Tobias (A CURSED BOYS NOVEL Book 1) (25 page)

  “Always?”

  “Always. And no matter what, above everything else, remember that she loves you.”

  Anna-Sophia had tears of her own now, leaving wet trails down her cheeks. I brushed them away with my thumb before she threw herself in my arms.

  I wrapped my arms around her, holding her against me. She was so tiny, and so hurt that it completely broke me. I closed my eyes and let the tears fall.

  “Don’t worry Anna; your daddy will be here. It might take a little while, but I promise that you will be safe and very much loved, here, with me and your uncle.”

  She didn’t reply, but she tightened her arms around me. I didn’t want to let her go; I could've stayed there holding her all day.

  Tobias kissed the top of Anna’s head, then the top of mine before he disappeared into the hallway. I could hear the muffled sounds of him telling his brothers what had happened, and just as I suspected, they all flew in to the room to see for themselves.

  Seeing all her uncles cheered Anna-Sophia up dramatically. It was amazing to see her smile, even though her eyes still showed she was broken inside. She needed her father, and I wasn’t the only one who knew it.

  Jeremy pulled Tobias aside, while Colton spun Anna around in a hug. I stepped closer to them so I could hear what they were saying.

  “I’m going after Tristan. He needs to know.”

  “I agree, and it’s definitely not something to tell him over the phone.”

  “I’ll be back in a few weeks. If you need me, call.”

  Tobias nodded, and then Jeremy kissed the back of Anna’s head before leaving the room and sprinting down the hall. He made it outside in record time because, before I knew it, I heard a truck roaring to life outside and he was gone.

  “What if he doesn’t come back?” I asked.

  “He will, there is nothing in the world he has ever loved more than his little girl. I just don’t know what to do until then.”

  “You love her and protect her. Let her know that her family still loves her.”

  He smiled at me, then pulled me into his arms and kissed me gently. This was definitely going to be a new chapter for us and good practice for when Amber came.

  “I love you, cupcake.”

  “I love you too.”

I hope you have enjoyed reading Tobias. The cane brothers story continues in the second installment of the series

TRISTAN

A CURSED BOYS NOVEL

Expected to be released in fall of 2015.

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Preview of

TRISTAN

A CURSED BOYS NOVEL

Expected to be released in fall of 2015

CHAPTER ONE

TRISTAN

"Hey Tristan, its Willow. I know you still need some time, but we miss you and we're worried about you. Even Tobias, although he will never admit it. Come home. Please. Or at least give us a call. It's been five months and Colton is driving your brother crazy, and your brother is driving me crazy. I know Mia's death was hard on you, but you're not alone. We are here for you, if you'd just let us -”

  I hung up the phone without even listening to the rest of the message. I don't want to think about Amelia. I don't want to think about anything from before. I haven’t been able to face the fact that Amelia died and, if I do, then it will just make it real and I'm not ready for that yet. 

  I slipped the phone back into my pocket, and then looked at my reflection in the mirror in front of me. My black eye was healing, and the gash from the fight last week would have been healed by now, but I’ve had to cut it open about five times so no one gets suspicious about how I heal so fast.

  I was supposed to fight again tonight; the two brothers who owned this underground club had a lot of money riding on me. I am just glad they haven’t asked me to fight on a full moon.

  Speaking of the full moon, it's still a few days away and I am already feeling like shit. I haven’t killed anyone that I know of; but, in the city like this, people die every day and no one knows about it.

  I have about an hour until my fight and all I want to do is sleep. My head is killing me and tonight I seem to be having a problem with drowning out the volume of the music and the cheering crowd.  I could use some air.

  I left the bathroom and pushed through the crowd. Everyone was too focused on the current fight to care about what I was doing. When I reached the door, one of the new bouncers they hired tried to stop me. I growled, which he thankfully couldn’t hear over the noise.

  Adam put the new guy in his place pretty quick, and I ducked around him and headed straight for the stairs. Adam has been the head bouncer here since before I showed up. The new guy was replacing Ryan, who just stopped showing up for work one night.  I spent a few nights at the door helping out until Drake and Tav were able to find a replacement.

  When the doors closed behind me, all sound was gone. The brothers did a pretty amazing job at sealing the place up. Anyone walking by wouldn’t even know The Cellar was there, unless they were looking for it.

  The air was crisp and had a cold bite to it, but I welcomed the feeling with open arms. It was mid-November, and the radio had said we would be getting the first snowfall of the season soon.

  “Oh my
god!
Isn’t that the fighter from last week?”

  “It is!”

  “What is his name?”

  “I don’t know. I think they call him the Animal.”

  “Oh the things I would
do
to that man.”

  I didn’t even bother looking at the two girls I overheard as they walked past me towards the doors of The Cellar. I rolled my eyes as the two of them continued with their conversation while tripping over each other as they walked.

  I wouldn’t be surprised if the two of them had approached me to ask me to take one, if not both, of them home with me. It wouldn’t be the first time I had fan girls try to get in my bed. I usually shrug them off without even speaking to them.

  My cold attitude towards the world made people think I had a heart of stone, and the way I took my anger out on people in the ring led to me getting the nickname “the Animal”. Ironic how fitting the name was, considering one night a month I do, in fact, become a four legged furry freak.

  “Hey sugar, you aren’t looking so hot.”

  “Not interested.” I said without even looking up.

  “Get over yourself; you have the wrong idea. I just wanted to make sure you’re ok.”

  “Just fuck off, alright!” I snapped.

  “I was trying to be nice because I thought maybe you were having a shitty day, but if you want to be an asshole for no reason, that is fine with me.  I speak bitch fluently.”

  I almost felt bad. I would have apologized, but I wasn’t in the mood and, by the time I even bothered to look up, she was gone. The only place she could have gone was The Cellar, so I was sure I would run into her at some point. I looked up at the moon, and then closed my eyes.

  “Pretty isn’t it?”

  I turned around. Tav stood leaning against the brick wall of the building The Cellar was built under. It was weird how silently he was able to move around; he even caught me by surprise sometimes.

  “It is. I’ve always preferred the night.” I said matter of factly.

  “Oh yeah? Why is that? You’re not a vampire, are you?”

  “Of course not, Vampires don’t exist.” I lied.

  The street was dark, but I could easily make out the red cherry of his cigarette as he inhaled. There were very few rules at The Cellar, but “no smoking” was definitely one of them.

  “My sister is back in town.  She’s been with our mom for the past eight months. Stick around after the fight; I want to introduce you.”

  “You’re not trying to hook me up, are you?”

  “Fuck no. She’s my sister. If you touch her I
will
kill you, no matter how much money you make me.”

  I laughed, but I could tell he was serious. One thing I have respected about Tav and his brother since I met them four months ago, they would give their lives to protect each other. I suspect it would be no different when it came down to their sister.

  “Alright, I’ll stick around.”

  “Good, now let’s head inside. You have some money to win me.”

  Tav tossed his cigarette to the ground and headed inside. I took one last look up at the moon, and then followed him.

  The crowd inside was dancing while waiting for the next fight to be set up. This would be the last fight of the night before the main event. Tav had set up a cage fight between me and some guy everyone called Tiny. If his name was anything to go off of, I wasn’t sure it would be much of a fight.

  “Hey, sorry. I didn’t know who you were. Drake just said not to let the fighters leave.”

  I turned to look at the new bouncer. He seemed pretty young to be working the doors of an underground fight club.

  “It’s fine. Are all the fighters here?”

  “You mean is Tiny here? Yeah, he’s here. And he is anything but Tiny. Good luck.”

  “I don’t need luck.”

  I turned away and disappeared into the crowd. The fight would be starting soon and I needed to get ready. I passed by hoards of people dirty dancing on the dance floor.

  I couldn’t even make it across the room before I felt hands grabbing at my ass. I rolled my eyes and turned around to come face to face with the two giddy girls I had passed outside.

  They were clearly liquored up and quite grabby. The bottle blond bimbo pressed herself against me while groping my cock. I wasn’t interested. I grabbed her by the wrists and pulled her hands away from me. She pouted as if it would change my mind, but I just gave her a dirty look and walked away.

  I reached the back room where Drake and Tav were waiting. A few of the other regular fighters were being patched up by Lexi, our local underground nurse. Story goes she was in school to be a doctor, but had to drop out because of her father. Drake and Tav picked her up and pay her pretty good to patch up the boys.

  “Hey good looking. In an hour it’ll be you in this chair needing to be patched up.” Lexi called over her shoulder.

  “I think Tiny will be needing your services more than I will.”

  “Don’t count on it. That guy is huge.”

  “You can forfeit. Or you can give him the win, and we can still make bank.” Drake said, while counting out a stack of twenties.

  Was this some kind of joke? I haven’t lost a fight since I started here, and now they expect me to give up?

  “I’m not going to lose; I don’t care how big the guy is.”

  “You’ve got spirit kid, I’ll give you that.”

  “I’m not losing.” I growled.

  I know I shouldn’t let Drakes comments get to me, but I wasn’t a kid and I wasn’t going to lose.

  “If you say so, but my money is on the other guy.”

  “Then I hope you’re prepared to part with it.”

  Tav laughed, but Drake looked like he wanted to kill me. Lexi just shook her head.

  “I like his confidence. I’ll place my money on him.”

  “You’re going to lose, little brother”

  “I’ll take that chance.”

  At least Tav believed in me, sort of.  I was pretty sure that he was only betting on me to go against his brother. Everything was a competition between those two. I usually stayed out of their pissing contests; I don’t need to fight to be alpha. This isn’t my home; it’s just a stop along the way.

  “Go on then, get ready. You got a fight to lose.”

  “Don’t listen to him; he’s just scared of having to pay up.”

  I didn’t really care. I walked to the back of the room and pulled open the locker. Inside was pretty much empty except for the wraps I use when fighting.  I picked one up and flicked my wrist to unravel it.

  I hooked my thumb into the loop and began wrapping the fabric around my wrist, then around my hands, weaving it between my fingers and securing the Velcro around my wrist. I flexed my hand to test the tension, and then repeated the process with the other hand.

  I pulled my shirt off and tossed it into the locker and took a seat on the bench. I was already wearing the shorts I planned to fight in. I tilted my head to one side, then the other, letting it crack. One thing I did miss about home was sleeping in a comfortable bed.

  I closed my eyes and tried to drown out the sound of Drake and Tav talking, and the sound of one of the fighters hitting on Lexi. She was hot, that was for sure. Her blond hair was shorter in the back, with longer strands in the front. It was almost like a diagonal pixie cut with light blue and pink dyed into her bangs.

  I heard the door open, but didn’t pay much attention to it until I heard the girls voice. It was the same girl from outside that I had snapped at. I sat there for a minute listening to see what it was she wanted, and how she knew the brothers, since no one was allowed back here besides fighters, and Lexi.

  “I’ve been absent less than a year and you guys have already gone and filled the place with assholes.”

  “Nikki, this place has always been filled with assholes.” Tav countered.

  “Yeah, well maybe it’s time to change that.”

  “People pay to watch assholes fight and I get paid to patch them up so they can do it again. If you changed that, they would be out of business and I would be out of a job.” Lexi said, butting in.

  “You’re hot; you can get a job anywhere.”

  “Not one that pays this good.”

  I never really asked how much Lexi got paid, since it was never any of my business, but I figured it would have to be a decent amount, since she already owns her own condo and a brand new sports car.

  “So you would subject your own best friend to assholes and jerk faces just so you didn’t have to find a normal job.”

  “Jerk faces? What are we, five? And yes I would subject my best friend to assholes and ‘jerk faces’ in a heartbeat to keep from having to find a normal job. I don’t do normal.”

  “You know, the only reason they pay you so much is because Tav wants in your pants, right?”

  “Ew Nikki. Tav sees me as his little sister.”

  “Alright, that is quite enough.” Tav said, cutting in.

  I couldn’t help but smirk a bit. Everyone knows Tav has a thing for Lexi, except for Lexi. Somehow she has managed to stay completely clueless.

  “Nikki, I want you to meet the newest pride of The Cellar. Tristan, get over here.”

  This should be interesting. I rose to my feet, and then made my way around the row of lockers. I wasn’t sure exactly what I expected her to look like, but even from behind, I could tell that she was definitely the type of girl that could get me in trouble. She was thin, but she had curves and an ass that made my mouth water. What surprised me the most were the golden honey eyes that stole my breath when she turned around?

  “You have got to be fucking kidding me. This prick is the pride of The Cellar?”

  “I take it you’ve met?” Tav said with a grin.

  “Hardly.”

  “Then I’ll make introductions. Tristan, this is my little sister Nikole. Nikki, this is Tristan, better known as the Animal.”

  “How fitting, since he’s probably a total dog.” She snapped.

  I should be offended by that comment, but I found it amusing. I felt the glare from her eyes trying to sear through me as she crossed her arms over her chest.

  I had to bite my tongue to keep myself from telling her that every dog needs a bitch. She was Drake and Tav’s little sister, so I didn’t want to cross over that line. Instead I just smiled at her, which only pissed her off, so it was a win-win scenario.