Harley's Choice Read online

  “No!”

  “I knew you were going to say that. Why? As if I didn’t already know.”

  “One, I am here for my reunion, and two, I’m pretty sure my future is a few doors away from here.”

  “Are you really willing to risk them for this?”

  “Are you saying that I just leave them unprotected?”

  “They were both Marines, I’m pretty sure they can take care of themselves.”

  “When did you run the background?” I asked, not even pretending to be shocked, I knew he’d do it, I also knew he knew I wouldn’t, so if he found something he didn’t like I’m was positive he would have told me.

  “When you got the invitation.”

  I stood, not knowing if I wanted to laugh or hit him. “Bryant, look, I have spent roughly twenty-four hours in their presence. Nothing has changed in my feelings for them.”

  “Both of them? Harley?” He’s a smart man but even this one blindsided him.

  “Yes, no, look I don’t know. There was a problem this afternoon, everything maybe ruined anyways, but I think I’m going to like trying to find out where this goes.”

  “But Harry, both of them, what’ll dad think, what would have mom said?”

  “Well I wouldn’t really know, but I’d hope she would say ‘Do whatever makes you happy’ and as for daddy I hope he and MY brother will be happy with whatever I choose to do.”

  “You know I will for a couple of reasons; one, I know my baby sister can take of herself, and two, whatever she leaves behind I’ll pick up.”

  “Bryant, I know you will.” We hugged and it was his way of saying he trusts me.

  “Hey you never did open your presents?”

  “Yeah it was a late night and how did you know?”

  “Open the one from me.” I grabbed the presents and found the one from him.

  I ripped into and “OH! BRYANT!!” To say I was excited was an understatement. I was ecstatic. “This is the phone I wanted. I was thinking about buying one before I left and you and dad had me so busy…”

  “Yes, yes you may love me now.” And he held open his arms.

  “I love you brother.” And I pounced into his arms.

  “Love you too. Now I have to head out, are you sure you don’t want to come with me?” The worry back in his brown eyes I shook my head. “I didn’t think so, but I told dad I would ask.”

  “Love you!” he just smiled and walked to the door.

  “Oh I almost forgot, here.” He handed me a brief case that was similar to that of what a doctor would use.

  “The full package?” He nodded, “it was unnecessary but thanks.”

  “I wanted you to be prepared.”

  “Yes thank you.” I walked him to the door. “One more thing…” I hesitated and I guess he read my mind.

  “We are not supposed to say until after the wedding.”

  “But I don’t what them to fall in love with a lie.”

  “Well since we’ve know them since you guys were young dad may let it slide, but you have to talk to him.” I bit my lip and batted my lashes at him. “Yes, yes, I’ll bring it up and see what he says.”

  I smiled and pulled him down into a big hug. “Thanks big brother.”

  “You.” Was all he said as he walked out the door, I laughed and skipped to the bed and opened the case. Inside were two Glock .40s with five additional magazines and holsters, and thigh straps, another set of throwing knives and beneath that was a removal bottom hiding my range of poisons. Cyanide and Arsenic of course, along with some rarer ones, ricin, three types of nightshade belladonna, jimson and mandrake, rosary pea, hemlock and odollum, they all were familiar to me and all very deadly.

  I closed up the case and placed it in my suitcase. I sat on my bed staring into nothing, but seeing Captain’s big ole’ mug staring back at me; my eyes blurred with tears then I lost my breath with despair and anger rolled into one giant knot at the base of my throat.

  I needed to hit something. I needed to kill someone – Marcus!

  So I tore opened the phone book and tried to recall the name of the gym Carson had mentioned earlier, “Tom’s,” I spoke as the name came back to me.

  I found three Tom’s gyms nearby, so I sat and made calls.

  The first one I called would be pleased to get me in, but they don’t have sparring abilities, the second one was a boxer’s gym but had no woman to spar with me, and wouldn’t even speak with me about sparring with a man. That one I thought about going too just for spite.

  The last one was apparently the right one. “Yes, I know Kit Carson, he used to come in here a lot.”

  “Great, I was hoping to find the right one. He said you have sparing on site?”

  “That is correct.”

  “Great Tom, see you soon.” I hung up on whatever he was going to say and grabbed my messenger bag and headed out.

  Then I stopped as I passed the mirror and decided getting dressed would be the important part at this particular moment. I quickly grabbed and threw on jeans and a tee and strapped my tennies to my feet. My hair, unfortunately, can never be rushed; I brushed it out with a wet brush so the curls wouldn’t frizz and then pulled it all up in a pony tail that sat on the top of my head.

  Finally I was ready to go and I glanced at the clock, only twenty passed two, I have been on an emotional rollercoaster for the last twenty minutes and for someone like me that’s not good. I grabbed my purse again and slid the key into the pocket and left.

  I had hailed a cab and given him the address and sat back trying to see the path we took, but being blinded by tears and anger. My new phone was in my pocket; my brother had already seen to it that it was activated as of this morning that would explain the lack of texts and calls, but since my brother told me about Captain, my phone has been blowing up with his texts. He was worried he said, wanted to know if I was alright. I simply wrote back, ‘going to blow off steam, no bullets here.’ Needless to say he’s called me twice since that one. I finally told him I was alright and heading to a gym, he said he’d come and fight with me.

  I accepted the challenge.

  For thirty minutes as I awaited my brother’s arrival I had been hitting the same spot on the huge punching bag and never once feeling better, I needed flesh to hit, but whether it was the look in my eye or the simple fact that I was woman had all the men keeping their distances.

  As the punching bag swayed under my assault, I thought back to when I got Captain and how tiny he was.

  I had found him and three siblings during my morning run out in the desert. It was already pushing eighty-five at six am and when I saw the bag wiggle I knew something was terribly wrong.

  I heard the whimper as I approached the bag and when I opened it there were four tiny little puppies inside. I looked around for any other puppies but didn’t see any; I also saw nothing but a set of tire tracks. I snapped a quick picture of the tracks and grabbed the bag and ran back home.

  I wasn’t sure of the breed, but I could tell they were very young and not in a good condition. I grabbed my phone book and found a vet near me and asked what to do with abandoned puppies. She told me that I needed to bring them in and so without hesitation I took them up to the vet’s and waited.

  It took them twenty minutes to get me in, but the bad news was a very slim prognosis for all four. ‘I’m sorry Ms. Shelton, but I don’t see how any of them will survive.’

  ‘I don’t care; I’m willing to take the risk. Tell me what I need to do.’ She gave me a list of products to buy and a timing chart for feedings and how to keep them clean.

  Then wished me good luck with a sad face.

  I went to the pet store and left with four hundred dollars’ worth of puppy milk and bed pads and then headed to the home store to get a heating lamp and a box.

  I got home with my haul and the little puppies and I set out to create a place for them. I opted for my closet, as it could be closed off if need be and it was close to me. Then called my father and re
quested a few weeks off from work and then had to explain the situation to him. He just chuckled sadly and wished me well.

  But the wishes fell on fates deaf ears.

  By the end of the first night I had lost one, the second and third ones didn’t make it to the end of the first week.

  I had buried them in my back yard.

  The forth one I knew I over babied but I wasn’t going to lose him, no siree.

  By the third week I knew I had won and he was going to be fine. The vet on our weekly appointment had even congratulated me on my success on getting him to survive. She simply said, ‘He’s stubborn like a captain on a sinking ship.’ And the name stuck. Captain.

  When I took him in for his shots at six weeks I met my neighbor, who apparently had had a few mastiffs made a comment ‘my he’s a handsome mastiff.’

  ‘That’s what he is?’

  ‘Didn’t you know?’

  ‘Know I found him in the desert, he was abandoned.’ And like most dog lovers her face flushed red in anger and so I quickly continued, ‘I rescued four, unfortunately three didn’t make it, this here is Captain.’

  ‘Well good for you. When you get home study up on mastiffs, they are a giant creature.’

  ‘I will thank you.’

  I explained to the vet of the conversation and she agreed that I needed to make sure I knew what I was getting into. I followed the advice and when we got home I researched everything I could.

  Time passed and he grew, before we knew it he stood to my waist and outweighed me.

  “You know at some point you will punch through that thing if you keep hitting it there.” My brother’s voice laughed in my ear, I wasn’t in the mood to laugh and turned on him.

  He caught on in a split second and he led me to the floor mat. I notice he had already gloved up – he knew what was going to happen.

  As always with my brother we never pull punches and I got in the first one. “What, is that all you got?” he taunted. I knew he was goading me and I walked right into an uppercut into the diaphragm, “what have I told you about protecting your middle! You are too fragile there.” He yelled at me.

  I smacked the floor next to my knees where I had ended up and stood, “Alright. Let’s go.” I attacked with the fever and hatred that had been building since he told me about Captain.

  I got in a good one to his face, smack in the middle, his nose was red and swelling slightly, “shit I think you broke my nose!” He yelled touching his nose, “tit for tat little sis.”

  “Not the face! I have people to see tonight and I don’t want to have to explain bruises.”

  “Very well not the face.” He came at me again. We went back and forth with him mainly having the upper hand, but I had plenty of anger that was still flowing around inside me.

  I went for a simple punch, as he was within striking distance but he caught my hand and then twisted up behind my back and placed his other arm around my neck, “tsk, tsk, tsk, baby sis. You should know better.”

  Tom took this moment to try to interrupt, “alright sir, I don’t allow that sort of fighting in my gym, you want to street fight take it outside, you want to box then box.”

  My brother, ever the antagonist to authority asked, “What ‘sort of fighting’ are we doing? This is sibling rivalry at its best.”

  Tom’s eyes widen, “he’s your brother?”

  “Yes, he is and he’s starting to really piss me off!” I grunted as I slammed my elbow into his ribs then with the momentum threw all the weight I possessed into him and down we went into a Shelton pile with me on top and his arm loosened around my neck. I slammed my head into his chest then rolled off.

  I stood proudly over my brother and gave him a kick in the hip, “dumbass, now I’m going to have a bruise.” I yelled down at him.

  He just smiled.

  His evil smile, “uh-oh don’t you smile like that at me Bryant James Shelton, I have one to match.” He stood and brushed himself off.

  “Yes,” he said as he reached just under his shorts and pulled out a knife, “but do you have one of these?”

  “Oh Bryant, I have always been better at knife combat than you why do you insist on playing with toys bigger than your dick.”

  “Oh you think so?” he taunted, and I was about ready to disarm him when I heard the two voices yelling my name that I didn’t want to hear, “Stay back boys or the girl here will get it.” My brother playing the bad guy – I rolled my eyes.

  “Byrant that’s not nice!” I spun, kicking his hand which he foolishly held out away from his body and the knife landed about twenty feet away from him. With a few moves from my gymnastic years I beat it to him and palmed the knife with the blade facing me. “How many times have I told you never hold the knife out like that? Always, always like this!” and I proceeded to slice two big gashes in his shirt, not even cutting the skin.

  “I liked that shirt!”

  “Well tell daddy to get you a new one, tell him I was in bitch mode!” I threw the knife into the wall next to the locker room door, not ten feet from us, then proceeded to keep him away from it.

  He took the upper hand once again until with a gym and martial art mixed move I did a beautiful back hand spring and caught him right on the jaw.

  As I righted myself I laughed at my brother, laid out on the floor. I walked over to him and sat on his chest. “Say uncle.” I wasn’t fooled for a minute, I knew he was awake.

  “Never!” he grabbed me (because I foolishly forgot to lock his arms down) and rolled me over and landed a blow to my side, “always, protect your middle.”

  “I know,” sounding very winded to my ears, “I know. I think I have officially fought the anger out, thank you.”

  He kissed my cheek, “your welcome.” He sat back and allowed me to sit up, you’ve been practicing.”

  “So have you. Where’d you get it?” I asked glancing at the knife.

  “Dad, when I told him where I was going he gave it to me,” he chuckled and rubbed the back of his neck.

  “You’re still crap, you and I should practice-”

  “Not if I have anything to say about it.” Carson cut me off protesting as he and Kyle approached us. “Oops,” I mumbled to Bryant and he grimaced at their arrival.

  “That took years off of my life kitten, don’t do that again.” Kyle begged as he crouched in front of me. He smiled at me to show me that there were no real hard feelings.

  “So when did Tom call you?” I questioned as I looked at Tom, he had the decency to look shameful.

  “Would you believe that he called us about ten minutes ago telling me that there was a cute girl in here fighting with a man three times her size and that she had dropped my name when she had got here?”

  “Wow, no, that’s amazing.”

  He didn’t look like he was going to be teased out of his mood. “Care to explain?”

  I looked at Bryant and he just shrugged, that’s his way of saying you made the bed lie in it. “Um, let me just change and we can talk on the way back to the room.” I popped up and walked quickly to the locker room, “I’m keeping this Bryant so you don’t hurt yourself.” I said as I pulled the knife out of the wall.

  “Bitch!” he yelled, and then just before the door shut I heard him say, “She’s going to run.” And that’s just what I did; I grabbed my bag and took off out the back door I had found when I walked in here an hour ago.

  Three hours later I was standing in front of the connecting door and deciding if I should knock or just go down stairs when I heard the other door open and voices filtered through. “Maybe we should have gotten her something fancier.” Kyle’s voice though muffle was riddled with worry.

  “What we should have gotten her was a paddle for her ass after the stunt she pulled today.” Carson sounded angry. I had made it to the hotel without them finding me or beating me there, I don’t know why they didn’t just drive ahead to the hotel and wait in my room for my arrival, but they simply weren’t here when I walked in.


  I was relieved and saddened by this.

  When I got to the hotel I came upstairs and locked all the doors, I had heard and ignored their persistent knocking and knew I was in for a lecture when I did face them again. “Yes, but she seemed to handle herself just fine.” I heard Kyle tease.

  “You know what I mean!” Carson bellowed like a bull.

  “Carson, enough, you’re just mad she ran out on us like that.” Kyle’s voice sounded mad too. I knew there was a lot we needed to talk about, that was part of the reason I never answered to their knocking, I needed a way to say ‘hi, my name Harley and I kill people for money for a living’ without sounding mental.

  “Yeah I wonder how she did that. Did you see the look on his face when we got back from looking for her?”

  “One I’ll never forget. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Tom look so enamored before.”

  “Are you kidding he said to tell her that she can come back and use his gym anytime she wants, he said he’d also fight her himself.”

  “Over my dead body!” Carson yelled, really what is with this man, “she was probably in there tending to wounds and…”

  “I think our little kitten can lick her wounds just fine, my friend. I think, in fact, that she’s done just that for ten years.”

  “You always see too much into people.”

  “I see into you…” Kyle reflected on something on the other side of the door, I was dying to know what it was.

  “She has the ability to make a man dumb.” Carson grumbled, “Well if this was ten years ago we would have gotten her a daisy but we don’t know what kind of woman she is now.” I was now officially lost in their conversation but I still like daisies, no one has gotten me one in so long, and from the sounds of it they didn’t either.

  “So you opted for that?” Now I was curious. I put my hand on the door

  “We decided together.” Carson’s voice now had a touch of worry in it.

  “Do you think she’ll forgive us?” Kyle asked. Forgive them? Why should I be forgiving them? I think it is I that needs to grovel for forgiveness.

  I can’t keep my secret much longer.

  “I think she won’t if she doesn’t go to dinner. You should have seen her at breakfast this morning. That girl can eat.” Carson’s laughter carried through the door, "and the way she fights, I’ve never seen anything like it…well anything like it in a woman. You remember Patts?”