DRAWN TO FIGHT
ZAC & EVIE
by Lilliana Anderson
Smashwords Edition
Copyright 2015, Lilliana Anderson
All rights reserved
Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means without the prior written permission of the author of this book.
This book is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to any person, living or dead is purely coincidental. Any actual places, products or events mentioned are used in a purely fictitious manner. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various places/products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission and is by no way sponsored by the trademark owners.
SYNOPSIS
New Adult romance, for 18+ only due to sexual content and adult themes
Drawn to Fight begins a new series in the world of the Drawn Series, following Redemption and featuring, Damien and Etta’s daughter, Evie, in her own coming of age drama filled with angst, love, passion, need, and a healthy dose of obsession.
Zac Rivers. A boy no one wanted to know. Always angry. Always fighting his way in and out of trouble. It was no surprise when he was expelled from school and never heard from again.
Until now.
I found him at the Londonderry Brawl, and I watched him fight like an animal. Strong. Controlled. But desperate. I sensed in him a purpose – a need to win – and I wanted to know what was so important to him. The way he fought was mesmerising, and I couldn’t take my eyes off him. Then, it was over, he’d won and I needed to leave.
He didn’t want me to.
When his lips met mine, somehow, he stole my heart, and in that moment, I knew my world was forever changed. I needed to know this boy. I needed to discover all there was to know about him or I’d never be able to breathe again. No one thinks we should be together. They say his bad news.
Well, people say I’m bad news too.
Then, as fate would have it, I was forced to introduce him to my most fierce protector. A man whose past is riddled with secrets and mistakes; a man who fought his way from the darkness and into the light; a man called Damien – my father.
My name is Yvonne Rhodes, although, you may prefer to call me Evie. I’m the eldest daughter of Damien and Henrietta Rhodes. Inside me, I have my mother’s sense, and my father’s passion.
This is Zac’s and my story. It’s about needing someone to the point of obsession. It’s about losing control, and finding a way to pick up the pieces when everything seems broken.
And it’s about love. One that’s so strong, nothing can stop it.
CONTENTS
Synopsis
Dedication
Foreward
Acknowledgements
Prologue
PART ONE
One
Two
Three
Four
Five
Six
Seven
Eight
Nine
Ten
Eleven
PART TWO
Twelve
Thirteen
Fourteen
Fifteen
Sixteen
Seventeen
Eighteen
Nineteen
PART THREE
Twenty
Twenty-One
Twenty-Two
Twenty-Three
Twenty-Four
Twenty-Five
Twenty-Six
Twenty-Seven
Twenty-Eight
PART FOUR
Twenty-Nine
Thirty
Thirty-One
Thirty-Two
Thirty-Three
Thirty-Four
Thirty-Five
PART FIVE
Thirty – Six
Thirty-Seven
Thirty-Eight
Thirty-Nine
Forty
Forty-One
Forty-Two
PART SIX
Forty-Three
Forty-Four
Forty-Five
Epilogue
Chat or connect with the author
Books by Lilliana Anderson
About the Author
DEDICATION
for Luke
behind your smile and your laugh was an aching heart. I hope you’re free now, sweet boy.
Foreward
The moment the Drawn Series ended, I sat down with my husband and was talking about how sad I was to see the characters go.
Always the optimist, he said that I didn’t have to say goodbye because they had kids and their kids would need to find their soul mates as well.
It was then that we started to make notes about the Drawn to Fight series and slowly, the characters began to emerge.
I didn’t know it at the time, but the main character Zac, bore a few similarities to my brother in law. While I was in the final editing phases of this book, we were notified that he’d taken his own life. As I forced myself to work to get through the sadness, I keep seeing him in Zac’s character.
It is to him this book is dedicated, I hope he’s winning an MMA tournament somewhere up in heaven.
Acknowledgements
AS ALWAYS, there are people to be thanked! Many sets of eyes go in to the creation of each of my books and I am very grateful to every person who takes time out of their lives to help create each and every one of my books.
Thank you to my beta readers for working so hard for me. Marion of Making Manuscripts, I thank you for your detailed guidance after the first draft. Tammie, as always, I love your enthusiasm for my work. You really are a rare and beautiful soul. Mary, thank you for being a sneaky reader while at work and always wanting to know more. Kristine, thank you for your insight and for loving Zac enough to fan yourself! Crystal, thank you for enjoying my work and helping me polish this manuscript. Thank you all so much. I know I say this a lot, but your input reall was invaluable to me and has made this book so much better than if I had have done it all alone. Thank you! Thank you! I love you all!
Thank you to my editors, Maria Johnson and Kaylynn Evans for trawling through my manuscript for errors and giving me great feedback on the story.
Thank you to my proofreader, Carol Cooper, you do a fantastic job and I’m so blessed that you decided to contact me and offer your help.
Thank you to my special ladies who are my constant support, Cj Duggan, Frankie Rose/Callie Hart, and Jessica Roscoe/Lili Saint Germain. You have been listening to my constant doubt and pushing me forward throughout the whole writing process. I don’t know what I’d do without you all in my life!
To every author and facebook friend who chats with me when I need a break, I thank you.
To every blogger who has an ARC or has signed up to post my cover reveal or release day blitz – I thank you too. You were all so wonderfully understanding when my family was experiencing a hardship. xoxox
Also, a big thank you to my husband for putting up with my bitching and moaning and his unending support, his plot help, and his encouragement.
Thank you to my street team . We are tiny. But we make a difference.
I’d also like to thank the wonderful team at Apple and Smashwords, who set up all of my preorders and trust me to upload my books on time – I truly appreciate your support!
Thank you to my kids. I love that you all come and sit in my office quietly, just to spend a bit of extra time with mummy!
And of course – thank you to all of my readers. Without you, I would be writing to the crickets.
Mwah! xoxox
Prologue
Zac
“Fuck!” I roar, leaning up against the outside of the cage as my stepbrother pours water over my shirt and presses it against my ribs in the absence of an icepack.
“You think they’re broken?” he asks, holding the bottle up for me to drink.
I shake my head and growl. “I don’t fucking know. Fuck!”
Pain radiates through my side, increasing with every movement of my left arm.
“Can you fight? There’s one more to go, bro. One more and you’ve won.”
I take a deep breath, and all I manage to do is grunt in response. Even my head is hurting right now. I’m so fucking sore and hot.
“Shit,” Jason says, quickly looking around as if there’s going to be some magic solution in the crowd. “Hey,” he calls to someone, stepping away and returning with a glass bottle half-full of dark liquid that he presses into my hands. “Drink it. It’ll dull the pain. One more fight, Zac. One more fucking fight. You can do this.”
Nodding, I close my eyes and tip the bottle back, drinking it like water and forcing my throat to let the liquid pass when it starts to burn. I press it back into Jason’s hands, almost thumping him in the chest as I shake my head, the alcohol hitting me way faster than I thought it would. Its heat creeps through my veins and dulls my senses.
“Good to go?”
“It’ll have to fucking do,” I say, turning around to face the cage. I take a breath and release it slowly, waiting for them to call my name. I have to go in there and win this. I have to go home with that money. I don’t have any fucking choice.
PART ONE
‘Cure for an obsession: get another one.’
Mason Cooley
One
Evie
“Where are you going?” my sister, Rose, whispers as I slip a shirt over my head, pull on a short denim skirt and put on my skate shoes.
“I’m going out.” I move over to the mirror and twist my dark curly hair into a high pony tail. I change my mind and pull it out, letting it fall down to my shoulders in messy waves.
“Are you going on a date? Do mum and dad know?”
“No, and no. And there’s no need for you to tell them anything. I’m eighteen now. Legally, I don’t have to ask.”
“I’m not going to lie for you. If they ask…”
“If they ask, tell them I went out. It’s the truth because I’m not telling you where I’m going.”
“Evie.”
“What is it, Rose?”
“Don’t get caught.”
Smiling, I move over to the window of our room and slide it open, popping off the screen before I climb out of it and land softly on the ranch style balcony that extends around the perimeter of our house. I creep along the wood, making sure to step in the quietest spots, before I jump over the edge and make a run for the street where my friends, Lucas and Sisley, are waiting in Lucas’ car.
“You did it!” Sisley exclaims in a harsh whisper while quietly clapping her hands as Lucas pulls away from the side of the road. We’re on our way. I can’t wait.
***
“Mate, if you bring those two in here, you’re the one responsible for them. Got it?” the big guy says, eyeing Sisley and me dubiously from where we sit in the back.
We’ve been stopped at the gates of a large property in Londonderry, which is about an hour and a half west of Sydney. It belongs to some guy who went to our school years ago – like, back when our parents were kids. No one seems to have met him, but he throws these epic parties here on most weekends, charging a small fee for each car to gain entry. I think he says the charge is for parking, because otherwise, the cops would bust him for operating as a club without the right permits. I don’t know how it works, but it does.
“Honestly, dude, I think these two are more likely to be looking after me,” jokes Lucas, who is a bit of a Chad Michael Murray look-a-like. When he smiles, his blue eyes disappear into his happiness. Lucas, Sisley and I, met through my family’s Aikido gym when we were about twelve. They were sent to my grandfather for self-defence classes and have been there ever since. The gym has undergone a lot of changes over the years. But we’ve all remained, training in every martial art the gym now offers, and spending a lot of time trying to combine moves and styles for fun.
“Just keep an eye on them,” the big guy insists as he takes our money and waves us through the paddock gate.
The car bumps up and down over the uneven terrain and we park at the end of an enormous row of cars. I’d say a few hundred of them are already here, which bodes well in my opinion. Perhaps the rumours are true…
“What do you think?” Sisley asks, pulling her long, bright orange dyed ponytail over her shoulder as her dark almond shaped eyes, typical of her Chinese heritage, scan the mass of people all walking in the same direction. In the distance, we can hear the banging and crashing of a local garage band set up under a marquee, as well as some hooting and hollering from crowd members.
Leaning forward, I peer through her window and watch for a moment before I answer. “I don’t know. It could just be a party. But it’s worth checking out.”
“Parties can be fun too, ladies. It doesn’t have to be about fighting all the time.”
Sisley presses her pink rosebud lips together to create a flat line as she lifts her brow. “When you’re as obsessed with Ultimate Fighter as we are, a party in place of an illegal fighting ring just isn’t going to cut it,” she says, to which I nod in agreement.
“Why don’t you two just get into UFC or MMA or something? You’d get to watch plenty of fights that way,” he adds as we all get out of the car.
“Lucas, you’ve met my dad – do you really think he’d let me do that kind of thing? The only reason I’m even here tonight is because I snuck out.”
“He seriously thinks you go to bed at nine o’clock on a Friday night when you’re eighteen and could be out drinking?”
I shrug. “He trusts me.”
Lucas shakes his spikey blond head. “Shit, Evie, if he finds out…”
“He won’t find out, ok? Are you going to tell him?”
“Of course not. It’s just that if Damien Rhodes was my father, I sure as hell wouldn’t be lying to him about where I’m going to be. Your dad is one scary dude.”
“He’s not scary. He’s just…”
“Overprotective,” Sisley finishes for me as she walks in between Lucas and me. I can see him clearly over her head as I’ve inherited my parent’s height. I stand at six-foot-one while Sisley is only five-foot-three.
“Yeah. He’s overprotective,” I agree. “He’s not scary. He’s just intense because he doesn’t want any of us getting hurt.”
“Well, you come with a warning. You know that, right?”
“Of course I know that. I’m a fucking social pariah. No one wants to risk hanging out with the girl whose dad went to prison for destroying a bar. You heard all the rumours about those boys – and dad doesn’t even know what I used to get up to, let alone who any of them are.”
Sisley nods. “And the fact he runs a tattoo studio doesn’t help your case much either. But people suck and we know better, right?” She nudges me with her right elbow and I nod, walking along in silence as my thoughts continue in my head.
My family is a loving one. We have our ups and downs and perhaps we’re a little unconventional with five kids who are provided for by the income from tattoos and a martial arts gym—and yes, my father was once in prison. But he’s been out for fifteen years and has continued to get help for his bipolar disorder. It isn’t always easy living with him, but his treatment is carefully monitored so he isn’t a danger to anyone. Unless, of course, they do something to harm the people he loves, and then there’s no holding him back.
I admit that, to many, he does seem pretty scary. He’s big and muscular, and his arms are covered in tatts. But that doesn’t change his wonderful heart. I mean, the man is strict, yes, but I have no doubt in my mind that he loves all of
us unconditionally and would do anything for us. He’s simply fierce in his love for all of us, which, when you have a background like his, is understandable.
You see, he lost his family at a young age and that sent him spiralling into a pit of darkness. It’s my mother who saved him. She gave him a reason to become the man he is today. I remember thinking it was gross how much they seem to love each other compared to other people’s parents. They’ve always hugged, held hands and kissed openly. But as I’ve gotten older, I’ve come to view their relationship as this epic love story that I can only hope to have for myself one day — I just don’t expect to meet the man of my dreams any time soon, especially not while I’m still living under my parent’s roof and at a high school filled with people who love a good rumour more than they love the truth.
Once word got out about my family history, I began to attract boys. But they were the ones who wanted a ‘bad girl’ to suck their cock behind the school hall or let them do whatever the heck they wanted so they could say they weren’t a virgin anymore. I’m ashamed to say that I got a little caught up in all of the attention. I took their interest to mean that I was desirable – even popular. It wasn’t until I realised that the whole school was talking about me because the boys were blabbing about the things we did. Eventually, one of them came to school with a broken nose and everyone thought my dad did it, despite the fact that he said a bunch of guys rolled him for his wallet. That was when I became a pariah. No one would talk to me except Lucas and Sisley. In a way, it was a good thing because I realised who my friends were and decided to put a blanket ban on ever dating anyone from school again and left it at that.
I glance over as Lucas slides his arm protectively around Sisley shoulders. I’ve recently become the third wheel in their emerging relationship, as they finally admitted their feelings toward each other a few months ago.
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