Rise (The Phoenix Series Book 1)

by M. K. Cunningham

  “Greer, talk to me, please.” She stood in front of me to block the view.

  “What the hell is Thane doing here? How the hell did he find this place?” My face must have shown how pissed off I had become in a matter of seconds because she backed up, with her hands in the air.

  “When I went outside, he was just sitting there, waiting. I had no idea what the fuck to do. Before I could make my way inside without him seeing me, he turned around.” By now, I wanted to punch something, anything.

  Walking in his direction with a closed fist, Summer stopped me in my tracks one last time.

  “Greer, I had a talk with him. He seems like a decent guy. Go easy on him until you find out exactly how he got here, then you can judge him.” With that, I took a deep breath and headed towards him.

  As I was sliding the door open, he turned around. His face lit up, and he said nothing. I closed the door behind me, not wanting Summer to ease drop on my conversation any more than she would already. I stood there, waiting for anything to come out of his mouth. He was the intruder; he was going to be the one to talk first.

  With his nervous habit, “Um, surprise?”

  He has the cheesiest grin on his face. I just stood there some more with my arms crossed.

  “Listen, I get it, you’re mad…”

  “No, I’m pissed. There is a big difference.”

  “I figured you would run in the middle of the night, seems to be a habit. So, instead of heading to my room, Rem and I went outside and waited. My suspicions were right, you did run. Instead of confronting you like I should have…”

  “Damn right you should have. You know you're trespassing, right?” The more I talked, the less I was in control of this situation. I hated it.

  Walking up to me, he placed his hands on both sides of my face, “Greer, I don’t understand why you are mad, but I’m sorry. If I had known you would be this upset, I would have gone a different way with my actions.” His right hand dropped down to my chin. “Just give me a chance, get to know me.”

  With those words, my anger disappeared. I know I would regret this, but I would wait until tomorrow to feel that. Right at this moment, I wanted to be with Thane. I grabbed his hands from my face and led him to a fold-out chair. If he wanted me to know him, I would.

  Just then, Summer came rushing out like the house was on fire. “Um Greer, I need to talk to you, now.”

  “What is it?” I got up, and my worst fear came rushing to me, was I caught?

  “It's business related, and it is something that we need to discuss now since…” Looking to Thane and back to me, “We haven’t exactly had the time for it.”

  My heart rate escalated as soon as I heard it. It was about the ring. Looking back to Thane, “Give me five…possibly ten minutes and then my attention is all yours.”

  Now I felt like Summer, the way her high pitch voice rose this morning. He nodded, and I followed Summer in the house.

  “I got a call this morning, right when I found Thane outside. Before I could go in and answer it, it had gone straight to voicemail. They didn’t leave a name just a number to contact. They want to know if you’ll fight tonight.”

  “Where is this fight at?” I found it odd that anyone would call us for a fight.

  Looking very nervous, “It’s in the middle of the city. Some rooftop of a club, the address is on the pad next to the stove.

  “Let’s do this. We need some money since we don’t have a place to set up ourselves. Did they say who I’m fighting?”

  Shaking her head, “Didn’t mention anything about that. Just that they invited us and are looking forward to the fight.”

  Worrying about my injuries wasn’t something I ever bothered about when a payday came into play. My stitches were healing excellent, and the bruises had diminished, just a bit of yellowing over my left eye.

  cHAPTER SIX

  THANE

  I watched as Greer and Summer were conversing back and forth in the kitchen. Odds are, whatever they were discussing, had to do with the illegal ring that Greer was involved in. Deep down I know I needed to get the information from her, but my heart wanted to wait it out. I was hoping that maybe Intel was wrong, but with them talking in the distance, I think my hunch is right.

  Greer looked over at me and smiled, I smiled back. I couldn’t help it around her, she brought the teenager out in me. As she made her way back to the deck, I couldn’t help but admire her once again. With her perfect skin, natural glow and her number of tattoos, I was in awe of her. Not only on the outside was she gorgeous, but she was also on the inside. Even though she played the tough girl part, her tough girl exterior wasn’t going to push me away.

  “Hey, you. So, you want to know me? How about I show you a part of my life tonight? 9 pm on the dot at club Bombers.” Was she letting me in?

  “Sounds good to me, clubbing it is.” I couldn’t help the grin I had from cheek to cheek. If it was anything like last night, then I say hell yes.

  “Ha, sweet cheeks…we are not clubbing. I’m going to show you what I do for fun.”

  ***

  I was called to work for an emergency meeting at 6 pm. Walking in the door of the office I felt a bit curious. What was so important, since I had just seen them a few days ago. Not only was the Captain and the four men in the room, but the entire precinct too. What the hell was happening, now?

  “Williams, glad you could join us. Ok everybody, our intel from the other day dug up some substantial information. Apparently, Ms. Robinson will be attending a fight tonight at 9 pm on a rooftop at Bombers nightclub. We need everybody in position and ready to go when the signal is given. I’m hell-bent on bringing her in tonight.”

  How the hell did they know so quickly? I just found out about it myself.

  “Captain, may I ask who our intel is for this? My only concern is that if we raid this place and she isn’t there, someone is going to know that we are onto them.” I tried to keep calm.

  “That is where you come in Williams. You will be attending this fight tonight, and you will be the one to give us a signal, letting us know if she’s in the building.”

  Mary, Captain Slater's assistant, came around the table one by one passing out the memo on tonight’s raid.

  “Williams, you will be intercepting any data and contacting us on the burner phone that Mary is about to give to you. All you have to do is press pound and send when you see her insight.”

  Sighing, “Captain, I really don’t think this is a good idea. I think we are rushing this way too fast. You asked me to get close to her, well, I encountered her this morning. Let’s do it my way, and we can make sure that we get her.” I was trying everything I could to stall this raid.

  Looking at Captain Slater, you could see on his face that he wanted me to shut the fuck up. His face became hard and rested.

  “Listen to me and listen carefully. We are doing this my way. I don’t know how your previous precinct was run, but this is how I run mine. Meeting adjourned” With that, he walked into his office.

  ***

  I found myself standing in front of ‘Bomber’ nightclub. I had an uneasy feeling coming over me. Was I going to do this?

  “Thane, you’re early! Glad you could make it, come on in.” Summer was cheery when she saw me. I immediately changed my mood and headed inside.

  Before entering the building to head to the roof, the bouncer at the door took all phones and placed them in a basket. Apparently, they don’t allow video coverage of the fights, and I’m assuming it’s what draws people in since they must see it all happening live. This relieved me in a way because I wouldn’t be able to dial out for the raid to come in. I know I wasn’t going to hear the end of it from Captain Slater though.

  “Is Greer here yet or did she decide that she wasn’t going to make it?” Please say she fell ill or decided not to show her face tonight.

  “No silly, she is upstairs getting ready. She doesn’t just show up and start.” She was laughing at me now, awe
some.

  “Sum, over here! I got us a good view.” Someone was talking to Summer, and I had never seen him before.

  “Ok, great. Thane this is Easton, Easton, Thane.” When Summer said my name, she gave him a weird look like she was trying to hint something.

  Shaking his hand, “Nice to me you man.” I gave him a firm grip. Was he a threat to me or just someone they knew?

  He glances at Summer then back to me, “Oh, you’re him…dude, nice to meet you, man” He brought me in for a slap to the back that led to a man hug.

  Before I knew it, the crowd behind me started to go crazy as the music got louder. Plugging one ear with my index finger, I yell, “Summer, what is this?”

  Smiling at me and then looking away at the person coming out of the green metal door, “You’ll see, just watch and pay attention.”

  Looking over, a vast muscular hairy man came walking up the aisle. Some Sasquatch looking mother fucker swinging his arms from side to side. When I say hairy, I mean dangerously fuzzy. The crowd was going nuts, and I’m sure the roof was beyond capacity.

  After he approached the crowd in front of us, a different musical background came on, and the groupies began cheering even louder. Greer was coming out of the door now, and she looked focused. She wore a gray tank top with black shorts, and she had her hair tied back in a braid.

  “Summer, what is this shit?”

  I knew what was about to go down, but they didn’t expect me to. There was no way Greer was going to be able to take this guy down. Summer continued to ignore me and go on with her business of cheering her best friend on. At this moment in time, I regretted not having the burner phone. If I had it, I could stop the outcome of this fight.

  cHAPTER SEVEN

  GREER

  I was face to face with Mike Pinkerton. I wasn’t told who I was fighting until five minutes before coming onto the roof. I had heard many rumors about him, but I’ve never encountered him myself.

  Rumors were he hasn’t lost a fight yet and when it came down to him and his opponent, that was close to taking him down, he pulled a wooden chair out from underneath someone and cracked it over the opponent’s head and stabbed him in the arm with the broken leg. He didn’t play by the rules, but then again, there weren't any rules.

  I knew this fight was going to be a tough one, but I wasn’t going to lose. I never do. The match was a regular street fight, had no ropes, no mats…nothing. People literally huddle around us and watch as we fight to stay awake.

  Without warning, I was caught off guard, and Mike lunged at me. He had me pinned to the concrete floor and kept jabbing me in the ribs. When he wasn’t expecting it and left his throat wide open, I punched the fuck out of his juggler. This had him off me and gasping for air.

  In seconds, I was back on my feet, my hands wrapped around his face and my knee contacting it several times.

  As I backed away from him, due to the pain of my unhealed wound, I could see the blood splatter all over my knee. I needed to catch my breath but knew I didn’t have time for that. If I wanted to beat Pinkerton, I had to do it now, while he was down.

  Stepping behind him, I placed my arms around his neck and squeezed tight. I could hear him gasping for air before he grabbed a handful of my hair and dug his nails into my scalp. In a blink of a second, he had twisted himself around and had me pinned to the ground once again. Instead of jabbing at my ribs this time, he decided to try a new tactic. He must have known about my abdomen or noticed me favoring it early, but he reached over and dug his nails into my wound as his other hand was gripping tight on both of my wrists.

  “AHH…Fuck!” was all I could get out of my mouth.

  I was in so much pain it was unbelievable. From the corner of my eye, I could see Thane trying to rush the ring, but the crowd wouldn’t let him through. Looking to Summer and Easton, something was wrong. Their faces displayed fear in them. Before I knew it, another set of hands were wrapped around my ankles, securing them to the ground.

  Looking over to Pinkerton, I could see someone walking towards us. It was getting harder to see who it was due to the tears in my eyes from all the pain. The crowd had gotten very quiet, too quiet.

  Leaning down, next to my face, “Hello cookie.”

  FUCK! Before I could get another scream out of my mouth, he placed his hand over it. How the hell did he find me? With all my might, I was fighting like hell to get up. I was failing miserably.

  Jerry, the man who struck fear in me, was given a knife. “I see you happen to be in this predicament a lot lately. You see when you fled from me…three years ago…you cost me a lot of money. I’ve been trying to find you since.” He was now laughing at me.

  With the knife, he started to trace a line on my cheek, pressing hard but not drawing blood…yet. From my cheek, he made his way to my neck and then to my chest. Pushing harder now, I could feel the break of the skin. I began to sob muffled sounds into his hand.

  “You see because you ran from me last time…a second person died.” Pausing for a moment, “What was that poor bastards name…the first one…” As he was thinking, he began to go deeper and deeper with the blade, not removing it from the spot on my chest.

  With a hesitant, shaky voice, “Drew…Drew Sloan.”

  I knew that voice. The man holding my ankles…was the same man who strung me up and left me to die in the woods. Matt! My eyes became massive at the sound of his voice. Since when did Matt start working for Jerry? How did they even come across each other?

  “Yes, that’s right. You see, you killed him, Greer. You murdered your boyfriend and my only child.” Jerry began to dig the blade deeper into my chest. “Because you two ran thinking you would get away and then you murdered another because you tried a second time. Have you not learned your lesson?”

  I could no longer hold the waterworks back. With the pain of the blade, my abdomen being messed with and the emotions of Drew coming back after I hid them away…it was too much.

  Out of nowhere, a spotlight was being shined on us from a helicopter above. Everyone started scattering in different directions, but Jerry and the two remained. Looking over, Thane was pushing his way over, slowly, and Summer and Easton were cornered by Jerry’s men.

  “This isn’t the last you will see me.” Pointing to Summer and Easton with the blade, “You try to run this time, your two friends over there will be next on the list of murders you are charged with.” Jerry and his men let me go, and they fled.

  Before anyone could get to me, I got up and ran like hell. I couldn’t let the cops catch me; Summer and Easton knew the routine. Making my way down the steps of the rooftop, I could see police cars pulling up. I was too late, and I was going to be busted.

  Running around the side of the building into the alleyway, I was confronted by a cop. He had his hand placed on top of the gun that was still in the holster. “Don’t make a move.”

  Appearing out of nowhere, Summer had run in front of me and stopped, staring at the cop. She turned her head slightly behind her to look at me. I could see in her eyes she was worried, not for herself, but for me. Her lips started to move, and I knew what the next words were going to be coming out of her mouth.

  “RUN, NOW!” She moved her body in front of the cop, even more, to block him from pulling his gun or grabbing me as I ran out around him. “Don’t stop, keep going no matter what.” Her voice became muffled.

  I turned around to see Summer flat on her stomach with the cop’s knee in her back. He had her arms behind her and was cuffing her.

  Struggling to run, I came to a stop at a busy corner. I was hoping I could blend in with the crowd and not be seen, but that was wishful thinking.

  “Stop, now!” Three cops were now on my trail.

  As I was making my way across the street, Thane pulled up in his truck. “Get in, quick!” I couldn’t have been more relieved to see him.

  Jumping in, he sped off down the road. He ended up turning into a parking garage and waiting for the sirens to die down
. “Greer, what were you thinking?”

  Looking at him to the window, “Don’t!” I didn’t want to hear it from him. He had no idea who I was or what I can do. “You don’t get to lecture me on tonight. I was put in a predicament that I shouldn’t have been in. I don’t want to talk about it.”

  “Greer, there was no way you could have taken that guy down. Especially in the state, you are in, there was no way in hell!”

  He paused for a brief second to see if I would respond, I didn’t.

  “Who was that guy with the knife Greer, you looked terrified.” He looked at me with pity in his eyes, I hated that.

  “Tonight, was a mistake, you shouldn’t have been there. I don’t know what I was thinking.” Taking a deep breath to calm me down, “From here on out, we can’t be together, friends or not, it’s too dangerous.”

  I got out of the truck and started to walk away when he came rushing after me. He held my face in both of his hands, staring into my eyes, not letting me look elsewhere. I don’t know why but just then a flood of tears came rushing out of me.

  Looking into his eyes, one last time, “You have been more than generous to me. I thank you for everything you have done.” A single sob had escaped my throat. “The brief time I have known you, you’ve sparked something in me, something I didn’t think I could ever have again.”

  He had a pained look in his eyes. “Greer, why does this sound like a goodbye?”

  Pausing for a moment, I leaned in, tugging at his hair to bring him closer to me. We are now face to face with each other. Tears streaming down my cheeks because I knew this was goodbye, “I need you to do me a favor. Please…get Summer out.” I kissed him until he passed out.

  Over the course of three years, I had learned a few things. Applying a generous amount of pressure behind the earlobe would make someone pass out. Not long, but enough to get a head start.

  Although he had a nice build and was much taller than myself, I had caught Thane before he hit the parking garage floor. I laid him down gently and left in a rush. I had no idea how long he would be out for, so I had to hurry. I made my way to the street and hailed a taxi. The driver gave me a lift to my place, at least a mile before my dirt road, I had him pull over.