Let Go (19 page)

Meyer drinks
his own, all smugness gone. He looks down to the bar and up at
Brutis. He speaks to no one in particular, “I remember when we used
to come here after school, our junior year. We tried to get Brutis
to serve us. Every day we were sure he would break but he stuck to
his guns.”

Brutis eyes
both of them responding, “Yeah, and look at you both now. If I
would have contributed to this back then just think you might be
sittin round here with black eyes and missing teeth in addition to
your broken noses.”

Greylan says,
“They’re not broken, just swollen.”

Brutis leans
across the bar and pours more whiskey into Greylan’s glass while
meeting his stare, “Grey, you need to figure things out. You’ve
been through a ton of shit in your life. No one would wish that on
anyone but now you have a chance. Don’t mess it up, you’ll never
forgive yourself.”

Greylan looks
away. He can’t forgive himself for so many things. Fighting, pro
fighting, he can’t lose that too. Brutis is right, he’d lose his
sanity if he didn’t have fighting.

Meyer says
nonchalantly, “Can we get down to business, or do you want to beat
my ass some more?”

Greylan frowns
and asks annoyingly, “What the fuck are you talking about?”

“Dude, I can
get you the top fights. That’s really why I’m here. I couldn’t tell
you last night because you weren’t pro yet. But now, the sky’s the
limit.”

Greylan’s
thoughts are all over the place. Meyer in the fighting business?
How did he miss this?

Meyer
continues, “I work for some higher ups. We’ll just say, I can get
you some top fights if you go along with what I say.”

This statement
pisses Greylan off. He shifts in his seat to get a good look at
Meyer. His face is a mess. Besides his nose swollen to twice its
size, His eyes are surrounded with deep grey indents. The guy
really hasn’t been to bed yet.

“Okay Meyer,
I’ll bite. What the fuck are you talking about?”

“You always
did have a way with words Grey. I’m talking big fights, Parker
Harris fights.”

Greylan winces
at the name spewed from Meyer’s mouth. He knows Parker is the top
of his weight class. If he faces his sister’s fiancé and wins,
he
is the top. But Trinity’s sweet face pops into his head.
If he takes the road all the way up, what will happen to his
relationship with her? Will she hate him for knocking Parker off of
his pedestal?

“Yo, Grey, you
there?”

Greylan looks
up into Meyer’s amused expression. He muses, “Thought I lost ya
there for a minute. You know you can’t go straight for Harris right
away don’t you? You have to make the climb but I can make it happen
sooner than it would if you just keep on with Jackson’s match
ups.”

Greylan
frowns, “How do you know I’m training with Jackson?”

Meyer laughs,
“Dude, that’s my job. I know more than you think.”

Greylan is
tired of Meyer’s bullshit. He gets up from the stool and thanks
Brutis turning to go. Meyer’s hand on his arm causes him to stop.
He asks, “Will you just think about it? Jackson thinks it’s good if
you pair up with me.”

Greylan states
over his shoulder, “I’ll think about it.”

As he walks to
the door, his past slowly creeping back up on him, the door opens
to a pissed off Red. She immediately spots Meyer leaning against
the bar holding an ice pack to his nose. She looks up to Greylan a
few feet in front of her and exclaims as she lashes out to strike
him with her fist, “What did you do?”

Greylan
catches her wrist in his hand. His grip tightens as he savors the
touch of her skin. He smiles at her feistiness before shaking his
head and looking over to Meyer and back into her confused gaze,
“Nothing, he’s all yours. I found him for you.”

He releases
her arm and struts out the door. He doesn’t realize he is holding
his breath until the sun shines in his face causing moisture to
form on his brows. His breath comes out shallow for the past that
just snuck up on him and the woman he just turned his back on
against every cell in his being.

Mid- afternoon
and Jackson finds Greylan sparring with another fighter, Jonesy of
all the kids he could have picked. But as he gets closer Jonesy’s
voice echoes through the gym, “Alright Grey, yeah, just like that.
Hit it dead on. Mix it up.”

He chuckles at
the humor that Jonesy was the first fighter Greylan beat in a spar
and here he is cheering him on, probably Grey’s biggest fan now.
Jackson stops a few feet away watching Grey’s technique. He is
still holding back. Jackson steps up to the mat and calls out,
“Jonesy, give me the mitts.”

Greylan stops
punching the gloves fitted onto Jonesy’s hands and stares at
Jackson as he steps onto the matt. He passes Jonesy swiping the
pads from his grasp. He faces Greylan glaring, “You need to get it
together Pace. This holding back shit won’t fly in Vegas.”

Greylan is
about to protest but Jackson’s words sink in causing panic.

“Yeah, Vegas.
Big time, but you already knew that.”

Greylan shakes
his head trying to displace his thoughts. He starts moving with
successive punches. Each move meeting one of Jackson’s palms.

“Come on Pace,
give it all you got.” Jackson pants out as Greylan continues
hammering his hands. He states in shaky breaths, “I don’t know what
it’ll take to get you to put yourself into it. Figure it out, I
feel like a fuckin’ broken record.”

Greylan pushes
forward. He pictures Meyer with his arm around Mollie. He forces
his breath out and speeds his punching. His leg comes up kicking
into the mitt.

“That’s it
Pace, whatever you’re doing keep going.”

He winces as
the imaginary Meyer leans in to kiss Mollie. His hand comes up in a
rounded punch striking Jackson’s side. He doubles over causing
Greylan to come back from his thoughts. He rushes to Jackson’s side
grabbing his back to hold his weight.

“I’m sorry
Jax, I was in the moment. Shit, sorry.”

Jackson
chuckles, straightening out to his full height shaking it off, “I
knew it was in there somewhere. Whatever just caused you to do
that, keep at it.”

Greylan slips
his gloves off and looks to the floor. He angles to the locker
rooms pissed that he’s letting her get to him where he usually
feels most at peace. Jackson is calling after him, “Meyer set
things up. Your first fight is two weeks away in Vegas.”

Greylan
continues on. Whatever Jackson has gotten into with Meyer, he knows
it can’t be good. He was too sketchy at the bar today. Given he had
probably been drinking all night, but he still didn’t want to give
up too much information which raises tons of red flags. First the
constant push of Parker and now Meyer, his anger grows but he knows
he’s done fighting for the day. It won’t do any good for his shitty
mood.

After a quick
shower he heads straight to Juno’s glad for the distraction.
Christina will help to keep his mind off of things, namely the off
limits girl that haunts his waking minutes.

When he enters
through the back door a crackly voice calls, “Grey, is that you?
Come see me in the office.”

His shoulders
seem to sink further at Juno’s voice beckoning him to her. What do
they all want from him? He thought winning last night would change
things. Maybe the direction everything is going isn’t in his favor.
As he rounds the corner to the small four by four room, two voices
start lip synching way off key to Undefeated by Daughtry. Christina
holds a two-tiered round cake in her arms. The blue lettering
across the top displays the words, Congratulations Champ. He smiles
as he takes the cake from her grasp and places it on the desk. He
then pulls Christina and Juno into his arms squeezing them while
admitting, “Thank you, I really needed this.”

Christina
grabs a pen off the desk and shoves it up to Greylan’s mouth as a
makeshift microphone encouraging him to sing with her. He shakes
his head but she insists on getting him to sing a few lines. Juno
covers her ears as they belt out the lyrics. Finally as the song
ends, Juno tells them with a smile, “Okay enough playing around,
get to work you two.”

He follows
Christina to the bar, the cake in her arms. She calls back, “It’s
celebratin’ time. No tellin’ Juno though.” She cuts each of them a
piece of the cake and pours whiskey into two glasses. Pulling them
both off the bar she places one in his hand and holds her glass up
claiming, “To the new and upcoming MMA champ, Greylan Pace, may you
beat all their asses.”

He laughs at
her toast and holds his glass up before swallowing the contents in
one gulp. After their little party he concentrates on getting the
bar ready. Not many words are exchanged between them beside the
usual insult here and there. Greylan knows Christina is concerned
about Meyer being around especially after he didn’t exactly share a
multitude of information with her. He thinks about telling her that
he went to Brutis’ earlier in the day but then he’d have to admit
that Mollie got to him and he’s having a hard enough time admitting
that to himself.

The usual
crowd gathers at the bar. They tag team the whole night making sure
everyone is nice and happy. An hour before closing Greylan is
stocking the cooler under the bar. He looks up to the face that
seems to haunt him. Red is sitting in front of him, amused
obviously, that he didn’t notice her come in. He decides to keep it
completely official, bartender and customer. He has no claim on her
and after today she probably hates him.

He nods and
looks back to what he’s doing. Once he finishes he directs his
attention back to her and asks coolly, “Can I get you a drink?”

“Um, what are
you drinking?” Her smooth words make him want to smile but he
can’t.

“I’m not. I’m
working.” He remembers her calling him an ass earlier. This abrupt
response can’t help his case but he refuses to try. That would mean
he cares and he can’t afford that right now. He told Christina when
they met that he didn’t want any kind of a relationship. That fact
even truer now after last night’s fight, than ever. He’s going to
Vegas in two weeks for his first professional fight. He can’t fuck
it up.

She glares and
seems to consider responding with a comment but instead asks, “Can
I just get a whiskey?”

He nods and
turns grabbing two glasses and the bottle. As he pours the golden
liquid into both glasses she asks, “I thought you are working.”

“I am, but
that doesn’t mean I won’t join you in a drink.”

She shakes her
head, then a quirk at the edge of her lip appears and she asks, “Do
you know how infuriating you are?”

“I’ve probably
been told that once or twice.” And there it is. He knows he just
crossed the line but can’t help himself. The words flow so easy
with her.

As she lifts
her glass, he notices her perfect red lips turn up in a smile. She
sips the liquid daintily. He shakes his head and tilts his glass
back roughly placing it back onto the bar. Her brows go up in
surprise. She lifts her glass again, this time swallowing the
contents at once. She slams it back down in front of him. As he
fills both glasses again she says, “Thanks for finding Meyer today.
I guess I owe you one.”

“You don’t owe
me anything.” He pushes her glass forward. This time she lifts it
into the air encouraging him with a pointed look to do the same. He
obliges as she states, “To Greylan Pace, the champ!” A few of the
other patrons down the bar salute and drink as Greylan and Mollie
flip their own drinks back. As Greylan is placing his glass back
onto the counter Christina walks up. She eyes Mollie and looks up
to Greylan. He averts his look away from her. She knows him well
enough now to see how this woman affects him. She looks back to Red
and asks, “Where’s Meyer?”

Mollie swirls
her finger around the rim of her newly filled glass, “Ahhh Meyer.
He had a rather trying day with getting punched in the nose and
everything. He decided to catch up on some beauty sleep
tonight.”

Christina
looks over at Greylan who has inched his way further down the bar.
She asks Mollie while looking at Greylan, “I don’t suppose our
champ here had anything to do with that, did he?”

Mollie answers
animatedly, “Oh yes, I think they both thought they’d set each
other straight but I’m sure you can guess who had the upper
hand.”

Christina
shakes her head and grabs Greylan’s arm. She pulls him out of
earshot across the expanse behind the counter and whines, “Why
didn’t you tell me you saw them today? Is Meyer okay? Did you do
some real damage? You know how I feel about the prick, he probably
deserved it.”

Greylan moves
away determined not to reveal anything but she grabs his arm again
and whispers, “I’d be careful, I have a bad feeling about her.”