Chapter 1
Royal
“Come on, Royal. Fucking swing,” I hear my friend Jeremy yell at me. I reach up, wiping the blood and sweat from my eye before refocusing on what I’m doing. I keep my hands up, ready for his next move.
The asshole in front of me swings, but misses me by a long shot. I take the chance to return the favor. My fist slams into his face, blood spraying from his nose as he wobbles before falling back onto the mat. I take a step back as the ref comes in to check him. He waves his hands signaling the end of the fight, and I raise mine as the crowd cheers.
Jeremy steps into the ring and comes straight toward me, pulling me into a hug.
“Nice fucking hit,” he says as I nod my head and he pulls away. We both turn, jumping out of the ring and walking back toward the dressing rooms.
As soon as I step inside, Mary is there. She isn’t anything special, just someone to occupy my spare time and fuck after a fight.
She comes toward me, licking her lips, and I know what she wants. She reaches for my shorts and pulls them down my legs before sliding to her knees. With my cock in her hand, she wraps her lips around me and sucks me into her mouth.
“I would leave, but I’m not going to,” Jeremy chuckles as he watches the show taking place in front of him. I don’t care if he watches. I wouldn’t even care if he wanted a piece of her. As I said, she isn’t anything special to me.
I grip the back of her hair as she gags on my cock before I let loose and come down her throat. She swallows, and I groan before she pulls back and climbs to her feet, wiping her mouth as she stares at me.
“Are we hanging out tonight?” she asks. I shake my head. This isn’t that kind of party.
“You said last fight, Roy,” she whines as Jeremy laughs.
“And now I’m saying no. Stop being such a clinger.”
“I’m not!”
“You are. You always are, for that matter. You know what this is and what it isn’t,” I remind her. She looks at me, a pissed off glint in her eyes.
“So I’m good enough to suck your cock, and that’s it?” she huffs.
“That’s exactly it. That’s all this is,” I tell her as I grab a towel. I finish kicking off my shorts and walk over to the showers to wash myself off.
The warm water hits my skin, and I sigh. I like fighting. It’s something I’m good at. It’s something I’ve always been good at. You have to fight to survive in my life, and that’s something I learned the hard way.
Now everything in my life is a fucking fight. I have to fight to live, to breathe. I fight to wake up each day and not just lie down and die. But I have something to live for. My sister. And I know she needs me, whether I’m physically there or not. She needs the money I bring in, and that’s the reason I do this.
“You about ready?” Jeremy calls out. I reach up and turn off the water and grab my towel once more. I dry myself and dress againbefore packing up my duffel bag. I heft it over my shoulder, and we head for the door.
“Let’s get that money,” I tell him as we step into Jean’s office. He looks up at me and smiles before passing me an envelope.
“You did good tonight,” he says as I nod my head and grab the envelope.
“Thanks. You got me down for Friday?”
“You don’t think you need some rest?” he asks. I shake my head.
“I’m good. You know I am,” I tell him.
“I just don’t want to see you get burnt out. It happens, Royal.”
“Not to me. I got this,” I remind him as I spin around and head for the door. Once we get outside, I pull out Jeremy’s portion of the cash and pass it to him.
“This is too much,” he argues, trying to pass some back.
“No, it’s not. It’s fair. Take it,” I say as we walk down the street. I stuff the rest of the money into my pocket as we make our way back home.
Home. What a fucking joke that is. We don’t have a home. We live in a shitty ass hotel room that barely has running water and electricity. It’s what we can afford, but it’s better than sleeping in the abandoned building we used to live in.
