Taking Chances (51 page)

“And what
Lauren said about you and her?”

He scoffed and
rolled his eyes, “I accidentally called her Blaze one night, and she got all
excited that I gave her a nickname, I was drunk and straight up told her, ‘That
name’s not for you, you’ll never be her’.”

“Jason Carter!”
My mouth popped open wide, “I can’t believe you actually said that to your
wife.” I know it was awful, but I burst out laughing and couldn’t stop.

Carter was
shaking with silent laughter, “And yet, here you are laughing about it.”

“I’m sorry,” I
wiped tears from my cheeks and laughed louder, “but I was picturing what her
face would have looked like when you said that.”

“Oh God she was
mad. Slapped me across the face in front of everyone, hurt like sin too!”

“You were in
front of other people?!”

“We were at a
bonfire with some friends. That night didn’t end well, that’s for sure.”

“Good God,
Carter. That’s terrible.” My chuckling made it obvious I thought anything but
that.

He shrugged,
“Needless to say, that marriage didn’t work out.”

“Oh, I wonder
why?” I winked and a smile stretched across my face briefly before faltering
when I saw the pissed off expressions on most the people that had just walked
through the back door. Brandon was first, shrugging off Konrad’s halting arm
with one hand, the other had his phone pressed to his ear. Bree, Jeremy and
Aubrey followed behind him, the first two brooding, Aubrey was nervously
looking between Brandon and me. “Babe?”

“Let me call
you right back.” He said quietly and slid his phone into his pocket, “Harper, I
gotta talk to you.”

“No, you
don’t!” Konrad said harshly and my eyes widened in surprise.

“I can’t
believe you’re even considering this, you arrogant asshole!” Bree shoved him
roughly from behind, Brandon didn’t even spare a glance at her.

“Sweetheart,
that was –”

“You’re
smiling?! Are you kidding me?” Jeremy’s face was bright red as his voice
continued to rise, “How can you be happy right now? You’re going to destroy her!”
He grabbed Brandon’s collar as he started walking toward the back door again.

“Back off Jer.”
Brandon growled and roughly removed his brother’s hand before turning back to
me.

“What are we
missing?” Carter leaned over and half-whispered to me.

“I have no
idea.” My eyes went even wider as Jeremy tried to put Brandon in a headlock.

“I said back
the fuck off!” Brandon maneuvered out of the hold and shoved Jeremy into the
wall, Jeremy charged Brandon again but Konrad caught him and held him back.

“Brandon Taylor!”
I hissed, mortified, “What is wrong with you?”

Even with
Konrad holding Jeremy back, Brandon stepped right up to Jeremy, their noses
touching as they stared each other down.

“Stop!” I
hopped off the tall chair and forced my way between them, both hands on
Brandon’s chest, “Everyone calm down!” Once Konrad released Jeremy and Brandon
was finally looking at me, I narrowed my eyes at my husband and spoke softly,
“Apologize to Jeremy.”

Brandon
scoffed, but after registering my expression muttered an apology.

“Now tell me
what’s going on.”

“That was Scarecrow
on the phone.” Brandon’s face stretched into a smile again.

“Okay, and…?”
Everyone’s anger and Brandon’s hopeful expression suddenly clicked and I
recoiled from him, “Oh my God, you’re not serious, are you?”

“Harper, just
hear me out.” He reached his arms to me and I stepped back until I ran into
either Konrad or Jeremy.

“You’re
serious?!”

“What is going
on?” Carter asked exasperated.

“Sweetheart,
please just listen. They want a re-match, his people
alone
are offering
double
for a re-match. That plus whatever else from the bets, do you know how much
I could bring in?”

“His people?
Who is he?” But I had a sinking feeling I already knew who. There aren’t many
people who would want to go up against Brandon again.

“Demon.”

“NO!”

“I would make
eight grand off his trainers and manager! Eight grand Harper!”

I shook my head
and stared at him incredulously, “We don’t need that money Brandon.”

“It wouldn’t
hurt either, five minutes and I could walk out with an easy ten thousand
dollars. Maybe more.”

“Why are you
doing this?” My voice broke at the end and he stepped toward me again, this
time succeeding in wrapping his arms around me.

“What’s going
on?” Someone asked from the back door.

“Great
question.” Carter sounded annoyed.

“He got a call
to go fight.” Konrad said softly.

“Well what’s
wrong with that?” Carter eyed me warily before facing Konrad again, “He hadn’t
lost a match when I used to hang out with you, right?”

“He’s never
lost, period. But the last one, the guy he fought wasn’t happy that he lost, so
he went after Brandon again, hit him so hard it almost caused severe damage.
Doctors said he wouldn’t be so lucky next time he got another hit to the head.
This fight’s against the same guy.”

Hearing Konrad gloss
over that awful night gave me chills, Brandon brought me back to his chest,
kissing the top of my head.

“Let’s just
talk about this.” Brandon whispered against my hair.

I pushed back
and looked up at him, searching his gray eyes, my heart broke at the
determination there. “You’ve already made up your mind.”

Brandon
grimaced, “Nothing bad will happen, I promise.”

Shaking my
head, I stepped out of his embrace, “Then go Brandon. If you’re so sure about
this, just go.”

“Sweetheart,
don’t be like that.”

“I said go.”
Without another glance in his direction, I pushed past the group of people in
the dining room and walked toward the bedrooms. Stopping in the nursery, I
barely made it over to the chair before my legs gave out and the sobs shook my
body. I could hear yelling from the dining and living room for a few minutes
before Brandon came into the room, picking me up off the chair and wrapping his
arms around me tight.

“Please don’t
be mad at me.”

Was he serious?
Did he expect me to just be okay with this? “Why would you do this? To Liam and
me? To our baby? Why!”

“I’m sorry, but
that’s a lot of money. I would be stupid to just pass on that. Please come with
me, I need you there.”

“There is no
way I would go back to an Underground fight! Not after what I saw last time.
Don’t do this,” I begged, “what if something happens to you? Do you not care
about us at all?”

He stepped
back, looking like I’d slapped him, “How could you even ask me something like
that?”

“Brandon! Do
you not remember what happened after your last fight at all? You promised me you
wouldn’t fight again. You
swore
you would never do something that could
risk us losing you. And one phone call from Crow and you’re just going to jump
back into it? This isn’t some ridiculous excuse for a fight, this is Demon.
Demon!
I’d never been more terrified watching you fight someone than I was that night,
he was good then and I have no doubt he’s been training.”

Brandon’s eyes
narrowed slightly, “I beat him once, I ca–”

“I wasn’t
saying you weren’t good, or that you can’t still win a fight. But damn it babe!
Does none of this just scream
bad idea
to you? Liam will be one in less
than a week, your last fight was a year ago tomorrow. Doesn’t that seem like a
bad omen?”

He breathed
heavily through his nose, “It’s one fight. It’ll be over before you know it.”

“Brandon –”

“I need to do
this Harper.” If the finality of his tone hadn’t broken through, the expression
on his face would have let me know this discussion was over.

Biting back a
sob, I somehow managed to nod my head and keep the next wave of tears back
until he kissed me chastely and said he’d call me as soon as it was over. He
hadn’t heard one word I’d said. Did he really miss fighting that bad? Was it
just because it was Demon? Because I knew it wasn’t for the money.

Konrad and Jeremy
opened our bedroom door before shutting it and barging into the nursery,
closely followed by Bree.

“He’s going?”
She asked softly as she sat on the glider’s ottoman.

Nodding, I eyed
the boys, “Will you please go to the fight? Make sure nothing happens to him?”

“We’re staying
with you.” Bree answered for the three of them.

“I need to be
alone right now, and I need you there in case it gets bad. Please keep me
updated.”

Konrad’s phone
chimed and he cleared his throat, “Fight’s confirmed, it’s already going around
who’s fighting and where.”

“Go.” I
pleaded.

The boys hugged
me before walking out, but Bree lingered.

“I want to know
who won as soon as it’s over. Okay?” When she didn’t say anything I hugged her
tightly and walked her out to the hallway, “Can you apologize to Carter for me?
Tell him I’ll talk to him later.”

Bree sighed,
but kissed my cheek and made her way to the living room while I went to the
bedroom and started packing a few things. Grabbing money, my toiletries,
pajamas, a change of clothes and everything Liam would need for two days, I was
out of the house ten minutes after everyone left. Mom was surprised to see me,
but after saying everyone was having a good time at our place, and I didn’t
want to pick up Liam too late, she gave me a quick kiss and sent me on my way
with my son. Bree texted me that the fight had started only ten minutes after I
had us settled into a hotel room and I held Liam tight as I paced back and
forth for twelve excruciatingly long minutes. As soon as she let me know that
Brandon won, and all of them were safely in their cars and headed back to our
house; I powered down my phone and curled onto the bed, letting loose the flood
of tears that had been threatening to spill over since I walked out my door.

L
ooking at Liam
in my rear view mirror, I bit my bottom lip nervously as I tried to calm my
body’s shaking. It was Monday afternoon, and in the day and a half since I’d
been gone, I still had yet to turn on my phone or speak to anyone and was now
five minutes from the house. Brandon was supposed to be working today, but I
had a feeling he’d be home when we got there, and I was trying to mentally
prepare myself for whatever was waiting for me there.

I knew it was
stupid to leave the way I did, and not leave a way for anyone to get ahold of
me. But I had known I wouldn’t be gone more than two days, and I needed time
for Brandon and myself to think separately. The fact that he was so willing to
go back to fighting after everything we went through last year, and all his
promises, killed me. And I still had no idea what I thought about it, or why I
thought he had done it. My mind kept screaming at me that if he would do this,
then our family really didn’t mean that much to him, but I knew that wasn’t true.
Brandon loved us fiercely. Which kept leading me to the question that had been
bothering me, why would he risk getting hurt, or worse, if he cared about us as
much as I knew he did?

My stomach
dropped when I saw Brandon’s Jeep in the driveway. Not bothering with the
garage, in case I felt the need to make a hasty retreat again, I put my
Expedition in park and just stared at the door. He was going to be so pissed.
The few times I’d ever seen him truly angry were terrifying, and his anger
hadn’t even been directed at me. Glancing down to my knotted hands in my lap, I
was surprised when a tear fell onto my arm. Brushing the wetness from my cheeks
I took a deep shuddering breath and got Liam and myself out of the car. I’d
barely shut the front door when I heard Brandon running down the hallway. He
skidded to a stop when he saw us and I inhaled a gasp. He wasn’t pissed, but he
looked terrible. His eyes were puffy and bloodshot with dark half circles
underneath. One hand was steadying himself against the wall while the other was
clutching at his bare chest, rising and falling quickly with labored breaths.

“You – you’re
–” He cursed softly and pressed his lips tightly together.

Liam started
wiggling against me and asking for his dad, so I set him on the floor, watching
as he quickly crawled toward Brandon. Brandon dropped hard to his knees and
scooped him up in a tight hug, a sob breaking out of his chest. My chest
tightened, I’d seen Brandon cry before, but he was always silent and as
controlled as could be during those times. To watch his shoulders shake
mercilessly and hear him continue to choke on his tears broke my heart worse
than I thought possible. He rolled over until he was propped up against the
wall and curled his body around Liam, murmuring things too low for me to hear.

On shaky legs,
I walked into the hall and sat down against the wall opposite them, my knees
barely brushing Brandon’s feet. At the contact, he abruptly stood up with our
son and walked into the nursery. A wave of nausea rolled through me, but with
the lack of morning sickness this pregnancy, I figured it had a lot more to do
with the fact that I’d screwed up this situation even more, than with the
pregnancy itself. The nursery door shut some time later, and Brandon’s hand
stopped in front of me in offering. Placing my hand in his, I let him help me
up, where he proceeded to lift me into his arms and carry me to our bedroom.
Each step was careful as his brown eyes bore into my gray ones, when we reached
the bed he laid me down so gently, as if he thought I would break from anything
more. Without breaking contact from my eyes, he crawled in next to me, and
rolled me onto my side so we were facing each other. I reached up to brush the
remaining tears from his face, and traced the shadows under his eyes. Catching
my hand, he kissed my palm, then the tattoo on my wrist before releasing my
hand so he could cradle my face.