Authors: Lynda LeeAnne
“Are you okay?” I asked quietly because he
looked far from it.
“
Go pack your shit
!” he shouted at me
so loud that his voice echoed throughout the foyer and I recoiled.
Landyn’s body instantly moved to protect me and Tony glared at
him.
“I’m not going to touch her,” he said and
his expression said that the idea was ludicrous, but Landyn still
didn’t move.
“I’m going to stay with the girls,” Lex
chimed in. She turned and walked away. She probably thought the
same thing I did… that things were about to get bat-shit crazy.
I ignored her and so did everyone else.
“What’s going on?” I asked in a shaky voice
because I had absolutely no idea.
“Where were you last weekend?”
“Ummm… here?” I answered his question with a
question because he seemed to already know the answer.
“No… you were at the track last weekend
causing trouble and fuckin’ up your life, that’s where. Do you have
any idea how much shit you’re in?”
Suddenly, all the air was sucked out of the
room when Landyn and I inhaled breaths so sharp you could hear the
combined hissing sound.
“What the hell is going on?” Landyn demanded
to know before I could ask myself.
Tony faced Landyn then. “This is none of
your fuckin’ business; this is between me and her,” Tony said as he
nodded in my direction.
Landyn crossed his beefy arms over his chest
and that action alone screamed “
Caution
”. “You’re in
my
fuckin’ house demandin’ to talk to
my
wife’s best
friend after I watched her shed tear after tear for you… and you’re
gonna tell me this is none of my business?” He shook his head. “I
don’t fuckin’ think so.”
That was a lot of funkins.
Tony’s angry eyes met mine and they studied
me for a long moment. My stomach was doing backflips. I wanted to
refute what Landyn said, but how could I… it was the truth. I hated
that Landyn told on me though. I felt betrayed. Before I could let
my emotions get the best of me, Tony straightened his spine, walked
further into the house, straight up to Landyn until they were chest
to chest.
Landyn was bigger than Tony, not by much,
but still bigger. It’d probably have been a good fight, but Tony
was already hurt and I immediately jumped into action. I pushed my
way through until I managed to separate them with my body; my front
faed Tony, my back to Landyn. I shoved at Tony’s chest to move him
back, being extra mindful of his ribs, but he barely moved. I
shouted, “What are you doing?”
He ignored me, never took his eyes off
Landyn and shouted, “She’s my goddamn business, not yours!”
I didn’t move a muscle after he spoke. I was
scared to death, but his words filled my heart with hope. I kept my
hands on his chest, looked over at a furious Landyn and spoke
quickly, “He’s hurt and you know it.”
“Only reason I haven’t touched him yet,”
Landyn responded just as fast. Tony obviously didn’t like Landyn’s
dismissal of him because he moved to step around me, but I clung to
him with every bit of strength I had.
“What is
wrong
with you? I’m begging
you to stop. You’re hurt and there are kids in the other room,” I
shouted, using the quickest excuse I could think of to stop him
from starting a fight.
Thankfully, it worked.
Tony and Landyn remained in a stare down for
what felt like hours until I accidently pushed on Tony’s side and
he inhaled in a sharp breath.
“Please let me look at your ribs. They’re
probably broken,” I said quietly.
“I’m fine,” he grumbled.
“You can talk to her, but I want to know
what the hell is going on first,” Landyn said.
Tony sighed and ran a hand down his face as
if he was trying to clear it. When his hand moved away, he looked
down at me and my knees nearly buckled at the fear I saw in his
eyes.
He pointed in my face and spoke low, “You
fucked up last weekend. I wanna know exactly what you did to
Zacharias… in detail.” He paused, shook his head. “You’re in so
much fuckin’ trouble.”
“Who’s Zacharias?” I asked, and at my
question, Tony’s eyes narrowed. I had a good idea where this was
headed, but the guy it involved was someone named Zek.
“What do you mean “who’s Zacharias”? He’s
the guy you got banned from the race track last weekend.”
“I didn’t have anyone named Zacharias
banned. The guy’s name was Zek and he was an asshole.”
Tony closed his eyes and took in a number of
deep calming breaths, clearly searching for patience.
“The guy was abusing his horse, Bow &
Arrow… whipping him. That was his training technique…
to whip
him
. He showed clear signs of abuse and he would have injured
himself further had I let him race so I had him pulled. Zek and I
had words, he was pissed, he grabbed me and got himself banned. I
didn’t do shit, but the right thing.”
Tony’s eyes flew open. “What do you mean he
grabbed you? How?” he growled violently.
I shrugged and told him. I still wasn’t sure
what the big deal was.
“He grabbed my upper arm; it hurt and it
freaked me out, but he did it font of everyone and got himself
banned, not me. I just had to file a police report.”
“Why the fuck didn’t you tell me?” Landyn
jumped in and I faced him.
“I don’t know, I didn’t think it was
important.”
“Jesus, you have no idea, do you?” Tony
said. He sounded in complete disbelief, and when I turned back to
him, he continued. “Can we sit down somewhere? My side hurts like a
bitch.” He looked back at Landyn and so did I.
Landyn nodded shortly in approval.
“Zacharias is an ex-con that goes by the
name Zek in public because not many people know him by it,” Tony
began as soon as we sat down in the living room; Tony on the sofa,
me on the loveseat and Landyn in the side chair. My eyebrows met in
confusion and when Tony noticed my expression he continued,
“Zacharias and Zek are one in the same.”
“Okay, what do you mean he’s an ex-con?” I
asked. I really didn’t like where this conversation was going.
“It means that he’s the worst kind of bad
news, Trish. A nightmare.”
Just what I fucking need; more
nightmares.
“There’s a long list of what he’s been to
prison for, but on the top of that list… murder.”
I thought on that for a second. “Well then,
what the hell was he doing at a horse track and not in prison?”
“Because he’s a murderer with a shit lot of
money, he has a lot of connections and he likes to gamble.”
All right, I officially started to
panic.
“How do you know all this?” I asked in a
voice so soft it was almost inaudible.
“Trish, really? Did you forget where I grew
up? Did you forget that my dad owned Outlaw Racing Stable in
Centerville?”
How could I forget? I was shocked when I
found out. Outlaw was the most legendary Thoroughbred racing stable
and breeding farm in the state of Texas. Still is. Tony’s dad, Abel
Lopez, not only owned, but he’d also been one of the finest
Thoroughbred trainers around. It was also the reason I’d narrowed
down my veterinarian studies to Equine.
Tony and I had plans when we were together.
We’d talked about moving to the ranch after I finished school. His
dad had already been in the process of retiring. Tony was going to
take over, do partial training, but concentrate more on managing
the stable. I was going to help care for the horses and the family
we both wanted…
“Yes, I remember,” I confirmed.
“Well then, I’m sure you already know that
it’s mine now. All of it; the ranch, the breeding farm, the house,
it’s all mine.” His voice lowered. “Has been since my dad passed
away six months ago.”
“I know. I went to the funeral. I’m so
sorry.”
“What?” he asked, and sounded outright
surprised.
“I heard about it and went to pay my
respects. Your dad was always so sweet to me. I thought about
finding you, to tell you how sorry I was, but I imagine I was the
last person you wanted to see there.”
He said nothing to that, but he still looked
at me like he’d never seen me before. Seconds turned into minutes
and I started to feel uncomfortable under his scrutiny.
Finally, he spoke. “A lot of people know
Zacharias… or Zek, especially anyone that deals with horse racing,
but more than anything, people are familiar with his sordid
training techniques. Nobody likes to see a horse abused, however
most people are too scared to challenge him. Zacharias is a sick
man with a lot of money, a lot of connections, and he’s
dangerous.”
He paused, deep in thought. Then he sighed,
loud and drawn out, which only meant that his next words were not
going to bode well for me.
“You challenged him, Trish. I mean,
Jesus
. You could never learn to keep your damn mouth
shut.”
“What was I supposed to do? Torture the
horse more by letting him run the track just to please the asshole
owner who thought he could get away with it?”
“Yes!” Tony shouted.
I flinched.
“If it’s a choice between your life and a
fuckin’ horse, then yes!”
“But I didn’t know! I didn’t know who he
was! There are five of us on weekend rotation at the clinic so when
the call came in to check out an abused horse, I had to go. I don’t
keep up with that lifestyle; the races, the gambling or the
people
! I knew that’s what you did, the world you lived in
so I wanted
no part of it
!” I yelled back and my body shook,
with both fright and frustration.
I stood.
“Just get out. I don’t know why you came all
the way to tell me this shit… I appreciate the notice about
Zacharias or Zek or whatever the fuck his name is, but I don’t want
you here anymore than you want to be here, so get out,” I
commanded.
Tony stood then, ignored my request and,
walked the four steps it took to bring us together. I watched as he
pulled out a folded piece of paper from his back pocket, yanked up
my arm by the wrist and shoved the paper in my hand.
“What is this?”
“It’s the fuckin’ reason I’m not leaving
this house without you. Seems you have a thing for pictures,” he
said in a scary voice.
I opened it with shaky hands and gasped when
I saw what was inside. It was a picture of me changing; topless,
wearing nothing but a pair of panties. The background was the
locker room of my gym.
“How did you get this?” I whispered as my
breathing became so erratic that my chest brushed against Tony’s
every time I inhaled. The pressure from holding back my tears
burned my nose. I hated seeing myself in such a vulnerable
state.
“I was in town for the race tomorrow. I
don’t usually come to them, even to see one of our horses, but the
trainer of the horse in this race got sick. I went to a bar earlier
tonight--”
Yeah, probably to pick up a slut or two… or
three.
“What the fuck?” he hissed, and I realized
then that I said my thoughts out loud.
“Sorry,” I said in a rush. A muscle ticked
in his jaw and his eyes narrowed.
“What I do is none of your damn
business.”
“You’re right, I’m sorry, it slipped.”
“Jesus,” he muttered before continuing. “I
ran into a guy that I hadn’t seen in years. He was wasted and kept
going on and on about some bitch that got Zacharias banned from the
track, though I had no idea who he was talking about until he
pulled out that picture. I didn’t give him a chance to say anything
else, but I was able to grab it before they kicked me out.”
I closed my eyes at that revelation, but
they flew open when Landyn spoke.
“So, you plan to keep her at your place?
Until what?”
Tony sighed. “Zacharias is only out of
prison on probation. With his connections, probation for him is
like walking free, but since Trish here filed that report with the
police, his probation has been revoked and he’s wanted. From the
information my dumbass old acquaintance told me before I saw that
picture, Zacharias refuses to go back to prison and wants Trish
taken care of. If Trish is taken care of, the report goes
away.”
“Taken care of?” I asked, even though I
already knew what he meant.
“Killed.”
“But there were other people around when it
happened,” I whispered.
“Trish, if people are too scared to report
an abused horse, you think they’ll back up a report made by a dead
person?”
That was it. The tears that I’d been holding
back escaped and I had to take a few deep breaths to keep myself
from sobbing. He was right.
“But you hate me,” I stated. “Why would you
want me with you?”
“As much as I hate you, as much as I never
wanted to see you again, I would never want you to get hurt,
especially if I could prevent it. His people have been watching
you. I think you know, deep down, that I wouldn’t be here if I
didn’t feel it was necessary.”
He was right again, of course, but hearing
him confirm his hatred of me left me cold inside. I swallowed past
the lump in my throat as I squeezed my eyes shut.
I thought so hard about the decision I
needed to make, and the only reason I came up with to justify
leaving with Tony was Lex and the girls. If trouble was after me,
for whatever reason, I wanted it to be as far away from my best
friend and her precious baby girls as possible. If something
happened to me, I could deal. I had no one. If something happened
to them, I’d never forgive myself.
“I’ll go,” I whispered. I opened my eyes and
they locked on Tony’s. “I’ll stay with you until this is over, but
only because I don’t want anything to happen to those little girls
in the other room. I’d die before I ever let anything happen to
them,” I stated, my voice filled with anger at the thought.