Chapter 4
Chapter Four
CARSON
The fist to the jaw shouldn’t have been a surprise. However, I hadn’t expected Flynn to be the one to make the connection.
Lights dancing behind my eyes, I cursed under my breath and then moved to counter that fucking jab. Sweat slick, slightly bruised, and with only one drop of blood so far, practice wasn’t going too badly.
I set my feet into a readying position, and when Flynn tried to move again, I jabbed.
The straight punch must have surprised the other man, because his head knocked back, and I was grateful I had only used a light probing shot, instead of something far more powerful.
I didn’t want to break my friend’s face.
I wasn’t that much of an asshole. Especially since I had business with him, James, and Aston later that day.
Flynn shook off the hit much like I had, and then we were moving again.
An overhand, a single leg takedown. I hit the ground, rolled back up, and used my round kick to pivot towards the other man. When Flynn grinned back at me, I knew the fight was almost over, and we were just having fun.
I wasn’t in the mood to get on the ground, to sprawl, or to pin the guy, so instead, we bruised ourselves just a little bit more, the tape long since digging into my skin, and by the time we each decided to bow out, we were sweaty, and I had a feeling that I’d end up with a black eye, and Flynn with a bloody lip.
“Are the two of you done? I thought this was supposed to be a light practice,” James complained from the side. He wore joggers, and a tight black t-shirt, as he hadn’t come to fight, or train, but rather, just get on the treadmill and run out his demons.
I had tried to do that earlier, and then I had lifted for twenty minutes, until Flynn had shown up at my gym with a scowl, tight shoulders, and gym clothes. Then it had been on.
I loved working with the Cages. They were brilliant at business, took no prisoners, and didn’t get down with shady shit. They made sure whoever they were working with knew who was in charge.
Of course, when it came to our two companies working together, the play-by-play of who was in charge looked much like our bout just then.
Bloody, taking turns, and nobody truly the leader.
And I was just fine with the byplay. If it had been any other group, I’d have balked at the idea, but not the Cages
Unlike working with other companies, I trusted the Cages. And considering what their company had been when their old man had been alive and in charge, that was saying something.
I took out my mouth guard and winked at James. “What? You don’t like a little blood between friends.”
“I don’t have anything to say to that,” James said dryly as he glared at his brother. “You do realize we have a meeting tomorrow. And you’re going to end up with a fat lip, and we have to deal with another country and all their fucking bylaws. They’re going to think you’re an idiot.”
Flynn shrugged, without saying a word, and moved forward to fist bump my hand.
I did the same, knowing there were no hard feelings.
This was just a fight, and not even a real one.
Just us blowing off steam and trying not to beat the shit out of each other.
Before, when we did things like this, I had to hold back completely.
All of them had been new at fighting, and I wasn’t about to be the one that would break a Cage.
I had respected them too much because of what they had to deal with over their late father, to try to hurt them business-wise or physically.
But since the shooting, when Flynn had ended up coming back with more than a few scars, the other man hadn’t held back.
He’d trained harder and was getting downright dangerous.
Maybe not to other people, but for himself if he wasn’t careful.
Flynn went to get a drink from his water bottle, and I met James’s gaze. I didn’t have to say a thing, because then James gave me a chin lift, and I realized that he would deal with it.
That was the Cage brothers. They took care of each other.
Then again, it wasn’t truly the Cage brothers anymore. I had been working with them for long enough now, that I had been witness to the monstrosity that was the patriarch’s will. Even my investigators hadn’t truly figured out the scope of the betrayal of that old man.
When I had first come to work with the Cages, I had known that Loren, their father, had numerous affairs. And not just with Constance Cage Dixon. And from what I could tell, Melanie Cage—Flynn and James’s mother—hadn’t cared in the least.
It was no skin off my nose if that’s how the family ran, but the concept of a secret family?
That had escaped our notice. I had known about Kyler Cage, the rockstar who growled more than I did, and had thought he was a single love child.
I hadn’t realized he’d been full siblings with the rest of his sisters.
Silly me, I thought that Loren Cage and Constance had had a simple affair, and he’d only had one extramarital child. It turns out he had five of them. Twelve kids. The man had been busy. Sophia was one of those children. She sure as hell wasn’t a child anymore.
I swallowed hard and did my best not to think about her. Considering I wore small-ish gym shorts so there was less for Flynn to grab onto when we fought, there wouldn’t be much to leave to the imagination if I kept that woman on my mind for too long.
I cleared my throat, thought about baseball and financials, and went over to James.
“In the mood for a quick bout?” I asked.
The other man just snorted. “Hell no. You look to be in a mood, and I don’t want to end up bloody before our meetings. Thanks though, for letting us work out here. I liked our old gym, and I enjoy the one in our building, but this one just feels more private.”
I shrugged, knowing it was the truth. I owned the building, as well as most of the sponsorships for any fighters here who went amateur, or pro in one case. I liked to make sure I was the one in control when it came to my life and my choices.
The Cages probably had more money than I did and could build a gym like this of their own, but they hadn’t yet.
It was a large warehouse, converted into something slightly industrial, but not so much that the sound echoed.
I hated when restaurants and buildings went for the industrial look.
It meant bare ceilings, pipes everywhere, and the noise would turn into a cacophony with only two sets of people there.
Having floors and walls and ceilings that dampened the sound made sure I didn’t end up with a headache after a workout.
It was a private place, and you couldn’t just pay your way in.
Some of my competitors had wanted to join the gym just to say that they had, but I’d denied them.
They could build anything that they wanted on their own, but I knew that they wanted to be here to trade secrets, or to try to figure out the Woods and now the Cages.
Those people could just fuck right off.
We weren’t out on the golf course, shooting the shit and having to listen to men degrade their women and pretend they weren’t terrible people.
That’s not who I was, and that’s not who this generation of Cages had turned out to be.
No, that was all left for my father, and their late one.
“I’m going to hit the showers,” Flynn said as he strode towards the locker rooms, and I frowned.
“What’s up with him?” I asked, confused.
James ran his hand over the back of his neck and frowned. “I have no idea. I tried to get Hudson to get it out of him when we were at the family dinner, since he and Scarlett rarely come down to the city these days, but I still don’t know.”
“Did he talk to anybody after the shooting?” James’s eyes widened, and I snorted.
It wasn’t like me to bring shit like this up, but I also wasn’t going to turn into my father.
I’d made enough promises to myself along the way to whatever person I’d become that the idea of speaking to a professional wasn’t as scary as it should have been.
“Yes, I am talking about therapy. My sister forced me to go a while back, and she still goes often. Talking it out helps. So does punching things. And while I don’t mind getting in the ring or on the mat with him, his kicks are getting a little more pointed. ” I rubbed my jaw, and James winced.
“I don’t know if he’s talked to anyone professionally about the shooting.
It was scary as fuck, and well, between that and what happened with Sophia?
It’s been good to have some quiet over the past year.
” James cursed under his breath. “I can’t believe I just said the Q word.
That’s like asking for trouble. And considering we’re still dealing with the paperwork over that asshat, I shouldn’t have said it at all. ”
I stiffened, a thousand different worst case scenarios filling my brain. “Which asshole? The ones that came after your family? Or that loser ex-husband of hers that I should have killed when I had a chance?”
There were other people in the gym, and while James and I were trying to be as quiet as possible, that didn’t mean others couldn’t overhear.
So I inched toward him, aware that I would find a way to end that rotted vegetable’s life.
Anybody who did what he had done to a woman, didn’t deserve to breathe.
“Scarlett and Hudson are fine. Yes, they went through hell, but they’re good together. I was more talking about Sophia’s ex.” The other man gritted his teeth, his jaw tightening, and I moved closer.
“What the fuck did he do now?”