Chapter Twenty-Nine
Ryan
Blaire had been in a strange mood the night before, and when we woke up this morning she still didn’t seem like herself. I had a feeling that she was starting to feel overwhelmed by everything, and I couldn’t blame her. Even though she felt safe staying with me, we both knew that this wasn’t a solution. It was like taking a pill when you weren’t feeling well: it only masked the pain. She wasn’t going to want to stay with me forever, even though I was starting to wonder how it was going to feel when she eventually went back home. I’d never had a girl live with me before, and I’d always thought that it would be something that I wouldn’t enjoy. I’d lived alone for so long that the thought of sharing my life with anyone hadn’t ever appealed to me. But Blaire just fit in so well. It didn’t feel strange with her being there. In fact, if anything, it felt better.
“Are you sure you’re okay?” I asked her as I was getting ready to go to the training facility. I wasn’t sure if I should leave her if she was in this state.
She nodded and smiled. “I’m fine. I promise. I’m just tired.” I noticed that her smile didn’t reach her eyes. She pulled me toward me and kissed me gently on the mouth. “You’re amazing,” she whispered.
“Wow, what was that for?” I asked her.
She shrugged. “Just telling it like it is.”
“You’re amazing too. Listen, my phone will be on but I don’t always hear it when I’m training. So if you need to get hold of me, then just keep trying. Or phone Nick,” I said and scribbled his number on a piece of paper for her.
She took it and smiled. “Thanks, Ryan. I’ll be fine, though. Honestly. Don’t worry about me. Good luck with your training today.”
I kissed her goodbye and made my way to the training facility. I’d organized for one of the other members to train with me that day, because there was only so much training that I could do alone. I could strength train, box, up my running and my gym work, and all that would serve a great purpose. But the only way for me to truly get better was to have someone to train in person with. Tyron had the potential to be a great fighter and I knew that he would be the right person to train with.
“Morning, Tryon. You ready for today?” I asked him.
“Hey, Ryan. I sure am. How come you’re not training with Nick today?”
“Oh, Nick is training one of the other guys. Also, I thought it would be nice to change it up again. It’s always better to train with more than one person.”
It wasn’t entirely true. Nick was training someone else that day, but that didn’t mean that he couldn’t have made the time for me. The truth was he didn’t want to make the time to train me. And I was going to have to respect his decision as much as he was going to have to respect mine. I knew that we would be able to put this all past us once the fight was over. For now, I was just going to have to concentrate on the fight and nothing else. Afterward, things could go back to normal. Or at least as normal as I could expect them to be. I wasn’t sure that anything would feel normal again.
Nick walked in just as I was about to start my training with Tyron.
“Hi, Nick,” I called out and smiled at him. I wanted him to know that there were no hard feelings. If he wanted to help me, I would accept that. If he didn’t, I would accept that too. No matter what though, I was going to fight Ron, and I was going to beat him. With or without Nick’s help.
“Hey, Ryan,” he said. “Fighting with Tyron today I see.”
“Yeah, you were too easy for me,” I teased.
Nick smiled sadly and then looked at Tyron. “Go easy on him.”
I laughed. “Don’t listen to him,” I said to Tyron. So far I hadn’t told anyone about my head trauma. I didn’t want anyone to know about it until the fight was over. I’d asked Nick not to tell anyone, and I knew that he would keep his word. The last thing I wanted was for people to feel sorry for me.
My first hour of training with Tyron went well. He was better than he had been the last time that I’d seen him fight and he offered up some good techniques for me to work with. I told him to channel his inner “Prowl” so that I knew what I’d be up against, and the prompt seemed to be working. In many ways he was emulating exactly what I thought was going to happen on the day.
Then, just as we moved into the second hour of training, I received a blow to the head that left me shaken and confused.
“Are you okay?” Tryon asked.
I nodded. “I’m fine. But I think I’m done for today. I totally forgot that I had a conference with Ron after this. That’s why I was confused for a minute. I suddenly remembered that I had my times wrong.”
It wasn’t true. I had planned it so that I had just enough time to shower before the conference began, but I didn’t want to tell Tryon why I had stopped. The hit to my head had caused my headache to return. My head was hurting the way it used to, and the worst part was that I had no Advil on me at all.
“Thanks for coming to train with me today. That was awesome. I’m sorry I had to cut it so short.”
“It’s no problem at all. I’m actually a little bit relieved. I haven’t trained that hard in a long time. I knew you were good, Ryan, but I didn’t realize you were that good.”
That was just the boost that I needed. “Thanks, Tyron. Appreciate it. Oh, you don’t happen to have some Advil on you, do you? I’ve got a bit of a headache today. Too much caffeine probably.”
“Or not enough,” Tyron said and laughed. “Of course, I always have some on me. Give me a second and I’ll get it for you.”
I breathed a sigh of relief but tried not to show him how happy I was. “Thanks, Tryon.”
While I was waiting for Ryan, Nick walked past, and we talked briefly about anything other than the upcoming fight. It was clear that neither one of us wanted to talk about what was happening. We both knew that keeping things neutral was a good idea. I could see that Nick had given up on trying to convince me not to fight. It was nice talking to him again though, and just as we were laughing about something that had happened ages ago, Tyron walked in.
“I found them. Here, keep the bottle. There’s hardly any in there, anyway. Thanks for the session, Ryan, and good luck with the conference.”
“Oh, uh, thanks, Tryon,” I said. I saw Nick looking at the bottle of Advil. He didn’t say anything, and neither did I, but I could clearly see the look of disappointment on his face.
“Well, I better go. See you soon, Ryan.”
“Sure,” I said and watched him leave.
I sighed. I walked to the bathroom, took three pills at once, and hopped into the shower. Afterward I slowly made my way over to where the conference was happening. It was Ron that had organized it, and as much as I didn’t want to go, I knew that I had to. Thankfully, by the time I arrived, and by the time Ron arrived, my headache had dissipated. I would never have been able to hold a decent conversation with that headache.
I heard Ron before I saw him. I had never met anyone with a louder voice than him, and it didn’t take a genius to discover that he was already talking shit about me. I sighed. Let’s get this over with, I said to myself.
“Ah, look who we have here. It’s none other than Ryan Maxwell. So, you’ve finally decided to face up to me? I must say, I didn’t think you’d have the guts to be here. Although, this is just a press conference. It’s nothing like the real fight. I doubt you’ll be there.
I took my seat at the table and smiled at the press around me. There was no chance to even settle in. With Ron, there was no such thing as easing into the conversation. The conference had already begun.
“What? You scared to talk to me?” Ron said after I still hadn’t even acknowledged that he was there.
“What’s there to say, Ron?”
“My name is The Prowl,” he said.
I laughed. “No, your name is Ron. And I’m not scared to talk to you. I’m not even scared to fight you. In fact, I’m more than happy to do it. I’d like to shut you up once and for all.”
I thought about Nick telling me that I was only making things worse by talking back to Ron. That I was just playing into his hands. But I couldn’t help myself. How could I let this idiot get away with all the things he was saying to me? Was I supposed to just sit back and take it? That just wasn’t the kind of person I was. I stood up for what I believed in, in and right then the thing that I believed in most was myself.
“Who do you think you are?” Ron said. Then he turned to the media and laughed. “Do you see what I have to put up with? Do you understand now why I want to fight him?”
It didn’t take long for the conference to get heated. Ron refused to talk to me like a normal human being. The more he ran his mouth, the more I wanted to punch him in the face. And, despite the three Advil, my headache was slowly starting to return.
“Okay, should we wrap this up?” someone said. “Anything you’d like to add?” he asked Ron.
“I’d like to set a date for the fight, that’s what I’d like to do.”
I smiled. “I’m ready whenever you are.”
“Three weeks from Saturday,” Ron said.
“Three weeks from Saturday it is.”
And before anyone could say anything more, I stood up and left. I made my way straight to the car, ignoring the camera flashes and the people who were calling my name. I’d said what I had to say and now I just wanted to go home. I looked at the time and realized that I had been away from home for a very long time. I quickly checked my phone but saw that there had been no messages or calls from Blaire. It was definitely time to go back, and frankly, the only thing I wanted to see at that moment was her smiling face.
But the moment I walked into the house, I knew that something was wrong. Blaire was nowhere to be found, and when I walked into the bedroom, I felt my heart sink when I saw a letter waiting for me on the bed with my name on it.
Dear Ryan,
Things are just too dangerous right now. I don’t want you to get caught up in this. You mean too much to me. Thank you for everything that you have done to keep me safe. I’ll never forget how you made me feel.
Blaire.
I stared at the letter. I couldn’t believe what I was reading. Blaire was gone? If she had left, it could only be for one reason: she was in more danger than I realized. I had to find her.