“I don’t want to talk about it right now.” He stole his attention from me and peered out the window, his tone resolute.
Close to a half hour later, Elton pulled up in front of what looked like a large office building. The left side of it was glass, while the right side was concrete. Throngs of people stood outside, and I had no doubt they waited for a glimpse of the man beside me.
“Maybe we should pull around back,” Elton said, tapping his hands against the steering wheel. “What do you think, Jax?”
Jackson leaned over me and looked out my window. “There’s not that many people out there. We’re good. Let’s just go.”
“Not that many? There’s like a hundred people out there,” I retorted.
“Yeah, like I said, not that many. Listen, stay by my side. Once I go up to the table, you’ll stay by Lance.”
“Okay,” I replied, unsure of what to expect, as this was all new to me.
“And you can stay with me, Abby, until it starts. Then you can go with your sister and Lance.”
Jackson reached forward and tapped Trevor’s arm. He turned in his seat, and while the man next to me frowned, his friend shrugged. The interaction happened so fast that if I wasn’t paying attention, I would’ve missed it. I didn’t entirely understand what they were silently saying to each other, but I believed it to be some sort of warning from Jackson.
“Everybody ready?” Lance asked, opening his door. “Here we go.”
Elton handed his keys to a valet, and we all gathered on the sidewalk. Jackson grasped my hand, but his attention wasn’t on me. It was on the crowd. Once they’d seen who’d stepped out of the SUV, they swarmed us, shouting his name, flashing camera lights momentarily blinding me. He tightened his hand around mine and navigated toward the doors. But once inside, even more people rushed toward us. Luckily, security appeared and formed a perimeter around our group, keeping the crowd at bay.
I searched for Abby, suddenly becoming overwhelmed. She saw the panic on my face and hooked her arm in mine. “This is wild, don’t you think?” she asked, trying to divert my attention.
“It’s a lot,” I answered, reminding myself to breathe.
“Jackson, this way,” Elton shouted, pointing toward a set of double doors. We were ushered inside, and while there was a mass of people inside, it was calmer than it was moments ago.
A long table sat on top of a platform at the front of the room. Multiple cameras were set up in front, and there was a flurry of activity around every section of the space.
“Is it always like this?” I asked, hoping Jackson heard me over the noise.
“Not as bad, but this fight….” He exhaled before continuing. “People are looking forward to this fight more than ever.”
“Why?”
Jackson veered away from the rest of his team and pulled me toward the corner of the room. “Listen, Sophie, there’s something I should’ve told you before, but I didn’t want—”
“Jax, let’s go,” Trevor shouted, interrupting our conversation and ushering him toward the front of the room, leaving me more confused than ever.
Before they had a chance to step onto the platform, several women rushed forward, grabbing at Jackson and shouting howthey loved him. One of the women specifically looked familiar, and as I tried to place her, I couldn’t help but judge her based solely on her outfit. A scrap of black material she called a dress covered barely any part of her. If she bent over, she’d not only fall out of her top, but she’d show everyone what was underneath.
“Who is that bitch fawning all over Jackson?” Abby asked, her irritation at the display fueling mine.
“I don’t know, but she looks familiar.” I barely got the words out when I suddenly remembered where I saw her. She was the blonde woman who came to the gym to have sex with Jackson that first day I was there, when he mistook me for someone else.That’s a polite way of putting it.
A surge of jealousy echoed through me. I was suddenly very warm, and my heart beat faster with every second she groped him. He didn’t seem to placate to her, but he wasn’t trying to get away from her either.
“Don’t pay attention to that shit,” Lance said. “It’s all part of it.”
“They shouldn’t be allowed to hang on him like that,” Abby retorted, and I completely agreed, although my shock at the spectacle held my tongue captive.
After Jackson, Elton, and Trevor eventually took their seats, a deafening eruption of noise pulled everyone’s attention toward the back of the room. I turned to see what had caused the commotion as several men walked toward the center of the large space. I barely got a glimpse before three of them walked up onto the platform and filled up the other seats.
Elton sat in the middle, between Jackson and a dark-haired man who I assumed to be the other fighter. He appeared slightly younger, sporting a clean-shaven face. There was something familiar about him, but I was confident I’d never seen him before.
“Who isthatguy?” Abby asked, the inflection in her tone telling me she thought he was attractive.
“I guess the other fighter.”
