Fight(27)

I chose looking at him over looking at the beach. Any sane woman would.

He grabbed jeans and went back into the bathroom.

Just jeans.

A few seconds later he came back out in his jeans. He grabbed a t-shirt and walked to the door.

“Food?” he asked.

“Beach.”

“What?”

“You said we could go for a walk.”

“Ah, darling,” he said. “I don’t know.”

“Tripp, please. I’m almost to the point that I’d rather get out there and get shot than hide out here any longer. This doesn’t make any sense to me.”

“You don’t get it,” Tripp said. “What’s out there.”

“Then tell me. Tell me what happened with Stoney. What I should be…”

A ball was suddenly in my throat. I had no idea why, but I was ready to burst into tears. I lowered my head and shook it.

A second later arms were around my body. Tripp’s clean, manly smell overtook my nose and it made me want to cry even more. I put my hands around his body and gripped his back. I dug into his muscles.

“Hey, it’s going to be okay,” he said. “I… I promise you, Winter. It’s going to be okay. Let me figure something out.”

I slowly looked up at him. “Am I really in danger?”

Tripp gritted his teeth. “At first, I wasn’t sure what the point was. But now? Yeah. You’re in trouble. But not when I’m with you, okay?” He wiped a tear off my cheek. “I’m here.”

“Can we go for a walk on the beach?”

“Yeah. Let’s go.”

I just wanted to feel normal. I just wanted to hold his hand, open my heart a little more.

But what I had hidden… no. I couldn’t even think about it.



~



It was mostly dark. We sat on a rock, the water crashing, spraying us with cool ocean water.

Tripp was talking and my heart was sinking by the second.

“Do you know the Skull X crew?”

“Yeah,” I said. “I mean, I’ve seen them. I’ve never dealt with them. I know them and the Red Aces have had some history. They like to fight. A lot. I wouldn’t be surprised if your boss was involved with them.”

I didn’t mean anything by it, but Tripp jumped and stormed away from me. He walked to the water and kicked at a wave as it slithered into the shore. We were barefoot, walking, and any thought of something soft, sweet, or romantic was long gone out the window.

Slowly, I approached Tripp. “Sorry.”

“Don’t be,” he said. “You might be right. Maybe. I don’t know what to believe anymore.”

“So Stoney set all this up thinking it would get your boss down here?”

“Yeah,” Tripp said. “He thought Aldo would come in and bring muscle. Even that doesn’t make sense to me. Why the hell would Aldo give a damn?”

I swallowed my answer and let Tripp figure it out.

“Maybe he is involved too,” Tripp said. “But sending me…” He then looked out to the water, his face angry. “I’m just a casualty in all this. I’m here to check on things, report back, and then die.”

I reached for Tripp’s hand. I squeezed it. “No. You’re not going to die.”

He ripped his hand away from me. “What do you know?” He looked at me. “In my business, if you lose, you die. And… I lost. I lost my last fight, darling. For what it’s all worth, I should be dead right now. Trust me, I’ve seen it.”

Tripp started to walk and I went after him. “What do you mean you lost?”

He stopped. “I lost a fight. I was taking on some guy. I had the fight in the bag, too. But then someone took out a gun and shot Aldo’s son. Almost f*cking killed him. Put him in a coma. My eyes were on the shooter, trying to figure out what to do.” Tripp looked at me. “One second. That’s all it took. The other guy got a shot on me and rocked me. The thing with fighting, darling, is that muscle and size look nice, but a punch is a punch. The right punch to the right spot could knock anyone out. A lot of times guys get hit and go down and it’s when they smack their head on the ground, that they go out for good.”

I could see the pain and even embarrassment in Tripp’s eyes when he spoke.

“Hey, you’re still here. With me.”

“I’m on borrowed time,” he said. “When this is done… I’m done.”

“No. I don’t believe that. You’re keeping me safe. That’s what you were told to do.”

“And when my purpose is up, it’s over. Trust me. I know Aldo.”

“But if the loss wasn’t your fault…”

“Doesn’t matter,” he said. “There was money on it. Aldo is simple. Make him money, he keeps you alive. Lose him money and he has no use for you. Believe me, you don’t want to meet him, get to know him, or be anything close to him.”

I felt bad for Tripp. I had nothing to say because I had been living the same life. No matter what I did or where I stepped, it was wrong, bad, and deadly. Even after Rocky was killed, any chance of freedom was quickly taken.

My brain was processing so much at once. I had Tripp confessing something so powerful to me just at the same time he told me that Skull X took out Rocky and that Stoney had put a bomb in my car, wanting to get Tripp’s boss here.