Reckless Retribution (West Warriors Book 1) (3 page)

He stood up from his chair. “I’ll show you the shake bar.”

This I liked the sound of. I followed him to the bar, which was a couple of yards to the left of the desk. It had a wooden countertop, with cupboards below and shelving on the wall behind it. On the shelves were different sized white tubs and a stack of large beaker cups with spouted lids. In a pile on the countertop were diet sheets and what looked like a menu with different the types of shakes offered.

“These are creatine, protein….” He named them all. I had no clue what they were or what they did, but I nodded anyway, thinking I wasn’t possibly going to remember any of them. I was thinking more along the lines of traditional milkshakes—vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, etcetera.

“The boys can help themselves to what they want, but the customers are charged depending on what they want.”

“Do I have to make them for the customers?” I asked curiously.

“Yeah, and for the boys when they need it. It’s just a scoop or two, and they fill their cup with water and shake it up.” He pointed to the water cooler against the wall next to the bar. I had visions of me shaking them a la Tom Cruise style in
Cocktail,
which was an amusing thought. It all seemed relatively simple to do; I just had to get used to the different names. Although it was a lot to take in and learn, I was pretty confident I could do what was asked of me.

Kal suddenly startled me by whistling loudly toward the gym, and minutes later, four guys began to make their way over to him. As I watched them walk toward us, my mind briefly turned to Taylor. She would be in seventh heaven right now and would be working out which one to devour first. I, on the other hand, was beginning to feel intimidated, knowing how brutal this lot could probably be. They could crush me in one hand. I began to knot my hands nervously.

Marc and Cam both smiled at me as they came over, and the other two I hadn’t officially met came walking out of the cage behind them. One of them had short, brown, buzz cut hair with a nice golden tan, and again, like the others, his body was ripped. He lifted the bottom of his T-shirt, and my eyes lowered to the exposed skin as he showed off his toned lower abs and wiped his face with the material. I couldn’t help but watch curiously. When he lifted his head back up; his brown eyes met mine, and he seemed to give me a stern once-over before turning his gaze to Kal.

The other fighter, now standing beside him, had short light brown hair that looked a bit ruffled, blue eyes, and a smile that would please any dentist. He seemed quite friendly. Looking at them all standing together, they were all roughly the same height, Cam having the advantage of an inch or so. They were really muscular, and their biceps flexed impressively as they folded their arms, a stance they all took standing before Kal. They didn’t look like the cage fighters I saw on TV, big burly men with mashed up ears, bent noses, and missing teeth. These looked like typical college guys that had been hitting it hard at the gym every day.

“Lauren, this is Jamie.” Kal pointed to buzz cut, whose facial expression remained guarded. He didn’t respond to the introduction, so neither did I. “And Leon.” He pointed to megawatt smile, who nodded and smiled friendly. I returned his smile.

“Boys, this is Lauren.”

I smiled politely again and tried to stand as confidently as I could, but in reality, I just wanted to hide behind Kal’s back. I hoped I didn’t have any more people to meet and names to learn because this was enough for one day.

“Right. Go home and rest. I’ll see you later,” Kal said to them. I looked to him, surprised. They looked like they had been in here all morning, and he was telling them he would see them again later? Their training seemed relentless. They walked out of the gym and took off in various cars and trucks. Kal left to sort out a problem with one of the treadmills, so I made my way back to the desk and sat down in front of the computer.

When the telephone rang, I panicked. What was I supposed to say? He didn’t tell me that. Tentatively, I lifted the receiver and placed it to my ear. “West Warriors, Lauren speaking.” I cringed, hoping I didn’t sound too pathetic. The customer on the line asked me what time the club was open until, and I had no idea. I frantically began searching the desk, moving things side-to-side and looking under pieces of paper to look for a pamphlet or anything with the opening times on it, but there was nothing. I looked up to find Kal, but I couldn’t see him anywhere, and then I clocked the front door, where I knew the times were. “One moment please.” I put the receiver down and walked as quickly as I could to the door. Opening it, I shielded my eyes from the sun’s glare reflecting off the glass. With the information I needed, I ran back in, and Kal stood watching me, confusion etched on his face. “Hi, sir. Sorry about your wait. We’re open until 10 p.m,” I replied into the receiver, hoping the customer was still there. He was. I was swiftly thanked and clicked off the line, and dramatically, I collapsed back into my chair. Goddamn, that was stressful.

“What were you doing?” Kal chuckled.

“The customer wanted to know what time we were open until, so I had to go and check the door because I couldn’t find anything.” I shook my head and gestured to the amount of papers scattered on the desk. With an amused smile on his face, he walked over to a corkboard hung on the wall directly behind me and stabbed his finger at a printed out timetable that indicated the times. “Oh,” I sighed, embarrassed.

His smile changed to a sympathetic one. “One day at a time.” He patted my shoulder for reassurance. I hoped I wasn’t going to be useless at this whole thing. Kal suggested I take my break; I think he thought I needed it, which to be honest, I did.

I used my thirty minutes to do a quick food shop at the supermarket across the road from the club and quickly took the stuff home. Dad was fast asleep in his chair when I walked in laden with bags. Setting them down, I closed the living room door so I didn’t disturb him while I quickly put them away. I left the house with five minutes to spare. A red truck honked on the road next to me, and I narrowed my eyes in its direction, unsure of who would be honking at me.

“Need a ride back?” yelled an unfamiliar voice. Through the open window, I recognized it was Cameron. He slowly pulled up to the curb, annoying the driver behind him by not signaling, and I had to stifle a laugh.

“Yeah, thanks,” I said gratefully. I think I would have been a bit late otherwise, and that certainly wouldn’t look great on my first day. I walked around his truck and climbed in, and he drove toward the club.

“How you liking it so far?” he asked.

“Yeah, it’s good. Different, but good.”

He nodded, seemingly understanding where I was coming from.

“Obviously, I’m not used to being around the whole fight club scene,” I added.

“Well soon, you’ll become an expert.” He winked.

The thought of me becoming an expert on cage fighting was an absolutely ridiculous notion. I wasn’t into fighting of any kind. I wasn’t a fighter, and never had been. I had a smart mouth and a short temper, but I had never been aggressive. Being from an abusive home, I’d developed certain traits from my parents, but I always drew the line at being physical. I knew what it was like to be on the receiving end of kicks and punches. I was still subjected to them now.

I’d once raised my hand back to Dad when I was sixteen, and he hurt me so badly I ended up hospitalized. He told them I had been jumped by some local youths. I suffered two black eyes, fractured ribs where he’d kicked me, and I broke my right arm trying to protect myself. I was too scared to admit the truth, so I went along with it. The hospital contacted the police, but the case obviously ran cold with no leads. Clearly there were no attackers, except the one who sat next to me holding my hand. That could have been my one chance to get away from him, but I chose to stay with him, because he was the only family I had, and I was all
he
had.

“You okay?” Cam was looking at me, frowning.

“Yeah.” I shrugged it off, smiling at him. “Thanks for the lift, Camer—”

“Cam!” he interjected.

“Cam.” I smiled.

“Anytime. Now I know where you live.” He winked.

To anybody else, those words wouldn’t have bothered them. They would have just been harmless words of flirtation. But to me, they made a cold shiver run down my spine. The last thing I needed was him coming to the house to drive me to work and Dad seeing him. He would go ballistic. He wasn’t too keen on Taylor coming over, so I couldn’t imagine how he would react if a guy came over. No guys came to my house. Ever. I also didn’t want Cam to see the mess that Dad had become. He didn’t take care of himself. He was often unshaved, unwashed, and wearing dirty ratty clothes, despite my constant laundering. I often tried to usher him into the bathroom to clean himself up, but all I would get was a torrent of verbal abuse and him accusing me of trying to get him out of the way. He’d given up on himself a long time ago, and no one would ever change him.

We finally pulled into the lot, and the sight that met me was jaw dropping. The guy with the buzz cut, Jamie, was out by his large black truck, washing it with just his shorts on.
Just
his shorts on. He was shirtless, and I couldn’t help but stare at him. Cam parked in the bay next to him, and I tried to climb out of the truck ladylike, which was an effort because the thing was so damn high. I walked around to the front of it and saw Jamie standing on the running board, soaping the roof with a sponge. The movement was flexing every muscle in his arms and back, and I just couldn’t help running my eyes over him. His deep golden skin was sun-kissed and glistening, and his shoulders were very broad and had the word
Warrior
tattooed across his shoulder blades in scripted black ink. There was another tattoo on the right side of his ribs, a scripted passage of some sort. I wasn’t close enough to read it, but it was damn sexy. He casually glanced over his shoulder at me as I passed by him, and his expression became guarded again. When I met his gaze, a thrill shot through me before he turned away, and carried on soaping his truck.

“You missed a spot!” Cam shouted to him, as he walked behind me.

Amused, I turned to watch Jamie’s response. He stepped to the ground, dunking the sponge in the bucket, lifted it back out, and whipped it at Cam, who laughed as he tried to dodge the water. I yelped, getting caught in the spray.

“Ass!” Jamie barked.

I ran to the door before I got drenched. Putting my purse in my locker, I sat back at the desk, but I couldn’t concentrate. My eyes kept wandering from the computer screen to Jamie, who was now waxing his truck, which was gleaming in the sunlight. He was attentively rubbing the chrome side mirrors in a circular motion. Watching his attention to detail, I could tell he clearly loved his truck.

“Helloooo.” Leon was suddenly waving his hand in front of my face, grabbing my attention. Quickly looking at him, I watched as Leon turned his head, and looked in Jamie’s direction then back at me, raising one eyebrow suggestively.

I smiled nervously at him. “What can I do for you?”

“Well, if you’re not
too
distracted, I was wondering if you could make me your first protein shake.” He grinned charmingly.

Oh, my God, I wanted to hide. “Okay,” I mumbled, embarrassed he thought I was “distracted.” If it was a girl out there cleaning her car in a bikini, I’m sure he would be distracted too. I moved over to the shake bar and Leon followed. “One scoop or two, and what flavor?” I asked, still perturbed by the fact the shakes also came in normal flavors, which I found weird because they mixed them with water and not milk. What was the point in them being milkshake-flavored if they were going to taste like anything but?

“Two scoops of strawberry. Thanks, Lauren.”

I scoured the shelves. There were different brands of protein shakes, different sized tubs, and not to mention the different flavors. All this for a shake. Taking a tub of a well-known brand I’d seen in commercials down from the shelf, I added the scoops and filled it with water for him while he went to the bathroom. I was busy shaking it when Jamie came through the door with his bucket of water and stopped to talk to some guy. This time, I got to see him full frontal, and I literally wet myself. This guy had the best body ever, I swear. His chest and shoulders were broad and looked as smooth as a baby’s bottom. His pecs were impressive, and his stomach, wow. I remembered earlier when he had pulled up his T-shirt to wipe his face and I got a peek of his stomach, but the thing that turned me on the most, thanks to his low-hanging shorts, was where his lower abs moved down to his groin in a ridiculously sculpted V that made my eyes look farther down than his belly button.

He started walking toward me and I averted my eyes. He glanced at me as he walked through to the little kitchen, and my head automatically turned and followed him. I was suddenly aware of hands encompassing mine and relieving them of the cup I was still shaking. I turned to their owner, who was looking at me, amused. “I didn’t know how long it needed shaking for,” I blurted out. It was the first thing I could think of. Embarrassed yet again, I swiftly turned my back on him, and began to wipe the remnants of the white powder from the worktop before he could say anything back to me.

Jamie came out of the kitchen and stopped where Leon was at the desk. “You gonna put some clothes on?” Leon teased.

“Why, am I making you feel bad about yourself?” he asked huskily.

“Yeah, you wish!” Leon retreated.

I knew what I wished. I wished they'd move away so I could get back to work. They soon did though, and Jamie put his T-shirt back on, which was a shame. I certainly could get used to that sight every day.

At the end of my shift, I grabbed my bag from my locker and made my way out to Kal.

“Thanks for today, love. Do you think you’re coming back again?” He cocked an eyebrow.

To see Jamie do that again? Hell yeah, I would be back. “Yeah, of course. See you Thursday.” I laughed quietly. Leaving the club, I walked past Jamie’s now shiny truck, and excitement stirred.