Cole: A Boulder Series Novella

by Eve L Mitchell

  “Thought I would go out for a coffee and breakfast,” I replied easily. I didn’t usually run or hide but I had a sneaky suspicion I was in fact running and hiding this time.

  “Uh huh.” He looked at me as he leaned against the counter. “You okay?”

  “Just fine.” I forced a smile.

  “You think I’m stupid?” Matt reached for an apple.

  I sighed as I rubbed my ear. “There’s a lot of possible answers there,” I hedged.

  “The only reason I’m not giving you shit is because you weren’t in there long enough.” He took a bite of apple.

  I nodded. “I’m going for coffee. I’ll be back when she’s gone.”

  “It’ll get easier, she needs time,” Matt said.

  Was that supposed to comfort me? “She’s had time,” I snapped back. I took a breath, forcing myself to calm down. “This has to stop. I’m sorry. I’ll be better.” We exchanged a look. I smiled. “I’ll be better by the time I’m back.”

  “Okay,” he agreed simply.

  “Okay,” I confirmed. I left the house and headed into Boulder for a coffee and heavy dose of reality. I needed to have that talk with Ari, but it wasn’t the talk that I had planned to have with her. Ari was stubborn when she wanted to be, and she would never manage to keep that fiery temper of hers in check if she knew what we were doing and why. No, I needed to keep her away from everything, even if that meant me.

  Especially if that meant me.

  I heard her coming up the stairs and she stopped when she saw me sitting there, leaning against her door. I’d been playing CandyCrush on my phone. Horrible game, horrifyingly addictive. I was removing the app as soon as I got home. I got to my feet and dusted off the back of my jeans as she walked slowly towards me.

  “To what do I owe the pleasure?” Ari asked as she got her keys out and opened the door.

  “Thought we should talk,” I answered honestly as I followed her in. I looked around and made my way into her living room.

  “Okay.” She looked at me and I motioned for her to sit. She was pissed that I was ordering her around, but she sat.

  I had rehearsed in the coffee shop and I knew what I was going to say. A clean break. That’s what we needed. “I apologise for last night, Arielle.” I smiled at her. It felt fake. Could she tell it was fake? “I was unfair to you and my behaviour was unacceptable.” She didn’t say anything, so I continued; “We need to put what happened at your mother’s funeral behind us. It was an error of judgement on both our parts.” I looked at her expectantly. If she didn’t agree, this was when she was going to argue.

  “An error in judgement,” she repeated back to me.

  I nodded. “Yes, and then of course you ran…” I stopped her from interrupting, I wasn’t accusing her, she had to know that. “I understand why. I mean it was just a very...extreme...time for everyone. However, you are here now. Connor and the guys are far happier than they have been in while. You were missed.” Okay, she wasn’t saying anything. I couldn’t look at her when she was just sitting there as a mute. I walked over to the window. “We all missed you,” I admitted. “It’s right that you are back here, back with us. We can’t be letting rash decisions affect the dynamics of our family, because we are a family, Ari. We work together, all of us, we’re a unit. So…” Time for the big finish Cole. “We’ll forget whatever we’ve been doing and go back to how things were, and everything will be more settled. Okay?” Fight me. Please baby, fight me. Tell me this is wrong, that we should be together.

  She stood. Hope surged in my chest. “Sure, sounds best and like a good idea.”

  Are you kidding me? I looked at her, she was staring hard at me. Disappointment swelled in me. I looked away quickly, swallowing hard. “Excellent.” I forced another smile. “Well, I’ll leave you in peace. This was good, needed to be said.”

  I quickly walked out of her apartment and down her stairs. It was for the best. It was what we both needed; we needed to move on. Fuck that, I needed to move on, I had to concentrate on my brother, on my family. Arielle had made it clear—I didn’t mean the same to her as she did to me. It was time to put it behind me. I had more important things to concentrate on, this mess with Connor required my whole attention. It was time to move on. I looked up at her apartment, the pain in my chest didn’t subside. I ground my teeth together. I would move on. Not today…but I would.

  Family weekend wasn’t too bad. We were all together and it was obvious Ari, Matt, and Mary Ellen had enjoyed their day. At the gold club we had all met to have dinner, Dad had been cordial to Ari, Theo’s mom and dad engulfed her in hugs. Sitting beside Ari had been both pleasant and torturous. Connor had started being a dick towards Ari and she’d been so uncomfortable I had slipped into my old ways of making sure she was okay. I had managed not to punch out Connor surprising myself that I had kept my temper in check. Matt had taken me by surprise when he stood up and walked out on the dinner table and told Connor he didn’t want to sit with him anymore. It wasn’t like Matt to upset his mom and his mom had been indignant. I thought she was going to have steam coming out of her ears. Mary Ellen had looked at me and I followed them out, not that I’d been long from following anyway, but Mary Ellen’s annoyance had given me an easy out for the rest of the table. No one questioned me as I went after Ari, Matt, and Theo.

  Theo had kissed Ari? When the fuck had that happened? Was everyone kissing Ari now? I found myself in a similar thought process to Connor—but I was more confused than anything—when did she find the time? The explanation she had given made sense. I could see her rationale, I could also see her frustration when she realised, she needed to save Theo from a persistent girl and not another girl from Theo’s bed. Messing with her had been fun; Ari’s fight was definitely back. Good. I still couldn’t shift the annoyance that she had kissed Theo though.

  Sunday had been more settled. The family day had gone well, I had actually enjoyed myself. We said goodbye to Mary Ellen, David and Amy Lou, and then it was just Matt, Ari, and me. When she turned to Matt and me, I’d been prepared for the questions I knew she had been stockpiling. Matt’s phone rang, he turned to answer it and Ari looked over at me, I unabashedly held her stare, watching in fascination as a slow blush crept over her cheeks.

  Matt quickly broke the mood. “That was Aaron.”

  “What the fuck does he want?” I glared at Matt.

  “Wants to meet, you’re to call him,” Matt answered me with a warning glance at Ari.

  Fuck. Forgetting everything previously said, I turned to Ari and wrapped my arms around her in a brief hug.

  “I enjoyed the day Ari, thank you for letting me be a part of it.” I kissed the top of her head which she allowed Theo to do so freely, why shouldn’t it be the same for me? I exchanged a quick knowing look with Matt and then pulling out my phone, I dialled Aaron.

  “Aaron,” he answered with his usual abruptness.

  “What do you want?” I asked him.

  “Fight, Thursday, Warehouse, at eleven,” he replied. Still no pleasantries as it wasn’t his style. Straight and to the point, no bullshit. It was one of the few things I actually liked about him. Well, maybe liked was too strong a word.

  “Who against?” I asked as I strode across the campus, I must have looked furious, a few people literally dived out of my way.

  “You don’t need to worry, they’ll make good towards your debt, if you beat them.” I heard his smirk on the phone. “You just need to fucking beat them.” He hung up.

  He was such a dick. I’d had a fight last night, that thankfully I had been able to go to without having to explain myself. Dad had been staying in a hotel with the Landers family over family weekend, Connor had gone to Corey’s. He couldn’t know what we were doing. He couldn’t be involved. I had been out to The Warehouse and back quickly. Had Dad been in the house, it may have been trickier, but luck was on my side. The Warehouse was where Aaron ran his fights from. An industrial unit in Louisville, not far from Boulder, that
had a huge square of empty space in the middle of it. He taped out a square ring in the middle of the empty space and that’s where the fights took place. He ran a fight club, with a makeshift bar, with bouncers and bookies, the lot.

  Matt, Theo, and I fought, and any profit from our fights went to the Litton guy for the debt that Connor owed him. Thankfully, Aaron’s clientele bet hard and we were making a big dent in the amount owed, but Aaron was tricky, he had a tendency to organise one off fights with little notice. I was finding myself taking more and more fights and making sure Matt and Theo did less. Connor was my little brother after all, it was right the debt should be mine to pay. I would be hanged before I let any harm come to my friends, and the matches were getting tougher. Plus, out of the three of us, I was the slightly better fighter. Just.

  I contemplated going back to Matt and Ari but I knew my mood was spoiled. I headed home and decided to hit the textbooks. All I needed was for my grades to slip and Dad to start questioning my schoolwork. I really needed to keep a low profile.

  “Where the hell did Aaron find this guy?” Theo muttered to me as we stood in the back area of The Warehouse. We were both looking at the guy I was to fight. He looked like the Hulk only non-green. He was about my height, but twice as wide. He had a shaved head and looked severely constipated. I didn’t like my chances.

  “I think he has a little black book of special guys just for me,” I muttered as I shook out my arms and bounced lightly on my feet. Theo snorted out a laugh. It drew Aaron’s attention and he came over to us.

  “What’s so funny?” He gave me a quick once over, and I couldn’t help but feel like I’d just been weighed, measured, and dismissed. Aaron wasn’t a guy to be messed with either. He was maybe an inch shorter than me, but since I was 6’4”, most people were shorter than me. He kept his blond hair shaved but long on top and it was permanently slicked back. Every part of his upper body was covered in tattoos, which fascinated me. Not for the tattoos, but purely because I had never seen someone as impatient as this man, he looked like breathing inconvenienced him. How he sat still for tattoos to be inked onto his body was a puzzle to me. He looked like a Viking, I could see him with an axe and quite happily beheading Christian villagers on behalf of his Norse Gods as he pillaged churches for riches.

  “Joke between friends.” Theo’s smile was tight.

  “Well that’s fucking precious. How about you focus?” Aaron glared at me, I hastily reeled my thoughts back from Odin and Thor, worried he could read my mind.

  “How about you fuck off?” I countered irritably.

  A condescending smirk was my answer. “You have bad odds for this if you lose.” He opened a bottle of water. “I suggest you win.”

  “Who sets the odds for these fights?” Theo snapped. “We always have shit odds, if we lose.”

  Aaron’s eyes flicked towards him and then back to me. He nodded at me once and then went back over to my opponent. I didn’t tell Theo it was Aaron that set the odds, the less he and Matt knew, the better. This is why I needed to take more of these fights. Keep them out of it. The way the fights worked, Aaron kept the fighters away from the crowd until the fight was ready. This was nothing like a ‘real’ legit boxing match. These were anything goes matches, anything except a weapon. He didn’t want the fighters in the crowd, trash talking, hyping it up. He wanted his own guys in the crowd, whispering, running the trash talk, then the fighters would come out, with little fanfare, business kept solely to the ring. I admired his process, it wasn’t personal. It was purely business. He was quite clearly all about making money. I hadn’t quite figured out his involvement with the guy Connor owed the money to—Aaron didn’t seem the type to work for someone—but he was doing this for him, and I knew without doubt it wasn’t out of the goodness of his heart. What was his angle? I remembered our first meeting.

  “Who the fuck are you?”

  I looked at the blond tattooed guy in front of me and instantly dismissed him. Connor had described a middle-aged businessman, well dressed. This guy was covered in tattoos, wearing a black T-shirt and ripped jeans. This wasn’t who I needed.

  “I said, who the fuck are you? And trust me preppy, you don’t want me to ask again.”

  “Why don’t you shut the fuck up?” I snapped at him. “I’m looking for your boss.”

  “You can look all day, I don’t have a fucking boss.” Dickhead crossed his arms.

  “Who’s in charge here?” I asked him.

  “Who’s asking?”

  “None of your business,” I replied.

  “Then I don’t have your answers.” A smirk.

  “We’re looking for a guy with dark hair, middle aged, deals in property,” Matt cut in. “Dealt with our friend a few days ago.”

  I glared at Matt but he didn’t meet my eye.

  I saw dickhead look at us all differently. “Fuck me, are you growing on stupidity trees?” He shook his head. “Follow me.”

  “Thought you didn’t have a boss,” I muttered sarcastically.

  “I don’t, and one more fucking word and I’ll leave you here.”

  Looking back on that first meeting, sometimes, I wish Aaron had left us there. But that wouldn’t have saved my brother and it wouldn’t have solved the problem. He owed money, money we couldn’t get easy access to and we didn’t have the means in which to pay it back, without our dad being told.

  “Cole, you’re up,” Aaron said to me as he passed me on his way out the door, stopping my musings.

  “Yeah.” I grinned at Theo. Showtime.

  Jay was in the ring speaking on the mic, introducing my opponent and then me. I felt a swell of jealousy when I thought of him kissing Ari, but pushed it back, now was not the time to let emotion surface. I needed to be focused. I glanced at him one more time, he didn’t have the Viking vibe of his brother, I wonder if they had the same parents? I needed more sleep. I was becoming delirious. The rules were simple. Three-minute rounds, tap out or knock out. Anything goes. I looked at the guy I was fighting. He wasn’t going to tap out—I hadn’t been defeated yet—knock out it was. The music dropped; that was The Warehouse’s version of a bell.

  Hulk leapt forward, swung, and missed. Hulk was quick but stupid. This wouldn’t take long at all. I grinned. Hulk growled. He lumbered forward again and swung again, I dodged, bringing my knee up and hitting his kidney. He swung clumsily in protest, leaving his other side unprotected, my fist connected with his other kidney. He bellowed like a blundering bear. I danced backwards out of his reach as he grabbed for me. He shuffled back, more wary. Brute strength wasn’t going to beat me, he had strength, but he lacked the finesse to capitalise on it. I was tall but I was quick. The music suddenly blared and I dropped into my ‘corner’. Hulk went into his but stared at me the entire time.

  “He looks confused,” Theo said beside me as he handed me a bottle of water.

  “Yeah, I think he may be lacking in the smarts,” I said before I took a drink. “Which I appreciate.”

  “Finish him quick,” Theo muttered as he took my water from me.

  “That’s the plan.” I nodded. I saw Jay watching me and I held his stare until he looked away.

  “What’s his problem?” Theo asked me quietly.

  “Ari,” I replied.

  “We need to stop that.”

  “A problem for another day,” I grumbled as the music dropped.

  “Get this done first,” Theo agreed.

  This time Hulk came out of his corner slower it seemed he learned after all. I edged around him and he watched warily. He didn’t make any sudden movements and his arms were up protecting his angry face. Which was absolutely fine. It left his torso and legs unprotected. My roundhouse kick took his legs from him and he went down, I followed him down, wrapping my legs around his neck and squeezed. Hulk tapped out for the first time.

  Pulling on my shirt afterwards in the back of The Warehouse, I turned to come face to face with Jay. “Jay.”

  “The three of you are s
et to fight tomorrow.”

  “I just fought tonight.”

  “You didn’t even make it two rounds,” Jay scoffed.

  “I don’t have to make it to any rounds, I just have to win,” I replied, keeping my voice as calm as possible. Would Aaron make it difficult if I knocked out his brother?

  “I have three fights for all of you tomorrow. We start at ten.” He walked off. He had a stupid swagger to his walk. Seriously how did she let him kiss her? What the fuck did she see in him?

  “Your temper is showing.”

  I turned to Aaron, not surprised that he was standing there. “He pisses me off,” I admitted.

  “He’s my brother.”

  “That’s probably why he pisses me off.”

  For the first time, Aaron genuinely laughed. He lit up a cigarette.

  “Isn’t it illegal to smoke indoors?” I asked.

  “Who the fuck is going to report me for this?” His look was mocking.

  I smiled as I thought about it as I looked around at the illegal use of the fighting ring, the illegal selling of alcohol in the unlicensed industrial shed. “Yeah, forget I said that,” I muttered.

  “He has three fights for you guys tomorrow?” Aaron smoked his cigarette.

  “So he says.”

  “Okay.” He nodded.

  “You setting the odds?” I glanced at him.

  His answering glance was just as telling. “Always do, they may be more break even than winning.” He took a long inhale.

  “So we fight again another night,” I shrugged as Theo came back to where we were.

  “See you tomorrow Cole.” Aaron went back into the crowd and we left.

  Once we were in the SUV and heading back to the house, I phoned Matt. “You at home?” I asked.

  “Yeah, house is clear. You both okay?”

  “Yeah, stay up. I have news.” Theo glanced at me, I met his curious stare, but it would be better when we were together.

  The three of us stood in the back area of The Warehouse, waiting. We had each seen the guys we were to fight, Jay was nowhere in sight, but one of his buddies had told us we would be seeing him soon. We were on late. I was fairly certain I could hold my own against my fight, Matt would be okay, I was worried for Theo. I was trying not to let it show and Matt was doing the same. As usual the three of us were saying nothing, doing nothing. Since we’d been coming here, we had watched people warm up, go through fighting stances, eat, play cards, and a whole list of things. We just sat or stood and waited. Aaron had girls working the crowd taking drinks orders, they came back to us and we would occasionally take a bottle of water. That was usually a bad idea though, the unit had restrooms but they were on the opposite side and you needed to be escorted there. Especially the fighters. Aaron had kept away tonight. He didn’t usually come near us, last night had been the most I think I’d spoken to him since the fighting began.