Page 37 of Fall

“I feel the same way every time one of them fights, but these are the Kings. Since I met them, I’ve known they are strong, and they walk out of that cage every . . . damn . . . time. This is the last one, Tilly, and then, they are all free from their past, and Harley finally has someone waiting for him,” she tells me, and her eyes, so much like Harley’s, watch me with concern.

Izzy looks as tired as I do, her eyes dark and her clothes half ironed, same as me. I woke up to find Harley in the gym, beating the crap out of a punching bag. He didn’t even notice me there, not as I looked at the scars on his back, which looked like knife cuts, noticing the way his muscles almost hides the scars. I never interrupted him because I didn’t know what to say. Watching him fight a punching bag like that made me realise how he has to fight tonight.

“I just didn’t expect to finally be happy with an amazing guy and then have to watch him do something that could kill him,” I say.

“I know, Tilly. I wish I could tell you not to worry and that you’re going to get your happy ending, but I can’t. I’m just as scared as you,” she says.

A woman walks past with her baby in a pushchair, and I smile. My mum and dad have my baby for the day, and I’ve still not been able to come up with a name for her. I actually have to before the six-week deadline to register her birth, and yet, here I am, not choosing her name and calling her ‘baby girl.’ My parents have actually said ‘baby girl’ suits her, so I know I need to change it before my poor daughter gets stuck with that nickname for the rest of her life. That would not be a good nickname when she is a teenager.

Baby girl has the whole family in love with her; well, make that two families. She has the Foxes and Kings wrapped around her tiny fingers. Even my brothers take turns holding her, and I actually saw Ace kissing her forehead yesterday when I took her over to see them.

"I just think you could use some girl time and, also, I want to hear about how you and my brother… Well, actually, no I don’t," she says, shuddering a little.

"You want to know how we got together?" I ask, laughing a little but getting what she is asking me.

"Yes, exactly," she says, thankful for my save.

"I think it’s just because I get him. There isn’t anything else to it. And, for your information, we haven’t done anything but kiss,” I say, though, not for my lack of trying. I know Harley doesn’t want to take things farther than kissing, but it’s teasing to have all these kisses and nothing else.

“Really?” Izzy asks, with a little bit of shock.

“He doesn’t want to be with me and then hurt me if he doesn’t return from The Cage. He still kisses me, but we don’t share a bed. It’s so frustrating as he is so–”

“Brother, remember?” she says with a scrunched-up face. "No, I kind of get why he hasn’t taken things farther with you. To him, you mean more than just sex," she says. “But no more talk about Harley like that. I see him as a dad figure.”

We walk around a few more of the shops, and I buy some new baby clothes and some boots.

“Should we get some lunch?” Izzy asks, nodding her head toward the café on the other side of the shopping centre. There are plants lined down the middle and it says the local school children have been planting them. For everything this village has hidden, like The Cage and the way Harley told me the police act around here, there are good things. I guess the motto that the good comes with the bad applies to this place.

"Izzy, do you know how to get to The Cage?" I ask her randomly, and she gives me a shocked look.

"Yes, but I can’t take you there. Not after what I told you. Arthur is dangerous," she tells me.

“I know, just some part of me wants to be there for him. He said he wouldn’t take me there, but if you told me the way . . .”

“I agree with Harley here. The Cage is dangerous, Tilly,” she tells me, and I sigh. I knew her answer before she even said it.

I look back over at the café, seeing a wave of blond hair on a tall guy. He is standing with sunglasses on, his arms crossed as he watches me from the other side of the line of plants in the middle of the shopping centre. I know it’s him, as he looks my way, and fear fills every part of me. I zone out, not listening to Izzy talk as I stop walking just to stare at Daniel through the plants. At least, I think it's him. Even thinking his name scares me. A couple of people pass in front of the plants, and then he is gone, making me snap out of it and I step backward.

"Tilly?" Izzy shakes my arm. "You’re shaking, what did you see?" Izzy asks, looking around, and I shake my head.

"Daniel was here, I’m sure of it," I mutter, and Izzy wraps an arm around me.

"I doubt he was, you must have just been seeing things," she says, and I shake my head. Knowing she might be right, but I can’t shake the feeling that it was him here.

“Tristan, don’t think you can just walk away from me!” I hear a woman shout, and it gets our attention as a woman runs past us and grabs onto the arm of a man. The man turns, looking down at her. He has a nasty-looking scar running down one side of his face, and messy, black hair that needs a cut. He has a leather jacket on, pierced eyebrows, and his lip has a ring in it. The woman also has black hair, and her waist is fairly thin; she’s very beautiful.

“You don’t get it, Tria; this, me, isn’t anything to do with you,” Tristan says, and she lets go of his arm.

“That’s Allie’s brother and the nurse who was looking after him,” Izzy whispers to me.

“So when you’re getting drunk in a bar at ten in the morning, I’m meant to walk past?” Tria asks.

“Yes. What’s so wrong with that?” Tristan replies.

“Tristan, everything is wrong with that,” she says, and he laughs.

“Leave me alone, Tria. Face the fact that you can’t fix me and move on. I don’t want to be fixed,” he says, storming off and disappearing into the crowd. Tria stands watching him before turning and walking away.

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