Chapter 98
When Jasper opened his eyes, all he saw was blinding light. He squinted against it and tried to get his bearings. As he moved, he felt the sting of something restrictive in his arm. The more he looked, the more he recognized the white tiles on the ceiling and the beeping which provided an annoying soundtrack to his thoughts. He was in hospital. Which could mean only one thing – he’d lost. Regret powered through him like a blade. How could he have lost? He was primed to win. He went out hard and fast in the first round. Had he given too much too soon?
His head ached with all his questions, and the machines beeped shrilly in disapproval.
“Argh,” he groaned. “Dammit.”
“Jasper?” Kait’s voice was welcome and sweet beside him. He felt her touch upon his hand before he was able to turn on his pillow and look at her.
“Kait,” he coughed her name. His throat was so sore, as though he’d been swallowing razor blades all afternoon.
“I’m so glad you’re awake,” Kait told him, squeezing his hand harder.
“What?” Jasper swallowed nervously, not sure he truly wanted to know. “What happened?”
He saw the pained look on Kait’s face which said it all.
“I lost, didn’t I?”
She nodded, confirming his initial fears.
“Dammit!” he slumped back angrily against his pillows.
“But I think I know why,” Kait moved closer to the bed, her voice low.
“Because I’m past it,” Jasper replied bitterly. “Because I’ve had my time and now I’m going to go out as a loser. I’ll never be back on top.”
“No!” Kait’s tone was insistent. “It’s because Carl has been drugging you.”
“What?” Jasper titled his head to gaze at her. She sounded crazy.
“It’s those drinks,” Kait continued, talking quickly. “Those damn drinks that Carl insists you drink. There must be something in them, something that sedates you and forces you to lose. You need to stop drinking the drinks, Jasper!”
“Kait,” Jasper gave her a sad smile. She was sweet to try and make him feel better, but what he needed to be doing was addressing the facts. He was past his prime and needed to finally accept that. Kait’s crazed theories weren’t going to make anything better.
“I know you’re just trying to make me feel better.”
“I’m not!” Kait declared sharply. “I’m trying to make you see sense.”
Jasper tensed, and his jaw clenched.
“Carl is a crook,” Kait continued fervently, “he screws over all his clients like this and leaves them with nothing, yet he always comes up smelling of roses!”
“The only person to blame for my performance tonight is me,” Jasper announced bitterly. “Look, Kait, I know you don’t like Carl, but the least you can do is stop talking shit about him.”
The machines were beeping furiously as Jasper’s heart rate began to rise in anger.
“Jasper, you need to calm down,” Kait glanced fearfully at the backlit monitors around his bed.
“Then you need to stop trying to come between me and Carl!” Jasper roared, ignoring the soreness of his throat. “He’s always been there for me, Kait. How could you even suggest that he’d try and harm me? Do you know how fucked up that sounds? How it makes you look to even think that?”
“Jasper, please, if you’d just hear me out - ”
“Go,” Jasper gave the order as a nurse hurried over to his bed to check his machines.
Chapter 99
Kait wanted to stay. She lingered at Jasper’s bedside for a few moments hoping the nurse would leave, but she didn’t, and Jasper refused to make further eye contact. Reluctantly, she stood up, reached for her handbag, and began making her way out of the ward. She was still shaken over having seen Jasper get knocked out, but now she was even more troubled by his complete unwillingness to see what Carl was doing to him.
“Ah, Kait.” She almost collided with Carl in the main corridor. He was wearing a clean shirt but the same sickly smile. Seeing him there made her think of a quote her mother always used to say –
“Think of the devil, and he shall come.”
“Carl,” Kait greeted him flatly. She was in no mood for any kind of pleasantries, if there even were any to be had between them. He now knew that she was on to him and would surely be doing his utmost to remove her from Jasper’s life once and for all.
“How is he?” Carl almost sounded concerned when he asked, but he failed to convince Kait. She saw straight through his flimsy act.
“How do you think?” she demanded briskly. “He entered a boxing ring sedated! How would you feel?”
“Now, now,” Carl raised his hands defensively. “I don’t want to fight. I’m just here to check on my friend and client.”
“Right now you’re not treating him like either of those things,” Kait snapped angrily. “You’re a fraud and a monster, and I’m going to expose you.”
“Big threats for a little girl,” Carl remarked, still smiling smugly. Kait bunched her hands in to fists, wishing she could go two rounds with him in the ring. She’d scratch him to pieces. She didn’t think she’d ever hated someone so much.
“He trusts me, Kait,” the smug smile widened. “He trusts me , always has, always will. We’ve been through a lot together. There’s years between us. So who do you think he’ll believe? You or me?”
Kait ground her teeth together and said nothing.
“Because let’s face it,” Carl continued, “you two were never going to last. He could have any woman he wants, why would he settle for you?”
Kait was incensed, but she knew that Carl was just trying to goad her, and she refused to play so easily in to his hands.
“It was nice to see you,” she nodded curtly at him and then pushed her shoulders back, tipped her head high, and walked away. She could feel his eyes tracing her every step as she moved. It was true that Carl Santino had been with Jasper for years, that Jasper trusted him. But Kait loved Jasper, and love could conquer anything. She wasn’t about to let Carl ruin Jasper the way he had done to so many so unassuming clients before.
Chapter 100
Jasper sprawled across his sofa gazing despondently at the television screen mounted on the wall. He was wearing a dressing gown over his boxer shorts even though it was three in the afternoon. He didn’t feel like getting dressed. Shame clung to him like an ill-fitting coat.
When the doorbell rang a third time, he stood up with a reluctant sigh and slowly shuffled across his large open plan apartment to open it. Kait was standing there, looking impossibly beautiful in dark skinny jeans and a plain white t-shirt. Jasper had always thought that was the test of true beauty – to be able to look stunning in even the simplest of outfits. Kait did it effortlessly.
“Hey,” he grunted at her in greeting. He wasn’t in the mood for visitors, as he’d told her over the phone yet here she was. Her stubbornness was both endearing and annoying.
“How are you feeling?” Kait titled her head to the side, her features soft with concern.
“Like hell,” Jasper grumbled as he slunk back towards his sofa. He’d spent the last twenty four hours curled up on it, hiding away from the rest of the world.
“You look better,” Kait told him gently. “There’s more color in your face.”
“Yeah, well I still feel wretched.”
As he dropped down on the sofa, she carefully placed herself on the far end.
“I’m just glad you’re okay,” she whispered, her eyes glistening. “When you went down the other night, a part of me feared that…”
“That I might not get up again?”
“Well…yeah.” She wiped a hand across her eyes and shuddered.
“You and me both,” Jasper shifted uneasily on the sofa. “I just wish I knew what the hell was wrong with me. I thought I had it, Kait. In the first round, I was on fire.”
Kait said nothing as an elephant entered the room. Jasper already knew her
theories on his poor performance; at least she was having the good grace not to repeat them again.
“Then just stop,” she pleaded. “Stop fighting. Please, I can’t risk losing you.”
“Kait, I have to fight,” Jasper clenched his jaw and faced away from her, focusing on the television. “If I don’t fight, I get into even worse debt than I already am. Since losing my main sponsor, it’s like I’ve been bleeding money. Especially since no one wants to sponsor a loser.”
“You’re not a loser!”
Jasper gave a brittle laugh. He knew he was very much a loser – his current lack of sponsors told him that.
“Is your financial situation really that bad?” She wondered carefully.
“Yeah,” Jasper sighed, shamefully lowering his head. “I never exactly planned for a rainy day or anything. I thought I had a few more years before I had to do that.”
“Oh, Jasper!”
“Don’t pity me,” he shrugged angrily in her direction. “I got myself in this mess, and I’ll get myself out of it.”
“How?”
“By winning again,” Jasper felt his body begin to tense with enthusiasm. Whenever he talked about winning, his inner competitor woke up, and suddenly all that mattered was victory at whatever cost.
“I know you can do it,” Kait told him lovingly.
“I’m glad someone believes in me,” Jasper smiled sadly at her. “I just need to put in more hours at the gym. If every round was like that first one, I’d be back on top in no time.”
“Are you ready to go back to the gym?”
“Not like this,” Jasper tugged at his navy dressing gown. “I’ll be ready by tomorrow. I just needed time to lick my wounds.”
“Jasper - ”
“If it’s about Carl, then I don’t want to hear it, okay?” Jasper told her briskly. “You two are the only people who have my back, so the last thing I want is you two bickering.”
Kait nodded and pursed her lips, remaining silent.
“Do you fancy ordering a pizza?” He asked, his eyes glowing as some of his former sparkle returned.
“Absolutely,” Kait grinned.
“Do you mind if it’s on you?” Jasper wondered guiltily. “I’m kind of…short.”
“It’s not a problem.”
Chapter 101
“Oh, Kait, that’s awful,” Anna was shaking her head in dismay, her glass of wine momentarily forgotten.
“I know, right?” Kait shifted nervously on the sofa in her apartment where the two friends were having a drink and a catch up.
“You really think that Carl guy is behind it all?”
“I’m certain,” Kait raised her glass to her lips and took a delicate sip of deep red liquid. “It’s that damn drink, Anna. There’s something in it that like sedates Jasper or something, forcing him to lose at a crucial point in a match.”
“That’s just terrible.”
“And he’s losing sponsors and money,” Kait was talking quickly and loudly, the alcohol having loosened her tongue. “If it carries on, he’ll soon have nothing left!”
“You can’t let that happen!” Anna declared fervently.
“But what can I do?” Kait’s shoulders slumped in defeat. “I’ve already told Jasper what I think is going on, and I’ve even challenged Carl, but it’s done no good.”
“He sounds like an absolute creep,” Anna lamented, “Carl, that is. I’ve seen him on television slinking about the ring like an unwanted snake.”
Kait laughed, and the sound came out like a snort which made both women burst in to fits of drunken giggles.
“He’s a little heavy to be a snake,” Kait laughed.
“Maybe a snake that’s just been fed!” Anna quipped. “You know when they feed, and they, like, double in size as their latest meal bulges inside them? That’s Carl Santino. A big, fat, bulging snake!”
Kait was laughing so hard that she started to cry.
“Who the hell does he think he is? Slithering around and poisoning his own clients?” Anna continued.
“There must be something in it for him,” Kait nodded thoughtfully to herself, her laughter abating.
“Like money?” Anna arched an eyebrow at her friend.
“Maybe,” Kait drank some more of her wine. “There definitely has to be something. And he’s done it before to his other clients.”
“Could you get in touch with them, ask for their side of the story?” Anna suggested helpfully.
“Yeah!” Kait leapt at the idea.
“You could email them or something?” Anna shrugged. “Dear whoever, did Carl the snake screw you over?”
Kait was laughing again, her cheeks starting to ache.
“But seriously, Kait,” Anna picked up her own glass and drew it up to her pink glossed lips. “If this asshole is messing with Jasper, then you need to stop him. You know it’s the right thing to do, and if you let him sabotage Jasper’s career the way he intends to, you’ll never forgive yourself.”
“So what? I email his old clients?”
“I’d say first step, yes,” Anna nodded briskly.
“Second step?”
“Take the head off the snake.”
“And how do you propose I do that?”
“By playing him at his own game,” Anna smiled mischievously.
“Meaning?”
“He’s all about giving Jasper these weird energy drinks, right?”
“Right.”
“Then let’s eliminate the issue at the source. You say that they’re in his apartment, in his refrigerator?”
“Yes,” Kait thought of the fancy unit with its sleek silver doors. “But I don’t think all the bottles are contaminated, just a few. That way Jasper doesn’t get too suspicious.”
“See how slippery our snake is?” Anna remarked coldly. “What you need to do is empty all the bottles and refill them with water. That way when Carl goes to grab his poisoned chalice, he won’t realize the switch has been made. Jasper doesn’t ingest any sedative during his next fight and should hopefully knock out the other guy!”
“Okay,” Kait was nodding, going over the plan in her mind. “But how do I make the switch without Jasper noticing? He doesn’t appreciate me getting suspicious about Carl.”
“Use your feminine mystique,” Anna smirked. “Lure him in to bed, give him the night of his life, and while he sleeps it off, you sneak out and do what needs to be done.”
“And Carl?”
“Sounds like he’ll show his true colors and slithery self when Jasper wins instead of loses.”
“Yeah,” Kait drank more of her wine. Everything Anna said was right. She did need to step in and save Jasper’s career before it was too late.
“Can you help me email some of Carl’s old clients?” Kait asked hopefully.
“Sure thing,” Anna grinned. “Grab your laptop and some more wine, and let’s get on it!”
Chapter 102
“This fight,” Carl smacked a fist against the palm of his hand as he talked. “This is the one where you make your big comeback.”
“I don’t know,” Jasper was still in his dressing gown, rolled out across his sofa whilst Carl stood beside the television facing him. After Kait had left, there had been a second knock at his door less than an hour later. This time it was agent coming to check in on him.
“You said the last fight was when I was supposed to make my big come back and look how that turned out.”
Jasper hadn’t even been able to bring himself to check online reactions to the fight. He could already imagine the terrible things people were saying about him; he didn’t need to see it.
“You went out too soon, you weren’t ready, that’s all,” Carl was bright and animated as he spoke. “You killed it in the first round!”
“Yeah,” Jasper agreed, feeling a slight swell of pride, “I did.”
“But then everything came undone in the second round.”
“Uh huh,” the feeling of pride was quickly replaced
with shame.
“Then, it’s your endurance we need to work on,” Carl explained. “Your punches and kicks were spot on; all that’s missing is your level of fitness, and we can work on that, it’s no problem.”
“You really think I can win my next fight?” Jasper wondered dubiously. He knew full well that his career couldn’t take another devastating defeat. To drop in the second round again like he had done would truly be the end of it all. No one could come back from such humiliation. Not even the great Jasper Duboix.
Mason: Inked Reapers MC Page 46
