“It’s like you read my mind,” he said with an attempt at a grin. If it didn’t quite come off, Bear didn’t call him on it.
“It’ll give you something to do before I wipe the floor with you later.”
“In your dreams, asshole.” And this time, his grin was real. He knew how to do this. It was how he’d lived every day before Dave—laughing it off, throwing the first punch, and making sure no one ever saw how deep the bruises really went.
Christian dodged the friendly punch Bear threw his way and followed him.
DAVE
The summer sun sparkled on the ocean. It was so bright that Dave had to screw his eyes up to see Seb and Brody riding the face of the wave, flying free right up until they got dumped. He watched them surface, Seb laughing and flinging his long hair back, dazzling drops caught by the sun to form a rainbow around him as Brody grinned, bright and reckless.
Long summer days out on the ocean had them all feeling invincible—no one could best them except the occasional wave, and that was all part of the game. Dave had never truly known what it was to be happy until now, when he spent the days on his board and the nights sharing Seb and Brody’s bed. Others came and went from the old caretaker’s cottage they’d stumbled on, behind an empty holiday home. Anyone was welcome, so long as they saw life the same way and didn’t want trouble.
Dave was the only one who stayed longer than a couple of weeks. He took some shifts at the surf shop on the beachfront when he needed a little cash, and he thought that this was how life would always be. He stayed there the whole long Californian summer after Morgan had told him he was old enough to make his own way in the world. It had felt like everything he’d ever wanted—freedom, friends, and nights tangled in warmth and laughter.
Seb and Brody were coming out of the water now and he moved to meet them. But the sand beneath his feet seemed to be turning to quicksand. Every step became harder and heavier, until they were moving away. He called after them, but they didn’t hear him. He was held, fixed in place as they disappeared into the distance.
He came to with a jolt and realized he’d been dreaming. He hadn’t thought of that summer for so long, of how perfect those long months of sun and surf had been, and how he hadn’t seen the end coming. He hadn’t realized that once summer died, the friends he’d found would melt away like snow. Seb and Brody didn’t even suggest that Dave go with them as they chased the sun down to Mexico. And when Dave had asked if he could come, they’d laughed as if he was joking. He hadn’t asked a second time, and they’d left the next day.
It had taught him—like he’d needed the reminder—that asking for anything pushed people away. His mom had gone first. She’d left him with Morgan “for a few weeks” that turned into forever. Maybe she hadn’t meant to. Maybe she just found something better and didn’t look back.
Morgan hadn’t been cruel, just practical. “You’re an easy kid,” she’d told him once. But maybe he’d asked for too much, in the end.
Damn, his mouth was parched. It must have been a hell of a night last night because his head was pounding like hell. He licked at his lips—cracked and unpleasant—and rolled over, expecting to see Christian there beside him, snoring the way he always did if he’d drunk too much. Instead, he squinted into bright sunlight as rocks dug into his back.
As his eyes began to clear, memory of where he was returned, and he realized there was a snake sunning itself just yards from him.
His strangled gasp sent the snake flowing over the rock away from him until it disappeared into a tiny hole. He wasn’t scared of snakes, exactly, but he’d never woken up right next to one before, and his heart thudded. Hethoughtit had only been a coachwhip but he wasn’t sure, and where there was one, there might be more.
Ignoring the aches in his body, he pushed up, determined to get onto his feet. But his ankle buckled under him, and he crashed back down, crying out as agony flooded through him. It dumped him harder than any wave ever had, until he was lost and rolling in its depths.
Chapter Twenty-three
CHRISTIAN
Christian walked into the vast, echoing building. He was ready for practice, his heart beating faster as his body anticipated what was to come. Tony’s demand caught him unawares.
“You want me to dowhat?” His voice leapt about three octaves.
“Get changed in front of the cameras.” Tony’s voice was clipped, as if he really didn’t have the time for this.
“Changed into what, exactly?” Christian tore his gaze from Tony’s impatient expression and glanced down at what he was wearing—a pair of old jeans, precisely what he planned to fight in. They used mouthguards when fighting, but jeans and no top were the order of the day. Jeans weren’t the most practical to fight in, but they worked.
Tony’s eye twitched. “You’ve got a point,” he admitted. “Okay, so make it look like you’ve stripped out of one outfit and then you put those back on.”
“This really what Barton wants?” Christian demanded.
Tony’s voice was flat and non-negotiable. “Nothing happens here he doesn’t know about.”
Okay, so he wasn’t going to win on appeal. But still… “No one told me this was a damn porn shoot.”
Tony’s eyes hardened. “Thisis a business venture, and we want to capture as much of the audience out there as we can. You’re a good fighter, there’s no doubt about that, but you’re also kinda pretty, or so they tell me. Get the women putting their money on you, the guys they’re with are gonna back your opponent, and we clean up both ends, understand?”
He wished he didn’t, but it made a certain kind of sense. Dave would laugh himself sick when he heard, before telling him to smolder a bit harder for the camera—then he remembered.
“Where do you want me?” It came out as a snarl, like a wounded bear who’d been poked with a stick.
Tony jerked his head over to a corner of the factory floor that had been set up with lockers and benches since last night. Nothing fancy, but with the right camera angles, it could pass for a real locker room. Christian headed over, comforting himself with the thought he’d be able to fight soon—this couldn’t take more than a few minutes.
