The Fighter (The High Rise, Book 1) (24 page)

He raises an
eyebrow at me as if to prove his point that his brother’s an idiot
and I snort.

“You golf?” he
inquires.

“I have a few
times. You don’t want to know what my handicap is, though. I’ll
just say it’s not the best and leave it at that.”

“We’ll have to
play at the country club soon. Hell, I’ve been playing for years
and I can’t get below a nine handicap. Played Clint Eastwood a few
times which made me feel a helluva lot better, though.”

Laney comes to
the door. “Is Dad bragging to you about beating poor Clint Eastwood
in golf when he’s like, what, eight-hundred years old?” She giggles
walking into the room. Her dad and I stand and she goes to give him
a kiss on the cheek before coming to me and holding my hand. “So,
is Heath a good one or do I need to get your shotgun?”

“He seems to
be a keeper, Button. Especially since he sucks at golf worse than I
do.” He chuckles then walks out of the den.

I look down at
Laney. “Button?”

She rolls her
eyes. “Dad said when I was born I had a cute, little button
nose.”

I smile and
kiss the tip of her nose. “It is cute.”

She blushes
and murmurs, “Stop,” then takes my hand leading me into the dining
room where I see the table’s set and everything’s ready.

“You need any
help?” Laney asks her mom who shakes her head.

“Everyone go
ahead and have a seat,” Meredith says. “I hope you like coq au vin,
Heath.”

I nod and she
smiles before going back to the kitchen.

Laney and I
sit on one side of the table while Curtis takes the head seat and
starts dishing salad onto his plate passing it to me next.

Meredith comes
back in with the main dish placing it on a trivet then hustles back
to the kitchen.

“Mom, come
eat,” Laney calls.

“I’m getting
the noodles and baguettes!” her mom answers before returning with a
pot of noodles and a basket of rolls.

Laney’s mom
can definitely cook. I’m enjoying everything as the conversation
gets started.

“So where are
you from originally, Heath?” Meredith asks.

“El
Segundo.”

She looks at
Curtis. “We drove through there from Redondo Beach taking the girls
up to the Santa Monica Pier years ago. Remember?”

He nods. “Your
folks still live there?”

“Yes. My dad
works for Chevron and Mom works at the library,” I state.

“And what do
you do?” Laney’s mom asks.

“I’m a project
manager in construction.”

“Oh! Well, I’m
really glad you’re not an escort,” she declares.

“Mom!” Laney
scolds.

I can’t help
but laugh and I see Curtis chuckling a little.

Meredith
explains, “She called me about a month ago and told me you’d led
her and Dani to believe you were a gigolo.” She looks at Laney who
has a hand over her face, embarrassed. “Anyway, I’m glad you’re
not! Everything works out the way it’s supposed to, I guess.”

The
conversation gets back on track and afterward Curtis and I go back
to the den where he pours us both another scotch and shows me his
gun collection. An hour later, Laney and I are headed back to the
apartment building.

“They really
liked you,” she shares.

“I really
liked them. They seem like good people.”

“You must’ve
impressed Dad because he doesn’t show his guns to just anybody,”
she says with a chuckle.

“I’m just glad
he didn’t do it right away or I think I would’ve been a little
concerned.”

She now
laughs. “He did that once to a boyfriend I brought home when I was
in college. I could tell Dad didn’t care a lot for him from the
beginning because Sean was kind of arrogant. Anyway, the poor guy
was scared the rest of the night hardly talking at all after Dad
was finished with him. We broke up soon after.”

“You didn’t
tell your mom he was an escort too, did you?”

“Oh, God.
That’s so embarrassing. But it’s your fault!”

I laugh and
reach over taking her hand. “Just so you know, I totally would’ve
given you a discount for my services.”

Back at The
Estates, we stop at Laney’s apartment and I tell her I’ll be back
in a moment. I go to my apartment and see that Jake’s still there
watching TV and munching on popcorn.

“Did you get
in?” I ask hopefully.

“I got in but
dude’s got like ten firewalls set up. I’m gonna have to bring my
other laptop that has all my hacking shit on it. I got through a
couple of them thinking it wouldn’t be that big of a problem but
he’s paranoid as hell.”

“Shit,” I
mumble. “Okay. Thanks. Can you come by in the morning?” I ask
hoping he can so I don’t have to fight tomorrow night.

“No, sorry.
I’ve got a routing job in an office building downtown. I can come
by Sunday, though.”

Damn. I’ll
have to lie to Laney once again about fighting but hopefully it’ll
be the last time. For weeks now, I’ve had to make up shit to keep
her from catching on. And since realizing her dad doesn’t know
anything about Edward, I definitely don’t want them finding out
through me that he’s an asshole. Eventually, I’ll have to tell her
everything. She’ll be upset but by then maybe she’ll see that I had
no choice.

At least that’s
what I’m hoping for
.

Nineteen

Saturday afternoon
Heath tells me he has to go in at five tonight for another shutdown
at the site. When I ask if I can go, he barks out a no which
somewhat startles me. This must be important since he seems a
little stressed
.

He kisses me
goodbye before leaving just as my phone rings.

“Hey, Uncle
Edward! How are you?” I answer.

“I’m good,
Laney. But I need to ask a favor of you.”

“Anything.”

“I’ve got
fights going tonight and Elton can’t be there to take money. You
think you can cover for him, honey?” he asks.

“Of course.
What time do I need to be down there?”

“Just as soon
as you can get here.”

“All right.
Let me change and I’ll be down in a bit. See you soon!” I say and
hang up, going to change into jeans and a blouse.

I’ve collected
money for him before but I try to keep from watching the guys fight
because it’s so brutal. But I think it’s really sweet that those
men volunteer to fight to raise money for cancer victims. I’ve
thought about telling Heath about it because I think his brother
Aaron has cancer. A couple weeks ago, I overheard Heath talking on
the phone to him about his white blood cell count being up, and
he’s told me he wants me to meet Aaron soon but that he’s sick and
he wants to wait until he feels up to it.

After changing
I take the elevator down to the first floor then go down the stairs
to the basement, texting Heath on the way to let him know where
I’ll be in case he gets off work early. He doesn’t answer so I know
he must be driving.

“There she
is!” Uncle Edward says, giving me a big hug when I make it to the
basement.

I haven’t been
down here in months and I’m shocked to see so many people here.

“Hi, Uncle
Edward,” I say, hugging him right back. “Wow! I can’t believe how
many people are here! You must be raising a lot of money now!”

He chuckles.
“That I am. Okay, honey, same as last time. You take the money and
Craig will write everything down.”

Oh, yay. I get
to work alongside Craig. Gross.

I walk over to
the table where he’s doing double-duty, taking money and writing
out tickets, and I’m less than thrilled to be here now.

“Hey, Laney,”
he says with his smarmy grin when I get there.

“Hey. Uncle
Edward wants me to take care of the money while you do the other
thing,” I inform him.

“Got it
covered,” he says with a wink.

Ugh.

I’m still
shocked at how many people are here. I recognize some of the men
betting from seeing their faces on billboards or television ads. A
couple of them are lawyers, ambulance chasers Dad calls them, and I
know one man is a bail bondsman. Well, at least they’re giving to a
good cause even though some of them will win their money back plus
some but it’s still a good thing.

When it slows
down a bit, the second fight is going and Craig looks at me for a
moment.

“What?” I
ask.

“You here for
support?”

I frown then
shrug. “I guess so. He needed me so I came to help.”

“You’re not
here to cheer him on?”

Why would
Uncle Edward need me to cheer him on? “Uh, I guess taking the money
is kinda cheering him on, don’t you think?”

He then gets a
villainous look on his face. “You don’t know.”

Just then the
crowd lets out a huge cheer and I turn to see that the fight is
over and one of the guys in the cage is a bloody mess. Ack! I turn
back to Craig.

“What don’t I
know?”

He gives me
his shitty grin. “You’ll see.”

I shake my
head, annoyed with him. “Whatever. Weirdo,” I mumble under my
breath.

More men come
up to the table to bet on the next fight and I take their money. A
few of them have already bet and are now upping their antes. Must
be a lopsided fight. Once things calm down, Craig turns back to
me.

“Look,” he
says, jerking his head toward the cage.

I glance over
and freeze.

“Wh-what’s
going on?” I whisper keeping my eyes glued to Heath who’s in the
middle of the ring staring down his opponent, who’s huge by the
way, while the referee states the rules.

Craig
snickers. “He’s here every Saturday. I can’t believe he hasn’t told
you.”

I look at
Craig who’s now sneering, enjoying my shock. Asshole.

The bell dings
and I watch as the fight starts, my heart beating a million miles
an hour when it hits me that Heath’s lied to me every Saturday
since we started seeing each other.

I turn to
Craig. “Why would he lie if he’s fighting for charity?”

Craig barks
out a laugh. “You really don’t know anything, do you?”

I narrow my
eyes at him. “What do you mean?”

He shakes his
head, still giving me his oily smile and still getting a kick out
of my ignorance. Prick. “Nothing,” he says with a snort.

I turn back to
the ring and watch as Heath takes a kick to his back before he
retaliates with an elbow that gets the other guy’s forehead opening
a gash in it and blood starts running down his face. Holy shit. The
crowd’s going nuts, all bloodthirsty and I want to puke.

More men come
in and place bets and I distractedly take their money while Craig
takes care of the other part. I start looking around the room
seeing that although many of these men appear to be somewhat
wealthy they also don’t look like the savoriest of characters.

When I asked
Craig why Heath would lie if he’s fighting for charity, he laughed
at me saying I knew nothing.

I look at
Craig. “So what the hell is this then?”

“You were
right. It is for charity,” he recants. “It’s just that some of the
fighters who are good make money. Edward pays them under the table
and that’s why it’s secret. Your boyfriend is one of them.” He
shrugs.

The bell rings
for the second round to start. I look at Heath seeing he’s got a
bump coming up on his cheekbone. God.

I take money
from several more men who’ve come in. When the bell rings to end
the second round, I look back to see Heath’s now bleeding from a
cut on his cheekbone which his opponent must have hit again.
God!

The bettors
keep coming and I think I must’ve taken in at least ten grand in
the thirty minutes I’ve been down here. But now I know not all the
money’s going to charity. Some of the fighters are being paid
illegally and my boyfriend is one of them!

The crowd
roars again and I see that Heath’s got the other guy down and is
wailing on him and it disgusts me.

“Is there
anything else I don’t know about my boyfriend?” I ask Craig.

He raises an
eyebrow at me. “You sure you wanna know?”

I set my jaw
and nod. Oh, God. I know this is going to break me.

“You know that
little blonde that was at your party?”

Oh, God.

I nod.

“Back in March
I invited Heath over to watch some basketball one Sunday night. My
girl Ronni came over and she brought Glenda with her for
Heath.”

I swallow the
bile down that’s threatening to come up because this is making me
sick. I narrow my eyes at him. “What was the date?”

He scrunches
up his face. “It was March Madness, so it had to be around the
twentieth?”

Oh, my God.
That was the night Heath and I first had sex. I swallow before
telling Craig to go on.

He shrugs.
“Ronni and I were making out in the living room while Heath and
Glenda talked watching the game.”