Page 15 of You Were Warned: Part One

“What?”

“Nothing,” he says.

“You fucking hmmed me.”

He laughs. “I’m allowed to hmm.”

“Not about him.”

Dad is quiet on the other end for a moment, and it means he has more to say, but he won’t. “I should let you go.”

“Yes, you have golf. Go lose some money to those men who wear plaid voluntarily.”

“Same time next month?” he says.

“I’ll be here.”

“Take care of yourself, Lavina.”

“I always do. Bye, Dad.”

He hangs up first, while I put my mug in the sink, then go change into my training gear and go find Brawley.

He is already in the ring by the time I get there, but he looks up when I drop my bag beside the cage.

“About time you got here.”

“Bite me,” I say, and he smirks.

“Bitch isn’t my flavor.”

It makes me smile. “No, you like no shame with a side of nuggets.”

He throws his head back and laughs as I get into the ring, but once he settles and nods, we start. Training with Brawley is not comfortable. He won’t go easy on me just because I’m a woman and his best friend. If anything, it makes him go harder.

“Good morning, my violent little hell-raisers.”

Brawley doesn’t stop and neither do I as Vero appears at the cage door in his orange jumpsuit, his Hannibal mask in his hand.

“Don’t you have anything better to do?” I seethe as Brawley’s fist comes flying toward my face, and I duck just in time.

“I was about to offer my services as a neutral observer and professional commentator,” he says, climbing the side of the cage and dangling his legs over the top. “In the left corner, we have the island’s gothic nightmare, and in the right, the man with the nicest coc⁠—”

“Vero!” Brawley snaps.

“What? I have seen lots of dicks and you have the nicest one.”

“Did you not see the closed door?”

“Doors are merely suggestions, and it being closed was stopping me from coming in.”

We keep shifting. Brawley throws a quick combination, and I block two of the three hits, eating the third with my shoulder, but moving with it rather than against it.

“Seven,” Vero announces. “Points were deducted for the last one, but points will be awarded for the recovery. The judges are deliberating.”

“You’re the only judge, moron,” I throw back.

Brawley comes at me again, and I step inside his reach and get my elbow up. We shift positions, and I watch him. He won’t shout where he is going next, so I need to not miss the visual tell. When I find an opening, I take it.