The Ballerina & The Fighter (Book 1) (16 page)

I remember people trying to
talk to me but I couldn’t hear them, tears coursed down my face. My world
revolved around pain. Dante picked me up and carried me to my dressing room.
Christy came in and helped me get out of my costume, Davis the director came in
saying an ambulance was on its way. I don’t remember the EMTs arrival, just
being lifted onto the gurney and then the drive in the ambulance to the
hospital. Dante was in the ambulance with me holding my hand, he managed to
change too. He spoke to the EMT in the back, but I couldn’t focus on their
conversation. I know he tried to say encouraging things to me but we both knew
it’s over. My ankle was severally sprained, I wouldn’t be surprised if I had
torn tendons, that’s not something a ballet dancer easily over comes.

A ballet dancer’s life center
stage is a short one. Being on point is harsh on the body and the older you are
the worse it becomes. The tears continued to seep from my eyes, I turned my
head so he wouldn’t see, but of course he did and wiped them off. Soon we were
at the hospital and they took me out of the ambulance and wheeled me into the
emergency room. Funny, just as they moved me toward one of the rooms to tend to
me, just before the door shut, I could have sworn I saw Maze getting off an
elevator. For a split second our eyes met. I shut my eyes; it was probably my
mind playing tricks on me. I was in pain in more ways than one as I thought of
my life. And all I wanted was still Maze, the boy who’d left me behind not once
but twice; this second time was so much worse.

“Torn tendons,” the doctor
said, after his examination and looking at the scan of my ankle. He didn’t tell
me anything I hadn’t already figured out myself. I would have rather he said it
was broken. Breaks can heal, tendons not so much. He turned to the nurse and
told her what he’d need to place it in a cast. The doctor turned back to me. “I
want to keep this immobilized, I won’t recommend surgery yet. Let’s wait and
see once the cast is off.”

Dante squeezed my hand. He’d
stayed with me the entire time, leaving me only briefly while I’d been taken to
Imaging for them to take an x-ray of my ankle. He stopped trying to be
reassuring and upbeat. I knew he’d hoped it was just a sprain, which in itself
wasn’t a good thing either. Sprains are injuries that dancers also have a hard
time recovering from, the ankle becomes weaker making it easier to sprain it again.
I’d already had mine sprained once two years ago. This pain was worse.

After they were done, they
gave me crutches, but I was wheeled out of the examine room. As soon as the
doors opened I saw Maze sitting in the waiting area.

“What the fuck are you still
doing here?”

I turned to look at Dante.
“You knew he was here?” So I hadn’t been imagining him earlier. I had seen him
get off the elevator and he stayed. “Why didn’t you tell me?” But I knew why,
Dante was being protective. He knew exactly how much Maze disappearing had hurt
me. I turned to look at Maze who’d come over to us.

Maze ignored Dante, and
stared at my leg. “Are you okay?” he asked.

At least the cast was neon
pink and not white. Dante had already drawn a pair of ballet shoes on it; it
looked pretty good, too. “I’ll live. What…what are you doing here?”

“Right now waiting for you.
To make sure you’re all right.”

“Yeah.” I turned to look at
the nurse who had been pushing my wheel chair. “Since the door’s right there is
it okay if I get out of this now?”

“All right,” she agreed.
Dante moved to give me the crutches he held, but it was Maze who took my arm
and helped me out of the wheel chair. For a nano-second I felt the shock that
never ceased to happen when he touched me. Dante practically shoved the crutch
into my hand so Maze had to step out of my way. I looked up at him after I had
the crutches situated to my liking. The nurse wished us luck and walked away
wheeling the chair before her.

“Seriously, why are you
here?” I asked. My eyes roamed over him, trying to determine if perhaps I
hadn’t seen or heard from him in the last few weeks because he’d been in a coma
or something, and maybe had amnesia and couldn’t remember who he was or who I
was. Those were the stupid thoughts spiking through my brain.

Instead of answering me, his
gaze lifted to Dante. They silently stared at each other, it was clear Maze
wouldn’t volunteer any information unless Dante gave us some privacy. But I
could tell Dante refused to take the hint so I spoke up. “Dante, why don’t you
go outside and see if there are any cabs. If not, you might have to call one.”

He finally broke the staring
contest with Maze to look at me. “You sure?”

I understood his question, if
I really wanted to be alone even surrounded by people with Maze. There was
really only one answer to that, “Yes.”

He gave Maze a hard stare,
which Maze narrowed his eyes and returned, he relaxed once Dante left in search
of a cab.

“I know you think that guy is
bi but I’m telling you you’re lying to yourself if you don’t think he’s into
you. Have you ever seen him with a dude?”

“Yes.” Come to think of it
only once after I’d first met him, and they’d only been hugging, but I’d never
hung out with him and his friend. We’d started living together a couple of
weeks after I met Dante in class and I remember I told him once it was okay
with me to bring his friend around, it wouldn’t bother me. But he’d told me
they broke up. Since then, I’d only seen him with women. But Dante’s sexuality
or attraction to me wasn’t an issue for me right now. Maze and his absence and
what he was doing at the hospital were.

“So are you going to answer
that last question or is it going to be as hard for you as the others I texted
to you?”

At least he had the grace to
blush and look away before returning his attention to me.

He sighed. “My step-dad,
Joe’s here. He had a heart attack yesterday and had surgery. I was just
visiting him.”

“Oh my god, Maze, I’m so
sorry. Is he going to be okay?”

“He’s stable.”

I wanted to hug him but the
crutches were in the way, and Dante came back through the sliding doors toward
me.

“I’ve got the cab,” Dante
said, “let’s go.”

I turned to leave, then
turned my head. “Do you want to share the cab with us?” I had no idea where he
stayed while in New York. I didn’t even know if we were headed in the direction
he was going, but I didn’t want to walk away from him. In spite of his
disappearing on me, and what happened between us, I guess I wasn’t ready to let
him go. And I still needed answers.

“Yeah.”

I smiled. I hadn’t realized
I’d been holding my breath waiting for his answer until I exhaled. He walked
over to my left side and Dante swung around and we followed him out to the
waiting cab. Dante climbed in first with my crutches and pulled his cell phone
out, looked like he read a text. I knew he was angry with me for inviting Maze,
but I didn’t care. Maze helped me into the car, which took some maneuvering
because of the cast. Good thing I’m flexible.

Chapter Seventeen

Maze

“I want you to fight,” Joe
said.

His words were slurred but I
heard him. He’d been in and out of it all day and I’d been sitting with him.
The first time he woke up this morning and he saw me, he was pissed I wasn’t
training. But my heart was no longer in it. I didn’t give a fuck about the fight
any more. I didn’t give a fuck about anything, except Joe.

Joe grabbed my arm as I
leaned forward to get him his cup of water. For a seriously sick dude he still
had a good grip. I took that as a good sign or he was just that mad. “Don’t let
the bastards win, Maze…I…I don’t know how much longer I have.”

“Don’t say that.” I gritted
out.

“No, son. You are my son by
choice, and I don’t want you to throw the fight. It was wrong of me to even let
them raise it with you. To trade my soul for yours. Because I…I knew what they
would do afterward.”

I shook my head not wanting
to hear this. “I just have to lose the fight, Joe. It’s fine, no big deal. I’ll
have a shot again next year.”

“Listen to me. We both know
you won’t and if you throw the fight they’d own you, Maze. I can’t do that to
you. I love you too much. It’s why I’ve kept most of the things I did away from
you. My past is not a clean one. However, ever since your mom died, even
before, I have changed. I want you to know everything since then has been the
legitimate side of the Triad business. I refused to touch the other; the Tong I
started is clean. I made the Triad enough money that I was allowed to go my own
way. I paid for that with the money I put into the other four heads. I don’t
owe them, my son. We owe them nothing.”

I shook my head. He knew it
wasn’t just a matter of me throwing the fight; it was about them bringing me
into the fold. But there was still too much at stake, and they’d take it out on
Joe. Joe who lay in a hospital bed vulnerable.

“Do not throw this fight. Now
get your ass in that gym and train like I taught you, then go rip that ass a
new one and screw the Triad and their plans. It’s time for the Tong to rise.”

I smiled. The machines he was
hooked up to began to go haywire, and a nurse rushed in saving me from
responding.

“I’m sorry, Maze,” she said,
“but your step-father needs his rest.” She did something to one of the tubes
attached to the poll and I saw liquid rushing down into his veins, pushing more
meds into his system. Joe visibly relaxed in moments.

“I’ll be back later tonight,”
I said to him.

“Training,” he whispered,
then his eyes closed.

“He’ll probably sleep through
the night,” the nurse said. “It’ll be good for him, come back in the morning.”

“Okay, thanks, if he does wake
up, can you let him know?”

“Sure.”

As I walked down the hall of
the ICU and to the elevator I thought about all that Joe said. He was stable
but still needed to stay in ICU, if he continued to improve by morning, they’d
move him. I prayed that was the case. But Joe was wrong; I had to throw the
fight. The Tong Joe created wasn’t strong enough yet. It was hard to say no to
the Triad before he was hospitalized, but it was impossible now. I wanted Joe
out. They were trying to drag him back into the other side of their activities
and he’d have no choice. It would kill Joe to take that step back.

When the elevator doors
opened and I spotted a familiar face being wheeled into emergency care I
thought I was seeing things. Then I saw another familiar head of dark blond
hair. I was right. The one on the gurney was Ivy. What was she doing here? My
heart began to bang against my chest. Something was wrong. I walked over to the
front desk and gave them her name but they couldn’t give me any information. So
I waited a bit and I saw two emergency personnel guys in blue uniforms come out
with an empty gurney. I stopped them.

“Hey, excuse me. Can you tell
me if that was Ivy Deene you just took back there? I’m a close friend.”

They glanced at each other
then the taller of the two replied. “Yeah, she hurt her ankle. She’s going to
be here awhile.”

“Thanks.”

I went over to the waiting
area and stayed near the door she’d gone through so I would see when she left,
or if Dante came out. I wasn’t budging until I found out she was going to be
okay. Damn a sprained ankle for a dancer could not be a good thing. My phone
vibrated signaling a text. I pulled it out and looked at it. It was from Uncle
Tsang, he was at the gym. I didn’t give a shit. I wasn’t budging until I saw
Ivy. I put the phone back in my pocket.

It wasn’t long after that the
door pushed open and Dante walked through, he paused when he spotted me but
came right over to me. All sorts of pissed off written all over his face.

“What the fuck are you doing
here?”

So it was going to be like
that was it? Fine. I didn’t bother to stand up, but responded in kind. “What
the fuck do you think?”

“She doesn’t need you or your
shit right now.”

I swallowed my urge to put
this dude down so I could get my answers. “Look, I just want to know what
happened? Is she okay?”