Harley's Choice (10 page)

‘
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?”

“Yeah I remember that crazy SOB, he was
good, but officially psycho in my book.”

I couldn’t stand it, I wanted to know what
they were talking about, and I wanted to see facial expressions, so
I opened the door. “I’m ready if you two are.”

Two sets of eyes locked on to me and all
conversation ceased.

The three of us just stood looking at each
other. I was looking at them for a couple of reasons. One: Kyle had
on a white shirt and a tie and looked a bit like a professional
business man. His hair looked a mess but it worked for him, curls:
I sympathized, never really do what you want them to do when you
want them to do it. Two: Carson was wearing a blue shirt and a tie
also, but he had put on vest making him look a little like a pit
boss, if it weren’t for those damn glasses again.

I giggled. Then chuckled, and then roared
out a full boisterous laugh. “W-what’s with the glasses, you were
wearing them this morning too. As far as I can remember you had
perfect vision.”

“Don’t laugh. Believe it or not a pair of
glasses hides my identity better than a wig and an over coat.”

I laughed even harder with that picture
rolling in my head. “Really kitten he’s not lying, the populous
does not often look twice at a man in glasses.

“Well you both clean up very nicely, who
would have thunk it.” I must be getting used to seeing them because
I wasn’t focusing on their bodies…much. Each looked really
scrumptious and I was ravenous. Of course thinking of any verb,
noun or adjective that could be used to describe food or hunger
always set my stomach rumbling.

Carson laughed. “Come on Hars let’s get food
into you.” He extended his arm and I walked on, “I’m still very
angry with you for that stunt you pulled this afternoon.”

“I was having an off day and needed to blow
off steam, I told you I did martial arts. Can you ever forgive me?”
I batted my eyelashes as I looked up in his eyes all while I was
seducing his mind and body into my frame of mind. His body
tightened and leaned toward me and his eyes went glassy and a
little goofy smile teased his lips.

I reached up and pulled him down to my
lips.

“Kitten that dress looks amazing on you. Or
I should say you look amazing in that dress.” Kyle said around
laughter at Carson, but breaking the spell of our bodies.

“Thanks Kyle. It took a bit to get into.” It
was one of my favorite dresses; in fact I have it in three
different colors in two different materials and two different
lengths. It’s an infinity dress, to be able to worn multiple ways.
Right now I had it wrapped over one shoulder and full covered back.
“I was going to wear it with an opened back but I changed my mind
at last minute." I had picked up a few bruises from this morning
and this afternoon, but I wasn't telling anyone that.

I stood in front of the mirror after I had
wrapped myself up in a backless version and thought I looked pretty
good, until I turned around and saw a bruise from landing on my
back at the gym and one that I would swear was the same width as
Kyle's forearm.

I sighed and set to rewrapping. I also
switched out my bag for a clasp that was just big enough for my lip
stick and room key.

"Well you look amazing." Kyle said as he
kissed my cheek, but it was Carson's eyes that held my attention;
they seem to be devouring me alive. Kyle placed his hand across my
back and led me off down the hallway sufficiently cutting me off
from Carson, "don't pout kitten, if I had allowed you two to keep
it up, you wouldn’t have made it at all."

I just nodded the look in Carson's eyes
still warming my body and to add the way the dress swayed with my
hips and with the thigh holster in place I just felt sexy. The
color is red and the material is jersey cotton, a power color and
flirty material. My hips rolled and swayed and I knew there was a
slight spring in my step.

We walked to the elevator and rode down in
silence the three of us staying in our own little bubble, not
speaking, not looking. There was something thick in the air and I
was pretty sure it was my fault.

Suddenly we were tossed out into the
squabble that was the hotel lobby. There were people milling about
everywhere and most in some sort of nice dress, so we followed them
to Ball Room #2 where we were stopped at the door by Becky and
Betsy, two out of the six girls who tormented me in school. “Hello!
Welcome to the reunion! Go Lynx!”