The Ballerina & The Fighter (Book 1) (9 page)

Such a simple question. Yet
the answer was so complex. I knew from the time I sat in the theater it
wouldn’t have been enough to just sit there and watch her dance. I had to see
her, feel her near me, touch her again. Now it was so much worse than I’d
imagined. I never wanted to let her go again. All these years, yeah I’d been
living my life, going through the motions, but an important part of me wasn’t
there. She’d held on to it. I released one hand to rake it through my hair, but
I left the other one to enclose hers. I couldn’t seem to stop touching her. She
was as soft as I’d remembered; nothing about her had been my imagination. If
anything, my memory and my pictures failed to do her justice, or perhaps she
just became more beautiful as she aged. But I had to be careful, more so than
ever before. I would not allow the harshness of my life to touch my beautiful
firebird. I always thought of her that way. In fact, I even owned a poster I
had framed of her doing that very leap in a performance. It had been the same
one she’d done on the beach.

“I’ve been good,” I finally
responded. Simple was always best.

“Did you ever reach the level
in your sport you wanted to?” Ivy asked.

“Yeah, I did.” I had never
lost a fight. And what I did wouldn’t always be considered a sport. At least
not approved by any legitimate government or organization. Yeah there were
rules. You fought until your opponent was knocked out, tapped out, or on
occasion maimed, then you stepped back. I’d fought bare fisted and bare feet,
and with an assortment of weapons. Accidents happened, but so far, I’d never
been in a fight where anyone died. At least not while in the arena. There’d
been rumors of deaths afterward. But each fighter who walked into the ring
understood and accepted the risk. Some people jumped out of planes or hung off
the sides of mountains for kicks, pitting their lives against their skills. I
did the same. I was the best at what I did, but even the best had to fall
sometime. Which was why I was willing to do this last fight, win or lose it
would be my last. I was determined about that, the sport was too tied up with
the Triads and other such organizations. And if I won it would be the largest
payday ever. But I was asked to do something that went against everything in
me, to throw the fight. Lose to save Joe, he was the only reason I considered
it, but I also understood if I agreed, the Triad would then own me but Joe
would be free.

“I’m glad. So we both got
what we wanted,” Ivy said, drawing me back into the moment.

I smiled. “You are a
beautiful ballerina, but then you always were.”

Ivy smiled. “You saw the
show?”

“Yes. I’ve never seen
anything like it. I always thought when you leaped you looked like you could
fly.”

“Thank you. I would like to
see you fight sometime.”

A chill wove its way down my
spine. I remembered the only time she’d ever seen me fight. I can still pull up
a mental image of the look of shock and fear on her face. I would do all I
could not to see that again. That fight was nothing compared to the way I
fought now. No, she could never see me fight.

The waiter appeared with our
food and I finally released her hand and sat back picking up the fork. She told
me about her life in New York and the auditions, her climb to the top. I was so
damn proud of her and I told her so. Then she began to ask more questions about
my life. I had to tell her something, so I told her about some of the good
things. There had been good. I told her about my step-dad Joe, how he trained
me and I won and moved up within the ranks, but I got noticed too. Noticed by
the people who Joe worked for to the point they required my presence and
involvement in Triad business.

“So are you in town for a
fight?” she asked, after the waiter had come and removed our dishes.

I hesitated. I didn’t want to
lie to her. The kind of fighting I did was not going to appear on any TV
specials, and not much on the news either. Not in the U.S. This was all under
the radar and invitational only. The winner of the purse in about a month
walked away with five million big ones. Enough for me to retire on, but it
wasn’t meant to be. Those bastards wanted me to throw any chance of that for a
quarter of the payday, but Joe would get his freedom. My servitude would begin.
I guess I had made up my mind. I sighed when I realized I’d been quiet a little
too long. I took Ivy’s hand and kissed it. Her taste went straight to my dick.
“Yes, I’m here for a fight.”

“Wow, where is it going to
be? I’d love to go and see it if I can. When is it?”

“The twenty-sixth of next
month.” I could not believe I gave her even that detail. Didn’t matter, she
wouldn’t be attending.

It was her turn to sigh. “I
have a performance that day. It’s a matinee show.”

“That’s too bad.” I wasn’t
going to tell her, the odds were good her show would be over by the time the
fight started.

“Maybe next time. So are you
in town until the fight?”

I might be in town longer
than that. “Yes and maybe a little longer, I’m moving back to the States, at
least for awhile.”

The look of joy that covered
her face had me smiling in reply. I was living in a fantasy land. No matter
where I resided I had to keep my distance, but that was for later. Tonight was
for us.

“That’s fantastic.”

The waiter came over and
asked us if we wanted dessert. I glanced at Ivy. I didn’t want anything, just
to be with her, but it was her call.

She shook her head. “Can we
get out of here and just walk a bit?”

“That works for me.” I paid
the bill and then holding her hand we left and walked down Broadway, joining
the throng of foot traffic.

“Thank you for dinner and for
inviting me.” She placed the hand I didn’t already hold on my arm.

“You’re welcome.”

“I love to walk as much as I
can,” she said.

I shrugged. “Then let’s.”

I can’t remember the last
time I just ambled aimlessly down a crowded sidewalk. We even stopped and
shared a hot cinnamon pretzel I bought off a street truck. We explored a couple
of tourist trap stores and talked, enjoying the night and each other’s company.
About an hour later I knew we were no longer alone in a sea of strangers. I’d
been getting weird vibes, and I trusted my instincts. Someone was following us,
probably following me. In the crowd, it was difficult for me to tell who it
was. Perhaps it was time to take Ivy home. God I didn’t want to, I wanted to
take her home with me. If I was being followed, and it was possible the Triad
wanted to keep an eye on me, so the less anyone knew about Ivy and how much she
meant to me the better. “It’s getting late,” I said.

She smiled. “Is it past your
bedtime?”

I laughed. God I don’t
remember the last time I’d laughed a full on belly laugh like that. Triumphs
and successes had been a part of my life, even some joy, but happiness,
laughter like this. Not for years. “Something like that,” I told her.

I stopped, stepped over to
the curb and flagged down a cab. It pulled up and I opened the door. Ivy got in
and I bent down, I hadn’t planned on kissing her yet I found myself taking her
face in my hands and covering her mouth with mine. Her touch punched me to my soul.
Her lips parted and I needed no further invitation.
Shit!
Her taste was both familiar, yet different. The sound of the
cab driver saying he started the meter had me pulling back. “I’ll call you
tomorrow.”

“Promise,” she whispered.

“Breakfast.”

She nodded. “See you then.”

I stepped back from the cab
and shut the door. I wanted to stand there and watch the taxi drive out of
sight but didn’t dare. I didn’t want my shadow to think the girl meant anything
more to me than ass. I turned and walked down another block, at first I was
going to just go home, but then thought better of it. The less I made about
being out with this girl the less likely she’d come under the radar of the ones
following me. I suspected it was a member of the Triad. Joe warned me this might
happen, and I’d have to be careful. I took a cab over to a club one of the
other fighters had been talking about, paid my fee and went in. After I got a
beer at the bar, I took a long drink of it. I felt eyes on me, but these
weren’t the guy who’d been following me. I looked toward the end of the bar and
it was a redhead and her blonde friend checking me out. I had a part to play
and play it I would. I walked over to them and asked the redhead to dance. She
placed her beer on the counter and I rested mine next to hers and followed her
out onto the dance floor.

We danced a few dances, then
I wanted to just stop and go home and process everything I’d learned about Ivy
tonight. All I wanted to do was think about her. But I couldn’t. Not yet. So I
returned to the bar with the redhead and ordered us both another round of
beers. At this point I sat on a stool and she was basically riding my leg.
There would have been a time I would have been all up in that. Not so much
tonight. I began to feel eyes on me again, a familiar sensation crawled down my
spine. I pulled Layla or Lyla, I couldn’t remember which the fuck it was,
toward me and nuzzled her neck, while I gazed over the crowd to see who was
paying more attention than they should. Bingo! I spotted him. Asian dude toward
the back, his stance told me he was a fighter, he seemed familiar but I
couldn’t really see him clearly in the shadows.

“Hold on, babe,” I said to
the chick. “I have to take a leak.”

“Hurry back. I’ll save your
seat.” She hopped onto the stool when I got off.

I made my way where I’d seen
the restroom signs, the guy I’d seen watching me wasn’t in that part of the
club nor could he see me unless he moved. If it was the guy I spotted, he’d be
keeping an eye on my movements and move with me. As soon as I entered the
archway where the restrooms were, I used my peripheral to watch out for the
dude. I didn’t dare move my head for him to know I spotted him. Sure enough
there he was. I walked down the hallway past the line for the lady’s bathroom,
the men’s was a little farther down. The arrow in the hall pointed to the door
on the right, and there was no line there. I turned and pushed the door open
and as I did, I kept my head down but glanced in the direction of the main
area, sure enough Asian dude leaned against the edge of the wall like he was
waiting for a chick to finish. Yeah right. Fuck. I was being tailed and damned
I’d met the guy before. Triad.

Only one thing left to do.
After I used the rest room, I went back out to the bar walked right past the
Asian dude who’d moved farther into the shadows of the club trying to make sure
I didn’t see his face, but I already had and knew where he was. I went over to
Lyla/Layla and whispered in her ear. I asked her if she’d like to share a cab
back to her place. She asked me to give her a minute to let her friend know we
were leaving, then she walked out of there with me.

We went down to the corner
and caught a cab. As it passed the club I saw the dude step out of the club as
the cab drove past. I had the cab driver drop the chick off, who was not happy
when I told her goodnight. I knew she was pissed because she slammed the taxi
door so hard I thought she’d break the frame. Then I went home.

I stripped down to nothing
while watching the poster I’d hung over my headboard. Getting a bit of a hard
on thinking about tonight. I crawled into bed and checked the time on my phone.
I rubbed my chest with the edge of the phone, for some reason it hurt a little
tonight. Two a.m. Too late to call Ivy. I didn’t really care, I texted her
anyway. She’d read it when she got up.

Me:
‘I’ll be there at 8. I just need the address.’

A reply came back almost
immediately and I smiled after reading it, it was her address.

Me:
‘Did I wake you?’

Ivy:
‘Yes, but wasn’t really sleeping.’

Me:
‘Why?’

Ivy:
‘Excited.’

Me:
‘Me too. See you in the morning.’

Ivy:
‘Nite. XXX’

I put my phone on my
nightstand and closed my eyes. My last thought, she was closer than she’d ever
been, and yet there still might as well have been an ocean between us.

Chapter Ten

Ivy