Hadley laughs at something one of her brothers said to her and I can’t help but be jealous because I used to be the one to put that smile on her lips, used to be the one to make her laugh. Always me, always her, and I miss that shit more now than ever. Put another fucking checkmark on the list of me being the biggest idiot.
Hadley strains her neck, looking around for someone across the crowd. I follow her gaze to see it land on some frat-looking douche at one of the tables, and he nods up at her. Her smile gets bigger as she starts moving over to him.
A million things race through my head all at one time, but one thing is for sure; Hadley turned me into a complete fucking pussy.
Hadley stops dead in her tracks in the center of the bar. I know it—I know she feels me when her whole body goes rigid. Hadley turns painfully slow and looks directly at where I’m standing, staring right at me through the crowd of people. Kenny hits my arm again to get me to do something—anything—but I can’t move, she can’t move, both stuck. Right here, right now, she’s the only person that matters. Hadley has her hold on me, fucking juju shit. Glaring at me with those big silver eyes I’ve missed so damn much, she opens and closes her mouth a couple times, but nothing comes out. Then, the asshole places his hand on her back—my back—and gives her a kiss on the lips—my lips. Hadley doesn’t make a move to kiss him back, but she doesn’t shake him off, either. She doesn’t blink, doesn’t take a breath, she just stares straight at me, into me.
Hadley’s face is a mask, zero expression on it, not giving away anything and it’s scaring the shit out of me. I know something is between them but how strong can it be when I’m the one affecting her like this—me, not this idiot. After five years apart and the shit Lance told me, I pray she still feels something, anything at all for me, even the smallest fucking thing because I can work with that shit and get him away from her.
Hadley blinks and breaks out of her trance, and then walks toward me—almost running toward me. She just leaves the guy standing in the middle of the bar, letting him look like the frat boy loser I know he is, and I can’t help but grin over her to him. Hadley’s so close that my favorite Burberry perfume she always wore enters my nose, the perfume I bought her the first Christmas we were together, the smell that only belongs to her. Her right hand reaches for my face and I think we will be okay, that we’ll figure it all out, but when I look down at her face, she doesn’t look happy. It’s her eyes that have changed. They’re still the same fucking silver color that hits my gut, but the damn light behind them has burned out. Hadley looks mad—no, scratch that shit, she looks fucking pissed. I hear the smack before I feel it. Before I can process the sting on my face, Hadley spins around and walks away, right over to the guy wearing smuggest smile on his face. She grabs the douche’s hand and pulls him toward the door, but not before he winks at me. He fucking winks at me!
Game on, motherfucker.
Mark and Matt look at me and do a double take to the door where Hadley just stormed out of. I’m not stupid. Mark and Matt may be older than I am, but their father made them train with the best, and I’m the one responsible for hurting their sister. The Thomas brothers will be out for my blood, no question. They don’t put up with shit when it comes to their only sister and I wouldn’t put it past them if they tried to do some shit to me.
Lance walks away from the bar to stand by Kenny and me, and all the commotion gets Bobby’s attention from the girl he is trying to talk to. All three of them look at me for what to do next. Once Mark believes it’s really me, he comes straight at me, clutches me by my T-shirt, and slams my back into the bar, knocking glasses and beer bottles all over the floor.
“Courtney told us you were back today and I just couldn’t believe it, didn’t really think you had the balls to come anywhere close to her. But here the fuck you are and I am seeing it with my own goddamn eyes.” I see the anger in him, I feel it, I understand it.
If it’d been anyone other than Hads’ brother, he would be laid out on the floor and begging for me stop. But I can’t do it because I deserve everything they give me, and probably so much fucking more.
“If you even think you can just come here and sweet-talk Hadley to come running back to you, you have another fucking thing coming. You have no clue what the fuck you did to her. What every single one of us had to do to help her so we wouldn’t completely lose her. Leave now, and whatever plans you had here are done. I swear, if I see you around Hadley again—fighter or not—I. Will. End. You!” Mark spits the words at me while Matt and Sarah pull him off me and push him toward the door. He turns his head and yells over his shoulder, “You better have heard me because there won’t be a next time.”
I really fucked this all up. I really fucked her up.
Courtney storms over toward me and knees me straight in the balls. She hands Lance a piece of paper, kisses him on the cheek, and walks away with a smirk on her face.
While I try to get my balls out of my throat, I look at the guys—they appear about clueless as I feel. Lance stares at me in disbelief, Kenny falls down from laughing so hard, Bobby leaves to go back to the girl, and Laura appears out of nowhere to make sure no one recognized me—or if they did, didn’t take any pictures or videos.
Fuck, I can see the headlines now.
Lance takes one look at me, at my painful expression, and tells the bartender to keep the shots coming. He turns to look straight at me and says, “That shit right there is on me, bro, but you better be genuine about getting her back, because the look on her brother’s face…they weren’t kidding about any of that stuff. They will do it, no questions. And I think they could actually hurt you, and if they can’t, I bet you all the money you have they know someone that can.” Lance hesitates a little. “Before I left, her brothers were on your side. They hated you for hurting her, but they understood why. But now, I know for sure, shit got real when I left. Maybe you screwed one too many girls this time.” Lance slaps my back and slides one of the shots in front of me. A fucking tequila shot, first one I’ve done since I walked away. I pick it up and clink it with his. “To being the biggest fucking idiot ever.”
And we continue to get completely twisted up till I have to be carried out.
Hadley
Pacing in front of my fireplace, my mind is blown.
Was that really him?
That couldn’t be him.
No, not him.
For sure not him.
Definitely not him.
Oh God. This can’t be happening. It was him. Why is he here in Atlanta? Reed is supposed to be in Las Vegas doing God knows what and sticking his dick in God knows who. Why did he have to come here? Why did he have to look better with time? Why didn’t my heart get the memo to not send butterflies to my stomach after all the shit he put me through? I have to stay strong, stay fixed on what is in front of me not behind me. Nothing he can say or do will change anything.
Nothing has changed.
Not one thing.
Nobody has spoken a word to me since we got back from the bar, only looking at me like I’ve gone crazy. Who really knows at this point, I probably have.
Thank God for small favors when Bennett’s cell phone goes off. It’s an emergency from work and he has to leave. I really have no clue how to explain what the hell happened at the bar without it turning into some major blow up, so I’m relieved that I won’t have to…at least not yet.
Everyone else stays and waits for the fallout, but I won’t let myself. I haven’t cried over him in three years, and I won’t start now. Although, the temptation to burns behind my eyes, but I blink it away before it manifests into anything more. I won’t give that asshole any more pull over me. He won’t get one stupid damn tear, not one.
I give up my pacing and move to my liquor cabinet, downing a couple of shots of whiskey. The burn goes down my throat with each one, melting away everything else. If I get trashed, I can forget I saw a flipping ghost that looks even better after all this damn time.
Aft
er my fifth straight shot, Matt comes over, taking the bottle and shot glass from my hand. “Hadley, I know what you are thinking. We all do, but you can’t do this just because you saw him. Please don’t go back to that place in your head. You don’t need that mess in your mind.”
I snatch the bottle back from him and pour another shot. Looking around my living room, I can see the worry for me in all their eyes. “Guys, I am fine. Please, I’m begging you, stop treating me like I’m made of glass. It’s really just a shock seeing Reed, and that’s it. I just didn’t think I would ever see him again.” I take my shot and put the whiskey away. “Reed is in Atlanta, fine. Good for him. I’m sure he just ran out of girls to bang anywhere else and came here for new whores. Personally, I am going to continue with my life and that is it. End of the story.”
They look around, and even with my shots kicking in, I know something isn’t right. “Why are you guys looking at each other like that? You know something I don’t, don’t you?”
Courtney turns to my brothers and they both give her a sign to keep talking. Everyone has their own code and I’m left standing on the outside, again. “You say everything is fine, but we all know fine isn’t what you actually are, is it? And, Hadley…I saw Lance at the store earlier today. He said that Reed opened a gym down here and is living here for good now. He moved his whole training team down here.”
They all knew Reed was here, all of them, yet they didn’t say a damn word to me, not a peep.
“Do you guys want your knife back? You know, the one you stabbed in my back? Damn, why didn’t you tell me? All of you knew Reed was here, in Atlanta, where I fucking live, where my fucking home is, where my life is. Not a single fucking one of you felt the need to actually tell me? Did you get together over coffee this afternoon and have a big group vote about what to do with your poor, pathetic, brokenhearted Hadley? Draw straws about who will come and pick me up when I found out? You think maybe, just maybe, it would have been better for me to hear it from one of you, the people I care about and love most in the world, just in case I may actually see him out? So I wouldn’t cause a scene and look like a crazed lunatic in public? OH, WAIT! I fucking did just that!”
Courtney puts her hand on my arm, but I push it off and move farther away with each step I take. This hurts, cuts me deep that they kept something so big away from me. “Hads, I think you need to talk to him, too.”
Mark and Matt growls, but Courtney puts her hand up to keep them from talking. But I’m done.
“You actually think I want to talk to him? Have you lost your ever-loving mind? Hell to the motherfucking no. I got my closure when he had sex with that hooker on TV, and then continued to run around and fuck everyone while I was left picking up the pieces of everything he destroyed.”
I feel the steam coming off me in waves.
I can’t believe any of them. I’m fuming. “You know what? All of you can go straight to hell and get the fuck out of my house. Now!” I don’t give them time to say anything else before I stomp up my stairs and slam my bedroom door. I understand their need to protect me—hell, even with the mess I’m in with Bennett—but I’ve lived and learned. After everything, I’m not going back to the feeling that he gives me. I’ve had too much pain to ever think about him taking up space in my heart again. Bennett may be right—they want me like this.
Saving me from my depressing thoughts, my phone’s text alert go off.
Bennett: False alarm. Coming over.
Me: Yes please! In the mood for fun and since you left me naked in the shower earlier I think you owe me.
Bennett: Getting in the car now. Be there in ten and be naked!!
Only thing Bennett is good at is making me forget, if only for a little while.
Tonight I need to forget.
Forget Reed.
Forget my family.
Forget my mom is dying.
And Bennett can do just that.
Chapter 10
Reed
“Shit, Reed, you are going to break another damn bag if you keep going at it like that,” Laura says, waiting for me to stop punching.
It’s been two weeks since I saw Hadley, two weeks of pure fucking hell. I tried to get Lance to tell me something since he and Courtney seem to have picked it up right where they left off, but the only thing Lance tells me is it’s not his place to say anything about what’s going on with her. Courtney comes around a lot, but whenever I mention Hadley, she gets a distant, sad look in her eyes and refuses to even speak to me. Whatever the fuck that shit is about.
“What do you need, Laura?”
She rolls her eyes and hands me some paperwork. “Your next fight is in twelve weeks. Sorry, but Daily is sending Krystal out to go over specifics. I swear he gets a kick out of seeing you mad. And man, Krystal gets you steaming. What you ever saw in her I will never know. Anyway, she will be flying in within the next two weeks to go over some more paperwork from the league, and that’s when you will find out who you’re actually fighting. Your payout for this fight is mid six figures and if you win this one, the next one will be for you to defend the belt. That being said, you better stop with all this stupid shit because with that much money at stake, it’s got to be someone big. Bet they think they could throw you off your game.” Eying my bloody knuckles, Laura turns around and leaves.
Great, not only do I have to wait to find out who I’m fighting, which I despise, but Krystal’s coming out too, and shit with her never ends remotely well.
I drop the papers on the bench, and continue to pummel the speed bag when Lance comes racing in, out of breath. “Reed! Hurry! Corey was beaten the fuck up. Dude, it’s bad.”
Without thinking or wasting another second, I rush outside the double doors to see Corey lying on the ground right outside the club. Corey came to me when we first put the sign out saying a gym was coming to the area. He was getting picked on at school because he wouldn’t push drugs for one of the older fuckers. I gave him the job of cleaning up after the members and equipment and in return, I taught him some self-defense so he can stand up to them. Looking down at the beaten and bloody Corey now, I can’t help but think that I didn’t do enough to train him for this shit. I let him down, and that realization burns deep in me. They got him good.
I try to block out the fact that it’s Corey, that it’s a fifteen-year-old kid, that he is his mom’s whole life, and lean down next to him to get a better look. I barely see his eyes through the massive puffiness of his face. It’s so swollen and bloody he’s not even recognizable anymore. He moans in pain and it looks like he’s having a hard time focusing on anything.
“Corey, you gotta stay with me.” I glance around at all the people outside. “Did anyone call 911?” Had I not felt the words rip through my throat, I wouldn’t have known that the desperate voice belonged to me.
One of the members yells out, “Yes,” and I feel myself let out a breath of relief.
I look at Corey’s body, taking a mental inventory of his condition: his shirt and pants are soaked in blood and vomit. His eyes close again but this time, he doesn’t reopen them. “Buddy, you really have to try to open your eyes.” Sirens blare in the background, sounding as if they are coming closer. “Help is almost here, Corey. Just stay with us a little longer.”
I’ve been in hundreds of fights over the course of my career, but nothing has ever been this bad, not even in the early days when we were nothing but fucking angry and lost kids pissed off at the world did this happen. It’s a warning to anyone else who says no to them. This is them trying to kill him. I swear, if I find out who did this and the cops don’t get them first, they won’t be able to take another breath, that’s for sure. All this shit because he wouldn’t push drugs on fucking younger kids at school. His mom works two jobs to keep them out of a bad neighborhood, and yet these fuckers still tried to sink their claws into him.
The paramedics get there and have to literally push me out of the way, taking over. They rush Corey to the ambulance right afte
r they stabilize him. In panic, I reach for one of them, grabbing him by the collar of his shirt, and ask, “Where are you taking him?”
“Atlanta East. He has a lot of trauma and looks like some internal injuries, and that is the best place for him.” He closes the doors in my face before I can even ask if I can ride with them.
Lance, Laura, and I run to my car to follow the ambulance, but it pulls out before I can get to it. “Shit! Laura, get the address for Atlanta East. I have no clue where the hell this place is.” My voice sounds calm and in control. On the inside, though, I feel fucking anything but.
Laura grabs her phone to map it when Lance starts to talk. “No need, I know where it is. Take a left at the next light and follow it down. Take a right at Spring Street and Atlanta East will be on the right about three miles up.”
I take the left and then give him a what the fuck look.
“What? Courtney works there and I bring her lunch sometimes.” He shrugs it off like it’s no big deal and looks out the window.
All three of us sit in agonizing silence the rest of the way, saying our own prayers that Corey will be okay. I pull up to the emergency hospital door and drop Lance and Laura off so they can find out anything while I park the car. My mind has no sense of time by this point. It feels like it’s taking me forever to get inside, but at the same time, it feels like I’m breaking records with as fast as I’ve driven.
Running into the ER, I see Lance and Laura on some chairs waiting. “You guys heard anything yet?” I ask, feeling winded but sounding nothing like it as I glide into a seat next to them.
Lance looks up and shakes his head, his eyes show how worried he it. He and Corey have a crazy bond. “Man, I have never seen a beating that bad. I don’t even know how he walked to the gym like that.”
Fighting to Start Page 9
