10. Knight #2
I was in shock. She wrapped a big, greasy quilt around me and then taped her brow while she scowled at me.
“You need to keep snips with you all the time,” she finally said. “So you can get out of the straps.”
I nodded. “Snips.”
“Yeah. Snips.”
And that’s the last thing she said to me. In words. But every year, I’d signed my name on a check that she tore up. She wouldn’t take my money. She wouldn’t work for me. She wouldn’t be bought or sold for anything. And she left the family. She built her own life. And then she moved into my hotel.
Marco elbowed me in the ribs, and I realized I was staring at Trixie like a psycho.
“What do you really want with her?” he asked, low enough that maybe none of the other loud people could hear.
“I want whatever makes her happy.” I turned my best smile on him. “And not you or any other force on this earth is going to keep me from doing whatever makes her happy.”
He cocked his head, glanced at his sister, and then smirked at me.
“Sure. Tomorrow morning, first thing, I’m taking you to the gym to talk to Dad.
He doesn’t know we crashed the wedding. He’s happiest if he’s left in ignorance.
Like Trix. Thing is, sometimes they know more than you think they know, and you’re the one who’s ignorant. ”
He pushed up from the couch, baby propped on his hip as he snagged the shirt of the toddler as he ran past.
“I’m out, Mom.” He went over to give Trix a big hug, then pulled away. “I’ll be by at six to take your man to the gym. Don’t keep him up too late.” He winked at me and then headed out.
That seemed to be the signal, because after that, the aunties headed to the kitchen, taking Trixie along to do the dishes, and I was left with Trix’s mother. Her lipstick was one shade darker than all the other women’s.
“You want to see her baby pictures,” she said, dropping a very heavy photo album on my lap before she took the seat on my right, the one that seemed to be the interrogation chair.
“Of course I do. Thank you very much.”
She nodded. “That way you can get an idea of how your children will look. Do you think she can have more than one? She was seventeen when the doctor told her that she’d never have any babies.
She cried for a week. That girl keeps her emotions buried, and then when they come out, catastrophe!
Don’t let her keep her anger inside where it will rot her soul. ”
I opened the book, and she pointed at pictures of an adorable cherub who absolutely never smiled for the camera.
A few pictures caught Trixie smiling when she didn’t notice, but every time someone wanted her to perform for the camera, it was this ridiculously adorable scowl.
She was chubby, very chubby, with a buzzed head all through her childhood.
There were pictures of christening, weddings where she played the part of a bridesmaid looking very awkward and uncomfortable in her dresses, and pictures of her racing.
Her uncle was in a lot of the pictures, black-haired and green-eyed with a smile to make up for her own scowl.
I remembered him. He never said anything that wasn’t important, so I’d listened to his instructions more than I listened to most people.
“She didn’t lose the weight until she was what, fourteen? She started growing her hair out when she was thirteen. Fourteen she stopped wearing men’s clothes. Started watching her weight. But you know all that, don’t you? I should ask for your photo album.”
I shot a look at her. “I’m not a stalker.”
“What would you call it?” She raised a black painted brow as she studied me with the infinite cynicism of someone who exploited the vices and weaknesses of others.
“She chose me. She’s the one who told Nix I was her baby’s daddy. She’s the one who asked me to marry her and then put together a surprise wedding. She moved into my hotel.”
“And you becoming what she wanted? You becoming a fighter and a racer in her world?” She shook her head. “We both know that you’re capable of manipulating anyone into anything.”
“I buy people. I don’t manipulate them. Your daughter can’t be bought.”
She laughed and turned the page, pointing at a picture of a chubby, terrifying Trix holding a trophy.
“She loves you. The other boy she loved was Lucas. Now that boy knew how to manipulate people. But he made a mistake with her. You know what mistake he made? He chose power over her. She’s not going to be satisfied with someone who twists the truth for his benefit.
Who fools people into thinking he’s one of them when he’s not even human. ”
Lucas was her ex-boyfriend? Not that it was any of my business, but he’s the one who displaced Uncle Ni?o. “I don’t want to lie to her. But she needs protection.”
She bared her teeth in a smile as she closed the book and stood.
“Don’t tell me about protection. I know the kinds of obligations that come with safety.
My daughter never needed anybody’s protection.
And if she did, she wouldn’t take it. Go to bed.
You’re tired.” With that, she went to the kitchen to join the others, leaving me alone with the old photo album.
I sat there on the couch for a minute, then got up and headed for the door. As Marco said, I needed to step out for some air.
I took the stairs down. Outside, I hesitated on the landing, looking for my wife, even though she was in the kitchen. Her mother was right about everything. Trix would never accept who I was beneath the carefully cultivated veneer I’d created to be everything I hoped she wanted.
“You’re looking for Trix?”
I looked over at an old man in a fedora, leaning against the building, smoking a pipe. He stood with a group of smokers, all with pipes or cigars.
“Always.”
He chuckled and moved closer. His navy suit was cut very well. “Did you really marry her?”
I nodded and tried to look confident. She’d married me.
I hated the idea of being like that gangster she used to love, a manipulative con artist who used her like he used everyone.
Was I really different, though? I’d always craved her attention.
And when I saw her in Las Vegas, it wasn’t just her attention I craved.
Why had she grown up so irresistibly desirable?
It made simple fascination so much more dangerous.
“Why?”
I blinked at him and moved closer. “Excuse me?”
“Why did you marry our Trix? She’s not the marrying kind. Everyone knows that she’s more man than woman.”
I laughed and shook my head. “There’s no one more woman than Trix. She’s perfect.”
“Also, he got her pregnant.” Marco slung an arm around my shoulder and grinned at me before he dragged me over to the men. He didn’t have his kids with him. “Congratulations are in order.”
The fedora-wearing skeptic, who didn’t think that my wife was womanly, handed out cigars. “Her mother was so beautiful when she was young, beautiful and wild. She kept Trixie fat and ugly so she wouldn’t be wild like her.”
“Trixie wasn’t ever ugly,” Marco protested.
Fedora hat laughed, exhaling smoke circles. I didn’t light my cigar, but I tucked it in my pocket. Was this guy Uncle Ni?o? He seemed civilized enough.
He looked past me at the stoop. “Here she comes. It’s hard to think of that woman being the Dragon who plagued our neighborhood.
She beat up my nephew, Boney, and you know he deserved it.
You also know he never picked on anyone again.
Trixie! How did you get to be so beautiful?
You make the streets sing when you walk over the pavement. ”
“Hey, Uncle Ni?o.” Trix gave him a hug and then grabbed Marco’s ear, tugging him away from them.
“Does your wife know that you’re smoking?
Cigars count. You know that if you’re a smoker, your kids are likely to be too.
You have to be a good example.” She turned and really looked at me for the first time.
She took my breath away. “Nate.” She said it all stiff and adorable, looking at me like I was the only thing she saw.
I walked over to her and kissed her, a light brush, but then her hands were around me, her body pressed against mine as she kissed me back, knocking me into the bricks like she really had forgotten about the rest of the world.
I pulled away first because I had to stop while I still remembered that a mob was standing there, watching us. Possibly ready to put a bullet somewhere.
I shook my head, touching her lips with my fingers. So soft. So burning. “Woman, we need to go to bed.” How could anyone think she was anything other than the most glorious goddess alive?
She gave me a crooked smile. “Everyone’s still awake.”
“Joey’s door locks,” Marco said helpfully with a wide grin. “Go on, you two crazy newlyweds. If you see Prissy, tell her I ran to the store for ice.”
Trix smiled awkwardly at all the men and then pulled me inside and up the stairwell.
“Sorry about that. I just wanted them to know that you’re mine so they wouldn’t shoot you.” She gave me an apologetic smile, but then she looked at my mouth and her skin flushed so beautifully.
“Good thinking. You should let people know I’m yours constantly.”
She shook her head. “If you’re seeing my dad in the morning, you really should go to bed.”
“What’s he like? More terrifying than your mother?”
She gave me a look.
“Not that she’s terrifying.”
She laughed and shook her head. “My mother terrifies everyone, even Uncle Ni?o. Do you mind if we have a lot of physical contact tonight? I’m feeling a lot of emotions, the kind that help me make bad choices.”
I swallowed hard while my own feelings were swelling up. Was this a bad choice? I shouldn’t touch her until she knew what I was. But maybe she’d never have to know.
“I’m never not going to want you to touch me, Trix. You’re my Venus. My goddess. My constellation.”
She tilted her head as she stared at me, then she squeezed my hand gently, and we walked up the stairs.