Luke (A Cocky Cage Fighter Novel Book 8)

by Lane Hart

  “His father paid you to say the boy’s Eli’s son?” Abby guesses with a shake of her head. “Sounds like something my rich parents would do.”

  “I didn’t take it. Phillip promised me they wouldn’t try to get custody, that it would be better for Luke’s mom and for Luke since he’s still so young if I said Lennox was Eli’s,” I explain.

  Abby holds her hands up in front of her. “I’m not judging. I’m sure it was a tough decision, and you thought you were doing the right thing.”

  Her tone implies exactly how she feels about my choice.

  “It doesn’t matter now,” I tell her. “Luke found out the truth from Nate, and he’ll never forgive me.”

  “He could. It just may take him a few years,” Abby tells me not so helpfully. “Anyway, what’s important now is that you try to talk to Luke and convince him to stay out of those seedy fighting pits before he gets in too deep.”

  “We’re not exactly speaking right now,” I admit, a blush coloring my cheeks as I remember the explicit details of how Luke took me last night. He was so angry I thought he might snap and actually hurt me; like it’s been building up inside of him since he found out the truth and needed to punish me even more than the times before.

  “Well, maybe it’s time for you to break the silence,” Abby suggests, but I shake my head in response.

  “No. Not yet,” I tell her. “Things are…volatile right now.”

  “Do you mean generally, like regarding custody of Lennox, or romantically? Because Luke was super excited when you first came back and the two of you were dating.”

  “Ah, I guess you could say romantically,” I admit. “But until Luke’s anger simmers down, I’m not sure if I’m comfortable around him…”

  “First of all,” Abby starts with her spine going ramrod straight. “You can’t actually think that Luke would ever hurt you or his own son. And secondly, if you’re not interested in being with him, I’m sure my sister will be glad to hear that. Whitney just loves Luke, and I think it would be great for the two of them to get together. She would make an excellent stepmother to Lennox too.”

  I gasp in indignation at her bluntness. Who does this woman think she is?

  Okay, and maybe I’m a tad jealous to think about Luke with someone else…marrying another woman who would become like a second mother to our son.

  “I think you should probably leave now,” I tell my unwelcome guest.

  “Fine, but don’t try and play the victim now,” Abby says when she gets to her feet. “Luke and your son are the only victims here, regardless of what you think he’s done to you. If you can’t see that, then you really don’t know a damn thing about him.”

  With that pronouncement, she storms over to the front door to let herself out.

  Good riddance!

  Unfortunately, she doesn’t leave yet.

  “What’s your son’s middle name?” Abby turns around and asks so out of the blue that I don’t even hesitate before responding.

  “Theodore.”

  “Lucas Theodore Campbell, huh? Yep, that works,” she says to herself with a nod. And before I can comment, she walks out the door.

  …

  Luke

  “No offense, man, but you look like shit,” Alex says to me when I walk back into the living room after unpacking my things. “Even worse than last night when you came stumbling into Havoc.”

  “Yeah, that fucker refused to let up after I tapped out,” I reply, taking the seat on the sofa opposite him. “Then I beat him bloody in the locker room when he started talking shit. He deserved it, and now he knows I let his ass win.”

  Shaking his head in obvious disapproval, Alex says, “I get that you need money; I do too. But one of these times you could seriously hurt yourself, and then what? You won’t be able to fight legally or get a job doing shit if you break an arm or leg, puncture a lung, who the hell knows what. Those street fighters are brutal.”

  “When you find me a job making ten thousand a month doing something else, let me know,” I tell him since that’s how much I made on the three recent fights. “Until then, just like last night with Meg, mind your own business.”

  “How are things with her today?” he asks without a pause, clearly ignoring my suggestion.

  “Over,” I reply simply. “I treated her like shit for too long, and last night was the final blow.” Literally and figuratively, I think to myself. “She wants my forgiveness, and that’s the one thing I can never give her.”

  “You’re angry with her, I get that, and you have every right to be. But did you ever consider that she did you a favor?”

  “What the fuck?” I exclaim while glaring at my new roommate.

  “Don’t take that the wrong way; I just meant that you should think back to when you were sixteen. Your brother had just died, your parents were probably flaking out, and you were just a, what, sophomore in high school with two and a half years left to go? You would’ve dropped out to get a job or do this underground fighting shit,” he says. “And you wouldn’t have been doing your son or anyone else any good.”

  “Wow, that’s awesome. Thanks, Alex. You should consider becoming a motivational speaker,” I tell him with a sarcastic eye roll.

  “All I mean is, you loved this girl, right? Before you found out about Lennox?”

  “Yes,” I admit. I spent all of my teenage years loving Meg, wanting to be with her and feeling guilty because she was Eli’s girl. “While I may have loved her at some point in time, now I sort of hate her,” I remind him.

  “So for things to work out, you have to forgive and forget…”

  “Which sure as fuck isn’t going to happen,” I mutter.

  “So why do you keep screwing around with her if you know it’s doomed to fail?” he asks, which I hate to admit is a pretty good question.

  Why couldn’t I have just been friends with Meg from the beginning so that we could've worked on being good parents for Lennox? Probably because by that time, Meg and I had gotten physical and I knew how damn sweet it was to kiss her and touch her. Even from the first date after she came back I knew I was addicted.

  “Do you want to be with her?” Alex asks when I remain silent.

  “I don’t really know what the hell I want when it comes to Meg. The only thing I’m certain of is that I want to be Lennox’s father,” I tell him honestly. “If I could do that…maybe I could work on forgiving her for the years I missed.”

  “So then it sounds like all you need to do is to figure out a way to actually be a father to your son, and we both know that’s an easy one,” Alex says with a smug Cheshire grin, looking like he just came up with the cure for cancer.

  “No, it’s not,” I tell him with a groan. “It’s too late. If my mom finds out…” I shake my head, not even wanting to contemplate the possibility.

  “I’m not talking about telling everyone the truth,” Alex says. “You can’t tell me that you’ve never thought about being with Megan, you know, marrying her?”

  “She mentioned the same thing a few weeks ago. But in case you forgot…”

  “Yeah, yeah, yeah, you can’t let go of the anger. But if you could forgive her, and if she loved you the way you claim to have loved her for years, then, boom, the two of you could get married, and you would be Lennox’s father!”

  “Those are big fucking ifs,” I mutter, unconvinced.

  “What else can you do?” Alex grumbles, throwing his arms in the air in exasperation. “You’re so freaking angry and pissed at Megan that you can’t see the perfect solution right in front of you. That’s what you want most of all, right? Your son to think of you and love you like his father?”

  “Yes, that’s what I want, more than anything, but not at the price of marrying Meg. How could that work?”

  “It could work, but only if you two actually care about each other and overcome all this other shit. The way you treated her the other night at Havoc, well sure, it was hot in the moment, but that’s not how you treat
someone you love.”

  “Fuck,” I mutter knowing he’s right and realizing that instead of going forward with Meg, this whole time I’ve been going backward, in the wrong damn direction.

  “Unless you think you two will be happy for the long haul, this plan won’t work,” Alex remarks. “But having her in your bed every night, working out your issues, wouldn’t exactly be a hardship, would it?” he asks, which is the truth.

  If I forget everything that’s happened with Lennox, I know Meg is a sweet, beautiful, kind woman. A woman I loved from afar from the time I was thirteen and started liking girls. Most of my teen years were spent thinking about her, even though she was my brother’s girlfriend.

  And then, after the night we were together, I wanted to be with her again so badly I couldn’t stand it. I would’ve followed her anywhere if I had known where she was…and left my parents behind. Even my mother who fell apart after Eli’s death and clung to me like I was a life preserver, her only living son.

  Back then, the decision to be with Megan and my son or my mother and father would’ve been the most difficult decision of my life. But, if we had known about Lennox, my parents would’ve welcomed her into their home to help raise him, and maybe my mom wouldn’t have ever ended up in the mental hospital.

  There’s no use thinking about alternative scenarios anymore, though. That’s all in the past, now. What’s done is done and can’t be changed. All we can do is try to move forward. Holding on to my anger is only hurting the relationship I could have with my son and his mother, and the relationship with my father.

  If Eli’s death has taught me anything, it’s that life’s too short. Tomorrow isn’t a guarantee for anyone, so I don’t want to have any regrets. Maybe it’s time I finally start being thankful for what I have instead of everything I’ve missed.

  Chapter Thirty

  Luke

  Heading out of Havoc Wednesday night, I pull out my phone from my duffle and check to see if there’s a response from Meg.

  Nothing.

  I know it’s only been a few days, but she hasn’t answered any of my texts or responded to the notes or flowers I left for her except to tell me she’ll pick up Lennox from daycare. Since she didn’t explicitly forbid me from seeing my son, and thankfully I was still on the list as an approved pickup person, I’ve been spending time with him and my mom in the mornings before dropping him back off for Meg to get him after work.

  Lennox has asked me to come over to his house and play with him, and it breaks my heart that I can’t anymore unless Meg tells me she’s okay with having me around.

  Being too preoccupied with my own thoughts is probably why I didn’t notice the three men standing against the black SUV next to my car in the parking lot until I’m only five feet away. Guys so enormous that their necks are as big as my waist, and all three with hair cut short like in a military style.

  “Hey, how’s it going?” I ask in greeting as I squeeze through them and the other vehicle to get to my car door. When I open it, one of the men reaches over and slams it shut again.

  Fuck.

  “Mario sent us to give you a message, and you can’t leave until you get it,” one of them says gruffly while my back is still to them.

  “What’s the message?” I ask as I turn around and glance over to the front of Havoc, hoping to see one of the other guys coming or going.

  Noticing what I’m doing, the other two giants step to the side and block my view. Then, the one directly across from me says, “Mario says that if you can’t keep your mouth shut about his business dealings, he’ll shut it for you,” just as his brick of a fist rams into my stomach so hard my breath is knocked out of me. The pain is so intense that I nearly drop to my knees.

  When I hear the other car door open, I assume that’s the end of it, and they’re leaving. But then the guy pulls out a wooden baseball bat and I realize he’s just getting started.

  I try to take off running since the three of them are more like six against one, but I don’t get very far. In fact, I realize when I’m tackled from behind in the shrubbery that I’m even more fucked and there’s less of a chance of someone spotting us.

  That’s when the beating officially begins with a brutal blow to my spine.

  …

  Megan

  In between afternoon appointments, my cell phone starts buzzing from my purse sitting on top of my desk. The second time it rings I cave and pull it out. My finger hovers over the ignore button when the caller ID shows that it’s Luke calling. But then I worry he could be calling about Lennox if he checked him out of daycare and decide to answer.

  “Hello?” I say into the receiver

  “Megan?” a voice that’s definitely not Luke’s asks.

  “Yes?”

  “You’re a nurse, right?” the man whose voice I don’t recognize inquires.

  “Who is this?” I ask.

  “Oh, um, this is Alex, Luke’s roommate. Are you a nurse or not? Because if not, I need to get him to the emergency room. Fuck, maybe I should just take him there anyway. He told me to take him home, but I’m not so sure…”

  “Whoa, slow down,” I tell him to interrupt his rambling. “Yes, I’m a nurse. What’s going on?”

  “Luke got jumped at Havoc and is pretty messed up. Can you come look at him?” Alex asks, his words causing my heart to slam to a stop.

  “Oh my God. Yeah, but he should probably go straight to the hospital,” I tell him as I grab my purse and throw it on my shoulder, heading for the door.

  “Man, she said to go to the hospital,” I hear Alex saying to Luke over the line. I try telling myself that if he’s awake and conscious, it's a good sign.

  “He’s saying no,” Alex relays to me. Maybe Luke’s injuries are not as bad as it sounds. I can go check on him and then decide for sure.

  “Fine, I’m on my way,” I tell him. “Where are you?”

  Alex gives me the name of the apartment complex and a few nearby street names I recognize, so I’m pretty sure I know where they’re at.

  “Okay, I’ll be there as soon as I can,” I say before ending the call.

  Worries swirl through my mind as I imagine the various possible injuries, how much pain Luke could be in and, of course, the most important concern, why would someone do this to him?

  Thankfully I don’t have any problems finding the complex or the right apartment; and with a quick knock on the door of 1A on the bottom floor, Alex opens up. My stomach drops like a boulder when I see the crimson stains splattered over his white tee.

  “Oh, God,” I say, feeling a little woozy, not because of the sight of blood but knowing that it’s Luke’s. “Why didn’t you take him to the hospital?” I ask.

  Ignoring my questions, Alex simply says, “Come on,” and leads me through a living room that’s sparsely furnished and down the hall to the first bedroom on the left.

  A gasp escapes my lips as I take in Luke’s prone form on the bed. Lying on his stomach, his face that’s turned toward the door is not even recognizable thanks to all the bruising, swelling and blood.

  “He, um, he said his back hurts too much to lay on,” Alex informs me while I stand frozen in the doorway. “I got the first-aid kit out. What else do you need?” he asks.

  “Ah…” I say, drawing a blank when Luke’s least swollen blue eye blinks open, trying to look at me.

  “It’s not as bad…as it looks,” Luke whispers as if it hurts too badly to talk at a normal level. “No…hospital,” he says as if sensing my concern that he could have some serious internal bleeding, a fractured rib, punctured lung or who the hell knows what else!

  “Going to the hospital will draw unwanted attention to the people who did this,” Alex tells me. “Which could come back on Luke even worse.”

  “Fine,” I say on a heavy exhale. I go over and set my purse on the floor to open up the first-aid kit on the empty side of the queen bed to take stock. “He’s probably gonna need a few bags of ice,” I tell Alex.


  “Coming right up,” Alex says before he disappears.

  “What the fuck happened, Luke?” I ask angrily while opening some sterile wipes and walking around the bed to start cleaning up his face to find where the cuts are.

  “Long story,” he says softly.

  When the cool wipe touches his cheek, he flinches in pain.

  “Sorry,” I tell him as I begin to wipe away the drying blood. “Does this have anything to do with the illegal fights?”

  “Ummm,” he says, or maybe it’s a groan.

  “It does, doesn’t it?” I ask. “What were you thinking?”

  “How…how did you know?” he asks between cringes when I get to the laceration over his eye.

  “Your friend, Abby, dropped by the other day. She was worried about you,” I tell him.

  “Humph,” he mutters.

  “Is that where you got the money for Lennox’s daycare?” I ask, which reminds me. “Shit, hold on,” I tell Luke as I set the wipe down on the bed and grab my phone from my purse. Pulling up Nancy’s contact, I hit send. “Hey, Nancy,” I start, and Luke tries to shake his head but only ends up with his face buried in the comforter to drown out his painful moan while his mom greets me on the phone.

  “Sorry to call on such short notice, but could you pick up Lennox from daycare today?” I ask, and I think Luke’s shoulders relax in relief that I’m not ratting him out.

  “Of course. I would be glad to,” his mom tells me.

  “Thanks. Something came up at work, so I’ll just swing by your house when I get clear, if that’s okay?” I ask, keeping Luke’s injuries to myself, at least for now.

  “Sounds good. Take your time, and we’ll see you later,” Nancy says before we both end the call.

  “Thanks,” Luke says in appreciation for me not spilling the details.

  “I didn’t tell her now only because I don’t know how bad the damage is and I don’t want to worry her just yet,” I reply. Putting the phone down, I grab the antibiotic cream and butterfly bandages to start on the lacerations just as Alex brings in the ice packs and leaves us alone again.