Chapter 31

Chapter 31

Jax

Thunder crashes in the sky, echoing through dark, ominous clouds. The plane shakes and bounces through the turbulent late night sky, reminding us of who’s really in control. Mother Nature. And she’s one pissed off woman right now.

The flight attendants sit strapped in their jump seats looking haggard from the weary day of travel. The dimmed cabin lights that are supposed to help passengers relax on the evening flight only serve to help bring attention to the flashes of lightening that explode in the sky.

Eventually we land in Vegas after what seems like the longest four hours in history. I’m about ready to hop over the seats to get past the twenty passengers standing in the aisle trying to pull their luggage out of the overhead compartments. I need out of this god damn tin can!

Fights start tomorrow, but my weight class pre-qualifiers aren’t until the day after, so I have some time to rest and try to get myself matched up with Caden. I deliberated for hours over asking anything from the brother I’ve barely even met and hated since I found out he existed. But eventually, my need to beat the shit out of Caden and settle Lily’s score once and for all outweighed my own animosity and hang-ups with my half-brother. In the end, all he did was be born anyway. It was our asshole father that set all the destruction that would come later in life into action.

I check into Caesar’s Palace, the place is crawling with jacked guys obviously here as contestants or devout fans. Sleep comes easily for the first night in a long time, exhaustion finally kicking in. The time change west works for me, I sleep later than I normally would, yet I’m up an hour before I’d ever get out of bed back in D.C. Throwing on some sweats, I decide to go for a run, beat the rise of the Nevada heat.

Walking through the quiet lobby, I catch sight of a woman from the side. Long wavy auburn hair, a straight nose and high cheekbones. My suspicion becomes abundantly clear as I move closer.

“Liv?”

She turns, a look of shock on her face at seeing me quickly turns to confusion. “Jax? What are you doing here?”

“I came for the fight. Guess I don’t have to ask what you’re doing hanging around near a fight anymore.”

She smiles. “Are you fighting?”

“That depends.”

She furrows her brow, “On what?”

“On you talking your boyfriend into helping me.” I grin mischievously.

“Oh no.” She holds up her hands, gesturing there’s no way in hell she wants any part of whatever it is I’m talking about. “Last time I got between the two of you, it didn’t turn out too well.”

“Well that’s because he thought I was trying to hit on you.”

“And you weren’t?” She arches an eyebrow.

I chuckle because she has me dead on. “Okay. So maybe I was. But I’m a one woman man and my heart belongs to another woman.” I smirk and wink. “Try not to be too devastated. You had your chance.”

She shakes her head. “You’re going to cause me trouble aren’t you?” She asks wearily, although there’s a smile on her face.

“Probably. But you’ll help me anyway.”

She sighs loudly. “Come, sit and have coffee with me and I’ll see what I can do.”

***

It’s almost eight at night before my cell phone rings. When I didn’t hear from Liv all day, I figured Vince had no interest in helping me and I’d already decided what I was going to do in my head. I’m entering the Open no matter what. Brady’s right, I need to work on things I want to change in my life as a long-term strategy. Winning back Lily is important, but so is fighting. I’ve wasted so much time already, I’m going to really go for it. Gone are the days of living a life that makes me feel dead inside. I’ve got enough money to live for a long time, I’m about to start really living.

“Hey,” Liv says when I answer. “Sorry it took me so long. Vince was busy all day doing press work and I didn’t get to speak to him alone until tonight.”

“How did it go?”

“Well…,” she trails off.

“He’s sitting right there, isn’t he?”

“Yes.”

“He won’t help me?”

“Vince would like to talk to you himself.”

“Let me guess, he’s not happy I approached you?”

“Very good,” she says cryptically. I picture Vince sitting right near her while she’s talking, steam billowing from his ears.

“When can I talk to him? Qualifiers start in the morning.”

“Can you come up to room 3200?”

“I’m walking out the door right now.” I waste no time grabbing my keycard and heading up.

The irony doesn’t escape me as the elevator climbs its way to the top level of the building. I’ve cut out the excesses in my life, checking into a regular room, yet my brother has the entire top floor penthouse suite. The same brother who didn’t grow up with any excess…whose mother struggled while things were handed to me on a silver platter by our father. The heavy pendulum finally swings the other way.

Liv greets me at the door and leads me into the sunken living room. The room is spacious and doused in heavy plush fabrics. A large sectional takes up half the room. Typical Vegas overindulgence, a place where they put the celebrities or high rollers.

Vince stands, as do two other men. One looks familiar, the other I don’t think I’ve ever seen before. I extend my hand to Vince first, he hesitates but shakes my hand with a firm grip. “Vince.” I nod. “Thanks for seeing me.”

He looks me in the eye when he responds, making sure he gets the point across. “Don’t work me through Liv ever again.”

“I…,” I think about trying to explain that isn’t what I intended to do, but really it’s what I did. So I go for humble instead. “Point taken. Won’t happen again.”

He nods and then makes introductions. “This is my trainer, Nico Hunter.” I shake his hand, the name finally making the connection as to why the enormous guy looks so familiar to me. He’s a legend. Killed a guy in the ring early on in his career and dropped out of the circuit for a while. Came back and took the title, one of the few undefeated heavyweights ever to retire from the sport. “Nice to meet you. Big fan. I grew up watching you. Hell, I wanted to be you.”

The big guy smiles and shakes my hand, but says nothing. Next Vince introduces an older gentleman. “This old bastard is Preach. Don’t let him get your ear. He’ll spend an hour trying to convince you he’s the reason both me and Nico have belts.”

Preach mutters something under his breath and extends his hand, “I am the only reason, they’re both just too full of themselves to admit it out loud. But they know it where it counts.” He pats his hand on his chest over his heart.

The spirited banter between the obviously close men breaks the ice and I relax a bit, taking in a hopeful breath.

“So Liv tells me you want to fight in the Open.”

“I’m already registered. But I’d like to match up to a certain fighter.”

“Because he is your girlfriend’s ex?” Vince prompts.

“She’s not my girlfriend anymore.” My heart wrenches in my chest admitting it. “But I just found out he’s been stealing from her for a year.”

“And the woman is The Saint’s daughter?” Preach whistles. “Boy’s lucky The Saint passed on. Me and The Saint go way back, that little girl was the light of his eye.”

I nod. “I bet she was. She’s incredible.”

Nico interrupts. “But you’ve never fought in a pro match before, so you can’t rank at the level of the guy you want to fight? That’s your problem.”

“That’s right.”

“So you want me to screw with the rating card, put my reputation on the line, so you can get revenge on some asshole who is a thief?” Vince asks.

When you put it that way, it sounds like I’m asking for a lot. I feel whatever hope I’d felt momentarily slip through my fingers. “It’s more than that. He took advantage of her after her father passed away. Started skimming the week he passed away and then snaked himself into her bed when she was vulnerable. Guy’s more than a thief, he’s abusive.”

“Abusive? How?” My statement perks up the attention of Nico.

“He wasn’t happy when we got together, even though she had already broken things off with him. Caught him with his forearm pressed up against her throat one night.” Nico’s jaw flexes and there’s a silent exchange between him and Vince. Something I’ve said has hit a sore spot with these men, so I keep going. “Her entire neck was purple from the hold he had her in. I’m afraid to think of what the crazy asshole would have done to her had I not come in when I did.” I pause. “Look, I love Lily, but I fucked things up between us myself. I hate it, but I accept she doesn’t want to be with me. I’d be lying to you all if I said I wasn’t motivated by wanting to dish out revenge. But the asshole deserves a good beating. If you don’t want to help me, at least match him up with someone who is going to teach him a lesson.”

The men stare at me in silence for a moment. “Preach, you keep your refs license current?” Vince questions.

“Sure do.” Preach nods.

“You willing to fight Nico to earn the points you need to get in the ring with the guy?”

I look to Nico and back. The guy is gargantuan, but it doesn’t even matter to me at this point.

I stand tall and look Vince straight in the eye. “Yes.”

Vince holds my gaze in silence for a long moment, assessing my sincerity. “I’ll bump up your rating and see you get matched up with the asshole.”

Confused, I furrow my brow. “So I don’t have to fight Nico first?”

Vince smiles. “Nah, he’s got fifty pounds on you and still trains like he’s got the fight of his life coming up. He’d annihilate you.”

The three men have a good laugh at my expense and I stick around for another half an hour, even sharing a beer.

“Good luck,” Vince says opening the door as I’m leaving.

“Thanks. I appreciate everything.”

“No problem. I’m glad to find out you’re not an asshole like that father of ours.”

“That he is.” I smile, shake Vince’s hand and walk out the door of my brother’s penthouse suite.