by Lane Hart
"This is the new me. You should've seen me a few weeks ago. I had braces, frizzy brown hair, and last but not least, very thick glasses."
"Okay, you mighta been a tad dorky lookin' with all that, but who wouldn't?"
"I was an invisible dork until I got a makeover and started dressing like a girl. Suddenly guys started noticing me." I thought Jude had been one of the guys to notice me but nope, he was suckered into going out with me for a fucking title fight. Linc was right, Jude doesn't deserve this matchup. After his last few losses it must have taken some serious pull by my dad to get him in the cage for a chance at the IFC championship belt.
"So where are you from?" I ask trying not to think about the stupid fight.
"Raleigh."
"North Carolina?" I ask with a grin.
"Yep."
"I was supposed to start at Duke this fall."
"No shit?" he asks. "That's right down the road. Hold on, why'd you say supposed to?"
"I've been...considering staying at home, and just going to Georgetown instead."
"What! No, doll. Duke is top of the line, and harder than hell to get into."
"Yeah, I know."
"So what's with the hesitancy?" he asks.
My eyes water and I can't even say his name.
"Oh shit. Get back in the car. It's time for phase two of comic relief," Linc says, getting to his feet and pulling me by my hands to mine.
"We don't have to leave," I tell him with a sniffle.
"Yeah we do," he mutters, dragging me back to the car.
He pulls up some directions on his phone, which guide us to our destination of 10700 Fairfax Boulevard. Whatever that is.
I still have no idea what he's up to when we pull into a Party City parking lot. Inside the big retail store Linc tells me to pick out a balloon and wait for him, then he vanishes. I've made my way through half the store when I finally see Linc again, or rather Link.
"Oh my God!" I exclaim before I laugh until I snort.
Linc, all six feet, one-hundred and seventy pounds of him is wearing the green dress type tunic, complete with a brown belt to hold his sword. He has the gold shield in front of him and the pointy green hood pulled up over his head. I end up on my knees on the floor laughing so hard I almost pee myself. He's so big and muscular, and the small, goofy green outfit is so darn funny on him. He looks like the Jolly Green Giant. Wait, something's missing. "Where's...where's the tights?" I ask staring at his bare muscular legs.
"Unfortunately they didn't fit, and I may or may not have torn 'em," he says with a hint of red coloring his cheeks.
"Bahhh!" I fall over laughing again, picturing him struggling to tug tights up his huge quads.
"All right, can you pull yourself together enough to take a picture? I gotta send one to my parents."
I nod and get my snickers under control to accept his phone and snap a few photos from my position still on the linoleum floor. I can't resist sending one to myself to look at whenever I'm sad. Which will probably be often now. I might need a life sized poster.
After I hit the send button, I curse, feeling down the sides of my dress with no pockets. Jude still has my damn phone!
"What?" Linc asks.
"Um, I just sent one of them to myself."
"Okay?"
"He has my phone. I'm so sorry," I say with a wince, figuring he'll be pissed to have that ridiculous picture in his opponent's hands. After he's gone out of his way to make me feel better, I just fucked him over.
"No biggie," he says coolly with a shrug, taking his phone back. "Hell, I might make this my new fight day attire. What do ya think? Nothing invokes fear in your opponents like a motherfuckin' sword." He pulls out his plastic toy and dances around like a fencer. "I'll even use the Zelda song as my intro."
I smile and shake my head. "Not unless you find some tights. The outfit is just not complete without them."
"You're right," he agrees. "Come on, let's go check out."
After Linc changes back into his jeans and t-shirt, we go up to the check-out counter. He pays for the costume and a balloon with butterflies that reads, "Get Well Soon" that he hands to me.
"She has a broken heart," he tells the cashier who is blatantly checking him out while she checks him out. "And I'm gonna' be fightin' the dude who broke it tomorrow night."
"Oh my God! You're Linc Abrams!" the cashier says in comprehension, fanning her face like she's going to pass out. Ugh.
"I am also Link," he says, holding up his purchased costume. "Don't tell anyone about this though. I'd hate to lose my badass reputation."
"Your secret's safe with me," she says with a wink. "Good luck!"
"Awesome. Thanks," he tells her and with a wave we head out the door. "Now, where to?"
The sun's starting to set which means it's about nine o'clock. I don't want to face them yet. I can't.
"Back to the hotel and order some supper?" Linc offers. "I don't know about you, but I'm starvin' and need to guzzle some fluids."
"Sure," I agree.
Chapter Twenty-One
Jude
I paced the hell out of the carpet in my hotel room, then finally came to sit in the lobby. I know Linc Abrams's whole camp is staying here too, I just didn't know where or I'd be there. I could ask the front desk but I'm afraid going to his room would end up with me fighting him a day early.
I feel the phone in my pocket vibrate so I pull it out hoping to hear from Sadie, but nope nothing. It must have been her phone. I grab hers and see she has a new photo text message from a nine-one-nine area code. I unlock the phone and go to the messages to enlarge it. What the fuck?!?
It's a picture of Linc motherfucking Abrams in some weird ass green costume. Is he wearing a dress?
It's been hours and Sadie's still with that bastard! While I'm holding her phone another picture comes in. This one is of Sadie. She's sitting back on her knees, laughing in what looks like a retail store. She looks...happy, and nothing like she's in the pain I'm currently in. She's also in the same fucking position I found her in with that asshole Matt. The thought of her getting on her knees for Linc...oh fuck!
"What are you doing?" Jax asks, hovering above me.
"Waiting."
"Get back to your room, or what's left of it."
I'm gonna have a helluva bill for all the shit I've broken. "No."
"Jude, nothing good is going to come of this. Save it for tomorrow."
"I need to see her. I need to try to talk to her," I explain. The tightness in my chest constricts even more, if that's possible. I can't fucking breathe.
"She doesn't want to see you right now, so give her some space."
"Yeah and here's the thing about space, the bigger the space gets the less chance of ever closing it."
"And you trying to force her to talk to you isn't going to help either, especially if she's not alone, which she probably won't be."
"I know," I say, holding up the pictures on her phone for him to see. "I just...I don't want her throwing away everything between the two of us because she's pissed."
"You mean because you fucked up."
"Yeah."
"You seriously think she'd fuck him?" he asks, making me cringe at the thought I'd been trying really hard to keep out of my mind. "I mean, he's wearing a damn dress."
"I don’t know," I reply. "No, she wouldn't do that." Would she? "No way."
He glances around, and then mutters, "Oh shit," before sitting on top of me, crushing me into the lobby chair.
"What the fuck, Jax!"
I try to throw him off but he plants his feet on the floor and won't budge. Then I see them and gasp until I choke on too much oxygen.
Sadie and Linc are back.
From my seat, I can tell she's holding a balloon of some sort and his hand rests way too comfortably on her lower back. When they get on the elevator together, I throw Jax off of me but he jumps right back in my path.
"Don't," he says in my face. "You can't, Jude, or y
ou'll never fight in the cage again."
Right now I honestly don't give a shit if I ever fight professionally again. All I care about is Sadie. But I can't make her talk to me and I can't go to his room or I'll kill him.
But I do have his cell phone number. I pull out her phone to send him a short message.
"You better not lay a fucking finger on her."
The almost instantaneous response is just two words, but seeing them makes me even more homicidal.
"Too late."
…
Sadie
I feel like I'm doing something wrong, heading to another man's room. But Linc seems like a genuinely nice guy who’s just easy to be around, and he hasn't tried to make any moves on me.
"My crew is stayin' in the penthouse suite, so I apologize in advance if they're asses, which they probably will be," he says when the elevator stops on the fourth floor of the small hotel. Masculine voices and laughter come from the room all the way back at the elevators.
Swiping his key card, Linc walks in with me behind him and all the noise in the huge room comes to a sudden halt, everything except for the TV that continues to blare ridiculous videos.
"Hey, guys, this is Sadie Briggs," Linc says. "Sadie, this is my coach, Dave. Teammates Jordan, Nate, and Senn, and our tagalongs, Josh and Chris."
"Hi," I say quietly to all the guys lounging around in the living room.
"Is it true? She's Malone's girl?" one of the guys asks.
"Was," I correct and they continue giving me suspicious, if not disapproving, looks.
"Look, she's had a rough day, so don't give her any shit," Linc tells them.
"You should take her back to her daddy's room," one of the skinny guys with a southern accent says. I'd guess he would be flyweight if he was a fighter.
"Coach Briggs fucked her over, too, so no, Josh, I'm not gonna take her anywhere. Keep your mouth shut or you can get the hell out."
"You need to be rehydrating," the one I think is Dave, his coach and/or manager says handing Linc a bottle of water. He's older than the rest of the group by at least ten years. “What’s in the bag?”
"You should show instead of tell," I say to Linc who finishes off the water in seconds.
"Do you know how much hell they'll gimme?" he asks with a smile.
"Show us! Let us see," they shout.
"Fine, but only 'cause it makes her laugh," he says, heading for one of the bedrooms. He pulls his shirt over his head and is starting on his jeans before he thinks to turn around and shut the door. Not that I notice or anything.
"So, Sadie, right? You gonna give us all the dirt on Malone?" a tall skinny ginger asks.
"Um, no. I'd rather not talk about him."
"Malone won't be talkin' tomorrow after Linc knocks his ass out," the Josh kid says and then snickers. I'm pissed at Jude, but I don't want him to get hurt.
"We're about to order something from downstairs. You hungry?" a big guy with shoulder length brown hair asks. I think his name is Senn.
"Sure, but I don't have my purse or anything with me, though," I tell him.
"Oh, please. Don't worry about that shit," he says with an eye roll. "Just tell me what ya want."
That's about the time Linc comes back into the room. After three beats of silence, the room erupts into laughter.
"Whatcha think, Dave? Will the league let me wear this tomorrow?" he asks his manager after everyone somewhat quiets down.
"Not unless you want to get booed out of the place." The man laughs. "And lose all of your sponsors."
After everyone decides on their order it's called in and we're eating at the table thirty minutes later, Linc retiring his Link costume for the night.
"You load up on carbs the night before too?" I ask, nodding to Linc's pasta dish when I sit down to eat my burger and fries.
"I can't be givin' away all my secrets," he jokes with a wink.
"Yo, how do we know she's not a spy," one of the guys— Chris, I believe— asks.
Linc reaches over and pops him upside the back of his head with his big palm. "Because I approached her first, and I'm the one who told her the shit she didn't know, jackass."
Half an hour or so later there's a knock on the room door, which reduces things to a hush. Everyone looks at each other in question until Dave gets up and opens it, letting Page in. Page?
"Who ordered the hot blonde with killer legs?" he calls out.
"Shut your mouth, man. That's fuckin’ Jax Malone's wife," Senn says.
"Hi, guys. Sadie, can we talk? In the hall?" she asks.
I nod and reluctantly get up from the table. Linc grabs my arm and stands up beside me before I make it two steps.
"You can stay here tonight if you want," he says softly. "I promise no one will mess with you."
"Thanks," I say with a nod before leaving the room with Page.
She gives me a hug and then starts her spill. "I'm sorry Jude and your dad hurt you," she says. "I'm not sure if you know this, but Jude called me the night of the prom. He sounded nervous and excited and wanted to make sure you were of legal age." She smiles. "He told me when we first met a few years ago that he was a virgin, and was waiting to be with someone special, not just some random girl who happened to come along."
Of course that activates the tears again.
"He told me he was sure he wanted to be with you, and he even admitted your dad had asked him to take you to prom. I told him he needed to come clean with you first, that what started out as a favor changed. He really cared about you and wanted to be with you. He told me he was going to be honest with you as soon as he hung up."
"He didn't," I say.
"Because he didn't want to mess up what he'd waited almost twenty-two years to finally feel so right. And he didn't want to hurt you."
"There were plenty of opportunities after that."
"There were. And he should’ve told you, but by then he was falling in love with you, and didn't want to risk losing you like he thinks he did today."
My legs are no longer stable, sending me sliding down against the wall until my butt hits the floor.
"Jude's a mess," Page says, taking a seat beside me. "I've never seen him like this, so upset and angry. He's broken almost everything in his room. Jax, his dad, and yours are having to watch him constantly to make sure he doesn't come looking for Linc. Are you trying to get back at him? Is that what you're doing with Linc? Hurting Jude because he hurt you?"
"That's not...I'm not here because...Linc's just being a nice guy."
"Are you sure? Your motives and Linc's intentions?"
"Yes." I need to keep my distance from the men who hurt me, and Linc is only being accommodating. I don't feel like he has any other agendas.
"Please just come back upstairs with me tonight. You can stay in the room with me and Xavier and Jax can stay with Jude."
"No thanks."
"Are you going to stay here? With him?" she asks, nodding to the room behind us.
"Maybe."
"That's your decision, but if you do, Jude will assume the worst even if it's completely innocent, which is only going to cause more problems. It might even be more than he can forgive and forget."
"And maybe what he and my dad did is something I can't forgive or forget," I say, getting to my feet. "Thanks, Page, but I don't want to see him or hear his bullshit. Either of them. My dad pawned me off on a man who he knew didn't want a damn thing to do with me. He only wanted a fight! I was a bargaining chip. Our whole relationship was based on pity, not him actually giving a shit about me. He could've told me and my dad the truth, but he lied to both of us for weeks! So no, I don't want anything to do with them, and I guess I'll see you tomorrow."
I knock swiftly on the door, and when Linc opens it to let me back into their room, he gives me a supportive hug and hands me a box of tissues. Then he leads me to his bedroom, shutting out the other guys and the rest of the world.
…
Jude
Page walks th
rough the hotel room door and shakes her head.
"Fuck!" I exclaim to the ceiling. It's eleven o'clock. If Sadie hasn't come back by now she's staying with him all night.
"Linc and all his friends actually seem like decent guys."
"Page," Jax warns her.
"Friends?" I ask, feeling like a boiling pot with my lid about to pop off.
"Yeah, there were like five or six other guys in the suite. I went in, and I swear there was nothing devious going on, Jude. They were all just eating at the table and watching TV."
"And she's staying there tonight? With him?" I ask.
Page drops her gaze from mine and looks over at Jax.
"Fuck!"
I don't know if I can take this shit. It's killing me to be away from her because I miss her so goddamn much. I know I should've been honest with her from the start, and that's all on me. But I'm pissed because she should fucking know how much I love her after all the weeks the two of us have been together. Every second we've been together I was with her because I wanted to be. Hell, the fact that I lost my virginity to her should be enough to show her I cared about her more than anyone else from the very first night. So for her to sit her ass in that bastard's room knowing how much she's hurting me makes me so enraged I want to fucking destroy everything I can get my hands on. I fucked up, but I don't deserve this degree of retribution from her.
"Maybe I should go talk to her," Coach says.
"No," Page says right away, shaking her head. "Trust me, you'll just piss her off more and push her further away."
Sadie's phone chimes with a message from where I left it charging on the hotel table. I launch myself at it to see what the fuck it says now.
"Rest up for tomorrow's fight, Malone. You'll probably get more zzzs than Linc since him and your girl just went into his room and are hitting the sack hard."
"Goddamn it! How could she?" I fling her fucking phone across the room, shattering the sliding glass door with it and hitting my knees at the same time. Then, like the pussy I am, I hang my head and cry.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Sadie
I stand at the end of the aisle after the last prelim fight on the card ends. Next up is the moment we've all been waiting for, Linc and Jude's title fight. Everyone is on their feet when the lights dim and the announcer gives Jude's intro with all his stats and record.
