Brooklyn's Baddest: A Bad Boy Fighter Romance (9 page)

When Patrick reached him, he turned slightly, and Patrick missed, and Jake struck him in the middle of his back as Patrick flew past the spot where Jake had been standing just a moment before. Patrick didn’t touch him.

Jake felt strength in him where adrenaline had been, and it was empowering to him. Patrick turned and Jake saw from the way that he launched himself that he was going to try to kick Jake. It was a trajectory that Jake was able to predict, and he bent slightly and turned, and just as Patrick’s foot missed him, he was able to grab Patrick’s ankle and land a solid blow to Patrick’s leg and then a kick to his groin before pushing him away.

Patrick left the ground and his body arced backward through the air, landing on the street. With a furious shout, he slowly pushed himself up off of the ground and turning, he screamed at Jake. He began to come at Jake again, but Jake side stepped once more. He had never realized just how much more power he could have if he used the attacker’s own momentum against them, turning their blows back upon them. Every part of his kata had come into use, and he knew instinctively which parts to use as he defended himself, almost as if it was second nature to him.

Twisting Patrick’s arm behind him and shoving him away, Jake sent the other man back to the ground again, and he realized that Patrick might have started out beating the hell out of him, but from the moment he began using his kata and focusing, Patrick had not touched him; not once. Exactly the way that he had never touched Koichi during his sparring match with him.

Just as Patrick rolled over and was about to try to get back up, a police squad car flew around the corner, lights blinding both men, and it screeched to a halt before them. It seemed to Jake that he had hardly taken a breath before the two police were out of the car with their guns drawn, demanding that both men stand down.

Jake stepped backward and raised his hands, and Muldoon lowered his gun and walked over to him while his partner slapped a pair of handcuffs on Patrick. “Damn it! Jake! What in the hell do you think you’re doing! You just got out!” Muldoon yelled at him as he walked over to him, sliding his gun back into the holster.

“Officer Muldoon, I wasn’t street fighting. This was self-defense. I just got home and he was here waiting for me! He attacked me in my own yard! That’s self-defense!” Jake said, turning and pointing at his car and his home.

Muldoon shook his head as disappointment and disgust crossed his face. “No, Jake. It’s self-defense if you keep it in your yard. You’re out in the street. This is public property. This isn’t self-defense; this is a street fight, and your neighbors called the police and complained, and now I have to take you in.”

Disbelief washed over Jake and he gasped as Muldoon took him by the arm and began to walk him to the squad car. Before he opened the door, he turned to look at Jake. “Do I need to cuff you before sitting you next to him, or are you going to leave each other alone on the way to the station?” he asked with narrowed eyes.

Jake shook his head and looked away from Muldoon. He couldn’t believe it. Even when he was trying to stay out of trouble, he couldn’t stay out of trouble. “I’m not going to touch him,” he said quietly. Muldoon said nothing else, only putting Jake in the back seat and closing the door behind him.

The car was silent on the way to the police station, and nothing more was said until Muldoon had Jake alone and was booking him. 

“Jake… I’m not going to keep doing this with you. You have got to make some changes! Damn it! You’re a good man, somewhere deep down in you; I know it, but you keep screwing up and getting caught, and you are shooting yourself in the foot every single time! You have got to stop and take a new direction with your life!” Muldoon glowered at him.

“I am!” Jake told him wide eyed, looking straight at Muldoon. “I have started training at the Hayashi dojo, and I’ve been there every single day for the entire last week, in fact, that’s just where I came back from when Patrick jumped me in my yard! He came to get revenge on me for his brother. He said he was going to kill me. I had to defend myself!”

Muldoon looked at him and sighed with a shake of his head. “You have to defend yourself in your yard, not in the street.” He looked away and let out a long slow breath. “You really started at Hayashi?”

Jake nodded silently, meeting Muldoon’s look eye to eye. Muldoon regarded him for a moment and then looked away and sat back in his chair. “Keep going there, and keep training, and keep your ass out of trouble. Do you hear me?” he said with a definitive tone.

“Yes, Sir.” Jake agreed quietly, and he meant it. He didn’t want trouble anymore. He wanted championships.

“You want me to call anyone?” Muldoon asked, looking back over at him with an air of resignation.

Jake thought of only two people who could be called: Evan, who always bailed him out and who was waiting to see the changes and success in his life, and Lisa. Somehow he couldn’t bear to think of Lisa knowing he had been arrested and sent to jail; it seemed like a failure, and he didn’t want her to see it or know about it.

“No, just put me in for the night. I’ll figure it out tomorrow,” he said quietly. Muldoon shook his head and stood up.

“I don’t get you, Jake. You get a chance like Hayashi and you wind up doing something stupid like this. I’ve heard about Master Hayashi. His place has a sterling reputation; you better hope they don’t find out about this. You won’t be there any longer if they do.” He cupped his hand around Jake’s shoulder. “Come on kid, let’s get you back there.”

Sore, stiff, exhausted, and miserable, Jake laid down on the cot bunk in his cell, closing his eyes and telling himself it was going to work out. The only two things he wanted to think about were winning championships, and seeing Lisa in his dreams.

Chapter5

Lisa looked up at the clock for the twentieth time in ten minutes and pushed herself up from her desk, walking to the door and going out into the courtyard toward the water garden. She found Koichi there, meditating on his mat on the wooden platform in the water.

“Excuse me please, Koichi,” she said softly. He opened his eyes and turned his head to look at her.

“Yes child?” he asked with a gentle smile. He had called her that nearly all of her life.

“Have you seen Jake… today?” she asked hesitantly. She was torn between worrying and needing to know, and not wanting to draw attention to it, but the worry had won out, and she had to ask.

He closed his eyes slowly and shook his head, looking at her again. “No, child. He has not been here today.”

With a sigh of concern, she nodded to him and thanked him before turning to leave. Grabbing her keys, she headed to her car while she tried again to call him on his cell phone. Just as it had been all morning, there was no answer.

She made it to his house in no time, and frowned as she stepped from her car, seeing his car in the driveway.
He must have overslept
, she told herself. He had been exhausted when he had left her office the night before. She told herself that that was all that it was. He had promised her that he would be in that morning, and she believed him. He was only sleeping in from being so tired.
That had to be what it was,
she told herself.

Lisa knocked on the door again and again, calling out to him, but there was no answer. Sighing in frustration, she turned and headed down the steps from the porch, looking around. She wondered if he was at his garage, but then she couldn’t understand why he would be there, when he had promised to be at the dojo that morning.

“You looking for the man that lives there, young lady?” came an ancient and crackling voice from behind Lisa. She turned suddenly and saw an old woman sitting in a rocking chair on the front porch of the house right next to Jake’s.

She didn’t know how she had missed seeing the old woman, but there the lady was, rocking slowly and methodically back and forth, her eyes staring at Lisa through thick old dirty glasses perched on the end of her nose.

“Yes… yes, ma’am,” Lisa answered her, walking toward her a few more feet. “Do you know where he is?” she asked hopefully.

The old woman picked up a fly swatter and batted it around her at flies that didn’t seem to be there. Finally she laid it back across her lap and returned her wide eyed gaze to Lisa. “Well I think he’s probably still in the jail. I had to call the police last night because he was out in the street right there fighting with another man, and I just don’t stand for any kind of violence around here.  I like it peaceful, especially at night.

Boy they sure caused a ruckus last night, and I wasn’t about to listen to it, so I called the police and they got here fast and put both of those boys in jail. Then it was quiet around here again. He’s probably still in jail. He never did come back after they arrested him and put him in the police car.” She grabbed for her fly swatter once more and Lisa, staring at her open-mouthed, stammered a few words of thanks before bolting to her car and leaving for the police station.

She was furious by the time she parked her car and walked through the doors of the Brooklyn police department. It wasn’t long before an officer escorted him to her and she glared hotly at him. “Let’s go. Now.”

Turning on her heel, she walked toward the door and flung it open. It came back fast at Jake and he had to move quickly to stop it from hitting him. He let out a miserable groan and climbed into her car with her. Out of anyone who could have come and bailed him out, she was the last person he wanted to see.

“Thank you,” he said, staring out of the window beside him.

She gritted her teeth and tried to stop herself from letting anger take over. Turning to look at him briefly as she backed out of her parking space and drove away, she did her best to keep her cool. “What in the hell am I picking you up at the police station for?”

“How did you know I was there?” he asked, not answering her.

“Your next door neighbor told me you had been arrested. She said she had to call the cops because you were street fighting again! Jake! You promised me!” she insisted furiously, gripping the steering wheel.

He turned to look at her fully then as she drove. “You don’t understand!” he said defensively. “I went home last night and there was a guy waiting for me in my own yard! He jumped me! I had to defend myself. It just… wound up leaving my yard and ending in the street, and I guess that taking it off private property means we both got arrested. It was self-defense! I didn’t go looking for a fight! He was there to kill me!”

Lisa’s mouth fell open in shock for the second time that morning. She glanced over at Jake in horror. “What are you talking about? What do you mean he was there to kill you? What’s going on?” She felt panic rising up in her and making her muscles ache.

Jake let out a sigh and raked his hand through his sandy golden hair as he looked straight ahead. “The last street fight I was in went… bad. I was fighting this idiot who pulled a knife and the agreement was no weapons. He knew it. Everyone knew it. His older brother slipped him a knife during the fight, and when he cut me I lost my temper and took it out on him pretty bad.

The other guy wound up in the hospital. Well, his brother… Patrick, promised to get revenge on me for it. He said he was going to kill me. I guess last night he decided to come and do it. I haven’t been anywhere except the dojo and the house, and I guess he must have gotten tired of looking for me everywhere else. He waited for me to get home and he jumped me in the yard. I defended myself, and it wound up in the street and we were both arrested. That’s it. That’s the whole thing.”

Lisa was so astounded that she couldn’t speak for a long while. She drove in silence and stared at the road ahead of her. After what seemed an eternity to Jake, he turned and looked at her. “I’m sorry. I guess I should have figured out something else. He caught me off guard. There wasn’t really another option.”

“I realize that,” she replied in a quiet, thoughtful tone. She didn’t say anything else, and neither did Jake. They arrived at the dojo and she went to her office to get him another gi. He changed into it and went to the water garden, and Koichi put him through a workout so rigorous that he was stiff and sore again from head to toe when Lisa brought him a towel that evening.

She didn’t say anything as she handed it to him, and she didn’t look at him. He took it from her hand and watched her.

“I didn’t know if you would do this for me today,” he said, grateful that she had.

“I do it for you every day,” she replied in a low tone as she turned and walked toward her office. He followed her and sighed in silent relief as she turned and handed him the cup of tea. As he took it from her, he slid his fingers over hers slowly and deliberately, and she pulled her hand away in exasperation. “Stop that! You can’t… you can’t be like that with me.”

Frustration was thick in her tone. She looked away from him and walked over behind her desk, picking up her purse and her keys. “I want you to come stay at my house tonight. I don’t want to take the risk that Patrick might be waiting for you again. You’ll be safe at my place. Finish your tea and let’s go.” She refused to look at him, but she saw his surprise from the corner of her eye.

She also saw a slow grin form on his face as he finished his tea and set down the empty cup. “Finally…” he drawled in a seductive tone.

Lisa’s eyes shot up immediately to meet his gaze. “That is not what this is. Not at all. Now get that out of your mind and get your things. We’re going. This is just to give you a safe place to stay the night. You are an investment for me and for this dojo, and I’m just not taking any risks in you being injured. We can’t have that.”

He rolled his eyes a little and chuckled as he followed her out to her car. “Oh, and I’m not getting injured every day letting Koichi run me through the ringer in his little pond back there.”

She narrowed her eyes dangerously at him. “You’re being trained, not injured.”

He reached up and rubbed his sore shoulders as he climbed into her car. “Could have fooled me. I feel injured.”

“Keep up with your flirting and your trouble making and you’ll be injured; I’ll do it myself,” she snapped at him as she drove away.

He chuckled again and gazed at her face. “Promise?” he asked with a grin.

She groaned in frustration and refused to look at him the whole way to her home. When she pulled into her long driveway and up to the house, the sun was just setting, and everything was bathed in a golden glowing light.

Her home was a single story ranch, built in a Japanese style. The roof was wide and overhanging, and the grounds were manicured perfectly into a continuing garden that seemed to disappear around the sides of the house.

Jake looked at it in awe as she pulled her car up to a wall that turned out to be a garage door. He’d never have guessed it. The garage was immaculate; he had only seen garages that clean and orderly in auto mechanic magazines. He had never believed that anyone kept their garage so clean. As they walked into the house, he looked around and it felt as though her home was a continuum of the dojo they had just left, though the design of it was slightly more modern. It was simple and elegant, streamlined and symmetrical.

It felt strange to Lisa to have anyone in her home with her, particularly a man, but she wasn’t about to risk him being attacked again at his own home. She had already taken a chance on him and risked far more than she had with any other fighter that she had brought to the dojo. She wanted him safe, and there was no safer place for him to be than at her home.

She led him to the guest room and slid the door open for him, walking into it with him. Like the rest of the home, it was simply designed, though perfectly appointed, with a double sized bed, and beautiful wooden furniture around the room; a wardrobe, a chest, a table, and a silk and wood screen.

“You can sleep here.”

He gazed around the room, taking it in. It was as peaceful as the gardens at the dojo. He turned to look at her then. “Will you be sleeping in here with me?” he asked with a grin.

She sighed and looked away from him. He might be sore and tired, but it seemed like nothing was going to distract him from coming after her. “The bathroom is down the hall.” She  turned toward the door to leave him.

Jake lifted his chin as she stood in the doorway and looked back at him. “Thank you. I do appreciate it.” He gave her a genuine smile and she knew that he meant it.

“If you need anything, please make yourself at home. The kitchen is open, and the back gardens if you want to walk around and see them.” She nodded at him and then walked down the hall, drawing in a long slow breath, and telling herself that it would be fine to have him there.

She went to her home office and sat at her desk, trying to focus on the work in front of her. She read the same page several times before she realized that she was only looking at it, and not really taking any of it in. The knowledge that he was right down the hall from her seemed to ensconce her thoughts and keep her distracted from thinking about anything else. Just as she had relaxed enough to read through the first page, she realized that she hadn’t given Jake any towels or extra linens.

Letting out an exasperated sigh, she got up from her desk and went to the linen closet. She was just about to take the stack of towels and cloths in her hand to Jake in his room, when he stepped out of the bathroom in front of her.

He was wearing nothing but a towel wrapped around his waist. Steam billowed in clouds around him as he stepped from the room, and droplets of water clung to the ends of the wet strands of his hair, tousled around his head, and ran in slow and wending rivulets down his body.

Lisa gasped and blinked in surprise, turning her head away from him and looking at the towels in her hand instead of at him. He smiled wide and walked toward her. “I… I forgot to bring you… uh…” she began, trying to focus on anything other than him as he drew near to her, and the wild pounding of her heart as she grew breathless.

“I found them,” he said, standing inches from her. He slid a hand over hers where she held the towels from underneath. The feel of his fingers touching hers, and the nearness of him, not more than a few inches from her, sent everything inside of her into a whirling, tumbling chaos.

She couldn’t speak, and she kept her gaze on the towels, trying to concentrate with everything in her on breathing, but even that was becoming more difficult. He reached his hand up to her cheek and touched it lightly.

“I know you can feel this electricity between us, Lisa…” he spoke in a husky voice, leaning so close to her that she could feel his breath on her cheek. “Why do you fight it? Why not just…” he trailed his finger slowly down her cheek and her neck, making her heart race. “…give in?” he asked as his mouth drew near to her.

She wanted to respond. She wanted to be able to think clearly and to tell him no, she wanted to remember all the reasons why it was a terrible idea for him to be so close to her, to touch her, and to let herself want him.

The soft curve of his lips brushed her cheek and her eyes opened wide. She turned her head to look at him and tell him he couldn’t do what he was doing, but as she did, he closed his mouth over hers and his hand slid around the side of her neck to the back of it, holding it as his thumb moved beneath her jaw, lifting her face to his.