Page 31 of Jax

“Sade.”

I pause with the beer halfway to my mouth. I turn to find Tiron, and I gulp down a swallow of the beer before looking around to see if there are any other Psycho lackeys here.

“It’s just me.”

My heart picks up inside my chest. “I’m still working,” I tell him, getting straight to the point.

He holds his hands up. “I know. Psycho thought you might be able to use me in some way.” He leans close like we’re confidants and he hasn’t eaten me out on Psycho’s command. The sick fuck. “Plus, he wanted me to check on you.”

Icy dread drops like a rock to the pit of my stomach. His words are a reminder of what a dangerous game I’m playing, and suddenly, I feel so stupid walking around in Leenie’s clothes and dusting countertops. I’m not that girl. I’m Psycho’s well-trained con girl. “Well, you can give him a favorable report. I’m doing the job. I’m here, aren’t I?”

“Find anything yet?”

My automatic instinct is to give Tiron a rundown regarding Leenie’s Elite Boxing office keys and the filing cabinet in the office here inside the Ring. I could give him a layout of the two buildings, pinpointing both places. Hell, I could tell him it would be so easy for me to swipe the keys from Leenie since she’s trying to be my friend. If I wanted to, I could end this stupid job right now. Jax is making it obvious he wants nothing to do with me anyway.

Still, I hold back. The thought of spilling everything to this asshole makes me physically ill. “Didn’t I just say I’m still working?” I snap.

He brushes off my harsh words. “Well, I might as well stay anyway.” He takes my beer from me and drinks it in one swig. He hands it back with a wink before disappearing into the crowd.

I stay frozen where I am. My feet rooting in place as fear grabs hold. If Tiron is here, it means all eyes are on me. No matter what he’ll cop to, he’s not the only one present. They’ll be more from Psycho’s crew around, watching to make sure everything is going as planned and that I’m not fucking things up.

When the lights dim, I make my way to the seats to find Leenie already there. When she sees me walking toward her, she relaxes a little, and I still don’t get why she’s going out of her way to be nice to me after what I did to Jax.

With only a half a beer in me, I’m on edge as the matches progress. Leenie and I seem to be fairing the same as Finn takes point as corner man in all of the fights. In a different time, I’d be back in the locker room with Jax to see where his head is at but I can’t imagine my presence would be welcome right now.

I rub the back of my neck. Leenie starts to get really fidgety which can only mean one thing. Jax is up next. The announcer for the night confirms it as he calls out Jax’s name. The audience goes crazy, but I block them out.

Almost as surreal as watching him approach the Ring is the song he comes out to.Crazy Bitchby Buckcherry blares from the speakers, and I can’t help but think it’s another slight against me. I get it. He thinks I’m insane. He thinks I’m easy. He doesn’t take his eyes off me as the cut guy spreads petroleum jelly on his brows and forehead, then checks his nails and for the presence of a cup to save his junk from any accidental groin kicks. As soon as they finish, he walks up the metal steps, eyes still blazing right through me as the lead singer screams about fucking a girl who’s nothing short of a groupie.

To watch him up there is to be transported back a few years. There are so many assaults on my brain that I don’t know which one to pay attention to first. Luckily, Jax’s music ends, and the other guy’s begins. His opponent looks fierce as well as he marches toward the octagon. What Finn was saying earlier makes sense. If this other gym is trying to get their guy to move up professionally, they would need to put him up against a worthy opponent. A loss against someone skilled is better than winning against a weak fighter.

The match begins, and I immediately reach over and grab Leenie’s hand. She sinks her fingers right into mine, each of us hanging on to the other for support. Every time Jax gets hit, I feel it inside me. It’s like a blow to the already battered place where I keep the knowledge of what I did to him close by as a reminder of who I truly am.

Altogether, the fight is an all-out brawl. Finn was right. Jax still has it. Each fighter takes their knocks, and by the third round, they’re both swollen and bloody. For not fighting in a long time, Jax looks amazing. If he’d trained for this fight at all, he’d have ended it by now. I’m sure of it.

Leenie lets out a breath that I feel in my soul as the round clock ticks down. The energy in the Ring is tangible. They’re used to seeing Jax in the trainer’s corner, so for the crowd to see him step into the spotlight is a treat they’re happy to applaud. More and more people yell his name as the fight swings in one guy’s favor and then the other.

A hand touches my shoulder. I’m so enraptured by the fight I just shrug it off, sure it’s only one of the rowdy audience members behind me. When it happens again, I glance up at a smirking Tiron. I shrug him off again and stare back at the fight to find Jax’s dark eyes piercing into me. He focuses back on his opponent, letting his fists fly until the other fighter is knocked out cold, sprawled out on the mat.

The whole area takes in a collective breath that lasts about point five seconds until it erupts just as the referee kneels next to the other fighter.

Finn storms the cage as Jax glares at me, shoulders heaving. His dark gaze makes me shiver. Finn slaps his brother’s chest with a huge smile on his face. I take in his excitement, but I don’t feel any of it. Not with Jax glaring at me like that. Finn slaps his brother’s chest again and that’s when Jax finally shakes out of his predator persona.

Cold lips find my ear. “Well, that’s interesting, isn’t it?”

Tiron leaves a skitter of nerves up and down my spine. When I finally look for him, he’s not there anymore but I have no doubt he’s around here somewhere, waiting to come out of the woodwork like a cockroach.

Leenie turns toward me, her mouth agape. “Holy shit. I knew they were both good but Jax—” She lets out a surprised squeal. “Why the hell does he not fight?”

I run my hands through my hair and grip the back of my neck, my tresses threading through my fingers as I watch Jax get his hand raised in the center of the octagon. “I don’t know. It’s not as if he needs to.”

Leenie peers at me, her brows drawn. “Yeah but—”

When she sees the look on my face, it’s as if she knows. She’s a people reader. She probably gets more about what’s going on between Jax and me than I do.

Jax could’ve been inside the ring rather than outside of it but he held back...for me. The fighter wasn’t the person he wanted to be for me. When I was out of the picture, I thought he’d go back to it so it’s surprising that this is his first fight after all this time.

The last fight of the night isn’t nearly as electric as the one before it but I’m super biased so I’m probably not the best independent reviewer. When the fighting arena turns into the club, Leenie and I make our way to the corner door where the fighters come out. They trickle into the area but none of them are the ones I want to see. The guy from the locker room, Foster, is out here trying to chat me up but I ignore him until Tiron catches my eye. He nods his head to tell me I should follow. I don’t want to but there isn’t anything I can do. If I refuse, he’ll stay and find another way.

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