even have a future as a toilet scrubber. He’d probably break more toilets than he cleaned.”
I chuckle as I watch Quarters storm into the locker room and slam the door closed.
“But you,” he says as he watches me closely. “You could get there, but you won’t.”
It feels like a stab in the heart. He just said my worst fear out loud. Something that’s too scary to think about, but pops into my head when I’m up late at night or brought to my knees after a hard workout. I’m not good enough.
“Why do you…” God my voice is shaky. My voice is never shaky. “Why do you say that?”
He sucks in a breath and stares me down. “What are you fighting for?”
“Excuse me?” I ask, taken aback by the sudden turn in direction of the conversation.
“Do you want to be a GPC champion?”
“More than anything.”
“You can’t be going through all this for a gold-plated belt,” he says with a hint of derision in his voice. “What else?”
“Money,” I say.
He nods.
“Fame.”
“What else?”
“I want to be somebody.”
“What else?”
I got nothing…
“That’s it?” Teddy says as he shakes his head. “Money. Fame. Vanity. All selfish goals. If you want to win at the highest level—if you want to give your body and your soul for victory—it’s got to be for something more than just yourself.”
I swallow hard as I watch him. I have nothing else but myself. I haven’t spoken to my parents in years. My only friends are the guys at the gym and I’ve never seen them outside of these walls.
I turn away from Teddy and take a couple of deep breaths as I watch the guys in the back as they pound on the heavy punching bags.
“You going to fight for something more than just Nate Cross?” he asks as he pushes me back.
I grit my teeth as he stares me down. He’s an ugly fucker. Big flat nose that’s been broken more times than he can probably count. Missing teeth. Scars all over.
“What did you fight for, Teddy?” I ask him with a surprising bitter edge to my voice. “Donuts?”
He lets out a deep bellowing laugh and then shakes his head. “I fought for the only thing worth fighting for,” he says as his face turns deathly serious. “For love. For my Maria.”
Right on cue, Maria comes walking into the gym with some freshly baked brownies. She smiles at her man and then starts handing out the baked goodies.
Teddy seems to have forgotten that we’re in the middle of a heart-to-heart because he pushes past me and runs out of the cage, hollering his lungs out. “If any of you pussies take the last brownie, you’re going to be fighting me!”
All of the fighters wisely step away from Maria and let Teddy get first dibs.
I’m cursing under my breath and trying to tell myself that he’s wrong, but somehow his words have gotten to me.
I’ve been training forever and don’t even remember the last time I talked to a girl. I’ve been so focused on training and improving that I didn’t want to let a girl in who would take up all of my time and derail me. But now I have my star trainer telling me that’s exactly what I need…
Shit. I don’t know. I’m not good with this kind of stuff.
I’m good at breaking things. Bones. Faces. Records.
I’m not very good at anything else.
A little while later, I’m getting dressed in the locker room. I couldn’t help but laugh when I saw the broken bench, wondering if Quarters’ new nickname is going to be Benches.
I pull off my shirt and look down at my shredded body. The tattoos are hiding the bruises that are just starting to heal from last week’s fight with Titus. I can still feel the thunderous smack of his punches. They still make me wince.
“You going to Papa Pain’s tonight?” Alex asks. He’s stepping out of the shower with his towel wrapped around his waist. I can see the bruises from the sparring yesterday all over his abs. I went to town on his stomach while he flailed around, desperately trying to hit me but touching nothing but air.
My first instinct is to say no, but I catch myself before the words cross my lips.
Every Friday night a local gangster named Lewis (aka Papa Pain) holds bare-knuckle brawls in the backyard of his house. Half the neighborhood shows up to watch.
Fighters get $50 to enter and the winner takes home another $50.
The fights are