PUSH: Ultra Alpha MMA Badboy Mafia Romance (Southside Brotherhood Book 2) (12 page)

He took the softness of her face in the hardness of his hands, pushing her chin and guiding her eyes so she had no choice but to face him. He watched as the battle waged, if only for a second, before the answer shone through clear.

“I want you. More than I’ve ever wanted anyone,” Flynn whispered next to her ear. “Do you hear me? Do you see me? I’m all here. For you. I don’t care what the fuck happens; I’m never going to quit until you’re mine. All of you. I’ll figure this out.”

Flynn dragged his leg higher as Lilly closed her eyes and let out a moan that sounded like sad resignation wrapped in a moment of shear, thoughtless pleasure.

“I’m here, Lilly. I’ll find a way—”

His lips were on hers, her eyes still closed as he let one hand drop, curling around her neck just under her chin, he felt the pounding of her pulse under his fingers as his tongue met hers.

Chapter Twelve

That day kept playing inside Flynn’s head as he took the turn toward Southside. How many months ago was it? Three. He knew that much.

First it had been the kiss, their first kiss. Then as quickly as the magic came, it disappeared. There was nothing in this life that didn’t get punished sooner or later — even a moment as perfect as that kiss.

Flynn still remembered the look on his father’s face when he pushed through the music room doors and saw Flynn and Lilly locked against the wall. He’d stood with a smile, arms crossed as the black-suited Neanderthal held Flynn by the neck on the floor.

“Kill me, you fuck. If you’re going to do it, fucking do it,” Flynn choked out as his hands fought the pressure on his windpipe.

The other black suit stood over him, a sleek, cold, black handful of steel aimed at his head.

“It wasn’t her. It was me. I pushed her, she fought me. Leave her!” Flynn struggled against the pressure to get the words out as Colin moved toward Lilly.

Her eyes were dead again. The blaze of life and fire gone, her face slack and cold as she stared at Colin.

Flynn watched his father’s mouth and knew what that smile meant. He had seen it hundreds of times and he twisted on the floor, flinging his legs upward to latch around the neck of the machine that held him.

It was too late. Colin’s smile never wavered as he brought his arm around in a sweep that ended with a crushing smack that sent Lilly’s hair flying into her mouth and over her eyes.

“No!”
Flynn flipped the body of the black suit off balance, sending him toppling to the floor in a heap of 350 pounds.

Lilly’s ivory cheek blistered into red as she lifted her head and stared back at Colin as though he had just delivered her flowers.

“Thank you, Sir, may I have another?”

The sound of the second blow exploded in the tall plaster ceiling of the elegant room.

Colin was still smiling when Flynn got to his feet and turned to face the barrel of a gun.

Lilly blinked once as blood trickled from her bottom lip. Her eyes giving nothing back but defiance.

“Get him out.” Colin tilted his head toward Flynn. “Take him down to Rosemont and Cass. Drop him there.” Colin took out his white handkerchief and wiped his hand as if smacking Lilly had left some unpleasant residue.

“Don’t fucking touch her again. I’ll end your useless life, you fuck.” Flynn pressed his forehead against the gun barrel, grabbing onto it with both hands, baring his teeth as he felt the fire of his rage explode from his lungs.

“Don’t come back. You can see what it’s like on your own. See what it’s like to live without the privileges you’ve undeservedly been given. You will see what your life would have been like with that whore, crackhead of a mother. Go —” He waved his hand. “Get him out. Tell security to change the gate and house codes, re-key the locks. They can call me in my office to verify.”

Flynn jerked and swung as the two men grappled with him, he became the Tasmanian devil until they both released him and came back with guns at his head.

Colin took Lilly’s arm without looking back, pulling her out the double doors onto the terrace, her hair still across her face and two red circles of blood soaking her soft yellow sweater.

***

Three months gone since that day Colin had kicked him out. During those three months, Flynn had trained and fought and fallen in line, as much as he'd hated himself for doing it. It wasn't long before Colin was calling him to fight again, to use his fists to collect from the poor souls that dared not fulfill their debts with the devil.

Soon after that, they pulled him even farther back in; had him spending time at the house, but always sending him away like a stray dog when they were done.

But at least it had kept her closer, and he’d been willing to do anything to spend any moments of his life nearer to her.

He shook his head, trying to stop the memory from playing over and over. He was taking the last turn toward the Southside gym and he needed to shut down. Do his job.

He was once again entrenched in a life with people he hated, this time sequestered in the guest house as he reverted back to doing family business as if nothing had changed.

But, the deep pulling scar tissue on his chest reminded him just how much had changed.

***

Flynn pulled up behind the crumbling building with the chipped, white painted
‘Southside Gym’
sign on the brick high above the parking lot, dragging himself from the memories of how he got from that first kiss to today.

Colin kept Lilly at a distance, never mentioning the kiss to Flynn again.

But, the consequences were clear. If he dared step over the line again, the punishment would not be ex-communication, it would be far more painful and potentially permanent. He’d discovered just how real that was the night he decided his life was forfeit and he sat watching her sleep waiting for her to scream.

The future had never been a consideration before. Now, he was ready to fight for a future.

With her.

Free from them.

Flynn shook his head, reached to grab the gym bag in the passenger seat and took a long, slow breath. Whether allowing him to come home had been a decision to suit some plan of his father’s devious design or if it marked some shred of decency rarely ever seen, mattered not.

Flynn’s objective remained the same. He wanted Lilly in every way. Just thinking of her turned his flow of blood downward, and he needed to walk into the gym focused and without a half-hard cock in his shorts.

The gym was an old, has-been kind of place. Flynn’s job was to train every day, keeping an eye on Topher’s investment until he took ownership when the fading owners failed to pay up their markers.

Flynn did as expected.

Not out of some fierce loyalty but because it kept him connected to her. Without his compliance, he would be out, completely and without some glimmer of hope. Flynn could not bear to think of a life with no chance to bring his soul back to her.

It was just a kiss.

Those words became his obsession because they were the truth and the lie at the same time. A paradox that teased and twisted in his gut until he felt like his skin would peel from his body.

Keeping Flynn on lowly watch duty at some gym where no one was anyone anymore was just another way to show him how far he’d fallen. While Gideon moved with Colin above the mess of their street business, Colin made sure Flynn walked in the muck with the other dogs, reminding him of where he came from and where he belonged.

Flynn didn’t give a shit. The nights in the guest house brought him one step closer to her. The place shadowed by the house where she slept held him at night while he wove the details of her into his dreams. There was a way, a way to her, he wouldn’t give up until he took his last breath.

The dump of a gym seemed to be just what Flynn needed right now. These old has-beens were so out of touch, they had no idea who was who in the fighting world. It kept him anonymous.

That felt comfortable, easy. Roger met him at the ring, a once proud Golden Gloves hero, who now looked like he’d been left out in the rain beside a dumpster for too long.

But, dude had chops. He sized up Flynn and put him through his paces. After banging on the bag and a young hopeful who ended up leaving the ring with his head in his hands, Flynn felt something akin to human again.

“Where you been fighting?” The old man knew better than to think Flynn was just some lucky talent out of some basement somewhere.

“I’ve been living around. Florida, then I was in Texas for a while. I didn’t fight anywhere you’d know.”

“Uh. Well…” Roger squinted his eyes and sucked in on his teeth. “You got something. You outta shape and that—” He tipped his head at the jagged pink and silver line that ran over his chest. “— you gonna have to work that chest out. I’ll post a weight schedule for you. Stretch. You better stretch the ass out of that scar or it’s gonna pull at you. Keep your muscles from coming back. I don’t ask, but something you hopefully got settled. I don’t need trouble. Why you not fight over at the gym by O’Leary’s? You gotta know some of your folks there — your name. You not part of that group over there?”

Roger reached under the chair where he sat watching Flynn in the ring, took a long draw out of a water bottle on some liquid that sure didn’t look like water.

“Naw. No trouble. I’m just trying to find a place to settle, ya know? I don’t know anyone in town. So, I don’t know what you mean about my people, but no. No trouble, man. Just here to fight.”

Even from his place in the ring, Flynn could smell the sharp scent of whiskey as Roger let out a long breath.

“All right. I’ll put you on the schedule. You wanna get back in shape, you needa be here six days at least. Weights, stretches, sparing, bags — I’ll train you, but you gotta do what I tell you. I’m not here to fuck around. I’m too old to babysit. You wanna win, you do what I tell you. Easy.”

Flynn swung his arms in a huge arc, wincing as the muscle in his chest pinched and stung with the movement as he watched the old man fill out a sheet on a clipboard.

“Imma set you up with Lincoln tomorrow. See whatcha got. He’s no more than you can handle, but with whatever you got going on there, you gonna have to bring your game. You not too old yet. You got it, I can see that. But, you don’t have time to fuck around, kid. Life’s short, I know. You don’t grab it by the balls and take what you want, life’s a fucker. It don’t wait for no one.”

With that, the old man took another long draw on his ‘water’ bottle and limped off, his cane scraping and his left foot dragging.

“Okay then.” Flynn shook his head.

Crooked old dude made him smile. Something he didn’t remember doing for a while.

Picking up the workout sheet Roger had left behind before shambling away, Flynn took note of its scrawled training plan and made his way to the weight room, then back to the bags. Two hours and one hot shower later, the ranting voices in his head had quieted.

Of course, he kept his eyes open; he still had a job to do here. He took a mental tally of who came and went. The gym was tired. Only a couple older guys muddled around the whole time Flynn was there. Except one guy. Definitely a fighter. Big ass dude, tats, and he gave Flynn a glare that would skin a damn cat. He walked through like he owned the place. In contrast, the old dude just gave him a sidelong glance as he walked next to a sweet-looking girl wearing a Southside T-shirt.

Never mind. Flynn shook the last of the shower off his wet hair and headed out the back door.

Jesus, I fucking needed that. I haven’t felt this damn good in a fucking long ass time. I never expected her. That’s why I’ve been so fucking blindsided. Never. Me. Feeling. Fuck.

Outside, the back parking lot cracks were filled with weeds, dying in the cooler fall weather. Just a few cars dotted here and there and any of them could have been abandoned there years ago. In this part of town, you didn’t take too much time getting to your car, especially one that stood out like the damn President’s Security One.

I gotta get my fucking Bronco out of storage. Fuck this. I’m not driving this totem around with a target on my ass. Besides, I fucking know they have a damn Lo-jack on every car in the family fleet. They aren’t going to track my ass.

One of many things a good workout did for Flynn was clear his damn head. Flynn felt a focus lost for too long, restored.

What the fuck. No more waiting. No more excuses.

He wasn’t going to end up some drunk with a limp in a shitty gym somewhere telling a kid that life was short.

Flynn had dodged the Grim Reaper twice in the last month. If he didn’t wake the fuck up, she might be gone next time.

Tonight. Now or fucking never, man. Time isn’t your friend, and she doesn’t think she has any. I can’t just be her friend, but I will be her everything else. Just gotta figure out how to fucking get to her without ending up on a slab like last time.

Chapter Thirteen

“How’s the work?” Colin cut into his nearly raw lamb chop.

“On schedule.” Lilly answered. It was the same conversation every night.