Torn (Thornton Brothers Book 4)

by Sabre Rose

“I’ll tell you on the way.” I closed the door, locking it behind me. “If you didn’t want to talk about Jake, what did you want to talk about?”

  Tyler cleared his throat uncomfortably as we thundered down the stairs, two at a time. The metal steps and concrete walls echoed our footsteps loudly.

  “Tell me about Jake first.”

  I figured I may as well get straight to the point. Tyler and I had never been ones to exchange small talk and now didn’t seem like a good time to start. “He’s been fighting for money.”

  Tyler, also not keen on small talk, barked out, “Where?”

  “In some shed out on Styx Road. He’s in bad shape. He needs to stop.”

  “Why didn’t I know about this?”

  “Probably because no one told you.”

  Tyler grunted behind me but didn’t say any more. He walked over to his vehicle, a late range Mercedes that was almost the exact opposite of my jeep, and we drove in silence.

  Once we pulled onto Styx Road, I decided I needed to update him on the situation, let him know what we were walking into and warn him of Jake’s determination to fight, regardless of what shape he was in. Tyler’s mouth was drawn into a tight line, his eyes glued to the road. The knuckles of his hands were white from being wrapped around the steering wheel.

  “Here,” I said, pointing to a group of buildings on the side of the road. “It’s in here somewhere.”

  We pulled to a stop on the gravel and got out. There were no cars, no sign of people, but a low hum of noise came from the far building. Tyler dug his hands into his pockets and stalked in the direction of the noise. Stopping under the light over the door, he looked back at me, one eyebrow raised. “So what’s the plan?”

  I shrugged. I didn’t do plans. “Go in and stop him from fighting.”

  A lecture flickered across Tyler’s expression, but he must have dismissed it as he merely opened the door and walked in.

  The noise was deafening and I was greeted by a sight I wasn’t expecting. Sure, there was a ring in the middle of the room, people gathered around the sides, shouting and yelling and waving dollar notes in the air above their heads as some sort of strange incitement for the fighters. As though they were hookers that could be lured with cash. But the thing that surprised me was the people. Men in business suits and women in glamour gowns all screaming at the fighters with blood-crazed lust in their eyes.

  Tyler appeared unimpressed by it all, but I did notice him nodding to the odd person as we made our way through the crowd, trying to search out Jake. He knew some of them. These were his people. The sort we did business with at Thornton Industries.

  “Can you see him?” I yelled across the space between us.

  Rising to his toes, Tyler scanned the crowd. “The fighters are at the back.”

  We pushed through the throng of people, earning scowls of disapproval when we walked between a person and their view of the ring. The fighters were kick-boxing and the power of their blows had me wincing. Half the crowd were cheering for the man in red. The other half for the man in blue. It gave me flashbacks to my fight with Lauren’s ex-fiancé, Derek, and the pounding I had given him. It was nothing like these fights though. That fight was controlled with strict rules. These fighters were savage. I didn’t know if there were any rules.

  The fight stopped before we made our way over to where a rope segregated the fighters from the spectators. The crowd cheered. Money was exchanged and the losing fighter was being helped from the ring by his friends.

  “We can’t let him fight,” I said, my eyes on the man’s body as he was dragged away, a hand held to his nose in an attempt to stop the bleeding.

  When we reached the fighters, we found Jake in the corner, jumping up and down restlessly on his feet, punching into the air in front of him and trying to hide the pain.

  “Jake,” Tyler said.

  Jake whirled around, his face a measure of both shock and annoyance. “What are you doing here?” he growled.

  “Stopping you before you get completely fucked up,” I replied.

  “And you had to tell him?” Jake jerked his head in Tyler’s direction.

  “I knew you wouldn’t listen to me.”

  “Well, I’m not going to listen to him either so you can both fuck off back home.”

  “Jake look at you,” Tyler said. “You’ve had the shit kicked out of you. You can’t possibly step back into that ring again.”

  Jake rolled his shoulders, rocking his head from side to side. “I can and I will. I need this.”

  “You need it why?” Tyler asked.

  I leaned over, lowering my voice. “We’re starting a gym. This is the start-up money.”

  “It isn’t about the money.” Jake’s voice was low and deadly as he glared at us.

  A man with a pock-covered face and dressed in a smart pinstripe suit, walked over to Jake, a roll of tape extended. “You ready?” he asked and Jake nodded.

  “He’s not fighting,” Tyler stated.

  “And you are?” the man asked.

  “His brother. Look at him. He’s in no state to be fighting. Another fight will land him in hospital.”

  The man shook his head, pushing tape around and around Jake’s hands. “Not my problem. Jake signed a waiver. He agreed to this fight. It will fuck my whole line-up if he sits out. It’s just not possible. I’d lose too much money.”

  “Come on,” Tyler urged. “Just look at him. One knock and that split above the eye will break open and blood will go everywhere. He won’t be able to see, let alone fight. And look at his ribs.”

  The dark coloured swelling was more prominent now. Jake was glaring at Tyler, mentally telling him to shut the fuck up. I’d had bloodlust before. I knew of the need to feel flesh under my knuckles but this was something else. This was stupidity.

  “I’ll lend you the money you need for the gym. I’ll be a silent partner and won’t interfere at all. But there is no way you’re stepping into that ring.”

  “It’s not about the money,” Jake repeated, shoulder barging past Tyler.

  Twisting to step in front of Jake, Tyler placed a hand on his shoulder. “This is not happening.”

  At the signal of the man who placed the tape on Jake’s hands, two large men stepped over to Tyler and glared down at him, almost begging him to lay another hand on Jake and give them the excuse of taking him out.

  “How much money?” Tyler asked, reaching for his wallet.

  The man in the pinstriped suit laughed. “You don’t have as much as I’ll make off this fight so take your pitiful wads and leave before I have you escorted off the premises.”

  Tyler looked at me desperately, but I shook my head. There was nothing I could do. That was the whole reason I needed Tyler in the first place. Jake wouldn’t listen when I talked to him. Tyler was my last option.

  “What can I do?” Tyler asked the pock-faced man. “What can I do to stop this?”

  “Just leave,” Jake said, his words mumbled by a mouth guard.

  But the man put his hand across Tyler’s chest. “If Jake doesn’t fight, his opponent doesn’t fight. I know this might look like some backwater fighting arena to you, but each fight is carefully planned. Each fighter is matched. Each style of fighting is carefully considered. I make a lot of money off these fights and the fighters make a lot of money off me. In order for Jake to sit this one out, I would need a fighter to take his place. Do you two care to volunteer?” He raised one mocking eyebrow.

  “Who?” I asked. “Me and Tyler?”

  “I don’t see anyone else involved in this conversation, do you?”

  “I’ll be fine,” Jake insisted. “Just get out of my way and let me do this.”

  “It might be worth considering, Jake,” the man said. “The way you’re looking at the moment, you’re not going to last. Fuck, the way you’re looking you might not be back in the ring for a long time and I don’t want to lose you as a fighter. Do you really want this to be your last fight?”

&nb
sp; “Fuck,” Jake cursed and started unwinding the tape from his wrists. “Well, you heard the man. If you don’t want me to fight that means you two have to.”

  I looked over at Tyler. He was taller than me, bulkier too, but I was sure we could put on a good enough show to entertain the crowd, and the thought of having the chance to exchange blows with him was therapeutic in a sense. “Shall we?” I asked.

  “I don’t want to fight you, Gable,” Tyler growled.

  “Yes, you do.” I could see it in his eyes. I could remember the feel of his fist against my face from not all that long ago, and I knew there was a part of him that would relish doing it again. All he needed was a little prod. I leaned in close and whispered in his ear. “Just think of me fucking Lauren and I’m sure you’ll find it in yourself.”

  Tyler’s jaw clenched. His teeth worked over each other as he glared at me. He turned to the pock-faced man. “Give us five minutes and then you’re on.” Jerking his head in my direction, Tyler guided me over to the corner of the room. “That’s what I came to talk to you about,” he said.

  “What?” I taunted. “Fucking Lauren? Did you want to compare notes?” I knew I was playing a dangerous game, but since the thought had been put into my mind, there was nothing more I wanted other than to take Tyler down a notch or two. Excitement had started to buzz in my blood.

  “Would you fucking shut up for a minute?” Tyler was angry and it was just the reaction I was looking for. I grinned and it angered him more. “I love Lauren,” he continued. “I want her back. But she said something last night that made me realise it could never happen unless I sorted out shit with you first. She said that I made her feel guilty about a part of who she was. You. You were a part of her life. You were a part of her. Are a part of her. You shared something and I need to deal with that in order to move on, so basically, what I came to ask for was a truce. I will stop being such an arsehole if you stop trying to win her back. I care for her, Gable. I want to make her happy. I want to spend the rest of my life with her and I can’t do that if there’s constantly this thing between us. I want a truce, but first I need to ask your forgiveness for stealing her from you in the first place. Because of you, I now know what the threat of that feels like.” He held out his hand. “I’m sorry.”

  I looked down at the hand extended towards me. There were two parts of me wrestling with the situation. There was the little boy who screamed at Tyler while begging for his attention, and there was also the part that still wanted Lauren and would have wanted nothing less than to knock his block off and claim her for myself. There was one problem with that, though. Lauren didn’t want me. She wanted Tyler.

  Fighting the urge to spit in his face, I cautiously held my hand and placed it in his, shaking firmly. “Apology accepted. I’ll keep my hands to myself in the future.”

  “And your eyes and your fucking mouth.”

  I grinned. “And my eyes and my fucking mouth.”

  Tyler nodded once. “Right, well let’s celebrate this new-found truce by getting into the ring and punching the shit out of each other.”

  17

  LAUREN

  Tyler stood at the door, blood trickling from a gash above his eye, his nose swollen with a dark bruise appearing over the ridge, and his bottom left lip drooping dejectedly.

  “My god! What happened to you?” I reached for him, pulling him inside. My stomach twisted at the state of his face but he was smiling. Well, smiling as much as he could with his misshapen lip.

  “I did it,” he said. “I sorted things out with Gabe.”

  “By fighting him?” I couldn’t escape the horror in my voice. This was not what I wanted. This was not what I asked for.

  Tyler realised his error and waved my concern aside. “No, no. I didn’t mean like that. I mean, we did fight, but not like you think. We did it for Jake.”

  I shook my head in confusion. “Are you sure you’re okay. You’re not making a lot of sense.” I closed the door. “Come down to the lounge, I’ll get some ice for your face. And a cloth.” I shuddered as another trickle of blood dripped over his cheekbone.

  Tyler took my hand. “No, listen to me, Lauren. I don’t need ice, I don’t need to be cleaned up—”

  “Yes you do,” I insisted, turning away from him.

  “Please,” he said, stopping me by tugging on my hands. “Just listen to me first. I heard what you said last night.”

  Colour flamed up my cheeks.

  “I heard you when you said you were sick of feeling guilty about part of who you are. I get that now. I understand. All this time I’ve been petrified of losing you instead of just being grateful you chose to be with me. You didn’t have to. You were happy before I met you and probably would have gone on being happy with Gabe if it wasn’t for me.”

  I started to shake my head. “I don’t think—”

  But Tyler silenced me. “Let me finish. I was wrong to hold you accountable for Gabe’s actions. I want you, Lauren. All of you. Every part of your life, your past and your future, and I’ll be fucked if I let my jealousy of Gabe’s relationship with you ruin that. I was wrong. I was stupid. I let my jealousy and fears control my behaviour and I promise I won’t do it again. I’m yours, Lauren Greer. Yours fully and completely. If you’ll have me.”

  I stood in the hallway, my hands in Tyler’s, staring up into those steel-grey eyes as he pleaded. I could barely compute the words coming out of his mouth. They were the words I wanted to hear, but they didn’t make sense. Why had they fought? Why was Tyler standing here, bruised and injured?

  “Say something.” Tyler’s expression was desperate.

  I shook my head, pulling my hands away from him. “I don’t get it.”

  “Don’t get what?” He took a step forward. “I’m apologising. I realised what an arsehole I was and I wanted you to know that. I want you back. I want us back. I don’t want to face the next stage of my life without you.”

  “But why are you all beaten up?”

  Tyler rolled his eyes and grinned. “This isn’t going quite how I expected. It’s a long story and I promise I’ll tell you, but would you please just kiss me? I’ve been thinking about this a lot, and if I’m being perfectly honest, your lack of affection is rather ruining the moment.”

  “So you and Gabe are good now?”

  Tyler lifted one brow, wincing. “I wouldn’t say good, but definitely better with the chance of improving.”

  He stepped closer again, cupping my face with his hands. “Kiss me, Lauren Greer.”

  I lifted my face away from his hands and folded my arms. “Not until you tell me everything.” I still didn’t get it. I got that Tyler thought he had everything sorted in his mind, but I didn’t understand what had changed, how it had changed.

  “Seriously?” Tyler let out a breath of air and ran his hands through his dark hair. “You are ruining all my fantasies here.”

  Taking his hand, I led him to the bathroom. “Sit,” I ordered, making him perch on the side of the sink. “I’ll sort your face while you tell the story.”

  He started the story from when he left my house to when he returned again, explaining the bizarre events that led up to the fight.

  I gently wiped away the trickles of blood dried to his face. “So Jake’s been fighting for money?”

  Tyler nodded.

  “And you and Gabe sorted things out and then fought so Jake didn’t have to?”

  “He was in a bad way.”

  “So are you,” I scolded. “So who won?”

  Tyler smiled. “Gabe.”

  I was surprised by his response. It was hard to imagine a world where Tyler would have let his younger brother beat him, but judging from their past scuffles, there was no way Gabe would have won.

  “You let him beat you?” I asked.

  “Don’t you think that was best? I stole his girl, the least I can let him do is get in a few decent punches.”

  “It’s just so different from the stance you’ve taken in the pas
t. I’m struggling to believe it.”

  “It’s the truth. I swear. Ask Gabe.” Tyler pulled his phone out of the pocket. “Talk as long as you want.”

  I narrowed my eyes, not sure about the sudden change in attitude.

  “Look.” Tyler rose from his perch on the edge of the sink. “Sometimes it takes a while for things to sink in. All I was thinking about was how it made me feel when you were around Gabe. It took a while for me to figure out that how you felt and how Gabe felt was different. I finally saw my behaviour the way you did, the way Gabe did. I’m begging here, Lauren. All I want is you.”

  I crossed my arms again, not letting him know how much I loved hearing those words and leaned back against the wall. “Take your shirt off.”

  Without hesitation, Tyler wrestled his t-shirt over his head and tossed it to the ground. “As you wish,” he said, a wicked glint to his eye.

  “Are you injured anywhere else?” Slowly, I ran a single finger over the rise of his shoulder. Tyler shuddered and pressed his lips together, drawing in a deep slow breath.

  Could it be true? Could it be this simple? One fight between the two brothers, some words exchanged and a change happens in them both? There was still hesitation and doubt in my mind but as I walked a circle around him and he stared at me with those steel-grey eyes, every part of my being wanted to believe him. Needed to believe him. Tyler was everything I wanted.

  I let my fingers trail over his skin, studying his body for signs of injury at the same time as drinking in his beauty. My heart began to hammer with lustful familiarity.

  When I skimmed over his left side he winced. “Gabe got in a good one there,” he said, though his tone had changed. It no longer held the teasing lilt that it had moments earlier.

  Standing behind him, I pressed my lips to his skin, twisting my head to rest my cheek against his shoulder blade as I snaked my hand around his waist and splayed my fingers over his body. His chest rose and fell with each laboured breath, and his hand covered mine.

  Lowering his head and turning to the side, he whispered, “I missed you, Lauren. I missed the feel of your hands on me. I missed waking up to your body pressed against mine. I hated going to bed at nights and finding it cold and empty.”