Banging Reaper (Pounding Hearts 1)

Just like that, six years of friendship done, ended in this dark stinky hallway with no one else the wiser, and I’m not even mad about it. Ethan turns his back on me. He saunters away as if he’s hot shit and he knows it.

And no, I’m still not mad, not mad one little bit. No, I feel liberated. I feel as if a weight has been lifted. A two hundred pound blonde weight is gone, and I can’t even be upset that he called me a bitch. It’s good to finally see his true colors. It’s good to realize I wasn’t just being paranoid and all my suspicions were justified.

I watch Ethan walk away and all I feel is… freedom.

Chapter Twenty-Four

Chase

“Hello, Chase,” Doctor Miranda says as she walks into the dressing room. She smiles to Dale and he smiles right back. They make a cute couple. When I get Avery back maybe we can double date.

“Doc, how’s it going?” I ask and stand up for her. She's here for the pre-physical. This should be...fun. Yeah, fun.

“Okay, Chase, let’s check you over.”

It's not just her cupping my balls and making me cough that has me uncomfortable, it’s when she starts making me bend and twist to check my range of motion that fucking sucks. It hurts, and to be truthful, it’s all I can do to not let it show.

I smile through it all and give Dale my Reaper grin. He just shakes his head. I may be fooling the Doc, but he knows.

***

I don't see much after I walk out of the dressing room, I don't need to. I keep my eyes focused on a point just past the cameraman who walks backwards in front of me. I am ready, and I am going into battle tonight.

This has been almost ten years in the making.

I walk out into the crowd and see a familiar raven-haired beauty in the front row as I make my way down the long entrance through all the rows and rows of seats. The Arena is sold out tonight, something like thirty thousand seats filled. This is going to be a good night. I jog around the cameraman and make my way over to Avery even with the crowd surrounding her cheering and reaching out for me.

Leaning in, I shout into her ear, “I love you!”

“I love you, too!” She has to scream into my ear to be heard over all the people crowding us. “Ethan sent guys to hurt you yesterday.”

“What?” I yell and pull back to look at her face.

She nods her head and motions me closer, “He tried have you hurt!”

I'm not sure what emotion must be playing across my face but whatever it is Avery shivers as I grin at her. It’s the grin I show every single opponent before a fight. It's the reason I earned my nickname the Reaper. Every time I fight, right when it’s about to start, I get this wide grin. I just can’t fucking help it. Some announcer on the television said I looked like a grim reaper with the smile, and it stuck.

I nod my head and turn back to the cage and see Dale lifting his eyebrow at me. I motion him close as they check over my gloves one last time when I get up to the edge.

Leaning over, I speak in his ear. “Ethan sent those thugs after me.”

His eyes widen as he looks at me then over to Ethan. “Are you fucking serious?” he yells.

Nodding my head, I step back and lean over to our cutman for the fight, James. He smears the jelly over my brow and nods his head at me. I'm good to go.

Dale looks like he has some serious problems, but I shake my head. “Time to go to work.”

Nodding, Dale steps back and walks around the cage to my side. He has a look on his face that does not bode well. It won't be me he talks to the commissioner about though.

None of that matters now.

“Ladies and Gentleman! It's time for the main event of the evening!” the ring announcer screams into the microphone.

His voice fades into the background as I walk to the middle of the ring. Ethan saunters over to where the ref and I stand.

After smacking gloves, we walk back to our sides.

I stare across the cage at Ethan. He's smirking and hopping around his side as he does a bit of flexing towards the crowd. What a fucking douchebag. This isn't wrestling entertainment here, this is MMA, a real sport and I am going to teach him a fucking valuable lesson tonight.