CHAPTER 49
Landon Lane
I KNEW IT’D WORKED TWO days later when I saw my name all over the newspapers.
The paper said my death was ruled a suicide. I’d taken so many anabolic steroids it’d made me irrational and delusional. That, coupled with the blows to the head in the arena and losing the fight, had turned me crazy. According to the news, I shot myself in the head in a hallway of the MGM.
Sid retired, and Sam was still the champion. All of it was ridiculous. It made no sense.
In the rental car on the front seat had been a passport with my picture. It was legit. Gus had to have done it. Joe wouldn’t have known anyone that could get documents like that.
Joe must’ve thought up his alternate plans weeks before. I could picture him mapping it all out in the shed. Everything was a decoy. I must’ve shocked the hell out of him when I actually knocked Sid out.
More details kept coming back to me. When he’d told me to run after the second round—that had to have been the plan all along. Get me to take off and get us to safety. It was only supposed to be me in the arena. They’d get me out of there and then I’d rendezvous with the others in Phoenix.
He had to adjust it all on the fly when Cora brought everyone to the fight.
Joe was a smart guy. And I missed him. Missed him a lot.
We sat in the hotel in Phoenix. It was a Days Inn a few miles off the interstate, a far cry from the two suites at the MGM.
Cora and Janet got me cleaned up the best they could. We decided to spend a week in Phoenix, laying low. Let me heal up a bit. Then we’d get on a plane and hit a remote island somewhere. Wait it out for a while until it was safe to come back.
Surely there was another home out there as good as Montana had been.
Logan walked up to me. “Daddy?”
“Yeah, big man?”
“I miss Uncle Joe.”
He climbed into my lap for one of our usual hugs and I scrubbed a hand through his hair.
I rested my chin on his head while Cora jammed an ice pack under my shirt on my back. “I know. I miss him too.”
Cora rubbed my shoulder with the hand on her good arm. It felt amazing, but at the same time I didn’t like being broken in front of my family. I was supposed to be the one taking care of them.
“We’ll get out of here soon.” I stared off at the window.
Janet slouched in a chair across the room. She hadn’t looked like herself the entire time. Just sat with a thousand-yard stare, constantly. Gus had broken her. They’d been together for over a decade. Sometimes she would ask why he needed to die, and then break into tears. I didn’t have an answer for her. I didn’t understand that part myself.
“What’s wrong, babe?”
Babe.
“My jaw needs an operation.”
“Can we afford it?”
“I hope so. All my money should be in a trust. Gus—” I paused and looked over at Janet.
Her eyes welled back up.
She hadn’t read a book since the fight. It was unheard of for her.
“He had someone set up an account. There’s a trust. All my fight money goes into it. The cash from the first two fights should be there already. It’s in the Cayman’s. I have all the information.”
Cora blew out a sigh of relief. “Good, a teacher’s paycheck won’t cover a new jaw.”
“We should be fine. You need to rehab your arm too.”
Cora nodded.
I moved Logan aside and pulled the ice off my back.
I hobbled over to Janet. My heart shattered every time I looked at her.
I walked over and picked her up under her arms. She went limp in my hands. She had nothing left inside of her. I hugged her, and she buried her neck in my shoulder and squeezed me back. The first sign of life I’d seen in her.
“I miss him so much. It hurts so bad.”
“I know.”
I carried her over to the bed and sat her down on it and covered her up. Then I walked over to the door and retrieved a bag. I’d snuck across the parking lot while they napped. It was an incredible risk, leaving them alone in that room for fifteen minutes. But I did it anyway. Janet deserved it.
I walked over to her with a book I’d bought at the store. It was some little paperback novel with a half-naked, long-haired man on the front. I’d looked ridiculous hiding under my hood while I bought it. The cover said Harlequin across the top. I’d noticed those were always her favorite.
“Here.” I held it out at her. “I don’t know if it’s any good or not.”
I leaned down and set it in her lap. She sat up and kissed me on my good cheek.
“You need to escape reality for a little while.”
She burst into tears. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
I glanced around at everyone in the room. “A few more days and we’ll be done with all of this.”