“Fuck, there can only be one reason why they’re here.” And that thought sobers me a little. “Ugh, my dad sent them.”
“Yup. Now let’s go my biker bitches. We came, we saw, we didn’t get any venereal diseases.”
“We love you Atlantic City,” Penny screams. She’s standing on her stool with her hands in the air like she’s the lead singer at a rock concert.
And that gets the attention of everyone in the bar including Danny and Joss. They sidle up next to us a moment later looking like they’ve conquered the world. Danny stands next to Penny and Joss walks over and slings an arm around my shoulders.
“Funny seeing you three here.” Danny laughs and then groans when Leo hugs him. “Or not funny at all seeing you’re all shitfaced.”
“I’m actually buzzed. These two on the other hand…Rebel tried to run away from you guys. You’re lucky I was on duty,” he lies.
“As if!” I yell, then focus my attention on Joss. “Hey, gorgeous.”
“Hey. Are you a little bit drunk?” He brushes the hair from my eyes.
I lift my hand and pinch my two fingers together. “Just a little. Enough to know you’re one fine pecimen…hecimen, semen…” I humph and take a deep breath. “Specimen,” I say out slowly sounding out each syllable.
“Please don’t tell me she’s hitting on you.” Danny wipes his hands down his face.
“Oh Danny boy, if only you knew. Oh!” I yell excitedly. “Meet my new friend Meredith!” I look around and don’t actually see Meredith anywhere. “Well, she was here. Damn, now who am I going to cuddle with?”
“Not Joss,” Danny says completely serious, and it makes me laugh.
I eye Joss again, trying to size up his cuddle skill factor: strong arms, wide shoulders. Something tells me he’d be one awesome cuddle buddy.
“Actually,” I go to argue, but Penny grabs my arm and pulls me to the bathroom with Leo following closely behind.
“What’s going on with you?” Penny asks after locking the door. “Damn, the rooms spinning.” She reaches out and steadies herself on the walls.
“What do you mean?”
“I’m saving you from yourself. You were just hitting on Joss in front of your overprotective brother. What happened to forgetting him and finding someone else? Newsflash, you guys are friends, and you just told him he was gorgeous.”
“But he is gorgeous,” I argue. “He’s like a teddy bear, if you can compare a deliciously muscled, tall man with a giant…”
“Rebel!” Leo yells snapping his fingers in front of my face. “Pay attention for fuck’s sake. Listen, we’re going to sneak out the back, go to bed and no one will remember what happened tomorrow.”
“Just like the night of the fight. Great idea,” Penny agrees with Leo.
“Fine.” I huff feeling the sting of her comment. “If you guys would have just instructed me on how to give a decent blow job that night would have ended dramatically different.”
“Keep telling yourself that Rebel.” Penny nearly falls over when Leo opens the door.
Leo manages to pull us from the bar without being noticed. I’m moving quicker than my girl who’s probably drunk half her weight in alcohol tonight. Honestly, I haven’t seen her this trashed in years.
“Jump on, P.” I duck down unnecessarily seeing as she’s a little taller than me.
She gets a running start, and when she goes to jump on my back, she takes us down. God, it hurts, but the alcohol takes the brunt of the landing. Leo panics, yelling nonsense about me getting hurt and my man hands before pulling Penny off me and up onto his shoulder.
“Fuck this babysitting gig. Next time you gals are on your own.”
“Deal.” I slur getting back to my feet. Leo commands me to walk, and I do as I’m told. Changing directions when he barks for me to turn. By the time we approach our motel door, I’m marching like I’m in a band with an invisible set of cymbals in my hands. I’ve always wanted to be a band geek. Play some badass instrument like the tuba or triangle. It would have been the shit.
“Fuck. They just came out of the bar. Rebel, get your ass in the room right now.” He leans Penny up against the motel wall and opens the door. At least he didn’t drink as much as us and has most of his faculties.
I look across the street and see the pair searching around. They haven’t seen us yet, most likely because some hideous shrubbery partially shields us.
“He’s so pretty,” I sigh. “And his cock, it was…” I kiss my fingers and raise them to the air like a world-renowned chef.
“Stop drooling and get in Reb. Stop thinking about the man’s dick.” He pulls my arm, and as I’m giving my peepers one last unabashed perusal, my eyes lock with the angry amber eyes of Joss. He looks a little ticked off and nudges my brother’s shoulder, pointing in my direction.
It’s hard not to let my mind wander back to the night I’ve been trying so hard to forget. Forget like he did…
“Emerson.” I hear yelled as they start to walk my way.
They’re thirty feet away when I snap out of my daze. “One point Rebel, Zero points…” I point in their direction before slamming the door closed.
Chapter 7
Emerson
“Fuucckkkk.”
I shake Leo’s shoulder for the hundredth time, trying to pull him from his sleep. I woke up a while ago unable to go back to sleep and decided to have some fun with Joss and Danny.
“Leo, if you get your ass out of bed right now, I won’t have to pull out the big guns. Don’t make me be mean.” I halfheartedly whine.
“I’m so scared,” Leo states sarcastically. “I’m a soufflé, let me fucking rise.” He rolls over and shoves his pillow over his head.
“I don’t want to see anything rise on you.” I’m so disgusted at the possibility as a mental image pops in my head from New Year’s two years ago. Gross.
After I woke up, a plan formed in my head. I decided dodging the guys all day would be kind of like their initiation and let’s not forget that I called Joss gorgeous last night. Not even all the drinks I had could make me forget the big doe eyes I was giving him.
“Clint Neilson.”
Leo jumps out of bed so fast I fear for his well-being. Blankets and pillows are strewn about, and he looks over at a still sleeping Penny, chest heaving, and I swear I see some sweat dotting his brow line. He jerks his head to me with shock and horror etched on his handsome face.
“Fuck you, Reb. You swore. No prank is worth rushing my fucking soufflé. Do you want me to be a cranky, deflated blob of goo?”
“Drastic times babe.
Get your ass in the shower, you take for-freaking-ever to get ready. I’ll wake up the living dead over there when I hear the shower turn off.” I knew bringing up the time Leo drunkenly made out with Penny’s crush would get his ass in gear.
He grumbles all the way to the shower after grabbing his bag. With a final parting glance from scathing eyes, he closes the door.
One down, one to go.
An hour later, I have Leo already to go and Penny half-alive, but ready to start the day. As I open the door, I half-expect the duo to be waiting on the other side. Foiling my plans is their favorite thing in the world. You have no idea how hard it is pulling one over on those two.
I’m sure my brother rented a room, and I wish I was there when he was asked how many hours. He’s just as much, if not more high maintenance than Leo.
Thankfully, we make it outside and on our bikes with no hassle. The roar of my bike has me looking around in paranoia waiting for them to run from whichever room they’re in. I gesture with my hand to roll out, and we do so slowly. Penny cannot be pushed in her fragile state. I can’t help the burst of laughter when I see Danny running from his room in his boxer shorts and a fully clothed Joss just ahead of him.
“Later suckers,” I yell and flip them the bird. We’ll have a good head start seeing as Danny will not be riding around chasing us sans clothes.
We decide to
drive as far as Pennsylvania before we stop to get some breakfast. I’m hoping for something greasy as hell to soak up the last of the tequila in my belly, but I feel like Leo has other plans. He really takes my training seriously, and I think the only reason why he let me drink so much last night was because it was hard alcohol. No way would he let me slam back beer after beer.
I do too for that matter. I’m just of the understanding that one measly sausage link won’t lose me a fight. Apparently, there’s a gym in Philly we’ll be stopping at later this morning to get a good training session in. Leo has the best gyms mapped out from here to California, and I’m really hoping we don’t have to go that far for him to get over Dillon the dickwad.
I don’t get the biker life. Don’t get me wrong, I love this. I’ve grown a little more comfortable with driving, not a ton, but it’s lonely. On a normal road trip, you get to goof around with whoever your travel companions are. Shoot the shit and play stupid road games. On a bike all you have is yourself. I wonder if I can get us all walkie-talkies for while we ride?
It gives me a lot of time to think, and think I do for the two hours it takes us to get into Pennsylvania. I can’t believe Joss and Danny plan to chaperone us, or at least that’s what I’m assuming. How else is their presence to be explained? I doubt my brother and his best friend were strolling through New Jersey last night for the hell of it. I know they’ll eventually catch up to us, it’s inevitable, especially since I know this is my dad’s doing. He can make anything happen when he sets his mind to it.
I chuckle every time I remember the look on their faces. They were stunned I pulled off our exit without a hitch. Damn, I feel like I’m on top of the world. In the back of my mind I know I’m going to need to watch my back because retaliation is most likely being plotted this very second.
The last half-hour of riding is purely devoted to my dad. The guilt is eating me up, and I vow to call him today. We should be bonding over this experience rather than me hiding from him like a coward. I don’t know what I’m so scared of. My dad’s not the type to tell me to give up on my dreams, and it’s my fault he doesn’t know this has been my dream for a while.
In a lot of ways, we’re similar. He doesn’t care too much for the spotlight, and I’ve come to despise it. If I didn’t love fighting so much, I’d be doing something low profile, keeping my head down and my face out of the tabloids. For some reason, the vultures are intrigued by MMA royalty spawn and what we do in our day to day lives. How do you think my dad found out I was sexually fluent? Someone with a camera snapped a picture of me getting handsy with a gorgeous brunette in Vegas after one of Gabe’s fights.
Most of my life has been documented, and I’m sick of it. How do you think I earned the name Rebel? It isn’t just my alter ego when I drink, but the name that’s been bestowed upon me by the media because I couldn’t give two shits what anyone thinks. I try to keep myself in check for my parents’ sake. The phone calls that come after something has been posted or said about me grow tiresome and my need to explain every angle of my life gets annoying. I am who I am. Getting into the fighting world isn’t for the faint of heart, and I’ve weighed all the pros and cons. The fact that I’ve loved it more than anything in my life trumped the entire list.
Like I said, I’m just like my dad. Maybe a little ballsier when it comes to the paps. Now that the world knows I’m entering the pro circuit, I feel like life’s going to get a lot more difficult.
“Earth to Rebel.” Penny throws a crumpled-up napkin at me, pulling me from my thoughts.
“Sorry.”
“Listen, we’re only about a twenty-minute drive from the gym.”
“Sounds good. Lord knows I could use a good run.” I hear Leo snicker and turn to face him. “What?”
“It’s so cute that you think you’re running. I have a whole two-hour workout planned out. Get ready to sweat beeyatch. I have Barry’s personalized workout schedule to fall back on if we get bored.”
Kill me now. Leo’s never been a personal trainer, but he has a knack for training me. It’s hard to explain; he’s almost like my uncle. Uncle Jay never fought professionally knowing it wasn’t for him. He was and still is one of the best trainers in the MMA field. He works with some up-and-coming fighters at my dad’s gym when he’s not working at the elementary school. He’s the principal, and the kids love him, and he loves every second of it. He could be swimming in money if he traded in his chalk and crayons for gym life and motivational speeches. Teaching is his passion, and you can’t fault the guy for doing what he loves.
“Do whatever you need to during our road trip. Sandy will be tough. She’s a seasoned fighter, and I need to be ready, and that also means I need to work on my submission skills. Some moves still don’t feel completely natural to me.” Sandy’s who I will be facing at my first fight.
“No problem. We’ve got plenty of time to turn you into MMA Barbie.” Leo winks at me causing me to groan. I hate Barbie.
“While you guys are working out, I’ll scout out a hotel, and then I’ll be phoning some patients. No offense but I don’t have a fight coming up, and I don’t need to lose any weight. I’ll pass on the whole gym thing.”
I’m not surprised. Penny isn’t much of a gym rat. She prefers to binge watch Netflix rather than sweat any day of the week. She is right though. No matter what the girl eats, not an ounce is stored in a negative way. Not a dimple of cellulite on her when I have to constantly work out to keep the weight off. Luckily, I don’t mind the gym so much mostly when I’m not on vacation.
“What are we going to do about Danny and Joss?” Leo asks the million-dollar question.
“They’ll eventually catch up with us. But until then, we run like our asses are on fire.”
“If I’m caught in the middle of a payback, I’ll be extremely pissed off.”
We exit the restaurant and get on our bikes. Once we hit the gym, Penny waves as she continues.
“If you haven’t noticed, you aren’t by yourself on this trip. You’ll never be alone, and that means Penny and I will be your buffers. Just like last night. Lord knows you like to get chatty after a few drinks.” Leo brings a sausage link that’s been hidden in his hand up to his lips and provocatively slides it into his mouth. The bastard.
“Shut the hell up. That’s not funny. God, I hate you.” I feel my face heat from the asshole’s reminder.
“No, you don’t, and you know what else you don’t hate? Joss’s cock.”
“Leo,” I whine. “You’re supposed to be my friend. Reminding me of the night, I swore we’d never speak about again is breaking the code.”
“Not if it’s only amongst ourselves.” Leo winks. “Loophole.”
My phone starts vibrating, and I look down at the table where it’s sitting. A picture of my dad lights up the screen, and I immediately hit the bitch button.
“You’ll have to talk to him sooner or later.” Leo sing-songs, walking into the men’s locker room.
“Later. I’ll call him after the workout.” I run my hands down my face and take a deep breath. Normal people don’t have to go through this shit. Normal people aren’t tracked down on vacation because their dads are overprotective.
Too bad I’m not normal in the slightest.
Chapter 8
Emerson
The feeling of being in the ring is like no other. The anticipation and adrenaline coursing through my system. It’s indescribable. I watch Leo bouncing on the balls of his feet, waiting for him to strike. His right arm jabs across his body, straight at me and I see my opening attack. A few seconds later he’s lying in a heap beneath me but still manages a grin. “That was great. You didn’t hesitate for a second.”
I can’t help but perk up at the compliment. I feel myself getting stronger, every punch making more of an impact, every move calculated and precise.
I grab hold of Leo’s hand and hoist him up from the ground. He’s a good sport for volunteering to be my punching bag. It’s hard to find someon
e on the road to spar with because our schedules are so erratic, until I get back home, Leo will have to do.
We walk over to our water bottles just outside the ring when I stop frozen in my tracks. My eyes latch onto the warm depths of eyes I’m all too familiar with. Damn, time to pay the piper.
“Guess they found us.” Leo nudges my shoulder forward after I stop moving. “Wanna hit the sauna to waste some more time? Annoy them and make them double the amount of retribution they’re planning?”
“To get some weird fungus from someone else’s sauna-sauce? No thank you.” I look back over at Joss and sigh. “Kill me now. Why does he have to be so pretty?” I groan as they head in our direction.
“You apparently like the rough and tumble men. I wouldn’t go as far to say he’s pretty. Maybe his eyes are a little feminine?” Great, now Leo’s blatantly appraising Joss.
I shush him quickly as they reach us. Joss keeps his eyes locked on mine, and I’m helpless to look away until I remember it’s not just us in the room. He’s always had a way of making me forget where I am. I’m usually more aware of how I act around him. I guess I can blame it on the workout.
“You thought you could pull a fast one on us this morning?” Danny walks up and pulls me in for a tight hug. “God I’m going to enjoy getting back at you. You won’t even see it coming.”
“Hey, you made it too easy. Nice touch by running out in your boxers.” I chuckle. “Honestly though, I know Dad wants you here, but it’s unnecessary. You don’t have to give up your lives to follow us around.”
“Then who would keep your ass out of jail?” Danny says sarcastically. “Did you think you could run from us for long? I’ll give you credit for sneaking away this morning. We had a good laugh about it.”
“Finally, someone with some sense. Daniel, I for one am extremely grateful you guys are here. At least I won’t be the only one babysitting this one right here.” Leo nods his head my way.
“Hey!” I shoot lasers in Leo’s direction. The freaking nerve he has. “I don’t need to be babysat.”
Rebel: A Brother's Best Friend Standalone Romance Page 5