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That keeps the fire in my stomach more than anything else. I let those words heat me up. I let them slither and writhe all over my brain, encompassing me with rage and disgust.
At the fifteenth repetition, Casey falls to the mat, gasping for air and telling Dale he taps out. Looking over at him to make sure he’s not seriously dying, I keep going.
My body is shaking by the twentieth rep, and I can feel my stomach wanting to hurl from the abuse I’m pushing myself through.
After finishing up, the crowd is staring at me with a strange mixture of bemusement and acknowledgement. Not a lot of people can make it through what I just did. I’ve had a full day so far with my workout and training inside the ring.
My body hurts in places I don’t remember existing, but I still have the drive to do something else.
To punish something.
Eyeing Dale with annoyance, I say, “I’m heading to the bags.”
“Twenty-five elbows strikes, thirty punches on both arms. Then the same for the knee strikes and kicks,” he says, and I just nod.
He knows I’ve got the anger again in me. I’ll be worth shit tomorrow, but right now I need to blow this steam off any way that I can.
* * *
Bree’s soft voice comes from over my shoulder. “You okay?”
Nodding my head yes, I don’t turn around. “I’m good.”
“You sure?” she asks, and then out of the corner of my eye I see her sit down beside me on the curb of the sidewalk.
I chuckle ruefully. “Yeah, might have overworked myself in there.”
I fucking just about killed myself in there. Even now, my arm barely wants to move enough to reach over and hold her hand.
“Was it about the video they keep looping on the sports channel?”
“Yeah, a little. Maybe a lot.”
I look over to see her big blue eyes so full of sympathy it almost breaks my carefully held together shell.
She grips my hand a little tighter as she scoots closer to me, her hip and shoulder bumping up against my own. “Want to talk about it?”
“Not yet, I can barely think clearly,” I say with a huge groan as I stretch my spine back, trying to pop out the tension that’s resting between my shoulders.
“Tonight?”
“Yeah, after Casey’s asleep. He doesn’t need to hear all the shit that’s rumbling around in my skull.”
“Okay. I don’t know half of what’s going on here right now, and the stuff I do know…”
She trails off quietly.
“I feel like an asshole, Bree. I know I shouldn’t drag you into a life that’s…”
She turns my head to face her. “That’s what?”
“Complicated as fuck. A life that’s not going to be easy. I have a kid now, I guess. He’s going to be living with me for the foreseeable future. We’re a package deal, and I don’t want that scaring you off.”
She doesn’t answer right away, but when she does, she smiles. “He likes me more.”
“That’s because you feed him,” I say and laugh loudly at the thought of it.
“If only all our problems could be solved by just feeding them food, huh?” she says with chuckle.
