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His gaze slices through me, but who I want to come with me is the least of my worries. “If he’ll come.”
Brawler swallows. “Does he know any of this?”
“Are you kidding? He’s in the Crew.”
“Who else knows?”
“Just us.”
“And the people on the other end of your cell phone?”
“My aunt and uncle,” I say, sticking my chin in the air. “They have no idea what I’m doing, and it’s going to stay that way. They took me in after my parents died.”
Brawler does a few laps around the room. Every once in a while, he glances over at me. He’s not mad, per se, but it’s evident he’s having some sort of war with himself. “You’re so fucking stubborn,” he says finally.
I shrug. Not the first time and not the last time I’ll hear those words directed at me.
He moves in front of me. “I’m in,” he says. “On everything. I’ll keep your secret. I’ll help you stay. I’ll even pull the goddamn trigger.”
“No. That’s me.” Once again, I get a quick hit of satisfaction by imagining Big Daddy K’s brains being splattered all over the place. Vengeance will be mine and mine only. “It’s important that I do it.”
Brawler threads his fingers through my hair and then pulls me to his chest again. “Our relationship just got a whole lot crazier.”
I smile into his chest. It isn’t often that Brawler jokes. Why he chose this specific time, I’m not sure.
He kisses the top of my head. “I mean it, Kyla. I’m in. I get it. You can trust me with anything.”
Guilt bubbles up. “My name’s not really Kyla.”
His lips curve against my scalp. “Of course, it’s not.”
“But I like Kyla better,” I say quickly. Half my mom and half my dad. It reminds me every day of what I’m doing here.
He pulls away, trailing his finger over my bottom lip. “It suits you.”
He hasn’t even heard the reason behind my name yet. He will. I angle my face upward and slide my hands around Brawler’s neck to pull him to me, sealing this moment of breaking down barriers between us with a kiss.
He knows who I am. He knows why I’m here. Right now, he knows me better than anyone.
14
Now that Brawler knows everything about me, it’s harder to pretend. At the gym, I keep sneaking glances at him. Jax even catches me on the chin for it. He pulled it at the last minute so it didn’t hurt as much as it could have, but still. I’m a wreck today.
“Where’s your focus, Kyla?” Jax asks, irritation lacing his voice. “Aren’t you fighting this weekend?”
I grit my teeth. I am fighting this weekend, thank fuck. It gives me something else to focus on instead of my real-fake boyfriend, the gangster’s son, and my fake-real boyfriends, the fighter and the quarterback.
Whoa. Did I just think of them as all my boyfriends? Jax must’ve hit me harder than I thought.
Jax’s glove brushes my forehead. “Come on. I don’t have time to waste on someone whose head isn’t in the game. Let’s go.” He punches his gloves together in front of him and bounces on his toes.
Heat creeps up my cheeks while Finn looks over warily, raising an eyebrow at his brother. Sure, Johnny paid enough to get us private lessons, so there’s actually no one else in the gym while we’re here, but Jax is right. I’m out of focus. Distracted. Stressed. Did I mention fucking horny? All revved up with nowhere to put it. That’s what happens when you have three boyfriends and two of them you can’t touch in public, and the other, you literally can’t touch because his dad’s an overbearing asshat, not to mention a douchebag murderer.
Jax throws another punch at me, and this time, I dodge out of the way just in time. He grins, his neon green mouthpiece peeking through his parted lips. “That’s it. Come on.”
We circle one another. I get in a few good jabs, making sure to get in and get out. Jax has longer arms than me. I can’t stay in his zone or he’ll take me out fast. I have to get in where I can get him, then pop right back out before he has a chance to retaliate. It’s like a fun game where the reward is not getting hit and the punishment is getting knocked upside the head.
Sweat trickles between my breasts. The headgear is almost suffocating, perspiration dampening the shorter hairs at my neck. I flex my fingers inside the gloves as I look for another opening. I’m fighting a girl this weekend. I haven’t heard much about her other than that she’s above Cherry in the female pecking order. To be honest, and this will sound fucking cocky as shit, but I’m not worried. I haven’t had much time to think about my last fight because of what happened afterward, but I beat Evan. That was the most nervous I’ve ever been before a fight, and I won.