“What the fuck?” I swear, dropping my water bottle to the ground and tearing my door open.

I hear Jackson and Darryl curse and call my name, but I don’t stop. No way in hell can I ignore that piece of shit walking around my gym.

“Don!” I shout, drawing the attention of a few gym goers.

Him and his two boys turn slightly and they all smirk at me. I clench my fists. I can take them all, right now.

“Well, well, Mr. Professional Fighter. Long time no see.” I grit my teeth together at the sound of Don’s voice.

“Seth, don’t do it,” Jackson tells me. “Let someone else deal with him.”

I ignore him. Don is my problem, not anyone else’s. He’s heading for the stairs to the office, too and there’s no way in hell I’ll let him within ten feet of Olivia. I march right up to him, slipping in between him and the stairs. My entire body is clenched and ready to go. Don looks the same—bald head and an angular face with a jaw made of glass. I know because I almost shattered it the last time we fought. I came close to breaking his arm, too.

“I thought I’d come down and check out the gym set up of Portland’s favorite fighter.” His smile widens. “That’s a mighty cute billboard you’ve got outside, too.”

Jackson laughs. “Mighty cute? Jesus Christ.”

Don’s amused expression doesn’t falter.

“What do you want, Don?” Darryl chimes in, but I don’t take my eyes off of the bald asshole in front of me.

“I want to speak to the manager. My friends and I are looking for a new place to train.” He turns to his friends. “What was her name? Pretty face, big, green eyes and a killer rack…” He snaps back to me with a click of his fingers. “Olivia, yeah, that’s it. She’s the manager, isn’t she?”

I start forward, but Jackson slips in front of me, barely pressing his hands against my chest. “Don’t do it.”

“You’ve worked too hard, Seth,” Darryl adds.

Don straightens his grey t-shirt and smiles wryly. “Isn’t that nice?”

He attempts to step around me, but my arms shoot out and I shove him backwards. With a growl he launches forward, but Darryl grabs him, forcing him a few steps back and into his friends. Jackson’s heels are digging into the ground, his shoulders pressing against me as he fights to keep me back from Don.

“Seth?” I hear her voice before I see her green eyes peer up at me from around my waist. “What’s going on?”

Jackson steps away, knowing I’d never bowl Olivia over to get to Don. I glance down at her and there’s a worried expression on her face.

“There’s the girl I wanted to see.” Don chuckles, licking his lips.

Darryl steps back, but keeps his position between Don and I. Olivia’s face falls and her eyebrows draw together. Slowly, she turns around and when she sees him, her shoulders square. “What are you doing here?”

He steps closer and Darryl doesn’t budge. “I’ve come to scout a new gym. Some welcoming committee you have here. Do you treat all potential customers like this?”

“You’re not welcome here.”

I step closer to her, pressing my front against her back and planting my hand on her hip for support.

Don nods slowly, clearly pissed off. What did he expect? Does he seriously think we’ll open our doors to him?

“I see how it is.”

“Get out of here, Don,” Darryl demands, his fingers flexing at his sides.

Don runs his hand over his bald head. “Fine.” He looks Olivia dead in the eyes. “I’ll talk to you when your dogs aren’t around.”

I step around Olivia, my chest rumbling with anger. I don’t know what happened next. There’s a whole lot of shouting and people grabbing at me, and all I see is Don’s face through a red haze. There are too many hands on me to count and I know more people have come to prevent me from smashing Don into a million pieces. Don is torn from the gym and I storm across the floor, ignoring all of the scared stares. I head straight for my training room, hearing smaller footsteps slap the floor behind me. He pisses me off and I fucking hate that I know I deserve all of it. Everything he’s doing to me and Olivia is my fault. I can’t even remember his girlfriend’s name…that’s what’s really messed up. I always blamed her for what happened. I’d always tell myself the she was the one that was unfaithful, not me—which is true, in a way. I mean, I sure as shit I didn’t force her to have sex with me. I can assure you she decided that on her own. I feel shit about it now, because I can’t help but wonder if the girl I took from Don was his Olivia. What if she was the one he wanted to spend the rest of his life with, but she turned out to be unfaithful? I’m not going to call her a whore or a slut because, well, what does that say about me? It wasn’t her fault, not entirely.

Anyway, screw that. Don has done way too much shit for me to feel sorry for him now though, and every time I see his face, I can’t help but think of his intentions with Olivia. I’d die before I’d let his unnerving gaze rest upon her naked perfection—and the fucking nerve of him showing up here to talk to her!

I grab a fifty kilo boxing bag off the floor and throw it, desperately needing something to take off the edge. I want to fight and I want to fight right now. I pace the room, not once looking at Olivia, who steps away from the door and makes her way slowly over to me.

I feel her tension rolling off of her in waves and when I finally lift my eyes to her face, I can see she’s trying desperately to hide it. My heart beats rapidly in my chest, sending adrenaline and anger through my veins. There’s an ache there too, an ache that’s trying desperately to cut off air to my lungs. I breathe quick and deep through my nose to prevent myself from really going off.

“I was so close to throwing it all away,” I tell her. “One hit is all it would’ve taken and I was willing to do it.” I shake my head. “Why does he get to me so easily?”

“Don is irritating…he makes everyone want to kick him, it’s just who he is.”

I can’t help the twitch that pulls at my lips. “I thought that if I beat him, he’d go away.”

“He’s a cockroach. He isn’t ever going away,” Darryl says, scratching the top of his dark hair. I didn’t notice him come in behind Olivia. “He’ll probably be right behind you for the rest of your life and you need to deal with it—not with your fists, but with your brain.”

Jackson casually slings his arm around a dummy and says, “You have what he wants and he isn’t going to stop until he’s higher than you—problem is, he’ll never be higher than you.”

“What do you want me to do?”

Olivia shrugs, her long dark hair sprawling further across her shoulders. “It’s simple. Ignore him and walk away. A person like Don doesn’t like to be ignored. He craves the thrill of attention. Don't give it to him.”

The ache in my chest dulls, lessening my anger as well. I don't think I’ve had so much support in my life. It feels good.

“Okay.” I breathe. “I’m in the pros now…I need to think about my career.”

Darryl claps, making the stopwatch around his neck jolt. “Now that’s sorted, we’ve got training to do. Grappling, let’s get into it.”

***

After seeing Don, training flew by and Darryl seemed to be impressed with my ‘aggressive’ approach. It helped to picture Don’s head on Jackson's body, although I don’t think Jackson appreciated it much. Especially when I hit too hard and split his lip. Olivia watched all of the ground training, but fled the room once we took it into the cage.

Later, she resurfaced to tell me she’s going home and she’ll meet me at my house later tonight. I walked her to her car just to be safe, even though she told me it was unnecessary.

“Ready to go?” Darryl asks, shutting off the training room lights and pulling me from my thoughts of this afternoon.

It’s late, the sun barely high enough to produce proper lighting. All I want is to go home, have a shower, and spend the rest of the night in bed with Olivia.

“Yeah,” I grab my shirt and pull it on over my head.

My arms felt weak. We spent the whole day in the gym working on improving techniques and all I want is to rest.

We stroll from the room and give the main area a once over before slipping out the door and locking it behind us.

“Tomorrow six a.m.”

I nod. “Got it.”

I fish for my keys out of my pocket and out of nowhere a hard fist drives into my kidney, throwing me forward.

“What the f—”

I grunt as another fist clips the side of my cheek, causing my brain to roll in my head. In defense, I launch forward, ducking an arm and slamming someone in the ribs. Before I can throw another, a fist connects with my mouth and it starts to burn as an old cut splits against my teeth. Thick arms seize mine, pulling me upright to face the man in front of me. My eyes scan over a bald head and dark, green eyes.

“You motherfucker,” he growls. His arm snaps out and slams into my ribs, forcing the air out. “You think you can disrespect me?”

Another hit to my ribs has me hunching in pain. Fuck. It hurts to breathe. Don grabs a fistful of my hair and I spit blood at him. What a pussy, attacking me in the parking lot unexpectedly.

“Hey, Seth, tomor—” I keep my eyes on Don as he whips around to see Darryl standing there. Darryl’s car keys crash to the concrete and all emotion drains from his face. He has a cold look in his eyes, like he's out for blood. He starts for Don and when he reaches him, Don throws a right hook that Darryl ducks before his fist connects with Don’s jaw. Don stumbles under the force of Darryl’s punch—stunned that a man Darryl’s age can rock him with one punch. Suddenly, I'm released and I waste no time diving forward to help Darryl. Don's friends push Don out of the way, concealing him behind their back and they come down hard on Darryl and I.

Darryl holds his own, fending off two guys as I take on the last. He’s slow compared to me, and even with the pain searing through my chest, I out punch him a million to one. I grab his head and drag it down before I slam my knee into his nose. I feel warm, sticky blood seep down my leg and I let the guy go as he stumbles backwards clenching his face. Darryl is curled up on the ground next to me as two guys kick him with all the force they have. I launch for them, but Don joins the fight again, coming out of nowhere and thrusting himself into me. I stumble backwards as he grabs the collar of my shirt and swings. I just managed to duck it as he drops my shirt and delivers another strong hit to my ribs. Pain flares and my knees buckle. I fall to the ground, groaning and clenching my sides.

“Learn some fucking respect,” he growls before whistling to his dogs and storming off.

Moaning, I drag myself to my feet, cradling my ribs. I didn’t see that coming and I’m too hurt to be pissed off right now, but tomorrow, when my brain isn’t swelling against my skull, he’s a fucking dead man. I watch as Darryl pulls himself to his feet, his face already bruising.

“Are you all right?” I ask, spitting blood onto the concrete.

“Don’t worry about me.” He coughs and winces, clenching his stomach. “I’m not the one with an interview next week—look at the size of the cut on your lip.”

I run my tongue along it, feeling the tenderness immediately. Darryl reaches out and begins poking and prodding me, making sure nothing is broken and thankfully, nothing feels broken. Weak assholes couldn’t even do a decent job

“He’s going to fucki—”

“Don’t do anything, Seth.” Darryl exhales, running his hands over his face.

All pain drains from my body. “You’re not serious?”

“We have to deal with this professionally, police and everything. You can’t risk losing your career over this.”

“What if I was with Olivia tonight? What if she got hurt instead of you?”

His eyebrows furrow. “You’re my main concern, not her.”

“Fuck that,” I snap.

I’m too tired and too battered for this shit. Dropping my gaze, I shove my hands in my pocket, angrily digging for my keys. When I get them, I turn from Darryl and storm to my car.

Wincing, I slide in and slam the door before turning my car on and zooming away. The aches of my body fade away as I try to come up with something to tell Olivia. I don’t want her to come over tonight. I don’t want her to see me like this.

Chapter Six

Olivia

“Come on!” Chase laughs, tilting his head back. “It’s not that bad.”

I hold the photo of him at fourteen closer to the computer and point at his horrible undercut.

“Look at it! How can you look at that and think it looks good?”

Chase laughs again, this time running a hand over his tired face.

Our Skype session with Chase ended early last night because he was called out on duty at the last minute, so we rescheduled for tonight. I smile, looking at my brother. The buzz cut suits his strong face—much better than his undercut did.

“How’s Seth?” he asks, genuinely interested.

“Good.” I bite back a smile. “I’m staying at his place tonight.”

His face scrunches and he flicks his hand at me. “I don’t want to know.”

Growing up, my brother and I told each other everything. Even though we had our own friends at school, we’d always come home and hang out with each other, sharing gossip about the other kids. We continued to share secrets and information up until we both became sexually active…after that, it got real awkward—especially when Chase started sleeping with a few of my friends.