I nod my head. “Sounds like a plan. I want to forget this fucking week.”It’s only Wednesday.
I jog down the narrow passage. Kingdom is always hosting fights. Some are televised and a big deal, but tonight is amateur night. Which sucks for my opponent because I do this all the time.
I come to a stop, remove my black silk robe, and the ref pats me down, making sure I’m not hiding anything that can hurt my opponent. Once he nods, giving the all-clear, I enter the ring and throw up my hands, bouncing around in a circle.
I spot my brother at the top of the stairs. He stands there with his eyes narrowed and arms crossed over his chest. I ignore him. We haven’t spoken one word since we identified our father’s body in Rio. He didn’t even fight with me about cremating his body and tossing his ashes.
My eyes find Cross, and he’s nodding his head at me, trying to get me wound up. Letting me know I got this. Not surprising, Titan is nowhere to be found. Emilee and her best friend Jasmine have been ring card girls in the past, but they are both MIA tonight while other women fill in for them.
“Give it up for the one, the only… GRAVE!” The announcer’s voice booms out my name, and the crowd erupts. Everyone is on their feet, shouting my name. I grin at them, soaking it up.
“And in the opposite corner, we have a newcomer who thinks he can take on Grave.”
People boo, and I smile wider.Bring it.I love virgins. Well, the ones I get to beat the shit out of anyway.
“It’s his debut—welcome, Marker!”
I spin around to see a kid bouncing his way down his aisle. He has a white zip-up hoodie on that’s covering half of his face. I snort.Kids.
He gets checked and then ushered into the ring. With a dramatic tug, he pushes the hoodie back and turns around. His hands drop to his side, and his blue eyes widen on me.
Fuck!
APRIL
I sit inthe silent living room with a plate of untouched lasagna on the coffee table in front of me. I couldn’t eat. The more I think about it, Derek’s words aren’t sitting well with me.
It’s now past three a.m., and Ethan still hasn’t come home. Calls to his cell have gone unanswered, along with my text messages going unseen.
I wrap the blanket around me, and lean my head back, yawning. I’m so tired. I need to be up at six to open the shop by seven. He acts like we both wanted this life. Like I didn’t give up college or a life for him. I didn’t have a choice. I did everything I could to make sure he had one, and he still resents me. I don’t think anything I could have done would have been right.
I hear a car pull up outside, and I jump to my feet to look out the window. Ethan exits the passenger door of an old Saturn and walks up the path to the stairs. My anger flares as I see he’s looking down at his phone. That ungrateful son of a…
The front door opens, and he leaves the lights off as he starts to walk up the stairs.
I flip them on. “Where the hell have you been?” I demand.
He stops mid-step but keeps his back to me. “Out.”
“No shit,” I snap. “Where the hell were you, Ethan?”
“None of your business,” he snaps back and resumes his trek up the steps.
I move and yank him around to face me, almost making him fall down the stairs. When our eyes meet, mine widen. “What the hell happened to you?”
He has a blue and purple bruise around his swollen right eye. Dried blood marks his chin and neck, and he has a cut on his bottom lip. “Jesus. What did you do?”
His mouth clamps shut, and he looks away from me.
I dig into the pocket of my robe. “Did you get those injuries here?” I hold up the key card, even though I’m not sure what a room key would have to do with bruises. Maybe he got into a fight with some kids. That happens at parties. And I wouldn’t be all that surprised because he’s a mouthy fucker.
His eyes widen at the sight of the key card, and he reaches for it, but I pull it away. “Did he give you that?”
“What? Who?”What is he talking about?“I found this in the office. It must have fallen out of your pocket.”
His shoulders slump, and he runs his hands through his shaggy hair. “Keep it,” he says before he gives me his back and walks up the steps. Moments later, his door slams.
NINE
