Fight(6)

“Okay.”

Aldo stepped forward. He was at least six inches shorter than me. He had no muscle, no tone, nothing. But his power was greater than mine.

He reached up and touched my shoulders. His hands slid down to my arms and he put my arms at my sides.

“I’m not going to f*cking shoot you, Tripp. You’re not going to die right now.”

The feeling was hard to explain. I thought about smiling. I was going to survive. Then again, Aldo didn’t do favors. Aldo didn’t give a f*ck about loyalty. Everything and everyone had a price. There was always a payment.

In other words, the bullet to the head might have been better.

“What are you talking about?” I asked. “I lost the fight. I know the rules. No matter what.”

“I’ll get that money back,” Aldo said. “I thought about killing you, Tripp. I considered all my options. I tended to my son and found out you survived. Toughest guy I’ve ever met, Tripp. That’s you.”

“Yeah. Thanks.”

“I have another job for you.”

There it was… the price of my survival. The cost to not have a bullet tear through my skull and splatter my brains all over the back deck to his beach house.

I didn’t speak. I didn’t want to show thanks, need, regret, anything to Aldo. Because he collected emotions like a kid would collect toy cars. And then he’d pair them up, crush them, and enjoy it.

So I had to stand like a chunk of stone.

“You hear, Tripp?” Aldo asked.

“Yes.”

“It’s a protection job.”

“Protection? I’m a fighter, Aldo. I fight.”

“Oh, I’m sure you’ll have to fight,” Aldo said. He stepped even closer to me. I could smell his expensive cologne pouring from his sweaty pores. “This is your only chance. You f*ck this up and you will die.”

“Okay,” I said.

“You’re protecting a woman. She’s recently a widow and there’s belief she’s the next to be killed. Your job is to make sure that doesn’t happen. She cannot die. Do you understand me?”

“Yes,” I said.

“You will protect her with your life. Because your life is on the line, Tripp. I know you’ve never done a protection job for me before, but it’s always good to learn something new. How many times can you get smacked in the head before your brain turns to mush, right?”

“I haven’t thought that far out in life.”

“Maybe you should,” Aldo said, his lip curling. “Now if you don’t mind I have to visit my son in the hospital. You’ll be taken to your apartment. You’ll be given an address. That’s where you’ll go.”

Aldo backed away. He turned and grabbed the railing, looking out to the ocean.

“Can I at least have her name?” I asked.

“Winter,” Aldo said.

Winter.

A woman named Winter.

And I have to protect her. I have to keep her alive.



~



The two thugs threw me into my apartment, literally. They cackled as they walked away. I was on the floor for a few seconds before I jumped up and dusted myself off. They left a piece of paper on the floor behind me.

I knew the general direction of the address.

It was a few miles south. There really wasn’t anything good about the area. It was a heavy crime area, some of it organized, some of it controlled by a motorcycle club through numbers and muscle. I couldn’t figure out what Aldo would have wanted down there though. He had more power than anyone. He had more muscle. Christ, if he needed a woman protected, he could have just given the orders to have her taken and hidden somewhere. He could put her up in a house, a cabin, f*ck, a different goddamn country.

But he chose me.

Maybe a part of me wanted to be excited. I mean, a protection call from Aldo. That was something like a promotion in my line of business. I could handle this stuff. Keeping people alive. Fighting those who got in my way. But there was always a darker side of it.

Murder.

There was always murder. Everywhere.

I stood there, staring at the address.

This wasn’t a f*cking promotion. This was a punishment. Aldo was sending me into this so I’d get killed. That’s what it was. That’s what my fate came down to. Any other guy who lost a fight would get a bullet to the head.

Me?

I was being pushed into a protection run that made no f*cking sense.

I grabbed my leather jacket, my keys, and left the apartment.

As I rode into a real shady part of the town, I looked for the address. To my complete shock, the address was a freaking coffeehouse. It was about a quarter mile from the real dark part of town. Right on the cusp of stepping from shit into true hell.

I parked my car and went into the coffeehouse. The smell was overwhelming. Everything in the place was mismatched and probably bought from yard sales and shit, but it actually worked. The vibe was a messy kind of chill place.

There were a handful of people sitting around. Some sipping coffee. Some reading books. A couple people just sitting there with earbuds in, listening to music, staring out the window. It made me wonder what world they lived in, you know? To throw on some tunes and disappear.

“Can I help you?”

I spun around and looked at the woman behind the counter. She was f*cking beautiful. Naturally beautiful. Dirty blonde hair cheaply pulled back with a few chunks left dangling to the sides of her face. She wore not a spot of makeup, leaving her looking like she just rolled out of bed. I was a sucker for a woman like that. There was nothing like the pure beauty of woman. One who could just throw on some clothes and go for the day.