CHAPTER SIXTEEN

“Are you sure you want to do this?” Travis asked him for the third time since they’d walked the ten feet from the house to the truck. His brother stood on the opposite side of the truck with the door open, watching him nervously.

Chris threw his bag in the back seat of his truck and shot Travis a look. He was done talking about this. They’d been having this same conversation for the last hour when Chris had told him the plan. Okay, maybe the conversation had been a tad one-sided since Chris wasn’t participating much, except to give him the basics. The facts being they were driving to Carroll tonight so Chris could fight Louis Kay. And Travis was coming because Chris didn’t trust him on his own yet, and Charlie was busy doing God knew what. Charlie had been missing in action a lot since they’d brought Travis back to Sweetbriar, leaving Chris to deal with him on his own, a responsibility Chris hadn’t minded until now.

Travis paced back and forth beside of the truck. “Does anybody else know about this?” He ran a hand through his hair, stopping at the open passenger side door.

Chris sat behind the wheel and stared at his brother through the open door. Travis looked a wreck, which made zero sense considering Chris was the one headed to fight.

“Fuck.” Travis stood, hesitating, with one hand on the passenger seat and the other poised on the door handle.

Chris didn’t have time for this. He was barely going to make it to Carroll for the fight. If he didn’t show, the deal with Benny would be off. “Get in the truck, Travis. I don’t have time for this,” he growled.

“Wait.” Travis pulled back from the truck and glanced down at the gravel driveway. “Just give me a second. I don’t think this is a good idea. I can’t for the life of me figure out why you’re doing this. You don’t have anything to prove.” His brother’s mind was obviously spinning, trying to figure it out.

Ha. Good luck with that. Chris wasn’t sure he had it all figured out, but he knew he’d do just about anything for Tori. Including fight Louis Kay. “Travis. Get. In.”

“Just tell me why. Why are you fighting Louis? What aren’t you saying?”

Chris blew out an exasperated breath, meeting his brother’s confused stare. He tried again, with a dry, stern tone. “Travis.”

“Why?” It doesn’t make any…”

“For Tori!” Chris yelled, slamming a hand down on the steering wheel. “For Tori,” he repeated softly. “Benny will help put together fights and spread the word about the fundraiser if I fight Louis.” He cursed some more under his breath, unsure of who he was pissed at. “Now, get the fuck in.”

Travis climbed in, but left the passenger door open. “Why not just donate the money?”

He scoffed. “Tori would never go for that.”

“So just donate it anonymously.”

Chris put the truck in gear and let it roll. “I want to do this the way she wants. She isn’t looking for some knight-in-shining-armor to swoop in and save the day. You know Tori. She needs to do it herself.”

Travis nodded slowly and shut the door without another word. He stared out the window in silence as they traveled northeast down the two-lane highway.

Chris let his mind wander as he drove. He wondered what his life might have been like if he’d won the fight with Louis Kay so many years back and gone on to be the Junior World Champ. Would his life have been so different? It seemed like such a long time ago. He’d made so many decisions since then — college, the construction company, Tori. He wasn’t exactly sure where she fell into it all, but to imagine his life without her now was impossible. For better or for worse, he had lost that fight, and his life had taken him down a different path.

Chris looked over at Travis sitting ramrod straight and tense in the passenger seat, an indication that he didn’t approve of Chris’ decision to do this. Hell, Chris wasn’t sure he approved, but he was committed to it. He’d fight Louis and be done with Benny and boxing in these seedy venues once and for all.

Tori threw her hands above her head and swayed her hips to the music. Despite her initial reluctance to leave Chris for the evening and miss out on another night of mind-blowing, off-the-charts sex, she was having fun.

“I need a drink!” Claire screamed above the music, motioning off the dance floor.

Tori followed her to the bar, squeezing between sweaty bodies and dodging dudes trying to get their attention with nods, a few “What’s up, sexy?”, and the always present slimeball who thought it was okay to accidentally brush up against a boob or an ass to cop a feel and get a girl’s attention. Those guys made her miss Chris the most, but truth be told, there wasn’t a man in the room that she’d given a second glance to. None of them compared to the guy she’d left behind in honor of girls’ night with her best friend. She may have been happy for a night out, but it hadn’t made her any less eager to get back to the hot man she’d left in Sweetbriar.

She pulled her cell phone out as Claire vied for the bartender’s attention. Nothing new. Chris wasn’t much for texting. He was a man of concise and necessary messages. He answered direct questions sent via text, he replied to confirm times, to let her know where he was, — the facts. But it wasn’t his style to send flirty just-because messages.

She typed out a quick sweet and sexy text and hit send before she could talk herself out of it.

“What a fight!” Benny beamed, counting the stack of bills in his hand and shoving the winnings under Chris’s nose. “Feels good to finally prove to everyone you can beat Louis, eh?”

The sparkle in Benny’s eye was genuine, which only made Chris feel worse. Was everyone stuck in the past? He swore silently under his breath and grabbed the money, shoving it in his bag. He took a quick glance around the room. Lockers that were once painted red now consisted only of a few red spots amidst the gray metal; old posters of Ali, Benny’s idol, hung from the wall in dusty frames. He knew this would be the last time he’d be in this room. He didn’t need it anymore. The restlessness he’d felt a month ago wasn’t gone, but this time it urged him to move on with his life and hold on to the good that he’d worked so hard to get — job, friends, Tori, even family. Travis and Charlie had moved back and however dysfunctional they were, they were his brothers and all that remained of the White family.

He shook Benny’s hand, reminding him of their deal, and walked out the back door into the fresh air. He pulled out his phone and smiled down at a text from Tori. Maybe he’d let her know they were here in Carroll. She’d be pissed as hell he hadn’t told her, but it’d be worth it to see her tonight instead of waiting until tomorrow. That was too damn long to wait to feel her pressed up against him.

First, he needed to find Travis. He pressed send and started to raise the phone to his ear, but the sound of grunting followed by menacing laughter caught his attention just as the faint sound of a cell phone ringing echoed down the alley.

Tori glanced at the screen again and cursed how pathetic she’d become. It had been less than an hour since she’d texted Chris, and she’d checked her phone too many times to count since then. She buried it deep in her purse and joined in on the conversation.

“There’s a great little café just down the street from here. What do you say? You ladies in for some chocolate to sweeten up the night?” He winked at Claire and then wrapped an arm around her shoulders casually.

Tori’s stomach lurched at the man’s invitation. Claire might have her beer goggles on, but there was no way Tori was letting her go anywhere with this creeper.

“Claire, come with me to the ladies’ room.” She grabbed her friend’s hand and pulled her before she could protest.

She managed to get Claire most the way to the bathroom before her friend stopped in her tracks. “Hey, he was kinda cute and he offered me chocolate.” Claire jerked her hand free from Tori’s grasp. “Ugh,” she grumbled and slipped a hand inside her purse. “Who keeps calling me?”

Tori lifted an eyebrow and waited for a tipsy Claire to find her phone and check her missed calls. A pit formed in the bottom of her stomach when her friend’s face became a puzzled expression.

Claire held her phone up for Tori to see. “They’re all from Chris. Is your phone off or something?”

Tori pulled her phone out and checked. Nothing. No calls or texts. “No, he hasn’t called.”

Claire’s phone rang in her hand. “It’s Chris again.”

“Answer it!” Tori screeched, anxious to know why he’d been calling Claire and not her.

“Hello-o-o?” Claire answered, holding the phone to one ear and a finger to the other, obviously to drown out the noise. “What?” She tipped her head down, pressing her ear into the phone.

Tori fought the urge to rip the cell away from Claire and hear what he had to say for herself by chewing on a thumbnail. She didn’t have a good feeling about whatever was going on.

“I don’t understand. Where are you?” Claire asked, pointing toward the exit and motioning for Tori to follow her.

Tori stayed on Claire’s heels as her stomach flipped anxiously. It didn’t make sense for Chris to call her friend unless he was trying to surprise her or unless something was wrong. They fought their way through the busy club and out the front doors onto the sidewalk.

“There!” Claire pointed down the street to a black truck parked along the street with its flashers on. “We’re coming.”

“Chris is here?” Tori asked. She started to smile, happy that he’d come to surprise her, but Claire’s panicked expression warned her that he wasn’t here to see her. Something was wrong.

They hurried down the sidewalk as Chris’ truck squealed out of its spot and screeched to a stop beside them. Tori stood dumbstruck next to the driver’s side as she got a look at Chris’ bloodied and bruised face.

She covered her mouth with two trembling hands. “Oh my God, what happened?”

“Time for questions later, Tori.”

Claire’s sharp tone alerted her to the urgency of the situation, and as she looked closer, she gasped at Travis, curled up and moaning in pain in the back seat.