Breaking Beast (Pounding Hearts 4)

I know I’m confidant, but shit… now…

Fuck.

We stop in front of the group and Chase waves us all into his office. There are multiple chairs inside and a very small desk in one corner. Chase hates the typical looking office, and I have never seen him sit behind that desk once.

Everyone takes a seat and then we all look to each other, waiting for the other to start.

“So, what’s going on?” I ask.

Fuck the whole whoever speaks first loses. I want whatever they have to say on the table right now.

“How long has this been going on?” Dale asks.

“Since she needed a place to stay. It was the night before I pulled her over to you about the flyer.”

Nodding his head, he looks over to Chase, who asks Christy, “What happened in the cage tonight?”

Looking over, I watch Christy go pale. “What do you mean?”

“When you were in the cage with Mark, what happened?”

She looks down to her lap and then back up as if steeling herself. “He kept putting his hands all over my breasts.”

Dale’s voice goes cold when he asks, “Was he just trying to get you in a hold?”

I’m about to lose my shit at him when he pushes further. “Was he taking advantage of the blind spots, Christy? Was he groping you?”

Nodding her head, she stiffens and says too calmly, “Yeah, he was taking advantage of me and the fact you couldn’t see it.”

“God dammit! I’m going to fucking kill him!” Dale explodes as he shoots out of his chair.

Chase sits back like someone struck him. “That pile of shit…”

Avery is out of her chair in an instant, quickly running over to Christy.

I stand up as well since I have no clue what else to do. I want to put Mark through more pain but I know I am already pressing my luck with it. If I find Mark it wouldn’t just be simple assault… I would be looking at a murder rap.

Christy isn’t breaking down yet in Avery’s arms, but I can see she is holding back a tremendous weight inside of her.

Pulling Christy with her, Avery walks to the door and says, “Christy and I are going to my office for a bit.”

I’m tempted to follow but I doubt that I’d be wanted around right now.

“That’s why you were trying to put the little bitch through the lockers?” Chase asks.

I nod my head. “Yeah, I heard him bragging to the other two guys about what he did and planned to do to her. I can’t lie, I wasn’t rational when I started hurting him… I did make sure he hit me first though, if that makes a difference.”

Chase let’s out a dark bark of laughter. “It does help. Now, I need to get his ass in here for a man to boy talk.”

Lifting my eyebrow at him, he shakes his head, reading my mind apparently. “No, I won’t let him stay with the gym. He’s going to be booted. I will also make sure every contact I have knows what type of person he is. He won’t be able to get into a reputable gym again.

“Good, because if I see him again I will murder him.” Dale says quietly. “No one fucks with my girl and gets away with it.”

Sitting back down in my chair, I say, “So… Where does that leave Christy? She still needs a place to train for her upcoming fight. Dale, you’re the best trainer out there.”

“Like I said, she wasn’t kicked out of here. I just wanted you guys gone so I could get order back in place. Mark was saying some pretty bad shit about what he was going to have the cops do to you.”

I shrug my shoulders. “I can afford better lawyers than he could ever dream of, and with what happened to Christy I can plead temporary insanity.”

Clearing his throat, Dale looks from me to Chase before asking, “Speaking of which...”

“We haven’t done anything like what you guys are imagining, at least not yet. She needed a place to stay and I have so much extra space in the house I figured she could have a room. She’s Muffin’s babysitter now.”

Chase raises his eyebrow. “Muffin?”

“You know…” Dale laughs. “That big, black, hound of hell he has.”

Chase nods his head and sighs. “I just don’t like the idea one of my students… moving in with one of the fighters from here. It could really affect her reputation, or her head and shit.”

Shrugging my shoulders, I can see where he is coming from, but I’m not changing how things are.

Chapter Seventeen

Christy

Tonight has been too much. I haven’t felt this humiliated or ashamed since Travis attacked me in the shower. And being pushed to explain to Chase, Dale, Alex, and Avery what happened in the cage with Mark nearly broke me.