The Beat and The Pulse Box Set 1

by Amity Cross

  “And it’s okay for you to speak for me?”

  His gaze fixed on something over my shoulder and I was instantly dismissed. Typical.

  “Ren.” His arm shot out and yanked me against his chest with so much force I almost bounced off him.

  “What—” I began, but when I saw the look on his face, I clamped my mouth shut.

  There was pissed off, then there was Ash. That could only mean one thing and my heart started pounding in my chest.

  “So the rumors were true.”

  Spinning on my heel, I came face to face with Hammer. My heart jack-hammered in my chest and I instantly felt like puking. He was still ugly as fuck, nothing had changed there. Ugly and evil.

  I began to breathe hard, my skin crawling. Hammer fixed his beady eyes on me and smirked, holding up his finger and wiggling it at me with a lewd wink.

  “Back off Hammer,” Ash snarled, caging me against his chest with a thick arm.

  “Or what?” His retort was aimed at Ash, but he didn’t shift his gaze from mine. It was meant to get to me, worm into my subconscious and throw me off my game…and it was working.

  Anger blazed hot and hard through my body and I lunged forward with a snarl, breaking free of Ash’s hold. I wanted to rip Hammer’s dirty fucking cock off and ram it down his throat. I wanted to see him suffer for what he did to us and especially for what he did to Violet. He had to pay.

  I went to swing a fist, but strong arms circled around my waist, dragging me back.

  Hammer and his posse stared at us for a moment before bursting into laughter as I thrashed against Ash’s grip around me.

  “Would you look at that?” Hammer drawled, egging me on even more. “I like women with fight in them. Makes the game even more satisfying.” He fisted his filthy hand into his crotch and thrust in my direction.

  I got the suggestion completely and I wanted to vomit.

  “Fucking rapist,” I screeched at him.

  Ash hauled me down the corridor and into the change rooms as Hammer and his goons laughed after us. I struggled against his hold, but his arms were like steel. I was tough, but not that tough.

  “Calm down,” he murmured in my ear. “What do you think you’re going to do against him? Fight him on your own?”

  “I want to hack his cock off!” I yelled, thumping my fists, trying to connect with anything that would make him let me go.

  A few fighters who were lingering out back all looked up at the commotion, but all I saw was red.

  “Fuckin’ hell, Spitfire.”

  “Let me go!”

  “So you can go back out there and kick him in the nuts? I thought we were going to do this the right way.”

  I felt some of the anger start to dissipate at Ash’s words. He was right. Fuck. He must’ve felt the shift in my body because his grip slackened.

  “Let me go,” I said again, pushing the flats of my palms against his hips. “I won’t—”

  He set me free and I began pacing back and forth, trying to calm myself down but it only succeeded in keeping my rage at a slow simmer.

  “Ren, you need to calm down,” Ash pleaded with me.

  “I can’t fucking…I can’t.” I felt tears welling, signaling the final stage of my Hulk moment.

  As the first tears began to fall, he stepped forward and in one fluid motion, circled his arms around me and trapped me against his chest.

  “Don’t,” I said, swatting uselessly at him.

  “Shh,” he crooned and it was that one small moment of tenderness from the beast that made me break completely.

  A sob escaped my throat and he sprang into action, backing me into a shower stall, separating us from the few fighters that were beginning to notice the commotion in the corner.

  “Spitfire,” he soothed, holding me close as the door banged closed.

  “I didn’t—” I said breathlessly, burying my face against his chest. “I didn’t expect—”

  “To react that way?”

  “No.”

  “You have to be strong Ren.”

  “I’m so tired of being strong,” I wailed, knowing I was being totally unreasonable, but not being able to help it. “I was strong when I came to Beat. I was strong when you left. I was strong after—”

  Ash leaned down and pulled my chin up in his big hand, pressing his lips to mine and cutting off my tirade. I sank into him, letting him claim me with his tongue. He kissed me soft and slow, each caress deepening until the rage and despair inside me simmered, then cooled, and was replaced with another kind of heat.

  I clung to him with shaking hands and curled my fingers into his T-shirt, using him to keep me from slipping away.

  When he finally pulled back, his eyes were hooded with lust, his lips slightly swollen.

  “Remember when you calmed me down in here?” he asked, his voice husky. “Remember?”

  I nodded, my eyes fixing on his. Back then, the room had been cleared and it was just us. I’d brought us closer that night and the same thing was happening right now.

  “It’s my turn Spitfire. Let me take you home,” he rasped, voicing my thoughts.

  I sighed, letting out the last of the tension from my body. “And what are we going to do there?”

  A sly smile tugged at his lips. “My cock. Your pussy. Together at last.”

  26

  Ash

  Training with Ren in the dead of night at Beat was fast becoming my favorite time of day.

  I mean, we trained during the day with the Twins as they went through their final prep for the AUFC season in Sydney, but when we came back from The Underground our training consisted of a few repetitions on the bags before hands wandered.

  I used to think sinking my fist into my opponent in the cage was the best feeling ever, but I’d found something much more satisfying. Sex with Ren Miller. Sinking my cock into her three, maybe four times a night. You’d think we’d be worn out by the time the day was done, but no fucking way.

  She’d awakened another kind of beast.

  I’d never been in a proper relationship before. Before everything that happened with Violet, I’d been the kinda guy who’d slept around because I could. Fuck, I was a kid with a raging libido and it didn’t hurt that I had the looks. I wanted to fuck around and women loved the muscles and tattoo. That was until the day I walked into Beat and saw Ren Miller brandishing a cricket bat in nothing but a tank top and knickers.

  She’d turned my world even more upside down than it already was and sometimes I still didn’t know which way was up.

  I didn’t like her speaking for me, even though I knew she was just trying to do the right thing, and I sure as fuck didn’t like anyone messing with her.

  It was just another thing I had to get a grip on.

  Just because I said I loved her didn’t mean that things were wrapped up in a nice little package, right?

  Didn’t people say ‘I love you’ and then it was happily ever after?

  Who fuckin’ knew. Maybe now was when the hard part began.

  The Underground was always pumping on the first night of a new Championship.

  Bookies were drawing up new odds, punters were clogged around the bars, women paraded around with their tits hanging out looking to score with a cashed up fighter… The whole place was alive with the promise of fresh meat. The early rounds were the easiest. They cut the boys from the men and were an absolute blood bath.

  The crowd fuckin’ loved it.

  I sat in the back change room and stared at my hands. I didn’t know where Ren had disappeared to, but I was kinda glad for the peace and quiet. My first fight in over a year…fuck, my first fight since I almost killed a guy in the cage and pathetically I was worried. The Underground had saved me once, but I wasn’t so sure it could make a repeat performance.

  I’d never tell Ren, but the first time I heard about this place was when I was on the inside. What better place to find out about illegal fighting than from prison? The fucks that thought they ran the
place tried to pull me into line straight up. Day fuckin’ one they tried to threaten me with an iron bar. The crooks that thought they ruled the roost, paying off guards and smuggling in smokes and mobile phones like currency, they didn’t expect that my currency was my fists. They never tried shit with me again, but it gained more interest from people on the outside.

  To them I was a crook, behind bars for assault and primed for life in the cage. An ex-UFC fighter with a grudge and the anger to match.

  I remembered the first night I’d come here. It was a few days after getting out of the slammer and some dude, that I now knew was one of the bookies, hooked me up and brought me in. I saw one bout and I signed up without hesitation. Raw, bloody and brutal. It was what I wanted. Fuck that. It was what I needed.

  Then I went back to Beat and laid eyes on Ren Miller and things didn’t seem so simple anymore.

  “Ash Fuller.” A loud, obnoxious Irish accent broke through my thoughts and I scowled, glancing up to find Hamish, aka The Goblin, standing in front of me.

  “Hamish,” I said curtly. “I see they still haven’t revoked your visa and sent you back to your pot of gold.”

  He laughed, not pissed in the slightest. He was used to the Irish jokes by now, but he always seemed more easygoing than most Aussies so they just rolled off his back.

  “Maverick?” he asked, sitting beside me. “What kind of name is that?”

  “A fuckin’ awesome one,” I retorted.

  “I ain’t gunna ask you what went down, though I’m itchin’ to ask…”

  I raised an eyebrow.

  “If there’s a side,” he went on in his thick brogue, “I wanna be on the side of good, not evil.”

  “This ain’t a fuckin’ superhero movie,” I drawled.

  He was reigning champ in these parts, but I suspected with me and Hammer back in the mix, things mightn’t be so smooth sailing for him for a third win in a row.

  “You’ve got one hell of an enemy there, my friend,” he said clapping a hand on my shoulder. “Right now, it’s you and Reign together. No one else is on your side.”

  “And you want to be on the winning one.”

  “Is that so bad?”

  “It is when you decide I’m gunna lose.”

  “I don’t think you’ve got much to worry about.”

  I narrowed my eyes. At least one of us had faith in my ability. “And what’s in it for me?”

  “I can help you with your girl, for sure.” Hamish glanced across the room at the other fighters who were preparing for the first round.

  I stiffened and went to stand, but he clapped a hand on my shoulder. “Down boy,” he said with a chuckle. “No’ like that. You can’t watch her all the time. All I’m offering is to keep an eye on her. Make sure the dogs don’t snap while you’re in the cage, like. I’ve got your back if you’ve got mine.”

  Fuck, he was right. There was no way I could watch over Ren all the time, especially when I was in the cage. Hamish was offering and like it or not, there was a grain of respect and even trust between us.

  “I know where you’re comin’ from,” Hamish said. “I know something bad went down between you and Hammer. Everyone knows, mate, they just don’t know what it was. Rumor has it that you came out on top.”

  “If I came out on top, then why is he still walking around?” I asked sullenly.

  “Ahh, be careful who you say that to. Money’s riding on you already Fuller; and you know how these here dicks are with money.”

  I glanced at the other fighters, but they were too engrossed in warming up to listen to us. There were quite a few new faces, kids with anger issues most likely. Dudes who’d fight guys like me who were well above their weight class. They’d be snapped like twigs and the crowd would lap it up.

  “He tried to take out my kneecaps with an iron bar,” Hamish declared out of nowhere.

  “The fuck?” I exclaimed. Hammer either had some fuckin’ nerve or he was that fuckin’ dumb.

  “There was no way he was even gettin’ close to the Championship last round,” he explained. “No’ unless he took out a few of his competitors. Crowbar disappeared with a mysterious injury a few days before they tried it on me. Nasty piece of business.” He shook his head.

  “How’d you get out of that one?” I know what I would’ve done and it wasn’t anything pretty.

  “A lot of luck, a lot of threats and a little violence,” he said with a wink. “Let’s just say, I’m on your side whether you want me or no’. We’ve both got beef and I know my strengths.”

  I wanted to say, ‘which was a sign of a good fighter’, but I kept my mouth closed. I always knew Hamish was one of the better ones, not necessarily good, but better than some of the low life fuckers that paraded their fists round these parts.

  “Can I trust you?” I asked straight out. “Can Ren trust you? Because if anything happens to her, I’m out for blood.”

  “There are better ways to die and I don’t fancy myself meeting my maker by way of your fist, Fuller.”

  I raised my hand and Hamish grinned, grasping it with his own.

  “Don’t make me regret this Hamish,” I said, tightening my grip.

  “Don’t plan on it.” He stood, letting my hand go and wandered off to prepare for his own fight.

  “What was that about?”

  I glanced over my shoulder at the sound of Ren’s voice and smiled. “He wants to play nice.”

  “You trust him?” she asked as she came to stand in front of me, all half naked and beautiful in her shorts and crop.

  “Not in so many words, but it’s nice to have an ally.” She picked up my hand wraps and gestured for my hand. “He’s gotta prove himself first.”

  Standing, I held out my right hand and she began strapping me in, weaving the binding through my fingers.

  “Ren,” I said, shifting from foot to foot, getting jittery.

  “Yeah?”

  “I can tell you shit, right?”

  “Of course,” she replied, edging closer as she bound my wrist up tight.

  I took a deep breath. “I’m worried.”

  “About…?” she prodded.

  “Getting back in there.”

  Her brown eyes met mine and she smiled. “You know what they say about ducks and water and riding bikes and all that.”

  “You never forget?”

  “You never forget.”

  She dropped my hand and gestured for my left and began strapping that one too. I flexed my fingers on my right and let out a small sigh. She was good at strapping.

  “You’ve got this,” she said, fixing her attention on my hand. “You know your shit Maverick.”

  I grunted. “You don’t mind me using the name?” It was her nickname for me, her way of showing affection. It hadn’t occurred to me she might be bothered about it.

  Spitfire shook her head and fastened the end of the wrap. “No. I’m bummed I have to share it with everyone else, but I’ll get over it.”

  I raised my right hand and combed my fingers through her ponytail before wrapping it around my hand and tugging her head back.

  “Sorry.”

  “It’s cool,” she breathed, her cheeks flushing.

  I leaned down and pressed my lips to hers, my blood igniting as her tongue darted out and licked against mine.

  “Maverick!” We pulled apart as a booming voice tore through the change rooms. “Five minute call.”

  Ren sighed as I let her hair run through my fingers.

  “Give ‘em hell,” she said and a grin started to spread across my face.

  “You’ve got it.”

  Without a second thought, I strode out into the main room, dragging Ren behind me, her hand wedged in mine. People around us began to notice and started cheering and clapping as I carved a path to the entrance of the cage. I scanned faces as I went, looking for threats, familiarity, I didn’t know which. The promise of a fight had me amped up and Ren had me hot in more ways than one.

  It’d
be a blood bath tonight and I hoped to fucking hell it’d stay in the cage.

  Hammer hadn’t made an appearance since the other night and I was edgy. Maybe this was what he wanted. Maybe he was using fuckin’ mind games to get to me. Maybe it was all in my head. Suddenly I was glad that Hamish was around to keep an eye out for trouble.

  He’d have my back and I’d have his. I needed someone to trust and I wanted it to be Hamish, but it was still too early to give that unconditionally.

  Grabbing Ren around the waist, I pulled her in and smacked a kiss right on her lips. The moment she sighed against me, I plunged my tongue into her mouth and claimed her in front of everyone. She was mine and no fuckin’ man would forget it.

  She pulled away and laughed, her lips brushing against mine. “Caveman.”

  “You’re mine Spitfire.”

  “I love you,” she murmured, running the flats of her palms over my chest and I groaned. “Now, get in there and do your thing Maverick.”

  She began to back away, but I reached for her again, yanking her close. “I love you.”

  “In the cage Fuller,” the bouncer at the gate barked and I let Ren go.

  “See you in a few,” she said. “I’ll be in the stands.” She pointed to the bleachers on her left that were reserved for fighters and their plus ones. “Right there.”

  I backed into the cage, my gazed fixed on hers. “Wait for me.”

  She nodded once and I turned, slamming all my focus onto the fight ahead.

  The cage door slammed closed behind me and I felt the heat radiate on my skin from the lighting rig above. When the crowd realized who Maverick was, they roared my name and stomped their feet on the stands, creating a din that fed straight into my bloodstream. They expected a show.

  I had no idea who my opponent was, not until I stepped into the cage and set eyes on him. I didn’t like knowing in these early rounds. The spontaneity of fighting an unknown on the fly drove my adrenalin levels through the roof. Made for a better show.

  He was small, well built but still under my weight class which would mean he’d be fast on his feet. He’d have to work twice as hard for his blows to make a dent in me, but if he was smart, he could beat me through exhaustion. This would either be the quickest fight in the history of The Underground or the longest.