I now understood how my drivers felt when I asked them to do the same. I ignored him and got out of the car.
◊◊◊
Cassidy, Dare, and Chrissy were sitting in the lobby. Cassidy caught me entirely by surprise when she jumped up, put me in a hug, and began to cry. My fierce little ninja wasn’t one of those girly-girls who did things like cry over a guy. She was more the type that would kick him in the junk and leave him curled up in a little ball to think about what he’d done to her.
“Let me pay the bill, and then you can tell me all about it,” I suggested as I worked to get free.
“Shut up and hug me,” she ordered, so I did just that.
Paul and Dumpster Girl came in.
“Hey, go pay their bill for me,” I told Paul.
The jerk pulled my wallet out of my pocket and left to pay. Cassidy let me go when she realized we had a girl with us.
“Who’s that?” she asked suspiciously.
“I found her in a dumpster, so I claimed her as mine,” I said, which caused both Chrissy and Dare to smile.
“He found you in a dumpster?” Cassidy asked.
“Yeah. It’s a long story,” she said, and then looked at me. “Aren’t you going to introduce us?”
“Oh, yeah. This is Cassidy; Darius, who we call Dare; and Dare’s girlfriend, Chrissy. Everyone, this is Dumpster Girl.”
They all gave me dirty looks.
“Hey, if you pull them out of the trash, you get to name them,” I said.
“She’s not a puppy,” Chrissy said.
Paul came back and handed me a receipt to sign for the bill. I added a nice tip for their trouble.
“Thanks,” Dare said as he handed me cash for his and Chrissy’s portion of the bill.
I led everyone out, and Cassidy gave me a funny look when I got in the driver’s seat. She claimed shotgun.
“Paul and Dumpster Girl are getting to know each other,” I said. Then I leaned over and told Cassidy in a low voice, “Keep an eye on them so they don’t do anything to scare the children.”
We dropped Chrissy off. I was impressed that Mr. Bashful kissed her goodnight. Greg had done well in helping Dare figure out what to do with a girl. Next, we took the would-be Casanova home.
On the way to Cassidy’s, I got another call, this time from Yuri. By this point, I was starting to dread answering my phone. I showed Cassidy the caller ID.
“That can’t be good.”
“This is David.”
“Phil got the crap kicked out of him, and Jill is missing,” Yuri said.
I turned on the Bluetooth to allow everyone else to hear his side of the conversation.
“Tell me what happened.”
“This place is a madhouse. The party spilled out into the parking lot, and there have been several fights so far,” Yuri said to give us a sense of what the party was like.
“What happened to my brother and Jill?” I asked.
“You’re not going to like this,” Yuri said and paused. “Luke and Mike kicked his butt. We think Jill’s in Luke’s bedroom.”
◊◊◊
I didn’t want to walk into that party without backup, so I called Wolf and Tim. The only good news so far tonight was that they were almost home. Wolf started the call tree to get more help. We agreed to meet at my brother’s complex, a couple of blocks away from Luke and Magic’s. It didn’t sound like we would find parking anywhere closer.
Yuri and Roc were tasked with taking care of my brother. They didn’t think he needed to go to the hospital, but his face was pretty bruised-up.
Once we got to Greg’s, we went inside to wait for everyone else. I explained to my older brother what was going on.
“Why don’t you just call the police and let them deal with it?” Angie asked.
“Because this has to end. Mike and Luke need to learn not to mess with us anymore. If this continues to escalate, it might get nasty,” I said.
“Inviting more people to go over there is a bad idea. Plus, you have to expect that if you start this, you will be videoed for sure. It’ll cause you more problems than it’s worth,” Greg advised.
“What I want them there for is to keep everyone off me. I don’t need Luke’s football friends holding me while I get my ass kicked. If that happens, I won’t hold back, and someone will end up in the hospital. Someone other than me,” I explained.
When Wolf and Tim showed up, they had several guys from the team with them. I explained this would be like baseball. I was the designated fighter, and they’d better not join in unless it looked like I needed help.
◊◊◊
We got to the party and found it totally out of control. I think my original guess of a couple thousand people might be low. It was only a matter of time before the police showed up. As we pushed our way in, we saw a frat guy get clocked by what looked like a football player. This would soon turn into a brawl.
“Make a hole,” Wolf barked.
Paul led the way with Tim and Wolf right behind him; I was behind them with Cassidy at my back. The other football players from Lincoln were on my sides and behind Cassidy. The partygoers parted to allow us through.
I guess I should have been happy we made it as far as we did before someone noticed me.
“It’s David Dawson!” a sorority girl squealed.
