Page 26

CONAN

“ G et up, fuck face, Declan’s got a surprise for you,” Finn shouts as he tosses a t-shirt at my head.

I groan as I roll over and find him at my door.

“It’s seven in the morning. What could he possibly need this early?”

“You’ll see, little bro. Now get in your training gear, I’ll make you a smoothie.”

“Coffee,” I correct him.

“You need fuel, not caffeine. Doctor’s orders.”

He flips me off and slams the door behind him. The first thing I do is grab my phone and scroll through my notifications.

I’m only looking for one name.

Hers.

And I’m smiling like a maniac when I see it on my screen. A message from 5 A.M.

Trouble

Hi, beastie. I’m just heading into work. Do you need your car back later today, or can I drop it off tomorrow morning when I pick up the Shelby? (I’d really like one more night with her.)

I type out a reply and ignore my raging hard-on for her. I watched her last night on the tracker, doing the same route, over and over. Each time, slightly quicker. She’s certainly making use of the McLaren.

Me

Tomorrow morning works fine. I, too, would like one more night with her. She’s all finished, so I will take her for a spin.

I mean Hallie. I want another night to explore her. Stretching my arms above my head, I kick off my blanket.

“Calm down, boy. You can’t have this one.”

I rub my cock to try and relieve some of the pressure.

The memories of her shaking around me. The way she tasted.

Fuck. I let out a grunt and shove my hand under my boxers.

It’s not just her memory that gets me going, it’s the thought of the future.

What if she was into my kinks?

Her running, scared and turned on, in the woods while I chase her.

Her screaming for me as I bite and scratch her.

Tugging on my dick, I picture throwing her to the ground and ripping off her bra. Her nipples erect and begging to be sucked.

There’s fear in her big eyes as she tries to shuffle away from me.

But she’s soaking wet as I thrust inside her tight cunt.

Squeezing my eyes shut, my thighs clench as I imagine flipping her over on all fours and tugging on her hair.

Using her and claiming her.

But with every thrust, she’s stealing a part of me too.

“Fuck!” I cry out as my cum spills over my hand.

I’m breathing so heavily as I open my eyes, and my phone pings.

Trouble

Okay, it’s a deal. One more night.

I chuckle to myself.

One more night? As if.

“Jesus fucking Christ, Declan,” I whisper over my shoulder.

“What? He’s the same size as you.”

“You didn’t tell me it’s Keller Russo, though. Did you? You never seen him fight? I brawl, he punches to kill. I’m about to have my head knocked clean off my shoulders.”

Finn laughs beside me and I turn to face him.

“I can’t stitch that back on. Neither can Hallie,” Finn replies with a straight face.

Great.

As Keller approaches with an outstretched hand, another beast walks through the doors, followed by a curly haired guy that looks like he’s ready to run at me with a right hook.

“Honor to meet you, Keller.”

I shake his hand, and I swear to God it feels like my bones are crunching from his grip.

What a dream. Wait. Am I fangirling my idol?

“I’ve heard a lot about you, Conan. I’ve had Grayson here knock me into shape to fight you. Can’t have you caving my skull in. I got a lot of kids to get home to.”

There it is.

I might faint.

Keller fucking Russo thinks I can KO him.

“We aren’t underground anymore. No one dies in the ring,” the blonde one cuts in and holds out his hand for me to shake.

“I’m Grayson. I’m here to kick your ass until you’re fight ready. And this here is Jax. If you can keep up with him and take Keller's blows, you’ll be unbeatable.”

A smirk creeps up on my lips. Now it’s clicking into place.

“The King of Chaos? We’ve met before, right?” I ask him.

How didn’t I realize? I was probably too busy trying not to get shot in Russia.

“Yeah. We didn’t really have time to catch up, though.”

He clicks his tongue piercing against his teeth and cracks his knuckles.

Now isn’t the time to talk about our recent Russian mission to save Declan’s wife and kid.

From what I’ve heard, Jax is similar to me. He can switch to become a killing machine in the ring.

“So we’ve got three days?” Grayson asks.

“Yep.”

“And why did your last trainer quit? Declan was a bit sparse on the details.”

I scratch my head.

“I might have knocked him the fuck out.”

Jax sniggers and Grayson turns to Keller.

“You’re up first with him,” he tells Keller, who simply shrugs, unbothered.

“We’re doing boxing rules only first. That’s why we’re here. Your opponent is first and foremost a skilled boxer. The other parts, we know you got that down. We need to make sure if this asshole starts pulling professional boxing moves, you can handle it and return it.”

“Sounds good. I used to primarily just box as a kid. It’s not until I got older that I thought the cage was less rules, more kicking, so I went to that.”

Grayson nods.

“You’re lacking the discipline boxing will give you.” He tosses a rope at me.

“So to start, you got fifteen minutes of skipping to warm up.”

I shrug.

“Alright.”

I start to jump the rope while they watch.

“You think you two are here to watch? Grab a rope and join him,” Grayson orders Keller and Jax.

After that is over, we’re up in the ring and gloved up.

“Let’s change it up. Jax, get your ass in there and run rings around him. Conan, I wanna see your speed. I’m guessing, like Keller, being big comes with its negatives.”

I arch a brow.

“I disagree. I’ve never had any complaints about being too large, Grayson,” I say back.

That earns a chuckle from Keller.

“You and Keller wanna compare dick sizes after?” Jax taunts.

“Trust me, Conan. You don’t wanna do that. He’s a fucking monster,” Grayson tells me, keeping a deadly serious expression.

I turn to Keller.

“Come on, you gotta tell me now. How monstrous we talkin?”

“Look, if you can take a right hook from me and still stand, I’ll tell you.”

“Deal.”

Is it weird that I’m excited for Keller ‘The Killer’ Russo to right hook me?

Grayson claps to get our attention.

“Great. Glad we cleared that up,” Grayson grunts, ducking under the ropes. He and Keller stay at the corner while me and Jax circle each other in the center.

He takes a quick jab at me, I duck easily and throw one back, managing to just scrape his jaw.

“Nice, Conan,” Grayson shouts.

It’s Jax’s turn to unleash his full force, throwing a barrage of punches my way. He’s so fucking quick; when I retaliate, he’s already fucked off out of the way.

He lands a blow straight into my gut.

“Fuck!”

“I thought we were following boxing rules?” I grit out.

Jax shrugs, holding up his gloves with a smirk.

“My bad. I don’t really play by any rules.”

“Good.”

I push myself up straight and lunge at him, grabbing him by the waist and shoving his back into the corner post.

Now it’s my turn to let him take some hits.

“Enough, you two!”

Grayson grabs me by the shoulders, and Jax laughs.

“I wanna cage fight, this shit is fun.”

“Now you get it,” I tell him.

“Jax. Fuck off over there.” Grayson points to the opposite corner and Keller strides over.

“Okay, this time. You’re going to just hit each other. One for one. Let’s see how you take a punch.”

Keller shoots Grayson a look.

“I’m going to punch you in the head in a minute,” he tells Grayson.

“You agreed to do whatever it takes. Suck it up, I’m sure Sienna would like a few scratches on your face.”

Standing in front of Keller, gloved up and ready to punch, is surreal.

We touch gloves before we start.

“Show me what you’ve got then,” Keller tells me.

I draw back my right hand and launch it into his face as hard as I can. His head twists with the force and he grunts. But his feet don’t move.

He’s like a block of steel.

He rubs at his jaw and slowly turns to face me. When he’s grinning, I kinda feel relieved.

“Nice shot. Powerful. My turn.”

I tense up as I await my fate. I’m giddy with excitement.

As his red glove hurtles towards my face, I squeeze my eyes shut, and the impact has stars shooting in front of my eyes, the fucking pain searing into my skull. It’s so powerful, I can’t cry out in pain.

My brain is rattling around in my head… I think.

I blink a few times. Did I black out? What the fuck?

The room is fuzzy and bright. I look up, and Keller is staring back at me, amused.

“You stayed up on your feet. Pretty decent.”

My ears are ringing, so everything is a bit faint.

“Cool. Thanks. I need to go sit down.”

“Don’t be a little pussy, Conan. You’ve gotta take them both on. We’ve got four hours of this,” Grayson warns.

I’m determined to win this fight. I want that shot at the championship. And if that means getting the shit beaten out of me by two world famous fighters, then so be it.

“Just make sure my face isn’t too swollen. I’ve got a date,” I tell them, and they all smirk.

“Another fighter lost to a woman, ey?” Grayson asks.

“Maybe. I kind of hope so.”

Jax taps me on the shoulder.

“It’s the best loss you’ll ever have.”

I toss my clothes in the laundry and hold my breath as I submerge myself into the ice bath.

“Jesus, fuck!”

I’m shivering by the time I’m sat down, but my muscles need this to survive another day.

My fight is in two days.

Grayson thinks I’m good enough. And they’ll all be there on the night. Maybe I really do have a shot at turning my career around.

It feels good—doing something the right way for once. I think Mom would be proud of me. If she could look past my other activities, I’m doing one thing right, at least.

After a few minutes, before I go completely numb, I jump out and wrap myself up.

All I can think about is Hallie saying she was busy. Too busy for me? Or is she avoiding the whole date thing?

Fuck it.

Let’s see where she is.

Maybe I’ll have to keep her Shelby a little longer.