25. Chapter 22
Mari
“ W ould you look at that! Jayden dropped a knee! Time resets!” Everyone groaned in unison at the torture of the timer reset.
Much to our chagrin, we did not make it back from the run in ten minutes. Or twelve. The last of us rolled in at fourteen minutes. The back end of the burpees had a few out the front, throwing up the leftover drinks from last night.
Then we had Cejudo drills.
Then push-ups.
Then sprints.
Then wall sits.
Then skipping.
Then sprawl call-outs.
Until we’d gotten here. The final leg of this class of sadism.
A plank—simple, right? All we had to do was hold it until Chance called ‘time’.
‘Time’ never came. We’d reset the clock three times now, with Jayden being responsible for two of them.
“Fuck sake, Jayden,” I muttered, my core violently shaking.
“Shut the fuck up, Mari!” Jayden roared, his body trembling from fatigue.
If I hadn’t been so quick to look, I would have missed Chance landing a kick into his ribs, making him clatter to the floor once again.
“Uh-oh! Jayden dropped again!” Chance called.
No one said anything that time, except for the daggers Jayden glared my way.
“Told you,” JJ muttered beside me, solid as a rock but dripping sweat all over the floor. The Japanese warrior he had tattooed on his left delt stared at me as my muscles began to tremble with fatigue.
“Told me what?” I forced out.
“Told you it wasn’t a good idea to leave before he woke up,” he replied coolly, fumbling with his fingers to distract himself from the lactic acid burn. That same lactic acid burn seared my muscles, but I stopped hearing the screams from my body at his revelation.
He shrugged at my gaping expression. “He’s pissed, borderline on a sadistic rampage—”
“Borderline?” Franko asked from nearby.
“All because I left when he was asleep this morning?” I asked quietly. The guilt hit me like an explosion in my chest, followed by a strange seeping sensation as it spread across my tired, aching body.
“I warned you it would be your doom.”
Malicious, gross laughter found its way into my ears.
“I’d be pissed too if I got dumped by a frigid bitch with piss-poor pussy.”
I didn’t have time to spit back a retort before I glimpsed the thunderous expression on Chance’s face.
“Oh, shit. You’ve fucked it now,” JJ muttered.
The room went silent, and it was anything but tranquil.
The only noise being Chance’s phone bouncing across nearby mats where he’d thrown it aside. His footsteps had a calm grace to them, something I had learned was a common trait of only the deadliest of fighters.
‘Death’s Grace’ they called it.
Chance made it to Jayden’s side and single-handedly snatched him up by the back of his sweaty shirt.
Jayden began to sputter, clearly shocked and in fear of what was about to happen.
Chance held him in front of him, facing the open roller door as he walked him outside, using only one hand , as if he was taking out a smelly bag of rubbish.
“Chance—” I started, getting up and going after him. JJ was instantly at my side. Distantly, the sound of people dropping from their planking positions echoed, their footsteps following ours.
“Chance! Chance … bro … please … What are you doing?” Jayden continued.
Chance stayed alarmingly silent as he walked him out into the middle of the carpark. He shoved Jayden forward, out of his grip.
Jayden turned around, confusion and panic written all across his face.
Then … THWACK!
Chance’s lead hand connected with Jayden’s jaw fast enough that I wondered if I’d imagined it, loud enough to know I hadn’t.
“Chance!” I lunged for them, but a sweaty arm wrapped around my stomach and pulled me back.
“No way in hell you’re getting in the middle of that,” JJ snarled.
“What?! JJ, you know what happens if we don’t stop this!” I panicked.
“Just … trust him. He’s got this.”
Chance landed another left hand to Jayden, this time cracking onto his cheekbone. Before he could recover, the right hand was already following through.
Jayden’s body landed with a thunk on the ground, groaning and whimpering in pain.
Chance stood over him and wrapped one of his large, calloused hands around Jayden’s bleeding throat.
“In case you hadn’t realised, you’re no longer welcome in this gym.
” Chance spoke with a calmness that rattled even me .
An icy, frosty tune of promised pain. Almost animalistic, the protective rage cascaded off him.
“That’s … not your call,” Jayden said between groans.
“Oh, I think you’ll find it is.” Chance yanked his hand away and turned to Jonesy, standing a few people to my left. He reached out and took the obnoxiously gold duffel bag from Jonesy before throwing it roughly against Jayden’s chest.
“You can’t kick me out!” he roared, blood spraying from his nose and over his mouth. His hazel eyes found me and darkened. Not in that heated, raw way that Chance’s had, but in true hatred. “My dad will end this place and all of you in it.”
Chance’s brows flicked up in response. “You might want to go home, Jayden,” Chance said. “Seems like I’ve been there more than you have lately.”
Jayden’s face paled, making the crimson blood pouring over it look even darker.
Chance let out a breathy chuckle before stepping in close once again. “One more thing,” he breathed. “If you ever say anything about her again, next time I won’t let you get back up. Got it?”
Jayden refused to meet Chance’s wrathful gaze. His stare remained on the blood that stained the ground nearby.
Chance’s pointer finger pushed his chin up to meet his. “ Got it ?” he snarled softly.
Jayden nodded, seemingly frozen to the spot.
Chance patted him on the chest. “Good boy.”
He turned and swept his gaze over the rest of the group before finally holding my stare. “Everyone back inside. Circle up.”
~
“Are you insane?!”
Chance was hunched over his desk in the office. Those ripped muscles in his back were flexed, tense with every slightly panted breath he took.
“Lynnie—” JJ started.
“No, JJ!” I cut him off. “Do neither of you understand that his little temper tantrum will ruin us?!”
They didn’t respond, so I took it upon myself to continue a little temper tantrum of my own.
“I had it handled! I’ve been handling Jayden and his bullshit for nearly a year now.
I didn’t need you guys to go all alpha-male on me!
I didn’t need saving! He’s a little fucking rat who doesn’t get enough attention from daddy so comes in here to stir shit! ”
Chance finally turned to meet my gaze, his face still in that perfect mask of calm. I was about to speak when he blew out a breath and pushed himself away from the desk.
He moved over to his stack of filing cabinets.
After rifling through his pockets, he pulled out a navy blue keyring, a matching star dangling next to a small red key.
The key fit the lock that was at the corner of the cabinet, and he yanked the top drawer open.
He found the file in a matter of seconds before slamming the drawer shut.
“What is that?” I asked.
He turned and swaggered over to me. That cool, calm, collected face never left mine as he opened the file on my desk.
“Read it.” He nodded at the stack of paperwork, arms folded over his chest. The paperwork was littered with coloured pointers with minimal handwriting, multiple series of dot points, and Chance’s name written everywhere.
My mouth fell open. “Thi— You’re part-owner of the gym?”
“Unofficially, yes,” he said, still stone-faced as ever. “Jayden’s old man accepted my offer. I signed the paperwork last night.”
“Wh—why didn’t you tell me?” I asked.
“I didn’t want it to come across as something it wasn’t.” He shrugged.
Shrugged . As if he hadn’t just dropped an absolute bomb.
As if he hadn’t just changed the course of Knock’s’ history.
“Wait. You said unofficially?”
Chance closed the gap between us.
That intoxicating scent of his crashed over me in waves. I felt dizzy.
The corners of his mouth lightly twitched upwards, as if he knew exactly what his presence was doing to me. “See here? And here, here, and here?” He pointed at various empty dotted lines. “They’re all that stands between me being part-owner of Knock’s.”
“Your signature seals the deal, Lynnie.” JJ put a hand on my shoulder and squeezed. I could feel the apology in it, saying, I’m sorry I knew and didn’t tell you .
I reached into my top desk drawer and pulled out my father’s thick, golden swirled pen from the bottom of the pile. I scribbled my signature over each empty dotted line and put the old pen back in its spot.
“Welcome to the business.” I took a chance on smiling up at those stormy eyes. Whether it was the midday sunlight that was shining hot rays into the gym or because some kind of puzzle piece had moved across the board, the clouds parted and a rich blue peeked out.
Chance’s lips twitched up into a smile and he held his hand out for me to shake.
I wrapped my clammy hand in his.
JJ’s hand piled on top, squeezing our fingers. “Woooo! You’re stuck with us now, Chancey boy!” JJ hollered, breaking all of our hands when he pulled Chance into what could only be described as a bone-crushing hug.
Chance stared straight into my eyes over JJ’s shoulder. “Nowhere else I’d rather be.”