Bridget just finished a session on the Jacob’s ladder when Colin’s earsplitting whistle cracked through the gym and he crooked a finger at her. She jogged over to the big former heavyweight champion, who wore an uncharacteristic grin.

“ ’Sup, C?” Bridget, still a little winded from her workout, tried to hide her sudden anxiety as Colin continued smiling at her.

“SoPro’s intrigued.”

“What?”

“Southland Promotions is in for you fighting Kowalczyk. He’s got his matchmaker working to make it happen.” Colin’s grin faded when Bridget didn’t respond. “Bridg?”

“Whoo!” Bridget whooped and raised her fists in the air. “Fuck yeah!” Then she leapt at Colin and wrapped him in a bear hug. “Thank you, C.”

“Okay, Birdie, okay. But don’t thank me yet. Come on. We need to have a talk.”

Well, shit.

Colin barked a laugh. “It’s not that bad. We just need to talk about expectations.”

“Sure.”

Once in Colin’s office, the big former heavyweight champion leaned back in his chair, his fingers tented on his abdomen.

“I’m gonna tell you some things, and then you’re going to tell me some things, all right?”

Bridget nodded.

“So, Hanna Kowalczyk has started training with a new team.”

Bridget frowned. “Since when?”

“Since about the same time as you came down.”

“Huh.”

“Yeah. She’s been training with Jett Raptor’s team.”

Bridget sat up, suddenly even more attentive. Jett Raptor’s team had a beef with DS Fight Club. Or rather, Jett Raptor had a beef with Colin Carmichael. She’d heard enough stories and seen enough news reports come over the wire of confrontations in and out of the cage to know that the rivalry wasn’t just for show, and that rivalry made this fight with Kowalczyk potentially explosive.

“Yeah, exactly.” Colin chuckled, but then his expression grew thoughtful. “Tell me what really happened after that fight. What you didn’t or couldn’t say in front of the other guys.”

“It was five years ago, C. It doesn’t matter now.”

“Oh, I think it does. I think it might matter more now than it did then.”

Bridget exhaled. She’d known this was coming the moment she’d heard Kowalczyk was going to be fighting again.

“Kevin was involved with her. Is involved with her.”

“Kevin? Your husband?”

“Ex-husband.”

“And you found out after the fight.”

Bridget nodded. She’d gone to shake Kowalczyk’s hand, and Hanna had pulled her into an embrace and whispered in her ear, telling Bridget to ask Kevin how his set at the Roxy was. Bridget had been shaken, because Kevin had bowed out of coming to her fight due to a last-minute DJ gig he’d picked up. They’d fought about it, and Bridget had reluctantly admitted that a gig that potentially put him in front of producers would benefit them both more than him coming to a fight. Agitated, she’d skipped the post-fight presser after giving some stifled answers to the reporters who were waiting outside the dressing room.

She’d arrived at the club where Kevin should have been starting his set to find that it was the site of the after-party for Hanna Kowalczyk. Hanna had jerked her chin up in acknowledgment when they’d locked eyes at the club, and Kevin had just shrugged and given her a grin as Hanna groped him. He hadn’t even tried to come after Bridget when she turned around and walked out the door.

“Kevin blamed my fighting for the rift. He said that his late nights and my early morning workouts were tearing the marriage apart. Sure, I’d beaten Kowalczyk, but what was it worth if I lost my marriage, right? Kevin’s career seemed to be picking up, he was getting more gigs, and people were paying attention to him. So . . . I quit.”

“But he didn’t. I mean, quit her.”

Bridget shook her head and stared hard at a photo on Colin’s wall, a photo of Colin with Junior, both of them much younger, with big grins on their faces and Colin with a giant belt over his shoulder. She clenched her jaw, humiliation heating her face.

“No,” she ground out. “I was going to surprise him for his birthday. I’d gotten a room at the Langham and, um, done a little scavenger hunt thing, you know, to make it fun and mysterious. I was waiting in the room, you know, ready”—she cleared her throat—“and when he got to the room, he said, ‘Are you ready for me, Hanna?’ Yeah, that pretty much sucked.”

When she dared to meet Colin’s eyes, he was merely looking at her, but not with pity, thank goodness.

“So Paddy doesn’t know.”

She shrugged. “I’d switched over to an MMA gym, but the world of combat sports is small and you know how fighters gossip. He probably knows. Maybe not all the dirty details. He doesn’t need to know all that, okay?”

“I completely agree. Do you think you’re ready? To face her?”

“Yeah, I do.”

“What about him?”

“I’ll deal with that when the time comes. I just want to have a good camp, just wanna have a good fight.”

Colin sat back, and with a huge, satisfied grin on his face, put his hands behind his head and said, “Yeah. You’re ready.”