Chelsea slept on the couch. She didn’t know why. She could have gone into the bedroom and slept on the big bed, but something about that seemed wrong. How was she supposed to sleep when Blue wasn’t there? He had left and she had let him go. She had let him walk out that door so he could fight to the death for her sister.
He should have stayed; they should have spent the night together. They should have run away and never looked back. But she could never do that; she could never leave her family. The house was cold and her limbs were stiff when she woke. She felt old and tired as she pulled herself into a sitting position and rubbed her eyes.
She had been too scared to go to sleep. Every stray noise made her jump. A car driving down the street made her hunker and reach for the gun in her purse. She had stayed up all night with the television on and had finally fallen asleep to infomercials around two in the morning.
A pale dawn was appearing behind her. It wasn’t quite six o’clock. It was early, but Chelsea knew she wasn’t going to be able to fall back asleep. She made coffee and drank it at the empty kitchen counter. She felt numb and empty. She was regretting every decision she had ever made.
It was six-thirty when Chelsea called Blue’s number, but the phone just rang. What if something had happened? What if he had got into a fight with his dad? Calm down, she told herself. Don’t let your imagination make things worse than they actually are. She got his voicemail and left him a message to call her with news.
At seven-thirty there was a knock at the door. Chelsea jumped and looked at the door as if she could magically see who was on the other side. She grabbed her gun from her purse and slowly walked up to the door. She put her eye to the peephole and on the other side was Paul. She put the safety back on the gun and stowed it in her purse before opening the door and embracing Paul in a big hug.
“Where’s Blue?” Paul asked as he stepped into the house.
All Chelsea could do was shake her head as tears streamed down her face. “He’s gone,” she finally managed to stammer out.
“Gone where?”
“Back to his father. He’s going to do the fight; it’s the only way to get Jamie back.”
Paul looked stunned and he took a few steps back from Chelsea and covered his mouth with his hand. “Chelsea, if he gets into that fight and kills someone, it will be considered murder. They could give him the death penalty,” Paul said.
“I know,” she whispered. “But it was the only way. It was Terrance, this whole thing was Terrance’s doing.” She filled him in on everything they had learned. And he sat through it in stunned silence.
“You offered him ten million dollars and he wouldn’t take it?” Paul asked.
Chelsea nodded and they sat in silence on the couch for a moment. “We need to stop this,” Chelsea said shaking her head. “We need to bring these fighting pits down. They’re disgusting and horrible and the people who fight are desperate. They don’t want to do it, but they’re forced to. So how do we do it, how do we bring them down? Blue said the local cops are corrupt, that they’re paid to look the other way when the fights come to town.”
“I can believe that,” Paul said with a nod of his head. “But we still need to get them arrested somehow. We can’t kill them all Chelsea, then we’ll end up in jail.”
“What then?”
“The local cops aren’t the only game in town,” Paul said. “There are other agencies we could call.”
“Like who?”
“The FBI or the Federal Marshals, but it needs to be someone we can trust. I think I know someone. She’s this woman I went to college with. I know she was headed to Quantico and she might be done with her training and in the field by now.”
“Call her,” Chelsea said.
“I will, but I can’t promise anything. We still don’t have any info on the fight and we can’t get in touch with Blue. We don’t have much to give them.”
Chelsea was willing to do anything at that point. She would have got on a plane and travelled to DC if there was any chance that would help. Something needed to be done. The fighting pits were an open secret, it seemed everyone knew, but no one was willing to do anything about it. Blue was willing to fight to the death for Chelsea and she was ready to fight for him, as well. She had already promised Blue would never have to go back to the pits, but that’s exactly where he was headed. She had broken her promise and the only way to keep it would be to destroy the fights themselves.
Chelsea’s cellphone sat on the table between her and Paul and when it buzzed, she jumped up to answer it. But sadly it was only her manager, Lauren, calling to check in. “I should take this...” Chelsea said and she could hear the defeat in her own voice. She felt like she had already lost. Blue was going back to the fighting pits, he was entering a fight to the death, and it was all for her.
“I should go, too,” Paul said. “There’s no point in either of us sitting around and sulking. We need to do something. I’m going to look into the FBI and if there’s nothing there, then I’ll contact the Federal Marshals. Let me know ASAP if you hear from Blue.” Chelsea nodded numbly as Paul squeezed her shoulder and then walked out the door.
Chelsea locked the door behind him and then called her manager. “Hey, Lauren,” Chelsea said into the phone as she slowly paced her living room.
“That doesn’t sound like a happy ‘hey’,” Lauren said. “Is your family stuff still a problem?”
“Yeah,” Chelsea said. “I’m working on it, but everything’s still up in the air.” Lauren was being surprisingly understanding. It must have been Chelsea’s voice, even she could hear it. She sounded gravelly and tired.
“So, the other day we talked about money and I just wanted to remind you not to-”
“I don’t need the money,” Chelsea said. “I don’t need it, so there’s no need to go and try and get it for me. But thank you, Lauren, I really appreciate you telling me a number.”
“Of course...Chelsea, what is going on over there? I don’t like it. I can hear from your voice that you sound exhausted and drained, and your voice is kind of important, remember? No voice, no record contract.”
“I know. I just thought this thing would be over now, but it’s not. I’m just sitting at home and waiting for news. It’s not fun. But will tell you this, I’m excited to get back to LA. I am ready to get out of this town once and for all.”
“Glad to hear it,” Lauren answered with a sigh and Chelsea could hear the relief in her voice.
“I do have some bad news,” Chelsea said. “This thing with Ryan Baron, I can’t do it. I’m sorry. He’s been perfectly nice with all of this, but I can’t do a fake relationship. It’s not who I am. I know that a certain amount of polish has to happen in Hollywood, but I’m not willing to do this. It’s wrong and I don’t want to do it anymore. I’m sorry, you can spin it however you want.”
“I’m sorry to hear that, Chelsea. This is not going to look good. We still have all those pictures where you look like a disaster. This is going to give you an image of the heartbroken girl, are you okay with that?”
“I am a little heartbroken,” Chelsea answered. “So I guess it fits. I trust you, Lauren. Spin it however you want.”
“We do have some great ballads on the album,” Lauren mused. “Love in Amber, Broken Chains, those could all work great as singles. Then we could come back with Life is for Lovers, something a little bit more upbeat, move past the sadness...”
“I leave it up to you,” Chelsea answered. “But there’s one thing, could you tell Ryan for me? I just feel so weird about this whole thing.”
“Of course, leave it up to me. You just focus on getting some sleep, drinking some green tea for your throat, and coming home. We miss you over here in La La Land,” Lauren said.
“Thanks.” Chelsea ended the call and was surprised to find that she felt a little better. It felt like there were a thousand different weights she was carrying around with her, but she had just let one go. Ryan Baron, that relationship had never felt right and, worse, it had hurt Blue. She was glad to be rid of him.
Chelsea couldn’t go into the fighting pits for Blue, but she could remove all of the other obstacles that were keeping them apart. First had been Ryan Baron, she wanted to be with Blue and only Blue, so she had ended it. Now she needed to deal with the bigger problem and make sure Blue didn’t end up her stepbrother. It was time to talk to Colleen.