by JJ Knight
Contents
Title Page
Copyright
Chapter 1: Maddie
Chapter 2: Parker
Chapter 3: Parker
Chapter 4: Maddie
Chapter 5: Parker
Chapter 6: Maddie
Chapter 7: Parker
Chapter 8: Parker
Chapter 9: Parker
Chapter 10: Parker
Chapter 11: Maddie
Chapter 12: Parker
Chapter 13: Maddie
Chapter 14: Parker
Chapter 15: Parker
Chapter 16: Maddie
Chapter 17: Parker
Chapter 18: Parker
Chapter 19: Maddie
End of Volume Two -- FIGHT FOR HER on Amazon
Fight for Her
Volume 2
By JJ Knight
author of
Uncaged Love
Revenge
Blue Shoes
Summary:
Just when Parker’s career rebounds and the love of his life is willing to try to put their family back together, his rising fame attracts the angry vengeance of old enemies.
Copyright © 2014 by JJ Knight All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in reviews, fan-made graphics, and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons , living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
JJ Knight
www.jjknight.com
Chapter 1: Maddie
At first, I’m glued to my seat.
The crowd in the arena screams and cheers, watching a hulking man drive his fists into Parker’s face. My Parker. The man I have loved for as long as I was old enough to love anybody.
Then the ref pulls the other fighter away and a hush falls over the whole arena.
Parker is unconscious.
This moment is so much like another one four years ago that I actually press my hands against my belly, as though our daughter, Lily, is still in there, and I still need to protect her from what I am having to see.
My stomach is flat now. Lily is four and sleeping at home with my aunt Delores.
Yet the fear is identical. It’s the same paralyzing terror that this is the time that Parker will be lost to me forever.
The handlebar-mustache man who signed Parker up for this MMA match climbs the steps, way too slowly for me. Parker’s hurt! This hulking sack of shit should be racing to his aid!
The anger is enough to get my body moving. I’m out of my chair and hurtling toward the cage before my brain knows what my feet are up to.
I get all the way to the base of the stairs before anyone stops me. I tussle with a security guy for a minute, but have to give in when he pins my arms to my sides. For the first time in my whole life I wish Parker had taught me a few moves. I’d take great pleasure in breaking free and driving an elbow into this guy’s gut.
Parker still isn’t moving. Both the trainer and the ref yell in his ear. After a minute, a man with a tie and a medical bag heads into the cage. He does something I can’t quite see, and Parker sits up.
The crowd claps, and I sag against the security guard in relief.
He’s all right.
The manager and the doctor walk him out of the cage. His eyes are barely open. I want to call out his name, but the noise is too loud. He won’t be able to hear.
I try to get loose from the security guy. “I’m going to the dressing room,” I say. “I’m his wife.” It’s a lie, but this guy won’t know that.
He lets me go. I fall in behind the others as the crowd gets wild again. Back in the cage, they’re announcing the winner of the match, like it’s not obvious.
Once we’re through the doors, the hallway is blessedly quiet. Parker isn’t really walking so much as being dragged. I feel my alarm rise again as they go into a locker room and heave Parker onto a padded table. There are lots of people in the room. Several mostly naked fighters stop to look at me. I realize there are no women here and step back into the corridor.
The door closes. I lean against the wall, willing my belly to stop shaking.
He’s not dead, he’s not dead, he’s not dead. These are the only words that will come.
When I decided to go to this fight, I thought I was stronger than I was at the last one I attended, four years ago. Back then I was pregnant and terrified of everything my life had become. I didn’t know where Parker was going or what we would do. He promised he’d make it right. He’d win fights, make money, and take care of us.
But then he got beaten so badly, just like tonight. And they wouldn’t let me go in the ambulance.
That night is so vivid. Me, trying to find someone to drive me to the hospital. Failing. Taking a bus instead. The bumps in the road. My unrelenting tears. Exhaustion. Dehydration.
And then the contractions.
When I started breathing in huffs, a lady next to me panicked and made the bus driver pull over. I ended up in an ambulance of my own, terrified I would lose the baby.
That night I knew I had to make a change.
Parker wouldn’t want any other life, so I left him to it.
Now, four years later, that same feeling courses through me like a sickness. I should have let Parker be. I’m not strong enough to see him through this. The fights. The terror. The fear.
I don’t know how anybody is.
My feet want to move. I’m desperate to get out. Run away. Hide.
But I don’t. It’s different this time. I can’t just think of myself. There’s Lily. She’s met her father, fallen in love with him too.
If I walk away, she will suffer.
So I stand there, my back against the wall, hot and sick and full of fear.
And I wait.
Chapter 2: Parker
A light shines in my eyes, and for the first time since I hit the cage floor, I feel back in reality.
“He’s coming around,” Panther says.
I’m in the dressing room, lying on a padded table. Nobody’s paying any attention to me except Panther and some dude in a tie. I hear the other fighters milling around. Warming up or heading to shower, just like nothing’s happened. Somebody out cold on a table isn’t anything unusual in MMA fights.
Panther stares into my eyes. “Concussion, for sure,” he says. “Can you talk yet?”
“Yeah,” I manage. My head is splitting into a thousand shards. The light makes it worse. “Can you turn that off?”
Panther moves it away.
The room is a kaleidoscope. Figures shift in and out of my vision like ghosts. I blink a few times, trying to clear it up. It doesn’t work.
“You took some licks,” Panther says, more of a grunt than a conversation.
“Can’t see jack,” I say. “It’s all blurred.”
“Concussion,” he says again. I think he’s disgusted with me.
Damn it.
I don’t want to ask if Maddie is still around somewhere. We’ve only been back together a week after being apart four years. I’ve barely managed to convince her we’re meant to be together. And that I’ll be okay as a fighter. Now this has to happen.
I don’t want to know if she made a fuss. She can’t come back to the locker room anyway. She’s probably long gone, already home, sneaking the pink gloves I gave our four-year-old daughter, Lily, and trashing the
m.
She’ll quit me after this. Even if it wasn’t traumatic to see me out cold, she’ll think she’s some sort of bad luck. The only two really bad fights I’ve had were the last two she showed up for.
I lift my hand to my eyes, trying to rub out the blur. It’s disconcerting, the lack of focus. My brain wants to fix it, make it clear, but it won’t go.
Panther steps back, and a hefty guy wearing a tie stares into my face. He takes the penlight and flicks it back into my eyes.
“Follow it,” he orders.
I swivel my gaze. I want out of here. To Maddie. To salvage this. Damn it. I was so stupid. It was just like she said. Cocky. Or maybe desperate. Unfocused, like my damn eyes now. This is why I haven’t made the pro leagues, right here. My own stupidity. You have to be hard as ice out there. Nothing can get in and strip you of your concentration.
The doc steps back. “Stand up. Take some steps.”
I swing my legs over the edge of the padded bench. When I stand, my body reacts like I’m in a funhouse, the floor tilting at wild angles. I throw out my arms, trying to find balance.
“Definitely concussed,” the medic says. “Let’s load him up. He’ll need a CT scan.”
“Wait, what?” I ask. I’ve found the edge of the table again. I try to be casual, just keeping my fingers on it as a way to maintain balance.
But I’m not fooling this guy.
“Hospital, bro,” he says. “We need to make sure there’s no bleeding, watch for swelling.”
Shit. The expense. There goes my crappy loser purse money. I’ll take a loss. I was supposed to win, damn it, buy an engagement ring for Maddie. I want to slam my fist against something, but I can’t figure out where a wall is. It’s like I’m looking through shattered glass.
“Can you walk?” Panther asks.
“I can walk,” I say bitterly.
The indistinct image of Panther waves an arm. “Boy, take him down to the paramedic room. They’ll drive him to General.”
A smaller form moves in front. I refuse to show any weakness. This blurriness will go away. The boy walks off and I concentrate like never before, making my legs go, ignoring the rolling sensation in my head.
But I can’t see well enough to avoid anything small or moving. I bump into another fighter and almost fall over. I catch myself, but it’s only two more steps before I trip on something else. I stumble into a wire rack of towels, and it crashes to the ground.
“Get him in a wheelchair,” Panther growls.
I want to protest, but suddenly I’m shoved into a seat. When we move forward, my feet get tangled in the footrests. I lift my legs, humiliated as hell.
This is unbelievable.
The light is brighter in the hall, and my head feels like it’s splintering. I guess the boy is pushing me.
Someone is standing against a wall and steps forward as we approach. Jeans. Silvery shirt. Dark hair.
Maddie.
She hasn’t left.
Her voice is strangled, full of alarm. “Parker? Are you all right?”
“I’m fine,” I say. “Just a little concussion. Happens a lot.”
She falls into step beside us. “He beat the crap out of you.”
I’m so damn happy she’s here, I want to laugh. “I guess I just want to make sure you keep feeling sorry for me.”
She shakes her head, which would have been too subtle to make out, but I can see the movement of her hair, swinging back and forth like a dark curtain.
We turn into another room. Two people in solid blue are sitting in chairs. One of them stands. “What we got?”
“Concussion,” the boy says. “Doc says to take him to General.”
“How many fights left?” he asks.
“Two,” the boy answers. “One’s about to end. Then one more.”
The blue man comes closer, and I can make out the uniform and his shaggy hair. “Follow my finger,” the guy says.
I can’t even see his hand, but I move my eyes around in the direction his arm goes. I guess I do all right, because he says, “We’ll hold him here until the last fight. Don’t think there’s time to get another vehicle out here.”
The other uniformed person comes over, and I realize this one’s a woman. “Should I pull him in and get vitals before we transport?” she asks.
“Yeah,” the guy says. “You his wife?” he asks Maddie.
I feel her hesitate. “Yes,” she finally says.
Relief floods through me. She’s going to stick with me. She’s not gone.
“You can go on up with them.” He turns and gestures toward the back door, which is opening to the outdoors. I can tell by the rush of cool air and car sounds that suddenly get louder. I’m guessing the paramedic truck is out there. I can’t see past the wall.
I’m pushed again. I reach out for Maddie’s hand, fumbling along her arm until I find it. I have no idea what any of this means for either of us.
Chapter 3: Parker
I get back to my motel about four in the morning. Maddie drives me.
Neither of us talk about the fight. The CT scan didn’t show anything unexpected, and the docs told Maddie to wake me up every few hours and make sure I was all right. They didn’t like the blurred vision lasting so long, so they gave me the number of an eye specialist to see in case it didn’t go away.
I’m pretty sure some sleep will make it fine.
I’m not dizzy anymore and can walk all right. I sit on the bed, watching a fuzzy Maddie drop her keys on the side table.
“You don’t have to stay,” I tell her. “I’ll be all right.”
She sits on the bed beside me. “It’s fine. Delores is with Lily.”
I’m not sure what else to say. Maddie’s been pretty remarkable about all this, given our history.
And here it’s happened all over again.
“You okay?” I ask her.
She kicks off her shoes and falls back on the bed. “I’m just tired.”
“It’s late.” I push off my boots and lie beside her. Just being next to her makes my blood start to beat, despite pain pulsing at me from forty places. But I’m careful. I don’t know where she is right now. What she wants.
“It’s not just that,” she says. “I’m tired of fighting all this. Aunt Delores and her disapproval. Lily not having a dad.”
I think my heart’s about to stop. What is she saying? That she wants me back? Or that she wants me gone?”
It’s a struggle, but I manage to ask her, “What do you want, Maddie?”
She turns her head toward me. I can’t quite see her clearly, but I can feel her eyes on my face. “You look awful,” she says.
That wasn’t the question, and I feel some despair that it means she wants some other dad for Lily. Someone her aunt approves of. Someone who makes her life easier, not harder.
I roll onto my back so she can’t stare at my face straight on. I haven’t seen it myself, but I can guess. Swollen nose. Puffed-up eye. The usual cuts.
“What if this is it?” she asks. “The fight that means you shouldn’t fight anymore?”
“It won’t be.” I try to temper my anger.
“But your vision. They said it wasn’t common to stay blurred like this.”
“It’s been six hours. I’m sure it will be fine when I wake up.”
Maddie persists. “But what if it isn’t? What will you do if you can’t fight?”
She doesn’t sound mad or even alarmed. There’s actually some hope in there.
Like maybe this just solved all our problems.
“We’re a long way from that,” I say. “I can’t think about it right now.”
With that, she shifts over and presses her head into my shoulder. I wrap my arm around her, and we fit against each other like a couple should. I know she hopes I’ll quit, that she can have me and not the lifestyle I lead. But she’s forgetting I’m a fighter. It’s who I’ve always been. And I’m not going to give up the chance to have it all.
I just
have more to prove now.
I think she’s going to fall asleep, but she doesn’t. Her hand slides across my belly. I lie there, waiting to see what she wants, if she’s starting something. Everything feels so precarious. I don’t want to screw up.
Her fingers slip beneath my T-shirt and bump along my abs. She’s being subtle, and Maddie was never subtle. Not in the years we were a couple the first time, and not really even in the last few days we’ve been back together.
I try to breathe evenly, even though the urge to take over and tear her clothes off is fierce.
She pushes the shirt up a little, letting air hit my skin. Nothing is bruised or injured there, although she takes her time, as though she needs to examine every inch.
Her elbow bumps against my belt, and she pauses for a second. I figure she’s noticed the bulge she’s inspired. She reaches for the buckle.
I’m trying to stay passive, let her call these shots. It’s painful and requires all my self-control. She unsnaps the jeans and now I’m freed up enough to escape the confines of my clothes.
Maddie pushes down on the waistband, and I lift up a bit to make it easier on her. She fights with the jeans until they hit the floor off the side of the bed. She pauses for a moment after that, so I open my eyes. All I can see is the back of her head. She’s looking at the door.
Maybe she’s worried about my injuries, I don’t know, but in the next second, I don’t care. I reach for her and drag her on top of me. She lets out a little squeal and my hands are up inside that silver shirt. I realize what all those shiny layers are hiding. No bra. My thumbs cross her tight nipples, and I’m too far gone now to worry about my fights or my future. It’s all about Maddie and this moment.
The shirt flies across the room. There isn’t a lot of light and I can’t see for shit anyway, but I know her better than anybody. Dark nipples topping olive skin. Black hair falling everywhere. She straddles me and I press up against the seam of her jeans.
