Unobtainable (42 page)

I looked at him puzzled, what did that mean? “Me?”

“You and your hotshot degree, the phone did nothing but ring day and fucking night with job offers. You had them falling at your feet, I wanted to fucking hurt you so bad.”

“You did,” I said, narrowing my eyes.

“Harrumph,” was all he gave me as he glared, tugging me to the door. “You know you liked it.”

“Fuck you!” I blurted out, seething with pent up anger. I wanted to show him pain.

Bruno took hold of the hair at the back of my head and yanked my head back, glaring into my face. “Not enough time to get reacquainted right now or I’d say yes, perhaps another time though. I could come back.”

Fucking asshole.

The latch on the front door was uncommon and fairly complicated looking, it wasn’t really, it just looked that way. Bruno struggled to unlatch it unsuccessfully. Frustrated, he threw me against the door, holding the side of my head against the cold steel framework. Pain shot through my shoulder as he slammed his fist between my shoulder blades.

“Open the fucking thing,” he demanded. “Now!”

I maneuvered myself so that when the door opened he was standing in the threshold, the idea was to push him out and jump back in. I’d have to use all the force I could muster. I raised the double latches and twisted, the large barn style door started gliding along the track. Bruno peered out the door and in one quick move, I shoved him with all my weight. His hands grasped either side of the doorway, it was like trying to move a solid brick wall. Just as fast, he twisted around and tossed me out the door like a wet rag. I stumbled onto the floor and watched as he reached down, yanking me onto my feet. I was not a small man but in his command I was easily moved.

“Not a smart fucking move, moron!” he yelled into my face, his foul breath permeating my nostrils. “Not a smart move at all.”

The blow from his fist as he slammed it into my ribs felt like a two ton truck pummeled into me. The breath whooshed out of my lungs and I dropped to the ground like a wet limp noodle, my head bouncing off the floor. I was seeing stars and my head was whirling from the pain. I gasped for air, looking up in time to see a grey blur take hold of Bruno, slamming him against the wall.

~Dyson~

Bruno’s mumbled voice gradually disappeared up the steps. Why did Harley give a shit about what happened to him? My fingers were pins and needles from a lack of circulation, the blood had drained from them so long ago it left them numb. Movement drew my attention to the door again, but instead of seeing Harley standing there, it was EJ and Toby. Toby assessed the ties and took a small knife from his pants pocket.

“Where is he?” EJ whispered into my ear.

“Upstairs, Harley was taking him to the elevator to get him money,” I whispered back, grimacing as Toby cut each tie at my wrists.

“Fuck,” I groaned.

“Sorry man, I’ll get you free as fast as I can,” Toby whispered.

My arms dropped to my sides. I wiggled my fingers shaking the blood back into my extremities. Sitting up, I rubbed my wrists, dried with blood. The cuts were superficial, they would heal fast enough. My one ankle, the one Bruno had kicked, hurt like a fucker. I didn’t want to look at it, it was probably worse than I imagined.

“Are you high?” EJ asked, I guess my answer did sound a bit on the wacky side.

“Hurry, Toby, I need to get up there,” I told him as he cut the last tie and I got to my feet.

Because my legs were wobbly once I stood, I was forced to step from foot to foot until I became comfortable with my equilibrium. My one ankle ached with the weight but I didn’t care. I took off, racing up the stairs like a bat out of hell, like my ass was on fire. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned? Bullshit, hell hath no fury like a man finally freed and on a mission. I had to get to Harley before that asshole did something stupid. I believed he would kill Harley, given half a chance.

When I saw Harley lying on the floor and Bruno drawing back his foot, readying to kick him in the head, it unleashed vehemence inside me that I had no idea existed. There was so much pent-up rage that had been building inside me for months. I’m sure Bruno had no clue what hit him, when my hands clamped onto his shoulders and I slammed him face first into the brick wall. I spun him like a top so he could see exactly what was coming. I wanted him to see the hate in my eyes when the first blow struck.

“This is for Harley, you sick fuck!” I screamed, just as my clenched fist crushed his jaw. The stomach turning sound like splintering lumber told me I broke something.

As if it all happened in slow motion, Bruno’s face contorted before my eyes with each slam of my fist. Blood splattered, fragments of teeth pinged off the wood floor and Bruno cried out in agony as I tore him limb from limb. His timing was opportunely off, he didn’t stand a chance to react, my vengeance was a power all its own. Every blow was marked with Harley’s name on it, each slam was given to create nightmares as a reminder. I allowed Bruno’s body to crumble to the ground far too beaten to support his own weight. I turned to Harley, he shook his head.

“No more,” he whispered. “He’s had enough, stop now.”

EJ slapped his palm onto my shoulder, pulling me away. “Take it easy, man.

“Harley?” I asked, tugging from EJ’s hold, focusing on Harley’s angry face.

“What you did,” Harley held his side as he got to his feet. “Makes you no better than him.”

“What the fuck?” I asked, stepping over Bruno’s battered body toward Harley. “He was going to kill you, he wasn’t going to let either of us live. He got what was coming to him.”

“And now it’s over,” Harley turned to the elevator, when it came to life. “The police are here.”

“Harley, I don’t understand,” I grasped his arm. “After everything he did to you? Everything! Every fucking thing…? Did you honestly think I was going to let him walk away without some kind of payback? No fucking way,” I shook my head, thrusting his arm from my hold. “I got to experience a small portion of what Bruno was capable of. So if not for you, I paid that son-of-a-bitch back for me and anyone else who fell victim to that psycho!”

“And now that you got your revenge,” Harley ran his fingers through his hair. “I’m going to lose you.”

“Lose me, what are you talking about?”

“When they arrest you for assault,” Harley’s looked at me with sad eyes. “You don’t think Bruno’s going to let you get away with what you did, do you? You could go to jail for a very long time and that fucker wins…I lose…we lose.”

The elevator halted, the cage rolled up and a half dozen cops rushed off with guns drawn, handcuffs readied. A few officers were tending to the heap on the floor that was Bruno. There were so many questions soaring at me at once, I didn’t know who to answer first.

“I’m Harley Cooper, I placed the 911 call,” he said, lifting his chin towards Bruno. “That’s the intruder. You will want to talk to Mr. Michaels here, Mr. De Palma was holding him hostage in my gym downstairs.”

I believed Harley was attempting to save my ass by pointing out the obvious, it was sweet but unnecessary as the handcuffs locked into place, bring new life to the cuts on my already painful wrists.

The police whisked me into the kitchen when paramedics arrived to take care of Bruno’s injuries. Harley and I kept looking over to one another while they questioned both of us individually. I wondered if he was looking at me with concern or disgust. I still didn’t understand his anger with me. I thought I did the right thing.
I did do the right thing
. If I hadn’t stopped Bruno when I did, the paramedics would have been dealing with Harley, maybe even the coroner.

Lying would have done no one any favors so I told the detective everything. I left out no details from the last six months. The detective examined my wrists and ankles, he had an officer retrieve me a t-shirt and after I pulled it over my head, he had one of the paramedics bandage my wounds and then he arrested me. At least he was kind enough to forgo the cuffs seeing as I was in a lot of pain and painkillers were not an option.

~~~

I may not have died on Christmas Eve as Bruno had planned but I
was
arrested, spending a long lonely night in a holding cell at the county jail. I had been grilled for hours, the same questions being asked on a continual spool over and over again. I was allowed one call to my attorney but seeing as Mr. Spiro was out of town, no doubt enjoying Christmas with his family, my one was wasted.

Word came early the next morning, via a young officer who was less than enthused about working on Christmas morning, that Mr. De Palma would not be pressing charges. I asked why and got a don’t-give-a-shit shrug. I sighed with relief only to be informed that I still could not be released without a lawyer. Since it was Christmas day, no lawyers were available.

I wondered why no one had come. I thought of Harley and my family spending Christmas without me. Opening presents and enjoying a hot turkey dinner while I sat in a holding cell, all thanks to Bruno De Palma,
our
biggest nightmare.

I lay back on the lumpy cot and covered my eyes with my arm. I figured I could sleep the day away. Maybe I would wake up and it would have all been a dream, albeit a bad one.

“Breakfast is served, it ain’t much but it comes with a present,” the young officer said, passing me a tray through a cutout in the barred door, without so much as a smile.

Watery scrambled eggs, a single slice of overcooked bacon and a piece of butter soaked toast were accompanied by a cup of black dark roast coffee and a glass of room temperature milk. I dribbled some of the milk into the coffee and took a long sip, it wasn’t half bad, but it wasn’t the expensive blend I was used to. There was a two inch square box wrapped in green foil paper with a blue bow set at the left corner of the tray. I took a forkful of eggs and chewed them while I picked up and inspected the gift. I ate the slice of bacon, a few more mouthfuls of eggs and finished my coffee. Then I opened the gift.

Inside there was what looked like a business card folded in half and then half again. I took it out and unfolded it. I laughed out loud, shaking my head. It was a yellow
get out of jail free
card from a Monopoly game.

“Ready to go home, jailbird?” Harley quietly chuckled, as he stepped into my sight.

“How long have you been standing there?” I asked.

Harley’s face was expressionless. He was dressed in old faded jeans, a black hooded sweatshirt and a leather jacket that had seen better days. He looked absolutely magnificent.

“Long enough, want to go home now?”

“I honestly thought you were going to let me rot in here,” I said, walking over to the wall of bars and passing my tray to the officer.

“I should have,” he said. “Spiro called me, he’s out of town. I got a hold of my lawyer to spring you, there’s a ton of paperwork to fill out…let’s go home.”

“Wait,” I said, when the officer came over to open the barred door. “Would you give us a moment?”

“Whatever,” the officer said, with a shrug, moving away.

“Dyson, I was joking,” Harley said, wrapping his hands around the bars.

“Just now you may have been, but last night you weren’t,” I held the same bars on either side of my face. “I need to know that you’re not still upset about what I did.”

“But I am,” he told me. “You let your temper take over, you didn’t think about the consequences of your actions.”

“Consequences? Bruno was about to kick the shit out of you,” I said. “He could have killed you. I would have lost you last night. I’m not sorry for what I did. I won’t be. I’d do it all over again if given the choice of a redo…I don’t think you know just how much I love you. Did you expect me to sit back and watch Bruno beat you to death?”

“Of course not,” he answered, placing his hands over mine. “I’ve only witnessed that kind of rage from
him
before and it scared me…all of this mess is my fault, you were dragged into my fucking past and look what it’s done to you. I never want to see you like that again.”

“I’m sorry you had to see me that way,” I placed my hand on his cheek. “But I’m not sorry for thumping the shit out of Bruno, you will never see me like that again, I promise…Harley, you need to know that I
won’t
think twice about kicking the shit out of anyone who puts their hands on you. You belong to me, I love you. No one will ever harm you again…no one!”

~Harley~

Those beautiful chocolate brown eyes stared into mine. Dyson’s jaw was clenched tight and brave behind the iron bars of a holding cell. He stood true to his convictions, he was not about to be swayed. Dyson was my knight in shining armor, as girlie as that sounded, he came to my rescue and I stood here reprimanding him. I was an ass.

“I’m the one that should be sorry,” I stroked his scruffy cheek. “I love you. I was just so scared of losing you that I didn’t think straight. Bruno did deserve what you gave him, probably more. It was just that, there was so much blood and you were like a raging bull,” I tittered. “Now that I think about it, you were kind of sexy as hell.”

Dyson raised his brows and laughed. “I was, was I?”

“Definitely sexy as fuck,” I kissed the tip of his nose. “Can we go now?”

“As much as I enjoyed my continental breakfast served by a lovely young man in a uniform, I would like to go home please.”

“About that…we’re spending a few days with EJ and Ellen, while the apartment is cleaned up. I hope you’re ok with that.”

“I don’t care where we stay as long as we’re together and as long as they don’t mind. The apartment’s uninhabitable?”

“It’s a bit of a mess,” I smiled. “I’m having some changes made, the security system is being upgraded and…we’ll talk about the rest later. It’s not important right now.”

“I’m curious, but I want to get the hell out of here so I’ll happily wait to hear the rest.”

My man was adorable.

What should have only taken a few minutes while Dyson changed into the clean clothes that I had brought for him and then signed a few papers, turned into a two hour ordeal. By the time we finally left the county lockup it was after noon.

“I don’t know about you, but I’m fucking starving,” Dyson declared.

“There’s a granola bar in the glove compartment,” I told him.

“Do you know the shit they put in those things?” Dyson asked. “They are laden with something like ten different forms of sugar, not to mention doused with chemicals and food coloring.”

Mr. Health Conscious was happily riding my ass. If he wasn’t telling me what not to eat, he was lecturing me on the
shit
I put into my body and what it would do to it. It was in a way endearing, he was after all just looking out for me. But it was fucking irritating all the same.

“So don’t eat it,” I snarled. “Starve for all I care. It’s Christmas Day and there’s nothing open. Besides we’re only ten minutes away from EJ’s and we all know Ellen’s not going to let
you
go hungry.”

“Jealous much?”

“Uh huh,” I laughed. “By the way…Merry Christmas!”

Dyson turned with a wide eyed smile.

“Merry Christmas,” his smile faded. “I ruined Christmas morning. I had planned on making you waffles and sharing a shower and-”