The Fighter (The High Rise, Book 1) (5 page)

I’m on my
third set of squats when she comes bouncing in and I grit my teeth
when I see she’s wearing tights. Fuck.

I watch as she
laughs with the blonde while they stretch. I also observe several
men walking by making no secret of checking out her ass which makes
me want to throttle them. When I start my fourth set, it’s then
that I realize she hasn’t glanced my way even once and that pisses
me off even more.

Christ. What
the hell’s wrong with me?

I continue my
workout choosing not to pay her any mind telling myself again she’s
the enemy and I need to keep my guard up.

This all goes
well until thirty minutes later I drop down from doing military
pullups to see Laney laughing and talking to some muscle head who’s
looking at her like he wants to fucking eat her up. The way she’s
smiling at him has my stomach roiling and my fists bunching, just
itching to connect with the dude’s face.

“You know
her?” Matt asks, noticing I’ve stopped my workout.

I grab a towel
and wipe my face muttering, “Not really. I know her dad owns Kyle
Properties.”

Matt nods then
he and I both witness her giggling and smacking the guy
flirtatiously on the chest at something he’s said. Swear to fuck I
growl.

“You box?”
Matt asks.

I look over at
him and know I must look as angry as I feel because he draws his
head back and raises his brows in surprise. Shit.

“Only dabble a
bit in it now. I’ve been training more along the lines of MMA,” I
inform.

“Oh, yeah? Me
too. Uh, there’s a ring in the basement. You wanna go spar?”

“Hell yes,” I
bite out, needing to get rid of some of this hostile energy that’s
built up.

As I wipe my
hands on my towel, I glance over to see Laney back on her treadmill
before following Matt to the basement.

Turns out that
was just the thing I needed. We got on the bags first which got
tons of my aggression out so I didn’t beat the shit out of him once
we got in the ring.

Afterward Matt
states while breathing hard, “You’re good. Do you, uh, ever have
matches?”

We sit on a
bench ringside, both of us catching our breath as we remove our
headgear and unwrap the tape from our hands.

“Getting ready
to.”

“Where do you
fight?”

I turn my head
to him wondering if I can trust him. He could be a plant that
Kyle’s using to get information from me. I suddenly check myself
and snort because what would he even get out of me? I now want to
punch my damned self because I’ve taken this shit to espionage
proportions when I know in comparison this is just a rinky-dink
operation for some sick, twisted fuck to make more money off his
“clients.”

“I fight here
this Saturday,” I reveal waiting to see if Matt pulls out a gun and
shoots me for spewing State secrets. Jesus. I need to stop watching
so many movies.

But all he
does is nod before remarking, “I do too.”

I narrow my
eyes at him. “Yeah?”

He nods again,
biting the inside of his lip before sharing, “Got a gambling
problem. The wife’s threatened to leave so I don’t really have a
choice. Took out a second mortgage on the house and borrowed what I
could from the bank and a few friends to pay shit off but it wasn’t
enough. Then Kyle told me about the Ring, so I signed up.” He
shrugs.

“Same.” I
don’t know him well enough to share about Aaron so I just leave it
at that.

“You live
here?” he probes.

I nod, again
not offering up anything else.

“That makes
things easy. Only reason I come here is it’s free. I mean, I’m in a
financial bind so it’s not like I can pay to join a fucking gym,
you know?”

I continue
nodding. Yep. I totally get it.

We head
upstairs to the gym and I notice Laney’s no longer on her
treadmill. She’s probably showering but I don’t linger on that
thought because… yeah. Instead, I pull off my t-shirt which I’ve
cut huge armholes in and replace it with a regular tee. I down the
Gatorade I brought with me, tell Matt I’ll see him in the morning
and head to the elevator.

As I round the
corner I smile because I’ll be goddamned if little Miss Earbuds
isn’t shaking that gorgeous ass of hers to music I know she’s not
listening to
.

Five

During my run, I’d
seen Heath go down to the basement and he hadn’t come back so I
assumed the coast was clear. Stupid assumption
.

Dani has left,
I’ve finished showering and now dress in black yoga pants and my
gray oversized UCLA hoodie, putting my wet hair up in a bun. And
this time I’ve come prepared. Before leaving the locker room I take
the headphones out of my bag, plug them into my phone, pull up my
music and put the earbuds in. I want to do a happy dance that I
remembered them because this way I won’t have to talk to Heath if
he’s at the elevator and since he already knows I’m on his floor,
he won’t have to talk either by asking what number to push.

Win-frickin’-win.

I leave the
locker room going to the elevator, breathing a sigh of relief when
he’s not here. I smile thinking this has started out to be a good
day. First, I didn’t ogle Heath from across the room which took
tons of willpower, believe me, but it’s for the best. Second, Paul,
the hot guy I leased apartment 335 to, and a couple other guys
flirted with Dani and me which was awesome, and lastly, I cut six
minutes off my first mile while adding another half mile to my
total and didn’t get too winded.

Pop Evil’s
“Ways to Get High” is on and I’m rocking out not caring who walks
up behind me because this song is the shit. When the doors open I
step inside somewhat gracefully as I nod my head to the song and
when I turn to push button seventeen on the panel I jump roughly a
foot in the air because Heath’s right there already pushing it.
Ugh. He smirks and I turn away looking at the front.

Why am I so
attracted to him anyway? Obviously, his looks are amazing but what
else is doing it for me? Besides the huge amount of chemistry
that’s brewing between us, he’s been nothing but a flirty jerk to
me since we met and I’m beginning to think I’m a masochist. I look
over to see him staring at me. And that’s when I know what it
is.

It’s his
eyes.

They’re dark
and alert and I’m immediately aware of a deep sense of
determination in them, an implication of conviction, tenacity.

But that’s not
it. No, what I see beyond all that is that they’re soulful. That by
looking into them I know there’s more to him than the asshole he’s
been presenting. But that just leaves me torn between wanting to
know more about him or telling him to kiss off.

And then he
helps me decide straightaway.

He motions for
me to take out my earbuds which I do and I raise my brow at him
waiting to hear what he has to say.

“I see the
invisibility wore off,” he says grinning.

“Yep.” I start
to put the bud back in.

“Who was the
guy you were talking to earlier?”

I frown as I
try remembering to whom he’s referring.

“Short guy,
kinda muscular.”

“Oh. That’s
Paul. I leased him his apartment. Why?” I ask wondering what it
matters to him.

He narrows his
eyes at me for a moment like he wants to say something but instead
offers, “No reason.”

I start to put
the earbud back then stop and turn to him. “What were you doing in
the basement?”

He gives me a
really?
look, raised eyebrow and all, as if I should know
what he was doing. Then it’s like he concedes and explains, “Matt,
the guy I was with, and I went to spar.”

“Like boxing?”
I question.

He’s still
regarding me as if I’m some kind of idiot, as though I’ve truly
annoyed him. “Yeah. Like boxing,” he repeats bitterly.

I don’t
understand his tone but I’m done trying to figure him out. “Well, I
didn’t know if you meant boxing or MMA stuff. Uncle Edward hosts
matches down there on Saturdays.” I shrug. “You should ask him
about it if you’re interested in fighting.”

I’ve helped
Uncle Edward out at the fights before by taking money for him. He’s
told me it all goes to the American Cancer Society, and since my
grandpa died of cancer I think it’s amazing that Uncle Edward would
do that.

Heath’s eyes
go flat and he looks like he wants to murder someone. Namely,
me.

Well. Okay
then.

I’ve had
enough of this so I put the earbud back in cranking up my music
because screw him. When the elevator doors open at our floor I
can’t wait to get out of there, and I head straight to my door, but
just as I make it I’m suddenly spun around by my arm which makes me
yelp in surprise.

Heath takes
the bud from one of my ears and bends down getting right in my
face. “I don’t know what the fuck you’re trying to prove with this
little act but you can cut the shit now.”

I’m shocked at
how angry he’s gotten but now I’m mad too. I jerk my arm from his
hand and he pulls back glaring down at me looking as if he’s
fighting from saying something. He’s going to be fighting
me
here in a moment if he doesn’t back the hell off.

We glower at
each other for a few seconds then I take a deep breath to get my
composure before stating, “What do you mean by my ‘little
act’?”

He huffs out a
disbelieving laugh putting his hands on his hips. “I mean you act
like you don’t know what the fuck’s going on.”

Right now I
honestly
don’t
know what’s going on. “You’re gonna have to
enlighten me.”

He shakes his
head and throws his hands out to the side in surrender. Then he
suddenly changes tactics flipping his hand out toward my legs. “And
then you show up in those fucking tights. Do you know how many men
were checking out your ass?” He glares accusatorially.

Huh. Totally
confused here. Good grief. Now I throw up my arms. “What does that
have to do with anything?” He runs his hands through his hair
clutching at it as if this is giving him a headache and I concur
completely. “Well, this was loads of fun. If you’re finished going
psycho on me, I need to get ready for work.” I retrieve my keys
from my hoodie’s front pocket and unlock my apartment.

When I turn to
close the door there’s a look of bafflement on his face mixed with
a whole lot of anger and disgust and I find myself once again
clueless when it comes to him. Although the one thing I do know is
that he clearly doesn’t like me.

And now the
feeling’s mutual.

Friday morning
when Dani and I go to run, I make sure to refrain from making eye
contact with Heath.

But I know
he’s here because she’s letting me know every move he’s making.

“He just bent
to pick up a barbell with tons of weights on it,” she reports as we
stretch. “Now he’s pulled it up to his chest. Now he’s raising it
over his head!” I hear a clatter from where he is. “Wow! He just
dropped it! Wait. He’s doing the whole thing again.” Another
crashing sound. “Huh. I guess he’s supposed to drop it like
that.”