Page 91 of Pulse
I snatched the card from his fingers and glanced at the AUFC emblem on the front before shoving it in my pocket.
Grayson backed away. “Think about it Fuller. It’s a good deal.”
I spied Ren weaving her way through the crowd and began to panic. Something inside my stupid fuckin’ head told me to keep my trap shut.
Why the hell I didn’t want her to know about this was beyond me. We had a goal to bring down Hammer the right way and I owed it to her and to Violet to see it through. This whole scout shit would stick a spanner in the wheel big time. Besides, I didn’t know if I was even going to see the guy, let alone accept his offer. Why the fuck would I want to go back to pro?
A little voice inside my stupid head said, because it’s a future. I could give Ren things, provide for her, and make sure she didn’t have to want for anything ever again.
But Ren gave up pro to be with me and if I went back… She said she didn’t want that life, but if I took it... Was she telling the truth?
What was I meant to do?
Ren stopped in front of me, all smiling and sexy and I couldn’t say it.
“Who was that?” she asked, peering over my shoulder.
“Some guy,” I replied as absently as I could.
She raised an eyebrow at me, but didn’t say anything. “You wanna split?”
I nodded. Yeah, I needed to get out of here. I needed to get away from the noise and think about the ticking time bomb that had just been hurled at my head.
Ren grasped my hand and knocked her shoulder against mine. “Then let’s go, ape.”
I promised I wouldn’t keep secrets from Ren anymore. I promised and what the fuck was I doing? I hoped she wouldn’t find out until I’d had a chance to think about it first.
Tightening my grip on her hand, I put a lid on my dangerous thoughts and took my Spitfire back to Beat.
Rattled wasn’t the right word to describe how I was feeling. It probably was, but times it by ten and you had me. I couldn’t sleep, even with Ren in my arms. Even after fucking her senseless. I couldn’t sleep.
I got up before she woke and went for a run, trying to work out some of the stress. I ran all the way from Brunswick to Royal Park and it wasn’t until I hit the train station across the street from the Zoo, and the morning sun broke through the trees, that I stopped.
I thought I’d had some big decisions in my life, but this felt like the biggest one of all. All those other times it’d just been my life that was changed by them. I had to shoulder those burdens…but this time it was about more than that. I had to think about Ren…fuck, my Spitfire who’d given up so much already, and Violet. She was getting better, but it was a slow road and I didn’t want to leave her and go to Sydney. She was on her own with so much as it was.
I was almost exclusively living with Ren these days. I kinda felt bad about Violet being on her own at the house, but every time I brought it up, she said it was fine. She liked the peace and quiet and the alone time. She said she didn’t like to mix with other people, but that was the problem. She needed to get out into the world again.
Hopping from foot to foot as the day brightened and parrots squawked overhead in the trees, I pulled my phone from my pocket and brought up Violet’s number and hit call.
After a few rings, she picked up. “Ash? What the hell?” She sounded groggy. “It’s six thirty in the morning.”
“I just wanted to call you and see how you were doing,” I said. It was a half-truth, but I kinda wanted to talk to her.
“Liar,” Violet declared.
“How do you do that?” I groaned, switching my phone to the other ear.
“Female intuition.”
“Great.”
“What happened?” Violet changed her tone, prodding me to spill the beans. It didn’t matter that I knew all her moves; she got me with them every time.
“I was approached by an AUFC scout.”
“What?” she shrieked down the phone, and I had to hold it away from my ear or suffer permanent hearing loss. “When did that happen?”
