Total pages in book: 162
Estimated words: 158848 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 794(@200wpm)___ 635(@250wpm)___ 529(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 158848 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 794(@200wpm)___ 635(@250wpm)___ 529(@300wpm)
“You were right,” I say. “It was a total shit show.”
“I didn’t want to be right.”
Griff snorts.
“But,” I continue before my brother responds, “I’m glad I was there. I spoke up for myself.” I shift my gaze to Griff. “And for Griff.”
“Yeah, you did, baby.”
“And unless they decide not to air it, everyone will finally know that Griff never slept with her,” I finish. “Naptime and Kiki confirmed it was them. More than once.”
“Griff’s reputation wasn’t my concern,” Remy says.
“Thanks,” Griff mutters.
Ignoring him, Remy continues. “Yours is. That video of you punching out that woman on some reality shit show will live forever. You want to work in a medical-related field. What if it hurts your job prospects?”
I blink and stare at him. Why hadn’t I ever thought of that?
“Cut it out,” Griff says. “Kiki came flying at Molly. She touched her first. It was a clean knockout, not a hair-pulling scratch fest. No one can look at it as anything other than self-defense.”
Remy lifts one shoulder. “Okay.”
“Well, it’s done now.” I sigh and round the table, taking a seat next to Griff. “Did Griff tell you he’s going to fight Magic Everson in Vegas?”
Remy chuckles softly. “Yeah, he mentioned it. I’m going to have to stop going so easy on him at the gym. And make him come on my morning runs with me now. Build up that endurance.”
“I run,” Griff protests.
“Bro, you haven’t done shit in weeks.”
“I’ve been recovering,” Griff says, sounding out each syllable. “Doctor’s orders.”
Laughing, I stand and push in my chair.
“Where are you going, Muffin?” Griff reaches for me, hooking his arm around my leg.
“I need to pack and get ready to go back to school.” I lean down and kiss his cheek. “You two try not to kill each other while I’m away this week.”
“We’ll do our best.” Remy focuses his intense stare on Griff and the lingering anger in his eyes doesn’t reassure me at all.
CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
Griff
The night the reunion show airs is also the official announcement that I’ll be fighting Magic in Vegas. My phone starts blowing up almost immediately. Texts from everyone I’ve squared up with in a cage in the last five years flash over my screen. Notifications from every social media app blink or chirp.
I return the texts to the people I give a shit about and silence the notifications.
Days later, I’m still getting bombarded with questions and tags about the fight.
“It’s gonna be like this for the next couple of months,” Remy says to me after breakfast. “Surprised you don’t have to do a press tour to promote the fight.”
If I thought he’d been furious when I told him about what happened at the reunion show, it was nothing compared to when we watched it. They sensationalized the big “fight” between Molly and Kiki, including several slow-motion replays of Molly’s fist flying through the air.
He’s been a bit sharp with me since then.
I set my phone on the table. “I have to go down to the city for something mid-week,” I admit. “But nothing else out of town is on the schedule until I leave for Vegas. The company hosting it is going to send out a camera crew at some point to film me training.”
“That’ll be fun.” He rolls his eyes. “I hope you told Jerry before the announcement was made.”
I nod once. “I did. He was cool with it.”
“Good.” He lifts his chin. “Why don’t you come up to The Castle with me later?”
“You’re not hosting anything this weekend, are you?”
“No. But you keep saying you want to fix things up there. Let’s go. Start making a list of what needs to be done.”
“Molly’s going to be here in a few hours.” I pick up my phone and check for a text from her.
He groans. “Then let’s go now before you two disappear into your lair of love all weekend.”
“Lair of love?” I snort. “I guess it could be worse. There’s no disappearing. We’ve got that thing at the bar tomorrow night.”
Finally free of the show’s restraints, Remy, Vapor, and Eraser insisted on throwing a party to officially “welcome” me home.
“That’ll be a couple of hours max.” He walks out of the dining room. “Let’s go. And maybe bring your sparring gloves too,” he says over his shoulder.
Immediately suspicious, I clear my plates from the table and jog downstairs to find my gloves.
The Castle needs more work than I realized. I have a notebook with half the pages dedicated to lists of supplies we’ll need by the time we finish our walk-through.
“Told you it would be expensive,” Remy says. “We might be better off leveling the place and starting over.” He walks over to the duffel bag he brought with him and dropped off near the octagon-shaped cage in the center of the main room. “Now, what we really need to do is evaluate the cage.”