Chapter 17

Missing: Beard. Last seen: Between my thighs.

-T-shirt

Mig

“What are you doing here?” The Gripper, also known as ‘Mr. Gains’ asked.

I ignored him, walking into the main room of Uncertain Principles, the gym that Casten owned.

Casten was an ambitious guy.

He owned his own bounty hunter business, which was doing pretty well for him.

And he also owned the one and only fighter gym in Uncertain, which also happened to be the only fighter gym in the entire area.

“It’s time,” I said, walking over to the bench.

I think I rendered Adam speechless, because he didn’t say a word as he watched me walk away.

CeeCee, Casten’s sister, came out of the office with a smile on her face.

“What are you doing here, Mig?” CeeCee asked.

I started to strip my cut off, followed shortly by my shirt.

“It’s time,” I repeated for her.

CeeCee looked at me like I’d grown a second head.

“You told me two years ago when I met you that you’d never fight again. What’s different about today?” She asked.

I liked CeeCee.

She was cute, sweet, and an overall awesome woman.

See, here’s the thing, Adam Gains knows exactly who I am.

I work out here just like the rest of our brothers.

But I don’t fight.

Ever.

I shadow boxed. I did everything any other fighter would do in their workout routine…except fighting an actual person.

Give me a bag, and I was happy.

Give me a person, and it wasn’t happening.

Until today.

Until I watched my woman rub her hands all over Adam fucking Gains.

And he knew the moment he walked in the door that Annie was mine.

Knew it, and I’d bet he’s probably known it for a while.

He’s been looking for a way to get me to fight him, and it looks like today was his day—he was going to get his wish.

Watching Annie rub her hands all over him like he was her lover, was the straw that broke the proverbial camel’s back.

I turned around as I emptied my pockets onto the bench that ran along the outside wall of the gym.

The last thing I took off was my gun, which I handed to Casten as he walked through the door with a bag of what appeared to be fast food for him and CeeCee.

“Here, hold this,” I ordered, handing the gun to him.

He took it without a word, hooking the clip onto his jeans and continuing walking as if I hadn’t stopped him at all.

Finally, I turned to Adam.

Adam smiled.

“It’s not like I had any control over how she massaged me today. I was a perfect gentleman,” Adam said.

I narrowed my eyes.

“Yep, you sure were. But you also didn’t leave when you knew I wanted you to,” I said tightly.

Adam laughed.

“I knew that if I could piss you off enough, you might spar with me,” he said tauntingly.

I narrowed my eyes.

“You know I don’t fight anymore,” I countered stonily.

Adam smiled.

“Yeah, but you’re pissed, aren’t you? Want to plant your hand in my face,” Adam goaded.

My fists clenched.

I did want to plant my fist in his face—and I would.

And I did want to beat the shit out of him.

But I hadn’t fought in a ring in well over ten years.

Adam was good.

But he didn’t stand a chance against me, although he’d tried to prove otherwise once before, and I’d shut him down, not giving him the fight he wanted.

“I was just doing you a favor, anyhow. She’s lost a lot of customers; that’s why I started coming once or twice a week instead of every other week,” Adam said, smiling.

He slipped his hands into fingerless gloves, watching me, assessing my face, trying to gauge my reaction.

Outwardly I showed no reaction at all, but on the inside, I was stunned.

I hadn’t realized that Annie’s business had been affected by all of this.

Just how many customers had she lost?

A few?

A lot?

And why hadn’t she told me?

Now that I knew, however, I would be able to figure out a way to help her.

And it sickened me that my rash act of confronting Liam Cornell at Annie’s salon had made her feel any recourse from that situation at all.

I sat on the bench and slowly started to unlace my boots, taking the time to collect myself as I did it.

The first rule of fighting was not to let anger play a part in your decision to fight.

And that was what Adam had been trying to accomplish.

Once my boots and socks were off, I stood up and stretched my arms up high above my head.

My spine cracked as it lengthened, and I wanted to laugh when CeeCee made a gagging sound.

She hated it when people popped their knuckles or their backs, and made no secret of her opinions.

The door jingled again, causing me to glance in its direction out of habit.

I wasn’t at all surprised to see Peek, Ridley, Wolf and Griffin coming through the door, either.

The office that Griffin, Wolf and I shared was located just down the street, so it wouldn’t have been that hard for them to get here.

Peek and Ridley, though, had been out of town.

Vaguely I wondered why and when they got back, but chose not to question it until I was done with my fight.

It shouldn’t take long.

“Who’s officiating?” Adam asked as I finally moved to the cage.

It wasn’t really a cage.

It was more like a ring but surrounded in netting.

It was there as a visual aid and it didn’t really serve any other purpose.

“No official. First one to pass out loses,” I told him, causing him to blink in surprise.

“Okay,” Adam agreed a little too eagerly.

That was a second stupid thing he’d done.

Adam was pretty smart, but he let his emotions get the best of him.

I knew he was excited to fight me.

He wasn’t, however, excited to know we were only going one round.

“How is that going to accomplish anything?” Adam asked in confusion.

“Don’t worry, I’m going to let you get a good 20 seconds in before I knock you out,” I taunted.

He narrowed his eyes on me, and I heard an amused chuckle from behind me.

Casten.

He knew this would be my fight.

I would control every aspect of it.

Adam would be along for the ride, so to speak.

“Fine,” Adam said, holding out his hands.

I punched them, taking a deep breath, before I launched right in to my attack.

See, that’s the thing about me.

People, or other fighters, expected a big man like me to be slow.

I probably had fifty pounds on Adam.

Normally, we’d be in different weight classes, but I knew Adam could take a punch.

He’d been trained by Casten.

But he’d never had to fight for his life.

Deep down, Adam was basically a good guy, he just needed to learn to control his mouth better.

And to stay away from my woman, I thought darkly.

I switched off those thoughts and cast my mind back to a place it hadn’t been in well over ten years—since that last summer when I was twenty and spent a week with my father.

It’d also been the very last lesson he’d ever given me.

And I remembered every single bit of it.

I’d taken that knowledge into the Air Force with me.

I’d honed my body into the machine that my father had started sculpting, and I’d only gotten bigger, stronger and more solid since.

Something I was about to prove to Adam.

See, the real reason I wouldn’t spar with Adam wasn’t because I didn’t want to—it was because I did.

In a few minutes, every man here would learn who was the real fighter in the room.

But it was never good to reveal your hand too early, because if you ever had to use the skills that I possessed, then you weren’t in a good place.

If Adam knew how good I was he’d bug me incessantly until I helped to train him.

Adam was a good fighter, and part of the reason why was that he was not only religious about his training, but he also had an unquenchable thirst for knowledge about the sport.

He wanted to better himself, and the only way to do that, he had to fight someone better than him.

Adam swung his left fist, pulling it at the last second so it glanced off my jaw instead of taking me at the temple.

I smiled.

He’d have never connected, but he didn’t know that.

Rule Number One of Konn Fight School: Don’t pull your punches.

You fight to survive. You do what you have to do to get your opponent down on the ground, and you don’t stick around to see how he fared.

I retaliated with a right hook to Adam’s lower belly, causing him to lean forward slightly.

“Guard!” Casten bellowed.

I wanted to laugh.

Adam wouldn’t be fast enough. Nice try, though, coach.

Instead of hitting him with the fist to the face that he would be expecting, I swept my right foot out, and tripped him.

Adam stumbled but didn’t go down.

But it was enough to get him off balance, and I used that to my advantage.

The next five minutes I used to show him just how important it was to guard.

I bobbed, swooped, ducked, jabbed and just generally beat the crap out of Adam.

Not enough to knock him out, but he did start losing steam.

Fast.

He was good, I’d give him that. But he wasn’t at my level, and it was likely that he never would be.

I wasn’t being conceited, it was just obvious that I was better than him.

Adam was definitely good, but I’d just had more…experience. My skills were ingrained in me from years of my father’s lessons, my time in the military and now the DEA.

You can learn the motions, use them, and live by them.

But you’re not a killer until you’ve watched the life drain out of another human being’s eyes.

Knowing that you were responsible for putting that look there.

And when I fought, I was willing to kill if I had to.

Adam, however, wasn’t.

He was moving inefficiently, exhausting himself and just going through the motions now.

Something I saw him realize just seconds later.

“You’re just playing with me, aren’t you?” He breathed through a gasping breath.

I grinned.

“You wanted it, you got it.”

He swung a slow punch at my kidney, and I blocked and turned, bringing his back to my front without effort.

I could see the moment he realized he was defeated.

But instead of knocking him out, I followed the move up with a nerve strike to his neck, bringing him down to his knees.

Although he’d be awake and aware, he wouldn’t be able to move his legs properly for about a half-hour or so.

“Win,” I said to him.

He hung his head.

“Win,” he confirmed.

The gym was silent as I walked out of the ring to my belongings.

Without a word I dressed, only stopping to grab my gun from Casten before I was out the door and heading to work since it was probably the best place for me right now.

At least until I shook off this noxious attitude and was able to talk to Annie with some semblance of control.