30. Santiago
SANTIAGO
“You have two weeks before your first fight,” he said, his back facing me as we stood on the docks. “In those two weeks, make sure you practice.” The sounds of the waves crashing followed his words until he glanced at me over his shoulder.
“Do you have a place to train?”
I nodded. “Yeah.”
“Good.”
He turned back to look at the ocean, hands crossed behind him.
“Spend every spare moment practicing, and when you’re not, be sure to come to the hotel. I’ll rehire you in a better position with a higher salary. For this arrangement between us to work, I’ll have to keep a close eye on you so you don’t ruin it for me.”
He was always so officious and secretive. From telling me to meet him on this shipping dock in the middle of the night to planning everything ahead, he sure had his mind set on something. Only question was—
“Why are you doing all of this?” I asked. Pulling my hands out of my pockets, I waved at his 100K bike. “I mean, it doesn’t look like you’re short on money.”
Staring at him, my eyes fixated on his white hair, which almost seemed silver under the moonlight. This man… If only I knew what was going on inside his head.
After a few more moments passed in which we stood in complete silence, he turned to look at me, his amber eyes like a flash of light in the dark night.
Pow!
I smacked the punching bag.
Pow!
Another punch, then another, and—
“Fucking asshole,” I swore, remembering that conversation we had last week. Of course, the smug fucker didn’t answer my question and instead told me to mind my own business.
Fucking psychopath!
Not only was I about to fight for him and risk getting my ass sent back to prison, but I was doing it of my own free fucking will, all while he wouldn’t even so much as tell me why.
Why did he need the money? Pure greed? I punched the bag again, my muscles tensing with the hit as I tried shaking the thought away.
He didn’t seem like the greedy type. That said, I knew nothing about him.
That was the whole fucking problem. A few months ago, I’d thought he was this beautiful man I was meant to fuck, only to learn that the guy was a cold-blooded killer.
How did he become like that? I mean, a person had to go through shit to be this morally bankrupt, and I doubted me kicking his ass a few years ago was the reason for that.
What was more, how did one learn to kill, and so efficiently, too?
I doubted Ace and Ricky were his only victims, but somehow, even after he pointed a gun to my head and was about to kill me not once but twice, it was still hard for me to imagine him with blood on his hands.
He was simply that pure, almost like a god, but then again, wasn’t God the most ruthless of them all?
With sweat drenching my body and my head full of those annoying thoughts, I moved to the speed bag, where I started working on my rhythm and timing.
Hitting it at a repetitive pace, I tried to focus, but my mind once again slipped to Ariyan.
To the words he said, the way he smelled and felt, to how his touch burned me alive and—
“Here so late?”
I stopped at once, the speed bag still bouncing back a few times as I turned to look at the person talking to me.
Shit.
“Why’re you here, Gabriel?” I asked before going back to hitting the bag.
“My uncle told me you’ve been coming here for the last two weeks, so I had to come and see it for myself.”
I forgot he was Carlos’s nephew.
“Well, here I am.” I gave the bag one last punch, then grabbed my water bottle from the floor. “And now that you’ve seen me, you’re free to go.”
He chuckled while I emptied half the bottle.
“It’s been a while since we last met.”
Clearly, not long enough.
“Now that my dad’s home, I’m back at my place.”
I had seen him less in the last few weeks, which explained it.
He then let out a deep sigh while looking around the empty gym.
“Remember the hours we used to spend here as teens? We were here more than we were home.”
Remembering those days, a slight smile pulled on my lips. “Yeah, we were.”
“Even though you were younger then, and a lot smaller, we still sparred together all the time.”
“Among other things.” I snorted, thinking of the number of times we fucked in here.
We used to fuck in every corner of this place back when we were together. Boxing and sex, a badass combo that was probably why I sometimes confused what we had for love.
Gabriel’s cheeks reddened, and he cleared his throat. “Well, that, too… Remember that time your dad nearly caught us?”
Of course I fucking did. It was maybe the third time we’d hooked up?
Back when all I wanted was to have sex, so much so that I didn’t care about doing it in the supply room with the gym being full.
Thinking about it, not much had changed, considering the hand job Ariyan had given me on the storage room floor.
Shit. He was so hot that night, enough to make me crawl back to him, ready for more.
“I remember how you screamed at me for that,” I finally said, then tossed the water bottle into my gym bag. As fun as it was going down memory lane with Gabe, I’d better not. “Anyway, I’m done here, and your uncle told me to lock up, so—”
“Don’t you want to spar for a bit?” he offered, pointing his thumb at the ring behind him. “You know, like in the good old days.”
I really shouldn’t, but Gabe was a great boxer, and even though Carlos allowed me to spar with some of his guys, I shouldn’t miss the opportunity. Especially when my match was tomorrow, and I hadn’t had a proper sparring buddy in a while.
* * *
“Holy shit,” Gabriel panted, his back shoved against the turnbuckle. “The hell are you on, fiera?”
Choosing to be careless, we’d skipped the headgear and the sparring gloves with extra padding and instead went for simple training gloves, which, in my case, was good, considering that tomorrow I’d fight bare-handed.
“Just been practicing a lot lately,” I said, watching him as he pushed back from the ropes.
Still panting, he ran his fingers through his sweaty hair, trying to catch his breath. Poor guy had a nasty bruise on his cheek from my left hook. He should be grateful I hadn’t used my right one, or he would have been unconscious now.
“Are you planning a comeback and I don’t know about it?” he joked, his lips forming a smile that showed off his dimples.
“Fuck off, asshole.” I shoved his chest, and he reached and grabbed my wrist, keeping me close.
“I mean it.” He softly caressed my skin with his thumb. “If you do, I’ll come to every fight.”
“You know I’m not planning any comebacks,” I muttered when he finally stopped caressing me.
“Is that so?”
“Yeah. Boxing’s just a hobby now.”
Holding his stare, I knew he was only teasing me, and yet, I still hated lying to him.
“Besides, you make it sound like beating you was hard. You just suck, man.”
Releasing his hold, Gabe raised his brows, and his smile grew.
A second later, he was on me, only now he didn’t play fair, and he hooked his ankle with mine, tripping me until we found ourselves on the ring floor, wrestling like teenagers again.
Each of us fought for dominance, pinning the other down and trying to stay on top.
I was bigger and stronger, but having already given him one black eye, I decided to let him win this time.
“You know, I suddenly have a nice déjà vu,” he said, panting, his body straddling mine while he kept me pinned to the floor.
I huffed, tapping his thick thigh.
“Do you?”
He ducked down, his sweat dripping down on me while he purposely shoved his ass into my lap.
Such a tease.
“I think we’ve been in this exact position once or twice before, only then, we were naked.”
I smiled because those memories were definitely nice, but they belonged to the past. And as sexy as he was right now, all sweaty and roughed up, I should make that point clear.
“Gabe.”
“Come on,” he hummed with a teasing smirk. “Live a little.”
The sounds of footsteps made us both halt, and we turned our heads in time to see the person who’d just walked in.
“I hope I’m not interrupting something.”
My eyes widened at the same time my heart paused, and I quickly pushed Gabriel off me.
“Ari,” I panted, basically jumping to my feet.
Fuck.
What was he doing here, and also, why was my heart racing so fast?
“Why are you here?” I asked, slightly out of breath, as he looked between us.
His eyes lingered on Gabriel a moment before they darted back to me.
“I came to give you something.”
Brushing a hand over my chest, I stepped closer, noticing the bag in his hand.
“You did?”
He responded with a short nod before narrowing his eyes at me.
“So… What’s going on in here?”
“Oh, we were just sparring together,” I explained while pointing at Gabe, who walked past me on his way to introduce himself.
“We’ve met before,” he said to Ariyan, sending his right hand forward. “I came to the hotel for some questioning, remember?”
In seconds, Ariyan’s lips curled into his business smile.
“Of course I remember you, Officer. Sánchez, was it?”
Reaching forward, he took Gabriel’s hand, and my mouth turned bitter at the sight of them exchanging handshakes.
A few months ago, I worried Ariyan would find out shit about Gabriel out of pure fear, as the dude was a total madman.
But now, it wasn’t worry twisting my guts, but something else.
Something much darker that nearly made me rip Gabriel’s arm off.
Thankfully, they broke the handshake before I did.
“It’s nice to see that you two are still in touch after you quit,” Gabriel said, eyes on me.
I bet Nacio and his big mouth told him I quit my job at the hotel.
“Yeah, well, I’m back working there, so…” I rubbed the back of my neck when his brows pulled together.
“You are?”
“Yeah.”
“Since when?”
Before I could answer, Ariyan cleared his throat, and we both looked at him.
“If this is a bad time, I can come back later.”
“No,” I cut into his words, nervous he’d leave. “We’re already done, so I’ll lock up here and be free.”