Текст книги "Rebel"
Автор книги: Amity Cross
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Chapter 13
Rebel
It was an easy fight.
Torment went down without too much trouble—the guy was way too green for this place. He was the same age as me but inexperienced. He held back on his blows like he was afraid of hurting me, but it was his weakness. If he could get over the fact that it took blood to win, he’d be pretty fucking formidable. He’d be a contender for the top prize. As he was now? He was cannon fodder.
I took the win out in record time and left the cage, looking for Charlie. Even to me it was strange how much I wanted to be with her. I’d always been solitary, a fuckin’ loner content to have my fun and be done with it, but with her… I wanted to be with her all the time.
I did a round of the arena, clutching my hoodie in my hand and not giving a stuff that I was wandering around with my shirt off, sweat dripping down my back. The women were loving it, but I couldn’t seem to find the one that I was looking for.
Where was Charlie?
Stopping by the bar, Lori hadn’t seen her. The bookies hadn’t noticed her, and she hadn’t placed any bets. On my way out back, I asked the fuckwits on security, but she hadn’t passed for a while. Charlie was nowhere to be found. Usually, I’d just dismiss it and move on, but now that I knew who she was and what she did—something didn’t feel right. Both times she’d seen me fight she’d waited for me right after. I assumed she’d do the same tonight.
Striding out to the change room, I checked my phone, but the screen was blank. I shot her a quick text and began unwinding the wraps around my hands. Once I was done, I checked the phone again despite it being silent the whole time. Fuck.
“Rebel.”
I glanced up at Max as he appeared beside me. He had a grimace on his face, and instantly, my blood began to run cold. There was no reason he’d seek me out unless—
“What?” I asked, slamming the locker closed.
“Your girl—”
“Charlie?”
“She’s a cop.”
My expression fell even further. If he knew…
“What have you done to her?” I asked, getting up in his face. I’d crack his fucking skull open if he’d touched her. I’d kill him with my bare hands.
“I haven’t done anything,” he replied, staring me down. “But Simon has.”
“Simon?”
“You know, Simon, the whiny bastard in charge of bribing the entire police force?”
“I know who Simon fucking is,” I snapped.
“He’s making a play for The Underground,” Max said, ignoring me. “He’s using your girl as an example.”
I knew it. I fucking knew it. I’d told Ryan the other day I’d suspected as much. He’d told me to keep my fingers outta it, but if Charlie had gotten herself mixed up in it, I had to get involved. My hand had been forced.
Flexing my fingers, I asked, “Where is the bastard?”
“Let’s make one thing clear, Rebel,” Max said. “I want The Underground. I want Simon out. I’m prepared to overlook your girl being a cop—”
“You need my help,” I snapped. “Charlie for The Underground.”
Max narrowed his eyes. “We go now, we might get her back before it’s too late.”
Turning, I grabbed my keys and phone from my locker before slamming it closed. “Lead the way, but I’m driving.”
I’d been through a lot of fucked up shit in my life. A lot of fucked up criminal activity, but nothing got to me more than the drive to find Charlie. Maybe she was already hurt or worse…dead.
I’d only just found her.
“Here,” Max said, pointing to a house up ahead.
It looked deserted, or at least it did from the facade. The garden was overgrown, the veranda rotting, and the house itself looked like a squatters den. It was wreathed in a darkness so complete it even gave me the chills.
“What is this place?” I asked, pulling the car up a few houses back and killing the engine.
“Simon used to use it to sell drugs back when he was a dealer.”
Fuck, I knew the guy was a piece of work but drugs were the worst. Drugs were what killed my parents in a roundabout way. The driver of that semitrailer had been loaded, had careened into our car… I shook my head and unclipped my seatbelt.
“Don’t do anything stupid, Rebel,” Max said, following suit. “Follow my lead, and we’ll get her out.”
“I know you’re using me,” I said. “You get what you want, and that means I get her. I’m not a fucking idiot.”
“Then I was right to trust you.”
Glancing at him, I rolled my eyes. “Get out of the car.”
Sliding out, I closed the door behind me, waiting for Max to take the lead. I was the brawn on this operation, and he’d made himself clear. I was the backup incase he needed me to beat the fucker senseless.
The front door was open—the door itself was falling off its hinges—the wood brown, and the paintwork was peeling off in flakes. Inside, the place felt like ice and stunk like rotting wood and damp, the floorboards creaking underfoot. Typical drug den, a squatter’s delight. Fucking filthy.
There was a thud from further back in the house, and Max strode forward through the darkness with purpose. Simon was still here, so maybe it wasn’t too late. As we approached the rear, a murky artificial light began to break the darkness. Someone was home alright.
Max stepped into the room first, and it wasn’t until I’d followed him in that I realized the extent to which things had blown up. Simon was standing in the center of the room, a gun in his hand. A dangerous man with his finger on the trigger, the barrel pointing right at my girl.
My gaze landed on Charlie, and my breath caught. She was sitting on a chair, her hands behind her back—probably bound—her eyes bright and wild. There was a red mark on her cheek, marring her perfect, creamy skin. She’d been hit. Bastard.
“What the fuck, Simon?” Max exclaimed. “You tryin’ to fuck us all up?”
“She’s a cop,” he snarled.
“I know,” he replied.
Simon shook his head in disbelief. “You know?” he roared. “You know where I found her? With her fingers in our files, gathering evidence.”
I glanced at Charlie, and her gaze was fixed on mine. I could see the truth echoed in them as clear as fucking day. She’d been using me to get into The Underground. She’d said she’d play the game until I got out. Was that a lie?
“Charlie,” I said, shaking my head.
“No,” she pleaded. “Don’t even think it.”
“Shut up!” Simon roared.
“Put the gun down,” Max said calmly. “Last thing we need is to put a girl in the ground.”
“She’s not a girl, she’s a fucking pig, and we need to make an example out of her.”
“Stop fucking around,” Max snapped. “You and I both know that this is your play, Simon. It’s been a long time coming, right?” He edged forward. “You want the entire pie for yourself. The whole fucking Underground. You want to be king.”
“Fucking right,” he spat. “You and Graham are running that place into the ground.”
“That’s bullshit,” I hissed.
“Stay out this, Rebel,” Max said, holding his hand out to silence me. “This is between us.”
“Not with a gun pointed at my woman’s head, it isn’t.” Turning my attention onto Charlie, she shook her head. I could read her thoughts and they said, don’t try anything stupid.
“Simon, you know you’re fucked,” Max said. “You kill a cop and you’ll bring everything down. Everything.”
Simon’s eyes flashed, and he pressed the gun against Charlie’s temple. “Not if they don’t find her…or you.”
I tensed, my muscles coiling, and I readied myself to lunge for her. Push her outta the way and take the bullet for her. I didn’t give a shit about her motives for being at The Underground. I didn’t give two fucking shits because I saw something between us that was worth saving. Worth taking a bullet for. She saw through my bullshit, through my past, and she saw the real me. That was worth risking my life.
She pulled her hands free and her blue eyes fixed onto Simon. With one swift movement, she was up out of the chair and going for his gun.
Fuck, no!
I let out a roar as Simon tensed, his finger squeezing against the trigger. The rest happened like a slow motion sequence in a movie. Her right hand shot up and grasped his wrist, shoving the gun upward. There was a deafening bang as it went off, the roof shattering as the bullet passed through the plaster. For a sickening moment, I thought she’d been hit, but Charlie was in full flight, her left hand slamming down onto the ditch of Simon’s elbow. As he buckled forward, her knee slammed into his groin, and his grip dislodged from around the gun.
It clattered to the ground, and Max scooped it up as Charlie brought her knee down…then back up into Simon’s face.
Holy fucking shit. She hadn’t needed me at all.
Simon fell to the ground in surprise, blood streaming from his nose, and Max stepped forward, aiming the gun directly at the guy’s head.
“Get out of here,” Max snapped at us. “This is between us.”
Charlie glanced at me, then to Max. “But—”
“This is your free pass,” he snapped at her. “We will have a little chat later, you and I. For now, get out of here, and be thankful you have your life.”
I held out my hand for Charlie, and she stumbled backward, obviously torn considering her job. She wanted to call it in.
“Charlie,” I urged. “You have to forget about it.”
When she still hesitated, I grabbed her hand and hauled her from the room, and it wasn’t until we were out in the hall that she seemed to snap out of it. She walked easier, following me out of the house and onto the footpath. Without a word, I led her down the street, unlocking the car and easing her inside. Rounding the front, I climbed into the driver’s seat, and as soon as my door closed, I reached out, desperate to touch.
“Fuck, Charlie.” I held her in my arms, my heart pounding.
“I’m okay, Rebel,” she murmured. “I’m okay.”
Pulling away, I settled back into the driver’s seat, unsure as to where this was going next. There were so many things we hadn’t said yet and even more that we both had to explain.
We sat in the car in complete silence. A part of me was listening for a gunshot that would signal the end of Simon, but it never came. We never saw Max, either, but it was none of our business. I didn’t want my hands in that argument—those stains would never come out.
“Rebel…”
I glanced at Charlie in the passenger seat. Her shoulders were stiff, her hair hanging forward over her face. Reaching over, I threaded my fingers through it and tucked it behind her ear. That was better, I could see her blue eyes this way.
“Charlie about—”
Her eyes widened. “Don’t—”
“Don’t what?” I asked. “Let my balls drop off because my girl could get out of a dicey situation on her own?”
“Guys don’t usually like that,” she said with a shrug.
“What, blokes have dropped you because you’re too tough for them?”
“Something like that.”
I rolled my eyes. “Pussies.”
“Kane—”
“They think they’re tough for dropping you? Shit, all that does is make them insecure pussies. Those men weren’t good enough for you.”
“Kane.”
I glanced at her, frowning at the forceful tone in her voice. “What?”
“You’re not mad at me?”
“For what?” I asked, knowing exactly what she was getting at.
She cast her gaze away, obviously ashamed. “I lied to you.”
“You wanted to crack The Underground,” I said straight up. “That’s why you were there in the first place.”
She glanced at me, her blue eyes betraying her worry. “It would’ve made my career.”
“Would’ve?”
She shrugged. “Simon was going to kill me. Max let me go.”
I still didn’t get it. “And what does that mean?”
“It means that I was in over my head to begin with. It means I still am. It means I’m in it until you get out.”
I held her tightly. “You—”
“Will let it fly… For now.”
“Charlie—”
“I’m sorry I lied to you,” she interrupted. “Everything else I said to you was the truth. All of it.” She sighed, her fingers beginning to worry the hem of her T-shirt. “I didn’t expect to find you there.”
Neither did I.
I began to mull over the last few days and all the things that had happened in such a short amount of time. It only took a split second to turn someone’s world upside down.
All the stuff she’d said to me about my family, about it not being my fault, about wanting me…she’d meant it all? I could be mad at her, and fuck, was I ever, but not for the reason she was probably thinking. She sat there, looking all teary eyed, waiting for me to get up and leave. I’d had a lot of shit in my life, a lot more than most people deserved, but she’d never been able to find happiness in the chaos that was her job. People held it against her for being a cop and being a strong as fuck woman. I could kinda understand how that felt, even though it was from a different perspective.
“You’d drop your investigation?” I asked, reaching for her hand.
Her fingers curled around mine, her thumb stroking my skin. “Until you get what you want. It’s illegal, and I’ve sworn an oath, but you and every other fighter in that place know exactly what you’re in for. Until you’re there under duress…” She shrugged. “It’s a fine line.”
I smiled. Until I got what I came for, she’d put up with it.
“And when I win the Championship?”
She shoved me hard, her tiny hands hardly making a dent. “Then you better get out, Kane Sturgess, because I want to start a new life with you. An honest life.”
A grin split my face nearly in two. “Fuck, yeah.”
Chapter 14
Charlotte
I’d made a mistake, and I’d almost lost my life because of it.
I was lucky Rebel and Max had shown up when they did because even though I got the gun from Simon, there were no guarantees I would’ve been able to escape. What got me was the fact that even though I’d blatantly gone against my gut and put Rebel in danger by association, he didn’t seem to give a toss.
And two weeks later, he still wasn’t done with me.
The only people at The Underground who knew my real identity were Rebel and Max, and Max had made it clear that if I was found meddling again, there would be consequences. As long as I played the game, the game I should’ve been playing from the moment I fell for Rebel, they’d leave me alone.
Once Rebel was out, then so was I. I knew when I was in over my head, and that’s what made a good cop—knowing when to bow out.
He’d texted me that morning asking me to meet up with him for a little bit of training. Knowing him, I was prepared to be put through my paces big time. Standing outside of Pulse Fitness, the newest fighter gym in town, I took a deep breath.
He’d said it was run by a past Underground Champ, and he’d had starry eyes, so what could I say? Definitely not no, so I changed into my gym clothes and headed down to Abbotsford, in the daylight for once, and wondered how many ways he’d try to torture me. I’d done my fair share of training, including things like self-defense and cardio, but nothing like he did. MMA, boxing, heavy weight training…that stuff was beyond me.
Stepping inside, I took in the cavernous space filled with all kinds of gym equipment and breathed in the scent of leather and paint. How new was this place exactly?
“Charlie!”
I smiled as I heard my name on Rebel’s lips and found him at the far end of the gym waving me over.
“Hey,” I said as I came to a stop in front of him. He was half-naked as usual, wearing nothing but a pair of gym shorts and a wife-beater that hardly covered his pecs. “Nice place.”
“I know, right?”
Dumping my bag against the wall and kicking off my runners, I asked. “So what are we doing?”
“Ready to get your ass kicked?” he asked with a grin.
“Me?” I retorted, pretending to be offended. “You ain’t seen nothing yet, buddy.”
“Game on.”
Squaring my shoulders, I stepped up to the plate. “Watch your back, Sturgess.”
With a smile, he cupped my face in his big hands and planted a kiss on my lips.
We now had the space to get to know one another without boundaries or unknowns between us and it was a heady thought. I’d never had it with another man and certainly not as fast. We’d fallen for each other and clicked instantly. Comfortable was something that now came easy.
“You got time to hang for a while after this?” Rebel asked.
I tilted my head to the side. “Hang?”
He laughed, looking more handsome every day. “By hang I mean go at it back at mine.”
I burst out into laughter, shaking my head. Men. “Shit, yes.”
Yeah, we had time.
Other Books in The Beat and The Pulse
The Beat and The Pulse is a MMA Fighter romance series that’s full of grit, glory and love!
Follow the men and women of Beat and Pulse as they fight for love... in and out of the cage.
It’s time to fight for the broken hearted.
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To keep up to date with new releases and all the news from The Underground, please sign up for Amity Cross’ VIP Newsletter
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Amity Cross isn't her real name. That's no secret.
She is the author of wicked stories about rock stars looking for redemption, gritty romances featuring MMA fighters and dark tales of forbidden romance. She loves to write about screwed up relationships and kick ass female leads that don't take s**t lying down.
Amity lives in a leafy country town in southern Australia and can be found chained to her desk, held at ransom by her characters.
Don't send help. She likes it.
@amitycross
theamitycross
www.AmityCrossWrites.com
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