Because of His Future (For His Pleasure, Book 26) (11 page)

Something’s
wrong.
 
Something’s very wrong.

Grace started texting Liam again, telling
him to call her.
 
But Liam had
stopped responding.
 
She called his
phone and it went straight to voicemail.

Standing in the center of the apartment, alone,
with Liam now ignoring her—Grace felt like she’d hit her personal rock bottom.

“I can’t take this,” she said aloud.

Only silence greeted her statement.

She decided, for some strange reason, to
Google Liam Houston and then hit “news”.
 
Grace had stopped looking at the awful stories on those tabloid news
sites days ago, but for some reason—she felt the need to do it now.

Most of the stories were old hat, but
suddenly her eye was caught by one particular story from just one day ago.

LIAM
THE LION ON THE PROWL AGAIN!

Fighting
in a highly anticipated rematch with Mack “Truck” Radcliffe, Liam Houston hopes
to get revenge against the man who put him in the hospital and battered him
within an inch of his life.
 

The
underground fight fans have been demanding a rematch of this classic fight for
some time, and now it seems to have materialized in a matter of days.

No
word on exactly where it’s being held—as the authorities are always a
potential issue, and nobody wants to see this thing stopped prematurely.

Location
is a closely guarded secret, but as news or video footage filters out, we’ll be
the first to get it to you!!!!

Grace felt her heart actually stop as she
realized that Liam must be about to fight again—and not just any fight,
either.

He was fighting that maniac who’d nearly
killed him before.

Why?
 
Why was he doing this?

He’d lied to her.
 
He hadn’t ever told her he was even
considering fighting for money again.
 
To make matters worse, she knew Liam hadn’t been training.
 
Just drinking.

She started texting him furiously,
knowing that he had his phone off.

But she couldn’t help herself, she was so
upset and frightened.

Finally, she called Easton and told him
what was going on.
 
She asked him if
he knew any way to stop the fight before Liam got hurt again.

Easton told her that he would do some
digging and get back to her.

After a short time, Easton texted her the
name and address of some club called Dungeon MMA.
 
He asked if she wanted him to come with
her, but Grace was already heading out the door.

She assured Easton she could handle it
herself and thanked him for finding out the information on her behalf.

Grace managed to hail a cab and was at
the “venue” within twenty minutes.

She just prayed that somehow she’d get
there in time to stop Liam before he went through with this madness.

The parking lot of the gym—it was
really more of an old, rundown warehouse—was packed full of cars.

She could hear cheering when she got out
of the cab and ran to the front door, where two very large bouncers stood
guard.

She tried to get inside and they shook
their heads.

“I’m his girlfriend!” she cried.
 
“Please, let me through.
 
Please!”

“You have a ticket or not?”

“I’ll buy one!” she said.
 
“How much?”
 
Her hands fumbled for her purse.

“We sold out a day ago,” one bouncer
said.

“Anyway, the fight’s already
started.
 
Can’t you hear it?”

She could.
 
The primal roars of the audience.
 
Grace felt weak-kneed, as she heard the
telltale oohs and ahs, which could only mean one thing.

Someone was getting beaten up.
 

Badly.

Grace looked at one of the
bouncers—the one who seemed the most human.

Her eyes were filled with tears.
 
“Please,” she said softly.
 
“I love him.
 
I just want to be there for him when
it’s over.
 
You understand that,
don’t you?
 
He’s going to be hurt
and he needs me there.”

The bouncers exchanged glances and then
finally, the one sighed and let her through.
 
“Go on,” he said.
 
“Don’t tell anyone we let you in for
free.”

But Grace had already forgotten how she’d
managed to enter the gym, as she pushed her way through the mass of sweaty male
bodies packed tightly together, every one of them shouting, fist-pumping,
screaming, cheering.

She couldn’t see what was happening yet.

But it was obviously violent and bloody,
because people were laughing, cringing, shaking their heads as if they’d never
seen anything like it.

“Better than the first one!” two big men
high-fived as she pushed between them.
 
Making her way closer and closer.

Finally, she broke through to where she
could see Liam and his foe circling one another in a small circle.
 
This time, there had been a flimsy
“ring” erected.
 
It was nothing but
some ropes making a rectangle shape over some old blue mats.

Liam’s face was already a bloody mask.

Mack Truck Radcliffe looked absolutely
untouched, and he was peppering Liam with hard, brutal kicks and punches as
Liam huffed and puffed and tried to fight back.

Grace couldn’t watch.

She leaned over and nearly was sick right
then and there.

There were audible thuds from the punches
and kicks landing on Liam’s body, and then the roars of bloodlust from the
horrid fans.

“He’s going to knock that mutha-fucker
out!” someone shrieked.

The crowd started chanting “KO, KO, KO!”
all at once.

Grace looked up, horrified, as Liam’s
enemy combatant stalked him around the small ring.
 
He threw one, two, three
punches—each one of them landed with bone-crunching force.

“Stop!” she yelled.
 
“Stop them!”

A few people gawked at her from nearby,
but she didn’t care.
 

“KO! KO! KO!” Came the chants, louder
now.

Liam was wobbling on his feet, and she
knew it was over for him.

His opponent was about to throw the last
punch.
 
Anyone could see it
coming.
 
It was going to knock him
out—maybe even kill him.

Liam was almost defenseless,
tired—hands low, breathing through his mouth, his face painted red from
his own blood.

And then, just as Radcliffe through an
arcing, looping punch aimed for maximum devastation, Liam stepped back and
threw a straight punch that landed first.

It hit Mack Truck directly on his jaw and
he crumpled like a paper doll.

The crowd went absolutely wild, as Liam
stood there, almost as surprised as the audience.
 
He stood and watched his foe, lying
prone and motionless on the mat.

The crowd surged forward and surrounded
him, lifted him on their shoulders.

He was, at least briefly once more, a hero.

***

When Grace finally caught up to Liam, he
was being toweled off by one of his MMA buddies as a few other friends tried to
keep the crowd at bay.

People wanted autographs, pictures.

But Liam was clearly exhausted and in no
shape to socialize.
 
He was sitting
on a stool and his head was hanging.
 
Already she could see the telltale bruising and discoloration along his
ribcage.

As she approached, his handlers were
about to push her away, but one of them recognized her.
 
His eyes widened.

“Uh oh,” he said.

“That’s right,” she replied.

Liam picked up his head at the sound of
her voice.
 
He turned and looked at
her.
 
One eye was swollen nearly
shut.
 
The other had a long, wide
cut over the eyelid that was still dripping rivulets of blood down the side of
his face.
 
His lip was split and his
nose was bloody too.

“Grace,” he said thickly.
 
“What’re you doing here?”

She shook her head.
 
“I have no fucking idea,” she said, and
then the sickness of it all crashed into her and she felt like she wanted to
tear him apart.

Grace turned and walked away from him,
determined not to look back.

But then, from the sound of the crowd
around her, and the mumbling and catcalls, she could tell Liam had come after
her.

“Grace!” he called out.
 
“Grace!
 
Come back!”

She kept walking.

People were shouting at them both and
cheering now.

“Come on, Grace,” Liam said from just a
few feet behind.
 
“Please, don’t
make me run after you.
 
I’m in no
condition,” he said.

She finally spun on him.
 
“And just whose fault is that?” she
said, glaring at Liam as he hobbled towards her.

“I know,” he said.

Nearby, the fans had quieted.
 
Many were filming them with their cell
phone cameras.

“You lied to me,” she said.
 
“I can’t believe you did this, Liam.”

He looked down.
 
“I did it
for
you.”

“Why would you say that?”

“Because,” he said, coming closer
now.
 
“I needed to do this.
 
I needed to be a man for you.”

 
Despite his wounds, even with one eye
shut, he was still beautiful to her.
 
She still couldn’t turn away from him.

“This doesn’t help anything,” she
said.
 
“Can’t you see that?”

“I can’t make money any other way.
 
Fighting is the only thing I’m good at.”

“I hate to break it to you, Liam, but
you’re not that good at fighting.”
 
She reached out and caressed his cheek.
 
“Your poor face.”

He nodded and grinned.
 
“I guess maybe I’m not that good at
anything.
 
But I can be good at
loving you, Grace.
 
I know that.”

“Come on,” she said, grabbing his
hand.
 
“Can we get the hell out of
here?”

“Absolutely,” Liam said.

They pushed through the crowd as the calls
and yells and cheers resumed.
 
And
then they were outside and they were leaving together.

***

Sitting in the Emergency Room, waiting
for Liam to get stitches, Grace finally told him the truth.

“I’m really scared,” she said.

Liam looked at her.
 
His one eye was swollen shut and the
other eye wasn’t much better.
 
“I’m
fine, I promise.
 
I didn’t get a
concussion.”

“It’s not that.”

“What is it, then?” he asked.

Grace took a deep breath, knowing how
upset he might be when she told him.
 
“There’s something I lied to you about,” she said.

Liam’s body tensed.
 
“Okay,” he said.
 
“I’m listening.”

“The day before your mother’s funeral, I
got a text from Vera asking me to meet up with her.
 
And I went, by myself.
 
I told you I was going out for snacks.”

Liam lifted his head and blew out through
his mouth.
 
“Damn it, Grace.
 
Why would you do that?”

“I wanted to try and help.
 
I thought maybe—if it was just her
and I—maybe she’d realize I’m not so bad.
 
It was stupid of me.”

“So let me guess.
 
She said all kinds of horrible stuff and
tried to convince you to break up with me,” Liam said.
 
“For my own good and yours, of course.”

Grace grinned.
 
“I suppose you know her pretty well.”

“She’s my sister,” he said.
 
“And she’s fucking predictable.
 
But I didn’t think you’d fall for her
shit.”

“I didn’t,” Grace said.
 
“At least, not at first.”