Page 10 of Pulse
I raised my eyebrows.
“I’m not fucking around Ren.”
“Fine,” I replied, knowing that he’d follow me around like a bad smell until I caved. “I’ve just gotta change and collect my money.”
“Money?”
“That fight just netted me fifteen grand.”
Dean’s mouth fell open as I strode off, unwinding the wraps on my hands. He could give me a lift back to Beat, but I still wasn’t convinced to give up fighting at The Underground.
Maybe he was right.
Maybe I was a junkie.
I knew the moment Dean had ratted me out to Dad when the man himself approached me the next day, a look of pure anger on his face. I’d never seen my dad angry before and I now knew what had made him such a force in the ring all those years ago. It was as much his skill as it was his presence and his presence when switched on was scary.
Like father like daughter.
I dropped my gloves and turned to face him. Beat was still empty so this showdown was going to be one on one. No witnesses, no gossip. Just two fighters going head to head. Father and daughter.
“You need to stop going to that fighting racket Ren.”
I narrowed my eyes. I could see where he was coming from as my Coach, but as my father? He’d told me he didn’t want me going there before, but didn’t do much in the way of following through. The fact that he was so pissed at me now was like a slap in the face.
“If you want to go pro, it could mess up your chances,” he went on. “If anyone finds out…”
“They won’t find out,” I snapped, my patience wearing thin. “They haven’t.”
“They will if you keep going.” he sighed sharply, running a hand over his face. “Do you know how that made me feel, to find it out from Dean?”
“Do I look like I care?” I asked, rolling my eyes.
“You look like a child who didn’t get what she wanted.”
“Fuck you,” I hissed. “Stop acting like my father.” He didn’t know what had happened right here in this studio. He didn’t know what his daughter had done. He didn’t want me for seventeen years of my life.
“Stop acting like a spoilt child Ren.”
“What would you know?”
“Not a fucking lot apparently,” he snapped. “But what I do know is by continuing to fight at that racket, you’re putting yourself directly into harm’s way. Knowingly, I might add. You could get injured to the point of early retirement. I know the lack of rules and precautions these places have Ren. You could get yourself killed.”
A memory flashed through my mind, sharp, painful and full of blood. Ash almost beating a man to death in the cage. He beat a man within an inch of his life, marking his fucking territory. What was stopping somebody from doing that do me? Skill, luck…outside the cage it’d been Ash who’d saved me. Who was I fucking kidding?
“Ren, what do you really want?”
“I want to fight,” I replied like it was the stupidest question on the face of the planet.
“Stop lying to me.”
I curled my fingers into tight fists, my jaw quivering.
“What do you want?” he asked again, eyes blazing.
I began grinding my teeth together, focusing on something else other than exploding.
“Answer me Ren,” he said. “I’m not going away until you do. You can’t avoid this.”
