Page 103 of Pulse
She held out her hand and shook as I grasped it. She was a class act if I ever saw one. No matter how brutal this place got, she always had her hand out to shake before and after a fight…no matter who her opponent was.
She was no nonsense, told it like it was and got straight down to business. No games, no maliciousness. She was like me…there to fight.
The bout began and we instantly grappled, both of us struggling to get the upper hand. We broke and tried again, this time I went on the defensive as she attempted to dominate with a flurry of blows. High, low, high again, as she forced me back toward the edge of the cage.
“Reign!”
I stiffened as I heard Hammer’s voice, his slimy, disgusting voice but this time I didn’t turn to find his gaze. Hammer was at it again, trying to rattle me, trying to break the thing that made me me. He was trying to take my strength and I wasn’t having it.
I continued to fight Fury, dodging a kick that flew high and counter attacking.
“Did you dream about my finger in your cunt when you were out, Reign?”
I let his barb roll off my back as I sunk my fist into Fury’s ribs, driving the air from her lungs. Perfect move.
“I’m going to make you suck my cock Reign. And I’m going to make you swallow.”
My gaze brushed by Hammer’s and I felt his words roll off my back and disappear into oblivion. Then he was just a blip on my radar until even that faded. He only had power while I let him.
His crude insults became fewer and far between as the fight went on until they stopped all together. As Fury lay on the flat on her back, thumping the mat with her fist, the only thing that I heard from the sidelines was my name on the lips of hundreds of people in the crowd.
Hammer was long gone and I’d won this round. Against Fury and against his psychological warfare.
As I helped Fury to her feet in a show of good sportsmanship, I knew that next time wouldn’t be so easy. Maybe next time it’d be Ash he’d go after and the thought stirred up another kind of fear in my belly.
But for now, I’d class this one as a win. No fear. A triumphant return to the cage. One bloody KO was enough to last me a lifetime.
Relief was an odd feeling.
I’d become so accustomed to carrying around tension in my body that I never understood how having that burden lifted could change so many things. I slept better, I enjoyed simple things, I was horny and that was a pretty good feeling.
Overcoming my fear of getting back in the cage and facing Hammer’s psychological warfare had brought back my focus with renewed fervor. I was going to be in that Championship bout no matter who or what got in my way.
Ash was pretty much living with me full-time while we were competing at The Underground and more often than not, I found myself amongst a pile of his stuff. I knew we threw our clothes about in fits of passion nine times out of ten, but I was forever picking up after him and right now he was downstairs in the shower out of the firing line.Bloody men.
Scooping up his discarded clothes, I hesitated when a card fell out of the pocket of his jeans and fluttered to the floor. It landed facedown, but it looked like a business card. Thinking nothing of it, I picked it up and flipped it over and did a double-take.
The AUFC logo was on the front with a guy’s name. Scott Grayson.
I sucked in a sharp breath. The name was familiar. He was an ‘official’ scout, enticing fighters into the league, paring them with sponsors and trainers for a cut of the pie.
It didn’t take a rocket scientist to understand that he’d approached Ash and my skin began to prickle. They wanted to take him back?
I’d seen the change in Maverick over the last few months, but I mustn’t be the only one. Of course I wasn’t the only one. He was a powerhouse.
The door opened and I jumped, holding the pile of clothes and card to my chest. Ash stepped into the room, his hair dripping from his shower.
“You look like you’ve seen a ghost,” Maverick said, smiling at me in the way that always got my knickers a little damp. Why did he have to be so fucking handsome when I wanted to rip him a new one?
“What’s this?” I asked, holding the card so he could see.
“Where’d you get that?”
“It fell out of the pocket of your jeans.” I dumped his clothes on the bed as he stared at the card, his smile fading.
“Ren, I was going to tell you...”
