DS Fight Club Box Set (Volumes 0-3)

by Josie Kerr

  “Yeah, I know.”

  Nanda narrowed her eyes at Dig, irritation overcoming the last of her unease. “Shut it. We had an agreement.”

  Dig shrugged. “Wasn’t saying anything.” He waited a beat. “You sure you’re okay?”

  “Yep, Dig. I’m good.”

  He loitered by the desk until Nanda barked at him to fuck off and go away. Dig held up his hands in surrender and wandered off.

  Nanda eyed the clock. She had already stayed past when she usually headed home, and if she stayed much longer, she knew Colin would get suspicious. And while she loved the big fighter dearly, she absolutely did not want to deal with his scrutiny today.

  She spied Tig and Mr. Johnson coming out of the main gym. Both of them had their bags with them, and they appeared deep in conversation about something.

  “Hold up, Mr. Johnson. I gotta ask Nanda something before we head out, or Charlotte will have my hide.” Tig stepped away from the small old man and leaned on the counter of the desk. “She knows it’s late notice, but Charlotte wants to know if you’d like to come over for some girl time.”

  “Tell her I’d love to. What time?”

  “She told me to tell you, ‘As soon as you can escape,’ so I guess that means now.”

  Nanda laughed. “Perfect. I’ll text her and tell her to expect me in half an hour at the most.”

  “Good deal.” Tig nodded his head once and gave her a wink. “Okay, Mr. Johnson, let’s go take a look at that bicycle of yours.”

  Nanda gaped at the two men because she knew that Mr. Johnson had just celebrated his eighty-sixth birthday. He was going to ride a bike? More power to him.

  Nanda shook her head in wonder and started gathering up her things to leave and head to the little house that Charlotte shared with Tig.

  Chapter Twenty

  Dig watched Nanda leave the fight club and get into her car.

  “She’s going over to our place, Dig. You don’t have to worry about her, at least for a few hours.” Tig shook his head at his much larger friend. “You have got it bad, buddy.”

  Dig snorted. Yes, he did, but even if he didn’t, he worried about that guy who had wandered into the fight club earlier. There was just something off about the dude’s interaction with Nanda.

  “Hey, man, we need to talk about your camp.” Colin slapped Dig on the back. “You got a moment, or are you in a hurry to start your last-night binge?”

  “Nah, I think I got it all out of my system these past few nights.” Dig grinned and Tig snorted a cough. “I got time.”

  Colin looked at Tig. “I’ll deal with you tomorrow. Have twelve weeks’ worth of fun tonight, Tig, or I’ll make sure that Paddy knows you’re breaking camp, and he’ll make you move back to the fight club.”

  “Yeah, yeah, yeah. I’ll be a good boy after tonight. But Nanda’s at our place right now, and the girls are probably getting wasted and stuffing their faces and looking at men wrestle.”

  “Wrestling? Man, you have totally converted Charlotte over to the MMA lifestyle.”

  Tig snorted. “No, naked men. Like all naked. Did you know that there’s porn of dudes wrestling and then the winner gets to fuck the loser? There is some crazy shit out there.”

  “Good Lord. I wish I hadn’t heard that.” Colin shook his head, and Dig stifled a snicker at the big man’s bright pink ears. “Dig, let’s go. I need to get home and take over wrangling duties.”

  Dig frowned. “Everything okay, C?”

  “Yeah, everything’s fine, but poor baby doll’s has a stomach bug, and she’s been down for the count the past few days. I don’t want to take advantage of Shelia – Lord knows she’s got her hands full with Rory and Ashley’s crew.”

  Dig slapped Colin on the back. “Hey, man, you sure this can’t wait?”

  “No, let’s get it over with. Come on.”

  Dig and Colin walked back to Colin’s office and settled down to talk.

  “How are you feeling, Dig? You ready for this?”

  “Yeah, yeah, I’m good.”

  While Colin talked about the plan for his training camp, Dig let his mind wander back to Nanda’s interaction with the guy that he saw lurking around the back entrance to the fight club apartments. The more he thought about it, the more he didn’t like that whole exchange. The dude made Dig uneasy, especially the way he called out Junior.

  “Dig, man, you haven’t heard a word I’ve said.”

  “What?”

  “Exactly. I don’t need to explain to you how important this fight is to your career. You don’t only have to win, you have to dominate. You’re not going to be able to do that if you’re thinking about some piece of ass. Junior will tear you to shreds. I’ll be honest with you. I’m having a hard enough time keeping him here in the first place, and the only reason he’s here is because he’s going to be stepping in as your boxing coach. If you’re not into it, it’s a waste of both your time and his.”

  Shit. Dig both dreaded and looked forward to Junior’s return. He was thrilled that Junior was going to be his striking coach, because Junior was one of the best in MMA, period. He dreaded it because Junior had a sixth sense that seemed to be able to sniff out when a fighter was having relationship issues, and Dig got sick to his stomach if he thought too carefully about what that special Dr. Love spidey sense would be like combined with the preternatural someone’s-boning-my-baby-sister sense.

  Colin huffed a laugh. “Dude, spill. What’s got you in your head?”

  Without telling Colin that they slept together, Dig relayed what he had learned about Nanda’s issues back home and what prompted her appearance in Atlanta, and then he told C about the weird interaction with The Thuggy Dude and Nanda’s demeanor after.

  Dig could see Colin sucking on the inside of his cheeks, a sign that C was about to blow. Colin closed his eyes and took a deep breath and then turned to his computer and brought up surveillance footage from the front desk. He rewound the footage until Dig identified the guy, and then took a screen shot.

  “I want you to take these printouts and post them in all the common areas, and I’m going to text the picture to all the fighters and tell them to alert me and to call the police if they see this fuck around here again. And we’re having a meeting tomorrow morning and talking about this shit.”

  “You know Nanda’s not going to like it if you single her out.”

  “I know, and I won’t. I’ve been meaning to do it for a while, especially since the women’s self-defense classes are picking up. Who knows what type of assholes are going to start showing up once they figure out that their punching bag has some tools of her own? And it’s a good reminder, in general, to not be an asshole to anyone, female or male. I’ve gotten wind of some comments that I’m not happy with at all from a couple of the more casual class participants.”

  Dig frowned. “What about? About the women’s classes?”

  “No, the usual casual homophobic bullshit that needs to get shut down ASAP.”

  “Ah. I can’t believe it’s still an issue. Junior’s one of the best there is.”

  “I don’t think it’s personal to either Junior or Ryan, but I need to let people know that this is a safe place for anyone, whatever their situation is, and not one ounce of that bullshit will be tolerated. Period.”

  “I get you, C. I’m realizing that’s a lot of what Junior’s been trying to hammer into my thick skull for the past eighteen months.” He huffed a laugh at the irony of the situation.

  Colin wiped his hand over his face. “Let’s get out of here, okay?” He handed Dig a stack of printouts. “I just sent a notice out to everyone. Put those in the common areas, and we’ll get everyone together tomorrow.”

  “Sounds good, C. Thanks.”

  Colin squinted at Dig and then shook his head. “I’m not going to even wonder; that way, I can plead ignorance when Junior interrogates me before beating you senseless for whatever you’re doing with his little sis
ter.”

  Dig couldn’t help but laugh, and Colin groaned something about having a death wish. Colin locked up the office, and the two fighters parted ways to go home. Dig was still uneasy, but he felt a little more assured of Nanda’s safety, at least when she was at the fight club.

  Chapter Twenty-one

  “You don’t know how much I needed this today,” Nanda said as she stepped over the threshold into Charlotte and Tig’s little house. She had only been there once before, and it was with the whole group from DS Fight Club, but Charlotte had such a welcoming personality that Nanda didn’t feel nervous at all. Her friendliness and compassion convinced Nanda to want to talk to Charlotte about Dig even though she had said that they weren’t going to tell anyone about their little tryst.

  “Oh, I know it’s just been a few weeks, but you seemed so down the last time I saw you that I just had to have you over for something a little bit more low-key than the craziness of Karaoke Night at Foley’s.”

  Nanda nodded and followed her through the foyer and into the cozy living room, where there were two bottles of wine chilling and an array of fruit, cheese, and cold meats nicely arranged on the shabby chic coffee table.

  Nanda shook her head. “Wow, are you always this fancy?”

  “Oh, no. But since it really didn’t entail cooking, I could be a little fancy.” Charlotte giggled. “Oh, yeah, I’ve already gotten into the wine. I had to taste test.”

  “Well, then, wine me, baby,” Nanda laughed.

  Charlotte poured them each a glass of wine, and Nanda sank into the comfy couch with a sigh.

  “Okay, girl, what’s bothering you? You know you can tell me anything, and I’ll not tell a soul, not even Tig if you don’t want me to.”

  “Funny you should say that. I need to bounce some stuff of you, but you absolutely cannot tell Tig.” Nanda took a deep breath. “I kind of spent the weekend with Dig.”

  Charlotte blinked. “Spent the weekend or spent the weekend?”

  “The second one.”

  “Oh, honey.”

  Nanda groaned and flopped back on the couch. “I know! He was so sweet when I was puking my guts out, a complete gentleman. And so understanding when I flipped out.”

  “Because you had spent the night with him?”

  “No, we didn’t spend the night together until after the cookout, when I texted him to get his ass over to Junior’s and bring condoms.” Nanda cringed. God, I either sound like a complete slut or a desperate cougar.

  She peeked at Charlotte, expecting to see either judgment or pity, but Charlotte’s face showed only a hint of amusement and encouragement to continue, so Nanda told her about the next morning when Dig had sweetly wrapped his hand around her neck and she had proceeded to lose her shit. Retelling that awful moment led to explaining exactly why Junior had rushed up to New Jersey in the first place and why Nanda had accompanied him back to Atlanta.

  “Holy shit, Dig didn’t tell me about the strangling part. Good grief, woman. No wonder you’re wary of people.”

  Nanda’s head snapped up at Tig’s voice, and by the furious expression on the little fighter’s face, he had heard every word.

  Nanda’s mouth flattened. “I am going to kick his Italian ass. We had an agreement! We had rules about this thing!”

  “Nanda, honey, was one of the rules that you weren’t going to tell anyone about your little thing? Because if so, you kinda broke that rule, too.”

  “Hmph.” Nanda scowled. “I suppose you’re right. Dammit.”

  She waited to see if Tig said anything about The Thug’s visit to the fight club, but when he just stomped around the house, fuming about Gene’s cowardly behavior, Nanda realized that either Tig hadn’t seen their unwelcome visitor or Dig hadn’t told him about the guy. Thank God. That was just one more thing.

  “You all right staying at Junior’s apartment by yourself?” Tig’s face, normally wide-open and friendly with a sunny smile, was serious and guarded. Nanda hated that she was the one that had put that expression there.

  “Yes, I’m fine. And anyway, Junior gets back in a couple of days to take over Dig’s training camp. Oh, shit . . .”

  Tig finally traded in his scowl for a wide grin. “Oh, man. I don’t know whether I want to be across the state or in the room when this goes down.” He cackled. “You realize that Junior’s going skin Dig alive, right?”

  Nanda rolled her eyes. “Whatever. I’m almost thirty-seven years old—”

  “And you’re still his baby sister that his fighter has been giving the business to.”

  Oh, God.

  On that note, and noticing the late hour and knowing that Tig himself started training camp and all the restrictions contained therein, Nanda took her leave and headed back to Junior’s apartment.

  Chapter Twenty-two

  Motivated by visions of a hot bubble bath with her new Special Toyfriend and a glass of the nice red that Charlotte sent with her, Nanda scampered up the stairs to Junior’s apartment. Her hand moved to the jiggly doorknob, and a feeling of extreme misgiving came over her. Was the doorknob that jiggly when she left? She paused a beat and then dismissed her qualms because the apartment was still locked up tight. And besides, there was a keypad lock on the outside door. She opened the door and slid her hand to the light switch, cursing herself for forgetting to leave a light on yet again.

  She pushed the door open all the way, completely shocked at what she saw, not willing to believe the scene in front of her was real. Junior’s usually tidy apartment looked like a demolition squad had been given free rein.

  “Oh, holy shit. Shit. Shit, shit, shit.”

  And then it dawned on her that someone might still be in the apartment.

  She slammed the door and ran back to the car, dropping the bottle of wine in the stairwell and not caring at all. After she locked herself in the car, she called 9-1-1 and reported the break-in. And after that, she called Colin.

  The police arrived a short time later and quickly ascertained that whoever had trashed the apartment was no longer in the house. Nanda was busy retracing her steps with a detective when Dig and Colin and a third man showed up. The detective that Nanda was speaking with interrupted her in mid-sentence, excusing himself, and approached the man with Colin and Dig. They had a short, heated discussion, and the original detective stomped off while the new man walked purposefully toward Nanda with Dig and Colin close behind.

  “Fernanda Maldonado?” The man stuck out his hand. “Johnny Richards. I’m going to be handling this case from here on out.”

  Nanda frowned. The new detective reminded her of someone, but she couldn’t quite put a finger on who it was. As Nanda scowled at him, he chuckled and grinned, and then Nanda knew. She’d recognize that grin anywhere. “Richards. You’re one of Ryan’s brothers, aren’t you?”

  Johnny nodded. “Now, I know you’ve just done this, but would you mind walking me through the events of the evening once again? I’m terribly sorry.”

  Nanda nodded.

  After they walked through everything, with Nanda actually telling Johnny about the visit from The Thug and how that was the guy who almost crushed her windpipe earlier, Nanda wouldn’t meet the eyes of any of the men from DS Fight Club, knowing that they would be both angry and disappointed that she didn’t tell them earlier.

  “Well, that’s all we can do tonight, but Nanda, you can’t stay here, you know. Do you have anywhere else to stay? Someplace that’s secure? If not, you can come down to the station, and we can put you up in a hotel. But I’d rather you not have to go through that after all this.”

  “She’ll stay with me.” Dig stepped up next to Nanda and slid his hand along the small of her back. “She can stay with me.”

  “Oh, now hold on a minute . . . ,” Colin began to protest, but Nanda slipped out of Dig’s arm and turned to him.

  “I’ll stay somewhere else, Dig. I’m not letting my bullshit ruin your camp.”

 
“She’ll stay with us,” Colin said in a flat voice that brooked no argument.

  Dig snorted. “Uh-huh. You’ve got a five-year-old that’s just starting school and a wife that’s puking her guts out with a new baby. That’s the last thing you need.”

  “Bailey’s pregnant? Dammit, Colin! That goes double for you—I’m not letting my bad decisions affect your little family. I’ll just go the police station.”

  Dig blew out an exasperated sigh. “Dammit, all of you! The fight club is secure. Colin, you told me yourself that you’d either have to have C-4 or a wrecking ball to get through those walls, and there are security cameras all over the place, as well as keypads on all the doors. No one’s getting in unless they’re supposed to.”

  “I have to admit, Colin, I’ve seen the fight club apartments and I think that will be the best place for Nanda.” Johnny turned to Nanda. “It’s up to you.”

  “It’s not like you’d be with me, Nanda. I’ve got Tig’s old apartment—you’d have your own room and bed, and we’d just share a bathroom.”

  Nanda groaned. “Okay, okay, okay. Can I at least grab some of my things? Please?”

  “I’m sorry, Nanda. It’s a crime scene—we can’t let you take anything out.”

  Nanda groaned. She got ready to protest but then remembered her duffle, which had a change of clothes in it, as well as a suitcase with even more clothes, in the trunk of Junior’s car that she hadn’t brought in yet. Procrastination for the win, Nanda.

  “I gotta call Junior and let him know what’s going on. He’s due back tomorrow to start your camp, anyway, but I’m guessing he’ll not be able to stay here?”

  Nanda looked at Johnny, who shook his head and said, “Don’t plan on it.”

  “Let me call him, and then I’ll be ready to go, okay?”

  “Tell him to call me as soon as you hang up.” Colin grasped her gently by the shoulders. “You need to do this for me, Nanda, okay?”

  She nodded her head and took a few steps away to talk to her brother in private.