Hostilely, I take the pills and swallow them in one gulp and leave Preach standing there with the unopened water bottle in his hand.

Some of the regulars are starting to trickle in now and they yell their congratulations in my direction. I don’t want to hear them, don’t deserve anyone’s well wishes.

Chapter 34

Elle

After not hearing from Nico last night after the fight or all day today, I head to his gym after work. He hasn’t responded to my texts and my calls go straight to voicemail. Either he’s ignoring me or his phone is off. All I need is to make sure he’s okay. Worry has built inside of me all day and I find myself at almost a jog going from my car to the entrance of the gym.

The usual desk guy recognizes me and I ask if Nico is around. My worry ratchets up a notch when he tells me he hasn’t seen him all day. Now I’m starting to wonder if he’s lying unconscious somewhere with an undiagnosed head injury from the fight.

Preach spots me and calls my attention in his direction with a loud whistle and a shake of the head. He’s holding the heavy bag while some guy with no neck is punching and kicking so fast, it looks like he’s having a seizure.

I make my way over to Preach and the guy without the neck stops hitting the bag and gives me a leering smile. It’s a smile and look that makes me want to shower. Immediately.

“That’s Nico’s girl you big moron. He catches you looking at her like that, you’re gonna be looking for a new gym. After you spend ten minutes looking for your teeth.” Preach’s tone isn’t playful when he speaks.

I give a half-hearted smile to Preach. “Have you seen Nico? He hasn’t answered my calls all day.”

“I put him to bed this morning.” Preach looks at me and then back to neckless. “Make yourself invisible for ten minutes.”

Without complaint, neckless disappears. If I wasn’t out of sorts, I’d probably find it oddly amusing, the power that Preach has over men twice his size. “You had to put him to bed? Is he okay?”

Preach pulls a towel from his back pocket and wipes his hands as he speaks. “He’s got some issues, Elle, you know this already, right?”

“You mean what kept him from going back in the cage?”

“Yeah, that. Well, I found him trying to exhaust his body into submission to get some sleep. It’s how he deals with things. He trains. Hard. Too hard sometimes. I think he’d been at it all night. Screwed up his hands. They’ll heal. But other than that, I think the worst of it’s in his head. I can fix the body. I can’t fix what’s in here.” Preach’s pointer finger taps on the side of his head.

“So how did you get him to go to sleep?”

“Drugs.” Preach states matter-of-factly and without remorse.

“You gave him drugs?”

“Don’t look at me like I’m the devil. They’re his drugs. Doc prescribed ‘em for him after the last fight. He started taking them too much so I took ‘em away. But he needed ‘em this morning, so I gave him enough to get him some sleep. The boy’s got more energy than anyone I’ve ever met when he’s on a tear. But the longer the tear, the harder the recovery. Nipped this one in the bud.”

“Has he slept all day?”

“Haven’t seen him, so I’m guessing he did. I wasn’t going up to check.”

“I’m going to go check on him.”

Preach nods his head. “I’m sure he’d like that better than waking up to me.”

***

Nico is lying diagonally across his bed, face down on his stomach. He’s still wearing the trunks from the fight the afternoon before. I watch his back rise and fall. Relief floods me that he’s still breathing.

Quietly, I back out of the room and pull the door shut again. I don’t want to wake him after what Preach told me. I find a pen and paper in the drawer in the kitchen and leave him a note on the table. Stopped by to check on you, didn’t want to wake you. Sweet Dreams. Elle

***

It’s almost ten o’clock at night by the time my phone finally rings. I grab it off the end table anxiously. “Hey.”

“Hey.” Nico’s voice is groggy and it sounds like he might have just woken up.

“Did you just wake up?” If he did, those are some powerful drugs because he would have been out for almost sixteen hours straight.

“Yeah.”

“How do you feel?”

“I’m fine.” Nico’s inflection tells me he doesn’t want to talk about it. It seems like I’ll be getting answers with minimum words again.

“Is there anything I can do?”

“I said I’m fine, Elle.” It’s not lost on me that he uses my name. I became Babe to him the first week I met him. It shouldn’t be significant, but for some reason the simple change makes me feel like we’ve taken a step back. And his tone, I try not to get offended. I remember people trying to help me, when I wasn’t ready to accept it yet. It just pissed me off. But still, I can’t help but feel disappointed that he is going to close me out with everyone else.

“Okay.”

There’s an uncomfortable silence that sits between us. Something that I’ve never experienced with Nico. My stomach twists, but I wait for him to speak first.

“I need to make something to eat. I’ll call you tomorrow.”

I act like nothing’s wrong, even though I feel my heart squeeze at his words. He’s blowing me off. “Okay. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.” I do my best to sound upbeat when I’m anything but.

For the first time, I realize I’ve really fallen for Nico Hunter.

Chapter 35

Nico

It’s f**king killing me to keep away from Elle. She’s all I can think about, but I don’t want her to see me this way. Weak. Scared. I can’t even fight anymore. I thought I’d moved past it all, moved on with my life after more than a year of running in place. But the nightmares are back. I can’t sleep and god damn Preach won’t give me any more of the pills.

She knows I’ve been avoiding her. I’m ruining the one good thing that I’ve found in a very long time, because I’m afraid to close my eyes and see his face. He haunts me. Haunts me for what I did to him, but I f**king deserve it.

I’m on the other side of the gym listening to one of Preach’s lectures for the hundredth time, when she walks in. I’m not expecting her, I don’t hear the door open or the sound of her voice, but somehow I feel her presence. I turn around and look for her. Our eyes find each other like magnets. Fuck, she’s beautiful. I love her in those god damn prissy looking suits she wears. Her face is apprehensive at first, like she’s not sure if showing up unannounced is going to be welcome. Jesus, I did that to her. Made her feel that she may not be welcome. What a total ass**le I am.