I looked at Dominick. The want in his eyes added a dark shadow to his gaze. “If I lose, you get me.” The thought was enough to bring the whisper of bile to the back of my throat. “If I win, you turn over Stryker and Brock.” All my cards. I didn’t have anything else of value to trade. I wasn’t even going to try to get my mom or dad. They would have to figure out their own situation. Even as I thought it, I wanted to cry at my powerless position.
Gunner shook his head, folding his arms as he set his jaw. “We can’t compete as a team without Brock and Stryker. You’ll have to figure out something else.”
I shook my head. “What are you talking about?” I ignored Dominick for a minute as I tried to see what Gunner was getting at. Why wouldn’t we be able to train without Stryker or Brock? We needed the fight to get them back. Didn’t Gunner see that? He was going to ruin everything. I had nothing else to trade.
Gunner shrugged. “You might be able to fight, but if we don’t have a full team of five or more, we’re disqualified as a team which means your fight won’t count.”
“I’ll release them right before the fight and bet against them.” Dominick’s grin twisted something in my gut.
“They can’t fight without practices on their records. Not to mention, if they don’t attend school the days of their practices, they don’t count either.” Gunner’s intentions slowly unfurled the knot entangling inside my heart. He wasn’t trying to cause problems. Instead, he was trying to get his cousins released before the deadline even I was shooting for.
“Why can’t you just recruit some other fighters to give you the numbers?” Dominick moved back from me to take in Gunner’s demeanor. The space let me breathe and think a little more as I considered the options he offered.
“Nope. The town of Jameson is tight. We know who should be fighting and who shouldn’t. If you want problems at the fight, by all means, put someone else in those slots. If you want to make money, put the correct fighters on the cards and you’ll have a full ticket that the communities want to see.” Gunner shrugged and glanced toward the woods as if he couldn’t care less what Dominick did.
Dropping his arms to his sides, Dominick leaned his head back and laughed, the sound eerie as it bounced off the trees, gravel, and exterior of the tunnel.
“You must think I’m a dumbass. I’ll let Stryker and Brock go with you and you’ll all leave. With the resources at your disposal, you’d disappear in seconds.” Dominick shook his head, tucking his thumbs into his pockets as he watched us. The tension in the air shifted.
“I still have no idea where my dad is and you haven’t told me where my mom is. How do I know you’ll keep your end?” The talking was getting to me. I needed to act and get things done. Standing around just chatting seemed like a waste of time.
“The Russians will make sure of it.” Dominick watched me with a grin. He moved back another couple steps, but the tension didn’t lessen.
“The Russians want me. How can you guarantee that I’ll get out of there without them getting me?” How would he answer that one? He wasn’t more powerful than the feuding families of the Russian mafia.
“I honestly don’t care what happens after the fight. They can deal with you then. Until the fight, I’ll make sure you’re left alone. Any time after that, you’re on your own.” He jerked his chin toward one of his men, then looked back to me. “If you fight Timbercreek, you’ll probably get to fight a Romanov.”
I didn’t remember a Romanov on the team, but things could change in minutes. If Dominick wanted to, he could have someone transferred into the school and on the docket with one phone call. I didn’t question why he’d want to pair me with a Romanov. It probably wasn’t his call.
Thinking over what we’d talked about, Dominick shook his head. “Sorry, guys, I just don’t think that’s enough of a trade. I need more collateral then promises. I have no doubt you’ll wait for Stryker or Brock and you won’t disappear. I’m already taking chances on the event as it is.” But he didn’t seem like he was put out by the limitations or the fact that he wasn’t accepting my terms. Instead, he almost seemed like he enjoyed saying no.
What did we need to do to get him to agree to letting Stryker and Brock out?
Dominick moved to the side, leaning in close and murmuring something to the man he’d motioned close.
Gunner and Sara crowded in around me again, keeping their eyes on Dominick. Gunner’s voice had a husky rasp that reminded me of Stryker. “Don’t do this.” Man, I missed that guy.
“He’s not going to let them out and you’re right, we need them. Even if…” I couldn’t own the feelings I had for Stryker. I wasn’t sure what they were when I faced them in the quiet of the night, let alone define them with people around me. I inhaled and let my breath out slowly. “The thing is, we need them out to do this. If we can’t get rid of Dominick, then maybe we can at least get the Russian’s off our backs.” I searched Sara and Gunner’s faces.
I wanted to turn myself in and just let it all be over, but I wasn’t sure what kind of retaliation would occur or for how long. Anything was possible when you dealt with angry people who made money off revenge.
Gunner stared at the dirt at my feet, his lips twisted to the side in concentration. Kissing him had been nice, but the torrential passion that coursed through me seemed to be controlled by Stryker and Stryker alone.
When I’d told Dominick to take Stryker, I couldn’t have been lying more. I didn’t want to lose whatever it was we were discovering between us. Not to someone like Dominick. Not to circumstances outside of my control.
Sara moved in front of me, placing her hands on my shoulders. Her chest rose and fell with her breathing as she studied me. “You know I love you, right?”
I shifted my feet, suddenly uncomfortable with the vein the conversation had taken. I wasn’t the type to discuss emotions and the blatant display racked up there with public displays of affection – not in my comfort zone. Not even in my comfort radar or anywhere near it.
She didn’t move or look away until I finally met her eyes with mine. I nodded, ignoring the tightness in my throat her words brought on.
“Then you’ll understand why I have to do this.” She offered me a sad smile and turned toward Dominick. Walking a few feet away from Gunner and me, Sara planted her stance and jutted her chin toward Dominick and his men.
What was she going to do? Shoot him? Chase him down? Why did I have to understand how she felt before she did this?
“You can take me as collateral.” Sara ignored my gasp. I didn’t even try to hide my surprise as I covered my mouth.
What was she doing? I stepped forward, dropping my hand to my side and flicking my gaze from Dominick to Sara to his men and back. “Sara, what are you doing?” I all but hissed the question. I didn’t want Dominick to know she was going against what I wanted. We couldn’t seem like we were divided. “What happened to staying together?”
And on this decision we were definitely divided.
Dominick cocked his head, moving from his men toward Sara. He ignored me as he scanned her from head to toe. “Interesting. Keep talking.”
I clenched my jaw. Trading Sara for the boys wasn’t worth it as far as I was concerned. We could figure out another way to get the guys free. I’d worry about my mom and dad later. If I even spared them any concern. They didn’t seem to be worried about me.
“How long do I have?” Sara glanced over her shoulder, her confident smile not fooling me. She was scared and I could see it in her eyes.
“The fight is in two weeks.” I stepped into position beside her, taking her hand. She wasn’t going to change her mind. I recognized her stubbornness as a trait I had myself. “If you do this, I’ll want daily calls from you. I need to know you’re fine.” I pierced Dominick with narrowed eyes. “If she misses a day, I’ll call the Ivanovs and offer myself in exchange for them to kill you.” I spoke matter-of-factly as if discussing me calling out a hit on him was as common as talking about pizz
a toppings.
He watched me, missing the doubt a normal man would have as he listened to threats from a teenage girl. Dominick didn’t need to say that he believed me. I could see that he did.
“Two weeks. I’ll take this deal. You better deliver. You stand to lose a lot.” Dominick reached out, gently moving Sara behind him. I watched every movement, desperate to claw her back.
I didn’t want her to leave. Why should he get Sara when I didn’t have Stryker or Brock? “Hey, when will we get the guys?” I stretched out a hand, ready to grab Sara back in a heartbeat.
“I’ll call right now for the guys to be released. They’ll meet you at your grandmother’s.” He spoke to Gunner as if I was dismissed from the negotiations. He cast a fast glance at me and then added. “Don’t worry about your friend, Gray. I don’t want her. I like my girls with some fight in them. The fire means it will be harder to fight them, more work. I like to work at it.” He winked and motioned toward the SUV. Sara shot one last peek at me as she turned to move under Dominick’s grasp.
I stepped forward, drawn toward my only friend as she headed toward a situation I couldn’t even imagine and all to save me and some guys she didn’t care anything about.
She glanced again, this time longer, as she stepped onto the step bar of the first SUV. I didn’t try to break the connection as I tried to reach for her. I didn’t want her to go. I didn’t want to abandon her to that.
She shook her head and then winked at me before ducking into the seat. One of the men shut the door behind her. Dominick peered around the side of the SUV and nodded my way. “Nice doing business with you, Gray.”
I lifted my hand. “Wait, what about my mom?”
Dominick rested a hand on the shiny back light of his rig. “I’m not ready to let her go yet. If we get through the fight and we win, I’ll consider letting her see you.” He left the challenge in the air as he turned and disappeared into the SUV.
He left it all on me. If Stryker and Brock survived, if Sara survived, if Gunner and I survived, if my mom and dad survived – all of it fell on me.
Because the Romanovs would only agree to the conditions, if I fought who they wanted. I wouldn’t put it past them to rig the fights. I had to be prepared for whatever they threw at me.
Focus. I was going to have to focus on training, eating, taking care of myself. Easy to say as I watched the glowing bright lights of the SUV driving away with my friend and no real promise of ever seeing her again.
Gunner stepped beside me, staring after Dominick with me. “What do we do now?” Was it possible he felt as lost as I did?
I took a deep breath and folded my arms in an attempt to keep my control in check. The lights disappeared out of the parking lot and I swallowed back my scream. I was supposed to be getting my friends back not watching them drive off to hell.
“We need to get ready to fight. We’ll get Stryker and Brock back. I have no doubt Dominick will get them to us. We have to go about our lives like nothing is wrong.” Just saying the words left me nauseous. Nothing was normal. Everything was wrong.
“You realize that in the fight against Timbercreek, I’ll be against Blaze, right?” Gunner turned to watch me from the side.
Did I know that? Did I want to accept the fact that the fight was on and that we had no choice but to win? I nodded slowly. “Yeah, I get it. But I’ve trained with this team. I know how they work. As soon as we get a chance, we need a roster of their weight classes. They only have one girl, that I know of, and I’m not sure what her weight is.” I’d be fighting her and I’d have to do whatever it took to get in that ring.
Plummer might have two girls, but they weren’t in my weight class. At least they hadn’t been last season when they looked very close to the same size as some of the guys on the Timbercreek team.
“I don’t know if I’ll be able to stop when I’m against him. If Stryker fought him, he wouldn’t let him live.” Gunner spoke softly, staring toward the exit again.
Stryker was a big guy. All of the cousins were. Gunner looked bigger than he was, with less bulk than the other two, but more height on his side. His lanky side would definitely put him in Blaze’s ring.
Who would Stryker fight? I couldn’t think about that right now. I cleared my throat and reached out, patting Gunner’s back. “Don’t worry about it. Blaze has no reach and he’s sloppy with his guard. You’ll have him out on the first round.” Not that Gunner was worried, but just in case.
At least he was closer to being prepared for his fight than I was for mine. I wanted to know who I was going to be up against so I could plan what my defense would be and picture the fight.
None of my other cards had ever had such high stakes. At least any fights I’d followed through with.
Fighting the Romanov fighter the night Stryker fought Sergio would have been the highest stakes fight of my life, even if I’d fought for the next fifty years. Fighting for my life was pretty serious.
Fighting for the lives of my friends was more terrifying.
I reached out, grabbing Gunner’s hand in mine. He didn’t pull away, but squeezed my fingers in his. We both needed comfort and it was getting harder and harder to get.
Swallowing, I sighed. “I don’t want to fight again.” I didn’t want to kill anyone again. Even though it hadn’t been my fault, my punch had still been the final factor in the poor girl’s death. A high school fight might be less likely to result in death, but who knew what was possible.
The Romanovs and the Ivanovs wanted revenge for something I couldn’t control. Sergio Ivanovs had damaged his sister to the point that no matter what kind of a hit she took, she was going to bleed out.
I’d been set up for failure. She’d been set up for death.
“We need to be prepared for tampering. They’ll do whatever it takes to win, you know that, right?” I peeked at Gunner, grateful to have a friend with me at the moment. We didn’t have to formally define our relationship. All I had to know was that he had my back and I had his. That had to be enough in our situation.
I wouldn’t kiss him again. Making Stryker jealous seemed like a long-off joke. What I wouldn’t give to see him again and tell him I didn’t mean any of it – Gunner, kissing who I wanted, I didn’t want to wait, none of it.
“We need to head toward Nana’s house. If that’s where Stryker and Brock are going to be, I don’t want to wait to see them.” Gunner moved slowly toward Sara’s uncle’s car. He climbed into the driver’s seat, starting the engine and then sitting there as he waited for me to join him.
But I couldn’t. Not for a minute. I needed to breathe. Could I settle into my circumstances and accept that I didn’t have a lot of options? Most importantly, could I work with the choices I had left?
The Jameson boxing team had to win. We didn’t have a choice, which meant I had to make sure the coaching was up to par. I should have demanded that Dominick make sure my dad was fine. The team needed a coach, even a lackluster, gambling addict like my father.
For a second, I stared toward the exit of the parking lot. If I watched hard enough, maybe they would come back and return Sara to me. She was my closest friend, my only friend, and I’d let her down. I’d let her leave with Dominick because I was too scared to let myself be taken.
I blinked back tears of both sorrow and anger. Dominick didn’t know what he was poking at. He wanted to win, but what he didn’t know was just how much my friends meant to me.
The Jameson cousins might not be extremely close to me, but they’d had enough influence in my current state that I couldn’t help feeling closer than before to all three of them.
Dire situations tightened bonds, no matter how loose they were initially.
I moved to the car and slid into the front seat. “Let’s go get the guys.” I smiled optimistically at Gunner, all the while holding my fears at bay. I couldn’t let anyone know just how much I stood to lose.
I couldn’t let anyone know just how much I had started to care for Stryker
and his cousins.
Chapter 4
Stryker
The smoke in the crawl-space under the trailer had been all-consuming. I honestly didn’t think we’d make it out from under that house.
If not for Brock and his trusty multi-tool, I might have died under there. I swore I spent half our childhood teasing him for always having it on hand. Then, when we needed our lives saved, Brock pulled it out. We both laughed in relief as he’d used the pliers to pull out the thick staples holding the lattice work in place.
We’d shoved the wood piece out and Army crawled to get out from under the burning house.
Hell if we didn’t go straight into a scene I will never be able to erase from my memory.
Cops shot at people in black SUVs while those people shot back. Bullets hit gravel, house siding, trees, and vehicles. The acrid smell of burning wood and vinyl filled the yard. I remember tapping Brock’s arm and motioning toward the tree line where I’d sent Gunner and Gray.
We never made it. Brock was shot in the back and something hard hit me in the back of the head.
That’s where I left off. I had no idea where I was when I came to or who I was with.
Slowly, I opened my eyes, starting them open as slits and working my eyelids open slowly. What if they – whoever they were – was waiting for me to wake up before they started beating the living shit out of me? I had to be careful.
I refused to think about the blood I’d seen blossom on the back of Brock’s lighter-colored shirt when he’d been shot. He’d dropped to the ground.
I swear, if he was dead, they were going to pull down the entire extent of the Jameson fury. Not many would survive. Brock was a beloved member of the Jameson community. Most of the townspeople would rise up in defiance at his loss.
Her Champions: A high school bully romance (Bad Boys of Jameson High Book 3) Page 3