Page 23 of His Obsession

“Lock your door,” he said and turned to leave.

“Itwaslocked, asshole!”

He flipped the latch on the door and walked out. I locked the door behind him and pounded my head against the wall, hoping it would wake me up from this nightmare. I left the glass and grabbed the bottle of wine instead. Falling onto the couch, I turned on "The Price is Right" reruns. I didn’t care what it was, I just needed it to drown out the silence.

Ididn’t leave like I had planned. I parked a couple of blocks down the road and sat in my car all night watching her on the cameras, even though I had a team posted outside doing the same job. She was drunk on a bottle of wine and passed out on the couch, but not before she yelled obscenities at the walls, telling them how infuriating I was.

It was Saturday; I had a rather large business deal going on tonight, and I needed to get my head right. I still had to meet Tonk at the gym for sparring. Boxing was a favorite way for me to pass my time, other than keeping my eye on Liz. My grandpa was a passionate boxing fan, and I would always watch matches with him. I remember him being a quiet old man, but he wouldn’t hesitate to give you a shiner if you disrespected him. He never laid a finger on me, though. He said only a man with no self-worth would abuse a child. Evidently, he forgot to root that into his son.

Tonk walked through the glass door, his duffel bag strap flung over his shoulder, walking with a swagger. Tonk was a big man, not massive, but well built. He grew up on a Texas farm, throwing hay bales and working from sunup to sundown. He could handle his own and worked hard to keep it that way.

“You look like you had a long night.” Tonk greeted me with a chuckle.

“You know I did,” I stated truthfully. There wasn’t a thing that happened that Tonk didn’t know about. A security detail was with me at the theater, tracking down that piece of shit. But he vanished in a rusted-out green sedan after talking to her. Jake had to hack the security feeds to watch him go to his car.

“That trail was a dead end. He turned off Chester, disappeared into the tunnel, and never came back out. We checked it out, but he had abandoned the car on the road. VIN came back stolen about three months ago.” He rattled off the details of his report while he threw down his bag and wrapped his hands.

“It figures he would cover his tracks. He’s been in the game for a while. You should have told me this after boxing, Tonk. Now I’m going to have to kick your ass to work off this tension,” I harassed. I needed him sharp for the meeting tonight, so I’ll make sure not to seriously kick his ass.

“Yeah, we’ll see about that.” He ducked into the ring and bounced around to loosen and warm his muscles. I had already been here warming up and stretching for a while before Tonk arrived. I worked myself up, and I was ready to go.

“Did you clear the area where we are meeting Alvarez?” I asked, watching him switch his feet back and forth, taking calculated breaths.

“Don’t worry about it, Alek, I have it covered,” he said, putting his mouth guard in. Taking the hint, I put my guard in and got into position.

Tonk and I had two different fighting styles. I liked to get in close, overwhelming him with quick, concise hits, continually moving with a strategy. Whereas Tonk wanted to stay back, dance around, and hit hard. He would try to wear me out, but I would bombard his movements, tearing him down.

We tapped our wrapped knuckles, put my hands up to block, and he danced. I came in close with a few warm-up jabs with my left and crossed over with my right. Tonk put his arms up and blocked my hit with a grunt. I executed my strategy and brought it in tighter, jabbing him with my right. Tonk curled, taking the impact as my knuckles collided with his meaty sides, causing them to pop. I bounced around, throwing a right cross when Tonk took the slip and connected with a left hook to my jaw. Had it not been for my mouthguard, my teeth would have bit into my cheek. It didn’t stop the pain from radiating to my molars.

I shook away the zing and bobbed around, readying myself for a one-two combo. I became distracted, and my moves landed me an over-cut to my cheekbone, knocking my head into a daze. Moving in tighter so he couldn’t see my weakness, I swarm him with jabs and crosses until the sweat dripped from my brow, and we were both panting. Before we could hang it up, he lay a few more hits across my jaw and sides, making me wish I wouldn’t have threatened to kick his ass.

My body ached, and not in a good way. I felt the swelling on my cheek, causing the skin to tighten. My ribs hurt to breathe, the inhale reminded me of the nasty bruise I’d have later.

I called it quits; I needed to be functioning tonight, and I couldn’t handle any more hits. We threw our hand wraps and towels in our bags and hit the showers. I let the water run over my sore muscles, causing them to contract and relax with a deep ache. A shower never felt so good.

“Have you talked to Jake today?” Tonk inquired.

“No.” My answer short and to the point. “I’ve been preoccupied.”

“Roger. Why don’t you let the team take care of her? Get some rest, you need to be on your A-game.” I knew he was right. I needed to let them do the job I paid them to do. Watch her and report to me, and make sure she did nothing stupid—which she did plenty of. She was just so damn addicting, intoxicating, and frustrating. I couldn’t get enough of her.

I scrubbed away the sweat and grime and went to my locker to dress. “I told Jake last night to be prepared for today. He’s also supposed to brief me on that scheduled PEN test,” I hollered over the sound of running water. The humid air in the locker room made you want to get back in the shower and never get out. My dry clothes were now damp with moisture, my shirt sticking to my torso.

“Well, I guess Becca isn’t taking Donovan’s death well,” said Tonk, “so Jake has been staying with her.”

Those two made me wish I had a sibling. “She’ll get over it.” I didn’t have time to mourn over someone that I wanted to do away with myself. “Donovan was a ticking time bomb, anyway. Someone just got to him before me.” Death ruled in my world, and there was no way around it—it was an inevitable end. I had no emotion towards it anymore unless it involved Liz.Imagine that.

“Have some compassion, man!” It shocked me to hear these words come from him. He slicked his hair back, then ran his fingers through messing it up.

“I don’t have time for that.” Compassion, kindness, mercy, all weaknesses in our line of work. He knew this. “I’ll meet up with you later, I need to go take a nap.” I walked out before he could say anything and drove to my home.

∞∞∞

I had managed to get in six hours of a dead-to-the-world nap. I woke up with a kink in my neck and my ribs aching worse than before. Sipping my fresh orange juice, I watchedmy girlon the cameras sitting and reading a book while Lucy danced around the house naked, music blaring. Lucy was a wild child, a free spirit, but again, a pain in my ass. I tossed my phone on the counter, turning on the TV. I’d rather watch the depressing news than for Lucy shake her naked ass one more time.

I had two hours until the Alvarez meeting, and I still hadn’t planned, which was unlike me. I needed to get with Tonk beforehand and go over security. Jake needed to be there for the technical aspect and money transfer.

I picked up my phone and hit Tonk’s face with my thumb, the phone rang in my ear.