Fierce (13 page)

Her gaze brushed off him, and she replied without much enthusiasm. “Yeah, okay.” Avery knew he was disappointing her by keeping things platonic. It was just the way things had to be. She attracted trouble like a bad habit, and while a part of him wanted to rescue her from it all, the wiser, mentoring part of him didn’t want to get drawn in to what was clearly a self-destructive pattern. He could help her more by getting her to focus on the training, on being the best she could be, and on an actual achievement.

She had to change her life around, like he had. She needed a guiding hand, not another complication. Avery paid for the meal, leaving the waitress a decent tip.

“Ha! You lose the bet.” Rose rubbed her hands together.

“Bet?”

“Yup. If I didn’t spill my secret by the time you paid the check, I got to ask a favor.”

“Crap.” Not one of his brighter ideas, given Rose’s mischievous tendencies. “Okay, ask away…”

“Well, I’m kind of homeless right now, and you’ve got a whole house to yourself…” She batted her lashes at him, then joined her hands in what had to be the cheekiest, most insincere prayer imaginable. “I like sofas.”

He sighed. This couldn’t end well. But if she really had no place else to stay… “So I provide the home removal service
and
the new home. What next? The fillings from my teeth?”

Her eyes lit up. “So that’s a yes?”

“No. It’s a maybe. First I want a word with your landlord. I’m pretty sure what he’s doing is illegal. By law he has to give you official notice of eviction. He can’t just throw you out the same day.”

“But I can’t stay another night in there alone. What if he tries to finish what he started?”

“Hmm.” Again, he was going to suggest calling the cops, but Rose was stubborn. If she wasn’t willing to press charges, what good would it do for him to pursue it on her behalf? “All right. But just for a night or two, till you find somewhere else. You can have the sofa.”

She spat on her palm and offered it to him, waiting for him to reciprocate. He rolled his eyes and did as she wished. Rose tried her best to wring his hand, man-style, but she didn’t have much of a grip.

“Thanks, Avery.”

“It’s okay. I did lose the bet.”

“And I still have my secret.”

“We’ll see,” he said. “Girls are great at keeping secrets, but not after they’ve let you know they have one. You’ll spill it sooner or later.”

“Wanna bet?”

He laughed. “No, thanks. I’d rather not lose everything I own, if it’s all the same with you.”

“Pity,” she said. “I like Camaros.”

Rose lowered her sunglasses to the edge of her nose to watch Cate walk down the steps outside the high school. Her vantage point, under a tree across the road, was at a safe enough distance that neither Cate nor Mike would see her through the flood of students. Rose only wanted to know two things: did her stepsister appear happy and unharmed?

The answer was yes, and probably yes. She was laughing and joking with her friends, seemed to be walking in her usual floaty, carefree way, and didn’t bear any obvious bruises that Rose could see. Of course, that was never the whole story when Mike was involved. He often dealt out punishment of a hidden, more insidious nature. But Rose felt satisfied, for now, that Cate was okay. Whatever had prompted her to send that baffling text message, it didn’t appear to be as bad as Rose had feared. That would have to suffice.

***

That evening brought more good news, or rather more cause for relief, when Avery’s planned confrontation with Joy was a bust. Her creepy landlord wasn’t at home, so they packed her belongings into the back of Avery’s old pickup (the Camaro rested in his garage) and drove them to his place over on Westlake Drive, pretty much the farthest location from her old house but still within the borders of Mitre. She didn’t own much, so, apart from her clothes, which he let her keep in the armoire of the spare, bed-less bedroom. He kept the rest of her stuff in boxes in the garage.

It wasn’t a big place like Luca’s, but the property was a stone’s throw from the smaller, more overgrown of Mitre’s two lakes. The town had slapped a no-boats, no fishing, and no swimming order on it, to preserve the wildlife that lived there.

“Good place to spend an hour when things get crazy,” he said. “The only people who ever go there prefer it quiet.”

“I’ll try it out tomorrow before work,” she replied. “Maybe take a picnic. Want to join me?”

“I’ve got a few things to do tomorrow,” he said. “But maybe.”

Disappointed, she sank back onto the dangerously comfortable sofa and switched the 60-inch LCD TV on. Avery subscribed to Amazon Prime, and the Walking Dead TV series was available for streaming—the first three seasons. She’d already watched the first two, and a few of the main characters had been killed off in the season two finale. She was dying to know what happened next.

“Already seen it,” said Avery. “And you won’t be disappointed. Just don’t get bitten while I’m away.” He left her to watch it alone and returned to the gym for his afternoon session. Rose quickly got hooked, but decided not to binge-watch the whole series; it was better to eke it out, so that she had something to look forward to in her downtime.

For the next three weeks, that was pretty much how things went. An early morning run or a training session at the gym, then a full working shift at the gym—usually morning and afternoon or afternoon and evening. In between, she’d either catch the bus to Avery’s place or he or Luca would give her a lift. There, she’d watch no more than an episode of The Walking Dead each day. The rest of the time she’d spend on the internet, studying the names from Mike’s black book, or go down to the lake and read a book on mixed martial arts.

She spent very little time with Avery away from training. They’d occasionally watch a basketball game or a UFC match on one of the gazillion sports channels available, but he always went to bed early—like, crazy early, around nine o’clock. Of course, he got up early as well, much earlier than Rose was used to. So, she started copying him, to see what it took to be as disciplined as a great fighter.

“The secret is routine,” he explained before one of his pre-dawn jogs, while she was bog-eyed and banging into things and he was already dressed and limbering up for a full day of training. “Cling to it, and it will take you wherever you want to go. Cheat it, and you’re just cheating yourself.” He laughed when she stubbed her toe on the door frame. “You’re just loving my fortune cookie wisdom, aren’t you?”

“One more pep-talk and I’m going to cut your legs off with a hacksaw. See what that does to your routine.”

“I’d better finish my warm-up outside,” he said, amused.

“Yeah, get out of my face, Energizer Bunny. Ah, crap, I’ve lost a sock.”

“Check the waste paper bin,” he said. “I thought I saw something crawling in there.”

“Why the hell would it be in—never mind,” she replied, plucking it out of the bin.

“Come on, Thorny. Get a move on.” His nickname for her when she was in a grumpy or prickly mood, which was most mornings. Rose—Thorns—Thorny. He hadn’t dropped the T yet, but that would be a better description of her as the sessions drew on, as she watched him set the pace during the run (tight ass ahead), or as they got up close and personal for the takedown maneuvers and submission holds. Yet, Avery kept true to his word; he was as professional a trainer and mentor as she could have hoped to find. And with the improved diet he’d prescribed for her, Rose grew stronger by the day.

They jogged nine miles that morning, followed by an afternoon to evening shift apiece at the gym. She was now strong and resilient enough to hold the pads for the lightweight fighters to punch. That, in turn, made her even stronger and more resilient. She’d grown accustomed to absorbing the force behind an average male strike, and though it still hurt—all these guys packed a wallop—she felt her confidence growing. The guys responded to it as well. They called her over to help out more and more when they were shorthanded, or to time them, or so they could show off to the only chick allowed in the gym: Wright Hook’s honey, she’d overheard some of them saying, but she couldn’t decide whether that was a compliment or a wrongheaded interpretation of her staying at Avery’s house and spending so much time training with him.

She’d felt like setting them straight on that score, but the truth was, she kinda liked that they thought it. It proved she wasn’t crazy about there being chemistry between them. And on some level, him seeing her as more than a pupil might mean more to her than she’d ever admit. She was on a mission, yes, one that she could not be distracted from, but how many opportunities would a girl like her, a nobody on the slow train to nowhere, have with someone like Avery Wright, a champion on the fast-track to being a bona-fide MMA legend?

One of these days she was going to have to flat-out tell him how she felt. If she didn’t, he might hide behind his stoic mentorship forever. So close—sharing a home, a gym, and breathing in each other’s scent for most of the day—and yet so far apart. It had regret written all over it, she knew. The lifelong kind. The kind a girl could never forgive herself for.

Come on, you big lunkhead. I’m right here. Do I have to spell it out for you?

Neither of them saw Luca enter the gym later that evening, but when Marlon Washington asked her “What’s up with his leg?” with a concerned look on his face, and Luca called her and Avery into his office whilst hobbling around on a crutch, Rose guessed something pretty serious had happened.

“What the hell happened to you?” asked Avery, genuinely shocked.

“Slipped on a curb. Went over on my ankle—all the way over.” Luca lowered himself onto his chair and propped the crutch against the wall. He was ashen-faced and pouring with sweat.

“How bad is it?” asked Rose.

“Broken. And some of the ligaments have snapped. I won’t be going any place for a while. Took me all my time to get to the hospital.”

“You never
said.
” In Avery’s voice, disappointment mixed with anger. “I’d have taken you if I’d known.”

“I knew I could manage.”

“You didn’t call.”

“I knew you’d drop everything and come get me,” said Luca. “Evenings here are too busy for that. Rose couldn’t manage on her own.”

“Sure she could,” replied Avery. “The guys respect her. They’d make sure nothing happened to her. I think you should start trusting her more, bro.”

Rose had always hated being talked about like she wasn’t in the room, but this was different. The brothers’ positions regarding her had reversed. Luca had initially been her sponsor, the one eager to let her prove herself, and Avery had been the sceptical one. But
Avery
was the one defending her now, while Luca wasn’t sure if she could cut it after all. Interesting, and…a little disappointing. She’d always got on well with Luca, had done everything he’d ever asked of her, and they worked well together. Wright Hook’s administration was sharp as a tack.

“That’s partly why I’ve brought you both in here,” said Luca. “We need to talk.”

Rose feared the worst. Had he lost faith in her all of a sudden? Or maybe he’d decided it wasn’t a good idea keeping a girl in a men-only gym after all? Had there been complaints? Or didn’t he need an assistant anymore, now that she’d helped him get things back on track?

“Talk about what?” asked Avery.

“The Reno trip,” said Luca. “My accident’s put us in a bit of a bind. I can get a trainer for Marlon, but we need someone to take care of the business end of things. Someone who can do my work for me, who can improvise if needs be. And with all due respect, bro…”

“I know, I know. That ain’t gonna be me.” Avery slapped his brother on the back. “I blew it the last two times we tried that. But you can send me if you want. I can coach Marlon. Who’ve you got in mind to do the legwork?”

Luca looked at Rose. “How about it?”

She stepped back involuntarily. “Who? Me?”

“Why not? You’ve learned this stuff quicker than I ever did, and you know it inside out by now. I heard that phone call you made to the IMMAF. Couldn’t have handled that prick any better myself. Plus, you get on well with Marlon. He trusts you. And you’ve spent a lot of time with Avery.”

“Yeah, but I’ve never been outside Mitre, except that one time we went down to San Diego.”

“There you go,” said Luca.

“I was five,” she answered. “All I remember is the zoo, and how disappointed I was there were no dinosaurs. Reno would be like an alien planet to me.”

“Nah. You’ve been around assholes before, you’ve played slot machines, and you’ve had a drink or two, right?”

“I guess.”

“Then you’ve been to Reno. Just use Avery’s name like an all-access pass and doors will open for you like you wouldn’t believe. It’s a cinch. You’ve already handled everything Marlon requires to be eligible for a professional fight. The rest is rubber stamps, signing waivers, and ferrying paperwork. Oh, and a bit of glad-handing. It’s always a good idea to circulate Wright Hook’s, let everyone know we’ve got solid up-and-comers. You know most of our prospects; you know which ones are ready to get in the ring and which ones are waiting for a shot. I’ll give you plenty of business cards to hand out. They’ll have my contact details printed on. Refer as many people as you can to me, and I’ll be here to answer the phone. Remember, your job is to get Marlon from here to the ring. Let Avery take care of Marlon
in
the ring.”

A million questions—serious ones—flooded her brain all at once, leaving Rose speechless and in mortal dread of saying yes. But how could she say no? It was a tremendous career opportunity and an unbelievable show of faith in her on Luca’s part. Plus, it would be the biggest adventure of her life (so far), a chance to spend a few days in a big city with by far the hottest guy she’d ever met. Okay, so it was business, but there were hotel rooms, pools, bars, casinos, restaurants, plenty of chances for them to let their guards down and their feelings out.

But that was a long way off. First, she had to personally do all the things she’d planned for someone else to do, and they were all things she’d never done before. Huge, real world things, like negotiating an airport and getting on a plane, checking into a posh hotel, and mingling with millionaires in places built by billionaires, all with a couple of hundred bucks in her pocket. It was just too big for her, too far outside her comfort zone. What if she screwed up? What if they didn’t let Marlon fight and it was because of something she’d overlooked?

“You can call me for anything—at any time,” said Luca, as if he could see her dread.

“And I’ll be there,” added Avery. “I might not be much good at the red tape, but I’ve fought there plenty of times. I know my way around.”