UNBROKEN: A Bad Boy MMA Romance (Midwest Alphas) (Book 2) (14 page)

“Claire.”

My blood runs cold. Instinct tells me to ignore him. Maybe he’ll go away if I just ignore him, like some ghastly apparition, but life doesn’t work that way. I prepared myself for Rick. I was ready to confront him by the time I set foot in that gym.

But
Pike the Punisher
?

I don’t think I’ll ever be ready for this.

I look up and my knees shake in fear. His shaggy hair is gone, buzzed off so short you can see the scars of previous fights on his scalp. His thick arms are lost behind a black leather jacket, but I can tell how massive they’ve become in almost the year since the tournament. I remember him being smaller. Now, he stands over me like a giant, hell-bent on making me his dinner. “Pike…” I squeak.

He stares down at me, his eyes narrow and cold. “What are you doing in my gym?” he asks.

“Your gym?” I ask.

“Yeah, this is
my
gym,” he says. “I own it.”

“I was just…” I lose my voice, my tongue gripped by confusion. I glance over my shoulder at the gym entrance.

“It’s not exactly an official rule, but I don’t allow
Alpha Dames
in my gym,” he growls. “They tend to cause…
problems.
”

I step back once, cowering from his shadow, as it all falls into place. “You’re training Rick to fight in the tournament, aren’t you?”

Pike grins. “You’re much sharper than I thought you were,” he says. “Yes. If I can’t fight for the Alphas, then I’ll send a fighter in my place.”

“Why?”

He doesn’t answer. Instead, he looks me up and down with amusement. “You’ve been working out,” he notes. “You look good.”

“
Why
, Pike?”

“With all due respect to you as a Dame, Claire…” he says, glancing around the lot. “I don’t owe you a damn thing.” He stares back at me before spinning around towards the entrance. “Stay the hell out of my gym.”

I watch him leave and another brisk wind strikes me cold.

Chapter 9

A Bit Of Deja Vu

I want nothing more than to drive home and forget this day ever happened, but I can’t leave St. Louis without alerting Lillian to what I just saw. Pike is training Rick. I’m not one hundred percent sure on the rules involved here, as the Midwest Alphas don’t exactly have a manual to make reference to, but I’m sure there’s a rule against blacklisted fighters causing trouble from the outside. Hopefully, it’s enough to reconsider her stance on booting Rick out of the tournament. I failed in reasoning with Rick directly. Maybe I can still get him disqualified in another way.

Amy told me that I could find Lillian at the club if I needed her help. As I step inside, I blink twice as the unexpected bright lights kill my senses. The dance floor is completely deserted, the lights set to full blast. There’s no music either, leaving the room in a state of eerie calmness. It’s like walking into a movie theater auditorium when the lights are still up; it’s jarring enough to make you pause to remember where you are.

“Lillian?” I call out. My voice echoes off the walls and I catch movement out of the corner of my eye.

A full head of neon red hair pops up from behind the bar in the corner. She squints her eyes in confusion until recognition finally crosses her face. “Oh, hello, Claire,” she says with a quick nod.

“Hello, ma’am,” I address her, keeping my tone respectful. “I’m sorry for barging in like this…”

“Amy told me you might stop by,” she says, her eyes wandering around the counter in front of her. She bends down and grabs a box of full whiskey bottles off the floor. “She didn’t say why, but I imagine it’s
interesting
.”

“Sort of,” I nod. “I, uh— came to talk to Rick and in doing so, I stumbled upon something I thought you should know.”

“I’m listening,” she says, as she stacks the whiskey bottles on the shelf behind her.

“Pike is training Rick to fight in the tournament.” I pause, waiting for a reaction from her.

“Uh-huh,” she mutters, her eyes barely glancing at me. “Is that all?”

It’s definitely not the reaction I was expecting. “I’m sorry, ma’am, but you seem a little unfazed by this. Pike tried to kill Tobias.”

“I know,” she says. “That problem has already been dealt with.”

“And what about this new problem?” I ask.

“There is no new problem, Claire,” she says. “There’s no rule against banned fighters earning a decent living.”

I take another step closer to the bar. “You already knew about this, didn’t you?”

“Yes, I did.”

“Lillian, Rick approached Pike last year and asked him to stab Tobias in the ring—”

“Claire—” She looks up at me with steady eyes. “Let this go.”

“Excuse me?”

“I don’t have time to deal with your little love triangle right now,” she says. “Rick is a promising fighter and as far as I’m concerned, he’s broken no rules of ethics or Alpha Law.”

“This isn’t about some tournament,” I argue. “This is my life.”

“This tournament
is
my life, Claire. It’s my livelihood, my passion, and my family — a family I so graciously invited you into and I don’t appreciate you walking into my place of business and telling me how to run my life.”

“I’m not telling you how to run your life. I’m just sharing information. Facts that I
thought
you’d appreciate knowing.”

Lillian pauses, her eyes shifting softer. “Claire, I make it a personal rule not to get romantically involved with my fighters,” she says. “It makes things…
complicated
. I don’t bother setting the rule for the other Dames, because it’s not my business what you all do on your own time — until it starts affecting my tournament. Then, I start to get a little testy.”

“Are you telling us to break up?” I ask.

“I’m telling you to not let it cloud your judgment. This situation is not your fault, but how it’s handled is
completely
on your shoulders.” She takes a deep breath. “Claire, I know what it’s like to be between two powerful men. You have to pick loyalties and the quicker you do, the better off everyone will be.”

“I already have.”

“Have you?”

“If you knew what Rick did to me, you wouldn’t ask that question.”

Lillian raises an eyebrow. “You certainly are more
interesting
than you appear…”

I take a quick step closer to her. “Look, I don’t care what you think of me, Lillian, but I know that there
is
something else going on here and I guarantee you that Rick does not have your best interests at heart. I’m trying to help you before it’s too late.”

Lillian props her elbows down onto the counter and leans forward with a pensive smirk on her lips. “I appreciate your concern, Claire. While it is a bit intrusive, it is not entirely unwelcome.” She pushes off the counter and travels the length of the bar, gesturing me to follow her with a head nod. “I expect my Dames to be my eyes and ears in places I cannot be, but the trust involved in that act is to be earned.”

“So, you don’t trust me,” I say. “That’s fine. Doesn’t make what I’m telling you any less true.”

“Like many things, Claire,” she smiles, “this is not about you.”

I stare at her with a furrowed brow. “I don’t follow.”

“I sincerely hope, for both our sakes, that you never do.” She grabs an extra box of whiskey bottles off the edge of the counter. They shake back in forth in the box, clanging against each other. “I have work to do. You can see yourself out.” Her heels echo through the air as she walks towards the back room.

***

I reach into my pocket as I step into the house. After the long day I’ve had, I don’t feel like talking to anyone, but my fingers slip around my phone. Instinct drives me, like a crying child, as I find my mother’s contact and dial her number.

The phone rings repeatedly as I pass through the living room to the kitchen. I see Charlie sitting at the table and nod my head at him in greeting.

“Hello?”

I sigh, finally hearing her voice. “Hey, Mom.”

“Hey, honey.”

I pause, a dark feeling striking my nerves. “Mom, what’s wrong?”

She sniffs. “Nothing is wrong. Everything is fine.”

“Have you been crying?”

“No, it’s just some allergies. You know what the summer air is like for me—”

“Mom—” I look over at Charlie and he’s staring back at me over his newspaper. I walk out of the room, keeping my voice low. “If there’s something you need to tell me, but you
can’t
, make a noise or something—”

“Claire, for heaven’s sake, I have
allergies.
”

“Mom, please.”

“Is there something you needed?”

I slide down to sit on the stairwell. “I just… wanted to hear your voice today.”

“Bad day?” she asks.

“You could say that.”

I hear a mumble on the other end, a deep voice in the background behind her. “I’d love to hear about it, honey,” my mother says, “but I’m a little busy. Can I call you back?”

I close my eyes, trying to picture what’s going on over there. My mother’s voice — it keeps getting worse with each phone call. It grows weaker and darker, like a lighthouse drifting away on the horizon. Soon, it’ll be gone forever. “Mom, do you need help?” I ask.

“Claire—”

“Mom, you got me out,” I tell her, tears challenging my eyelids. “You saw that he was hurting me and you got me out.” My entire body shakes. “I can’t sit here and watch the same thing happen to you.”

“I have to go, Claire.”

“Please, Mom—”

The line goes dead. I grit my teeth in anger, holding back every urge I have to throw the phone across the room.

“Everything all right in there?” Charlie’s voice drifts in from the kitchen.

“Yeah, Charlie,” I answer.

“You sure?”

I push myself off the stairs and wander back into the kitchen. “Yeah,” I answer. I pull open the refrigerator and grab a cold bottle of water.

“Going back out?” he asks.

“No.”

“Need to punch something for a while?”

“Yes.”

“Okay, have fun.”

I stare down at him and a smile crosses my face.

***

My knuckles sting, but I don’t stop punching.

There’s something going on, something Lillian seems aware of, but for whatever reason, isn’t sharing. She knew Pike was training Rick. She’s probably known since he moved to St. Louis. A woman as well-connected as Lillian Tombs no doubt knows everything that goes on in her city. She said Rick mentioned me and our “taboo affair,” which means she knew her new prized tournament fighter was my stepbrother the moment she met me. She made that connection from the start. She knew there was friction between us, friction that could lead to Tobias intervening and reentering the tournament.

Or maybe it’s all just coincidence and I’m over-thinking the entire thing.

“Slow down, Claire…”

I pause, my wrists falling to my side like rocks. My lungs burn, begging for me to take a break. I turn around to see Tobias standing in the barn doorway. “Hey,” I say, heaving for air. He steps inside in jeans and a tight, white shirt, looking far better than he did last night. “You seem rested,” I note, brushing my sweat-coated hair away from my face.

“Been up an hour,” he chuckles. “Just in time to watch the sun go down.”

The orange rays bleed through the open windows, casting the last bit of today’s sunshine along his stunning face. “Feeling okay?” I ask.

He nods, looking me up and down. “What about you?” he asks. “You’re hitting pretty hard.”

I glance down at my pink knuckles. “I’m fine.” I turn back to the bag and ready myself back into a fighting position. My muscles go tense in preparation to throw more punches, but Tobias slides into sight from behind me.

He settles behind the bag and holds it steady with both hands. “Where have you been today?” he asks me.

I jab softly, watching his expression as the bag rocks against his chest. “Keeping busy,” I answer.

“Dad told me you went out with Amy…” he says slowly.

“Yeah…” I say, avoiding his eyes as I throw a few cross punches. “Did he ask about your face?”

“Told him I rolled my bike…” he mutters.

“Did he believe you?”

“Maybe.” His eyes stay locked on me. “Amy told me yesterday that she would be working at the store all day today.”