I push away from Phillips’s hold, his taunting laughter mumbles around his mouthpiece, drowning out Vic’s orders from the side of the ring. Phillips eyes lock on mine, the smug look on his face tells me he thinks the tides have turned. I’ll let him win this sparring match. I’m just not that into it.

“Chance, I’m not telling you again, get your fucking head in the game!” Vic yells and I snicker at his choice of words. He’s been dropping those F-bombs regularly these last two weeks — his threat of not telling me again, falling on deaf ears. He’ll tell me again.

Phillips rushes in, throwing two quick jabs to my jaw. “That’s it, Chance!” Vic yells encouragingly when I block the first. I let Phillips make contact the second time. That’s the oldest trick in the book. I knew the second hit was coming.

It felt good when the leather glove made contact. It’s the reason I agreed to bypassing the standard protective headgear when Phillips suggested it. The sting of the hit proves I’m still alive. Inside the ring is the only time I’ve felt that way since sending Mia away two weeks ago. Phillips steps forward, landing three jabs to my rib cage. I take every one of them.

“That’s it. Take five,” Smith says wedging his big body through the ropes. Phillips tries to come at me again and like a large blur, Smith is in his face, chest bowed out, pushing at Phillips’ shoulder. “I said take five! You may have caught Chance on a bad day, but I sure as shit won’t hesitate to land you on your ass!” Phillips has the good sense to turn toward his corner. Satisfied with his relent, Smith turns to me. “What the fuck are you doing, Chance?” He steps in my line of sight, pulling at my gloves. “You could kick that amateur’s ass in your sleep. Why are you letting that fucking weasel beat on you?”

“Where in the fuck have you been?” I bite back, ignoring his question. He stepped out of my life two weeks ago and hasn’t returned one of my calls.

“I’ve been working.” He jerks my gloves off and throws them on the canvas. He glances around and sighs when he notices half the gym’s eyes are on us. “Vic’s office,” he says, holding the ropes apart for me to follow.

I halfway expect Vic to come barreling into the office behind us, but Smith shuts and locks the door after we’re both inside. He crosses his arms, leaning against the door in a bodyguard like stance.

“Nice of you to show up. I called you two weeks ago when I needed a friend,” I say, sarcastically.

“Looks like you could still use one,” he mocks, stoically.

“She left.” I sink into the chair and cradle my sweaty head in my hands.

“You sent her away,” he says and my head flies up, locking eyes on his grave expression.

“How do you know that?” He nods his head toward the gym. “Fucking Vic has a big mouth,” I add in disgust that the two of them have been gossiping like little bitches.

“He’s worried about you, man. Told me I needed to get down here to talk some sense into your stupid ass.”

“I have all the sense I need.”

“Really? Because you were making all kinda sense out there,” he retorts, under a snicker.

“Fuck you!”

He pushes off the door and walks around me. “You feel better?” he asks, sliding into Vic’s chair.

“No, I don’t fucking feel better. First you fucking disappear and now’s she’s fucking gone.” His lips tilt into an almost smile and it pisses me off that he’s enjoying this.

“You know where she works.”

“She used me.”

“Are you seriously hearing yourself right now?” he asks sarcastically. “She didn’t use you.”

“What is she to your brother?” I ask, changing the subject.

“She’s nothing to my brother…just like all the others.” His voice trails off and I detect the animosity between the two is still alive and well. In the two weeks he’s been back with family, I thought the love affair would be rekindled by now.

“She used me for protection from your brother and I want to know why.”

He shakes his head. “She didn’t use you.”

“You don’t know shit!” I counter, the memory of her sister’s words replaying through my mind.

“You want to know what I know?” he asks, glaring at me. “She got caught up with Paul through her sister, Audrey. She sent her sister away to get her clean, man. She sold just about everything she had, maxed out all her credit cards to pay toward the debt Paul claimed her sister owed and then you pushed your way into her life. That girl never asked you for shit.” I’m shocked and my face must say it by the satisfied look that breaks through his angry expression. “I settled her debt with Paul before you left for Oregon and she stuck around, Chance. You know why? Because she fucking loves you.”

“You knew?”

He nods his head and I sink back in the chair, feeling defeated. I trusted him. “Chance, listen to me and listen to me good. You—”

“You fucking knew and didn’t say a God damned word?” I interrupt angrily. She was mine to protect and I would have if I’d known.

“I just told you, I took care of it!”

“How much? I’ll have it wired—

“It wasn’t about the money, Chance. She didn’t owe him a God damned penny, he just wanted to own Audrey.”

“She was with him at Mia’s friend’s graduation,” I say numbly as my mind reels through memories of Mia’s panic attack…barren house…the look of despair on her face the day her car burned. Smith sighs heavily and my eyes shift to his.

“Paul moved Audrey into his house.” He sits back, the look of dejection on his face matches my own feeling. “Chance, her sister is the one with the problem. All Mia ever did was hide the truth about her. It’s not any easier for Mia to admit to the type of person Audrey is, than it is for me to talk about Paul or you to talk about Monique. It’s her story to tell and she needs to be the one to tell it.”

“Why didn’t she tell me?”

He shakes his head. “I don’t know the answer to that. You need to ask her.”

“I can’t.” I look away.

“Chance, I’ve known you a long fucking time. Don’t let your pride lose this girl.”

“I fucked up.”

“Tell her you lost your cool, let her explain. That’s all you can do,” he says matter-of-fact. It’s not that easy.

“It’s not her that needs to explain.” I take a deep breath and look up, meeting his eyes.

“What are you talking about?”

“I was going to ask her to marry me…when I first met her. I saw her on the stage at Jimmy’s club and knew she was different. Fuck…” I drop my head, running my fingers through my sweaty hair, realizing now just how different she was. She was on the stage that night, not knowing what the fuck she was doing, but doing it because she was desperate to help her sister.

“Did you let Phillips knock you one too many times out there? You’re not making a bit of fucking sense.”

“I fucked up,” I repeat mechanically as my mind begins searching for ways to get her back.

“We’ve established that. You—”

“No, Smith. I really fucked up. You don’t know the half of it,” I interrupt, looking back up.

He crosses his arms over his chest waiting for my explanation and I launch into the story of how I was intrigued at first sight to what she found in my office the day she left.

He sits up when I’m done. “You dumb motherfucker,” he says, shaking his head.

“She’ll never trust me again.”

“I don’t fucking blame her. What in the fuck were you thinking?” he asks through a sigh.

“The boys,” I admit and his eyes align with mine. “I was thinking of the boys.”

“Then tell her that, because she was thinking about her sister.”

A knock at the door prevents me from responding. Truth is, I don’t have a response. I never thought Mia’s sister could be so fucked up. How is that even possible with someone so good and pure like Mia as a sister?

Smith opens the door. “Tell Chance, Edward called and says he needs to call him when he’s done. Says it’s important. And he needs to finish this sparring match. Phillips is out here talking a lot of shit.” Milton says, standing in the doorway.

“Tell the little mother fucker he’ll be out in a minute.” Smith says and I hear Milton chuckle before the door closes. I jump to my feet and Smith holds up his hand. “I need to talk to you about something.”

“I’m going to make it right, Smith. I don’t know how, but I’ll beg if I have to—”

“I know you will, but I want to tell you that I won’t be around much. I’m gonna miss your fight.” I feel my expression tense. Smith’s never missed one of my fights, amateur or professional, he’s been there. “I need to tell you something—”

“You’ve always been in my corner. Don’t you think telling me you’re not going to be there is something?” Our eyes hold and he nods, recognizing how significant this is.

“That’s why I want to explain as much as I can.” I fold my arms over my chest, waiting. “It’s important you keep it between us.” I nod. “You can’t tell anyone—”

“I understood you the first time.”

“I’m going to put Paul away.”

“Away, where?” My brows nit tightly, trying to grasp what he’s saying.

“I’m working with the police, Chance. They’ve built a case against Paul, but they don’t have enough. They approached me a while back and I’d been nosing around from the outside, but it wasn’t what they needed.”

“The police?” I question. Smith isn’t like me, he finished high school and after his injury when his boxing career was over, he returned to college and earned a degree, but working for the police…

“I can’t really tell you more. You know enough to know Paul isn’t a good guy.”

“Is Mia in danger? Because I’ll kill him if—”

“Fuck no! You have my word he won’t go near her.” I let out a heavy sigh of relief. “I just need to focus on what needs to be done so I can get back to my life.” My eyes dart to his, wondering what this will mean for him long term, but the reluctance in his tone, tells me he didn’t want to tell me, maybe even shouldn’t have told me, but the fact he did, proves everything to me.

“If you need anything, you know where to find me, right?” I reach out, taking his larger hand in mine and hug him with the other arm. “Anything…” I repeat, and meet his eyes.

He smiles. “I got this. You just go out there and kick Phillips’ ass and win that next fight of yours. I’ll be back in your corner by the time you win World,” he says nodding toward the door.