Chapter 9
KAZIMIR
Stepan throws a right cross that clips me above the ear and sends a hot buzz down the side of my neck. I roll with it and come back with a left hook to his ribs that folds him forward half an inch before he resets.
"Slow down," he says, circling left with his gloves up. "You're dropping your shoulder before you throw."
"I'm not dropping anything." Sparring is what I do to shake off extra energy and with everything going on, I have a lot of it to dispel.
Roman keeps dragging me back in to remind me how direly important it is that I get this thing right, and I can't seem to focus on anything but my phone lately, waiting for Zora to reply to my messages.
"You are. You've been doing it for the last ten minutes." He feints a jab and when I bite, he tags me with a straight right to the sternum that forces the air from my lungs. "See? Right there. Your shoulder dips and I know what's coming before you throw it."
I spit my mouthguard into my glove and wipe my face with my forearm, frustrated that I'm off my game and my cousin is calling me on it. I usually box circles around him. Letting him get the better of me is just proof that I'm slipping.
"Let's go again," I say, putting the guard back in.
We reset in the center of the mat. Stepan bounces on his toes, his dark hair damp at the temples.
His brown eyes lock on my chest because he reads my movement from the torso, not the hands, the way a good boxer is trained.
I've been two steps behind this entire session because I've been reacting instead of anticipating, and I know it.
He comes in fast with a double jab and I slip both, rolling my head left then right, and fire back with a body shot that connects clean under his floating rib.
He grunts and grabs my shoulder to tie me up, and we clinch in the center of the mat, foreheads pressed together, both of us breathing hard.
This little coaching tip has me more aware and now he remembers how easily I can get to him, even when I'm tired and winded.
"So, when do I get to meet this woman?" he says through his mouthguard, grinning at me while he tries to work an underhook.
"When I decide I'm ready." I push back, making him stumble a few steps away as I raise my hands to ready and loosen up my stance again.
"I've been hearing about her for two weeks, man. You have to give me some fat to chew." He takes a swing, which I duck and jab quickly at his ribs twice, then he falls on me in another clinch, which I try to block.
"She's out of your league. That's all you need to know." I break the clinch and push him back, and he stumbles before finding his feet again. He's getting tired now too, sweat rolling off his chest and shoulders. We used to do this daily and we're both out of practice.
"Out of my league or out of yours?" He resets his guard and circles right. "I'm starting to think she's got you on a leash."
"You'd better watch your mouth." I'm playful right now, but if he doesn’t watch it he's gonna make my temper flare. I tend to take it personally when people insult my friends.
"I'm serious. You've been walking around here smiling at your phone all the time, and you skipped our session last week to go to dinner with her." He throws a lazy jab to keep distance. "Stepan's worried about you," he says, tapping his chest. "That's all I'm saying."
"Stepan's talking about himself in the third person, which means Stepan needs to get hit."
I close the distance and throw a three-piece combination—jab, cross, left hook—and the hook catches him on the jaw and snaps his head sideways.
He staggers and his mouthguard pops loose and hangs from his lip with a thread of spit dangling.
He pulls it out and works his jaw from side to side, testing it.
"Okay, I deserved that."
"Yeah, you did."
"But I'm not wrong." He puts the guard back in and squares up. "You're distracted and everyone can see it. Ro said the same thing the other day."
"Look," I say, bouncing a little, "I'm doing everything I've been asked to do. What more does everyone want from me?" His nosy snark is getting my juices flowing. I can feel my temperature rising as anger starts to swell.
"We want you to run a background check on the girl."
I stop moving, glaring at him hard. "What?"
"Timur offered to run a standard background, nothing invasive. Family history, known associates, financials." Stepan holds his gloves up in a peace gesture. "We do it with everyone who gets close to the family. You know that."
"She's not a business associate, Stepan.
She's a woman I'm seeing." This is ridiculous.
If I start prodding around in Zora's life, she'll find out and then she'll never trust me again.
I'm not putting her through that. Hell, I'm not even telling her what I do for a living right now.
We're not to that point in the relationship yet.
"Which is exactly why we should vet her. You're Roman's right hand right now. Anyone who has access to you has access to everything we do." Stepan's gloves still hover in the air, waiting for me to tap them, but I'd like to put one into his face.
"She doesn't have access to anything. She came over and I fucked her, okay?" I start bouncing again, hoping he gets the point that I'm not budging on this. I don't even know her last name yet. There's no way I'm pushing her.
"She may not have access now, but over time, that'll come up.
That's how relationships work." Stepan drops his hands and looks at me straight.
"You gotta see where we're coming from." He really doesn't get this, does he?
It's starting to really piss me off. I throw a few quick jabs from a distance, not nearly close enough to strike him, and he scowls.
"So I'm supposed to, what, never let anyone in? Stay alone forever because the family might get uncomfortable?"
"That's not what I said."
"It's what you're saying."
"I'm just saying let him run the check, Kaz. If she comes back clean, we never talk about it again." He's still not raising his gloves, and the thought of slamming his face hard is so tempting.
"No fucking way."
He pulls his mouthguard out and tucks it into his glove. "Kaz, I'm not trying to start a fight about this."
"Then shut the fuck up." The heat is building in my chest and crawling up my neck and I can feel my hands sweating inside my gloves. "I don't need Timur running her name through a database. I need my family to trust my judgment for once."
"Fuck's sake, Kaz, I—"
My fist moves before he finishes the sentence.
I come at him hard, throwing a right cross with my whole body behind it, and it catches him on the temple, making his knees buckle.
He grabs for me on the way down but misses and hits the mat on his back with a thud that shakes the floor under my feet.
He lies there blinking at the ceiling with his gloves still up and his chest heaving.
I stand over him for a second, and the anger drains out of me as fast as it came.
I shouldn't have done that, but he had it coming. When I refuse something, I mean it. He's an idiot to keep pressing. If this had been Roman, I'd have had no choice, but I know Stepan's just being nosy. Ro didn't order this.
I pull my glove off with my teeth and reach down. "Get up, loser, and stop pushing my buttons."
He grabs my hand and I pull him up. He stands there swaying for a second, rubbing the side of his head with the heel of his glove.
"You hit harder when you're pissed off," he says. "Good to know."
"I shouldn't have thrown that."
"No, you shouldn't have…" He peels his gloves off and tucks them under his arm. "I'm done. You knocked something loose in my skull and I need to go sit down."
"Stepan, I didn't mean to—”
"We're good, Kaz." He claps me on the shoulder as he walks past. "We're good."
I stand on the mat until he disappears into the showers, letting the rest of my anger fizzle out.
Then I strip down and hit the showers. The water is hot and it beats against my neck and shoulders where the tension from the sparring session has settled into knots.
I really let him get to me, and after being distracted and off my game too.
None of this is good for me, and Roman's warning about not letting Zora get in my head keeps repeating through my thoughts.
I think it's impossible to be seeing someone you're really into and not let them get into your thoughts.
It's sort of the way of things. But I've always been able to handle myself.
I just need to remind myself a few times a day what's important and make sure I control my thoughts when I need to focus.
I can do this. It's not that big of a deal, really.
I step out of the shower and see Stepan at his locker already half dressed for his day.
A towel hangs around my waist as I walk back to my locker and pull my bag out.
My phone drops to the floor when I pull out my jeans and I see the screen lit up with a text from Zora that I missed while sparring, so I pick it up and swipe right to read it.
Zora: 11:22 AM: I was just thinking about you. When do I get to see you again?
I sit down on the bench and read it twice with a grin on my face, trying to hide it from my cousin. God, it makes my entire day change when she messages me. I'm really falling for her hard.
Kazimir: 11:48 AM: Sorry, I was sparring with my cousin… How about tonight?
I hit send and lay the phone down but leave the screen open so I can see those three little dots as she starts to respond immediately like she's been waiting for me.
Zora: 11:48 AM: Tonight more than works. What did you have in mind?
I pull my shirt off the hook in the locker and tug it over my head, then pick the phone back up.
I think about it for a second. The card starts at nine, and Rostik's fighting third on the bill.
Honestly, I don't want to wait that long, and I don't think she does either, but work comes first. I have to consciously remind myself that.
Kazimir: 11:49 AM: This might sound crazy, but I have a fight card tonight for work. Would you want to come with me?
I haven't told her what I do for a living yet, but she'll learn soon enough.
It would be a good way to test her out. These fights are tame, not a lot of heavy betting at them.
And the location is on someone else's turf so if she tells someone, no sweat off my back.
It's the perfect way to ease her into this.
Zora: 11:49 AM: You want to bring me to a fight?
Kazimir: 11:50 AM: I want you next to me. The fights just happen to be where I'll be… You've heard of the underground fight rings, right?
I set the phone on the bench and stand up to pull on my boxers and jeans, buttoning them and reaching for my boots. The phone buzzes against the wood before I've got the first one laced and I look down at it with a grin.
Zora: 11:50 AM: That's a smooth answer, Kaz.
Kazimir: 11:50 AM: I have my moments.
I take a minute to finish lacing both boots and pick the phone up again, leaning back against the locker with one foot up on the bench.
So she didn’t balk at the idea of going to a fight, which means she definitely heard of the underground fighting.
And since she knows I run a gym, she's probably already made some assumptions.
See, Stepan has no clue what he's talking about.
I don't need any vetting for this woman.
We just need time to help her adjust to what we do.
Zora: 11:52 AM: What time should I be ready?
Kazimir: 11:52 AM: I'll pick you up around 8. Wear something comfortable. Oh, and it gets loud.
Zora: 11:53 AM: I can handle loud.
I'm mid typing, concocting a humorous response, when she sends another message before I finish my thought.
Zora: 11:54 AM: See you at 8 then. Don't be late.
I read that last one and sit there for a second with the phone warm in my hand and the grin still stuck on my face. Then I shove the phone in my pocket and grab my bag off the floor and stand up, and that's when I catch Stepan in the doorway staring at me with an ice pack pressed to his temple.
"Let me guess. She texted you?" He doesn’t look playful now. He looks skeptical again, and it reminds me how good it felt to whack him so hard.
"Maybe she did."
"Your face is doing that thing again. The one where you look like a teenager who got asked to prom." He adjusts the ice pack and winces. "What'd she say?"
"She asked to see me. I invited her to the fights tonight."
Stepan lowers the ice pack. "You're bringing her to the fights?" His face screws up into a scowl before it darkens.
"She asked to see me tonight."
"So you're bringing her to the fucking fights? Kaz, what the fuck is wrong with you?"
"It's a fight night, Stepan. She's gonna sit next to me and watch."
He acts like she's planting a bomb in our building or stealing our betting money.
It can't be more straightforward. Lots of people go to our fights, and we can't possibly vet everyone who shows up.
They pay their way in and we take their money.
It's that simple. Zora is just another woman wanting to watch men beat the shit out of each other.
I push past him and hear him call after me, "Roman won't like this, Kaz."
"Yeah, well Roman can focus on his wedding. I'm taking a woman on a date to a fight ring, not planning mutiny."
My hand slams into the exit door and I burst out of the building under grey skies and a chance of rain, but I don't let his comment slow me down. I get to see Zora again and I can't wait to see what she thinks of what I do. If she likes it, maybe she can watch me spar sometime.
God, I really like this woman.