Fighting Strong
Authors: Marysol James
Tags: #Literature & Fiction, #Contemporary Fiction, #Sports, #Romance, #Fiction, #Contemporary, #sex
Fighting Strong
(Fighting For Love #2)
By Marysol James
© 2014 by Marysol James.
All rights reserved. No part of this document may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, including information storage and retrieval systems, without prior written permission from the author, except in the case of a reviewer, who may quote brief passages embodied in critical articles or in a review.
This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real locales are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Cover design:
www.doc2mobi.com
Cover photo: © Aarrttuurr /Fotolia
Dedication
For A.
Who moved past it all.
Katie Lloyd hung up the phone and stared out the window. She was seconds away from a full-blown meltdown and she fought to keep her cool. The secret to staying in control, she knew, was to break things down in to small, manageable bits.
OK. One thing at a time; one step, then another. So. I need to get there. I need to get there fast. For that, I need a car. Reena and Maggie don’t have cars. So, I need to get my car back. For that, I need to call Mia.
There was a major problem with this last part of the thought process, though, namely, that she had no idea where the hell Mia Ferris was. All Katie knew was that her boyfriend Nick Spencer had taken her away for a week somewhere quiet and calm to recover from her beating at the hands of a pimp and pedophile.
Even more than a month later, Mia was still in terrible shape and Katie had offered Nick the use of her car to avoid the hassle of public transport and the stress of crowds. On Katie’s own insistence, Mia had left her cell with Katie so that Mia could just relax and forget about the world. That was a great plan, or at least it had seemed so at the time – but now she had no way to call her friend. Worse, she knew that Nick had left his cell behind too, so she couldn’t call him either.
Goddammit, Katie. Think, think.
OK. If nobody knew where Mia was – and Katie was sure that their other close friends Reena Mackay and Maggie Branson also had no clue – then maybe somebody knew where Nick was. Who did Katie know in Nick’s life?
As the most obvious person occurred to her, she groaned.
Really? Dear God, anybody but
him
.
The face and body of Adam Pierce popped in to her mind and she huffed in disgust. Not that Adam was disgusting to look at: huge and muscled and strong, with ice-blue eyes and dark hair and an incredibly hot number of tattoos, he was quite the opposite of hard on the eyes. But he was arrogant and annoying and pissed Katie off royally. She had taken some pictures of him at his gym a few months ago and he had been nothing but dismissive of them from the word go. But he was also Nick’s business partner and so he was her best bet to find Nick and Mia.
OK, wait. Call a car rental place. Voila! Problem solved!
Except problem
not
solved, as it turned out. There was a huge real estate fair in Denver that week and every car was rented out. Her heart in her throat, she waited while they checked availability in Colorado Springs and Boulder too, but they reported back with regret that they had nothing for her. Calls to three other car rental places resulted in the same dead end.
Her thoughts turned to Adam again.
Shit. OK, call the jerk.
Katie picked up her cell phone and scrolled through the phone book, looking for The Rock Fighting Club. She dialled and stared out the window some more.
“The Rock. Gavin speaking. How may I help you?”
Gavin. The Rock manager. Nice guy, she recalled.
“Hi, Gavin. This is Katie Lloyd… I don’t know if you remember me but –”
“Oh, sure I do.” His voice was warm. “The photographer.”
“Right. Listen, I’m sorry to be so rushed, but I need to speak to Adam right away, if he’s there.”
“Yeah, he is. Hang on a sec, OK?”
“Thanks.”
He put her on hold and she counted her breaths.
Come on, come on.
Gavin put down the phone and waved at Adam. His boss was in the kitchen making his first and badly-needed coffee of the day, and he came over right away.
“What’s up, Gavin?”
“Katie Lloyd is on the phone for you.”
“Oh, awesome. Tell her I’m busy, OK?”
“The thing is, she sounds kind of panicked.”
“She does?”
“Yeah. You want me to put her through to your office?”
“I guess so. Thanks.”
**
Adam Pierce sighed as he walked to his office. The thought that Katie Lloyd – that amazingly difficult personality – was on the other end of the phone line was not a welcome one.
OK, admittedly he and Katie had managed to call a semi-truce in light of Mia. Katie had come to him, hat-in-hand, begging for his help to get Nick to talk to Mia. But that was a few weeks ago now, and all that he and Katie had done since then was fight about his photos. He wanted Katie to reshoot in better light, she refused.
Why is she calling me? Another fight about the fucking pictures? OK. Be nice now… at least until she gives you reason not to be.
He picked up the phone and spoke in what he hoped was a friendly tone. “Hi, Katie.”
“Hi, Adam.” She sounded harassed and pissed off and he almost threw the phone across the room. “Listen, have you got any way to get a hold of Nick?”
‘Well, hello Adam. How are you? Yeah, yeah, I’m fine too. So, listen – can I ask you something please?’ This woman’s self-importance is always dialled up to ‘high’, isn’t it? Jesus.
With great effort, he kept his tone now merely neutral. “No, I don’t. As you know, he left his cell with me here and I don’t know where he took Mia.”
“Damn.”
The silence on the other end went on for long enough that he had the urge to say, “Well! So nice talking to you!” and then hang up. But he hung on for a few seconds longer.
“Would – would anyone else know where they are, maybe?” she asked.
“No, for sure not. I mean, if you don’t and I don’t, then who’s left, really?”
“True.”
More silence. Only then did it occur to him that something might be wrong.
“Katie, is everything OK?”
“Ummm. No. Not really.”
He sat down. She sounded uncertain and tentative and something else.
Scared?
“What’s wrong? Can I help?”
Katie blinked at the phone in her hand.
What – Mr. So-Important is deigning to offer assistance?
“Uh, well. I’m not sure.”
“Tell me what happened.”
“Someone in my family is sick,” she said reluctantly. “I need to get back there in a hurry and I wanted to call Nick and Mia and collect my car from them.”
“Where do you have to go? Where’s home?”
“Nevada. From a small town just outside Tonopah.”
“So – why don’t you fly?”
“I don’t fly… I hate it.”
He rolled his eyes.
Princess.
“Yeah, OK,” he said. “I get that having to take your shoes off at the airport is a hassle and flights are all tense, but this is an emergency. I mean, drink some wine and do some deep breathing and you’ll be there in no time at all.”
She was silent.
“Katie? Hello?”
“No. I really can’t. I – I was in a plane crash as a kid. I just can’t fly.”
He felt like an absolute asshole. “God, Katie. I’m sorry. Maybe… the train? Bus?”
“No, it’ll take too long. My brother says that he probably won’t last more than two or three days. I have to get in the car and just drive, Adam.”
“Who’s ‘he’? Your Dad?”
Katie pretended not to hear him. “So that’s why I need my car back.”
“So rent a car.”
“I already tried that. Nothing’s available.” She now sounded panicked and desperate and teary.
Adam scratched his chin.
Something about this whole thing feels very weird
. Aloud, he said, “Well, I don’t know what to do to help you – if I knew where Nick and Mia were, I’d tell you. But I really don’t.”
“Right.” She took a shaky breath. “OK, well. Thanks anyway… I’ll let you…”
Her voice broke and suddenly Adam was on high alert. “OK, hold on. This is really important to you, huh?”
“Yes. Adam, yes. You have no idea.”
She sounded so completely broken and vulnerable, so unlike the usual hard-as-nails Katie, that something in Adam just responded.
“OK, Katie. Listen, I am suggesting this against my better judgment, but maybe… maybe I can take you.”
“What? You?”
“Yes. Me. I have a car, I can take a few days off, Gavin is more than capable of running things here with me and Nick away. I can take you, if you want.”
Katie almost fell off her chair in shock.
That is the worst fucking idea I have ever heard… trapped in a car with Adam Pierce for hours and hours on end! I bet he’ll talk about nothing but reshooting his goddamned pictures. I’d have to throw myself in front of the wheels just to make the torture end, I swear to Christ.
Then again, it was the best offer – the
only
offer – on the table. She didn’t see that she had much of a choice.
“Really?”
“Yes. Really.”
“I’d – I’d be very grateful, Adam. Thank you.”
“So… yes?”
She took a deep breath. “Yes. Yes, please.”
“You have Nick’s cell number?”
“I do.”
“OK, text me your address on his phone. I’ll be there in two hours.”
“Thank you, Adam.”
“You’re welcome.”
They both hung up the phone, already regretting it, already dreading the next few days.
**
Katie stood outside her apartment building hoping that Adam would get there soon. The forecast called for snow and she felt the chill in the air. Shivering, she pulled her scarf tighter around her neck.
God, she
hated
that she had to ask Adam for help. Now he had something on her, now she owed him; that made her feel very uncomfortable, indeed. She preferred her relationships with men to be entirely in her favor.
Her cell phone rang and she saw that it was Reena. She paused, thinking about not answering, but she knew that if she did that, Reena and Maggie would just take it in turns to keep calling until she went insane or picked up. Whichever came first.
“Hi, Reena,” she said, trying to sound normal.
“Katie, I just got your voicemail. You OK?”
“Yeah. I mean… yeah. Sort of.”
Reena was silent, trying to think what to say. “So, he’s really dying?”
“Ryan says so.”
“And how are you doing?”
“I don’t know, to be honest. Relieved, I guess, in a way. Angry, like he’s escaping something. Mostly, I just really want to get there and see him die.”
Reena nodded. “I know, sweetie.” She paused. “And Adam’s taking you?”
“Yeah. Can you believe it?”
“Well, sure I can. Mia says he’s a nice guy.”
Katie rolled her eyes. “He’s an asshole, Reena.”
“I know you keep saying that, but he
is
an asshole who’s going pretty far out of his way to help you out. Maybe cut the guy a bit of slack?”
Katie sighed. “Yeah, you’re right. I’ll try.”
“So I called to ask if you want me to come with you.”
“Thanks, Reena, but Adam will be here any second and we’re going. I don’t want to wait even one hour longer than we have to.”
“You sure?”
“Totally.”
“OK, then. You’ll call me or Maggie if you need us, right? We can get on a plane and fly there. All you need to do is ask. But you call us anyway, OK? If we don’t hear from you, we’ll call and check how you’re doing.”
Katie blinked back tears. Sometimes it still amazed her that she had friends who cared about her as much as they did.
“Thanks, Reena. I’ll for sure call you on the road, let you know how it’s going.”
“And drive safe. The weather looks bad heading that way. Utah’s nothing but blizzard after snow storm after whiteout.”
“Yeah, I saw that on the news.”
Just then, a silver car turned on to her street and stopped right next to her. She saw Adam inside, wearing sunglasses and a white t-shirt and looking devastatingly – and annoyingly – sexy.
Oh, Lord. Here we go.
“Hey, Reena? Adam’s here. I’ve got to go, OK?”
“OK, sweetie. Be safe and be strong. We all love you.”
“Love you guys too,” Katie said.
Adam sat in the car for a few seconds, watching Katie on her cell. Black coat, black pants, black boots. Black hair and black eye makeup and black nail polish. A dozen earrings in each ear. Good Christ, did the woman
have
to dress herself in head-to-toe black all the fucking time? He had researched Katie’s photography extensively and he knew that even all her photos were black-and-white. Was she totally color-blind or just trapped in some bizarre teenaged emo phase that refused to pass? He sighed.
What in the holy hell possessed me to offer to do this?
But even as he asked the question, the answer came to him: Adam remembered her voice on the phone that morning, panicked and frightened. Vulnerable. She needed help and Adam was a lot of things, but he wasn’t a man who refused to help if he could.
Oh, Lord. Here we go.
He perched his sunglasses on his head and climbed out and smiled. “Hi.”
“Hi,” she said.
They looked at each other across the roof of the car for a few seconds, fully taking in the situation.
“So,” Adam said, gesturing at the backpack and camera bag at her feet. “”That’s it?”
“Yeah. I travel light.”
He opened the trunk and took her bag –
of course it’s a fucking
black
backpack
– and packed it up. She glanced in to the trunk and saw a tent and several big bags and a professional-looking first-aid kit. She cocked her head.
“What’s all that stuff?”
“I go camping a lot.” Adam slammed the trunk shut. “I just keep everything in my car all the time. It’s easier than hauling it in and out every weekend.”
“Even in the dead of winter? I mean, it’s kind of silly to have things take up all that trunk space when there’s snow on the ground, isn’t it?”
He stared down at her, already annoyed. “Well, it’s my trunk, so how about I pack it up the way I want to?”
She puffed the air out through her cheeks and hitched her camera bag strap on her shoulder. “Fine. Whatever makes you happy, Wilderness Bob.”
They glared at each other.
Adam crossed his massive arms and despite herself, she admired his bulging biceps and forearms covered in tattoos.
“So, why don’t we get a few things straight before we embark on this sparkling adventure together?” he said.
“Like what things?”
“Well, first: my car, my rules. Rule number one is, I choose the music, at all times. Deal?”