UNDYING: A Bad Boy MMA Romance (Midwest Alphas) (Book 3) (10 page)

A short smile touches his lips. “I will. Of course I will.”

“And
when
you win… you and I will continue that conversation from the motel yesterday morning.”

He smiles even more. “I thought you’d forgotten about that.”

“Never.” I squeeze his fingers. “We both want the same things, Tobias. Don’t let him take that from us. Not when we’re so close to finally getting the life we deserve…”

He pulls me closer and I turn to lay back against his chest. His body heat blends with mine, warming me all the way to the core. “I will beat him.” His breath tickles my lobes.

“Promise me...”

His cold lips touch my cheek. “I promise.”

“Promise me again.”

He twitches with laughter. “I
promise
, Claire.” He wraps his arms even tighter around me. “I will win this fight and we will start over.”

I crane my neck to look at him, admiring his perfect features before I close my eyes and he blesses my lips with his.

Chapter 8

Justice For Mary

I stare out the window of Pike’s gym. The street outside is far worse off than it was six months ago when I was last here. Crumpled up garbage lines the street corners and sewer grates, and I’m fairly certain the sticky, blackish stain in the parking lot is blood. Rick was right. The cops haven’t come around here in quite some time and the locals know it.

Even the inside of Pike’s gym, The Bulging Bicep, looks different. A thin layer of dust coats the black television screens. The air is stale and cold and there’s a sign on the window, hanging by a single piece of old tape:
Closed until further notice.

I take a step away from the window as the winter air bleeds inside to touch my arms. I rub my hands together, but the chill doesn’t go away.

This is the last place I saw Lillian Tombs alive.

Tobias and Ryan stand outside the boxing ring near the back, warming up with a few swings at the thick punching bags in the corner, while Amy sits on a bench nearby. She taps her fingers against her phone’s screen, gliding through texts and news feeds, desperately trying not to make it too obvious she’s watching Ryan.

The drive up to St. Louis this morning was far more awkward than the drive home yesterday. It’s pretty clear that she and Ryan didn’t make up last night, but I won’t get a chance to talk to her about it until later.

Pike walks into the main room from the manager’s office and reaches out to flick on a second light switch, illuminating another row of ceiling lights to fill the dark spaces of the room. He carries a roll of white hand wrap with him that he carefully rolls around his knuckles in preparation.

“When did you shut down?” I ask him as I run a finger across a dusty wrack of free weights.

“Few months ago,” he answers. “Didn’t really have time to focus on the business once
all this
started happening.”

“What about your
other
business?”

His eyes peek down at me. “The little, plastic baggy business?”

“Yeah, that one.”

“I gave that up a long time ago.”

“Really?”

He scoffs. “Your boy Rick was just as disappointed.”

“I’m not disappointed,” I say. “Just surprised.”

“Yeah, well…” He tosses the rest of the roll onto a shelf nearby. “Going legit means dropping lots of bad habits.”

I chuckle. “I know what you mean…”

“So I’ve heard,” he quips, pausing a moment. He juts to the side, ready to wander over to the others, but turns back to me instead. “Look, Claire… I’m sorry about that day at the gas station. Being a professional asshole was kind of my thing back then.”

I blink, repeating his words over in my head in case I misheard. There’s a lot I’ve grown to expect from
Pike the Punisher.
Empathy and remorse don’t exactly make the list. “It’s okay…” I clear my throat. “Thank you.”

He turns without another word and walks to the back of the gym. I look out the window again, feeling even more uneasy than I did before. Wind brushes wild passed the windows, whistling by, drawing another batch of snowflakes to the ground below. I turn away as voices pull me towards the boxing ring where Amy and Ryan pass words back and forth.

“So, you guys will have to dig into them until they tap out,” she says, shrugging her shoulders.

“Kings don’t tap out,” he replies, almost out of reflex. “No, we’ll have to knock them out completely.”

“Really?” I ask.

“The option is there, of course, but we’re trained to ignore it,” he explains. “Any King that does tap out is basically ostracized for it and never sees the inside of a ring again. For them,
every
fight is a blood duel.”

I look down, my eyes falling to the tattoo on his right hand. A King only receives that tattoo if he wins a fight. It’s hard to imagine, as suave as Ryan is, that he’s capable of that much brutality.

“Jeez…”
Amy rolls her eyes. “So much for a
gentleman’s
club.”

“We don’t have cutesy nicknames either,” he bites back. “You’re not going to find any
Untouchables
or
Punishers
among us.”

She narrows her gaze at him. “You’re
really
comfortable saying
we
.”

He stares back and crosses his arms. “Yeah, I guess I am.”

“Guys,
come on
,” Tobias sighs and runs his fingers through his hair. “We need to focus. Ryan, is there anything else we should know?”

Ryan shifts his attention away from Amy and chews on his lip. “They aren’t big on theatrics. Entertaining the crowd isn’t exactly their top priority.”

“What do you mean?” I ask.

“A King is trained to end a fight in as few moves as possible. You hit hard, you hit fast, and you take them down. They don’t play cat and mouse like Alphas do to win over an audience. It’s their motto.
Show no mercy.
”

I look at Tobias as a rush of fear tingles my toes.

“Okay then,” Pike says, cracking his taped knuckles. “Let’s get started.”

***

“Again!”

Tobias grits his teeth and settles back into his fighting stance across from Ryan. He keeps his eyes forward, although I can clearly see him pushing against the urge to glare at Pike as he barks orders at them from outside the ring.

They’ve been sparing for hours now, taking whatever instruction Pike throws at them. While I’m full of sympathy for them, they haven’t heard a peep from me the entire time, nor from Amy, as we sit back and watch our boys glistening with body sweat.

Tobias holds up a hand, signaling for a break and Ryan nods with enthusiasm.

“Tobias!” Pike shouts. “Let’s go.”

“We’re just taking a minute,” he fires back.

“You can take a minute next week.” Pike rubs the short hairs on his head, scratching at his scalp.

Tobias spins around to look at him, dripping beads of sweat to the mat as he moves. “I don’t see you throwing any punches up here…”

“
I’m
not the one going up against my nemesis in four days. Believe me when I tell you Rick isn’t sitting around on his ass right now drinking mimosas. Again!”

Tobias clenches his jaw and rests his hands on his hips. His eyes suddenly shift towards me and the intensity of his stare fires an electric bolt up my spine, tingling my cold fingers and toes.

“Tobias…”
Pike finally pulls himself up to the ring and climbs inside. “There will be plenty of time to make puppy eyes at girls later.”

I sigh, sending a quick glance at Amy next to me. She looks back with concern, no doubt just as nervous as I am that one of them is about to get punched for real.

“You know…” she says, throwing her voice. “Maybe we
should
take a little break…”

“No,” Pike snaps. He stops in front of Tobias, looking down from the few short inches he has on him. “We’re not done yet.”

I cringe. The last time they faced each other like this in the ring, Pike stabbed Tobias. My eyes fall to the scar on his left side, lingering just above the elastic of his black shorts.

“Pike…”
she warns.

He ignores her and keeps his eyes locked on Tobias. “You angry?”

“Getting there,” Tobias answers.

“Good. Keep going. You’ll need it to fight Rick.”

“I don’t need any fancy tricks to get myself angry at
Rick.
”

“Tobias, he already knows your fighting style—”

“No thanks to you,” Tobias interrupts.

Pike takes a deep breath. “He knows your fighting style and he knows, better than anyone here, your worst fear. If you’re going to beat him, you’ll have to focus on something
other than Claire.
For once.”

“Pike!” I shout, feeling my own anger in my chest. I stand up from the bench and step closer to the ring as Amy does the same.

“Leave her alone,” Tobias says.

“Look, I get it,” Pike says, shaking his head. “You’re young, confident, cocky, and hell, you’ve earned it, but so has he. Sorry, kid, but the honeymoon period is over. You’re not winning this one because of a bout of the warm and fuzzies.”

Tobias steps closer to him, their chests barely touching. “I said, leave her alone.”

“I’m only looking at
you
, Tobias,” Pike says, his eyes unmoving. “You keep your hands up and your eyes forward at all times — it’s how you used to be, isn’t that right,
Tobias the Untouchable
?” Tobias’ chest rises and falls as fury builds inside of him. “Think about that. Think about the fighter that joined the Alphas in the first place. I want
that guy
in this ring. He was focused and solid. He didn’t have some cute cheerleader moaning his name, distracting him from who he needed to be.”

Tobias turns around. “I’m taking a break,” he mutters, stepping towards the ropes.

Pike’s lips curl. “Would you like to know what your little sister’s
last words
were, Tobias?”

“Pike!”
Amy screams. “That is enough!”

My jaw drops as Tobias’ hands roll back into fists. “Tobias—!” I shout, losing my voice mid-name.

He spins back around and lunges at Pike, throwing the entirety of his weight against him. Pike falls backward into the corner, tossed by the extreme force of Tobias’ shoulders.

Ryan attempts to step between them, but Tobias lashes out with a quick jab, connecting with Ryan’s cheek and shoving him out of the way.

“Tobias!” I scream for him again, jumping into the ring.

He pins Pike to the corner and attacks him with a hurricane of punches, far faster than I’ve ever seen him throw before. Each one hits so loud, I think my ears are popping as I push myself forward into harm’s way. I reach out to Tobias, but my fingers slip from his sweaty arm as it moves in front of me with a blur.
“Stop!”

Tobias grabs Pike by his shirt and pulls him from the corner. With a powerful charge, he flips Pike over his shoulder and slams his back against the mat. He stumbles on his feet, giving me barely a second to intervene.

I throw myself in front of Tobias, blocking him from finishing Pike off. “Tobias, stop!” He grabs my arms; his grip sharp as nails against me. I look into his eyes and darkness stares back at me, ready to push me away. I can feel it in his fingers, that urge to toss me to the side, but something holds him back. My entire body shakes in fear of him. The moment grinds to a halt, blurring in slow motion until the green returns to his eyes.

“Claire…” His voice sounds as quiet and soft as a lone raindrop. He releases me, lowering his hands to his sides before taking a long step back.

“There it is…”

I turn around and look to the mat. Pike sits at its center, propped up on one elbow, his other hand massaging his jaw while blood seeps from his nose.

“That’s it, Tobias,” he says, sliding to his knees.

Tobias stares down at him, saying nothing in return. He walks out of the ring and disappears into the back hallway, veering left towards the men’s locker room.

I look for Ryan and find him leaning against the far corner with Amy attached to his arm. His cheek is red, connected to a split and swollen bottom lip. “I’m sorry,” I say to him.

Ryan nods, but gives a nonchalant wave to show he holds no grudge.