Tunda’s is an old school gym. Set up for training and testing your skills. A row of worn-out punching bags hang in the corner, there’s a painted-out area of concrete for cardio, another zone for grappling with a partner but it’s the huge cage that consumes most of the space.
No matter the time, the place always has a couple of people working out or fighting. Since the bags are being used, I head over to the cardio, drop my towel, and start on a punishing round of sit ups and burpees. Before I’ve finished my first set Steel takes position next to me.
“Mav,” he calls out, and without turning I can hear the apology he’s rehearsed on his way over. It’s pretty much always the same. ‘I wish things were different/I need you/I can’t risk anyone finding out/Can we hook up later?
Yep, I’m having an illicit affair with my best friend. Some days I got no beef living the lie we do because God knows our affair is more than physical but sometimes the burden of being his dirty secret cuts deep. Today is one of those days.
“Leave it. It’s not like I don’t know the deal.” I smile up at him, and as soon as he sits, I lean over into his space. “Just don’t stare at my cock like you need it to live or something, yeah?” Slapping his back, I hop up to my feet and grab us both a jump rope. If I can’t make him sweat sexually, I’m going to make him pay in here. Which is not the first time it’s happened and if hisroutine goes like it usually does, we’ll be pulling off into some dark park and fucking.
Waiting until we’re both covered in a light sheen, I turn to him as he’s finishing up his rope session. “I’ve signed up to do a fight.”
“What the fuck for?” He stops mid stride, an angry snarl pulling his top lip up, making his face twist.
“You said it yourself, Harley needs the money. If I place in the top three the prize pool is enough to get her set up for a couple of months, and also puts money in our emergency fund.”
“You don’t have to, Mav.”
“Yeah, I do, Steel. With the money from today we get closer to going. Tyson doesn’t need the distraction, let him focus on finishing and I can do this to fill the purse in the meantime.” My statement stops his argument before he even closes his mouth. I have to take a breath to calm down before I go on. I’d like to hold his hand but that ain’t gonna happen here. Instead, I hold his gaze and talk real slow so he can’t miss a word I say. “I’ve decided all this bullshit with Rex and the club has an end date. If you need to hang for whatever reason, then you need to hang, but I can’t anymore. Tyson agrees with me though, Steel. Once he’s done this rotation he’s out too.”
The way Steel looks at me is always the same—more than physical, really. His steely eyes nearly crumble my resolve; the grey today is like muted charcoal edging more towards his melancholy and moody side, and they darken angrily the instant he sees my determination. He gets defensive as a result. “You’d leave?” He scoffs, and it’s an ugly sound.
“Ask the question you want the answer to, Steel. Don’t fucking turn to water on me now.” I snatch the rope from his hand and lead us over to the grapple zone, bypassing the bags. No shit, I’d rather punch him than a bag any day. His suddensubmissiveness has me cracking my neck in readiness to beat the shit out of him.
The light perspiration on his skin, and the lack of air in Tunda’s means his butterscotch scent is warm, almost gooey. Just how I like it and he knows what it does to me. Wiping a hand over my face, I grab bottles for the both of us and peg one at him while I purposely tip water over my head to dilute his scent. It never works though.
He waits until my eyes are shut before he shoves me in the chest to get my attention. “You’d really leave me?”
“Don’t want to, but…”
“Then don’t,” he insists.
“Steel, it’s getting old, this same shit different day routine we’ve been living. Today Rex is dangling your sister over your head, last week it was your Mom, the week before that he was going to break Tyson’s hands. You see the pattern?”
His jaw locks tight, letting me know I’ve hit a nerve but what I’m telling him is nothing but the truth.
“Every time he wants something from you, I help you do it and then he raises the stakes the second you tell him you did good. Every day he’s getting cockier, more manipulative. Someone is going to die, and I don’t want to stick around to watch someone I care about suffer. So, no, I don’t want to leave you, but I want off this trainwreck. Don’t get me wrong, you want to come with me in any context—as a friend, a pack mate, or to be with me—then I’m all for it. I’ll do everything and anything to get your mom and sister out, but this loop we’re stuck on has to stop.”
He shakes his head. “You don’t know what it’s like for me and Tyson.”
“Yeah, I do. I know first-hand because I have to watch you both. I might not be in as deep as you, but he drags me into the same thing you’re caught up in.”
“It’s my fucking family,” he growls, taking a step closer.
I’m only slightly taller than him, but I don’t want to loom over Steel unless he’s under me, but at the same time, I won’t be intimidated by him. Taking a step away gives me the chance to see the cage is free.
“Rex ain’t your family, Steel. Neither is this club. Tyson and I are, so are Harley and Sallyanne but no one else,” I say, climbing up the stairs. And like always as soon as I put both feet on the padded floor a sense of calm washes over me. Fighting quietens the noise in my head. All the conflict and doubt gets silenced when a part of me that is colder and calculated comes out to play.
Steel doesn’t even get a foot in before we both hear the unmistakable rumble of bikes coming down the street. Not knowing what’s coming, we both get out of the confined space and start walking towards the door.
This is the bullshit I hate, always waiting for trouble to find us.
Rex’s enforcer Bash walks in first, his beady eyes constantly moving. Cog is next, he’s like Bash in the hierarchy of the club. As an Alpha he’s bulkier but not as smart.
Then Rex walks in and like usual he makes all the hair on the back of my neck stand up in warning.
As an Alpha he has got the tell-tale signs of being one of the strongest Alphas. Except he’s lacking some pretty important qualities needed. None of the respect that is shown to Rex has been earned, instead he has loyal followers who are as skilled at intimidation and coercion as he is, which is how he maintains his position as Alpha of his pack and president of the Death Riders.
Like usual, he doesn’t give a shit about anyone or anything, so walking into Tunda’s smoking doesn’t surprise me in theleast. He saunters past the person working the front desk, acting like he owns the place.
