Rebel Walking: Fighting The Odds Part 4

"Haha, Mrs. Garcia. Don't you know he's taken?"

"I'm glad to see you handled that so quickly. It's nice to see a girl with b.o.o.bs and brains once in a while."

"Oh no, not me. He has a girlfriend or something."

"I ain't seen anyone coming or going from that man's apartment the entire time he's lived there. He hasn't mentioned anyone when I poke him about it either."

"Oh. Well that's good, I guess. I should probably get back, we need to head out soon."

"Alright. Don't do anything I wouldn't have done back in the days."

"Mrs. G., I have a feeling that leaves my options wide open."

"Honey, you have no idea."

The fact that she thinks I have a girlfriend is my fault. I just can't talk about Lilly. The hurt is bad enough without trying to find the words to explain, to even touch the surface of what I've been through. I'm not even sure I'll ever tell her about Lilly. I consider her a piece of my heart and if I share that with anyone, then I'd be exposing more than I'm willing to.

She enters the apartment and stands against the wall, looking nervous. "Lou will be at the barn waiting for us."

"Let's go."

I plan to put my everything into this fight and end her h.e.l.l. I'll train and work nonstop until the fight and then I'll make sure she gets the f.u.c.k away from the d.i.c.k heads who think they can control her life. This is something I can do to help her out and who knows... I may just end up getting rid of some of this pent up anger in the process.

I feel sorry for the mother f.u.c.ker that has to face me in this fight. He won't have any idea what hit him after I f.u.c.k him up. It sucks for him that he's what will stand between me and that win.

I follow her into the elevator and notice the awkwardness is still looming. She is avoiding me and I'm ready to leave it at that. It's best this way. This continues until we're standing at her Jeep.

"I'll follow you there, if that's okay?"

"Yeah sure," she says as she rounds the driver's side door in an attempt to hurry out of the stank in the air between us.

I follow her until she pulls into the skinny driveway alongside a house. The driveway goes behind the house and I can see a huge barn in the back that must be where he plans to train me. I notice how his yard is perfect and everything is in place. I can tell this man is meticulous and a d.a.m.n perfectionist. It takes one to know one.

I see him waiting for us just as I pull the bike off to the side and out of the way of her Jeep.

"I'm glad to see that you've decided to fight. I'm looking forward to teaching you the skills you need to kick some guy's a.s.s in that fight."

"I look forward to that a.s.s kicking too."

"I'll be over here, while you guys do your thing. Let me know if you need anything." I watch Kimber walk toward the backdoor of his house. Lou begins to talk to me as we walk to the barn.

"Focus is the most important thing. If I can get you to agree to commit to this and focus on the goal, then we have the largest part of the battle won."

"I'm committed."

"Let's tape you up and let you have a stab at this old man just to see how focused you really are."

Kimber I watch Lou take Luke towards the barn. I decide it's best to stay out of their way until they get into the training a bit, besides that, I need to regroup from the events of the last twenty-four hours. The last thing I want to be is a distraction for him when he doesn't have much time to get it all down.

Lou's place is full of small areas to sit and just take in the day. My eyes find my favorite spot on his back deck and the swing that I've always sat on when I come to visit Lou. We've spent many hours on that swing, just shooting the s.h.i.+t and having no worries in the world. Times have changed and that hasn't happened in a long time, but those memories are some of my favorites.

Lou has a way of making my problems melt away with just a simple conversation. Of course my problems have never been this bad, but I can't help but wonder what he would say about the mess I've gotten myself into now.

I lay across the swing and my thoughts go back to last night and how much it still hurts that the baby is gone. It doesn't seem real and I find myself praying it was just a nightmare. I let the tears fall and just stare into the cloudy sky, hoping for some kind of relief from the pain in my heart. Knowing that the pain will live inside me forever, I close my eyes and fall asleep right there under the shelter of only two feet overhang from his roof and the endless sky above me.

The sound of an angry engine pulling into the drive pulls me from my deep sleep. I open my eyes just as he walks up to my Jeep, the whole time looking through the windows at all of my belongings that I packed to leave with.

I know the wrath of Greg is going to be terrible and I find myself hoping that Lou and Luke heard him pull up. He looks over just as I sit up and try to slide out of sight. My frozen state has him smiling, like he knows he just caught me and there's nothing I can do about it.

I know there's two ways that this can go. I'll be drug on my a.s.s to his truck or Luke will stop that from happening. My size doesn't stand a chance against him when he's this p.i.s.sed off, not to mention my overly emotional state of being right now isn't really prepared for this s.h.i.+t.

"I figured I'd have to beat the f.u.c.k outta that old man for him to tell me where you are. I'm glad to see you've just saved me from one h.e.l.l of a f.u.c.king mess."

"What's your problem? Why can't you just leave me alone?"

"You're mine. You have forgotten that in your new mission to f.u.c.k around on me."

"You're crazy. I haven't f.u.c.ked around on you at all."

"You seem to think this guy can be your knight in s.h.i.+ning armor, but he's more like a r.e.t.a.r.d in tin foil and I refuse to lose you to some pompous p.r.i.c.k who thinks he can come here and carry you off over his shoulder like a f.u.c.king caveman."

"Who I leave with is none of your f.u.c.king business." I say this loud, hoping my voice will carry to someone, anyone. Please let someone hear me.

"The f.u.c.k it isn't. Do I need to remind you what happens when you disrespect me?"

"Are you going to beat me again to prove that you're a man? Is that your plan?" I yell even louder this time.

He grabs my arm and begins to pull me toward the steps. I use what little body weight I have to pull away from him, but it's as if I'm not doing anything but annoying him. He gets p.i.s.sed and turns to yank my hair so that my face is right up against his. The spray from his words land on my face with every word.

"You will come with me or I will make everyone in your life pay for the bulls.h.i.+t you've pulled."

"Greg, I haven't done anything. Let. Go. Of. Me. NOW."

"Or what? You'll call your f.u.c.king dog on me?" He grips my hair tighter and begins to drag me towards his truck. Why in the h.e.l.l hasn't anyone heard this s.h.i.+t and come to look for me? I've never been able to depend on others in the past and this time shouldn't be any different.

The pain from him pulling my hair is making my eyes water and I decide it's time to fight back. The self-defense courses that I took as a teenager are getting ready to come in handy. I refuse to let this a.s.shole take me down again without a fight. Just as I decide what I'm going to do to fight back, he slams my head into the side of the truck. I use my arms to s.h.i.+eld the blow, but he knew where to hit me that it would hurt the most. My bruise from last night will definitely be getting worse after that blow. My face begins to swell instantly and my nose starts to bleed.

This p.i.s.ses me off. Flashes of my night at the hospital flood my brain and I finally find the strength in me to fight this f.u.c.king a.s.shole like I wish I could've last night. I begin to cry and hold my face in hopes of distracting him long enough to get in the exact place I want to be. When his hand loosens on my hair just a little, I knee him right in his b.a.l.l.s and the look on his face as he goes down to cup them lets me know that I better not f.u.c.k this up. One chance is all I have to get away from him before he makes me regret that move.

A swift knee to his nose and his blood begins to pour from his face. I turn to run and scream just as I run into the wall of muscle that I've been praying for.

Chapter Six.

Luke I'm watching this man as he continues to land a hit on me. Someone more than three times my age shouldn't be able to get one in on me and he has landed a s.h.i.+t ton. He's making a point that my focus isn't quite where is should be and I'm trying like h.e.l.l to fix that. I hear the roar of an engine and my mind begins to think about the possibilities of Greg finding her here.

Lou pushes me harder until he practically has me backed into a corner after a round of blows that I was in no way prepared for.

"COME ON! This guy is going to kick your a.s.s." Lou pulls some more punches and I let my instincts go. I block him left and right, right then left, left then left, low then high. I have one mission and that is to move his a.s.s over to the cage door and then walk the f.u.c.k out of this barn to see what that noise was.

I finally make my way to the cage door and do exactly that. Lou starts talking s.h.i.+t in the background, but I don't even bother to stop and give him any attention. As soon as I step outside, I know my worry was warranted and that I'm about to kill a mother f.u.c.ker. Running across the gravel that separates me from her, I watch him slam Kimber's face into his truck and then I see her take him to his knees like a f.u.c.king champ. She may be little, but that girl is mighty.

I catch her in my arms just as she begins to run from him. Her heart is beating so fast and her breath blows across my face with every exhale. She's scared out of her mind, but I see relief in her eyes when she lands into my arms. I hold her at the same time turning her so that she is behind me. She buries her head in my chest as I look back to see where Greg is.

He's beginning to get back up, when Lou steps in front of me.

"Greg. You don't want to cross me. You know I've got more s.h.i.+t on you than you'll ever be able to wash off. If you so much as touch one more hair on her body, I will ruin you." Greg begins to open his mouth right before Lou starts in again.

"I don't think you understand. Get the h.e.l.l off my property and don't come near Kimber again. If you do, I will let my little birdie handle your a.s.s. Just remember, I have people in place in the event you try another thing." Greg looks at Lou with challenge, then understanding. He backs away toward the door of his truck and with one final glare at Kimber, he gets in and drives away.

She was watching him from behind me the whole time. I'm just so glad that I heard him, who knows what would've happened if I hadn't. Although she did put up one h.e.l.l of a fight, I just don't know if he would've reacted quicker if I wasn't standing here. I have never wanted to beat someone's a.s.s so much in my entire life. This a.s.shole deserves to die for killing a baby. The s.h.i.+tty thing is, I'm not too sure how he would've treated her if he knew about the baby. It seems to me that their relations.h.i.+p was all kinds of f.u.c.ked up.

I turn and wrap her in my arms. My lips land in her hair as I start to remind her that I'm here and that she's not alone.

"I'm here. I want you with me at all times until you can drive the f.u.c.k away from here and this h.e.l.l."

"Luke, he almost took me. I don't even want to think about what he would do to me since I made him so mad." I pull her away from my chest and look into her eyes. Using my thumbs to lightly wipe her tears, I try to comfort her.

"You didn't do this. His crazy way of thinking did this." Her nose is bleeding and her cheek is swelling again. My insides twist with rage and I really just want another piece of that mother f.u.c.ker.

I pull off my s.h.i.+rt to help stop the bleeding, but Lou hands her a towel right before I get it off. That's probably best since I was sweating my a.s.s off trying to block the old man's attacks. The adrenaline from seeing Greg hurt Kimber didn't help either.

"You are coming to stay with me. The only other option is that I stay here with you. I don't trust him and if I thought a protective order would actually work, that's where I'd take you first thing in the morning." Guys like Greg think that they are the law. Leaving her like a sitting duck, now that he knows where she is, would be the dumbest move that I could make.

"I can't even argue with you. I'm so scared he'll find me again."

"Good. We'll leave the Jeep here, so there's no possible way he can find you." I begin to walk us toward my bike, when Lou reminds me that he's here. My focus is on getting her out of here.

"Luke. We have a lot of work to do. When will you be back?"

"Will 5 a.m. work?"

"Perfectly!" The smile on that man's face is the first I've seen on him tonight. I look over Kimber one last time to make sure she managed to stop the bleeding before I step over my bike and wait for her to melt into my back again. She does exactly that and I feel an emptiness begin to s.h.i.+ft. This is something that I already find myself craving. s.h.i.+t, it can only get messy from here.

Kimber I let the feel of the wind on my face take away my thoughts. How is it possible that I'm so relaxed like this even after the s.h.i.+t I just went through? Luke does this to me. He calms me. There's just such a simple demeanor about him that demands no stress. I need to be more like that. I'm sure he's thinking that his life has been flipped upside down since the second he saw me.

He takes the shortest route to his apartment. It occurs to me at a light about half way that I don't have a single thing to change in to.

"I didn't bring anything to wear. We need to go back."

"You can wear something of mine." This should get interesting. I'm sure he's not used to a female in his s.p.a.ce from what I've learned about him in the short time I've known him. The fight is in just a few days, so I hope he can adjust easily to me staying there. I don't want to try to stay here without him nearby. He's become a safety net for me. I'm not sure if I could sleep if he wasn't there to help me feel safe.

We pull into his spot right beside the brick wall of the apartment and I manage to get off the bike a little more graceful this time. He follows right behind me and we go straight up to his apartment.

He walks behind me almost like he's making sure that I'm safe. I seriously doubt that, but it feels like he's a little on edge until we're in the apartment with the door locked behind him.

He walks up to me and puts both hands on my cheeks lightly, tilting my face upwards until my eyes meet his.

"How bad did he hurt you this time?"

"I blocked it for the most part." I try to look down, but he doesn't let me. He's holding me so firmly, yet gentle at the same time and the sincere look he's giving me is too much for me to take in all at once. He's so close. He's too close.

I step backwards until he releases me, but he continues to look at me with so much intensity. s.h.i.+t, even though I've stepped away from him, I can still feel the heaviness of his stare. I turn to put more distance between us, which is virtually impossible in this tiny a.s.sed apartment.

"Kimber, I wanted to kill him when I saw him hurting you." His words are deep and don't carry very loudly across the room, but I still hear him clearly.

"I know you did, I'm sorry." I step in front of the one window in the entire apartment s.p.a.ce and look out to the building across the street.

I feel him before I hear him. He uses one finger to move a strand of hair that has fallen on my face and let's his hand glide down my shoulder, continuing down my arm until his hand is right next to mine. "Don't be sorry for what that a.s.shole has done." I can feel his thumb sliding over my pinkie in a light pattern until he steps closer. So close that I can feel him all the way down my back and against my a.s.s.

He uses his other hand to pull my hip to make me even closer and I feel his face lean in next to mine. His large hands slide over both of mine and we stand there, both of us looking out the window and neither one of us moving a muscle.

He takes a deep breath and I feel him pull away just slightly. We're still touching, just not in full contact like we were before.

I look up in hopes of seeing something in a window in the complex across the street to help ease the awkwardness that seems to be following us today. I'm positive he sees it at the same time I do, because his deep chuckle mirrors my own at much the same time.

"You've got to be s.h.i.+tting me."

"I'm pretty sure that guy is really sitting there naked, watching TV." He is and h.e.l.l if he doesn't have the hairiest body I've ever seen.

"Yeah well, I'm not even f.u.c.king opening these curtains again if his a.s.s is going to be laying it all out there."

"Aww, come on. It could get interesting."

"Dude needs some loppers for that overgrown forest he's growing." He moves away from the window just as he stops talking. This whole situation makes me laugh. I was praying for an ice breaker, and this is one way to break the ice again.

The smile on my face reminds me of my bruised cheek when the soreness. .h.i.ts. Just as I'm about to walk away from the window, I notice a woman in the same apartment. I can't take my eyes away from them. It's like watching a silent movie.

"d.a.m.n Kimber, didn't know you like the hairy kind."

"Very funny. There's a naked girl too." He's at the window again in no time. There's barely enough room for the both of us, so it's inevitable that he's touching me again.

"s.h.i.+t, she's hot. Surely f.u.c.king not."

"Ummm.... looks like it sure as h.e.l.l is." We both watch this gorgeous woman straddle him with obvious fake t.i.ts and a perfect a.s.s. It seems like they're being playful and just talking for a little bit. He slaps her on the a.s.s and by her response you can see that she likes it. I can't look anymore after she slides down him and kneels on the floor.

Well, that just went from saving the awkwardness to creating an even bigger stench of it. He won't even look at me and I can't stop laughing on the inside. When the absurdity of the situation catches up to me, I bust out laughing and he joins me.

"Would you like a side of hair ball with that?" I say through tears of laughter. He grabs his side in laughter until we both finally calm down.

"I can't take anymore entertainment for tonight, I'm going to catch a shower." He tosses me a tank top and some shorts as he walks into the bathroom. I wish I had the courage to follow him into the shower. I'm not sure how he would take it if I tried.