The Fighter (The High Rise, Book 1) (20 page)

“Baby,” I hear
him whisper in my ear waking me.

I sit up,
squinting into the dark. “Huh?” Ugh. It’s still dark outside.

“Going to the
weight room. You got your alarm set, right?”

I nod.

“See you in a
bit,” he says, kissing the side of my head then he’s gone. I
collapse back on the bed and fall back to sleep in five
seconds.

An hour and a
half later, my alarm goes off and turning it off, I slowly look
around wondering where Heath is before vaguely remembering his
waking me before he left. It’s now seven and it usually takes Dani
and me about fifteen minutes to get ready before we go downstairs
to the weight room. Then we run for an hour, shower and head to
work.

I realize
Heath’s been down there since around five-thirty.

Holy cow. Now
that’s
dedication.

I get up and
throw on one of his t-shirts, pulling on the shorts I brought with
me then go down the hallway to my apartment. Dani’s sitting at the
bar sleepily drinking coffee and jerks her head which is her way of
saying good morning.

“Should I get
in the shower for a minute and rinse the sex off me?” I call as I
run into my room.

“Yes, you
hooker,” she yells back.

I shower
quickly then dry off but apparently not well enough because when I
go to put on my sports bra, I start cussing because it’s just as
hard to put on as it is to take off when your body is slightly wet.
Jesus. I next put shorts then socks and grabbing a t-shirt, pull it
over my head as I run into the living room.

Snatching my
shoes from beside the door planning to put them on in the elevator,
I call, “Let’s go!” and we’re out of there.

When we get to
the weight room, I find I’m nervous, not knowing how Heath will
react to me but I shouldn’t have worried. While Dani and I stretch,
I look over to see he’s working out with that Matt guy and Heath is
doing squats with eighty billion pounds of weights on the bar, his
eyes focused straight ahead as he does each rep, and I know we’re
good. I know we’re especially good when after he finishes his set,
he looks over and winks at me.

When Dani and
I hit mile two, I think with all the sex I’ve been having I’ve
gotten in better shape because I’m not feeling it like I did last
week. Who knew? We decide we’re going for two-and-a-quarter miles
today but as we keep going, now I’m feeling it. Dang.

“Is that
Pamela Anderson?” Dani asks. I look at her then follow her eyes
seeing Heath talking to some little blonde.

“I don’t
know,” I say with a frown, keeping my eyes on them. He glances over
at me and the look he gives me lets me know he’s annoyed and I rest
easy.

Dani and I
shower afterward, with her running out quickly as usual to get to
work and me not far behind. When I get to the elevator, wet hair in
a towel, I’m disappointed that Heath’s not there. I’m tempted to
walk around the corner to see if he’s coming but I don’t want to be
pushy. Instead I get on the elevator and just as the doors start to
close, he yells, “Hold the doors!” so I reach out and make them
open again.

“Hey, baby,”
he says, getting on then suddenly picking me up which makes me
squeak in surprise. He pushes my back to the wall and kisses me
silly. When he pulls away, he chuckles at what I’m sure is a “gaga”
look on my face before saying, “’Morning, darlin’.”

“Hey,
handsome,” I murmur on a sigh as he sets me down but holds my
hand.

Can you fall
in love with someone after a week? I mean,
really
fall in
love with them? Because I’m definitely thinking that’s what’s
happening to me.

But then I
remember. “Who was that girl?”

He looks
disgusted. “Some chick Craig tried hooking me up with.”

“Oh.”

“But I told
him I’ve already got exactly what I want,” he says, bringing my
hand to his mouth, kissing the back of it while waggling his
eyebrows playfully at me.

“Oh, well.” I
don’t know what to say even though what he said was sweet and funny
but I’m more focused on Craig the rapist-slash bad guy trying to
set my man up with another woman, the jerk.

“Baby, not
even an inkling of a comparison there,” he reassures me which makes
me feel better but I’m still thinking of ways to get back at Craig.
Like taking a screenshot of his desktop on the weight room computer
then making it his wallpaper. He’d never figure that one out, the
dumbass. “So what’s on the schedule for you today?” Heath asks
interrupting my dastardly daydreaming.

“I’ve got to
check in on Mrs. Lanning first thing,” I say with a dramatic sigh.
At his questioning look, I utter, “You don’t wanna know. I don’t
think she’ll ever be happy with anything I set her up in.”

“Lemme guess.
Comes from old money, probably has five cats and gripes incessantly
about everything she liked at first?” he questions.

I stare up at
him, my mouth hanging open. “How’d you know?”

He chuckles.
“I’m a builder. I’ve dealt with the type before. You do everything
they ask but they’re never happy.” He shrugs.

“Definitely
her,” I mumble. “What do you have to do today?”

“Still working
at the same site but I’ve got a meeting at two with a contractor
for a high rise going in downtown. Hopefully, our bid will win and
my guys will eat for another eight months or so.”

I squeeze his
hand. “You’re a good boss.”

He barks out a
laugh. “Gonna take you with me to a site and let you tell them
that.” He bends down and touches his mouth to mine. “They’d think
you’re nuts.”

I chuckle then
tell him, “I’d like to see one of your sites sometime.”

“That can be
arranged but only if you wear a hardhat while I fuck you in my
trailer.”

“Only if it’s
pink,” I joke making him snort.

We get off the
elevator at our floor and he walks me to my door. “Wish I could
come in and help you get dressed.”

“Dressed or
undressed?” I smirk.

“Mm, you know
me too well.” He bends and gives me another searing kiss leaving me
breathless. “I’ll see you tonight, babe.”

“’Kay,” I
reply almost in a daze.

I unlock the
door and turn to say goodbye just as he smacks me on the butt with
a grin making me yelp. “Later, baby.”

“Bye, honey.” I
watch him walk down the hall answering his ringing phone. Just
before he goes in, he turns and winks and I give him a small wave
before going inside to get ready for work
.

Sixteen

Things are going great
with Laney. She’s stayed at my place every night this week and I’m
loving it
.

This Saturday
we’re set to go to Big Bear, leaving right after my fight which is
at six and should put us at my cabin around nine-thirty. I don’t
tell her I’m fighting because the less she knows the better.
Instead, I say that I’ve got a water shutdown at a construction
site and I have to be there. She didn’t ask any questions, just
trusted me and that makes me feel like shit. I’m hoping I don’t get
another black eye so that I have to lie about running into a pipe
and I really don’t want this to come back and bite me in the
ass.

Also,
something new came up this week with Matt. We’ve been working out
together since last weekend and Thursday night when Laney had a
seminar to attend, I met Matt for a beer and we got to talking
about Edward Kyle. Matt and I have talked a lot this week, and
feeling as if I can trust him, I finally told him what happened to
Aaron letting him in on what’s going on with my situation. He
looked truly pissed. And when I told him what I was trying to do
with the books, he was surprised.

“Never thought
of that, man,” he said. “You think you could mark my name off too?”
He laughed but I told him I was willing to try. “If you could get a
printout, we could turn it into the police,” he suggested.

“Not sure I
wanna go that far,” I’d confessed. “Just trying to clear my
brother, you know?”

He nodded but
told me if I could get a printout, he’d take care of the rest.

I’ve also
talked more to Craig this week, trying to get some basic
information that might come in handy. When I instigated a
conversation with him about logins and passwords, he literally told
me all the weight room’s information including the key code to get
in if it’s closed. He also informed me that Kyle’s office is in his
penthouse suite, which isn’t ideal because now I’ve got to find a
way to get up there. But I’m hoping all the office computers share
the same server because if I can login to Craig’s account, maybe I
can find a program to hack into Kyle’s account, get a printout for
Matt and delete Aaron’s name.

So it’s as
simple as that. Huh.

I’m now in the
basement waiting for my fight. They’re running late because a guy
got his nose shattered in the first match and blood went everywhere
so they had to clean and disinfect everything. In the course of
this action, I got to see how my brother had more than likely been
treated when he got hurt. They can’t call an ambulance to an
illegal fight ring, so they have a guy specifically waiting to take
injured fighters to the ER where I’m assuming they drop the guy off
and just leave him. Fuckers.

Matt comes in
as I’m warming up.

“When’s your
match?” I ask.

“Two after
yours.”

“Damn. Laney
and I are set to leave when I finish. Unless you want me to
stay?”

He shakes his
head with a grin. “Nah, you two go have fun. I’ll be all
right.”

“Who do you
have?” I query.

He nods toward
a lean-muscled guy warming up across from us. “Seen him?” he
asks.

I nod. “Yeah.
He’s a lefty. But something’s wrong with his right knee. Shit
starts to get bad, take out the knee.”

“Got it,” he
replies. “Thanks. Who’d you draw?”

I nod toward a
short, scrappy guy I watched last weekend. Even though he had some
solid kicks, he got the shit kicked out of him but kept coming back
for more. I know I’m going to have to take him out as soon as I can
if I want to make it out of here in time.

I’m pissed as
a motherfucker and it’s taken Matt a half hour to calm me down.

My fight
started out fine, the little guy making kicks and landing a few at
my ribs but that’s not the problem. The problem is that the fight
took forever. Every time I took him to the mat he found a way to
get away. Fucker had to be double-jointed or something because I
don’t know how he kept escaping. I thought it should’ve been called
by the ref at the end of round two when I heard a crunch as my
elbow landed solidly on his nose causing a spray of blood to shoot
out and the guy looked like he was stone-cold drunk the rest of the
round. By the middle of the third round I was fed up, so after
taking him down, I unleashed a ground and pound on him to finally
end it, literally pummeling his face to a bloody fucking pulp but
the idiot somehow escaped and still came back for more.

Of course I
won the goddamned thing but that shit was not fun.

“You did what
you had to do,” Matt says.

I’m pacing at
the back of the basement as far away from Kyle as I can get since
I’d probably kill the asshole if he came anywhere near me.

I put my hands
in my hair and pull. “I didn’t have to do shit. I could’ve just
jumped around the fucking ring for three rounds and that would’ve
been it.”

Matt puts his
hands on his hips as I keep walking back and forth. “If you’d done
that, you probably would’ve ended up with a couple broken ribs. The
guy had a helluva spin kick. He’d been any taller, they’d have
landed on your head and not your ribs. Probably would’ve knocked
you the fuck out.”

I stop and
look at Matt who’s grinning which makes me huff out a humorless
laugh.