold me. Finally, he asked.

“What happened? Did you hear
from Maze?”

I wrapped my arms around
Dante’s waist and spoke into his stomach. I didn’t want to look into his eyes;
they weren’t the color of the storm that raged outside this morning. “He’s
fine.”

“That’s good. So why are you
crying?”

I hiccupped, wiped my face
with the edge of the sheet then pushed away from him. Shifting until I sat up
in bed. I leaned my head against his shoulder.

“Hell if I know,” I said and
let my lips curl into a half smile.

He rubbed his head against
mine. “Are you seeing him again?”

“No. I don’t think so. He…he
doesn’t want to see me.”

He squeezed my hand on top of
the cover near his hip. “Then he’s an ass.”

Dante jumped out of bed and
walked to the door. “Take a shower. I’m making breakfast; we have classes for a
few hours then you and I are going out.”

I sat up and swung my legs
over the side. “What about Christy?”

He opened the door, stopped
and turned back to look at me. “What about her?”

“Is she coming with us?”

“Three’s a crowd?” he said,
and smiled as he closed the door behind him.

I got up and quickly got
dressed washing my tears away in the shower. I wasn’t even sure why I cried yet
again over Maze. Yes we’d had this incredible connection, but apparently,
maybe, it didn’t mean as much to him as it did to me. After I changed and got
my ballet bag with all my gear ready to go, I walked into the kitchen. The
smell of whatever Dante fixed permeated the air and had my stomach growling.
The man could cook and I hadn’t eaten since lunch yesterday, the way my stomach
growled I’d be able to eat my share of breakfast. I realized he was alone in
the kitchen. “Where’s Christy?” After I asked I realized Christy hadn’t been
here with Dante last night. That was interesting; they’d been going hot and
heavy for a couple of months now.

“At her apartment I assume,”
Dante shrugged.

“What’s up with that?” I took
a seat at the counter, Dante put a plate in front of me with a bacon and cheese
omelet on it.

“Nothing. Just needed a
little space. Eat up,” he said, waving his spatula in my direction. “You need
protein. I’m going to work your ass off today.” And he meant every word of it.

After classes, which the
entire cast took Christy tried to get my roommate to go back to her place. He
told her he’d catch her tomorrow. A few of us hung around after classes
chatting, but I was close enough to hear her question and his reply, that he
had a few things he needed to do. She raised her head, stared right at me, and
narrowed her eyes. It was not a friendly look. I frowned at her. Damnit. I wish
she wouldn’t hold me responsible because he blew her off. After she stormed out
of the room, I turned to Dante.

“You know you could have
invited her to come hang out with us.”

He frowned. “Why?”

“Cause now she’s pissed at
me.”

He shrugged. “Too bad. Things
haven’t been so great lately, we need to step back a little and I told her so
last night along with the reminder that we were just chilling together for now.
I’m not looking for permanency.”

This was typical Dante. He
didn’t do long relationships. Since I’d known him, the longest he ever dated
was all of three months and the guy didn’t live in New York, he visited on
business trips. Come to think of it I never met him. Dante had never been
monogamous, he saw at least three other people at the time, all female. But in
truth I believe he told Christy what he did because it’s not what he wanted
from her. The truth was, I guess when it came to commitments and relationships,
he and I weren’t so different. We knew what we wanted we just couldn’t find it,
and were not about to settle. Although once I thought I did.

Dante and I were the last to
leave the studio. We headed back to our condo to drop our stuff off, take quick
showers and changed. Of all places he took me to a movie, I think we both slept
through most of it; so I have no idea if it was good or bad. We grabbed a
couple of burgers afterward but I wasn’t ready to go home. I was determined not
to take my phone out of my purse to see if Maze had tried to text me. He never
called. I’d already checked before we left the studio, he hadn’t.

“Let’s try that new club over
on the West side,” Dante suggested.

“All right.” The funny thing
about dancers even after dancing all day, we still loved to dance all night. We
took a cab and there was a line to get into the place. Folks stood behind red
velvet rails. But it looked like the door guard was being selective, because
two of them walked the line and pulled people out sending them inside. One of
them got to Dante and me, who had his arm around my neck. The guard unhooked
the rail by us and said, “You two front of the line.”

We smiled and walked to the
entrance, after paying an outrageous fee we were in. I was glad I was with
Dante cause I’d never spend that much money on a club. But it did have a nice
vibe and the music was danceable,
Get Up
(Rattle)
by Bingo Players rent the air. We made our way over to the bar but
only grabbed a couple of beers. Oh we drank harder stuff than that, but not
when we’re performing the way we were and taking classes to keep in shape. The
last thing either of us needed was a hangover the next day when we had master
dance classes.

Made for an accident on point
or when Dante had to do a complicated lift, I didn’t want either of us breaking
our necks. But a couple of beers would be fine. We clinked our bottles together
and Dante grinned as he glanced around the club.

“Ten o’ clock,” I said,
tilting my head slightly toward the girls I noticed checking him out.      

He took a sip and nodded his
head in time to the music as he turned around to check out the babes ogling
him.

“Not bad,” he replied, and
turned back to me. “Maybe later. Let’s dance.”

He placed his beer on the
counter and took my beer out of my hand and placed it next to his. Then taking
my hand he led me to the dance floor. We joined the jumping bodies and head
banged to the music, having a blast. After a couple of dances I noticed the two
girls who’d been eyeballing him from the bar had made their way near us dancing
together, with their arms wrapped around each other.

I moved closer to him and
yelled into his ear so he could hear over the music, “You’re being stalked.”

He turned and saw the girls,
moving closer to them, they must have said something to him, I couldn’t hear
over the music because he leaned in to them. Then he raised his arms and placed
them over both their shoulders. He’s such a pig I thought grinning. I didn’t
mind. I closed my eyes, immersed myself in the beat and kept right on dancing.
Suddenly, some instinct had me opening my eyes and I stared into the center of
a storm.

Chapter Thirteen

Maze