Page 134 of Falcon

“I’m fine, Joe,” I call out from the bed, as I rise from it and trudge across the room to pull it open. “See. I’m fine.” I motion to my body. “You can go now.”

He sticks his hand in the door to stop it from closing. “What the hell is going on?”

“Faith left. She left me, and no, I don’t want to talk about it. I’ll show up in the gym in an hour if you’ll just leave me alone. All right?”

He sighs heavily. “Keep your mind clear, Falc. If you’ve ever needed it for any fight, it’s this one.”

“I’m always clear for the Octagon. I’ll be there.”

My answer satisfies him enough that he turns and heads back into the hallway as the door closes.

No sooner do I collapse back in bed does my cell phone ring from the nightstand beside me.

I scramble to answer, not even looking at the screen.

“Baby? Faith?”

“Not quite,” Case says through the phone.

“Fuck. Sorry. I just thought it might be Faith.”

“Nope. Just her pseudo big brother, who is calling to find out why you decided to break her heart, when I remember very clearly threatening your life if you ever hurt her.”

“Go for it. Nothing could be worse than what I’m feeling right now.” I pinch the bridge of my nose.

“Honestly, I always thought you were smarter than this.”

“Excuse me?”

“You let someone like Faith, a fucking catch: beautiful, smart, caring, entirely too good for you, walk out the door and you didn’t even go after her.”

“What did you want me to do? She wanted to leave. I wasn’t going to forcibly make her stay, Case. That’s worse.”

“Did you even try? Did you even stop her at all?”

“How could I? She wanted to go. She made it very clear to me, so I just watched her go and stayed here licking my fucking wounds with a broken heart.”

“You fucked up, man. You really did.” He laughs a bit and it does nothing but piss me off.

“Are you trying to make this worse than it already is? Give me a fucking break here.”

“No, but you are so eager to fight for yourself, but you weren’t even willing to fight for her.”

His words ring in my ears loudly, really sinking into that thick skull of mine and making a home for themselves in my cerebellum.

“I’m a fucking idiot,” I whisper.

“Glad you could join us in what we all know now.”

“Watch it, Officer Asshole.”

“That girl is my family, and I won’t stand for anything hurting her, and you putting yourself at risk not only hurts her, but it hurts my fiancée. That’s double me being pissed the fuck off because my girls are upset.”

“I don’t know what you expect me to do, man. I really don’t.” I begin pacing the room. An uneasy energy starts to course through my blood.

“I want you to stop making the women I care about cry. That’s the first thing I need from you. Once you do that, then we can talk. I told you if you hurt Faith in any way, I would end you. I meant it. That girl is brokenhearted. That is more than obvious.”

“How do you know? Where is she? Have you talked to her?”

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