Page 3

Chapter

Three

FRANKIE

“ Y ou’re not going to like what I have to say.” Lotto jiggled his cup of coffee as he leaned over the ropes of the ring.

I fiddled with the protective gloves on my hands. We were already late to start training as it was. Teo was late dropping off his damn kid, and Lotto arrived just as he went to the back to suit up. Bones, who stood beside me and was already sweaty from his jump rope warmup, frowned.

“Do we ever?”

“Ask me that later, if you’re serious.” Lotto winked at Bones and turned to Ari, who stood next to him. “Offer’s legit. The Circuit is coming back.”

She raised an eyebrow. Her cheeks still held a little flush for our private type of practice not even half an hour ago. “Why wouldn’t we like that?”

“Troy’s pissed. The Circuit is poaching the top fighters in the Seattle area, and he’s losing possibilities for Heathens Hollow. River included.”

Man, I was already tired of hearing that fucker’s name. His bright blue eyes and sexy smirk flashed to the fore. I fiddled with my gloves to force away his vision.

“So, what, you’re saying if we try to go legit, we’re on Troy’s shitlist?” I asked.

“We’re already on his shitlist.” Bones snorted.

Ari nodded. “He’s not offering a contract out of the kindness of his heart.”

“He sure isn’t,” Lotto agreed, “and he’s only bound to get more desperate because River has plenty of suitors who aren’t us.”

My blood ran cold. “What do you mean?”

“I mean that plenty of other legit gyms are trying to recruit him. I got in touch with a few who said they already offered River a contract, and he told them he’d think about it.”

“Already?” Ari sucked in breath through her teeth. “It’s been, like, two days since the Circuit news broke.”

“Which means we’re two days behind in forming a team.”

I rubbed at the side of my head with a glove, that same anger of earlier rising through my veins. The past few weeks, it felt like other people had been making decisions for me. For us. It was infuriating. First, nature had decided to fuck us over and take out half our gym. Then Troy had us on a short leash and pulled whenever he fucking felt like it. Now that we actually had some footing after our win at Heathens Hollow, we were being dicked around again by rich douchebags wanting to make it big in Vegas.

“I agreed with Ari that River can try out,” I said. “If he’s serious about joining, he’ll show up.”

“I wonder how you convinced him, angel.” Lotto reached out and ran his fingers over the hickies I’d left on her collarbones. “Maybe I should have disagreed for a little convincing myself.”

Her cheeks flushed. “You don’t need convincing, but maybe I can offer a special little thank you.”

“Not going to include the star of your team in those thanks?” Bones grinned and bent down between the ropes. “Maybe after?—”

“Stop thinking with your dicks and start thinking with your heads,” I snapped and pushed Bones back.

“Easy for you to say when you already got your rocks off. Nice marks on your arms, Frankie.” Both Lotto’s tone and smirk were full of teasing. “All while I was out discussing business.”

“And ordering our food, I hope.” Ari fiddled with her ponytail. “All that convincing worked up an appetite.”

“It’s on its way.” Lotto glanced at me, the teasing masked by something more serious. “If we’re serious about the Circuit, we need to hold tryouts as soon as possible. The Circuit’s already been flooded with team applications from up and down the West Coast. We gotta get in before the application period closes.”

“Well, are we serious about the Circuit?” Bones turned to me and leaned back against the ropes.

I grimaced. “I’m not a fan.”

“Are you ever?” Ari asked.

I shot her a look. “—of being paraded around like some kind of show instead of being legitimate contenders.” Lotto and Bones looked like they wanted to say something, but I shook my head. “That’s what we’ll be though. I saw how the previous Circuit worked. Nobody gave a shit about the best of the best. They only wanted a fun show. Sponsors put their money behind the people who could make them go viral. It’s why the Circuit died in the first place. Everyone wanted a little flash of social media fame and not actual fucking fighters.”

“The police inspections didn’t help much.” Lotto shrugged.

“That’s all everything is lately.” Ari sighed and plopped down on the steps leading into the ring. “We had to play the same game for Heathens Hollow. So we already know how it works.”

“True, but sponsors are a different story. Lose a sponsor, lose your place. You have to keep them happy, and some sponsors need their dick sucked even more than Troy Godwin. It won’t be easy.”

“What do we have to do?” Bones asked.

“Make a video showcasing our best and send it to the organizers. If the West Coast Circuit likes us, they’ll give us a callback. Then we go in person, show off our shit, and get picked by a sponsor.”

“It sounds more like we’re parading ourselves around like prized pigs at the county fair.” I grunted and threw the gloves down to my feet.

“Better prized pigs than being slaughtered for bacon.” Ari grabbed Lotto’s coffee and took a long sip. “What do we do about Troy?”

“He doesn’t have to know we tried out for the Circuit.” Bones pushed off the ropes and set his gloved hands on his hips. “Just don’t tell him.”

“That fucker knows everything.” I sighed and rubbed my forehead. “We can’t keep it a secret for long.”

“Then make the Circuit Plan A and Troy Plan B. If the Circuit doesn’t work out—which honestly might happen with the way my luck works—then we call up Troy to talk about headlining at Heathens Hollow.”

I let out a breath. Either way, Smiley’s was fully reliant on someone else to stay afloat. I didn’t like the idea of putting all of our eggs into one basket. But when Troy found out about the Circuit, we wouldn’t have Plan B for very long at all. It was all or nothing. Our futures rode on the shoulders of Heathens Hollow’s two best—if River even still wanted to join us.

I looked over to Lotto. “I want to ask if you’ve been in contact with River, but I know you, so I already know the answer.”

His shit-eating grin proved me right. “He said he’d be available for tryouts on Friday.”

“So, in three days?” Ari questioned. “Isn’t that too late?”

“Not if we already have our application ready to go. Just say the word, angel.”

The gym went silent, save for Teo’s muffled talking coming from somewhere in the locker room. Ari shifted under the weight of our collective gazes, shaking the empty iced coffee cup in her hand. When it came down to it, she was the boss here. I could rant at her until I was blue in the face—and I had plenty of times before—but she was the one who held all the power. Smiley’s Gym was her baby, and we were here for support in any way she needed.

Ari’s gaze pierced into me, her tone steady. “Write up a contract and have it ready for Friday. Application, too. We can’t miss out on this chance.”

“Done.” I nodded toward Bones. “Make sure you’re ready to show your best.”

“I’ll make sure the West Coast Circuit picks us.” Bones smirked. “And that River regrets coming to try out.”

“No rehash of Heathens Hollow, please. You were fucked for a week.” Lotto’s eyebrow twitched. “And not in the way we both wanted.”

Bones’ smirk grew. “But we more than made up for it at the club, didn’t we?”

“Don’t think Troy will let us back any time soon,” I said.

Ari laughed. “Then we’ll have to make enough money with the Circuit to open our own club.” Her eyes sparkled like diamonds. “For celebrations when we win, of course.”

“Save it for Vegas when we make the finals.” I pushed off the ropes and stretched out my shoulders. “Enough talk. Time to practice.”

“Don’t I get my burrito first?” Bones stood up and shook out his arms.

“Oh man, we got burritos coming?” Teo asked as he entered the main room. He lifted a hand in greeting as he approached. “I would have gotten off the phone faster if I knew.”

“I’m gonna break that phone if I see it again,” I threatened. “It’s time to take practice seriously. The Circuit is the best of the best.”

“You said that about Heathens Hollow, too, and it worked out.” Teo slipped into the ring, shrugging when he met my narrowed glare. “It’s true, man.”

“And you got your ass kicked by a little bitch named Jace Perk.”

“We all did,” Bones said. “By the same guy who’s going to join our gym.”

“No fucking way.” Teo clapped his hands together. “River’s coming here? Really?”

“We don’t know that yet so put your damn gloves on and get to work.” I glanced back at Ari and Lotto, who spoke together while checking out something on Lotto’s phone. When I whistled, they looked up. “Don’t let these lazy motherfuckers get any food ’til I’m satisfied.”

“Man, we’re gonna starve to death that way!”

“Then learn to cover your right side, you fucking idiot.”

“Please don’t chew Teo’s head off before we even apply for the Circuit,” Ari joked and shot him a wink. “I don’t want him to die before we can find a third.”

Teo snorted as he started taping up his wrists. “Hey, if worse comes to worse, you can always parade me around like that dude in Weekend at Bernie’s .”

“Get us to Vegas and you can do whatever you want after that.” I said. “Hurry the fuck up. We don’t have much time.”

“Make that three sticks,” Lotto mused, waving me off when I shot him an annoyed glare. “Application will be done before the end of the day.”

“I’ll call River and let him know.” Ari turned from me, but then shot a look over her shoulder. Her smile morphed into something softer, her expression practically glowing with pride. “Thanks, Frankie.”

I watched her sashay away, a pep in her step that hadn’t been there a few hours ago. I didn’t know if it was my agreement or my dick that had made her feel better. Probably my dick. It was much kinder than my mouth. Either way, come Friday, everything would change. Picked or not, we’d made the decision that would shift our trajectory from here on out.

Smiley’s was on the way to greatness—the legit way.

“Ow, dude!” Teo hissed. “Give me a second before you try and break my jaw, Bones!”

“I barely punched you! When did you get so damn weak?”

“Since I got my ass beat like a week ago!”

I closed my eyes and sighed.

At least we would be if the road to greatness weren’t full of speed bumps who were late on their child support payments.