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Luca pinched Nox’s nipple.
“Ow.” Nox rubbed his pec. “What was that for?”
“You’re supposed to be telling me your life story, not thinking dirty thoughts.”
Nox curled the corner of his mouth.
Luca went for Nox’s other nipple.
He blocked the attack. “Okay, okay. You win.”
“Good. Now, what happened?”
“I guess I said the right thing because he told me if I won, he’d give me a raise and let me train.”
“You won, didn’t you?” Because all the underdogs rose to the top.
“More like I got the ever-loving shit kicked out of my cocky ass.” Nox smirked. “I was so sure I was going to go in there and clean the ring with that man’s face. But I didn’t stand a chance.”
“You beat up the champion.”
“Apparently, the champion wasn’t supposed to win. The owner didn’t bother to tell me the first string of fights Mr. Hot shot won was because the challenger threw the fight. Pumped up his name, then put him up against some actual competition. It was a ploy to bring in the bets.”
“Oh.”
“But losing the fight made the gym owner money, so he let me stay and even get back in the ring. I won, I lost, but I did well enough to catch Lois Stallings’ attention.”
“Who?”
“She was a retired professional MMA fighter. She managed another gym. Repped a couple of fighters. Lois liked to scout the fights in the smaller gyms for talent. She saw something in my scrawny ass and wanted me to come train with her.”
“Scrawny?” Luca eyed Nox up and down.
“I was a late bloomer. I was taller than average, but trust me, you look pretty scrawny when you’re over six feet and barely a hundred and sixty pounds. I hit a real growth spurt around sixteen. Then it was another four years before I filled out.”
Luca still couldn’t envision Nox as anything close to the definition of scrawny.
“How long did you do the fighting thing?”
“About two years.”
“Did you win a lot?”
“Not at first.”
“So you won a lot.”
Nox grinned. “Yeah, I won a lot.”
“Were you able to get a place of your own?”
“I had to have a couple of roommates, but yeah.”
“But you still went into the military.”
Nox huffed an exhale. “When you get good at something, people take notice. In my case, it was the wrong kind of people who took notice. I wound up with one of two choices. Fight for those bad people or get out of town. Since I didn’t have enough money to disappear, I enlisted with the army and was gone before anyone noticed.”
“Didn’t you tell your friends?”
