Page 99 of Pulse
Chapter 30
Ash
I was the biggest asshole on the planet.
I’d ripped Ren a new one for keeping things from me and what the fuck was I doing? Being a hypocritical asshole.
Being honest with one another held our whole relationship together. Ren had said it first. She wanted us to be a team and so did I, so why was I holding back? Lots of reasons I didn’t want to acknowledge.
One thing that annoyed me more than it should was Hammer and his absence from our lives. He was there, fighting, hanging around, watching…but he never did anything to outright provoke me. He’d kept his distance so far, but that was until he’d whispered foul things to Ren while she was in the cage.
She’d been KO’d and her confidence shot then I’d found her in that fuckin’ cafe talking to that hipster dude she’d gone out with before me. Seeing her with him, her fuckin’ hand in his… I blew a fuse. I got that I was protective of her, but I didn’t understand just how jealous I could be. I’d never loved someone before and never half as much as I loved Ren.
Hammer was still a plague on our lives and the stress was getting to me, to Ren, to everyone. I had to keep reminding myself that it was about the long game.
I was hardly ever without Ren while we were at The Underground and the one time I wasn’t was tonight. She was off talking shop with some of the other women fighters. I mean, it was great that she was making friends because she needed that, but as long as she understood that those ‘friends’ would take her out without a second thought if they got the chance.
I was busy thinking about her as I wandered out to the back of the warehouse, so when I rounded a corner and nearly walked into Hammer, I almost snapped in half.
“So if it isn’t the beast himself,” he drawled, crossing his arms over his chest.
I wasn’t in the mood to play nice. The stupid fucker just kept sinking the boot in.
“She told me what you said to her,” I hissed.
Hammer started to laugh. “Yeah? And what was that?”
He was just trying to get me to say it, but there was no way I’d give him the satisfaction. “You know exactly what I’m talking about.”
He raised his hands in mock defense. “Not my fault the bitch fazed out.”
I stepped forward, shoving him hard. He fell against the wall as I fisted my hand into the front of his shirt. “You’re walking a fine line,” I spat.
“Oh come on, Fuller,” he said with a smirk. “We all know that you’re all talk. You can’t even follow through.”
I felt my control slipping big time and I heaved in deep breaths.
“Pathetic. Just like your whore. She moaned like a slut when I stuck my finger in her cunt.”
I felt a pathway in my brain snap. It took me back to that dark place, the place where the beast lived inside me, the place where there was nothing but anger, pain and all the bad emotions that drove a man to do the worst things… It felt the same when I saw what he’d done to Violet. It was the same feeling that had smashed into me the moment I’d opened the door to Beat and saw him over Ren. It was the same now.
With a roar, I pulled back my fist and was about to smash Hammer right in the face when a hand grabbed my wrist.
“The fuck, Fuller?” Hamish shoved me back and I wondered where the fuck he’d come from.
Hammer blinked hard, the only indication he gave that he’d shat himself, and pushed off the wall, shoving me away.
Hamish stepped between us like a human shield as I seethed and I just wanted to have this shit over and done with. How the fuck could he say those things about her? How the fuck could he do those things to a woman? He deserved everything he got.
“That’s why you’re going to lose, Fuller,” Hammer said with a sneer. Fucking ugly asshole. “You’re a fucking psycho.Animal.”
“Fuck that’s ironic,” I exclaimed as Hamish placed a hand on my chest to hold me back. “You’re a fucking rapist.Scum. You deserve everything you get. Third time’s a fuckin’ charm, asshole.”
