Kissing the Canvas (Fighting For Love Book 3) (4 page)

“Like I told you before, my dear. Blackmail is such an ugly word. I much prefer ‘
incentivize
.’” He shoots her a warning look. “Besides, I didn’t hear Grayson complaining when he was sharing in the spoils.”

Adriana frowns, confused at this loop that she’s been thrown for. “The spoils? What are you talking about?”

“You really have no idea, do you?” Morrison shakes his head at her in mock-fascination. “If I were you, Adriana, I would be more careful about the kind of people that I associate with.”

“The spoils?” She prompts him, not allowing him the luxury of going off on one of these tangents that he so seems to enjoy over how little she knows Grayson.

“I didn’t force Grayson into the car with me that night outside the warehouse. He came of his own free will. He left the scene of a crime that he’d committed and took up my offer of a better life.” Morrison shrugs as if to say that it was exactly that simple.

“A better life? How?” Adriana’s father had instilled in her a suspicion of any easy ride. He used to tell her that there was no such thing as anyone doing something for anyone else out of the kindness of their own heart; there had to be something in it for them. When she was little, she’d thought that he was being negative, a hangover from the way her mother had treated him.

“I’m a speculator. Some people speculate on the stock market; I speculate in sport, mostly fights: MMA, boxing, legitimate or otherwise.” He looks at her with false apology.

“You’re a bookie.” Adriana’s father had also always taught her to call a spade a spade, no matter how it was dressed up to look like something else.

“In common parlance, I suppose that’s correct.” Morrison watches her, waiting for her next question.

“So, you helped train Grayson to win in these illegal fights. You bet on him and split the winnings.” Adriana follows the breadcrumbs that Morrison has laid for her, reaching the logical conclusion. It wasn’t exactly the most honorable way to earn money, but there was nothing so terrible, aside from the fact that it was all illegal. Adriana wonders absently where his mother thought all the money was coming from. Perhaps she didn’t ask…she probably figured that she didn’t want to know.

“Not exactly, you’re halfway there though. You’re sharp.” It’s a compliment said in a way that’s so patronizing it’s impossible to take it as such. “We didn’t just split the spoils when he won; we split them when he lost as well.” He looks at Adriana like he’s sharing a secret with her.

Then, it dawns on her what Morrison is trying to tell her. “You knew when he was going to lose because you’d tell him to throw the fight. So whatever happened to Grayson in that ring, win or lose, you both got paid.” She tries to line up this image of Grayson with the one that she has in her mind. The man who she knows would never throw a fight. He would never do anything but give his all; he didn’t know how to live any other way.

“Exactly, my dear! And obviously the more specific you can be, the more you can win. For example, if we bet on Grayson going down in the first, we could make a nice little package, enough to split between two.” Morrison is almost rubbing his hands with glee at the memory of all that money.

“So Grayson made you a lot of money.” Adriana tilts her head at Morrison, seeing him for the greedy little man he is. “And him going legit means that you don’t get to dictate whether he wins or loses, so you don’t have a sure thing anymore.” As Morrison’s expression darkens, Adriana realizes that she’s hit on the exact point. “That’s what this is all about? Money? A couple hundred dollars is enough for you to kidnap someone? Wow, times really must be tough.” She’s almost disappointed that her life is being put into jeopardy for a few bills.

“Just when I think you’re getting it, you say something that proves you’re as silly as all those other bimbos Grayson has had.” Morrison’s tone is bitter. “You think I would go to these lengths of a couple of Benjamin Franklins?” He laughs, but it sounds like it’s something he doesn’t have much practice with. “Grayson’s next match, for the state title, there’s close to a million dollars riding on that fight, and I don’t intend to lose it.”

Adriana’s eyes widen at Morrison’s words. A million dollars was a figure that she couldn’t even begin to fathom, not really. They were figures that didn’t mean anything to people like her who lived in a world of balancing paychecks with the rent, juggling to get to the end of the month, and paying the minimum on all her credit cards. It wasn’t hard to understand how far someone might go for a million dollars.

“So what do you need Grayson to do? What are you trying to make him do in exchange for me?” She watches as Morrison smiles like a crocodile.

“Grayson is going to throw the fight. He’s going to lose, specifically in the third round.” Morrison doesn’t even bother to try to hide his glee at the prospect. “It’s going to get messy, I’m sure. You see Dexter has a habit of hurting his opponents quite badly. The Grayson that comes out of the fight will probably be all but unrecognizable.”

A strangled cry escapes Adriana. “Grayson was right! You are a whack-job! How can you do that to him?”

Morrison looks at her with pity, like she’s an injured bird that he knows there’s no hope of saving. “Do that to him? He’s the one that left me behind. We were partners, and he just up and left.” It’s the first time that Morrison sounds genuinely hurt, but Adriana isn’t buying it.

“You could care less about Grayson. You lost your moneymaker; that’s all he was to you. So, you had to find a way to make money out of him a different way.” Adriana shakes her head in disgust at the little man in front of her. “He’s not going to do what you want. He’s not just going to let himself get beaten, not after he’s worked so hard to get to where he is. He’s left you behind Morrison. Deal with it. Besides, he knows that you’ll probably just kill me anyway.” Her voice shakes at the last moment, and she closes her mouth, refusing to let Morrison see how scared she is.

“You really do have a high opinion of him, don’t you? The honorable Grayson Fletcher! It’s sweet really how loyal you are to him, even if it is completely misplaced.” He pushes himself up from the table and walks towards her slowly, deliberately, goon in tow. She keeps herself as rigid as she can, telling herself to stand tall and proud. It’s something that’s surprisingly hard to do with her hands tied to a water pipe. “You’re just like all the others, Adriana, don’t you see that? You’re just another one of his little flings. I’m sorry to say that he’s not the man you think he is, my dear.” He looks at her sadly as he settles a conciliatory hand on her shoulder, but she shrugs him off. That only seems to spur him further on to inflict as much damage as he can. “Do you know how many women he’s been with, Adriana? Hundreds and that was just when I knew him. I’m sure the Miami club scene has afforded him all kinds of new experiences.”

Adriana lifts her chin, refusing to be cowed by a man who gets his way by tying women up and extorting people. “That’s all in the past. Grayson’s made no secret of the fact that he’s not a boy scout.” She watches with satisfaction, as a look of frustration passes over Morrison’s face and then disappears again just as quickly.

“You’re a lovely girl, Adriana, lovelier than someone like Grayson deserves. But you’re a fool if you think that a man like that will be satisfied by just one woman.” He looks at her. For a moment, he seems almost fatherly, but any sense of that is wiped away by his next words. “It’s part of the lifestyle. The women…they throw themselves at him. You’ve seen what his fights are like! How can you expect any hot-blooded man to keep his hands off when they’re handing themselves out to him like cake on a platter?”

Adriana tries to push away the memories of the cries that she’d heard from the women in the crowd the night of the fight.
We love you, Punisher! You’re so fucking hot, Punisher! Fuck me, Punisher!
Tommy had said the same thing to Willow that night—that the women come as part of the package of being an MMA fighter.

“Grayson isn’t like that. He cares about me.” Adriana wishes that she didn’t sound so desperate. It’s as if she’s trying to convince herself as much as she is Morrison. She doesn’t want to believe Morrison, but it’s getting harder and harder. She knows that there must be more to what he’s telling her than what he’s willing to share. She holds onto that thought and the knowledge that Grayson loves her with both hands. “You don’t know anything about us Morrison, so why don’t you just crawl back under the rock that you came out from?”

Morrison raises his hand threateningly as if he’s about to strike her. She flinches away automatically and then wishes that she hadn’t, angry with herself for giving him anything at all. But his hand doesn’t connect with her face like she expects it to. Instead he drops it, smirking at her as if amused by her reaction.

“You’re feisty, Adriana, and you’re smart. I like that about you. But that doesn’t mean that I won’t discipline you if I need to. You only get so many free passes, my dear.” He looks at her meaningfully, nodding towards his goon and letting her fill in the blanks.

“I don’t care what you do to me. Grayson isn’t going to do what you’re asking him. If you’re right and I’m nothing more than a fling to him, then I’m not much of an incentive for him to do what you’re asking.” She feels a sense of achievement in turning Morrison’s twisted logic on its head.

“Trust me, Grayson will do what I tell him to.” Morrison’s confidence doesn’t even seen to waver an iota or perhaps he just has a better poker face than Adriana does. “He’ll throw the match in the round I tell him to and if that should end his fighting career and even his life, well then, so be it.”

Adriana bites back the tears that she feels coming. The idea that something could happen to Grayson because of her, or because of the way he feels about her, is worse than anything Morrison could do to her. Despite everything Morrison has told her, she can’t believe that the Grayson she knows is the same person who Morrison is talking about. She knows that Grayson is a good man and that’s what makes her afraid…that he’ll try to save her whatever the cost. She can’t allow that.

“I think it’s about time we check in on our Grayson Fletcher, don’t you?” Morrison holds out his hand and almost immediately the goon has filled it with a cellphone. “It’s not long now until the fight, and we want to keep him focused on what’s at stake if he doesn’t do what I’m expecting of him.”

He dials a number and waits patiently, his eyes never leaving Adriana’s face, studying her emotions.

“Morrison.” Just the sound of Grayson’s voice at the end of the line gives Adriana some comfort, even if it is short-lived.

“Grayson, my boy, how the devil are you?” Morrison winks theatrically at Adriana as if to show how funny he’s being.

Adriana doesn’t catch what Grayson replies, but she’s fairly sure from the look on Morrison’s face that it isn’t anything remotely complimentary.

“Let’s get down to business, Grayson. Have you made the right decision, the one that will keep your new girl here safe and sound?” Morrison smiles apologetically at Adriana, as if he’s just saying what he needs to but doesn’t really mean it.

Adriana doesn’t smile back; she has no interest in playing this little game of Morrison’s. The only interest she has is keeping Grayson safe and getting herself out of this hell-hole.

“You can trust me, Grayson. Adriana is perfectly safe.” Morrison has started wandering around Adriana, making her dizzy with the movement. “Talk to her? I don’t think so, Grayson.”

Adriana strains to hear what Grayson is saying at the other end of the line. However, she doesn’t need to hear. All she needs to do is watch Morrison’s reaction, and he doesn’t look happy.
Grayson must have said something to him that leaves him with no choice but to prove that I’m alive and well. After all, what would be the point of him throwing the fight if Morrison had already hurt me beyond repair?

Morrison covers the mouthpiece of the cell with his hand and looks at her with a hatred she could never have deserved. “Be smart, Adriana. Remember, I don’t want to have to discipline you.” He whispers the words, but they ring loud and clear in her mind. She understands the thinly veiled threat.

But this could be her one shot, her one opportunity to give Grayson some kind of a message. She doesn’t entertain the thought that occurs to her that it might even be the last time she gets to speak to him.
So make it count
, she tells herself.
Make it count, Adrie.
That was what her dad had told her about boxing, that she should avoid getting into fights, that she shouldn’t court attention, but if she finds herself in a situation where she has to use the skills he taught her, that she should make every punch count.