33. AJ
After Brady collected me and my bike from the footpath, and I sent Levi home to stay at my apartment, I got busy with my friends and did the only thing I knew to do. Fix my bike enough so I could ride it and get the hell out of Baltimore.
If I can’t be with Val, I need space. I can’t be in the same city with the woman I can’t have, and the chances of me going after her father given what he has done to her, to us, is very high. Luckily, the damage to my bike was purely vanity and the engine and steering were unharmed. So that same afternoon, I drove straight out of town and have been hiding here at Virginia Beach for the past few days, collecting my thoughts and trying to calm down.
Now, as I look out at the waves, I pick up my cell and roll it around in my hand. My cell phone rang almost every hour the first day, then I turned it off. She needs to have her mother’s business; she needs to be CEO, and to get that, I need to be out of the picture.
I also needed time. I still have no fucking idea what to do. I have never before been so invested in a woman and it scares me. Love isn’t something I ever thought I would experience. I didn’t get it as a child at home, and I’ve never had it since. But I want Val, even though right now that seems selfish. I sigh at the conundrum. Good things never come to a man like me. I should have known that it wouldn’t last.
I swallow, knowing it is time to face the music. I need to get back to Baltimore. I need to get back to Fortress, the gym, and Levi, and so I turn on my cell and wait. As expected, my voicemails are full, my text messages rolling in, and I sigh as I start looking through them all. A call comes through as I am scrolling, and Brady’s name lights up the screen.
“Finally, he answers. Where the fuck are you?” Brady says, and I crack my neck.
“Sitting at Virginia Beach,” I tell him honestly.
“Shit. Well, you need to come home. Right fucking now,” Brady says, and I notice his voice seems a little panicked.
“What happened?” I ask, my heart starting to race.
“It’s Val.”
“Is she alright?” I ask, thinking about her father and the threats he made. That fucker better not have burned her, because if he has touched her, I will skin him alive.
“She is getting married. Tomorrow. To some Schmidt guy.”
I shoot up from where I am sitting.
“What? She was going to be CEO! That was the deal. I leave her alone, she becomes CEO. Not fucking married!” I yell as a few mothers who are nearby playing with their kids look at me with matching scowls.
“Apparently not. Old man Van Cleef fired her VP who was helping her. Told her that she will lose access to everything her mother built. She has to marry this Schmidt guy; otherwise, her father will make her pay.” My blood boils. He went back on his word to me. What a fucking scumbag. He is not even a man of his word.
“You need to come back, man. We need to do something.”
“You know what he said if I do,” I tell him as I pace. When Brady picked me and my bike up from the street after Val’s father and I got acquainted, I told him everything. I needed to vent.
“I know, man, but as of tomorrow, we both know her life is over anyway. She has been calling for you. She wants you.”
My fists clench, I am so fucking angry. John Van Cleef is a piece of work, a conniving, lying piece of shit that I now want to bury. Alive.
“Fuck!” I curse, kicking a rock, my frustration high. If I go back, that could put Val in danger, but if I don’t, she will be in danger and lose everything anyway.
“Listen to me.” Brady’s voice is low and calm. “I’ve seen you with Val. I’ve seen the way you look at her. Hell, the way she looks at you. You two are fucking good together and had a spark from the minute you met. We don’t have good in our lives, never have. But you have it now. You have met this woman who thinks the world of you. And you… I have never seen you with a woman like this before, so I know she means something to you. Man, if I had that, I would fight tooth and fucking nail to protect it. She has been blowing up our phones looking for you. She wants you. She doesn’t want to be married to some old guy. She wants your fucking ugly self. So get the hell home and come get your woman.”
He is right. We have never had good things. We worked hard, suffered a lot, but since meeting Val, the dark cloud that always seemed to surround me has lifted, and a little light is starting to come through. I fist my hand by my side.
“Time and place?” I grit out to him.
“George Peabody Library. Tomorrow at two o”clock. Father Van Cleef wanted it somewhere very public, wanted the world to see it. It is fucking all over the local news here.”
“I’ll be home tonight. We will formulate a plan. This time, I am getting the girl,” I say, ending the conversation and running to my bike. I have to get back to Baltimore because Val is not marrying that prick. She is mine.