Chapter Eighteen #2
Sebastián slammed Vovik against the gym’s brick wall and hissed in his face. “Come back here again, and I’ll invite the whole MMA team to show you what we do with guys like you.” He tossed Lily’s ex to the ground, throwing in a kick for good measure. “Fuck off, pendejo.”
Vovik scrambled to his feet and ran for a beat-up old truck, which looked like it was on its last mile. He locked eyes with Kieran, glaring daggers dipped in liquid hate. “Enjoy your little whore.” He slammed the door and the truck roared to life.
Oh, this motherfuc—Kieran had half a mind to grab the brick they sometimes used to hold open the lobby door and smash it into the guy’s skull, but Lily’s grip on his shirt had yet to relax.
He dipped his head and framed her face with his hands.
He brushed his thumbs along her cheekbones, soothing her as much as himself. “I’ll take you home.”
Lily shook her head as the truck peeled off. “No, it’s okay.” Her hands wrapped around his wrists, and she leaned back an inch. “I’m fine. He didn’t hurt me.” Her pounding heart didn’t agree. “You still have practice, remember? You’ve got to train, too, for your fight.”
Kieran twisted his wrists until his hands enveloped hers. “Why don’t you join us? And after, we can do anything you want. Princess’s choice.”
A tremor quaked down her arms. “Anything?” Those morning-sky eyes met his.
“Anything for you, Lily.”
* * *
A frenetic energy permeated the training room. Kieran stalked the spaces between his fighters, correcting hand placements and angles of the body, but he couldn’t focus. The percussion of gloved fists smacking against strike pads was mere background noise to the dizzying what-ifs swarming his mind.
What if he’d intervened sooner? What had his hesitation cost Lily? What if her ex’s vitriol sank in? What was her plan? What if she decided to leave? What if, what if, what if?
While they’d warmed up, Sebastián had taken care of cleaning up any wounds left by the guy’s bruising grip.
Now they ran the same drills Kieran’s team practiced, trading strike pads when Kieran called for partners to switch.
Their lines weren’t as crisp—their muscles jerking from the unfamiliar combinations of movement where muscle memory guided his fighters—but Sebastián did what he did best. He kept a smile on Lily’s face.
He didn’t let her linger in the lies clawed into her skin.
A fierce tenderness swelled in Kieran’s chest. His best friend could be a pain in his ass, but he was Kieran’s pain in the ass.
And so, too, were his team. Every worried glance. Every helpful tip delivered by the men he trained, whether subtle or painfully obvious, was an assurance that they had her back. Even that dipshit Carter.
There was no threat of Lily’s ex returning to the gym.
Not with Neal prowling the threshold of the double doors connecting the training room to the rest of the gym.
The owner might not have fought in over a decade, but Kieran wouldn’t bet against Neal’s meaty fists or the vein pulsing on his shiny forehead.
One of his workers had been threatened on his property, and it damn well wasn’t going to happen again. Not on Neal’s watch.
When the team finally piled out at the end of training, smacking each other’s asses and crooning to the evening sky about the meals awaiting them at home, Kieran rolled his lips between his teeth and focused on organizing the strike pads.
How the hell was he supposed to break the silence with all the bodies gone from the room except his and Lily’s? What was the right thing to say? Feel better? Abso-fucking-lutely not. How ya feeling? wasn’t much better. He’d always believed actions spoke louder than words, but—
“You really are like a family.”
Kieran froze, his grip tight on two strike pads he’d already arranged twice. “What?”
He turned and found Lily straddling one of the heavy bags left on the mat. Exhaustion slumped her shoulders, and one of her hands curved around where her ex had grabbed her by the arm.
“You. You all.” She tipped her chin in an arc, indicating the space around her. “The gym. Neal said when he hired me this gym was like a family.”
“We are.” And Lily was now a part of it.
She deserved that kind of love and support. He knew the gym had always been willing to provide that for her. They were smarter than he was. More open.
Where did that leave him and whatever this thing was that was growing between him and Lily? They’d promised to keep things casual, but how he felt about her was anything but. He wasn’t an idiot. He knew there was something there—something that could be more.
But if more fell apart, so would the family they’d created within the gym. Battle lines would be drawn. His coworkers loved Lily just as much…
“I almost ran away…” Lily’s grasp slid down her arm until she pushed her thumb into her open palm. Her gaze remained downcast. “I’m good at running.”
She’d run away twice. First from her parents, then her ex. He didn’t want to be the third.
Kieran filled his lungs until they creaked, then released the air on an eight-count.
“You needed to be. You learned to run. I learned to fight. But you don’t have to keep running.
Our family’s love isn’t conditional.” And neither is mine.
He crossed the mat and held out his hand.
“Why don’t you come back to my place tonight? ”
Lily’s delicate brows furrowed. Taking her home with him didn’t scream low-key. “You don’t have to do that. I’ll be alright. I’m not scared anymore.”
I am. Kieran swallowed past a knot in his throat. “I’d sleep better if you stayed over. And you will, too, because I won’t be texting you all night to make sure you’re safe.”
It was as close to opening himself up to an attack as he could get without flinching.
Lily bit her lip and studied his hand. “I don’t want to take advantage.”
“You’re not.” And even if she did, he was all but asking for it. With Lily, he had no defenses.
Her hand curled around his.