A vicious rumor, p.22
A Vicious Rumor, page 22
A flash of white caught my eye and I turned to look, but I shouldn't have. Paper sounded the buzzer, and Scissors turned and rushed at me before I was even looking back in his direction. He came in hard with a right hook that I didn't have time to dodge. It hit me across the face, and the pain was excruciating, far worse than it should have been.
I stumbled backwards onto my ass as my vision went hazy. Someone shouted something about brass knuckles. Scissors lunged for me again and I blocked as best as I could, but he hit me across the other side, my arms flailing uselessly given how disoriented I was.
The flash of white that I'd seen had been Lily. She screamed as she watched me go down. It was as if the entire scene was playing out in slow motion. Paper came up behind Scissors and wrapped his arm around his chest, stopping him from landing another excruciating blow to my face. Lily came over and kneeled next to me.
She was trying to speak to me, but I couldn't make out what she was saying. I wanted to talk to her, to tell her I was sorry, that she was right, this just wasn't worth it. I'd never been on the receiving end of this, but now I understood how it felt. I never wanted to make someone feel like this again. It felt like absolute shit.
My vision started to flicker, just as people started to look towards the parking lot. I was trying to get her attention, but she wasn't looking at me. Black spots filled my vision as I started to collapse backward.
Her hand was wrenched out of mine. Big, dark shadows surrounded me and her as she was pulled roughly to her feet. I tried to sit up. I tried to fight back. Someone was taking her away from me, and even my concussion-riddled mind knew who it was.
It was everything I'd tried to stop by keeping her away from me. I shouldn't have ignored their calls. I shouldn't have gotten involved in any of this. I should have protected her better.
She was screaming. I could see it. They were pulling her by her beautiful blonde hair and she was screaming in pain as she tried to fight them to get back to me.
She was the only light left in my world, but they were taking it from me.
I lifted my hand out to try and reach her, but everything faded into darkness the more they pulled her away.
LILY
I ran from the car to the field. Just as I arrived, Paper sounded the buzzer, and I watched in horror as I saw a much drunker than I'd left him Scissors running at Tyson. He had leather gloves on, which was strange, because I'd never seen Scissors wearing leather gloves before. Tyson locked eyes with me, and I could almost see him smile. I tried to tell him to look out!
He shouldn't have been looking at me. He needed to pay attention to the fight.
Scissors came in fast with a right hook. The crowd roared their excitement as I screamed my fear. Tyson went down far too hard for just one punch to the jaw. He stumbled backwards onto the field, and I couldn't take this anymore. Scissors came in to hit him again, and I knew I had to make this stop.
It was as if we were replaying the scene where we had met. I rushed over to him just as Scissors hit him again. I could see the light starting to fade in his eyes. Someone yelled something about brass knuckles, and it all made sense. There was no way that Scissors would be able to hit Tyson hard enough on his own. He just didn't have the training or the size.
I'd never expect Zachary to do something like that, but then again, he'd just found out information that threatened to bring down his entire life and the legacy that had been set up for him.
I knelt down in front of Tyson. His speech was blurry and his eyes kept trying to roll into the back of his head. I screamed for someone to call 911 just as Paper came over and all but tackled Scissors to the ground.
"The fuck's the matter with you, hm?" he yelled at his friend, losing his composure in a way I'd never seen him do before.
Tyson reached his hand out for me, and I took it. He was trying to tell me something, but I was trying to tell him just to rest. The entire crowd in the stadium was going wild with excitement, and I wished that somebody would care just enough to call a doctor.
Just as I was about to pull my own cell phone out of my purse, a gunshot was fired somewhere near the parking lot. The tone of the crowd changed from excitement to one of fear as a group of five guys, all armed to the hilt with a variety of weapons, walked onto the field.
I turned to look at Paper who was still trying to tackle Scissors. Looking at him up close, I realized he must be on some sort of hallucinogenic as well because the crazed look in his eyes was not right.
One of the guys dressed in black grabbed the microphone. He was huge, bald, and covered in tattoos in every place imaginable. "Sorry to drop in on your party," he laughed. "But, we're here for Tyson Stone. Anyone seen him?"
The entire crowd pointed to the middle of the field. I moved in front of Tyson instinctively. If these men took him, there was no telling what would happen. Tyson really needed medical care. If he didn't get it, I was worried he'd end up permanently injured or worse.
They walked over to the four of us, casting shadows across each of us in their own way.
"Hey look, Dino," one of the guys said to the big guy. "They've basically already done our job for us," he snickered.
I turned to look at Paper, but he was still struggling with Scissors, who didn't seem to grasp the gravity of the situation.
"Pity," the man apparently named Dino said. "I was sort of looking forward to having some fun with him."
"You're a sick bastard, ya know that?" the other said.
I could feel Tyson try and move behind me, but I moved to block him. "Don't you dare touch him,” I said.
"Now, she's someone I could definitely have some fun with," Dino said, turning his attention to me. He moved forward and grabbed me by the hair. I screamed in pain as I was all but wrenched up off the ground.
I tried to turn around and fight my way back to Tyson. He passed out as he was trying to reach for me. In that moment, I didn't care about myself. I didn't care about anything. Tyson needed help! He needed a doctor!
"Luca!" I screamed, who had finally gotten Scissors to pass out. "Help!"
He turned and realization dawned on him as to what was going on. The men were dragging me further and further away from Tyson. Further and further towards a situation I knew I might not come back from.
Paper walked towards us calmly, and one of the guys flagged him with his gun. "I don't think you wanna do that, kid," he said threateningly.
Paper cleared his throat and gave him a truly venomous look. "I guess you're not familiar with who I am," he said, taking his glasses off and cleaning them against his shirt. He put them back into his pocket, then ran his fingers through his normally perfectly combed hair, ruffling it up. "Recognize me now?" he asked.
The men all stood there looking at him. Finally one piped up. "Are you the boss's kid? I thought you was in college?"
"Yeah, yeah, at the academy," another one chimed in.
Paper pinched the bridge of his nose. "This is an academy," he said. "And yes, I am Constantino Maldonado's son."
"You don't got his last name though, do ya?" one of the guys asked.
Paper shook his head and smiled at him. "No, I do not."
"Then we don't answer to you," he said, but the guy named Dino shook his head.
"Yes, we do," he said. He let go of my hair and all but threw me forward. I scrambled away from the men and over to Tyson. I didn't even hesitate to pull my phone out to dial 911.
"Looks like you should get going," Paper said, tilting his head towards me. "Cops usually come with ambulances."
The men all turned around begrudgingly and made their way back towards the parking lot.
"One last question," Paper called out after them. "Who authorized this hunt?"
They all looked pretty uncomfortable until finally Dino spoke up. "No one," he said. "But the kid wasn't answering our calls."
Paper cut him off. "Next time, I'd stick to the protocol. And my friend is no longer on the roster. Do we understand each other?"
They nodded and turned around. By this time, most of the crowd had fled in fear. Paper came over to me as I was fumbling with my phone. My fingers were shaking so badly I was having trouble unlocking it.
He grabbed it out of my hand and shook his head. "Better not to have the authorities involved. We can take them both to my place. I'll have a physician brought in on site."
I looked up at him, totally stunned. I didn't know if I could trust him now. It seemed as if I knew even less about Paper than I thought. Yet, at the same time, what choice did I have?
"Can you walk?" he asked.
I nodded my head.
"Good." He leaned down and fished keys out of Tyson's pocket. "Go get his Jeep and drive it onto the field. We'll load them in at the same time."
I nodded and tried my best to keep my feet steady as I made my way back to the parking lot, feeling extremely on edge despite the fact that there was no sign of the previous visitors. Within fifteen minutes, I had the Jeep up on the field, we had both victims roughly secured in the backseat, and Paper was driving us towards his place.
Which was good, because as soon as we got onto the road, I passed out.
28
TYSON
I woke up in a bed I vaguely recognized. My vision was still hazy, and I felt like I'd been run over by a freight train, but I was still alive, which I guess was something.
When my vision cleared enough, I realized I was at Paper's house. He came in a couple of minutes after I awoke, which only confirmed my suspicions that the whole entire house was under some form of surveillance system.
"Glad to see you awake," he said.
"What happened?" I asked. "What day is it?" Memories of the fight came flooding back to my mind. Of Scissors hitting me way too hard, of Lily coming to the field. Of Lily yelling and being taken.
I frantically tried to leave the bed, but Paper was there to push a hand onto my chest. I went down easily. "Lily! Where is she?"
"She's safe and having lunch."
I took a deep breath. "I need to talk to her," I said, trying to get up again.
Paper pushed me back down, and I growled at him. "Stop doing that! I need to see her."
"She doesn't want to see you right now," he said.
"What do you mean, 'she doesn't want to see me?'"
"Considering you almost got her kidnapped by a drug cartel, can you blame her?"
I ground my teeth but stayed seated. Eventually Paper would leave and then I would go and talk to her.
"What happened?" I asked him.
He took a seat at the small table across from my bed. "Zachary thought it would be okay to wear brass knuckles for the fight. He got you twice across the temple. Lots of blood. Several stitches."
I reached up to touch my forehead, but Paper put a hand up. "I'd ask you not to do that. We don't want to mess up the good doctor's work."
"I don't feel anything."
He chuckled. "That's because you had an IV of quite a lot of pain medication for the last day and a half."
"What day is it?" I repeated.
"Sunday, afternoon, to be more specific."
"Shit," I said, trying to process all of this information. "What happened with Lily? How is she safe?"
"Let's just say that you're lucky I have a bit of an influence in the organization you found yourself mixed up in."
I furrowed my brow at him. "The fuck does that mean?"
"It means, that I took care of it."
Paper was always irritatingly vague, but this time, he was really pissing me off. "No way! You don't just get to say that after what happened. I need to know everything, and I need to know that she's safe!"
Paper sighed. "You've never met my father, yes?"
I gave him an odd look. "I thought your father was dead."
Paper smiled slightly. "In a way. He likes to remain a bit of a ghost."
"What are you saying?" I asked him.
"I'm saying that my father heads the larger operation that you found yourself a mere pawn in this summer. Me being his son, I have a bit of influence. They won't be bothering you again, but do try and stay away from that industry. Speaking from experience on that one."
"Are you trying to tell me that your father is a drug kingpin?"
Paper shook his head. "I'm not telling you anything about my father, and I would request that you honor our friendship in this way."
I nodded my head slowly, understanding what he was getting at. "Thank you," I said.
We sat in silence for a moment. He looked like he was about to leave, but I stopped him. "My dad's business. You said it wasn't you that gave it the cash influx?"
"Accurate, but also a bit misleading. I did invest the funds you'd earned, and your father did find himself a new business partner. When I was trying to be more," he paused, "discreet about my family connections, I let you jump to whatever conclusion you needed to. However, yes, your father's new investor is controlled by me."
"I'm not sure how I feel about that, to be honest," I admitted. "My grandfather's business is extremely important to me. To know that you control it now," I trailed off.
"I expect you'll be able to buy out my interest in the near future given the way your funds have been invested."
I looked up at him in shock. "Why would you do that?"
"No offense, but of all the things I have going on in the background, a local real estate company is not central to my business strategy."
"You're a solid friend, you know that?" I forced myself to admit.
Paper chuckled. "Let's not jump to any more conclusions, shall we?"
"I need to see her," I said to him, but Paper shook his head.
"That's not my decision, it's hers, and she's made her wishes clear." He made his way to the door and opened it slightly. "Stay as long as you need, but know that your father has been notified, if not given all the details. I believe he thinks you were injured at a game." He was about to leave, but he turned back one last time. "Security's been posted at her door, so don't try anything."
The door clicked shut, and I ran my hands over my face, which I really shouldn't have done, because shit, it hurt.
An entire week had gone by, and Lily had avoided me at every turn. She'd even asked the science teacher to switch lab partners so she didn't have to sit next to me. I tried grabbing her after English class, but she'd slipped out as soon as the bell rang. It was as if she were making it her goal not to talk to me.
I even stooped as low as asking people she knew to ask her to hang back here or there or to meet me in specific spots at the school, but she would never show. It was excruciatingly painful.
And I knew I deserved every second of it.
Because, it was exactly the sort of pain I'd put on her at the end of the summer.
Scratch that, what I'd done to her at the end of the summer was even worse. Whatever my motivations were, she didn't understand them, and I'd hurt her in a way that I didn't fully understand until now.
I all but slammed the door walking into my house Friday after school. My father poked his head out of his office to see what the problem was. He'd been significantly less of a dick since the business was back in the black. I hadn't told him about where the cash really came from. I thought it best to leave the fact that his new investor had mob connections a secret for now. That was the sort of thing that, if it got out, could really ruin us. Plus, if what Paper promised was true, it would only be for a short time.
"You alright, son?" he asked, walking out to the kitchen.
I grabbed a box of cereal and milk from the fridge and stood in front of the cabinet. I clenched my fists in anger and debated whether or not to tell him what was going on. My father didn't deserve my trust, that was for damn sure. Yet, at the same time, I had no one else to talk to about this, and I really wanted to talk to someone about this.
"It's a girl," I finally said, not turning around.
My father nodded his head and sat down at the kitchen table. I stayed where I was, keeping distance between us.
"They can be frustrating. What's going on?"
I squeezed my eyes shut, forcing the words out of my mouth. Talking about my feelings was not something that came easy to me. "I messed up this summer. Hurt her feelings really bad. Tried to push her away. Took me some time to realize some stuff, but I really want her back now, and I don't know what to do."
"Let me guess, she won't talk to you, huh?" my father asked lightheartedly.
"Yeah," I lamented.
"Well, unfortunately there's really only two options in these sorts of situations," he said. "You either decide to let her go, or you plan something so big and grand to get her attention that she can't help but talk to you."
"What did you do?" I asked, finally turning to look at him. "For Mom?"
He sighed, knowing I didn't mean my biological mother, but the woman that had left us both when it hurt me the most. "I knew it was useless to try the second option," he said. "You see, she left us emotionally before she left us physically. I know that's hard to understand from your perspective, even harder as a kid, but it was the situation."
"I hated you for what happened. I blamed you for her leaving." I don't know why I said that. I'd never admitted those words out loud, even to myself.
"I know you did," my father responded. "And in many ways you were right to do so. Love is hard. So is being an adult."
I nodded. I understood the first part, at least. Maybe I'd been too hard on my father for all of these years. Maybe he was just struggling as much as I was struggling with Lily.
"I'm sad she left us," I finally said.
My father nodded. "Me too. But we did okay, didn't we?"
I gave him a weird look. "Not really. We're mostly fucked up."
My father let out a loud laugh. "Yeah, you're probably right."
I couldn't help but laugh along with him. "Letting her go isn't an option for me, though," I said, when the moment passed. "It's just not."
"Then go for a big move," my father said. "Something that would mean a lot to her."
