Stryker

All this time I’d thought Coach was oblivious to most of what had happened to me. I shoved the bag out of the way and got in his face. “How long, Coach?”

“Don’t draw attention to us,” Coach hissed. “I’ve known, okay.” He became agitated. “My niece is married to him.”

“What?” I snarled, stunned.

“You heard me. I haven’t done or said anything because I love my niece, and regardless of what Declan has done in the past, he really does love her.”

I paced back and forth in front of him, not giving a shit who watched. “Does she know what he does? And why hasn’t she helped you?” It felt surreal that Coach would allow his niece to be with Declan or that his niece would allow Coach to live the way he did.

“I doubt very much that she knows a lot of what he does, and I can see the wheels turning. My niece has tried to get me to leave the gym over the years. This is all I know, Stryker. I can’t survive doing anything else, and, I feel that if I spend all my time alone at home that I’d just shrivel up and die. I’m not ready for that yet. I just don’t want Declan’s wrath coming down on me if I go to her and tell her about you and the real situation. I don’t want him major pissed at me for telling Nina…or you.”

“So you’ll just let them carry on doing this until someone else puts a stop to it.”

Coach stepped back as he looked over my shoulder, his eyes wide before he masked his surprise.

“Well,” Lethal Black gloated.

I clenched my jaw and turned to face my opponent.

“If it isn’t Stryker and his Coach having a mother’s meeting,” he continued. “I always knew you needed a wet nurse.”

Asshole.

I threw my head back and laughed. Coach gave me a strange look while Lethal Black grew angry because I hadn’t reacted how he probably wanted.

“Nice try.” I laughed and walked away.

He let me go, but only because his coach stepped in front of him, and shook his head.

Since I turned eighteen and started to fight for them, I’d never let my opponents antagonize me into a before fight confrontation. I was good at walking away from them, probably because I didn’t want to be forced to do that shit. I’d wanted to be a fighter for me, and so that my dad would come to watch me. Be proud of me. I never wanted to be owned.

“Stryker, you baffle me sometimes,” Coach mumbled when he fell into step alongside me.

“Why’s that?”

“You’re angry, and always have been. Yet you’ve never fought outside of the ring.”

“As long as they have control, I’m fighting for them. So why waste my time fighting when I don’t have to.”

“That makes sense. I think.”

Grabbing a clean towel, I wrapped it around my neck and moved over to the mats to do some rope work. My head had started to pound with everything running around inside.

Coach shoved the ropes into my hands, and whispered, “Carter’s here, but he’s being watched so he’s staying away from you for now.”

My eyes shot to his.

“Ropes.”

Evie

ALTHOUGH IT WAS ONLY a day since I’d last seen Stryker, I missed him like crazy. I worried about him and Carter as well.

Carter sensed trouble when he’d left Peter’s house last night, and so far today, Millie hadn’t heard anything from him. So we both wondered what was happening.

Millie would be annoyed with me once she realized that I’d snuck out of Peter’s house to meet Patrick especially after I’d promised Carter that I’d stay inside and wouldn’t leave.

I’d promised Peter as well, but he’d had to go into work, and expected to find me at his house when he returned. I felt a small twinge of regret for sneaking out, but I had to know what Patrick wanted to talk to me about. I wished I could have ignored him, but I couldn’t. Or rather I could until he told me it had something to do with Stryker. I’d do anything to protect him.