Page 58 of Forgotten Comeback (Parisi Family #5)
Chapter
Fifty-Seven
Gavin
“The locker rooms are still under construction, so my asshole can rest easy for now,” I say, giving Taylor the grand tour of my new boxing club. “What do you think?”
“That your asshole needs to stop being such a pussy, and that I love the new club.”
A smirk plays on my lips, even though she’s probably right. “I’m thirty-four. Ancient in boxing years.”
She pats my cheek. “I love helping the elderly.”
I chuckle, holding open the ropes, and her luscious ass climbs through. Joining her, I explain, “What I was going to say is that win or lose, this is my last go in organized boxing.”
“But you love boxing,” she protests.
“I do, but it’s time for me to hang up the gloves. It’s bare-knuckles boxing, but you get my point. Figure I’ll run this club when I retire; maybe help a kid who needs an outlet for their own shit.”
“Gavin, I love that,” she says, wrapping her arms around me in a warm hug. “What will you call your club?”
“The Spider’s Boxing Club. Original, I know.”
She cradles my cheeks. “It’s perfect.”
I grin. “Maybe you can help me with the logo.”
“I’d love to!”
“And if you decide to retire the ring girl bikini, maybe you could help me run things around here a couple of days a week,” I test.
“What extortion material will you use to get me to do the job?” she teases.
“Not extortion. More persuasion…with your favorite body part of mine.” I wag my eyebrows.
She drops her hands, giving me a look. “Your favorite body part of yours.”
“Enough talk, you wanted to blow me in the ring, remember?”
Arms crossed, she stares me down. “I don’t recall the conversation going down like that.”
I nod. “Yes, you’re going down. On me. Isn’t that what we agreed?”
Fire in her eyes, she shifts into fighting stance, and I fucking love it.
Her phone rings, and she apologizes. “Give me a sec.” She grabs her purse from the stool on the ring’s canvas and fishes out her phone. “Hello?”
There’s a pause, her expression falling.
“But I’ve been paying off the debt. A large chunk of it recently—”
Pause.
“You can’t do that.”
I hustle over, snatching the phone from her. “Who is this?”
“This is Jared from the collection agency,” a guy says with attitude. “Who is this?”
“I’m the boyfriend.”
“Well, boyfriend, your girlfriend is a thief if she’s not going to pay back the debt she voluntarily incurred, and I’ve been authorized to begin legal proceedings against her.”
“Tell you what. I’ll drop by to pay in full. If you can meet outside your building in thirty minutes, we’ll get this sorted.”
He gives the address, and I end the call.
“That was a new collections agent assigned to my case. He said he’s going to take me to court and get a lien against my studio.” Tears well in her eyes.
“Taylor, I’m gonna go handle it. Why don’t you put in a solo workout session, and I’ll be back.”
Her eyes pin me to the mat. “Are you going to beat his ass?”
I rub the top of my head. “Yeah.”
She lifts her chin. “I’m coming with you.”
Taylor
Using my chopsticks, I feed Gavin a sushi roll. “Thanks for the master class in bare-knuckles boxing.” A debt collector got his ass beat, and I got a written acknowledgement of my debt negotiated to one dollar and paid in full.
A smirk stretches across his face. “If it gets you to feed me, any time.”
He’s icing his knuckles, and I lean closer to him in the booth, pressing my lips to his before feeding him another bite.
After dinner, we stroll down the boardwalk with his arm draped over me, my fingers laced with his. “You wanna ride the coaster?” Gavin notices me eyeing it.
“Not tonight.” Maybe sweet is the word to describe this man, because I think deep down, he hates roller coasters.
We pause for sunset, with him wrapping his arms around me, and me leaning back against his muscular chest. If someone had told me that I’d fall head over heels in love with Gavin Webb, I’d have called them the c word.
I tilt my head.
He smiles down at me, and I smile up at him.
It’s perfect…until a familiar voice cuts through the night air like nails on a chalkboard.
“Gavin, there you are. I’ve been trying to contact you—”
“It’s not about your car’s extended warranty,” I cut Mia off.
Gavin’s chest vibrates with laughter. See, he gets it.
“I cannot believe you are dumb enough to still be with this man,” Mia tells me with a huff.
“Mia, what do you want?” I bristle.
“Not you,” she says with a smirk. “Gavin doesn’t want you, either. It’s really pathetic, Taylor, that you’re still letting this man play you.”
Gavin grips me tighter, probably so I don’t test out bare-knuckle boxing.
“Go away, Mia,” Gavin says in a bored tone.
“Sure that’s what you want?” she challenges. “I’ll go to the cops.”
“And say what?” I interject. “That your cousin was involved with the Parisi family, and now he’s missing? Good luck with that,” I drawl.
“Let’s go.” Gavin takes my hand as we walk away, but Mia can’t take a damn hint, trailing along after us.
We’ve almost reached the car when she calls, “You’re right: I can’t say that to the cops. But what I can say is there’s an illegal boxing ring and a crazy ring girl.”
I spin around, ready to throw hands, except Mia’s got a gun in hers.
She’s pointing it shakily at Gavin.
Time slows.
A loud bang.
“No!” I shove in front of Gavin, and it feels like my arm’s been punched.
Did that bitch really punch me?
As I’m knocked back, I glance down to the crimson gushing from my left arm, and it’s then that I realize, oh, that wasn’t a fist that hit me.
It was a bullet.
“I didn’t mean to,” Mia cries.
“You’re fucking dead!” Gavin bellows.
And then I can’t hear anything else over the ringing in my ears.