Relentless Liberation (6 page)

The gym was the same tonight as it was every week. The
sights, the scents, the sounds, even the people were all the same. She was the
only thing different from the status quo and she felt it keenly. Her nerves,
which had abated somewhat since knowing Tyler, were revved up again almost as
much as they had been that first night. It wasn’t just her inner emotional
shift causing her blood pressure to go up either.

Chloe had insisted on dressing Mina up that night. After
work, Chloe had driven them straight to her apartment to find something sexy
for Mina to wear out of Chloe’s wardrobe. Two hours and many lost arguments on
Mina’s part later, she found herself standing in their usual spot beside the
ring wearing an extremely unusual outfit. Well for her at least. To someone not
in the know, she might blend in quite nicely with all the other scantily clad women
who attended these fights on a regular basis.

The black skirt and black sparkly tank top she had on were
both so tight it was a wonder she could even breathe. The skirt’s hemline was
indecently high while the neckline of the tank was embarrassingly low. She kept
tugging at both of them in a vain effort to cover more skin than the scraps of
fabric would allow. Black leather booties with a thankfully comfortable heel—though
it was high—and silver jewelry about her neck and wrists completed the outfit.
Her hazel eyes were lined in a smoky way and her honeyed hair fell past her
shoulders in long tousled waves.

Apparently, this was what sexy looked like and Mina couldn’t
have been more uncomfortable. “Will you relax?” Chloe said, elbowing her
playfully. “You look amazing, so stop fidgeting.”

“Yeah, amazingly stupid. I can’t believe I let you dress me
up. I feel so awkward right now it’s not even funny.”

Chloe turned and pierced her with a stern look so intense
Mina was taken aback. “You need to remember that it’s all about confidence. I
wish you could see yourself the way I see you. You’re beautiful, Mina, and so
worth the attention of every single guy that’s drooling over you right now. You
just need to believe it.”

Mina rolled her eyes. “There aren’t any guys looking at me,
Chloe.”

A smug smile graced her lips as she looked at something over
Mina’s shoulder. “Are you sure about that? Because I see a few fine men over
there checking out your ass.”

Following Chloe’s stare, she turned to find that sure
enough, there was a group of three men not so far behind them gazing at them.
Mina would have played it off that they just happened to be looking in their
direction, not at all checking her out, if the cute blond one hadn’t smiled and
winked at her the moment she turned around.

She could feel the blood drain from her face. Throwing a
lame smile back at him, she turned back to Chloe. “This has nothing to do with
me. I blame the slutty clothes you forced me to wear.”

“Yeah, keep telling yourself that.” Chloe laughed. “But I’m
pretty sure it’s the body filling out those clothes that’s grabbing so much
attention. Besides, I know that guy. His name’s Mark. He’s a member of the gym.
He doesn’t usually fight but he’s good people.”

The speculative look in Chloe’s eyes as she scoped Mark out
made Mina nervous. “Don’t even think about it,” she bit out.

“Hmm?” Chloe muttered distractedly, presumably already
formulating plans. Then, as if she had just remembered, she said, “Oh! By the
way, after the fight we’re going out.”

“Wait, what? I really don’t think I’m up for going to Able’s
tonight after this, Chloe.” No, all she wanted to do after her obligatory
appearance at the fight was go home, take a long hot shower and crawl into bed
with her self-pity until she cried herself to sleep. In fact, she’d been
looking forward to doing just that since Tyler dropped her off at work that
morning.

“I know exactly what you want to do after this and I’m not
going to let you. You need to live, not mope. Tyler isn’t the be-all and end-all.
And we aren’t going to Able’s. There’s a club uptown that Brian and I go to all
the time. Actually, a lot of the fighters frequent that place. And I’m betting
that Mark over there would be more than happy to meet up with us later.” She
wagged her eyebrows and licked her lips and Mina couldn’t help but laugh, even
though at the moment she felt more like throwing up.

“How are you going to play matchmaker if Tyler’s there?” Not
that she thought he’d care one way or another if she flirted with someone else—it
was just that when he was there Mina had trouble focusing on anything or anyone
but him. She didn’t want to be rude.

Chloe tossed her hair over her shoulder and waved Mina’s
concern away as though it were nothing. “That’s easy. Tyler won’t be there. I
made Brian promise not to tell him, which means that you have to make the same
promise. The guy’s like a pit bull around you and I don’t want him scaring any
potentials off.”

Mina felt her eyebrows reach her hairline. “Just listen to
you. You’ve got it all figured out, don’t you? Good grief, Chloe, you sound
like a mother trying to marry off her only daughter. I can’t lie to Tyler if he
asks what I’m doing later.”

“Even easier. Don’t talk to him tonight. You put in your
appearance and he’ll see you. Then tomorrow when you talk to him, tell the
truth. Say I dragged you out before he was done showering.”

There was definitely an underlying deviousness to this plan
that Mina didn’t like, but at the same time, she didn’t think she could handle
him tonight. Not with the gaping hole his earlier words to Brian had
unwittingly ripped through her.

And who knew? Maybe she would hit it off with Mark and that
was certainly something she couldn’t even attempt with Tyler around. If he was
there, he’d be all she saw.

Once again, she found herself going against her better
judgment and saying to herself
ah, what the hell?
If she’d learned
anything from her past experiences, it was that she couldn’t live her life to
please other people. She didn’t owe Tyler anything but her friendship, so what
could he really say about it? And that was assuming he would, indeed, say
anything about it at all. If all he felt for her was a brotherly affection, then
a harmless flirtation with another man shouldn’t bother him in the slightest.

Why she was even thinking about this so hard was beyond her.
Maybe it was that she always tried to be honest with herself and in the spirit
of doing so she had to admit that she wished that it
would
bother him.
That he truly wanted her all to himself.

But she knew how fruitless such a wish was, so she agreed to
go out with Chloe after the fights.

Soon the fighting began and she lost herself in the rhythm
of that elegant violence. The energy of the crowd, she began to realize, made
her feel more alive than she ever had. The grunts of the competitors as fists
met flesh, the shouts of the spectators as they encouraged or called out bets,
was such a rush. It was as though she were doing something forbidden in a place
she had no business being. It was intoxicating.

As Tyler was probably one of the best fighters they had, he
came out, as always, for the last fight of the night. And as always, the moment
she saw him her heart fluttered and her mouth went dry. He was all muscle and
sinew, big and imposing.

With his mouth set in a mean line and his short dark hair in
messy disarray, he looked sexy as hell. A sharp jolt of pain reverberated
through her chest as the realization hit home that he would never belong to
her. She was firmly in the friend zone and he wasn’t interested in any more
than that.

Then the bell chimed and the fight began pulling her out of
her thoughts for a time. The fight had only been going on for a few minutes
when something pulled at Tyler’s normally unwavering focus. His gaze flashed to
her and in the split second that his attention was elsewhere, his opponent
landed a solid hit to his temple. Mina gasped as the blow knocked him backward
and just like that, his head and his attention was back in the fight.

In his usual style, he creamed his adversary, his focus
never wavering again.

Once the sparring match was over and the ref called out a
winner, raising Tyler’s arm in the air, his dark gaze landed firmly on her. If
at all possible, his mouth was set into an even grimmer line than it had been
when the fight began and the strangest intensity lit up his eyes as he stared
down at her.

The quelling look gave her pause and made her feel as though
she’d done something wrong. Something to displease him. Though what she could
have done between this morning and now to put him off was a mystery. Given the
look on his face, she found herself glad for the second time that day that they
wouldn’t be interacting with each other one on one. She was grateful for the
excuse not to stick around after this fight.

Finally, he pulled his attention away from her as someone in
the ring began speaking to him. Swallowing hard, she took a deep breath and
turned to face Chloe.

“For someone who just won a fight, he looked mightily pissed
off, didn’t he?” Chloe said in a singsong voice.

Mina failed to see the humor. “Yeah. I don’t know why he’s
in such a foul mood but maybe we ought to get out of here before he comes out
to find us.”

“Oh I have a few guesses as to what’s eating him but I’ll
keep them to myself. Come on, let’s go, sweetie.” Chloe looped her arm with
Mina’s and led the way to the door.

Because Brian had to stay after the fight to finish up some
business, Chloe and Mina left for the club intending to meet him there. It only
took about ten minutes to get there and when they entered the building, Chloe
went straight to the bar to order drinks.

As they waited, Mina noticed a group of men enter, one of
them being Mark. Mina looked to Chloe, who was smiling like the Cheshire Cat.

“While you were so engrossed in the fights, I texted Mark to
let him know where we were going to be. Don’t look at me like that, Mina. You’ll
be thanking me later.”

Almost as soon as she finished speaking, Mark and his
buddies made their way over to them.

“Hi,” he said with a charming smile aimed right at Mina. It
was nice but she couldn’t help comparing it to a certain lopsided, impish grin
she’d grown used to.

“Hi,” she replied lamely.

When she didn’t say anything else, Chloe took it upon
herself to get the conversation rolling. “Mark, I’d like you to meet my friend,
Mina. Mina, this is Mark. Mark, I forget now, how long have you been a member
of the gym?”

And with that an amiable conversation began, even if it was
a little stilted. No matter how personable Mark was, and he was maybe one of
the nicest guys Mina had ever met, her heart just wasn’t in it. But she was
determined to give it her best shot, so she laughed and maybe even flirted a
little. Unfortunately the flirtation, she knew, was a byproduct of Chloe’s
presence and insistence more than anything else.

She must have been giving an award-winning performance
because after a while he asked her to dance.

Perhaps sensing her hesitancy, Mark took the lead on the
dance floor. And while his hands remained on entirely appropriate places, his
lower body grinding against her told her that he was more than happy to see
her.

Seriously, what was this,
The Twilight Zone
?
Throughout the course of her life, with maybe one exception—which she strongly
suspected didn’t count—men never looked at her twice.
Take Tyler for example
,
she thought bitterly.

Maybe there was a full moon or something that night. Or
maybe it was just these stupid clothes that Chloe had shoved her into. They
projected a certain image that Mina didn’t fall in line with. Still, Mark
seemed like a decent guy and it did feel nice to be wanted for a change.

She had just relaxed into his embrace when he was forcibly
ripped from her. “What the fuck, man?” Mark growled, and when Mina realized who
he was speaking to, her stomach bottomed out.

Tyler got right up into Mark’s face, his expression one Mina
had never seen before. Not even during one of his fights and she didn’t know
what to make of it. “You need to back off her.” His voice was deadly quiet.
“Right now.”

“Hey.” Mark held his hands out and took a step backward. “No
disrespect. I didn’t know she was your woman.”

Finally, Mina found her voice. “I’m not his woman. We’re
just friends.”

Both men ignored her as Tyler moved his body between her and
Mark. “Now you know.”

Wait,
what?
Since when? Before she could say anything,
Mark said, “Message received,” then turned to her and smiled. “It was nice to
meet you, Mina.” With that, he left the dance floor, leaving Mina alone with a
volatile Tyler and the small crowd gathering around them.

For a few moments Tyler glared after Mark as he disappeared
through the crowd and all Mina could do was stare at his broad shoulders
blocking her view. He took a few fortifying deep breaths, seemingly to calm
down, before he finally turned to her.

“Come on, we’re leaving.” He grabbed her hand and pulled her
off the dance floor before she could utter a word. She was too stunned.

They got off the dance floor, past the bar and an arguing
Brian and Chloe, before she snapped out of it. “Tyler, what the hell are you
doing? Let me go.” She tugged her hand to no avail. His grip was unbreakable.

“I’m hanging on by a very thin thread right now, Mina. I
wouldn’t test my patience if I were you.”

“What? You aren’t even making sense. Let me go,” she
repeated, tugging more forcefully in the vain hope that he might ease up. His
actions were dumbfounding. She obviously
had
stepped into an episode of
The
Twilight Zone
because this situation was completely unreal.

Its bizarreness was only compounded when he abruptly stopped
and said, “You wanna do this the hard way? Fine.” With no further warning he
ducked down, tossed her over his shoulder, then continued to make his way out
of the club.