14. Chapter 11
Chance
“ G et a drink, guys,” I ordered, clicking the series of buttons on the remote to turn the digital timer on. “Sparring rounds in two minutes.”
JJ strode to my side and began talking about … who knows? Something caught my attention. Not something— someone .
Sunny had been quiet during classes today. No witty banter with JJ. No laughing jokes with members.
No fiery remarks with me.
The quiet wasn’t her—but neither was the rock she was currently resembling in my MMA class. Rigid and completely un- Sunny . Not an ember of fire from her, not a single ray of that hot, burning sunshine.
There was no swift but frazzled dash to try and dodge me. She wasn’t on edge, or antsy. She wasn’t itching to be moving. She wasn’t fidgeting every five seconds.
No—this was something new. And I couldn’t work out why there was this stupid twang in my chest over it. It was uncomfortable.
And inconvenient.
Sparring rounds had started exactly twelve minutes ago, and I was over helping a couple of guys with a particular kick they had been trying to work on.
My ears had pricked at the sound of JJ’s whistle.
It was how we had communicated in bustling areas when we were kids—whistling to each other like dogs.
I met his stare and he turned and nodded towards the back corner of the mats.
Mari and that short, bearded guy were sparring. Jason? Jake? Jack? He was the one person who’s name I couldn’t seem to remember. Though, after finding him and Sunny in the kitchen that day, I’d self-referred to him as one thing— rat .
I stepped away from the blokes I had been helping and walked along the edge of the mats slowly, trying not to draw suspicion at my sudden interest in the back corner.
Sunny’s face was pale and yet flushed with rage. She swung at him, hard, lobby punches that were never going to land. That was the problem when you got angry; you got sloppy.
Rat caught onto that too—a grin breaking out on his face that had me wary before he swung back.
I was already moving for them when his fist connected with her nose.
She slipped, falling backwards onto the floor.
Rat followed her down, pouncing on her as he forced his way to mount and began a vicious ground and pound.
“Jayden!” JJ yelled.
Jayden, then.
“What the fuck is this?!” I yelled when I arrived, yanking Rat off Sunny and tossing him behind me. The guy wouldn’t have been bigger than a featherweight.
Jayden pulled a sharp intake of breath to start throwing words instead, but Sunny got there first.
“Nothing,” she said, pushing up from her elbows to stand. “It’s nothing. We were just sparring.”
The blood in my veins cooled, simmering down to an icy frost that felt much worse. I stared at Sunny, waiting for it. Waiting for the truth. Waiting for the fiery remark.
But it didn’t come.
She stood there, hands by her side, face void of emotion.
Blood trickled from her nose, the swelling had long since started, and she still didn’t flinch.
Those brown eyes weren’t glowing with honey and weren’t that cocoa brown filled with anger.
They were a soft hazel, nothing shining or glimmering about them.
They were shaded in something I couldn’t fucking decipher .
For fuck’s sake!
“There shouldn’t be blood in sparring,” I growled. Again, Rat opened his mouth to speak, but Sunny beat him there.
“Accidents happen.” She shrugged.
“So do beatdowns,” JJ countered.
Sunny shot him a look, strong enough to make him hold his hands up in surrender.
“Time’s up,” I told her as the loud beep went off. “Start running.”
~
“C’mon, Lynnie! Just let me pound on him a little bit? Please?” JJ begged.
I stood in the office doorway, arms folded tightly over my chest as I stared at Sunny, sitting on the couch between our desks.
Her curly hair was pulled into a knot on top of her head, with loose stray curls dropping all around her face, and her white training shirt had red blotches pattered all down it.
And her face? She’d refused to let me or JJ assess the damage, but she held firm a wad of paper towel and an ice pack to her fat nose.
Yeah, that one is gonna be sore in the morning.
“No need, JJ,” she mumbled, sucking a breath in past her teeth as she readjusted the ice pack. “It was an accident. No punishment necessary.”
“Bullshit,” I growled, stalking over to where she and JJ were on the couch. “Let me look.”
“I’m fine, Riordan—”
“Let. Me. Look. Sunny.”
She hesitated, and I contemplated just ripping the damn thing off her if I didn’t know how much it would hurt. Her brown eyes met mine, still clouded over with that hazel that left me with nothing but unease. Sighing in defeat, she dropped both hands away from her face.
It was an effort not to grind down on my teeth at the sight of her.
Bruising was already starting to form over her nose and between her eyes, meaning it would be ten times worse tomorrow.
Her cheekbones had a slight puff to them too, where Jayden must have landed some of those ground-and-pound shots.
My back teeth burned, a raging ache that demanded I fix this. Not the responsible way— with words and warnings. But the irresponsible way—with fists and blood. Lots of it.
“You’ll have one hell of a headache tomorrow,” I managed to grind out. “Feel like telling the truth yet?”
She scowled at me, immediately cringing at how the expression hurt her face. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’ve told you the truth four times now. I got my ass beat in sparring. No biggie.”
“C’mon, Lynnie. Spill your guts. This isn’t the first time Jayden’s roughed you up in sparring.”
My eyebrows flew to the ceiling.
This isn’t the first time? He’s hurt her before? He put hands on her before?
“And I’ve roughed him up plenty. We’re even.”
“This, compared to the blood nose you gave him the other week, is not ‘ even ’.” I don’t know how I could even get the words out; I was clenching my jaw so tight. “I’m kicking him out. I’m not having men who hurt women in my classes.”
“No! You can’t kick him out!” Those hazel-filled eyes were wild, frantic, panicked.
My blood stilled for a beat.
What does she know that I don’t?
“Why the hell can’t I?”
Another conflicted sigh, another internal argument she was having with herself.
Her hand rose to pinch the bridge of her nose before she thought better of it and ran it over her hair instead. “Because”—she sighed a shaky breath—“if we lose Jayden, we lose the gym.”